I just competed in my first bodybuilding competition and wanted to reflect on the whole process, and what better way to do that than a write up! I competed at the Memphis Muscle Showdown in the NANBF on October 13th, 2018. I took 4th out of 7 in the men’s bodybuilding open division and 2nd out of 2 in the men’s bodybuilding novice division. I will upload the professional photos once they come in!
2017:
April to August - reverse dieting going from 164-165.5 lbs and calories going from 2172 to 3028, ~9%BF measured via 3 site Calipers throughout this whole process
August to September – maintenance calories going from 165.5 to 167.2 calories at 3028, ~11.5% BF
September to January – bulking going from 167.2 to 191 lbs calories going from 3028 to 3752, ~19.2%BF (side note, the majority of the month of December was spent not tracking or working out due to vacation. In that time, I went from 186.2 to my ending weight of 191).
2018:
January to October – Fat loss phase that took me through to the show going from 191 to 147 lbs and 3752 calories to 1600, 19.2% BF to ~4%BF.
January to June
- I was in a very loose fat loss phase with no intentions of competing. At the time I was traveling to a clinical for physical therapy school, trying to spend time with my (then) girlfriend before we became long distance for several months, and just wanting to slowly lose weight.
- Weight went from 191 to 175.6 lbs in this time (~2.6lbs/month lost)
Photo progress
January ~19.2% BF
February ~17% BF
March ~16% BF
April ~17.2% BF
May ~15% BF
June to Show day
- I decided in early June that I wanted to do a show after reading Layne Norton’s contest prep book. That book single handedly provided me with enough confidence that I could do this. I looked at the several months that were coming up and realized that if it wasn’t now then never. I had minimal obligations that I would have to work around (such as weddings, birthdays, vacations, significant others etc.).
- As I briefly mentioned above, I was in a relationship that became long distance in mid-May. That lasted until early July. I had already decided I wanted to do the show, so this wasn’t a “I’m going to get in the best shape of my life to show her” situation. The contest prep also didn’t play a factor into the reason the relationship ended. The two just happened to overlap. In a way, this allowed me to become hyper-focused on this goal of mine. The energy I would have spent towards the relationship was able to be transferred to my contest prep. It was a blessing in disguise.
Photo progress
June ~13.2%
July ~11.1%
August ~6.5%
September ~4.2%
5 weeks out ~4%
October ~3.5%
Show Day
Contest Prep (20 weeks)
Contest Choice
- I was between two different NANBF shows on the same date. I chose this one purely based on the fact that it was closer and more convenient (still a 4-hour drive from my home). It worked perfectly with my schools scheduled fall break and it was a good length of time away that I thought I could bring a good physique.
Diet breaks
- At the time I didn’t plan a diet break but did end up taking one after reading a 3DMJ article. It was the best decision I made. I took it during a week that I went on a bachelor party and it allowed me to be a little looser and enjoy myself. This was taken August 13-19, 2 months before show day.
Coach
- After reading Layne Norton’s book I thought to myself I didn’t need a coach and I could do this alone. But as the weeks went on, I consulted with a friend more and more and he fell into the role of my coach. He talked me off the ledge many times and helped me see things from a different perspective. I think he also nailed my peak week, but we will get to that. He did all this without asking for monetary compensation and for that I am forever grateful. I know now that next time I do a prep I will be hiring a coach, if not for anything other than talking me off the cliffs and telling me when to push.
Hurdles (expected and unexpected)
- I tried to account for life events when deciding my prep length, but you can’t predict everything
- Unexpected hurdles were mostly towards the end. I feel like I let off the gas the last month due to being exhausted and the didactic portion of my school wrapping up. This could have been avoided if I had one or two more diet breaks planned.
- I had to move out of my apartment during peak week…this was fun.
Psychological affects
- I don’t know what happened. I remember telling my coach at about 1 month out “I’m feeling good, I don’t feel like prep has sucked yet like everyone says. I’m ready to put the pedal to the metal”. Then the next week I was just drained and that sustained until show day. My mindset about food went from “food is fuel” to “holy crap I want to eat everything RIGHT NOW”. It was really odd. Other than my obsession with food, I can’t say there were many other psychological affects
Physiological affects
- My hormones went to straight crap. I can distinctly remember erections becoming fewer and farther between. I can also remember that reproduction, dating, all of that, became so low on my priorities.
- Movements became slowed. If I had to get up and do something, I contemplated if it was worth the energy expenditure.
Exercise
I ran Renaissance periodization’s 5-day men’s physique template
Sunday – Upper (Chest focused)
Monday – Lower (Quad focused)
Tuesday – Off
Wednesday – Upper (Back focused)
Thursday – Lower (Glute/Ham focused)
Friday – Upper (Shoulder/Arms focused)
Saturday – Off
Posing
I was much more consistent early on and slowly faded on these sessions…needless to say…lesson learned. I’ll explain later
Cardio
I started with 2 sessions in mid-July at 400 calories each on a treadmill at 7.0% incline and 3.0 MPH
Bumped to 4 sessions in mid-September at the same parameters and continued that up until peak week.
I also walked my dog ~20 mins, twice per day during this period of time.
Diet
I went from doing 5 low days and 2 high days to 6 low days and 1 high day. Protein and Fat were consistent throughout prep at 160g and 40g respectively with carbs filling in the rest of the calories. Fat would increase to 60g on high days as well.
- I’m a firm believer in eating your calories rather than drinking them. Because of that, I didn’t take any supplements. I didn’t take any pre-workouts either. I did drink 40oz + of black coffee each morning, so take that however you’d like.
- I take 4,000 IU’s of Vitamin D3, a multi vitamin, and 2 fish oil pills daily
I drank 160 oz of water at a minimum every day. Early on, I was having near fainting episodes, and told my coach. He asked how much water I was drinking, and I think I was drinking less than 80oz per day at that time. I bumped to 160oz and those symptoms completely disappeared.
Peak Week
As I mentioned above, I moved out of my apartment and moved all my stuff during peak week. I don’t recommend this. It was extremely draining especially because the main moving days were also my depletion days.
- Water was kept the same throughout, as was sodium
- Depletion days were Tuesday and Wednesday, largest refeed on Thursday, moderate refeed on Friday, and 3 meals prior to the show (6 hours out, 3 hours out, 1.5 hours out) and drinking 12-16oz of water after each of those 3 meals.
- 15 mins before stage, I had a PB cup and 1g of salt added to 8-12 oz of water.
- Last cardio session was Wednesday
- Thursday was last leg day session and was just a light pump
- Friday was last upper day session and was also a light pump
Thoughts and reflections
The venue was awesome, but the athlete area was EXTREMELEY cold. I did like how the show was a running format. I was done fairly quickly, and this allowed me to go enjoy the evening with my family and friends. The experience overall was great, all the athletes were friendly and in good spirits. I think the show was extremely well run. At the end of the open division, they had us do a pose down and you could tell no one was expecting that because they had to tell us twice. But damn was that fun! I definitely need to make sure posing is practiced more often. It’s just as important as your training sessions.
Plans moving forward
Currently, I’m doing a recovery diet and plan to get to around 160-165 in the next 4-6 weeks. Once there I will try to put on ~1lb/month for 3 mesocycles, switching to maintenance on my 4th mesocycle. Incorporating mini-cuts when my bf% is getting around the 15% mark or until I feel like I want to do a mini cut. I’ll do this for the next 2-3 years before competing again. As you see in the photos, I have a lot of muscle I need to put on. Hence why I will take a 2-3 year hiatus so that next time I step on stage, I feel confident that I will be competitive enough to contend for a pro card.
Let me know if you have any questions, comments, criticisms, or advice! I’d love to hear from you all.
Pre-Contest Prep
2017:
April to August - reverse dieting going from 164-165.5 lbs and calories going from 2172 to 3028, ~9%BF measured via 3 site Calipers throughout this whole process
August to September – maintenance calories going from 165.5 to 167.2 calories at 3028, ~11.5% BF
September to January – bulking going from 167.2 to 191 lbs calories going from 3028 to 3752, ~19.2%BF (side note, the majority of the month of December was spent not tracking or working out due to vacation. In that time, I went from 186.2 to my ending weight of 191).
2018:
January to October – Fat loss phase that took me through to the show going from 191 to 147 lbs and 3752 calories to 1600, 19.2% BF to ~4%BF.
2018 Breakdown
January to June
- I was in a very loose fat loss phase with no intentions of competing. At the time I was traveling to a clinical for physical therapy school, trying to spend time with my (then) girlfriend before we became long distance for several months, and just wanting to slowly lose weight.
- Weight went from 191 to 175.6 lbs in this time (~2.6lbs/month lost)
Photo progress
January ~19.2% BF
February ~17% BF
March ~16% BF
April ~17.2% BF
May ~15% BF
June to Show day
- I decided in early June that I wanted to do a show after reading Layne Norton’s contest prep book. That book single handedly provided me with enough confidence that I could do this. I looked at the several months that were coming up and realized that if it wasn’t now then never. I had minimal obligations that I would have to work around (such as weddings, birthdays, vacations, significant others etc.).
- As I briefly mentioned above, I was in a relationship that became long distance in mid-May. That lasted until early July. I had already decided I wanted to do the show, so this wasn’t a “I’m going to get in the best shape of my life to show her” situation. The contest prep also didn’t play a factor into the reason the relationship ended. The two just happened to overlap. In a way, this allowed me to become hyper-focused on this goal of mine. The energy I would have spent towards the relationship was able to be transferred to my contest prep. It was a blessing in disguise.
Photo progress
June ~13.2%
July ~11.1%
August ~6.5%
September ~4.2%
5 weeks out ~4%
October ~3.5%
Show Day
Contest Prep (20 weeks)
Various Notes
Contest Choice
- I was between two different NANBF shows on the same date. I chose this one purely based on the fact that it was closer and more convenient (still a 4-hour drive from my home). It worked perfectly with my schools scheduled fall break and it was a good length of time away that I thought I could bring a good physique.
Diet breaks
- At the time I didn’t plan a diet break but did end up taking one after reading a 3DMJ article. It was the best decision I made. I took it during a week that I went on a bachelor party and it allowed me to be a little looser and enjoy myself. This was taken August 13-19, 2 months before show day.
Coach
- After reading Layne Norton’s book I thought to myself I didn’t need a coach and I could do this alone. But as the weeks went on, I consulted with a friend more and more and he fell into the role of my coach. He talked me off the ledge many times and helped me see things from a different perspective. I think he also nailed my peak week, but we will get to that. He did all this without asking for monetary compensation and for that I am forever grateful. I know now that next time I do a prep I will be hiring a coach, if not for anything other than talking me off the cliffs and telling me when to push.
Hurdles (expected and unexpected)
- I tried to account for life events when deciding my prep length, but you can’t predict everything
- Unexpected hurdles were mostly towards the end. I feel like I let off the gas the last month due to being exhausted and the didactic portion of my school wrapping up. This could have been avoided if I had one or two more diet breaks planned.
- I had to move out of my apartment during peak week…this was fun.
Psychological affects
- I don’t know what happened. I remember telling my coach at about 1 month out “I’m feeling good, I don’t feel like prep has sucked yet like everyone says. I’m ready to put the pedal to the metal”. Then the next week I was just drained and that sustained until show day. My mindset about food went from “food is fuel” to “holy crap I want to eat everything RIGHT NOW”. It was really odd. Other than my obsession with food, I can’t say there were many other psychological affects
Physiological affects
- My hormones went to straight crap. I can distinctly remember erections becoming fewer and farther between. I can also remember that reproduction, dating, all of that, became so low on my priorities.
- Movements became slowed. If I had to get up and do something, I contemplated if it was worth the energy expenditure.
Exercise Split/Cardio/Posing
Exercise
I ran Renaissance periodization’s 5-day men’s physique template
Sunday – Upper (Chest focused)
Monday – Lower (Quad focused)
Tuesday – Off
Wednesday – Upper (Back focused)
Thursday – Lower (Glute/Ham focused)
Friday – Upper (Shoulder/Arms focused)
Saturday – Off
Posing
I was much more consistent early on and slowly faded on these sessions…needless to say…lesson learned. I’ll explain later
Cardio
I started with 2 sessions in mid-July at 400 calories each on a treadmill at 7.0% incline and 3.0 MPH
Bumped to 4 sessions in mid-September at the same parameters and continued that up until peak week.
I also walked my dog ~20 mins, twice per day during this period of time.
Diet
I went from doing 5 low days and 2 high days to 6 low days and 1 high day. Protein and Fat were consistent throughout prep at 160g and 40g respectively with carbs filling in the rest of the calories. Fat would increase to 60g on high days as well.
- I’m a firm believer in eating your calories rather than drinking them. Because of that, I didn’t take any supplements. I didn’t take any pre-workouts either. I did drink 40oz + of black coffee each morning, so take that however you’d like.
- I take 4,000 IU’s of Vitamin D3, a multi vitamin, and 2 fish oil pills daily
I drank 160 oz of water at a minimum every day. Early on, I was having near fainting episodes, and told my coach. He asked how much water I was drinking, and I think I was drinking less than 80oz per day at that time. I bumped to 160oz and those symptoms completely disappeared.
Peak Week
As I mentioned above, I moved out of my apartment and moved all my stuff during peak week. I don’t recommend this. It was extremely draining especially because the main moving days were also my depletion days.
- Water was kept the same throughout, as was sodium
- Depletion days were Tuesday and Wednesday, largest refeed on Thursday, moderate refeed on Friday, and 3 meals prior to the show (6 hours out, 3 hours out, 1.5 hours out) and drinking 12-16oz of water after each of those 3 meals.
- 15 mins before stage, I had a PB cup and 1g of salt added to 8-12 oz of water.
- Last cardio session was Wednesday
- Thursday was last leg day session and was just a light pump
- Friday was last upper day session and was also a light pump
Thoughts and reflections
The venue was awesome, but the athlete area was EXTREMELEY cold. I did like how the show was a running format. I was done fairly quickly, and this allowed me to go enjoy the evening with my family and friends. The experience overall was great, all the athletes were friendly and in good spirits. I think the show was extremely well run. At the end of the open division, they had us do a pose down and you could tell no one was expecting that because they had to tell us twice. But damn was that fun! I definitely need to make sure posing is practiced more often. It’s just as important as your training sessions.
Plans moving forward
Currently, I’m doing a recovery diet and plan to get to around 160-165 in the next 4-6 weeks. Once there I will try to put on ~1lb/month for 3 mesocycles, switching to maintenance on my 4th mesocycle. Incorporating mini-cuts when my bf% is getting around the 15% mark or until I feel like I want to do a mini cut. I’ll do this for the next 2-3 years before competing again. As you see in the photos, I have a lot of muscle I need to put on. Hence why I will take a 2-3 year hiatus so that next time I step on stage, I feel confident that I will be competitive enough to contend for a pro card.
Let me know if you have any questions, comments, criticisms, or advice! I’d love to hear from you all.
Best of luck on your competition man, I look forward to the write up!