PARAGONA- The plan is to just add small amounts (15-20 mins) of easy, steady state before breakfast. I threw this in last year the last two weeks when I became concerned with making the middleweight cutoff. I really did very little in the way of cardio last time out, basically just my 2 HIIT sessions every 6 days, which of course were short, but brutal, and then I counted more on caloric manipulation (or restrictions -lol) to drop weight. I realize that SS cardio is really just the bottom rung of practical approaches, but I figure if I can throw in small amounts that are not really taxing every day, it will just tilt the scales slightly enabling me to keep the cals higher (which I have been, as well as having a much higher average carb intake - 225g daily opposed to last time when I averaged 150g - 175g each baseline day). I know that my weight a a good deal higher now, at 11 weeks out than I was last year, but as my muscles are still looking pretty thick and full, I’m going to try to ride this out and hopefully the definition will come in slowly as the weeks go by. If not, I’ll reassess at 6 weeks out. I really think knowing how much I actually will need to weigh before the water drop will be a big help, as I had no clue last time and gave up several lbs of LBM in the process.
PRO-A-GRESSION- Thanks man, we can’t always be objective, and I’ve really just been so focused this last year on bringing up specific bodyparts with the stage in mind.
DRMZAPPAS- weight sessions while cutting should simply be a way to tell your body that it has to hold on to muscle, but not so draining that it impairs your recovery abilities during a caloric deficit. Don’t over-think splits, or how many exercises etc, worry more about your basic diet, and coming in under your numbers, while keeping your metabolism from excessive slowing.
Trying to get more of an ‘X’ in my front relaxed shot, which admittedly was my weakest pose last year. While I think it’s a lot better (angling of my shoulders, angle of feet, as well as lats) I still need to fiddle with my arms a bit.
Stu, the info you are handing out gets better and better. Im sure alot of people here anre changnig the way they lose the fat around here.(like me)
And this is coming at the perfect time, as summer approches.
I think the powers that be need to think about bringing you on the payrole, you are getting pinged for advice alot more than some (some not all of course) of the authors and responding alot quicker and more often. Just my 2 cents.
[quote]Papa Nick wrote:
Stu, the info you are handing out gets better and better. Im sure alot of people here anre changnig the way they lose the fat around here.(like me)
And this is coming at the perfect time, as summer approches.
I think the powers that be need to think about bringing you on the payrole, you are getting pinged for advice alot more than some (some not all of course) of the authors and responding alot quicker and more often. Just my 2 cents.
Again, thanks for the great info and help.[/quote]
I thought he was getting paid in supplements. Support Stu, buy Anaconda. It seriously does taste like kool aid.
This is a great thread. Even for us who may not compete, it’s a great insight into what goes into this sport and how disciplined its athletes are.
Stu, I’ve seen you mention pre-bed cardio once before, and was wondering if you think it would be a good idea to help curb a little bit of fat gain while bulking. I’ve been bulking since august, making progress on my lifts, gained 20-25 pounds, but my lovehandles are starting to get a little out of control. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
[quote]BJack wrote:
Stu, I’ve seen you mention pre-bed cardio once before, and was wondering if you think it would be a good idea to help curb a little bit of fat gain while bulking. I’ve been bulking since august, making progress on my lifts, gained 20-25 pounds, but my lovehandles are starting to get a little out of control. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
[/quote]
I understand your concern. Obviously if you’re making progress, even with a bit of fat gain, you certainly don’t want to derail the train. The idea of doing pre-bed cardio is something that Carlon Colker had mentioned in his writing, and then was also brought up by Cordova (forgot where though).
I’ll be honest in saying that if I were to try it, I’d probably go to bed starving, plus unless you really knock yourself out from physical exertion, you might have some difficulties actually falling asleep (some people would be fine, and others wouldn’t).
My advice would be to see how you fare with small amounts of pre-breakfast cardio a few times a week (SMALL AMOUNTS!), simply to shift your net numbers a bit, or even try throwing in a low calorie day once or twice a week, not full blown carb cycling, but just enough to keep some sort of metabolic progress.
Stu - you mentioned a Front BB Raises facing down on Incline Bench (wide hand spacing = lower traps) on your delts/traps/tris day. i have never done these, and i was wondering if you kept your arms fairly straight during the whole motion.
You have made some noticeable improvement since last year! You’re really inspiring man, keep up the good work!
[quote]Styx wrote:
Stu - you mentioned a Front BB Raises facing down on Incline Bench (wide hand spacing = lower traps) on your delts/traps/tris day. i have never done these, and i was wondering if you kept your arms fairly straight during the whole motion.
You have made some noticeable improvement since last year! You’re really inspiring man, keep up the good work![/quote]
I do keep a slight (SLIGHT!) bend in the elbows simply to relieve some of the pressure around my forearms from keeping the barbell extended at arms’ length like that. What I don’t do though is allow the movement to turn into a high pull, which I’ve seen some people do in attempt to duplicate what they see me doing. Not that high pulls are bad, in fact I think they’re a great exercise, it’s just that I feel this as much more of an isolation movement that doesn’t even stress my delts (which seemed very odd the first time I tried it), yet gives me a really tight contraction in the lower traps.
Looking back at the pics of my back from last year’s contest, in the rear double bicep shot, I believe that two movements really contributed to the smaller details,… the prone incline bench/front barbell raise (or whatever the hell you wanna call this exercise we’ve been discussing), and scapular retractions in the cable station.
[quote]pumped340 wrote:
Your back is looking bigger to me Stu, nice progress[/quote]
Thanks! I really tried to thicken up my lats in an effort to make my waist look smaller. Hopefully the effect I’m after will be evident when I’m all dieted down.
Nice job on your contest prep and posting your progress. Quick question (which I apologize if you’ve posted before). What’s your height and beginning weight (at the time of starting the contest prep).
Okay, so it’s Monday morning,and I’m officially 10 weeks out. I weighed in at 5am at 191.8 lbs, which is good as I’m still slowly coming down like clockwork. I began very easy, steady state cardio before breakfast(maybe 2/2.5 mph on a treamill, 20 mins), which I don’t think is really strenuous enough to eat into my lbm, but hopefully will be enough to just bring a bit more tightness to my legs, which is something I feel I was lacking a bit last time (hence the morning treadmill, a staple of Whitacre’s prep).
I won’t be lowering my numbers at all, keeping average cals around 2700 and average carbs around 225 or so. This is a much higher amount of carbs than I used last time, but I keep reminding myself that the goal is to take advantage of the fact that I ended up under the class limit by 5 lbs, and those 5 lbs might have been kept if I hadn’t been so scared of keeping the numbers higher.
Today is a low day, with abs and intervals scheduled for later tonight, so I won’t be taking any pics until tomorrow.
Hey Stu. Cool thread. I wish people would make more threads like this instead of threads arguing nonsense. very inspiring. curious as to whether your implementing CT’s pre workout carbs (instead of just having them throughout the day to make life bearable lol) and training theory into this? and at how many weeks out do you plan on lowering the carbs if doing so? just a newb trying to soak up some real knowledge. and again good luck and awesome thread.
I’m using CT’s full protocol, the Alpha-GPC, The 3 FINiBARs, the Anaconda, and the MAG-10. I’m sure the targeted carb approach is what’s allowing me to remain so full. A lot of ‘experts’ who deal with contest prep specifically seem to agree with Christian’s approach, and so far, with my own results, I can’t complain.
Last year I was all about the Post workout carbs, but I noticed a difference even in my offseason dieting when I switched to pre/peri, and then I noticed when first trying the fini’s (which I admit I was a bit skeptical of ingesting so many carbs right before training!) that I just felt more ‘on’ when hitting the heavy weights.
Sure I’m expecting to be a bit cranky closer to the show, but even on my low cal/carb days, when I’m dragging ass all day long, I get into the gym fired up, and most people wouldn’t even guess it was a lower carb day.
I’m sure at some point, right at the end I’ll have to drop carbs somewhat. Last year at 2 weeks out I basically did away with the notcieable ‘high’ days. Well, the ‘high’ days were basically 100g of carbs, while every other day was <50, so I still tried to have some sort of cyclical thing going on to keep the metabolism barreling along. But again, I think I gave up a bit of muscle at the end, so I’m going to try thing s a little differently this time.
There are plenty of natural bodybuilders who keep carbs right up to game day, I think it’s just this stigma that carbs have that makes people think they need to avoid them at all costs, which I believe ultimately is the wrong thing to do in a lot (a lot, not all) of the cases.
Okay,… 10 weeks out pics. While I do wish my conditioning were a little better at this point, this is the first week where I think my pics actually look like someone prepping for a show (even though I looked thicker in the previous shots, these have a certain degree of definition starting to show).
At this point last year, I was about 181 lbs, and while a lot leaner, was making much smaller jumps as I tightened up week to week than I am now… and I still look bigger, so let’s see how this goes
I also think its amazing thats its been a little over a month and youve already lost 17 lbs. Do you have a faster metabolism as well? Mine seems like it takes forever to process food.
Support Stu, buy Anaconda. It seriously does taste like kool aid.