Rob's 2021 Contest Prep Log - Round 3

Training
41

PRE BED MEAL - “Blueberry Ice Cream”

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This one is awesome!

Ingredients
-110g cottage cheese
-1 scoop grass-fed whey protein
-140g frozen organic blueberries
-1TBSP 0 cal sweetener (I like Lakanto brand)
-Puffy Cereal (I use "Love-Grown Original Power O’s, tasty, great ingredients and no added sugar)
-2-3oz water
-14g Lily’s Chocolate chips (sugar free and tastes so good!)
-Lakanto 0 cal, sugar-free powder sugar (it’s awesome!)

  1. Mix cottage cheese, blueberries, blueberries, 1TBSP sweetener all in Vitamix or Blender, Vitamix is the best if you’ve got one.
  2. After it’s done in the blender, stir in cereal.
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  3. Place in freezer for 60-90 minutes (experiment with timing to find your optimal time)
  4. Remove from freezer, top with powdered sugar and chocolate chips.
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    IMG_4462
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MACROS
55g carbs, 40g protein, 9g fat

Tastes great, and especially with the chocolate chips and ice creamy consistency, something to look forward to.

42

WEEK 2 START
One week down and a bunch to go! Checked in with Cliff this morning with weight and pics. Today’s weight was up from last week, at 166.2., which I attribute to an amazing off-day re-feed yesterday and some inflammation from training. I weighed myself Sunday morning as well just to see where it was at, and it was 164.0, same as when I started a week ago. Not weighing myself every day is great. Eventually it may come to that, right now it’s nice to not be getting in my head about it.

For this week we’ll be keeping all nutrition the same, with the goal of giving my body as much fuel and tools as possible to get used to, and recover from, the new training regimen. I am seriously sore from it, especially in the biceps and abs. My biceps have never been this sore, just straightening my arms is challenging the past couple days. Today’s training is blood volume for chest and progressive overload for arms, so weights may be a little lighter than normal for that segment depending on how my arms feel after some warm up sets.

Couple things over the past week that reminded me I’m on a prep:
-Bringing my cooler yesterday to a day with family friends, they prepped an amazing dinner. At least it was a re-feed day for me so I got to bring and eat plenty of food.
-Tonight I have a meeting with a new client for real estate, we’re meeting him and his wife for dinner and to sign contracts. Bringing my cooler to someone’s house is normal and I’m way used to it, bringing the cooler to a restaurant is another thing that always feels a little awkward. I’ve done it many times, but still feels weird. My usual plan is after the server takes drink and app orders, I’ll very polity explain to them that I’m a competitive bodybuilder with extremely strict dietary needs and have brought my own food, I hope that’s ok and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience, it’s never been a problem.
-We were invited for this weekend to go to a friend’s big birthday celebration. Plan is for a bunch of us to start at their house for some drinks and food, rent a limo to a concert that’s about an hour away, enjoy the concert, come home. So, of course, the first things that go through my mind:

  1. How is my training schedule adjusted that day? (I’ll have to get to the gym earlier)
  2. How is my meal schedule adjusted that day?
  3. What food am I going to bring, and am I going to adjust meals for the day from 4 bigger meals to 5 smaller meals so I can bring extra food? It’s going to be a long night and I’m going to be up later than usual, and would like to avoid very long stretches between eating.
  4. Am I going to bring my cooler in the limo? (Probably)

Everyone going knows by now that I’m prepping and is supportive, so that’s a plus. It’s early enough in the prep that I’m looking forward to going even with the extra stuff to work around it. If it was deeper in the prep and show time was approaching, I probably wouldn’t go.

About to head to the gym, here’s to a great start to week 2!

43

Good day today, felt great and started my second cycle of the phase 1 workouts. Today was progressive overload for back and traps, and blood volume for delts. Strength was up from last week, pump in the delts was intense!

Cliff said the first two weeks he doesn’t want me getting to failure on these exercises, close to it but leave a few in the tank as I get used to the new program. Starting next week stopping just shy of failure, or going to failure occasionally is good to go.

Numbers from today:

Deadlifts: 225x8 for 3 sets. I haven’t pulled from the floor in a few years, getting used to it again and focusing on execution, strength will take care of itself over time.
Wide Pullups - 8 for 3 sets
Hammer Strength Lat Pulldown - 60x8, 65x8, 70x8
T-bar Row - 115x8 for 3 sets
Straight Bar Cable Row, Pronated Grip - 140x8 for 3 sets
Barbell Shrugs - 185x8 for 3 sets

Dumbbell laterals superset with seated DB press - 10’s x 20, 10’s x 20 for 3 supersets
Rear pec deck superset with upright row 60 x 20, 20x20 for 2 supersets

Reminder the blood volume training is 3 second concentric, huge squeeze/flex, 3 second negative and immediately into the next rep, no stopping until at least 15-20 reps. If you strictly follow those guidelines, especially the huge squeeze, it doesn’t take much! Will be interesting to see how strength improves this week.

44

In for this. Mate you’ve got awesome lines, your lat to waist in particular is unreal

45

Thank you so much @kleinhound for your kind words and for following along, glad to have you on the thread!

Thank you! Some favorable genetics there for sure, but also when I started training I was doing the P90X program and variations on it for about 2 years, so the majority of the back workouts was pull-ups, pull-ups and more pull-ups, all sorts of variations, along with a little dumbbell rowing. I think getting a foundation of strength of bodyweight movements definitely helped once I got in the gym, and the insane amount of pull-ups daily (200+ per session) and cumulatively for sure helped to start developing the wider lats.

46

That sounds disgusting (in a good way obviously, but not so obviously that it didn’t warrant the brackets)

47

LOL! Took a LONG time to be able to do that many, well worth it though!

48

Today was a magical combination of a re-feed day, AND blood volume legs. Put those carbs to good use!

Current Re-feed macros are 335c, 195p, 61f.

Today’s training:
LEGS BLOOD VOLUME (3 second concentric, hard flex, 3 second eccentric, 20 rep supersets)

Leg Extensions superset with Plate Loaded Leg Press - 100 x 20, 270 x 20 for 3 supersets
Lying Leg Curls superset with Deep Hack Squats 20 x 20, 50x20 for 3 supersets
Hip Thrusts superset with Sumo Deadlift 50 x 20, 70 x 20 for 3 supersets
DB calf raises superset with toe press (on leg press) 20’s x 20, 90x20 for 2 supersets

ABS PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD
Situps superset with rope crunches 8, 100x8 for 3 supersets

The pain during the leg session is rockin’. Smaller muscles like delt or bicep certainly isn’t a picnic, but with legs being bigger muscles it is a 100% mental battle to push through to 20 reps. Music up, hat down, and visualizing standing on stage next to other competitors keeps me going. Bodybuilding is a very unique sport in that it is completely offense only. You have no idea who is showing up or what your competition will be like.

The ONLY way to be content, no matter the outcome, is to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you gave 100% throughout the entire journey. If you allow even one “what if” type moment, it will haunt you on show day! I keep that in mind every rep, every time I’m weighing food and it’s 1 or 2 grams over and I take those grams out to ensure a perfect measurement, etc. There is no grey area, it is 100%, or nothing in a prep. Even though I’m still very early stages of it, being completely committed to the process is the only way to do it. Right now I’m glad to be getting enough cals and not doing any cardio yet so I can focus completely on acclimating to this training plan and crushing it.

49

I have lost count of the amount of times I’ve been asked how to be able to do lots of pull-ups, only to reply with some variation of “do lots of pull-ups”.

“Can I get a carryover from pulldowns?”

“Maybe, but you’d be better off doing more pull-ups.”

“What about rows?”

“Maybe, but you’d be better off doing more pull-ups.”

I do think that lat pulldowns can be superior for back development, given that you can take the core out of the equation, but when the goal is “do a lot of pull-ups”, the answer is always pull-ups.

50

That is so, so true! Just gotta start trying. When I very first started the P90X program I was way out of shape, I couldn’t even get my feet off the ground for one pull-up. After about 4 weeks of trying many times per day, I could do one solid pull up. By the end of the first 90 days I could do 5-6. After my second round of 90 days I was able to do at least 20 in any hand variation. So, figure about 6 months from starting out not being able to do one!

100%!

51

Or rock climbing. For a year I did zero pull-ups, just climbed, and broke my all-time pull-up record after a 2hr session. Also have maintained my 1RM on pull-ups.

But if that’s not an option, lots of pull-ups. Start every workout with pull-ups. Do pull-ups every day at home. Keep many reps in reserve. See something outdoors you can do a pull-up on like a bus stop: do pull-ups. Kid’s monkey bars? Pull-ups. Staircase: pull-ups.

52

This rep cadence sounds insanely painful which means it can only work

How do you determine the macros for a refeed? Is there a formula?

53

That is badass! Wow! Rock climbing takes incredible grip and upper body strength, good for you man. Are you still climbing these days?

Now THAT is next level!

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54

LOL yeah man, that’s what I keep telling myself, “this will definitely work this will definitely work”!

Truthfully I’m not sure how Cliff determined the macros for my refeed day. Carbs went up 100g, protein down 20g and fats about the same, he may like doing the 100g difference at least to start and to see how my body responds. I’m down for whatever he thinks is best, but boy do I hope those carb numbers don’t have to change too much!

55

Yup, twice a week every week. If I do it more often I have to “deload”. I’m bad at… Reigning myself in, and accruing base volume, and push hard intensity wise. So that’s the frequency that’s sustainable. Maybe I could learn to dial it back and climb more, but that’s the way I like to do it. Leaves time in the week for other activities.

It’s also a very weight sensitive sport ^^

56

That’s awesome that you’re actively climbing, must be a great workout for both strength and cardio! I’m sure it’s a fine line to balance climbing with your other fitness goals as it’s such an intense sport. Badass!

57

Thank you. In your off-season do you engage in anything outside lifting.

You’re absolutely correct, at least with regards to me.

I imagine it’d be like with any other sport, or lifting in relation to other sports for those that have the gym as a secondary or tertiary priority. I definitely climb intensely, but I imagine it’s quite possible to have a good time anyway climbing in a manner that has smaller impacts on recovery.

When climbing intensely, it certainly does. It’s hard to find someone that climbs that doesn’t also get good at pull-ups without even trying. I’ve seen people get their first pull-up by sheer osmosis. It’s almost as if it becomes a mere movement than a display of strength and allows people to do it while if they’d been keeping their head down in the gym still wouldn’t have got it yet.

If you go quickly enough the heart will have to work as well. But for most I’d say there’s little cardio carry-over.

It’s also the most social sport I’ve ever engaged in, and that’s the best part of it. Another aspect that I treasure is that it informs my decision-making (somewhat) lifting. For instance, I know that doing dips will help both my lifting and my climbing while there are other exercises that’d only impact the latter. And, it keeps me invested in my mobility work.

58

Past few days have been great. Nutrition has been easy to stick to, I make my meals pretty filling and re-feed days have been a blast. Today’s breakfast was 2 servings of Kodiak cakes, 4 egg whites with a slice of melted cheese and onions, and 70g of apple:

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Sundays are especially awesome as it’s a re-feed day and an off day, solid day of recovery time from the gym and lots of carbs, mentally it’s a great break as well.

Yesterday’s training was a good session, progressive overload for delts and blood volume for back and traps.
Barbell Overhead Press - 105x8, 115x8, 115x7
DB Laterals 30’sx8, 30’sx8, 30’sx8, 35’sx8
Reverse Pec Dec - 142x8, 154x8, 154x8, 154x8
Smith Machine Upright Row 135x8, 135x8, 135x8

BLOOD VOLUME - each rep 3 second concentric, hard flex, 3 second eccentric, 15-20 reps, supersets
Neutral Grip Cable Row superset with Barbell Row - 70x15, 50x15 for 3 supsersets, I used a bicep barbell for the barbell row
Wide Grip Lat Pulldown superset with Standing DB row - 55x15, 20’sx15 for 3 supersets
DB Shrugs superset with Behind the Back Barbell Shrugs - 20’sx20, 20x20 for 3 supersets

For the first two weeks of the program Cliff did not want me going to failure at all, so as week 3 starts up tomorrow I’ll be able to go a little heavier and push closer to failure.

Had a birthday party for a friend over the weekend, it was a long event so brought my cooler with a couple meals. I do my best not to bring up bodybuilding or prepping unless people ask about it, so of course with a cooler there people are asking about it and are very supportive. Funny moment when it came time for some drinks:

“Wait, you can’t drink like, at all?”
“Nope.”
“Not even a little bit?”
“Nope”
“Ok, well we made virgin jello shots so you can at least do one with us”
“…nope…”

Fortunately I’m not much a drinker even in the off season so not drinking at all isn’t a big deal. I suppose I could sub out some carbs for a drink if I really wanted to, but I would way rather eat my carbs.

59

The standing DB rows–can you elaborate?

60

It could mean standing while leaning on something and doing one armed rows, but I take it to mean rows in the same way one would do BB rows, only with DBs, aka legs slightly bent, hips hinged, bent over at 45ish degrees. I like them a lot, because you can really pull to your hip and fry your lats, where a BB obviously won’t let you pull past where the BB hits your thighs.

Of course, maybe rob does them completely differently and will make me look silly, but this is exactly where my head goes when I see standing DB rows.