T Nation

5 Weeks To Contest

Bodybuilding
#1

Saw what jillybop did: posted to keep herself motivated. Decided to do the same. If I make it public, then I have truly committed myself.

My first BB competition is the 22nd of April (the day after law school midterms and the weekend before the Captain’s test—talk about stress and then the following week, finals in the PhD part of the program). About 5 weeks away. I am currently at 6.3% bf, 173# total weight.

Working on getting the posing down, still need to select 60 seconds of music, and a suit. The tan is down, now it is just to maintain that.

What to do for workouts? No need to continue the Lactic Acid Training. Will keep up with Thibaudeau’s Running Man to keep the fat off and maybe trim down to 5%…

What to do for lifting…mostly will work to maintain…to close to work on building, but do not want to lose any…guess will work on getting more defined…lots of posing to harden up…will do split workouts: am and pm work each part 2x a week…

And am beginning to get nervous…

#2

[quote]Charlie wrote:
Saw what jillybop did: posted to keep herself motivated. Decided to do the same. If I make it public, then I have truly committed myself.

My first BB competition is the 22nd of April (the day after law school midterms and the weekend before the Captain’s test—talk about stress and then the following week, finals in the PhD part of the program). About 5 weeks away. I am currently at 6.3% bf, 173# total weight.

Working on getting the posing down, still need to select 60 seconds of music, and a suit. The tan is down, now it is just to maintain that.

What to do for workouts? No need to continue the Lactic Acid Training. Will keep up with Thibaudeau’s Running Man to keep the fat off and maybe trim down to 5%…

What to do for lifting…mostly will work to maintain…to close to work on building, but do not want to lose any…guess will work on getting more defined…lots of posing to harden up…will do split workouts: am and pm work each part 2x a week…

And am beginning to get nervous…[/quote]

Charlie,
Awesome bro!Keep the focus and your mind set on your goal.We are all winners in the end,our personal health and fitness and a sense of job well done.I have a feww BB friends and they train hard.It’s tough dieting and staying motivated in training, my hats off to you!I know you will rise to the challenge.TRAIN HARD! Jimmy T

#3

Keep posting Charlie, looking forward to following along.

#4

Switched shifts from graves (3rd shift) to swings (2nd)…slept 11 hours today…had almost forgotten what it was like…

Todays workout:

Squats 3s 6r @ 255 (ass to the grass)
Lg Press 3s 10r @ 535
Leg Xtn 3s 25r @ 60

Deadlifts 3s 6r @ 315
Good Morn 3s 10r @ 135
Curls 3s 25r @ 80

Side Bends 3s 40r @ 100
Russian Twst 3s 10r @45
Reverse Crunch 3s 50r

30 min walk with 8 100 m sprints b4 lifting.

Working on the posing. Did the V diet to get to 168 February 13 to March 17th. Went from about 12% to 6.5% bf. And did some essays for the PhD/JD program. Stress…and worried about the ‘show’. Can’t call it a competition…powerlifting meets were competition…it was how much can I lift…no subjectivity to it at all…now some judge will decide based on some unknown (and probably unknowable) aesthetic standard. Did the judges just finish looking at Michealangelo’s David before sitting down? Or Shawn Ray? or just finish watching the Wizard of Oz and are overcome by the aesthetic dance skills of Scarecrow?

#5

Yesterday’s workout:

Bench: 4s 6r @245
Dec Bench: 4s 10r @185
Chins: 4s 6r @40
Narrow grip chins: 4s 10r @ 20

Crunches: 4s 50r
SU: 4s 30r @ 25

Brkfst: .25 c Blueberries; .5 c lowfat yougurt; 1 c non-fat cottage cheese
(std breakfast…getting tired of it)

3 Protein shakes 3 hours apart

Dinner Chicken breast with .5c Broccoli and .5 c Cauliflower.

Surge post workout…

HotRox, Carbolin 19 and Spike/PowerDrive pre-workout…

Impedence calipers put me at 6.2%…think I am closer to 7…at 173 lbm is about 159-160. Next week will play with some carb loading and depletion to see what happens…

#6

The flu sucks…the aches and the fever…cannot get warm enough…2nd day of this crap…the worst part is not getting into the gym to workout.

Not too worried about losing any muscle but that is a possibility…not hungry, dont want to eat cuz what I eat comes back up…disgusting stuff.

#7

Hang in there!Good Luck

#8

Charlie,You should be right at contest time,Just checking in to see how things are going?

#9

Charlie,

A tip that sometimes works when you can’t stomach anything.

Burn a piece of toast… just one, no butter… and eat some bites of that. Often when nothing else will, that will stay down.

Anyway, just want you to be able to get something down so you can give that as fuel to the flu.

#10

Good luck, Charlie!

#11

Thanks to everyone for the support.

Will get to the gym this afternoon for the first time in a while…

vroom…tried the toast bit (had kids…r.i.c.e. or some such thing is what the doc’s used to say…anyway, start with toast and work up from there) and the crap came back…started eating a little 10 hours later or so…sucked.

Will do chest and back this am, work lets and calves tonight…some cardio before each (walking). It is interesting, on another thread I was reading 'bout a discussion on cardio afterwards…

That never worked for me. Cardio before, yes…dropped BF like putty…but I was also using Hot Roxx and Carbo 19…so the is the confounding of factors issue at play (just what did what).

Ah well…working on posing…still cannot decide what music to use.

#12

Charlie,

Hope the workout went well and the flu has moved on! Hope you only lost some liquid and not lean mass.

#13

The workout:

Bench 10s 10r @ 185
Chins 6s 8r @ bw
Pulldowns 4s 12r @ 145
Crunches 3s 50r @ 25
Situps 3 15r @ 115

Walked for 40 minutes…did not loose too much wind. 172 and will check the bf on Tuesday…think what I may have lost is water…but who knows…look ok…and as soon as I can figure this frickin’ technology out will post two more pics…

The zen master wants a couple…he thinks I am crazy…as he says, why so much work and nothing gets moved? Little does he know…

#14

[quote]vroom wrote:
Charlie,

A tip that sometimes works when you can’t stomach anything.

Burn a piece of toast… just one, no butter… and eat some bites of that. Often when nothing else will, that will stay down.

Anyway, just want you to be able to get something down so you can give that as fuel to the flu.[/quote]
Vroom,
That burnt toast is commando bro!But I understand you have to do something to hold down some food.

#15

Did not do legs last night, so this morning was the leg day.

Squats 5s 8r @ 240
Leg Press Toe Raise 4s 15r @ 360
Fast L.P.T.R. 4s 25r @ 360
Reverse Crunch 3s 50r @ 10
Russian Twist 3s 10r @ 35

Losing strength in the legs…the last set killed me; the last two reps were ugly…powerlifting style (get the fuckin weight up no matter how)

Normally I could have done those with out breaking a sweat…today I died.

Will do deads tomorrow instead of 5s 8r @ 270 today.

Which brings me to thinking 'bout how this is going to be judged. I was trained and learned that if you can talk about something, you can measure it. Somewhere you have some sort of standard you are using and this can get quantified.

But BB has decided that being subjective, there is no way to quant this. I think someone is just too lazy or not willing to take heat for saying this is the standard: it is yours to make or not.

But this is my first one, so who knows.

Shake time…

#16

OK, Got the swim suit. Any idea of how ridiculous I feel: 52 yo in this skimpy little piece of clothe…and Barbie’s like this crap? UGh.

Started working on the routine, trying to work static poses into a more fluid program…pose movement pose movement. That is hard work. And trying to maintain my breathing as normal as possible, like doing this posing program is no strain…“yeah I do this first thing in the morning instead of coffee and yoga…” all the while smiling…

Start looking at next week as the last week. Hunted down the 7 Days to Ultimate Leaness article and will work it starting Friday…

And still trying to figure out where the hell the camera sent the pics on this computer…says it made a file and damned if I can find it…

#17

Today’s workout:

Planned:

Squats 3s 5r @ 255
Leg Pres 3s 10r @ 363
Romanian Dead 3s 10r @270
Leg Curl 3s 25r @ 80
Leg Extension 3s 25r @ 40

Actual

Squats 1s 5r @ 265
1s 4r @ 275
1s 3r @ 285
1s 8r @ 225
Reverse Cruches 3s 50r @ 10

Too tired to do anything else. This low carb crap sucks. Sure I am at 6.5 or so, but the complete lack of energy sucks. I will be so glad when this is over. The second week after I want to start a Smolov cycle…if I have enough energy for it…I may have to wait a couple of weeks.

#18

OMFG Charlie,
Your 52, getting your law degree. preparing for a BB show, just coming off the velocity diet, training and studying through the flu.

But I know your downfall…

Kryptonite.The green kind.
MuhaHahahahahahaha!!!

Very impressive stuff.
Steve.

#19

[quote]Charlie wrote:
Today’s workout:

Planned:

Squats 3s 5r @ 255
Leg Pres 3s 10r @ 363
Romanian Dead 3s 10r @270
Leg Curl 3s 25r @ 80
Leg Extension 3s 25r @ 40

Actual

Squats 1s 5r @ 265
1s 4r @ 275
1s 3r @ 285
1s 8r @ 225
Reverse Cruches 3s 50r @ 10

Too tired to do anything else. This low carb crap sucks. Sure I am at 6.5 or so, but the complete lack of energy sucks. I will be so glad when this is over. The second week after I want to start a Smolov cycle…if I have enough energy for it…I may have to wait a couple of weeks.[/quote]
Keep up the good work!TRAIN HARD! Jimmy T

#20

Started the carb loading today. What a nice change of pace…and I don’t have to drink so much water…starting to shed that.
Just walking today, no more workouts for a couple of weeks. Got the routine down and music, do them 2x a day for an hour…that is as exhausting as a regular work out…and visualize the routine every chance I can…
Had some folks critique the routine, made some suggestions for showing my calves more, and my hamstrings…3 days and a wakeup