figured id come back here for a post or two to show my physique update about 3 years after i left!
Still 100 percent natty!
managed to improve my conditioning from 2013 while increasing my stage weight by about 5-6 lbs! definitely a succesfull offseason and pre contest!
make sure to follow me on instragram at " grindovermatterpei "
and facebook at my real name Connor St . Jean!
ill post some apartment shots, photoshoot and stage photos!
if you have 5 minutes would you mind talking us over what your leg training has looked like over the years? Either in this thread or pop over to the current bodybuilding thread.
Iām gonna get back on the bodybuilding thread, but for now ill post some stuff here if people are interested!
sorry if this is very unorganized!
legs/quad training-
I did a fair amount of high bar squatting to build my leg base, in my past offseasons id do the 6 day big beyond belief program and high bar squat twice a week one day in the 8-10 rep range and one day in the 13-15 rep range!
this worked pretty well, however ive moved completely away from barbell squats lately, im just never happy with my form and i end up āgrindingā way too many reps , and feel the movement more in my entire body and less in the quads/glutes. So ive switched completely to hack squats lately-two variations, close stance and reverse stance . Close stance is for quad sweep (VL) and reverse stance hits more glutes/adductors
Hammies! very much meadows style- primary focus is on leg curls, with drop sets, partials, high volume etc
ive also gone through many phases of just doing purely mountain dog style training for legs, so anything you can find written by meadows ive done, except for stuff with bands!
as far as getting them freaky as all get out, youve got to diet for a long ass time, for me i have to take out all cardio at the end and way reduce my leg volume and intensity to get them to be very seperated. My legs just get SOOO pumped/inflamed from doing cardio and leg training twice a week (thats a big one as well , 2x a week for leg training seems to be optimal for me) i have to reallllly back off at the end of the prep to get them separated
Thanks for posting this info! Last year this was a problem for me, legs getting very inflamed and needed more separation. Would you mind sharing, what is your timeline for tapering out/taking out cardio and leg training volume and intensity pre contest to allow the legs to come in? Also, do you adjust your diet in any way once you take our cardio? Thanks a lot man!
Hi, what do you mean by āreverse stanceā? Also, what exercises (if any) do you perform prior to the hacks? (As I recall, JM, is not a fan of starting with these.) Thanks.
although Iāve dieted down to lowish body fat Iāve never had great muscle separation in the legs, upper body has looked lean but legs just shapeless lumps, I think itās obviously down to the fact that Iāve never been lean enough!
This may be a strange question but do you have any leg measurements before you started your prep and after? I understand not every one takes measurements but if on the off chance you did that would be great.
I wish i had a solid protocol for this, all i can really tell you is what i did
basically we removed cardio about a month out from the show(s)- we did not change the diet, infact we actually increased the calories slightly. Within a few days my hams were wayyy tighter, and legs felt smaller but looked way better. after an entire week, the my quads were much more seperated. Now im still smashing lower body hard as fuck twice a week here, but ZERO cardio. Keep in mind im IN SHAPE at this point, ready to roll any day of the week and had dieted slowly for 8 months already. Any yohimbine useage (hot rox) must be removed as well.
So at this point i look damn good, but now im gonna let things marinade a little bit and focus on training to maintain and putting overall less stress on the body. Think cortisol controll here. from there i noticed way more fine details coming in, like cross striated triceps , completely feathered Vastus lateralis, deeper glute lines.
ANyways this stuff is all good, but 98 percent of competitors dont give themselves enough time to do 2-3 weeks of backing off. I just know from experience that my lower body will look like shit during the final dig for conditioning. Not everyones body works this way, so you wont find any of this stuff im saying a hard and fast rule for all competitors. In general, most people just dont get lean enough .
you will find as you continue to diet down you will achieve more and more fine details each prep
ah i remember taking measurments in the summer at like 12-13 weeks out and i think they were like 25 inches if i remember right
im sure by the end they were much much smaller, they could easily fit into jeans lol. I seem to have gentically good insertions when it comes to quad sweep\
i hope to increase adductor, rec fem and tear drop size this offseason
Thank you very much man, all incredibly helpful stuff and great to see what other guys are doing. I can really relate to the leg inflammation issue. Just a couple more if thatās cool, at what point in the prep are you doing cardio daily and really abusing your legs? Is it HIIT in addition to some LISS/MISS? Thanks again bro very helpful and awesome to see your progress.
Side note: not related to this but if I remember correctly youāre a musician or at least dabble in music editing? Iām a full time composer and musician, cool to see another music meathead!
Id say this year around 8-5 weeks out was when i was eating the least and cardioing the most. I was doing a lot of miss on a stepper machine (which i think was overdone for a few weeks) and i did bike HIIT as well. So yeah theres two forms of cardio that will inflame the FCK out the legs. Literally my legs were pumped 24/7, i will attach a pic of how they looked at that point lol. Next time i prep i think im going to go with NO cardio as long as possible, then only do LISS as needed.
YES i actually do have a music degree, but i stopped directly after graduating, My focus was on jazz performance. From the ages of 13-23 i probably played over 100 gigs, maybe more. Mad props to you for doing composition, i was always horrible at Jazz composition and notation/ arranging.
Thanks again for the info, very helpful. My last go around I got to the point where I was doing 90 minutes of LISS a day (2 sessions) plus HIIT twice a week and training legs, I can relate. Definitely learned a lot and will be changing some things up this time.
What was your instrument? Iām a jazzer as well (performance, not composition), I got my bachelors in jazz trumpet performance and masters in education, and now make a living composing marching band music and still playing gigs. I play in a swing band and we actually just got the word weāre opening for Cherry Poppinā Daddies next month, pretty exciting.