@shopie Last 5 weeks were the hardest. I could have been much more stricter with a bro diet and that would have probably helped me get leaner in shorter time, so lesson learned, but fatigue kicked my arse. Back to back peak weeks was brutal. I was down in the dumps, but after a 2nd place placing in my pro debut, that really fired me up to finish strong in my last show the following weekend. Diet breaks were 1 week long.
@jesusloveselonmusk Say that they have a big size advantage on you but you were also hella more shredded than them. They look slightly leaner than your before pics and you looked significantly bigger in that imo. Seems the judges preferred the shreds to the size anyway seeing as how well you placed in the competitions.
@dawn16 Yeah, not to sound cocky, but at my pro debut I felt I was the only one with visibly shredded glutes. Really, I think it just reaffirms the idea that it's not all about size. Natural bodybuilding is also judged on conditioning, posing, and stage presence too.
@jesusloveselonmusk Looking over the workout sheet I feel like I can do this. I do have a question though. How did you select what weight to use on the smaller exercises like DB curls, lat pull downs etc? I understand what my max is for the other lifts and how to calculate the weight for those. Thanks
@ohce I basically had to find a challenging weight for most isolations. I started with low loads and progressively worked my way up, so those numbers you see listed are loads from the previous 8 week block, unless it was a new exercise, then I had to find those ranges the first week of the new block. Hopefully that makes sense.
@jesusloveselonmusk So basically on your isolations you are just pick a weight that allows you to complete the reps but still a challenge? Say week 1 I find that i can complete the given reps for ez bar curls at 35lbs. Write that down and next week progress up to 37.5 or 40. Then continue this till I can complete the reps? Make sense?
@ohce That's essentially what I did. If I was progressing nicely I would add working sets from time to time or increase reps, this was all done by feel, so each session was unique cause some days I was on my game others I wasn't.
@justiceisblind Definitely a weak point. I had a shoulder impingement that I was nursing, so pressing in general became an issue. Worked around it the last couple years and shoulders took a hit in training due to it.
@justiceisblind Yeah it's basically dissipated now. I stretch more and drinking lots more liquids during prep helped a lot. Shoulders will definitely get specialized this offseason, starting with OHP!
@samanthamturner Haha! The dog walks picked up in the last 5 weeks of prep as we dropped HIIT and MISS. My body was just so reluctant to lose weight most of the prep. I partly blame that on flexible dieting. I was so food focused and always coming up with recipes that would fit in my diet as oppose to sticking to the basics. I think I caused myself a lot of stress that way.
@jesusloveselonmusk I agree with you completely here. Constantly playing around with MyFitnessPal, trying to fit in the most delicious things I could think of caused me a ton of stress when the cals got super low.
