Congratulations to @BrickHead on many outstanding performances yesterday and becoming a PRO on his first contest! It was an awesome day, lots of dream tan, screaming for Brad and good grub afterwards 
This next pic is me with Mike, WNBF Pro, Stu’s client I competed against who won the bantams and overall in the Hercules. We really hit it off at the show, he’s the nicest guy, very intelligent and trains like a beast. Still looking very impressive in his off season. Hung out last night, had a great upper body session in the gym today and scarfed down some massive chicken cheesesteaks (the rolls were made out of pizza dough) afterwards. I’ve been fortunate to make some great friends along the way, like
@The_Mighty_Stu,
@BrickHead, Mike and the rest of the “Wolf Pack.” Great sportsmanship and comraderie between everyone, all genuinely good guys.
Being at the show all day was a blast and definitely gave me some fire and motivation heading off to CA on Tuesday. Looking at gyms in the areas tomorrow so I can have my training ironed out before I leave. I have two carry-ons, my 6-Pack Backpack, which can hold my 15" laptop and a ton of meals and shaker cups, and my gym bag, filled with Finibars, Metabolic Drive, Indigo, Micro-PA and the rest of the supplements and vitamins, and my gym gear. Planning on losing a few more pounds while I’m out there as I’ll have plenty of time to train and do cardio afterwards and I’ll be pretty active throughout the day.
So far the cut is going well, and yesterday during post show feasting, I was talking to Arash and the topic of cyclical bulking came up. He said he’s a fan for all the reasons that have been discussed already, so I think I’ll keep doing the cyclical bulking thing throughout the season.
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THEY TOOK MY BRAIN CANDY! Currently waiting to board my flight to California. Not pictured here are 10, beautiful unopened Caffeine Free Brain Candy. I’ve never had any issues at all traveling with all my supplements and powders. This TSA lady swiped every one of my tupperwares, the bag of MD, even the box of Finibars. I should have checked them them, they’re half an ounce over the limit for liquids for carry-ons. Half an ounce! She even had a look on her face for a second like she was gonna reconsider, but no. Really need those guys for my rehearsal days! ah well. I found a good gym for this week, and excited to see my west coast bands live.
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Found a decent gym in town, it’s an Anytime Fitness. Not a ton of stuff but enough to get solid workouts in for the week before heading to SoCal.
Today I woke up at 4am, hour drive to the airport, had a 6 hour flight and then an hour and a half car ride to my hotel. At that point I had two and a half hours until my evening rehearsal, three hours behind NJ time an suffering a little jet lag. The “old” me would have taken a nap, gotten ready for rehearsal and head to the school. But instead, I thought, that’s enough to run to the grocery store and stock my fridge that I specifically requested for my room so I can keep up with my meal plan, run back to the hotel to prep a meal, and then hit the gym for chest and cardio, and eat my meal on the way to rehearsal. I’ll sleep later. Just amazing how this “hobby” has changed my life.
I had a nice long convo with @The_Mighty_Stu on the way to the hotel, talking about next year’s contest season and prep. We decided on aiming for the Hercules as my first show, and going all in. Gonna have a long prep, starting January 1, giving me a solid 6 months. Slow and steady. We concluded if I want to really be a threat, I need to be “ready” a month early. Then we keep going for a month to get to @BrickHead level conditioning. That gives me 2 months and change of off season before the suffering begins 
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Is it bad that I’m looking forward to YOUR suffering? It’s highly motivational for me to watch you put in the kind of effort you do. It sure lights the fire under me to get my workout in when I’m just feeling ‘tired’ or ‘short on time’.
Keep inspiring!
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LOL! Thank you very much man! Gotta keep the progress train moving along.
I have a 7 hour drive today to SoCal, I was debating taking an off day and just focusing on the drive down there, but as I’ll be driving and sedentary all day, decided to hit legs first. At least that’ll give me a little more wiggle room to have some snacks and food in the car, which is a necessity on long rides like this! Having a great time here in CA, definitely looking forward to getting back to my wife, pups, gym and normal routine.
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Week 2, in Los Angeles now and have to do some gym ju-jitsu this week as I’m all over the place with my bands, I’ll be bouncing between 3 different gyms to make sure I can train each day. I’ve wound up leaning out nicely so far, I’m running around all day and keeping on a good nutrition plan, we’ll see what the scale says when I get home.
Really enjoying myself, but can’t wait to get home
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Back from CA, what an incredible trip. Running around all day every day, but it was really enjoyable to finally see so many of my bands performing my music live, and they all did very well at their competitions. Glad to be home!
I trained every single day on my trip except for one, nutrition was on point and leaned out a bit. I didn’t have access to a scale there so I’ll weigh in tomorrow morning, but I can see I lost some fat and went in another loop on my lifting belt, it’ll be interesting to see how much I lost. I’m guessing I’m around 158, which would be great. Now that I’m home, I’ll be stopping the “mini cut” which I did for a little over 4 weeks, if I am 158 then I will have lost ~5 pounds. So, I’ll go back to maintenance calories, stop the post-workout cardio and maintain my current weight until I start my prep in January. I’d be pretty stoked if I’m in the 158’s, starting my prep at 158 means I’ll be 7 pounds lighter than when I started my prep last year. Our goal is to be at stage weight a month out then just keep leaning out until the show. Last year I started peak week at 148lbs and was 143.5 by show morning. So, if I start my prep at 158 and only need to lose 15 pounds in 16 weeks, that would be great.
Alright, weight is 159 even, good stuff. This puts me currently 6 pounds lighter than when I started my prep last year, and I know I’m holding more muscle now at 159 than I was last year. Just gotta maintain the 159 until prep starts, shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve stopped post workout cardio and have increased carbs slightly, and will keep a careful eye on conditioning and the scale.
Also changed my split to a 5 day split to allow for more recovery and growth as I’ve been in the gym 6 days a week, and sometimes 2x a day, since my show in June. Some guys take a long break after the show, I wanted to get in there and go after it right away for two reasons:
-While I did watch nutrition and slowly add in carbs, I didn’t want to do a super slow reverse diet, so I wanted to make sure the carbs and food I was eating would be put to good use and not turn into fat.
-I got 2nd place and really want my pro card.
Working a 5 day split for the next 8 weeks will also ensure my body isn’t too beat up once I start my prep, which will be a 7 day split (5 training days, 2 HIIT days) that repeats with no off days. Don’t want to start the prep already beat up. Here’s my new split:
Mon - chest & hams
Tues - back thickness & biceps
Wed - delts & triceps
Thur - OFF
Fri - quads
Sat - arms & back width
Sun - OFF
Calves and abs are hit also at the end of the sessions, but not always on the same day each week. I make sure to get them in at least once a week currently, when the prep rolls around I’ll hit them twice a week.
This still allows me to hit arms twice, and get my two back workouts in while having 2 off days.
Regarding the past 5 week diet, I lost about 5 pounds (averaging 1lb a week) without really trying too hard. Weight was up to 163.6 and on some days I would see a 165 on the scale (just water but still no good.) Cut carbs slightly, added some post workout cardio and that’s it. Thinking back when I was fat and just trying to lose weight with no idea what to do, it’s an extremely empowering feeling to finally have the knowledge to say, “I want to lose 5-6 pounds then stop” and know I’m doing it right. Excited to keep this up for 8 more weeks and start the prep.
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Woke up yesterday at 158, a pleasant surprise. Still 8 weeks to go till I start prepping, but so far last week I went back to the 2500 cals a day and 250g carbs I was eating before I started cutting, didn’t do any cardio, and have been able to maintain and even go down in scale weight. I’m not gonna bump any carbs and cals yet, going to continue the same protocol this week and see what happens.
One adjustment I made a while ago that really helped me maintain more consistent weight and leanness is cutting down protein to 1.1g per pound of bodyweight, compared to the 1.5g I was getting. It could be a total calorie thing, maybe I get bloated with too much protein, but ultimately cutting down protein leaves more room for delicious carbs, and it’s still enough to maintain and build mass.
Currently coaching 4 folks, and enjoying being able to help those who want to be helped!
Not training related but very exciting, just got the confirmation that I’ll be going to the Baltimore Ravens game Thursday night against the Cleveland Browns, woo! I wrote the halftime show for the Baltimore Ravens Marching Band, and Thursday I get tickets to the game in the end zone with the band, and will get to be field level during the half time show. I am so pumped to go, I’ve had my music performed in some large stadiums before with decent crowds (few thousand at most), but never a NFL stadium packed with 70,000 people.
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Dude, that’s so effing awesome! Congratulations!
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Thanks very much man! Will be sure to post some pics.
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A few pics from the game last Thursday night, it was such a thrilling experience! The band performs a pre-game concert outside the stadium before the game, that was a blast as they draw a huge crowd, play some pop tunes then they played my show, then we walked the “Ravenswalk” through the stadium grounds, under the stadium and came out to the field. We were sitting in the home end zone, front row, and I got to be on the field when the band performed the show. Absolutely awesome, a true VIP experience for my first NFL game and it was such a blast. They also gave me an extra ticket for my dad, who also hasn’t been to an NFL game before, so it was really wonderful to be able to share that experience together. The crowd enjoyed the show and the higher ups had great reviews about it as well, and it seems like hopefully this will be an annual thing.
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So at what point did you strip down and do your posing routine?
S
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you look like seth feroce with that beard.
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Lol thanks man, just a couple more pounds to go and I think we’ll be twinsies.
Off season training continues, so far I’ve been back from CA for 3 weeks and still maintaining at 159. Shoulders and arms, especially arms, have been my off season focus, these are a couple pics from today’s session. 6 more weeks to go until prep begins.
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you look good man. i think a little bit more focus on rear delts and triceps long head can make your side chest pose look better. just my 2 cents. 
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Thanks for the feedback! Good advice. I workout arms twice a week, one direct arm session, and the other is split up; back thickness and biceps, then shoulders and triceps. On my shoulders and triceps workout, I do 3 sets of 3 exercises for triceps, and made them all long head exercises to emphasize that. Rope and straight bar pulls, dumbbell decline extension, single arm supinated cable pull down, etc. On my full arms day I incorporate weighted dips, close grip bench, etc.
More updates coming soon, prep is 5 weeks away.
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