Looking great, Rob!
It’s a little hard to tell with the photo size, but your legs seem
like they’ve come up significantly! Upper chest and shoulders
are looking great, too, though to my eye your side-chest pose
could showcase them a tad better if you opened up to the
front a bit more and leaned slightly away from the camera.
@sctb thanks very much man! I’m glad you can see some improvement in the legs, they were a priority when I started working with Stu back in October. I’ll get some bigger pictures next time also.
Thank you for also taking the time to check out the posing and give some great advice! I’ll try that today with my pics and will post them up this week.
Keep it up! I am definitely seeing the progress you are making. It is inspiring!
6 weeks out of the first contest today, 14 weeks out of the Hercules. For the past two weeks my weight has hovered at 155. For the first time since we started tracking daily weight 6 months ago, my weight hasn’t changed at ALL during this week, between 155-155.5 all week. Interesting though, two weeks ago my lowest weight was 155.5, but I also had some 157’s appear earlier that week. This week has been all 155. But, I am looking tighter and a little harder, so there’s some recomp going on which is certainly a good sign of progress at this point. Also comfortably another loop smaller in my lifting belt this week, which is another good sign I’ve gotten leaner even as my scale weight hasn’t changed.
So, I have 6 weeks to lose 6 pounds, with the goal of being under 150 to make the bantamweight. I can’t add more cardio sessions due to my schedule restrictions, so we’ll be cutting some calories here and there, and also starting this week adding in Hot-Rox. We’ve been holding off on adding them in until I really needed them, so since my scale weight has stalled and we’re 6 weeks out, now is a good time. I’ve taken Hot Rox before, it was a while ago but they worked very well so I know they’ll be a good addition. There’s only one other time I’ve been this lean, but I was also about 135 at the time, so being 155 now is pretty motivating. Adding Hot-Rox and cutting some more cals will no doubt increase progress, and I’m really excited to see how my physique will change over the next 6 weeks.
Starting to get down to the wire for the first show, 5 weeks from tomorrow. Good progress this week, after weight was stalled around 155 for two weeks, had a low of 153.6 yesterday, starting to look pretty tight. We made some slight caloric adjustments and added 5 minutes of cardio to my existing sessions, combined with the Hot Rox, must have been the bump needed to get things moving again. I’m starting with 1/2 dose of Hot Rox, 1 pill in the AM and 1 in the PM, so we can add the other half later as needed.
Cardio this morning was a nice change of pace, went for some trail running with my wife in a park near by. It was a beautiful day and the terrain of the trail versus the treadmill or elliptical certainly kept my heart rate up. I have noticed a pretty significant increase in my endurance since I started my prep.
Heading over to Stu’s tomorrow to get some training and posing practice, I’ve been practicing a lot and am really looking forward to having a good session in person to get feedback. Trimmed all body hair today so we can get a good look at my conditioning, and I was pleasantly surprised with my legs. Even though we’re 5 weeks out, I can see clear separation of the quad heads and am definitely overall the leanest I’ve ever been. Exciting stuff!
About to have my Finibar, currently getting ready to head to the gym. Did some shopping yesterday, got 3lbs of london broil that’s currently in the crock pot. I don’t know why it took me so long to cook beef in the crock pot! It’s hard to find london broil around here, but we were by a whole foods yesterday, got 3lbs cut up into cubes, along with a few pounds of lean grass fed ground beef. I’ve been doing a lot of chicken lately and am missing the red meat, the hardest part is making sure I find lean cuts like london broil or 93% lean ground beef, so I can eat enough that it feels like a meal.
Good weekend of intervals and recovery, ready to hit it again hard this week. 4 weeks and 5 days to go. Went to @The_Mighty_Stu’s neck of the woods on Saturday, @BrickHead was there too, got some posing practice and training in. Had a great time with these guys!
Lost some more over the weekend, down to 152.6 today. Something that may have helped was the timing of my intervals yesterday. Typically I do them mid-day after a few meals, yesterday I had to do them early morning before heading over to the in-laws, so I just threw down some Hot-Rox, Metabolic Drive and water, and went to the gym, so that may have helped burn up some more fat than usual. Might be over thinking things, although at this point I think anything that’s not part of the usual schedule, either with training or nutrition, should be noted.
Had some delicious food this weekend, a nice break from the usual prep foods. Typically I don’t make many substitutions and just stick to the foods on my plan for ease of prep and consistency, I was feeling pretty run down last week and wanted to change it up, if nothing but for the mental benefits. Saturday I combined my last two meals of the day in a late dinner bacon cheeseburger. 4oz 93% lean ground beef, with onions and mushrooms in the burger, topped with no-sugar BBQ sauce, a piece of farm raised shoulder bacon and 1oz kerrygold grass fed cheddar over veggies. It was absolutely incredible, totally felt like a cheat meal (I had to keep telling myself it wasn’t.)
Yesterday at easter dinner with the in-laws, I knew everyone would be having desert and wanted to join in. So, my amazing wife took our usual protein pancake mix and put it in a muffin tin, making me some awesome protein muffins, which I topped with Metabolic Drive “icing” (scoop of protein mixed with a splash of milk). Tasted like straight cupcakes.
So far I’ve been “prepping” with Stu for 25 weeks. This started the beginning of October, getting on a meal plan and attempting to lean bulk for 13 weeks, getting my calories up as high as possible until it was time to cut. I started at 156 and got up to 164.5 over the course of 13 weeks from October to New Years, with the scale slowly creeping up each week while adding minimal fat. We then started cutting after New Years, so far I’ve lost 12 pounds, averaging about 1lb a week, right on track. It hasn’t been steady loss each week, some weeks stall out then have big drops later, but overall we are on track right now. Since it’s my first contest I’m not really sure what my first stage weight will be, our main priority is getting me under 150 so I can compete in the bantams. At this point we’re confident that won’t be a problem, so for now just going to continue with the plan and watch what happens 
Good week of training so far, had a strong session on Monday, feeling good today. Weight was 152.2 this morning. Last week I felt pretty gassed throughout my training sessions, I didn’t do a full de-load but definitely backed off a little bit with weight and volume. My workouts are full body and take about 2 hours moving quickly, so at this point even if I back off a bit, I’m still getting a lot of stimulus and am not risking any LBM loss. Didn’t change much, just lowered the weights by very small increments, focused on a great pump and changed any low rep work to higher reps. Monday felt much better, strength was even up more than usual and I took advantage of it. Overall my strength has been consistent throughout the entire prep, and I try to keep my numbers where they are. Some days you feel totally depleted and may need to back off, but on the days you feel good, you take advantage of them, push the weight (without risking injury of course) and give a little more. All in all it evens out I think.
Mentally I’m a little all over the place, some days I feel good, others I feel like I’m behind, I suppose that’s typical for a first time competitor. It’s a tough place to be right now, my first show ever and “warm up show” in 4 weeks, with the show I’m REALLY aiming for, the Hercules, 8 weeks after that. While the first show is of course important and I want to look like I belong on stage, we’re not going to go into “do whatever it takes” mode until the Hercules is approaching, otherwise I’d dig myself into the ground and have nowhere to go. We made a few more small tweaks this week to keep the momentum going, but still have lots of room to kick things up a notch for the Hercules prep.
I also increased the frequency of my ab training to every day. Typically my workouts are so long that it’s tough to find time and motivation for abs. So, now, I do 5-6 working sets of one exercise every day. On a training day, I do it as active rest between my last exercise sets, and after cardio on the other days. So, abs are getting hit every day with a variety of exercises and angles throughout the week, already feeling/looking tighter.
Non-training related side note, half way through my winter break right now and I’m loving it. I’m really pushing to have this be my last year teaching full time, hopefully next year I’ll be able to work from home with my music writing business, it’s looking like it’ll be a real possibility. Ideally, if I can find a part-time gig I can do from home, I will definitely “retire” from the public work force. My marching band music business is doing great, but the only draw back is it’s seasonal, and not a steady pay check. The money comes in mostly between April-September, so if I can secure a part-time gig from home and have some steady income coming in, that would be ideal and definitely allow me to stop teaching. I’m hoping the bodybuilding might also open some doors there.
Way to go! It looks like all of the hard work is paying off! Now only 2.2lbs to go in 4.5 weeks. That should be a piece of cake (made with protein pancake mix of course)!
The past two days I’ve really started to tighten up. Still a long way to go, but feeling good about the first show in 4 weeks. These shots were post workout, after 10 minutes in the sauna. I’m noticing some nice vascularity in my arms, and even in serratus on the side-tricep. Also noticed I’m hunching over a little on the side-chest, going to keep working on that one.
Strong workout today, big difference from last week. Both sessions this week strength has been up, even though weight is going down. Without the Finibars and Plazma, there’s no way I’d still be able to make it through these full body workouts. I’m also happy to see that things are going well while prepping on a full body program, which is certainly not traditional, but we’re making it work!
Argh! Blinded by the pasty glare… Get that man a tan stat!
S
Only 3 weeks and change from being the most tan I’ve ever been. I burn just THINKING about the sun, it’ll be interesting and fun to see a tan version of myself.
High day today, which is a welcome change from the low day weekends, feeling pretty drained today. Low days are down to 1950 now, high days are 2350, which is a pretty significant change from the 3100 I started at! Today’s meals are:
-7:30 - 1 cup hot ezekiel cereal, 2 scoops Metabolic Drive protein, 1 tall glass unsweetened almond milk
-9:30 - 6oz plain greek yogurt with 1/4 scoop Metabolic Drive protein (just enough for some flavor while still fitting in my macros)
-11:30 - 1/2 cup cottage cheese with raw spinach
-1:30 - 4oz chicken breast, 1 slice ezekiel bread, veggies (frozen broccoli and kale), topped with some sugar free BBQ sauce
-3:00 - 1 Finibar on the way to the gym, 2 scoops Plazma peri-workout
-6:00ish - 4oz london broil or 93% lean ground beef, 2 slices ezekiel bread, veggies
-9:00 - 1 scoop Metabolic Drive shake
On these days about 1/3 of my calories are going towards my workout with the Finibar and Plazma, which is definitely needed for the fully body training.
My weight has remained steady in the mid 152’s, so as the goal is to be under 150 to compete in the bantams we’ll be making some more adjustments this week to ensure I’ll make the weight class. Realistically what matters most is my presentation, not my weight, but I’d much rather be on stage as a heavy bantamweight, and not the lightest lightweight against someone with 10 more lbs on me.
Just finished a great interval session and enjoying some toasted ezekiel bread, peanut butter and a Metabolic Drive shake. Registered for the show and my polygraph today, fortunately the show site is about 20 minutes from my house, which is great as I don’t have to worry about hotels and travel logistics.
We made some more nutritional adjustments this week to be sure I’ll make the 150 cutoff, weight was 152.4 this morning. Although my weight has remained there for the past week and a half, I am definitely getting tighter, leaner and better conditioned. These adjustments, combined with the peek weak diet, getting below 150 shouldn’t be a problem. There’s always a possibility if there aren’t enough bantams I’ll get tossed in with the lightweights anyway, but as I’m sure there WILL be a bantamweight class at the Hercules, best to get there now and be way ahead of the game.
3.5 weeks to go, my motivation is through the roof.
Is that real?
Any ways, nice work. I’ve been silently following.
Whoa, polygraph? I didn’t know contest organizers were that thorough.
Did you go with pressing a tack under your toe or wearing your EMP watch? Haha
In all serious, you’re doing great in the prep. Keep it going.
@Fishdog70 & @dchris, Yeah, WNBF requires all competitors, amateur and pro, to have a polygraph the day before, or morning of each show. Winners of each division have to get a pee test right off the stage. @Fishdog70, love the Oceans 13 reference! Thanks for reading the log and chiming in guys, always a great bump of motivation.
Not all federations do the polygraph, but the primary reason I chose to compete in INBF/WNBF is their testing policies. Especially as a short bantam weight or possibly one day light weight, I want to be sure I’m on an even playing field, vs competing in something like an NPC show. For me, INBF (amateur division of WNBF) is the right choice I think, and if I hopefully get my pro card, the pro divisions are fiercely competitive.
Feeling a little lethargic today, didn’t sleep well last night. My sleep has been pretty inconsistent, I always wake up at least once, but the inconsistent part is how long it takes me to fall asleep, and if I wake up once, or 3 or 4 times. Z12 and Elite Pro Minerals are a regular part of of my nighttime regime, but every night is a roll of the dice. Hopefully tonight will be better!
After some adjusting of more calories and cardio, my schedule is:
Monday (high day) - full body training
Tuesday (medium day) - HIIT
Wednesday (high day) - full body training
Thursday (medium day) - HIIT
Friday (high day) - full body training
Saturday and Sunday (low days) - fasted AM cardio
I was doing intervals on the weekends, but the lack of calories and carbs, combined with the amount of writing I have to do, wasn’t an ideal combination. We added a second HIIT session last week, and after doing it on a medium day, I find I have much more powerful sessions, a lot more gas in the tank. So, this new schedule is much better all around.
Quick side story - I’ve gotten a reputation in school as the “gym guy”, always carrying around my big cooler, gallon jug and such. No one at work knows I’m doing a bodybuilding show, I don’t talk about it with people as I’ve found generally no one cares, and most seem to get turned off, even if they ask me a question. I guess it’s because the answer isn’t always what they’re looking for, whether it’s about training, or nutrition or whatever. This happened again today this morning, as one of the female teachers approaches me in the hallway. Here’s a quick run down:
“Mr. Stein, I’m on this new diet, what do you think about it. I always hear it’s best to eat more small meals throughout the day. Well, this diet says you should eat twice a day, once at 1pm, again at 6 or 7pm. ::Getting more excited as she’s talking.:: You see, the reasoning is that you go 16 hours without eating, and then you finally eat, and your body just burns it all up!” ::She’s smiling and eagerly awaiting my answer::
Knowing from experience I’m expected to answer a very complicated question in less than 20 seconds, I try my best. "Well…just in my opinion, I think there might be better ways to do it, and that may not be the healthiest way to go about it. ::smile disappears:: You’re going so long without eating, there’s no way your brain and body are functioning optimally. Then, all of a sudden, you’re eating 800-1000 calories at once, and for the average person that won’t all be “burnt up” ::she’s now looking very disappointed:: “the science behind that idea isn’t really quite accurate. The best thing to do is really just to know how many total calories you should eat every day, which I can help you figure out pretty quickly, and spread them out evenly throughout the day and not eat more than that.”
Once I said that last part, she completely deflated, looking even a little agitated, said a quiet “ok thanks” and walked away.
One thing I’ve learned over the years of going from a fat guy with no training and nutrition knowledge to present day, is the general simplistic nature of being healthy and not overweight. For the vast majority of folks, it really is as simple as, “diet and exercise consistently”, but most people have so much trouble with controlling what goes in their mouth, and especially the “consistency” part. The idea of not being able to eat whatever you want, whenever you want, and having to exercise on a regular basis is such a mental obstacle that most people just want an easy way out. A fad diet, a “eat twice a day” diet, a “juice cleanse” or whatever it is. Mental strength, depending on the person, seems to be incredibly simple and easy, or incredibly difficult.
Even for people that are really into it, consistent training and nutrition are still not always in place. Lately folks in the gym have been asking me questions about training, nutrition, and they are almost always involving minutia, when they should really be just getting on a good, consistent training and nutrition plan, and worry about the details once that’s all in place. Little tweaks and things that seem like “secrets of the pros” or whatever to most people really won’t make a difference unless the foundation is there. Nutrition seems to be the area where most people lack knowledge, understandably because there’s so much BS information and misinformation out there. But when they ask about it, seem to ignore anything that’s not what they want to hear, or what they’re already doing.
OK I guess that turned into a little more than a quick side story, but where else can someone get these kind of thoughts out there to people that might actually be interested, other than T-Nation?!
