Just Under 14 Weeks Before 2 MPD Shows

Bigger Stronger Leaner
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Bodybuilding shows I took between 6th-8th place out of 10-12 guys in each respective show as a light heavy.

MPD I took 2nd in a class of 5 at ANBF show in Culver City and then 2 weeks later took 9th out of 13 in mens F class for NPC Border States Classic.

So are you saying I don’t really have it for doing the idea of classic physique (CP) or for MPD or both? I was only saying that I desire strongly to do CP and bodybuilding for that matter out of preference as compared to MPD.

I have been on stage 6x since 2004 so no stranger there. Never placed dead last or close to it. I would never get my own ass up there if I even had a inkling that may be the case.

Mind you I DO NOT do NPC shows anymore. I found thats a caliber of athlete I cant hang with given my build. I now stay in all natural orgs such as the one I am doing this November.

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That makes sense. I am, admittedly, pretty ignorant about what it takes.

Thanks, good luck!

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No worries mate. At this point just taking a day at a time and pushing onward for this show. I am uber eager to get on stage again and compete. Its in my blood. Did 3 meets this spring and summer for PL, did well, did 3 obstacle course races this summer and did very well. No I need to feed the need and quell my desire for the stage to round out my year.

Really truly not sure where my start of 2017 will take me. I really want to try and hit 220 and stay lean so I can do OCR events for work and for my own leisure. PL is a sport I do for fun only, take it seriously sure but not to the extent I ever have for stage fitness so thats priority one yet. What ever I do end up going for its going to start up hard right after my Nov show ends.

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Enjoying following along, keep killing the prep man.

That’s a pretty serious and goal getting 220 and staying lean, right now that means gaining 30lbs of lean mass which in a year is not really possible for a natural lifter, even 20 pounds in a year is pretty much unheard of unless maybe you’re a newbie, which you’re not. With all the cardio you do naturally as part of your day to day, you’d really have to train like a body builder with the splits that were discussed earlier in your log, and make sure you’re consistently eating a ton of food.

Just my thoughts, if you want to do bodybuilding I agree with @BrickHead and @The_Myth, overall thickness and mass needs to be a priority. At 6’1, I’m guessing you’d need to be at least 190lbs on stage to have a well balanced look and not look stringy, or possibly more. For some comparison, @The_Mighty_Stu is 5’10" and was 176 the last time he stepped on stage. [quote=“La_Crosse_Grad, post:24, topic:220121”]
What ever I do end up going for its going to start up hard right after my Nov show ends.
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That’s a good mindset, no doubt you’ll keep improving. Good luck, looking forward to seeing you dial in more for your show.

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While I’ll admit that there are plenty of BBers who put me to shame, I know my pics are all over if you want some type of reference and a lot of people feel I did fairly well.

I wish I was 5’10! -lol. I was 5’8 at all of my shows, 170 lbs at the very first and 178 at the last. Any successful competitors I know who are 5’11 and taller all compete around 190 or more. Obviously packing on muscle is always a plus.

S

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Damnit! So close! I’m 5’4" so everyone just seems super tall to me.

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@robstein I meant to say that I want to start the process of getting to 220 next year with a full offseason of work to get that going. I normally sit at 200-205 naturally on a general intake of 3500 a day with 4 training days and 8-9 fitness classes per week for work. Until I get over the 4000 mark I do not gain weight for the life of me I have found. Even that can be too low some weeks and I drop.

I’d like to grace the platform a couple times but I am only doing that if peaked and primed to lift my best and training for PL although has its place, will not be ideal for trying to gain max size. More so since I have to diet down to the 93kg class 2 weeks out as normal to make weight. Doing that even twice kills 4 weeks of size and progress gains which although not terrible does distract from the big picture goals I have.

Really surprising to hear about you guys and others at under 6’ being what I weight right now 9 weeks out (tomorrow)! God would I love to be 190lbs on stage at 6’1.5"…I could live with those measures.

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9 weeks out yesterday. Weigh in this morning had me at 188.5lbs. 2lb drop in a week so not bad. Not dropped calories in 4 weeks now and still leaning up and no drop in gym progressions at all. Love it!

Just got back home to WI on leave for my brothers wedding week as well as a best friends bachelor party and my own 32nd birthday (tomorrow!). Talk about a hard time to be dieting for a show right! Not really… once I flip the switch as in past preps, the choice is made, nothing distracts me enough to give in and break on diet. Its only 9 more week I keep saying. food will always be there after the show. for now, success on the stage is worth more than any 1 meal would be for 15-20 minutes. I take shit for it yes, most of it in good fun but it comes none the less. My aunt, mom and cousin already have called and asked if they can make me a carrot cake for my birthday as they know I love all of their homemade recipes. I hate having to turn it down as they enjoy making it for me and seeing me have it but again, if I let every little offer or chance slide this 9 days vacation would set me way back in progress.

Since this past Saturday through the 12th I wont have to deal with any extra work based cardio classes at all so this will be a nice week to really go hard in the gym with only my 2 intentional 30 minute HIIT sessions to focus on.

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What you guys thinking so far, you seeing the same thing I am as weeks count down? I feel good and think I see objective progress in scale and in physique but again, as my own coach, hard to stay 100% objective.

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Looking lean and mean with nine weeks left, you’ll be ripped.

Keep it up!

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thanks man! going all in on this no coach this time through so really eager and anxious to see what i can do for myself moving onward.

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Had an awesome workout yesterday evening I trained lower body and it went really well. Here she be…

Bulgarian split squat 4×8 each
Seated calf 4x15
Angled leg press 3×15
Single leg standing calf 4x15 each
Prone Leg curls 3x15
Leg extensions 3x15
Horizontal leg press 2x25

9x3 of mixed grip pull ups placed throughout workout

Plank iso holds front and lateral x30 seconds each, 3 rounds between sets of leg press

Landmine core rotations with empty bar 3x10

10 minutes post treadmill walk at incline with 25lb vest.

Foam rolling at very end.

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8 weeks out now gang!

187lbs even. down 1.5lbs from last week sunday. great week of training despite a mild strain to my lower left back/hip. I think its my QL I tweaked in my sleep honestly as nothing I did gym wise is new or different, nothing I can put my finger on at all really. Just got tight as shit past 48 hours. Manageable by annoying.

Yesterday I took 100% off for my bros wedding day and just treated it as a full rest day, way low carbs, mild fat and mild protein. I did have 1 glass of red wine and it hit me so quick! Helped nail my best man speech however let me say that much…worth every sip!

Very happy with pics this morning (took them this morning vice Saturday as normally would have due to wedding plans)

These really are in line with how I feel being on par with how I look. Makes me pretty happy to have the congruence.

Last full day home with family before I head back to San Diego tomorrow morning. One more solid workout session coming yet today for upper body push day, chest, shoulders, triceps this afternoon. Might through in some incline walking with vest at the end to I’m thinking.

Today is also refeed day since yesterday could not be with wedding stuff of course and no training at all. Got some serious pancakes to crush this evening and I cant wait for that!

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Still doing 4 meals a day as have been since 12 weeks out when cals got dropped to under 2800 a day.

Macros as follows for the week since yesterday:

lift days: 240p, 175c, 50f (-15g carb from last 2 weeks)
cardio only days: 240p, 100c, 60f (-25g carb from last 2 weeks
6th day re-feed: 190p, 500c, 30f (no change)

~75% of my days carbs are ingested post workout now in my after workout meal. the rest is trace carbs in my other 3 meals. fats i keep low to none in post lift meal as well. other meals get more fats. protein spread out evenly at ~60g in all 4 meals.

Did some shit to my right external oblique and/or QL muscle on Friday or even Thursday as it got tight an tender by Friday evening and real tight all day Saturday. Been like that since and still annoying today. The 2 hour bus ride and 4 hour flight home to San Diego did not help keeping it loose for sure. Not sure what did it as nothing in my workouts last week jumps out as the culprit?

I did do single leg bulgarian split squats and single leg bb RDL’s as new movements this week in leg day and back day respectively but loads were mild and it was a deloading week so intensity was mild, form was spot on and nothing was overkill. Not sure…maybe even the bed change I slept it did something to my hips for all I know. Crazy how much sitting and standing was impacted by a simple stiff/tender muscle that stabilizes the pelvis and spine! Not been able to deadlift or free squat since Wednesday last week as it just feels too risky to load up heavy and do more damage then good. More so at 8 weeks out now. Been doing machine based squats, leg press variations, trap bar deads etc…to keep direct loads off the back and minimize loaded hip flexion/extension movements for now…dont want to omit them for too long either.

Today session…

first lift back in SD at 24 hour fitness in 9 days…

7 minute cardio warm up…dynamic movements, foam rolling for back…

free motion squats, medium stance
4x15,13,11,9

horizontal hoist calf press machine
3x15

angled leg press, high and wide stance with 5s eccentric
3x15

donkey calf press
3x15

single leg horizontal leg press machine
3x13 each

BFR leg extensions and seated leg curls
4x20,15,15,15 each

18 minutes of post lift cardio, 6m bike, 6m incline walk, 6m elliptical, HR between 140-155

10 mins post lift stretching…done!

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Today’s rundown…

45-minute ruck march class lead at 10am today

530-7pm

upper pull day:

hammer ground based deadlifts

2 pps x12 for 2 sets
3pps x10
4pps x8 for 3 sets

wide lat pull downs to chin with iso pause at bottom
6x8

chest supported tbar row
4x8

hammer high low row
3x8

pull over machine ss with smith shrugs
4x12 each

machine incline bicep curls
3x12

machine preacher curls
2x15

butterfly crunches
4x30

That’s a wrap for today folks. Back held up pretty well. Im going belted during every workout as a precaution for further aggrevation of the right low back.

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Are you competing in a tested show? If so I would definitely step up the liftingyour body should be prime to grow into the show. And no offense but ppl doesn’t work great for naturally skinny guys in my experience.

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As my thread shows its a taste natural org yes. The INBA. my workouts and split plus diet are listed in my thread. 8 weeks out this past weekend. What is ppl by the way?

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P(ush) P(ull) L(egs) split = PPL.

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as with any split it can work for some and cant for others. optimal program splits compared to just OK splits as of course any split can work to a degree.

i have found this split to work pretty well for me in that it allows every muscle to be hit 4th day and my volume is kept at or slightly above the 10 sets per week norm that research shows several times now as the optimal set range to be in for hypertrophy. it also allows me to keep sessions at 75 minutes or less by having just 3 movements and/or sections to focus on per workout.

mind you that i as mentioned above in my earlier threads also contend with nearly 3 hours of group exercise session lead per day M-F so keeping my lift sessions shorter and lower in volume per workout but higher in total volume per week is key to staying away from OTS and burn out.

never going more than 3 days in a row lifting seems to have helped well also thus the the 3 day split. i am considering using a DOGCRAP principle I did back in college in which you train every other day using the same 3 day split to allow a full recovery day after every lift day. i got to 212 on that and hovered there all through college up till i jumped into powerlifting in grad school and cut back down to stay around 205ish.

the one thing i do feel may help for me however, is having a shoulders and arms day alone at some point since it is such a weak area for me. doing those as its own targeted day vice follow up to something else may help me in the long run and its crossed my mind a few times as well.

open to suggestions on that.

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This is a run down of how I trained for 6 months or so leading up to a natural show. Had to drop out due to work related injury.

D1 Back, Upper Focus on mechanical loading/tension
D2 chest metabolic stress/tut small stab of shoulders for a quick pump
D3 arms lots of blood
D4 back metabolic stress/tut lat focus
D5 shoulders metabolic stress, chest mechanical loading
D6 rest hiit
D7repeat day 2 but in reverse Order
Day8 rest hiit
Rinse and repeat
On all the days I performed at least 20min stairs am fasted, in addition to the training required by the platoon this is just an example everyone is different, but I believe in very intense lifting striving for the best pump and focus as possible. Also there isn’t any legs really because I noticed my legs don’t change much, No change from maintenance to none at all.

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what results did you see in that 6 months? pics, objective changes? how long were sessions on average?