Rob's 2021 Contest Prep Log - Round 3

Training
61

Certainly!

Spot on!

This is a superset with the wide grip lat pulldown to hit lats hard. Throughout lat pulldown I can feel a targeted pump at the top of my lats, then I pick up the dumbbells, feet very slightly apart, bend slightly further than 45 degrees and pull the dumbbells up by my hips, and because they’re dumbbell the fuller range of motion really lets me squeeze the lats hard at the top.

I’ll start recording some of these supersets soon and posting them if it might be helpful for anyone.

62

Athletically, not really. I love going to the gym and still go 5-6 days a week in the off season. My wife and I are pretty active in general, we like hiking, kayaking, etc. Aside from lifting I own two business that keep me super busy, so going to the gym fits nicely in the day as part of my routine.

That’s awesome! It’s so great when you can be around like minded and similar goal oriented people.

63

Yesterday was heavy legs and blood volume for abs, strength was up and felt pretty good coming off of a re-feed day.

Squats - 255x8, 275x8, 285x8
Leg Extensions - 250x10, 250x10, 250x10 (stack only goes up to 250 so had to do more than 8 reps to push towards failure)
Lying Leg Curls - 70x8, 70x8, 70x8
DB Stiff Leg Deadlifts - 60’sx8, 65’sx8, 65’sx8
DB Walking Lunges - 45’sx16, 45’sx16, 45’sx16
Plate Loaded Hip Abductor Machine - 70x8, 70x8
Hip Adductor - Used ankle attachment on cable machine - 30x8, 30x8
Seated Calf Raise Machine - 90x8, 90x8

BLOOD VOLUME ABS - 3 seconds each concentric and eccentric
Leg Raises on Decline Bench, superset with crunches 15, 20 x 3 supersets

Two weeks into prep, lost 1.5lbs so far and Cliff made a slight adjustment to my macros to keep slow and steady progress moving. Took 20g carbs off of my regular days, and 20g carbs and 5g fats off of my re-feed days. Still no cardio.

Looks like the first show will be in May, it’s a local and pretty competitive OCB show right outside of Austin. The goal is to slowly lose about 10-12lbs by February, then kick it into higher gear leading into the show. So far I’ve been able to lost 1.5lbs just through nutrition and no cardio, which has been great, and I feel good that there’s plenty of time to take a slow and steady approach to the first half, and then be more aggressive as needed as the show approaches.

In emailing with Cliff we also discussed that he’s not a fan of HIIT training for bodybuilders, and that we won’t be doing any HIIT during our prep, it’ll be all LISS and MISS. I’ve incorporated HIIT in previous preps, my first year prepping was two sessions per week, second year competing was one HIIT workout per week plus a long LISS session on my other non-training day. HIIT definitely has it’s benefits, but when calories get low and prep has been going on for a while it’s just a wrecker. I’m super excited to be incorporating his plans and to see the package we’ll bring to the stage.

64

I’ve never done prep before - so can’t pretend to know what its like. But I’ve done fasted HIIT which felt like dying - only slowly. And less fun. So I’m happy that you don’t have to do that.
Do you know why he’s not a fan? I’m assuming he’s removed it for one of two reasons?
Recovery / not good at the job.

65

Fasted HIIT?! YIKES! Sounds like one of the deeper levels of hell :joy:

Primarily because for competitive, significantly calorically restricted bodybuilders, a combination of research not showing benefits for that specific class of athletes, as well as his own anecdotal evidence from coaching so many competitors over the years. For bodybuilders that do weight training 5 days a week, have been in a caloric deficit for a long time, etc., he feels it does more harm than good. No complaints here!

66

Hey, just a quick question:
There’s a huge disparity between your quad and your ham lifts. 250 on leg extensions, 70 on leg curls. 285 for 8 reps on squat, 65s for DB SLDLs.
Are you quad dominant and the numbers are reflecting as such? Or are you ham dominant and trying to bring your quads up to match them?
Just wondering - I’m VERY ham dominant, curious to know what the approach is.

Also, love leg raises on the decline bench - they don’t allow you to take tension off the muscle, but keep tension at the top of the movement where flat leg raises deload.

67

It was kind of by accident. I skipped a lunch and tried to do a work out before dinner.
Not recommended.

68

What’s that like?

69

Fucking shit mate

70

Good question. For some reason, and I have never figured out why, my hamstrings get insanely sore when I implement a new program, to the point of debilitating shooting pains down the muscle that render me useless. So, anytime starting a new program I take it easy on the hamstrings and work up to it. .

The lying leg curl machine specifically in this gym is one like I haven’t seen before, it’s a slightly different setup that really isolates the hamstrings, much more so than the standard lying leg curl. My old gym I could do 110-120 on the machine, this one is less as it isolates the hamstrings a lot.

I really focus on pulling from the hamstrings here and for me this was the sweet spot this week to isolate in the hamstrings and feel the stretch. As an example, a few weeks ago before I started this program I was doing sets of 225 for 6 on straight leg deadlifts, but at that point I was using more of my back to do the work compared to really keeping it isolated in the hamstrings.

Hams in my opinion are a muscle group a lot of people don’t have a great connection with and they wind up using their entire posterior chain to do the work rather than really isolating hamstrings. These numbers will go up over time for me, but that disparity will probably remain there to some extent.

I definitely used to be more quad dominant in my first year competing, my second year I trained hams twice a week and brought them up quite a bit, from a physique perspective I think they’re pretty even right now. In speaking with Cliff about any areas he thinks I need to bring up, he feels one of my biggest strengths is the symmetry and proportions of my physique and we just need to get me shredded as possible.

For sure, quads have always been stronger, but again with hams to really isolate I don’t think it takes as much.

Yes! Combined with the super slow reps, man it is a burner!

71

Thanks for asking this! I noticed it too but was too afraid to ask :joy:

72

Absolutely. I did DB RDLs with those exact same DBs not long ago, so it wasn’t a shot about weight, just noticed the difference. I like to do them with my toes on a 2x4, really hits that loaded stretch.

Thanks for the explanation!

73

Very similar situation to myself

Have almost been crippled by on coming traffic while riding to work on a bike after a day of RDLs

Hamstring pain which can render your legs useless

Actually suffering it from today :joy:

74

NICE! I will try that the next leg day for sure!

75

Yeah, it’s crazy, only in my hamstrings does that happen. Starting this new training program I’ve ramped up very conservatively, numbers were higher today and I haven’t had any debilitating soreness. So, should be good to go from here!

76

Everything is moving all well, not much to report this early on. Had a little more scale loss this week, Cliff continued to make some more minor adjustments to keep things moving in the right direction. Cut another 20g carbs from regular days, 10g from re-feed days, and incorporated one 15min LISS session throughout the week. Doesn’t matter which day I do it, I did it today after legs for this week. The memories and familiar feelings came rushing right back doing the post weights cardio, find a good movie to chip away at and hop on the elliptical. Elliptical is my LISS and MISS machine of choice, non impact and easy on the joints.

Current macros on a regular day are: 55f, 175c, 215p
Current macros on a re-feed day are: 56f, 315c, 195p

Cliff gives me macros and I plan my meals to my liking. Most regular days I do 4 meals, plus a whey isolate shake after training. Off days I have split up into 5 meals, and I’ve also come up with a 5 meal plan for training days for when I’m up earlier than usual, so I don’t go more than 3.5 hours without eating.

Side note, Cliff recently published a book along with Peter Fitschen, “The Complete Contest Preparation Handbook.” I just finished it, and WOW, it is absolutely incredible. Super detailed, great content, truly an amazing and comprehensive resource on all aspects of prepping for a contest. Highly recommended!

77

Here as part of the cheering section. Looking forward to rooting you on brother!

78

Thank you so much @johnson2133, I appreciate that and am grateful to have you on board!!

79

Happy to have you back Rob! Glad to hear all is well on the business, life and lifting fronts.
I’m looking forward to following along once again. Good luck, I have no doubt you are going to kill it!

80

Great to see you back posting Rob (always good to have another Rob around here). Excited to see how you go this time around.