Will's No-Frills Contest Prep Thread

Thank you bro. It has been tough, but gotta stay focused on the outcome.

It is definitely a testament to will power and not for everyone (myself being part of the everyone, ha)

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Didn’t have to head to work this morning (on Mondays I’m the Sports Dietitian at one of the local universities). So I slopped out of bed and did 30 mins LISS cardio at like 1030.

This throws your whole day and meal schedule off so now I’m trying to play catch up :disappointed_relieved:

Weight Down to 214.5 this morning.
Did a couple low carb days over the weekend:
260g Pro, 70g Carb, 83g Fat

I felt pretty good with that…then I got to the gym today and felt weaaaaaak.
185 on Incline BB bench and 80# DB’s felt kinda heavy.
It’s funny how low carbs affect your strength, but I was grateful that it didn’t kill my mood (at least yet) like it did last year. Hopefully that will be better since I know what I’m getting into this time.

I’ve also been experimenting with HIIT and then LISS like @The_Mighty_Stu has his guys do and I must say I like it. 20 mins HIIT followed by 10 mins LISS is what I’ve done so far with the 30/2:00 intervals.

Did that twice last week…Probably won’t do it more than that for recovery reasons.

High carb day today and I feel like my metabolism is on fire. I wasn’t terribly hungry yesterday but I’m definitely hungry today. A little metabolic manipulation. I love it.

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Good work with the intervals man. Agreed that 2 sessions a week is a good number, if you really go all out, especially as you get deeper in the prep and cals/carbs are lowered, recovery takes a toll. There’s a very fine line between pushing as hard as possible and digging yourself too deep.

Keep killing man, enjoying following along!

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Thanks bro!
Yeah I went pretty hard on them last week…may have twewked my left glute a bit as a result. May not go all out next time lol.

I’m enjoying following you as well! You’re looking freaking great…I see a W in your future.




Whew… did 30 mins cardio this morning followed by Back, 30 mins posing, and more cardio this evening.
I’m beat.
We are pleased with progress thus far, hoping to see more changes in the scale of course since we do have to make 200# for weight but it’ll come with time.
My back and midsection seem to be shaping up some…seeing the obliques come in some finally!!

Carb cycling will continue with 4 low days followed by a high day. Excited to see what kind of results we yield from that.
Hoping to be ready for Jun 3rd, but can also do a local show Jun 24th if need be. We will see.

Edit: added in back double.

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Great thread–maybe I missed it but what are your goals for this prep? Specific areas you are aiming to bring up?

Thanks buddy.

I’ll start with goals during the off-season and then move to prep. Goals for the off-season were to add ~10# to my upper body. Last year, my coach and I felt my legs outpaced my upper body.

So I was hitting shoulders, chest, and back twice a week.
I gained about 7.5-8# Of course all of that isn’t stage muscle. But for comparison both of these shots were a little more than 7 weeks out. Lighting is different, but big improvements.

For this prep…the goal is to bring better conditioning…last year I just wasn’t lean enough. We started 14 weeks out for this but still probably could have given it more time.
It was also to come in bigger. I’m competing in the NPC which is obviously not tested, and I’m natural, so I’m at a disadvantage but I’m not concerned with that…I just want to bring the best package I can to the stage.
That means being as big as I can, as lean as I can, natty - which is difficult but doable.

Body parts haven’t been as much of a concern. We are pleased with my proportions at this time. I could still do to add more to my rear delts and upper chest. I’d also like bigger hamstrings and adductors. But overall, it’s really trying to maintain muscle mass going into the show and being conditioned. If I’m conditioned I’ll appear bigger so that’s huge.

I’m starting an ECA (ephedrine, caffeine, aspirin) stack tomorrow to hopefully help with that some.

We also have the carb cycling going now so I’m doing 264g Pro, 70g carb, 83g fat for 4 days, followed by a 250g carb refeed on the 5th. Should see good changes from that, just hoping I don’t lose too much muscle in the process.

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Sorry. Had to edit cause I clicked reply on accident.

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These pics might illustrate what I mean about lower vs upper body better. From my routine at the night show. It may also be I just wasn’t conditioned enough to be comfortable with the way my legs looked in comparison to my upper body.

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Don’t sweat the NPC. You’re competing against yourself, not everyone else. Obviously you want to kick ass and take names, as we want you to, but I wouldn’t break my ethics for that :D. Second your opinion about not being lean enough to be comfortable with your legs in the night show pictures. You’re not super out of condition by any means (1st contest?) but definitely could use more, and that would probably rebalance your upper/lower visuals.

ECA stack is awesome. Not sure how you’re running it, and I don’t want to get into a “too many cooks in the kitchen” sort of deal if your coach has a plan of attack, but I find it helpful to use the minimum dose possible farther out, and then ramp up to maximum acceptable dosage close in. Alternatively might start just with a yohimbine/Caffeine/OTC fatburner before transitioning to ECA. Reason is that I am a firm believer that B adrenergic receptors have a fairly quick tolerance acquisition phase.

We all know that you acclimate to energy drinks, pre-workouts, etc. through the B-adrenergic pathway, and the ECA stack is the most potent natural stack you can get (some would argue with the natural moniker now given legal status questions, but I consider it very well in the natural category). One way to gauge the time it takes for you to become tolerant would be to look at how long it takes for you to go from starting a pre-workout to thinking “maybe I should up the dose”. That would give an approximate gauge of when the buzz starts wearing off.

At 7 weeks it’s not like you’re 16 weeks out hopping on it so its totally normal progression. Just a different perspective. Kudos for all your hard work!

I really appreciate the great feedback…love your perspective - as always.

Yeah it was my first show. I was just being hypercritical. I have always been hypercritical even as a college athlete. I think an extra 3-5# and I would have been ripped. It would have been hard though lol.

So I started with this product twice a day: (coach is a regional distributor for ProSupps)

It worked great last time around. I don’t feel I’ve developed a big tolerance as much as my cals were just too high to utilize it effectively…but that’s debatable I guess.

We are starting with ECA x2/day at first. 1 the AM and 1 early afternoon. Hoping, along with the carb cycling, it’ll set us up to be ready 2-3 weeks outish…but we may still cut it close…we will see.

Like I said I can always do the other show on the 24th…i would have to skip one of my college teammates’ wedding though which I really don’t want to do. There is no local show in July so I am kinda stuck otherwise. There is a show about 4 hours away in Wilmington on the 17th but I didn’t really want to drive that far.

Thank you my friend. I appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing more from you.

I was also taking Lecthin Granules pre-workout for the phosphatidic acid which I believe didn’t mesh well with cutting in general.
Provide 8g of fat pre workout to utilize as fuel for your post workout cardio - bad idea.

They worked so well in the off-season helping me bulk though.
I cut that a week ago and already have seen significant changes…it’s a learning process…I love it

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Thanks buddy!

Great first show results. You did it right. Also I think hypercritical tendencies are a common trait among people who compete at a high levelnin any sport. As for the other…I’ll end with a favorite quote of mine from Jimmy Dugan: “Of course it’s hard, it’s supposed to be hard! If it wasn’t hard everyone would di it. It’s the hard that makes it great.”

Looks like a good supplement and a good strategy. In my opinion, most show preps end up “cutting it close” in some fashion, though its not the goal.

Don’t skip the wedding lol.

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Don’t know how I missed that you had a training/prep thread til now.

Great stuff, keep up the good work.

You’ll appreciate this story lol.

So my coach works directly with 3x Olympia Physique champion Jeremy Buendia on his diet.

When coach had his grand opening for his gym, Jeremy headlined it with a posing, training, and nutrition seminar.
As a result of working the grand opening and being a competitor, I got to kick it with him for like an hour after everything ended. He’s a really chill dude, laid back, personable, humble. One of the first questions I asked him was “Do you guys ever do a practice peak week a couple weeks before the show?”

He responded: “Nah man…I’m more of a last minute kind of guy.” Fuck…hes last minute and comes in like this?

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Haha no worries. Thanks bro.

Seriously? Damn. On the other hand, he has probably done dozens of shows and so has his routine down and predictable. Still, I would not feel great with one of my athletes without a practice session.

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I’m right there with you…but yeah. You’re probably right.

Hit shoulders today at a YMCA in Jacksonville. It’s always interesting to try and find somewhere to train on the road…you never know what you’re gonna get.
This Y was well equipped thankfully.
This was day number 2 on the ECA stack and I must say that stuff makes you feel pretty good.

I’ve done 60g carbs the past 4 days…so I was expecting to feel weak but I felt pretty good. Got 70 and 80x10 on DB shoulder press pretty easily.

Gotta drive back home tomorrow…also supposed to be my refeed - 50g carb at my first 5 meals…I can’t wait. I haven’t felt tired but I definitely miss carbs.

Absolutely tightening up as a result of these changes. Excited to see what I look like Monday as a result of this refeed :grin:

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