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Okay, so even though my weight was higher than I wanted it to be,… today everything ‘normalized’. 2 days out from the last show, I was 176.2, and today I was 176.4, so maybe I’m just getting worried for nothing… all remains to be seen.
Because the show is so far North of me (6-7 hour drive), I just had my girl hit me with two coats of Pro Tan tonight, whereas we usually do this on Fridays. Hopefully it won’t all rub off on my bed sheets tonight (picked up a pair of black ones anyway).
If I don’t have a chance to update before I leave, I doubt I’ll be back before Sunday night, so wish me luck 
S
You don’t need luck when you’re in that condition, Stu 
It’s on, Stu!
Stu, great meeting you in Plattsburg, i saw that guys T-Nation shirt and immediately thought hhhhhmmmm i wonder if Stu is going to be one of the pro posers.
guys, let me say Stu was expressing to me how his body just wasn’t responding the way he wanted it to, thinking too many shows, too long to hold peak conditioning. that being said, Stu you looked very good, if you felt off, others would gladly take your off as their on!
A gentleman, open, informed, willing to talk even during the rigors of a contest, Stu is just an overall good man, thanks Stu for taking the time to yap w/ a fellow T-Nationer!
Rock it Stu! Best of luck.
OKay,… first off let me say that doing 3 shows so close together was definitely a learning experience, and coupled with the back injury, and this past weekend being my first pro show,… well, there was a lot to be learned! -lol
While I didn’t feel that I presented my best conditioning (or even size for that matter), I can honestly say that I don’t think it would have mattered much in my overall placing (didn’t make top 5). The level of conditioning, and the sheer SIZE of the other competitors (and there were 10-12 of 'em!) was astounding! If I can get some pics of the lineup, I think it will shock a lot of the people who think natural competitors are small.
Although I mentioned earlier that maybe doing this many shows so close together wouldn’t be a good idea, I think the real problem was how hard I pushed myself inbetween the 4/17 and the 5/1 show. At the 4/17 show, I thought I was damn shredded, but with two weeks until the next show, and the 2nd week being just carb depletion, I basically lost about 2 lbs of fat (and I was already in the low single digits bodyfat!) that one week after the first show.
To say that my body was pretty destroyed before I even thought about trying to hold my condition for another 4 weeks (until the 29th) would be an understatement.
The interesting thing about this past show (5/29), is that after the prejudging (during which I was actually pretty dizzy) I pretty much knew I wasn’t in the game, I actually relaxed a bit, ate a few things I normally wouldn’t have,and drank a bit more water than I typically would have. As a result, I assume, I had several people tell me I looked much better after my posing routine during the evening portion.
Now I know some people are going to assume it’s the extra carbs, or adding more water back in, or whatever (the usual things that arm-chair experts like to say). But I don’t think that’s really it. More than anything, I probably think it was just relaxing a bit, maybe my cortisol levels dropped, maybe I held less water (if it can even adjust like that in a few hours)… I don’t really know for certain, but overall it was a positive experience.
My buddy Mike brought up the shows I’m contemplating for the Fall, saying that maybe instead of doing two (late Oct and mid Nov), maybe my body would be better suited just focusing on the Nov one. He’s probably right, as I still feel the effects of being on a contest diet since January (25 weeks?!). Even thought I fell asleep in my clothes (and my fake tan!) Saturday night, my sleep has been horribly restless since, and I’ve definitely got the slight lingering of a headache going on now while I’m typing (maybe I got 3 hours of sleep last night).
The plans for the week, are as follows:
-Obviously I didn’t train yesterday, and will not today as well (have to go smile at a Wedding in a lil bit).
-I’ll go into the gym this week, but really just go through the motions, keep the blood moving through the body, maybe a plate on each side of the bar for a few sets of benches etc.
-small amounts of cardio in the morning when I feel like it, again just to ‘keep things moving’ (I did this an hour ago because I just felt so sluggish).
-Foodwise, I plan to use what was my ‘Baseline’ (medium numbers) caloric intake as a guide for the week, keeping my total cals, carbs etc at approximately those number and slowly allow them to creep back up.
I already have an outline of how I plan to slowly add some quality size over the next 3 months, not going to allow my weight to creep up too high, thinking ,maybe 190, 195 tops, which would give me 12 weeks’ time to prep for the Nov show if I start my prep in Mid August (plenty of time to get down to 170-175 lbs).
A cool part of the weekend though, was meeting Cyruseven75. It made me think afterward, how you see the avatars on here, ‘talk’ back and forth in various threads, yet you sometimes forget that these are actually real people -lol. Makes me wonder how many people I would run into if I just went from gym to gym traveling across the country, flashing my T-Nation colors. (I’ve actually had people recognize me as a spectator at local shows - usually wearing my Biotest shirt!)
Okay guys,… better shower up and shave (haven’t since last Thursday and I’m looking pretty scruffy), my girlfriend’s expecting me to show up looking ‘presentable’ 
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Nice work man, i know ya getting older and wanna make the most of your new pro status, but why not take off longer and put on a little bit more than “a few” pounds. As u said the competition was a lot different, why not give it ur all later on?? Just a thought. Youve prob caught the competition bug, so good luck watever ya decide.
Live and Learn!
waiting til the NOV show sounds like a good idea. It’s not going to be down here in MD by chance? (the Yorton Cup)
Id love to see pictures of the line up!!!
this thread and your accomplishments stu really makes me want to compete someday as a natural!
Nice work man, I’m interested to see the pics.
Maybe you should take a longer amount of time off. 3 competitions in a short time like that is rough and then you’re going to only have a couple months before you have to do another 2?? I’m sure the thrill of competing is pretty cool, but it seems to me that those who do so many competitions per year seem to make the least progress. I mean that’s basically over half the year spent dieting down.
Also, any plans for trying out “skiploading” in the future? I’ve seen some guys get really ripped with that method and it seems to be effective the leaner you are. Also more fun
PRO-A-GGRESSION- You have to remember that ‘a few’ lbs, when we’re talking about single digit bodyfat levels is a huge accomplishment. So many people on here are constantly being told to not worry about getting fat and to just push to get heavier (I’m simplifying here of course), but this is advice that applies to newer trainers who haven’t built a decent base yet. I’ve already been up to 220 lbs, settled down to 205 for years (with abs), before realizing that ‘competition level lean’ means under 180 lbs (not too many folks on here realize what this even looks like!)
The last thing I want to do is get insanely heavy, only to cut back down and have it yield a net gain of a single lb. Having the perspective I now have, I would much rather slowly control my rebound, keeping an eye on future shows, and then slowly coming back down (from a lesser bodyweight) and actually coming in heavier as a result. While this show I just did (USBF Pro Show) didn’t have weight classes, I know other feds do,… in fact, I frequent the WNBF/INBF Worlds every year, and they are run like a typical Amateur show in that there are weight classes (light, medium, and heavy,… no bantam, welter, or light-heavy though), and then there is a pose off for the ‘overall’.
In fact, if I do compete in the fall, it will most likely be at the INBF Worlds in November, which while the most difficult of the INBF Shows (I’d be damn happy placing top 5!), offers pro cards for class wins, which is what I think my next goal will be.
MOM-IN-MD- Sorry, that’s quite a trip for me! Getting to Plattsburgh, NY
this past weekend was rough enough! -lol
PUMPED340- Yeah, I think one show in the fall is definitely a smarter thing to do. If the diet for the fall show isn’t an excessive amount to lose, nor over a brief period, I don’t think it will be as rough as what I’ve already done. Besides, everything I hear points to the fact that each time out, your body can go just a bit further as far as leanness, so hopefully, I’ll bring an even tighter package.
‘Skiploading’, while I have read a lot about it, just doesn’t sound like a solid plan to me, no matter how many assisted guys swear by it. I don’t like the idea of spilling over early in the week, and then ‘cleaning up’ as Skip puts it. I think I’d rather err on the side of under-carbing, when I can actually see my body the day of the show, vs overcarbing earlier in the week, and then hoping it all settles in by Saturday.
S
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
PUMPED340- Yeah, I think one show in the fall is definitely a smarter thing to do. If the diet for the fall show isn’t an excessive amount to lose, nor over a brief period, I don’t think it will be as rough as what I’ve already done. Besides, everything I hear points to the fact that each time out, your body can go just a bit further as far as leanness, so hopefully, I’ll bring an even tighter package.
‘Skiploading’, while I have read a lot about it, just doesn’t sound like a solid plan to me, no matter how many assisted guys swear by it. I don’t like the idea of spilling over early in the week, and then ‘cleaning up’ as Skip puts it. I think I’d rather err on the side of under-carbing, when I can actually see my body the day of the show, vs overcarbing earlier in the week, and then hoping it all settles in by Saturday.
S[/quote]
Any idea how long you’ll take off after the fall show? I know Layne Norton commented about how when he first got started he did loads of shows but then decided to take a couple of years off to add some more size.
Regarding SkipLoading, well it’s done throughout the entire prep so the point is to really get used to how it affects you as the weeks go by to the point where you know exactly how you will react (rather than just having the one week to hope what you do with a bigger carb up works). I’ve known a couple of naturals to do this successfully.
Could you give a layout of how you did your 2x/week intervals? And what exactly did you do for your other cardio (type/length/intensity).
Thanks!
PUMPED340- Layne was also a young kid when he first started competing. I had already been training 16 years before I stepped foot on the stage for the first time, so in effect, I had already been building up size (hence Cordova’s surprise that I hadn’t ever thought about competing before).
As far as contest prep,… there are many different ways to approach something, and obviously there will always be people that any particular approach has worked for. I always liked to weigh things out as intelligently as I can, before fully commiting to it. I’m very analytical, and unless something makes sense to me, 100%, I won’t waste my time with it, especially something that deals with so many factors, as preparation for a bodybuilding contest. My current approach, not only makes sense to me, but has always given me the results I expected. Last weekend’s show, admittedly not my best, was simply a result of asking too much from my body in too short of a time period, nothing more. I doubt someone 10 years younger than I am would have shown up for their third show looking just as sharp as the earlier ones. The only way I imagine that could even happen, is if they didn’t actually peak for either of the earlier shows, which in my case, I believe I truly brought my best to the May 1st show, and everything after that was basically fighting my body’s attempt to recuperate.
DAVID1991- My interval was done every third day in a six day cycle (usually my lower carb days). I made use of the recumbant bike (less stress on my lower back, and easy to just bust your ass without worrying about a machine toppling over - the Eliptical gets a bit wobbly!). I like to alternate 30 second sprints with 2 minutes of ‘coasting’, adjusting the intensity setting from 6 (during a coast), to 12 (during a sprint). These sessions never exceeded 25 minutes each. I would also make use of fasted cardio in the mornings, but usually only 20 mins, and VERY EASY WALKING, with a focus on contracting my hamstrings, something I believe helped me a lot on stage (standing ‘relaxed’ while flexing your hams isn’t as easy as it may sound -lol). Brian Whitacre is a fan of this approach, and does his morning cardio from a full 20 weeks out!
S
Was the morning cardio done every morning? I’ve been doing 3mph on a 12 incline which is pretty easy (besides HIIT), not sure if I feel something like just walking the dogs around would really do anything