Heading off to the photo shoot.
Actually, was just playing with you post contest. Being in a frame with three dudes in contest shape doesnāt help.
Iāll post some more pro shots when they come in from the show and the photo shoot today.
Seriously man the Side tricep is your signature 
itās just perfect :o
Congrats for the prep
You didnāt see his RDB on stage.
S
Hey @robstein, this is a bit of a weird request but you donāt get many opportunities when it comes to really shredded peopleā¦
Can u take a pic WITHOUT you tensing at all plz? Especially your six pack areaā¦ just wanna see how much difference tensing/sucking in whatever makes 
Thank you so much for all the support and comments everyone! What an amazing weekend! Hereās the full rundown of the day, feel free to skip ahead for more info about plans for the coming week.
Got to the show at 9am for check in, itās always a great show at the Northeast. The hosts make it a great environment for everyone, really friendly people, always great vibes of sportsmanship and professionalism. As usual the female classes were stacked and the male classes were smaller in numbers, neither the physique or bodybuilding for men had enough competitors for a pro card, but man the competitors all looked great.
Once the show started at 11, we tanned up, ate up and pumped up, with mens open bodybuilding going on last. I went up against a 165b guy and a 187lb guy, they had us all on stage next to each other since it was a smaller turnout than expected. Both competitors were very solid, my goal was to fight hard, pose like a pro and leave no doubt. Pre-judging was surprisingly quick, as we went out in number order I started in the middle and they kept me there through all of the quarter turns and most of the mandatories. At the end they switched me with the other light weight and put us through another round.
Overall I felt confident after pre-judging, I knew I suffered hard and brought my best, it was a great feeling, especially coming back to the site of my first show last year after a full year of hard work and solid progress. Intermission was long, about 4 hours. I spent most of the day hanging out with Mike, another Wolfpack dude, Stuās other client who won the Hercules last year. We met there and have become good friends since then. We got some coffee at Dunkinā Donuts, came back to the school and just relaxed until finals started.
The night show started at 6, everyone out on stage for the Star Spangled Banner, then we all went through our routines. Had a blast on stage and had surprisingly good crowd reaction!
Once awards started, they went in show order so mens open bodybuilding was on last again. They split us up into two classes, light and heavy. So I went out with the other light weight, they called us through some quarter turns and mandatories, then gave out the awards for lightweights. The other competitor really was very tight, a lot of muscularity and a really nice guy, as most people are at these events. They announced him in second and me in first, then brought the heavy weight out for his award, then it was me and the heavyweight for the overall. This guy had great story, he used to be 100lbs heavier and through relentless hard work, lost it all naturally and started competing two years ago. Inspiring! Usual quarter turns and mandatories, a quick pose down, then awards. The mandatory dramatic long pause, and they announced me the overall winner. Certainly a very rewarding feeling to come back after getting 4th in my class last year, coming full circle to win the show, and have my family, friends and crew there. What a day!
Also, shout out to @joshbenjamin for a hell of a strong showing at this show! Iām sure heāll update his log with more details, but man he looked great, absolutely diced and left no doubt he worked his ass off (literally) to get there.
After the show we went to Cheesecake Factory where there was a 40min wait, so we went to the diner, and got the same table we did last year. @joshbenjamin and I shared a triple decker turkey club, and a pressed cuban sandwich, with a variety of fries. Afterwards, Josh, Mike and another pack member all came back to my place where desert ensued, consisting of my dadās cookies and a few pints of halo top, and some other healthy snacks.
This morning woke up expecting myself to be spilled over and puffy, but woke up tight. ::whew::. Lots of water and a light breakfast, and headed over to the photo shoot. What an awesome time! Got a lot of shots, some in my posing trunks, some in a pair of athletic shorts and even a few with my trumpet. Iāve published numerous articles over the years in various music magazines/websites/publications on the physical aspects of marching band, and am getting more of a reputation in the industry as the marching band fitness guy. So, I thought it would be cool to get some pro shots with my horn for those articles, canāt wait to see them.
After the photo shoot, we all came back to my place and ordered that epic pizza, half BBQ chicken bacon, and half peppers, onions, pepperoni and prosciutto, with a cheese steak, split between the five of us. Then, some more halo top and snacks.
All in all, an amazing weekend celebrating the hard work and improvement of the past year, the journey I started with @The_Mighty_Stu a year and a half ago, and an epic time with my wife, my coach, my friends and family.
Crazy that itās over now after the struggle of the past 7 weeks between shows. Some times where I seriously questioned why I was putting myself through all this, but after this weekend, as usual, it all seems to have flown by, and no doubt in my mind it was all worth it.
Iām not sure of my future competitive plans. I know I need at least a full year and half or so off to relax, be a normal person again, and make some serious improvements. I donāt have any specific goals of bringing this or that body part up, I just want to get in the gym, train hard, eat healthy without over eating, slowly make my way back to a surplus and grow. Iād like to keep my weight capped at 155, which would keep me within 15lbs of stage weight and looking lean should I want to get back into it eventually. I really donāt think thatāll be hard to do with the knowledge Iāve learned over the past two years, smart nutrition and making sure I resist the urge to eat everything in site this week. The priority for the foreseeable future is going to be enjoying living normally with my wife and pups, focusing on my business which Iām full time with now, and enjoying the bodybuilding lifestyle without the weight of competition on my thoughts.
I gave myself the weekend to eat whatever I wanted without worrying about it, which I feel is totally fine and warranted after the past 7 months. Tomorrow (Monday) through Friday, Iām going to go back to my 1750 cal low days with some post weights cardio, lots of water, which should even things out by next weekend. Iāll probably just do Mag-10 for most of the day tomorrow and not have any pre workout carbs for the next few days as I have PLLLLLENTY of glycogen ready to go. Also not gonna weigh myself until next weekend, although Iāll probably hop on the scale tomorrow morning just to laugh at how much weight I gained. Today was 145, Iām guessing tomorrow will be 149 or so after the pizza. My goal is to be back to 145 by Saturday.
Think that covers it all! Iāll have a few more posts this week, will post some pro shots as they come in, and will start an off-season training log in the training log section soon. Thanks again so much for the support gang, itās been a hell of a ride! Please feel free to post any questions, Iāll certainly have more time to get to them now that Iām not doing an hour of cardio a day
Ah ya gotta ask after two days of binge eating post show! Iāll get one up sometime this week. When youāre very lean, like close to a show, it looks pretty similar. When Iād wake up first thing in the morning and look in the mirror relaxed, everything looked hard and dry, flexing brought up some details but pretty much the same. Tomorrow I have no doubt Iāll be holding a lot of water, but Iāll get one up soon!
Haha you deserve that food mate! Itās actually been super helpful to give me appetite for my perma-bulking 
Congratulations Rob! You deserve it after all the hard work, this is the best thread on this site and Iām sure itās a source of great inspiration and knowledge for many.
Thank you so much man, I really appreciate that!
@robstein for the win!
Thanks for showing us how itās done. Biotest should do a feature on Stu and his athletes. Epic discipline and self control there.
Got back on here after the weekend, congrats on the win, bummer about the pro card (blah blah blah intrinsic motivation and all that haha) great showing and a great finale to a well put together log and prep.
Cheers!
ROBāS ULTIMATE OFF SEASON PRE WORKOUT CAKE
Welcome to Robās Recipe Corner. Weāve brought you such hits as āegg white-cereal pancakes,ā ābodybuilder chicken salad in the Vitamixā and ātwo-ingredient no carb protein muffins.ā I am now proud to present what I feel is my greatest achievement, the Off-Season Pre Workout Cake!
Now that Iām in the off season, I have a little room to experiment and have some fun. This week Iām sticking with low carbs to even out from the weekend, so some carbs at breakfast, and then pre-workout. If youāve been reading my log you know my typical pre-workout meal during prep is my cream of rice cakes. I also recently got into cold protein oats, and wondered if I could make a cake/brownie like item using similar ingredients. Yes. Yes I can. And it came out JUST. LIKE. CAKE. Not fake tasting stuff that you convince yourself tastes like real cake. Iām talkinā about the real thing. Moist, chewy, cake goodness.
STEP 1 - make your proats
-1/2 (48g) organic rolled oats
-enough unsweetened almond milk to cover
-leave in fridge overnight
STEP 2 - add the rest when youāre ready to make your meal
-1 scoop Metabolic Drive Chocolate (gonna try Vanilla tomorrow)
-1TBSP nut butter (I used almond butter, but plan on incorporating some protein nut butters, like the Buff Bake stuff next week)
-15g peanut flour
-1tsp cocoa
-1TBSP liquid egg white
-1/2tsp baking soda
-(opt.) 0 cal sweetener, I used a stevia packet
STEP 3 - mix and microwave
-Pretty easy here. Mix it all together, mine took 2 minutes in the microwave.
Topped with 0cal Walden Farms Chocolate Syrup and a small handful of chocolate sea salt granola
MACROS: 460cal - 44c/42p/15f
Now that Iām in the off season, I can go back to enjoying healthy foods that contribute to my goals without going overboard, which, after a prep, really seems like feasting. Iām really not into binging and eating junk food (aside from the post show weekend of course), I just want to be able to eat large amounts of the good stuff. I ate 2,000 calories yesterday and it felt like 4,000. Iām not being super crazy strict prep-style, but I do keep a spreadsheet of everything Iām eating as I go through the day so I can make sure I keep cals under 2,000, and carbs capped at 70, which is where I was before the show. After things even out this weekend, Iāll slowly start adding more carbs next week.
This pre-workout cake is a great example of finding/making foods that fit your plan, help you achieve your goals and make you āfeelā like youāre cheating, which at least for me, helps satisfy my needs and keeps me from going and scarfing down actual sugar filled cake, or feeling like I need to cheat. This pre-workout cake muscle gaining awesomeness.
I will say that starting in a couple weeks I will definitely plan on incorporating some legit cheat meals into my plan, probably one every couple weeks or something. A pizza, burger and fries, whatever it is, Iāve learned not to be food-phobic. As long as I plan for it, itās all good. So if I decide I want to have a personal BBQ Chicken Bacon Pizza (what we got this weekend, incredible), Iāll just eat lightly during the day, smash legs or back or something, and enjoy my pizza without worrying about it.
Aside from this new amazing discovery, Iām slowly coming back to life and starting feeling normal again, it usually takes 2-3 weeks. Physically I have way more energy, mentally takes a little longer for the hormones to regulate and to feel āwith itā all the time. Kind of hard to explain, but the feelings of normalcy are creeping back. Hit the gym hard yesterday for chest, quads and hams and it felt so good to have so much fuel in the tank. Going today for back and bis, and plan on training 5 days this week.
This week Iām going to do my usual split I did on my prep, and next week am going to start a new split, either 4 or 5 days, probably 5. I gotta figure out my program, Iāve been training arms twice a week for a year now so I may go back to hitting them once a week, and splitting up back into two sessions as I did last off season. So many possibilities!
If I keep my calories below 2,000 I drop weight lol Man is bodybuilding shitty and unfair!!!
Hey Rob,
Looking back through your thread again a question came up. I asked you a while back about weight and sets and reps and to me it sounded like you would basically grab a weight and do 3x10-12 or 4x8-12 or whatever on something and keep the weight the same, with the first couple sets probably getting the full 12 reps with a few reps left in the tank but then the last set or so would be pushing pretty close to not being able to get the full 12 reps. But I came across your leg workout way back on January 8th where you seemed liked you kind of worked up to a single top set of a max weight for most exercises, even if the weight was only slightly higher than your first set or two.
Any rhyme or reason for that? Is that how a typical lifting day looks for you? I just realized I couldnāt find another workout breakdown that listed weights and sets like that post, I wouldnāt mind seeing another like that for any other bodyparts. I know you mentioned you were trying to increase your arm strength at one point, did you use more of a work up to a max weight approach for that?
@staystrong hey man, good question! Typically, for smaller single joint movements or isolation exercises, I do find my numbers for the day and ride them out during my working sets. If Iām feeling strong and can move up a little bit while keeping the tension where I want it, Iāll go for it. On bigger, more compound movements, sometimes I like to ramp up, typically with squat, leg press, incline bench (if I feel I can do it), or maybe rack pulls or lat pull downs, or seated DB presses. I like the challenge and as long as I feel I can keep the working muscle activated optimally, I donāt mind going up. Especially for an exercise that uses a lot of weight comparatively, like a squat, leg press, incline or seated press, etc., going up in smaller weight increments isnāt going to be as noticeable as say, doing a set of dumbbell curls with 35ās, then trying to go up to 40ās. Even though itās just 5lbs itās a big percentage increase for relatively small muscles, so while I could probably knock out a set or two, Iād probably be using more momentum than Iād like to and wouldnāt be isolating the bicep enough.
For arms specifically, I was doing a 5x5 approach for a bit on my first exercise of barbell bicep curls, or weighted dips and close grip bench, and Iād try to increase numbers if possible during the session, again only if I felt I could to it optimally while keeping tension where I want it. Another reason I donāt keep a journal anymore and like to auto-regulate. I know my typical numbers for my exercises, so Iāll warm up, use my previous numbers as a āstarting pointā, and if Iām feeling good and strong Iāll try to move up a bit. Some days you feel a little weaker and need to back off 5% or so to keep the muscle working, nothing wrong with that either.
Hereās an example from my last shoulder session a couple days ago:
Seated DB Presses - warm ups, 60x12, 65x10, 65x8, 70x6 (felt good especially after extra food this weekend, didnāt expect to go up but it felt right.)
Alternating DB front raises - 37.5x10, 37.5x10, 40x10 (same thing, felt good so moved up)
Bent over DB rear lateral raises - 20x15, 20x15, 20x15
Rear Pec Deck - 100x10, 110x8, 110x8
6 point DB raises - 2 sets AMRAP using 10lbs DB, usually between 10-12 reps.
Now that Iām not on prep and am in āoff seasonā mode, this week Iām hitting it hard, and next week Iām going to have a new split, start favoring lower reps, start increasing food more and getting my strength up so I can add some size. I always respond well to switching up to lower reps/more strength combined with more food, I did that at the start of my last off season and had some great gains. Iāll post more about the new training protocol and such once I figure it out this weekend!
Happy Friday!
Itās been 6 days since the show, slowly starting to feel normal again physically, mentally still playing catch up. As I mentioned earlier it usually takes a few weeks for the hormones to regulate. I remember after my competitive season ended last year, after about 10-12 days turning to my wife and saying, āman, I canāt believe how much more normal Iām feeling today, I didnāt even realize I wasnāt feeling normal until today.ā Itās such a slow and steady decline during the prep, and on the way back up itās the same way, itās not like you have a couple cheat meals and are back to normal. So, just enjoying the process, I know within another couple weeks Iāll feel like my usual self again. Physically though, I have a LOT more energy, I donāt have to psych myself to go up stairs, do errands, and normal daily living and moving around doesnāt hurt anymore or seem like an inconvenience lol.
Weighed myself for the first time in 6 days today, weight is still up more than I thought it would be, 153 today. Iāve been good this week, havenāt had any binges or anything, I did have a pretty good size meal at Whole Foods yesterday and a 240 cal pint of halo top at home. Just meat and veggies from the hot bar, but more food volume than Iād usually eat. But, after my pig out fest last weekend, itās to be expected. Reading online about how competitors can gain anywhere from 10-25lbs in the week after the show, so Iād consider my current situation to be not too bad. Iām sure I gained a pound or two of fat, but the majority of the weight is water, and after a contest it can take up to 2-3 weeks to lose the water retention depending on the individual.
After my first show 8 weeks ago, I only had the post show meal and some snacks at night, the very next day I was back on my prep plan and it took 10 days for my scale weight to get back down to where it was. After the show last weekend with the addition of my Sunday pizza-fest, Iām sure itāll take a little longer.
So, Iām not gonna worry about it, going to keep on the nutrition, still slowly start adding food/carbs, make sure Iām drinking plenty of water and not binge, and Iām sure over the next week Iāll continue to lose the water. Shoulders and arms are still pretty tight and vascular but especially in the mid section/abs, looking blurry.
Have a good weekend all!
