1. I am no longer doing the August 20th fitness contest as planned. I spoke long and hard with my "go to guy" who gives me an outside eye and no BS reply to my readiness for these shows. He feels I am about 8-10lbs too small in the upper body to be worthy of a top 5 placing in an NPC caliber level show that gets large turn outs every year in my class. I cannot argue his point. I now weigh 9lbs more then I did at my last contest prep at 8 weeks out so I figured I was sitting ahead of the game. Powerlifting has a funny way of making you stronger, denser but not bigger in a visual way I guess.
1.5. I want to make it clear how pricy this sport can be for newbies and others looking to compete. I ran the numbers for the show prep from now till show day and it came out to be right around $1800 for direct cost of 18 weeks of meals, supplements, my NPC card, show reg fee, hotel stay, tanning and gas to and from the venue. This is actually low in most cases. Add in additional hotel nights, flights, meal prep delivery service for an out of town or out of state show......$2k+ would be an easy bill. This is why sponsors and edorsers are SOO huge for athletes in this sport. Sponsors DO NOT make an athlete money! Not in 90% of cases beyond IFBB pros anyway. They simply help the athlete break even from show cost, nothing more. Many athletes aspiring for sponsors think they will make bank by landing one.....not the case folks!
That being said and accepting I need to do a later show this fall to have more time to add the 8-10lbs in my upper body, I am aiming for the Oct 29th Ferrigno Legacy NPC contest in Ranch Mirage, CA. This gives me about 8 weeks to gain some size, and 8 weeks to lean out by show day. Lofty goal, tight timeline but very possible if I don't let a single day slip by.
2. I just did my first obstacle course race in over a year which I love doing! I did about 5 of them prior to the year hiatus and loved each one. This one was the Gladiator Rock N Run 10k Super. I took 9th in my heat and 11th overall out of 93 men in the 10k division. Time was 1:07, not too shabby for a guy who does 0 long distance training. I teach spin and run track sprints a few times week and that is all! All the rest of my time as you all know by now is in the gym with the steel and iron! The funny part about doing that race is that after it finished about 12 noon, despite eating a big breakfast, a decent after run snack/shake, I was starving every 2-3 hours after that until I went to bed! I eat almost 4000 calories a day as is and even that was not enough to keep me full for long on race day! I was nearing supernova metabolism I swear!
3. Sunday I did my weigh in as I do every Sunday morning to gauge my progress and changes in weight. I was a shocking 191.4lbs! I was 195.4lbs last week! I ate more this past week since I went back to lean mass gaining objectives vice cutting down with the new show date change. How I lots 4lbs in a week when eating more blows my mind. I blame the darn race and my super sensitive ectomorph genes that respond to any endurance training x10 fold. This was not the direction I hoped to see the scale move lets say.
4. With prep going otherwise very well to this point and an new outcome to work for with the Oct show now starred on my calendar as well as a new gym to train at! Yes thats right! I for the first time in 3 years have decided to defer my default gym from 24 hour fitness and/or the base gyms which I still use weekly, to the mecca of physique athletes in San Diego....World Gym baby! I got myself a 3 month membership and after just a week of training their I am in LOVE! The vibe, the people, the equipment, the old schoolness, the trophies, posters, pictures all over the gym make you feel part of a cause, a movement, a lifestyle, a family of fitness and health, discipline and success. Hard to really explain but you feel it when your there, its something I have not seen or felt since I trained back at Fords Gym in Madison, WI years and years ago where all big time powerlifters of Bill Kazmair's day trained frequently.
These shots are from this Sunday morning where I am 191, 9.5% body fat (obtained via a 10 site SKULPT Chisel assessment)
Arms, traps and calves need to be bigger at my height and frame. Only way in hell I am going to be good enough to compete with physiques the other NPC caliber guys will bring to the stage as well. Getting leaner has NEVER been a problem for me.....this is as "fat" as I get all year. Gaining muscle size and KEEPING it are the hard part for me with my job, my build and my cursed fast metabolism.
One last thing for you all.....I am trying to and enjoying the new SnapChat thing quite a bit I must say, gives cool short daily insights and views to my life and what I do etc....feel free to follow me at username SDNAVYFITGUY to keep up with me.
And of course, I cannot end a post with out some awesome food shots so here are some homemade grubs from this weeks eats! Enjoy!
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| post workout pineapple teriyaki bowl |
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| pre workout spiced chicken/rice/veg bowl and fruit |
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| a way super grill out night! (mahi mahi) |
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| my new favorite "triple threat" before bed muscle meal potion! |
