Stu, are your legs shorter than your torso by a signifigant amount? Or is that just the pictures?
[quote]TheBigV wrote:
Stu, are your legs shorter than your torso by a signifigant amount? Or is that just the pictures?[/quote]
Lol, no, it’s just the way the kid who helped me worked the camera. Made my legs look short, and my melon even larger than usual!
Oh, and in reference to an earlier question about weight going down, then up, then more down, my weight for the last few days was 186.4, then 186.8, then this morning, 185.8 so again you see the ‘stuttering’ dropping (I don’t know why, but tah-dah!).
S
Wow, your shoulders and abs are really starting to tighten up. I also spy a little rectus femorus starting to show in a couple shots. You seem to be holding on to all of your size while losing body fat. Looking good so far.
Stu, maybe next time you can take off the angel wings you got for your 5th birthday, oh shit its just your back 
I know you dont like measurements during prep, but i would have to say everybodys been saying the back and hams have gotten bigger, well… i reckon your arms have gotten bigger, dont ya say?
The fluctuating weight tends to occur when fat cells empty of their adipose and fill up with water. It seems your consistently eating enough carbs and keeping your calories up to control water retention. I’ve struggled with serious water retention before where my weight would increase by 3-4 lbs before the “whoosh,” commonly referred to by Lyle McDonald. There’s a good article called “Of Whooshes and Squishy Fat.” Look it up.
The water retention can mask fat loss via the scale and be pretty damaging psychologically to the dieter, but physiologically there isn’t much to worry about.
Stu your quad sweep is starting to show through which means you’re looking lean and mean! You’re gonna “sweep” the competition this year, lol.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Oh, and in reference to an earlier question about weight going down, then up, then more down, my weight for the last few days was 186.4, then 186.8, then this morning, 185.8 so again you see the ‘stuttering’ dropping (I don’t know why, but tah-dah!).
S
[/quote]
Ok, I just wanted to make sure I wasnt the only one because earlier in my diet I had like 3 straight days at 193.6 and then suddenly dropped to 191.2. Then I just recently had 3 days at 190.6 and then woke up the next day at 186.8…It just seemed odd to me overall, but it had happened on earlier diets too. I just never bothered to ask until now.
[quote]phatkins187 wrote:
The fluctuating weight tends to occur when fat cells empty of their adipose and fill up with water. It seems your consistently eating enough carbs and keeping your calories up to control water retention. I’ve struggled with serious water retention before where my weight would increase by 3-4 lbs before the “whoosh,” commonly referred to by Lyle McDonald. There’s a good article called “Of Whooshes and Squishy Fat.” Look it up.
The water retention can mask fat loss via the scale and be pretty damaging psychologically to the dieter, but physiologically there isn’t much to worry about.
Stu your quad sweep is starting to show through which means you’re looking lean and mean! You’re gonna “sweep” the competition this year, lol.[/quote]
Okay, now that’s just very cool, definitely gonna go hunt down that article (I just need to know why everything happens! -lol).
And thanks for the kind words. The sweep is definitely an improvement over last year, but I’m waiting on the real cuts to start showing. I was a lot leaner this far out last year, but then again, the actual difference is weight is still about 10 lbs worth.
S
[quote]pro-a-ggression wrote:
Stu, maybe next time you can take off the angel wings you got for your 5th birthday, oh shit its just your back
I know you dont like measurements during prep, but i would have to say everybodys been saying the back and hams have gotten bigger, well… i reckon your arms have gotten bigger, dont ya say?[/quote]
Last year I had actually had a partial bicep tear shortly before starting my prep, so my ability to train biceps directly, and the exercises I was able to choose from were very limited. I’m hoping that the combination of exercises I’ve been able to make use of this past year has been effective enough to really bring the muscle up noticeably. The guys who really standout in the natural contests are usually the ones with just big full pecs and arms (ie. Cordova, Moran, Clarida). I know that my pecs will never really have that pumped and round look, but I think I can definitely catch up with the arms if I keep pounding away with the consistency I’ve been able to train with since this past fall. If they do indeed look like they’ve improved,… well, thank you very much! -lol. Let’s hope I can hold onto the added size as I try to lock in my conditioning.
S
[quote]greggio wrote:
I also spy a little rectus femorus starting to show in a couple shots. You seem to be holding on to all of your size while losing body fat. Looking good so far.[/quote]
Damn I hope so! All I can do is ride this out, and hope that things fall into place. I know full well that trying to force the weight loss will only result in muscle wasting. The real interesting thing is going to be seeing what happens between this show, and the 2nd one I’m doing 2 weeks later! (and yes, I’ve already planned out what I’ll be doing those two weeks, I’ll get to writing it up when the time gets closer).
S
Congrats on your progress Stu. I’ve been following your log very closely and taking notes. It seems your diet approach is very similar to the diet that Clay Hyght recommends in “Set Your Metabolism on Fire”. Obviously he doesn’t include the Anaconda protocol. I’m actually using this to gain weight right now, but with about 4000kcals/day.
I’m really thinking about doing a bodybuilding show in August, and was wondering if you thought it would be best to go straight from the bulking phase into the cutting, dropping average kcals down to about 3200/day. Or should i start off slightly higher kcals and reach maintenance phase before dropping the kcals. Sorry for the hijack, but i respect your opinion, and wanted to know what you thought.
I’m late to the party, but you teach kids for a living man.
Why the heck didn’t you keep the 5 second rule in mind when the cashew fell on the floor!
[quote]legacyfighter wrote:
Congrats on your progress Stu. I’ve been following your log very closely and taking notes. It seems your diet approach is very similar to the diet that Clay Hyght recommends in “Set Your Metabolism on Fire”. Obviously he doesn’t include the Anaconda protocol. I’m actually using this to gain weight right now, but with about 4000kcals/day.
I’m really thinking about doing a bodybuilding show in August, and was wondering if you thought it would be best to go straight from the bulking phase into the cutting, dropping average kcals down to about 3200/day. Or should i start off slightly higher kcals and reach maintenance phase before dropping the kcals. Sorry for the hijack, but i respect your opinion, and wanted to know what you thought.[/quote]
Very cool, I actually respect Dr. Hyght a lot. Never having heard of him before the past couple of years on here, I’ve found tha a lot of his approaches and ways of thinking mirror what I’ve been doing on my own, which of course makes me feel sort of validated in my own training and nutrition.
As to going from a straight bulk to a cut, I do know that the idea of allowing you body to acclimate to a higher weight before a diet has been batted around quite a bit over the years on here. While I’m not sure if I totally buy into the conept or not, I will point out my Pendulum analogy. Once you swing an aspect of your nutrition/training in one direction, suddenly going in the other dierction can have a dramatic effect. Dorian Yates used to up his calories a few weeks before he would begin his preps. Last year, knowing I was going to drop my carbs the last week, I jacked them up quite a bit the 2 days before in an effort to get more of a shock out of it.
On the other hand, when cutting you must also keep in mind that you never want to make many, or to drastic changes at once (always have options for incremental changes as the day of the shows draws nearer).
With that all out there, I guess my recommendation would be to go straight into cutting, BUT start with a very small deficit. I think my average deficit when I started this time was only about 200 calories on most days, just enough to get things moving, but not so crazy that I would suddenly feel unable to get through my sessions (although the anaconda made a huge difference, and I never really suffered from that at all).
Hope that answers your questions somewhat, and certainly glad if this, or my previous contest thread have been able to shed any light on other issues you were concerned with. Good luck!
S
That was pretty much the answer I was expecting. Thanks a bunch for the answer. I really appreciate it. If I decide to do it, i’ll let you know how it goes.
[quote]Htowner wrote:
Ok, I just wanted to make sure I wasnt the only one because earlier in my diet I had like 3 straight days at 193.6 and then suddenly dropped to 191.2. Then I just recently had 3 days at 190.6 and then woke up the next day at 186.8…It just seemed odd to me overall, but it had happened on earlier diets too. I just never bothered to ask until now.[/quote]
Even though I do expect a certain amount of a drop each week, sometimes it’s a little more erratic. Yesterday, I actually thought that maybe I had gone over my numbers for the day. When I think there’s a chance of this (I do occasionally have to eat out with friends/family, I always just get a chicken breast over ‘greens’ and a diet coke), I try to eat more protein-centric, thinking that maybe with protein’s higher Met Coefficient, that it will all balance out even if my cals are a bit more than I should be getting. Now, I don’t know for certain if this is what actually happens, but my weights for the last week have been quite ‘jumpy’ -lol.
Mon (3/1/10) - 186.6
Tues - 186.8
Wed - 185.8
Thurs - 186.8
Fri - 186.6
Sat (3/6) - 184.6
TODAY (3/7)- 183.6 (bit of a shock, will probably be at least a lb or two higher tomorrow)
S
Okay,… 6 weeks out of the first show, and I think things are finally starting to come together. While I know my front quads really need to come in a lot (A LOT!), I gotta say that in the side shots, I really think I’ve brought up my overall thickness. I’m planning on dropping about 8-10 lbs in the next 6 weeks, which should put me right above the cut off (before I cut my water, which should be good for an extra 3 lb drop). Hopefully this will at least duplicate my level of conditioning from last year, but with added size in certain areas. Definitely a learning experience considering the few things I’ve done differently this time (more cals, more carbs, cardio further out from the show, huge amounts of pre-workout carbs, anaconda…)
S
Lookin’ real good Stu. When your legs come in you’ll look sick.
What’s the name of the show you’re doing in AC?
Doing the USBF, NJ Bodybuilding Championships on 4/17/10, then going for the USBF NJ Natural Classic III two weeks later (5/1/10), which is the show I did last year. If I’m not dead after that, the guy who promotes the ‘Battle in the Burgh’ (5/29/10), who is also a USBF judge, has been telling me I’d do well at his show since he first approached me after the contest last year. Since I won the Masters division at last year’s NJ Classic, and since his show has a Masters Pro division, I can compete in it (and as I’ve been told, once I actually step onstage, I go from being ‘pro qualified’ to actually being a ‘pro’, which sounds pretty damn cool -lol).
S
I could be completely wrong, but it looks like your feet are pointed out just a little too far in your poses. If you bring them in just a little bit, it should make your sweep look a little better.
[quote]legacyfighter wrote:
I could be completely wrong, but it looks like your feet are pointed out just a little too far in your poses. If you bring them in just a little bit, it should make your sweep look a little better.[/quote]
After watching to death the contest video from last year, I realized that having my feet pointed more in a straight forward manner actually made my quads appear narrower in most shots. Looking at the 2 middleweights who placed ahead of me in the open, I realized that they stood in a fairly legs splayed outward manner, thus creating more of an illusion of overall thickness.
Even though I have noticeably brought up my quad sweep this past year, I don’t think it’s in the cards for me to ever have a really round sweeping shape to the front of my thighs (they have a much more angular, rectangle type of shape), so any subtle little shift or twist that I can use to my advantage must be seized.
(I do appreciate any thoughts or suggestions though, so keep 'em coming!)
S