Final Stretch To The NPC New England

Hey everyone!

I try to post on here every once and a while and figured I would start a thread for my final four weeks of prep for the NPC New England(Jay Cutler is guest posing, should be pretty cool). I will be four weeks out this saturday and am working with the one and only big dog meadows. Worked with a different coach last year and I am so glad I made the switch. Working with meadows is awesome. This is definitely the biggest show I have ever done (Competed twice last year for my first two shows) so I am excited and a little nervous. Just trying to bring the best I can. For reference, here is where I ended last year when I competed:

http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/my_second_competiton

I am hovering right around 197-199lbs and am 6 ft tall

Pics are from Last sunday 1 day after the 5 week out mark. Let me know what you guys think and how I can improve my posing/ join me for the final push. I love that over the past year this forum has gotten more serious and a lot more guys are competing/ sharing their experience.

side chest

Thanks for posting! Meadows is the man, I’d love to be able to work with him someday on a prep or just an offseason of training. Your quads are sick man, huge sweep! It’s tough to tell without seeing all the mandatory poses, but you certainly look like you’ve added a good several lbs of muscle since last stepping on stage. It looks like you aren’t quite to stage leanness yet, but having 4 weeks still, plus tanners and carbing up, I’m sure you’ll be ready! Keep updating the thread, best of luck to you big man!


Thanks pwolves, you are correct definitely not stage ready yet. John is concerned mainly about glutes and hamstrings… I am too. So I am working hard to bring them in. There will be a lot of guys that are bigger than me at this show so I really need to nail conditioning. Also, if you get the chance to work with John I highly recommend it, I followed his training styles on here a while before I actually started working with him and you really get a ton of value and knowledge from a guy who eats, breathes, sleeps, trains and lives bodybuilding.

Not the best pic, but after am cardio!

Looking good indeed! 4 weeks is enough time to really dial everything in though. Conditioning is always key, and John won’t steer you wrong, no doubt.

Best of luck!

S

Agree with pwolves and Stu,looking good and made some good Improvements in the past year.JM is the man and I plan to work with him sometime In the future as well.Looking foreword to your next 4 weeks.

Your legs are retarded! Awesome mass and shape and excellent hamstrings!
Wishing you all the best!

Always wondered if your screen name was a Scrubs reference?

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Looking good indeed! 4 weeks is enough time to really dial everything in though. Conditioning is always key, and John won’t steer you wrong, no doubt.

Best of luck!

S[/quote]

Thanks Stu, always appreciate input/ comments from such an accomplished Veteran!

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Always wondered if your screen name was a Scrubs reference? [/quote]

Haha you are correct Sir! I figured people always thought it was just really weird.

[quote]jppage wrote:
Agree with pwolves and Stu,looking good and made some good Improvements in the past year.JM is the man and I plan to work with him sometime In the future as well.Looking foreword to your next 4 weeks.[/quote]

Thanks JP! Glad to have you along for the ride!


Couple of shots after a brutal mountain dog back workout!


I’ll get some better back shots this weekend when I send out my update to John!

Looking solid as fuck. Just wondering, does Meadows switch your routine up every week or have you been mostly doing the same workouts? Good luck at the show man, you’ll kill it.

[quote]The Greek wrote:
Looking solid as fuck. Just wondering, does Meadows switch your routine up every week or have you been mostly doing the same workouts? Good luck at the show man, you’ll kill it. [/quote]

Thanks Greek, there are going to be some pretty serious dudes there so I think it will be quite humbling! Yes, John changes routines every week so just think about how much training you are really getting when you work with him!

[quote]Naked Sweat Drip wrote:

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Always wondered if your screen name was a Scrubs reference? [/quote]

Haha you are correct Sir! I figured people always thought it was just really weird.[/quote]

Haha, right on. Love that show. Lookin’ diesel, dude.

Your quad-to-waist ratio is insane, these are the quads I dream of having! Solid physique all around mate, apologies if I asked this in your previous thread because I may have but is there anything particularly you did to build such quads or have they always been a genetic strongpoint?

And re the name, I also thought it was a bit creepy bit now it all makes sense!

[quote]lemony2j wrote:
Your quad-to-waist ratio is insane, these are the quads I dream of having! Solid physique all around mate, apologies if I asked this in your previous thread because I may have but is there anything particularly you did to build such quads or have they always been a genetic strongpoint?

And re the name, I also thought it was a bit creepy bit now it all makes sense![/quote]

Thanks brotha! I do not think my quads have always been a genetic strong point…but I think they are now if that makes sense. I was squatting 350 x5 slightly below parallel and while that is nothing crazy…my quads looked like crap. Yeah I did accessory work too but the main focus was squats because those always give you big legs right…not for me. Then I started reading all of the meadows articles and he did this weird thing where he would ALWAYS start with a hamstring movement…Blasphemy! How dare he! didn’t he know that squats were the most important lower body movement and every leg work out should start with the squat…but he was jacked and his routine seemed solid so I gave it a go. I used a meadows leg style routine for a long time I had variations and changed things around but I always started with intense hamstrings and really burned them out I used leg press with nice 3 second negatives and a drop set, a nasty drop set and then did some form of squat last sometimes smith close stance, sometimes free weight front squat, sometimes bb back squat. You really notice a difference in how comfortable squatting is when you start with hammies first. I had lots of days where I threw up at first. I really put alot into because I believe in the routine and the more I did it…the more results I got…recently I have struggled to bring up my upper body but am pretty proud of the progress I made.

[quote]Naked Sweat Drip wrote:

[quote]lemony2j wrote:
Your quad-to-waist ratio is insane, these are the quads I dream of having! Solid physique all around mate, apologies if I asked this in your previous thread because I may have but is there anything particularly you did to build such quads or have they always been a genetic strongpoint?

And re the name, I also thought it was a bit creepy bit now it all makes sense![/quote]

Thanks brotha! I do not think my quads have always been a genetic strong point…but I think they are now if that makes sense. I was squatting 350 x5 slightly below parallel and while that is nothing crazy…my quads looked like crap. Yeah I did accessory work too but the main focus was squats because those always give you big legs right…not for me. Then I started reading all of the meadows articles and he did this weird thing where he would ALWAYS start with a hamstring movement…Blasphemy! How dare he! didn’t he know that squats were the most important lower body movement and every leg work out should start with the squat…but he was jacked and his routine seemed solid so I gave it a go. I used a meadows leg style routine for a long time I had variations and changed things around but I always started with intense hamstrings and really burned them out I used leg press with nice 3 second negatives and a drop set, a nasty drop set and then did some form of squat last sometimes smith close stance, sometimes free weight front squat, sometimes bb back squat. You really notice a difference in how comfortable squatting is when you start with hammies first. I had lots of days where I threw up at first. I really put alot into because I believe in the routine and the more I did it…the more results I got…recently I have struggled to bring up my upper body but am pretty proud of the progress I made.[/quote]

I, like most others on here, have also switched to mountain dog style training and I know exactly what you mean about squats being sooo much more comfortable when hamstrings are full of blood. I’ve also seen improvements from this but not quite to your standard… Yet :wink:

Keep up the good work, all the best for the contest.

Thanks! Just really blast them its like by the second set every rep really burns in your quads and hams and you just keep pushing through…and of course… eat :slight_smile: Legs, for me at least can handle a ton of volume and until I really bumped up the intensity and overall work during my works outs I didn’t really start to notice a difference.

So IMHO I wouldn’t be afraid to add a few more sets or like another machine style squat variation (for safety’s sake) at the end in addition to what you are doing and do like 2 x20-30 rep sets. I would have some rep style variation too like the 3 sec-negs, pauses, pumping style(love these on the higher rep stuff), 1 and 1/2’s.