[Contest Write Up]: OCB Uprising 2019

commando95

New member
(show day)

(week 2 of prep for comparison)

24 y.o. 5'10"

Starting Stats:

1/1/2019

194 lbs 14% BF (BIA)

End Stats:

4/13/2019 (14 weeks)

167 lbs 7% BF (BIA)

As the title implies, I competed in the OCB Uprising 2019 in Syracuse, NY this past weekend. I competed in the classic physique division and walked away with 2nd place. This was a learning experience for me all around as the prep was far from ideal, and my results less than expected.

Throughout this prep I coached myself, as I had for my previous show. I truly think this was a mistake, as the stress of the abbreviated prep on top of graduate school, working two jobs, running my coaching business, and married life quickly accumulated to a very stressful and psychologically taxing period of time. I found myself rationalizing refeeds and cheat meals as my mental fortitude suffered and mood swings amplified. An objective eye on my progress would have gone a long way to keep me on track, potentially with enough of an impact to improve my conditioning to the point of a first place finish and resultant pro card.

For training I followed my usual Upper/Lower PPL split with a double progression on my main compound lifts, daily undulating periodization, and a combination of dropsets, back off sets, and cluster sets periodized throughout the prep to manage fatigue while maintaining an appropriate training volume/intensity. My Upper and Lower days have a heavy barbell emphasis and are the lower rep/higher intensity of my training days, with PPL taking a lower intensity/higher rep pump style workout with more dumbbell and cable work. Nothing fancy here as nothing fancy is needed for dependable progress. The only alterations made were volume fluctuations to autoregulate fatigue and ongoing adjustments to manage chronic low back pain.

Cardio was LISS on the treadmill with tracking of total calories per week instead of a time or mileage variable. I prefer to get the majority of my deficit from nutrition due to time constraints, so cardio was minimal, ranging from 3x150cal sessions to 5x250cal sessions throughout prep.

Nutrition, for anyone that has followed my prep this is where the controversy has always been. For this prep, due to the abbreviated nature, I utilized Martin Macdonald's "Agressive Dieting" ideology where the deficit is the largest at the beginning of prep when fat stores are highest and then tapering down as the individual becomes leaner and therefore more susceptible to lean mass loss. This concept can be found in the following video:


"Martin MacDonald - Diet as Agressively as you can without losing muscle"

I covered the math behind the calculations in a previous post.

And as I know someone will ask, my macros were as follows:

Protein maintained at 190-200g throughout prep. Fats maintained from 45-60g throughout. Carbs making up the remainder. There were some weeks where I was as low as 1500 calories and taking in 35-50g of carbs a day. The mental fatigue on those days alone was enough to nearly break me. The majority of prep however, I was somewhere around 1750 calories a day. This seems low, but due to my student status I have a sedentary lifestyle and do not register as many steps or daily activity as many.

In summary, I believe I learned a lot from this prep. I certainly learned my limits. I learned the value of an objective eye during a contest prep. I successfully lost ~30lbs in 14 weeks and picked up a few tricks that will help me with my own clients in the future. However, I know I can do better and intend on doing so. Since the competition I have hired @fight4faith (Goob) as my closer to finish what I could not. Together we have our eyes on two OCB shows in November meaning we have another 28 weeks to turn me inside out and rebuild.
 
@commando95 Congratulations to the 2nd place! You look awesome!

Holy shit, loosing 1kg per week is a 1000 calories daily deficit. Impressive what you can accomplish with the right mind set!

For the training part, are you usually keeping weekly sets the same or are you utilizing the "Renaissance periodization" method, e.g. increasing sets over a mesocycle followed by a deload? Or do you keep with simple and just add volume whenever a lift/muscle group stalls?
 
@snowbird27 I increased over a mesocycle, however not in a strict manner. More so combining Mike Israetel's ideas with Jeff Albert's more organic approach. It turned into a bit of auto regulation, pushing on weeks I felt I could and deloading body part specific as I felt my recovery dwindle.
 
@commando95 Was looking forward to reading this. Still though, really good work given your situation.

That's probably the longest crash diet I've seen someone do. I remember back when I did Lyle's U.D 2.0 and thought that was rough. At least in that diet, you get 2 and a half big refeed days to look forward to. A flat crash diet for multiple weeks is something I just would not have the will power to do myself.

30lbs in 14 weeks though from an already decent body composition, jeez man.

Good luck in the next one.

Edit: btw should add your starting point photo
 
@redwolf6 There was a point I added in scheduled refeeds when I would get ahead of my weekly weight goal. But due to the nature of the timeline there weren't many of those.
 
@redwolf6 The second really. I am a very regimented person, so the constant fluctuations of carb cycling or hi/low days messes with my psyche. I'd rather choose something middle ground to the two.
 
@commando95 Great write up! Im currently 4.5 weeks out from my first show ever, OCB too! John/Goob is my coach and we've been working together for a while now... posing starts friday. You looked great man, and I can totally relate to that mental exhaustion... Currently on 1.4k cals / day, 5.5hrs cardio / week... And im trying to graduate and join the Navy! I commend you for seeing this show through, and placing as well as you did. This is not easy! Im glad to read someones story who is so very similar to mine. Enjoy the time off prep, I wish you all the best.
 
@coglig No time off yet. We are pushing another 8 weeks or so after my few days off. We want to use this time as a litmus test to see what it takes to get me where we want to be, before then reversing out. And good luck! Be sure to keep the sub updated. John is a good friend of mine and has never let me down, it only seemed right that I use him as a coach when the time came for me to hire one.
 
@commando95 Looking good up there. Seems like the strategy worked as far as heavy deficit in the beginning followed by taper. I don’t think I could ever coach myself into a show, just too neurotic especially when body fat gets lower and the fatigue starts to set in. Nice work, and good luck on your future shows.
 
@redz16 Thanks again! Also, I wouldn't mind continuing the conversation about the different orgs. I've kicked around the idea of competing with a few different to test the waters. Fully understand each has it's own positives and negatives.
 
@she2309 The amount of muscle lost in a large deficit is overhyped in my opinion so long as certain factors are maintained. With a supranormal level of protein (2.3-2.6g/kg) and maintenance of high intensity resistance training it is highly reduced.
 
@commando95 Congratulations man! That is truly some incredible progress over 3 months.

Can you answer a few of my questions about your cut/diet?
  1. How many calories were you maintaining on before starting prep?
  2. How many calories did you drop down during your first 1-4 weeks of prep? Weeks 4 - 8? You mentioned that your deficit was largest at the beginning of prep and I am interested to see how your deficit progressed.
  3. Did you perform any type of IF regime to help with being on lower calories?
  4. When did you start noticing, severe mental fatigue from the reduction in calories?
  5. This might be nuts, but was your cardio also at its highest (5x250) during the beginning of prep? Or was cardio at its highest at the end of prep?
Thanks and congratulations on competing in your second show!
 
@chillcwill
  1. I actually went straight from a loose bulk into the aggressive cut (I would not advise this to any client), however my calculated maintenance is somewhere around 2400-2500 cal I believe.
  2. My drops were 1900 (1-2) --> 1750 (3-6) --> 1500 (7-9) or roughly so, before I then began to reverse out in a slower process.
  3. Simple answer, no. There is nothing magical about IF other than the ability to eat a larger portion size over higher frequency meals. HOWEVER, especially in an aggressive cut when I am already setting myself up for increased risk of lean mass loss I want to minimize the amount of time my body spends in a catabolic state. Therefore, a large window with no caloric intake would in this instance be highly detrimental in my opinion. I spaced meals evenly throughout the day making sure to keep protein intakes in boluses of at or greater than 25g of P, with what carbs I had concentrated around the peri workout time period.
  4. As soon as my carbs dropped below 100g a day, which coincided with my 1500 cal periods. During these time periods I was ingesting anywhere from 75g to as low as 35g of carbs a day and was suffering some severe mental fatigue. Like staring at my computer screen for 5 minutes lost in space fatigue. As soon as I elevated at or above 100g I could almost instantly feel the difference.
  5. No, cardio was lowest at the beginning. starting with 2-3 LISS sessions before ramping up in both time and frequency. Cardio is a tool. I was already utilizing one tool to its highest potential (nutritional deficit) and needed to keep cardio in my back pocket to use once nutritional cuts were no longer possible. ie. don't play all your cards at once.
I hope my answers were helpful. If you have any further questions feel free to direct message me. I quite frequently take the time to schedule skype calls with individuals to assist them with similar questions/concerns.
 
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