Apologies for the long post, but I just wanted to share with you all my journey to stepping on a bodybuilding stage for the first time. I'm 25 and I've been training for around 10 years now, but most of this time was spent messing around without any tracking or specific goals in mind. I got into pretty good shape this way, but in 2022 a regular at my gym asked if I competed in bodybuilding and I thought to myself - maybe I should give it a shot. So in July 2023 I pulled the trigger and committed to enter a competition in April 2024.
I knew I needed to put on some size in order to be remotely competitive. End of July I weighed in at 202lbs and started a slow and steady bulk. Finished the bulk at the end of November weighing in at 222lbs. Then started a 19 week prep. My lowest weigh-in was 192lbs at 5 days out.
The goal during bulk was to gain weight at 0.25 - 0.5% of bodyweight per week. The goal during the cut was to lose 0.5-1% of bodyweight per week. Weighed myself every morning and tracked the weekly moving average. Here is a graph of my weekly moving average through the prep.
I followed a 6 day Arnold split:
I was following the RP model of periodization: 4-5 weeks of progressively increasing intensity (from 3RIR to 0 RIR) and volume (10-20 sets/muscle group/week), followed by 1 week of deload before resetting. With one 2.5 week long extended deload over the holidays.
As I got closer to the show I subbed out some of the more fatiguing freeweight compounds with machines and/or isolation exercises to aid in recovery. I also started tapering down the overall volume about 10 weeks out.
At around 10 weeks out I started posing practice - 5 days/week for 30 minutes + 1x 1h session with a posing coach per week (shoutout to my posing coach @aphgoo
)
In terms of supplements I used creatine, L-citrulline, vitamin D, vitamin B, magnesium, zinc, fish oil (after I lowered fats druing the cut). I also used ashwaghanda which I've found improves my sleep quality, and tongkat ali + boron. As far as I can tell the tongkat ali and boron do pretty much nothing but I didn't see any adverse effects so continued taking them.
During the bulk I was hitting 10k steps/day. Brought it up to 12k/day at the start of the cut and slowly ramped it up to an average of 17-18k/day by the end of prep. Since I wasn't willing to drop calories any lower this was the main variable I manipulated to maintain the target weight loss rate. There were a few weeks (4-2 weeks out) where I was hitting 20k/day when I was pushing hard for that final bit of fat loss. I didn't do any dedicated cardio on top of my daily steps, as I've found in the past that any activity that gets my heartrate up above 140-150 significantly increases my hunger levels.
I researched some peaking strategies, mostly based on this article, ran a practice peak week at 4 weeks out implementing carb depletion followed by carb loading, as well as some minor water and electrolyte intake manipulation. Found that it didn't seem to make that big of a visual difference and made me feel worse so decided to take a more moderate approach for the actual peak week.
2 weeks out I was digging deep - 20k step/day + 2600-2800 Cal/day. Then for the peak week I dropped the steps down to 10k/day and brought up the calories to 3400/day with the goal of dropping some fatigue. Also cut my training volume in half and taking 3 rest days before the show only doing posing practice. Water and electrolytes remained constant. Around 3 days out I reduced my fiber intake to about 50% and only ate easy digesting foods to reduce risk of bloating. Seems to have done the trick
The show I did is the Granite City Classic. It's an untested show but I decided on entering this competition since the venue is in the city where I live, which makes the logistics of competing much easier. And also they have a 'first timers' class, where only people with no prior competitive experience are eligible to enter, which makes the show more approachable for someone like me, even though I knew I was going to be competing with potentially enhanced athletes. I ended up placing 5th out of the 15 competitors in my class - seems like if I had come in just a little sharper I could have easily placed in the top 3. I also entered the classic physique class but did not place, which was the expected result.
Still, I am very happy with my placing and proud of the physique I was able to bring to the stage!
This was a one-off show so as soon as I got home and rinsed off the glaze I went off the rails with junk food. For the following week I was consuming 8000+ Cal/day and indulged in all the junk food and cravings that had been off the table for the last 4 months. Now, 2 weeks later I am sitting comfortably at a daily intake of 4000 Cal and not experiencing any cravings. My weight has stabilized around 207lbs and I feel pretty much recovered from the trauma of prep. This rapid weight gain was intentional in order to return me to a comfortable/healthy body composition and alleviate some of the harsher side effects of prep
Prepping for a bodybuilding show is hard, very hard. And the physiological and mental toll it takes on you is immense. And once you get to your goal look, you only get to enjoy it for a very brief moment. And the enjoyment is curbed by all the negative side effects that come with looking this way.
That being said... I loved every second of the journey, I loved the grind, I loved facing and overcoming the challenges along the way, I loved being able to push my body to a point I previously though impossible to get to. The competitive side of bodybuilding is a whole different beast compared to just going to the gym to look good. But in the end, the sense of accomplishment (at least to me) is worth it.
Looking back on my prep there are a few things I would have done differently: having a coach to provide an objective point of view would have been useful, leveraging some carb cycling, starting posing practice sooner, making the prep 4-5 weeks longer, and most importantly not allowing prep to take precedence over every other aspect of my life.
Now its time to take a long off-season to build as much muscle as possible to try and fill out my tall frame. And implement all the things that I've learned from my first attempt at prepping to push my conditioning even further. And, hopefully, next time I step on stage I bring home a trophy.
Again, sorry for the long post. I just had a lot of thoughts and feelings I felt like I needed to share. Hopefully you maybe even found some useful information in all of my ramblings. And a huge thank you to you all for providing me with a sense of community and making me feel like I am not alone in my effort to build the best god damn physique that I can.
Pictures
- February 2023 (starting point - 195lbs)
- December 2023 (Peak bulk - 222lbs)
- 10 Weeks out (211lbs)
- 8 weeks out (207lbs)
- 2 weeks out (196lbs)
- Show day (194lbs)
Prep timeline
I knew I needed to put on some size in order to be remotely competitive. End of July I weighed in at 202lbs and started a slow and steady bulk. Finished the bulk at the end of November weighing in at 222lbs. Then started a 19 week prep. My lowest weigh-in was 192lbs at 5 days out.
The goal during bulk was to gain weight at 0.25 - 0.5% of bodyweight per week. The goal during the cut was to lose 0.5-1% of bodyweight per week. Weighed myself every morning and tracked the weekly moving average. Here is a graph of my weekly moving average through the prep.
Training
I followed a 6 day Arnold split:
- Day 1: Chest/Back - Chest focused
- Day 2: Shoulders/Arms - Shoulder focused
- Day 3: Legs - Quad focused
- Day 4: Chest/Back - Back focused
- Day 5: Shoulders/Arms - Arm focused
- Day 6: Legs - Hamstring focused
- Day 7: Rest
I was following the RP model of periodization: 4-5 weeks of progressively increasing intensity (from 3RIR to 0 RIR) and volume (10-20 sets/muscle group/week), followed by 1 week of deload before resetting. With one 2.5 week long extended deload over the holidays.
As I got closer to the show I subbed out some of the more fatiguing freeweight compounds with machines and/or isolation exercises to aid in recovery. I also started tapering down the overall volume about 10 weeks out.
At around 10 weeks out I started posing practice - 5 days/week for 30 minutes + 1x 1h session with a posing coach per week (shoutout to my posing coach @aphgoo
)Diet
- Bulk: Started at 4000 Cal/day, which was slowly brought up to 4600 Cal/day by the end of the bulk. The macros during the bulk were around 220p/600c/120f with some daily variation in carb/fat ratio.
- Cut: Started at around 3000 Cal/day and pretty much stayed at that intake the whole time. My macros were around 240p/300c/90f at the start but brought down the fat to around 50-60g to allow room for more carbs towards the end of prep. I didn't use any carb cycling approaches (I wish I would have). And had around a +/- 200 calorie tolerance on my intake based on hunger levels. If I felt hungry I would go up to 3200 Cal/day, if I felt fine I would eat 2800 Cal/day. Never dipped below 2500 Cal intake through the whole prep.
In terms of supplements I used creatine, L-citrulline, vitamin D, vitamin B, magnesium, zinc, fish oil (after I lowered fats druing the cut). I also used ashwaghanda which I've found improves my sleep quality, and tongkat ali + boron. As far as I can tell the tongkat ali and boron do pretty much nothing but I didn't see any adverse effects so continued taking them.
Cardio
During the bulk I was hitting 10k steps/day. Brought it up to 12k/day at the start of the cut and slowly ramped it up to an average of 17-18k/day by the end of prep. Since I wasn't willing to drop calories any lower this was the main variable I manipulated to maintain the target weight loss rate. There were a few weeks (4-2 weeks out) where I was hitting 20k/day when I was pushing hard for that final bit of fat loss. I didn't do any dedicated cardio on top of my daily steps, as I've found in the past that any activity that gets my heartrate up above 140-150 significantly increases my hunger levels.
Peak week
I researched some peaking strategies, mostly based on this article, ran a practice peak week at 4 weeks out implementing carb depletion followed by carb loading, as well as some minor water and electrolyte intake manipulation. Found that it didn't seem to make that big of a visual difference and made me feel worse so decided to take a more moderate approach for the actual peak week.
2 weeks out I was digging deep - 20k step/day + 2600-2800 Cal/day. Then for the peak week I dropped the steps down to 10k/day and brought up the calories to 3400/day with the goal of dropping some fatigue. Also cut my training volume in half and taking 3 rest days before the show only doing posing practice. Water and electrolytes remained constant. Around 3 days out I reduced my fiber intake to about 50% and only ate easy digesting foods to reduce risk of bloating. Seems to have done the trick
Show day
The show I did is the Granite City Classic. It's an untested show but I decided on entering this competition since the venue is in the city where I live, which makes the logistics of competing much easier. And also they have a 'first timers' class, where only people with no prior competitive experience are eligible to enter, which makes the show more approachable for someone like me, even though I knew I was going to be competing with potentially enhanced athletes. I ended up placing 5th out of the 15 competitors in my class - seems like if I had come in just a little sharper I could have easily placed in the top 3. I also entered the classic physique class but did not place, which was the expected result.
Still, I am very happy with my placing and proud of the physique I was able to bring to the stage!
Recovery
This was a one-off show so as soon as I got home and rinsed off the glaze I went off the rails with junk food. For the following week I was consuming 8000+ Cal/day and indulged in all the junk food and cravings that had been off the table for the last 4 months. Now, 2 weeks later I am sitting comfortably at a daily intake of 4000 Cal and not experiencing any cravings. My weight has stabilized around 207lbs and I feel pretty much recovered from the trauma of prep. This rapid weight gain was intentional in order to return me to a comfortable/healthy body composition and alleviate some of the harsher side effects of prep
The negatives effects of prepping for a show
- Sleep quality - this was the biggest negative I experienced. Went from sleeping 6.5-7h to 5-6h a night at around 7 weeks out. My sleep schedule got to the point where I would wake up at 4am every day and wouldn't be able to fall back asleep.
- Low energy - just a general feeling of lethargy overtook my life. Everything seemed hard. I had to really force myself to get up and attend to my responsibilities. And it required immense effort to get through my daily training
- Being cold - By around 3 weeks out I just couldn't get warm no matter how many layers I was wearing. I pretty much stopped sweating all together unless I was in the sauna.
- Hormone levels - My libido tanked. But my hormone levels actually remain pretty solid. In February 2023 my T levels came back at 800 ng/dl, at peak bulk they were at 850 ng/dl, and at 2 weeks out my testosterone was at 450 ng/dl. So a significant reduction but still in the normal range. I suspect that my free testosterone took a larger hit, though I didn't have access to a free testosterone blood test to check this
- Body dysmorphia - Going through prep really meses with your self-image. Around 3-4 weeks out I lost all objectivity. Even though I was the leanest I had ever been I felt quite fat, but also skinny. I kept obsessing over the way I looked and hyper-fixated on any amount of fat still visible on my body. This is a side effect that I am still trying to alleviate. It's been really difficult to accept the 13lbs of weight gain I experienced as part of the recovery. But I know it had to be done to get my body back to functioning at 100%.
- Strength loss - I did lost quite a bit of strength when dealing with heavy loads. At peak bulk I was benching 2 plates for sets of 10+. A few days ago I tried benching 2 plates again and did 4 reps at around 2-3RIR. I suspect that most of this strength loss is due to being out of practice with heavy loads as I focused on higher rep training throughout the prep. And even at 2 weeks out I hit a few rep PRs.
- Food focus - Food was on my mind all the time. Even though my hunger levels were pretty managable I couldn't stop thinking about food. My life revolved around preparing and consuming meals. And I distinctly remember an instance where I almost cried because I realized I couldn't fit brie cheese into my macros
Conclusion
Prepping for a bodybuilding show is hard, very hard. And the physiological and mental toll it takes on you is immense. And once you get to your goal look, you only get to enjoy it for a very brief moment. And the enjoyment is curbed by all the negative side effects that come with looking this way.
That being said... I loved every second of the journey, I loved the grind, I loved facing and overcoming the challenges along the way, I loved being able to push my body to a point I previously though impossible to get to. The competitive side of bodybuilding is a whole different beast compared to just going to the gym to look good. But in the end, the sense of accomplishment (at least to me) is worth it.
Looking back on my prep there are a few things I would have done differently: having a coach to provide an objective point of view would have been useful, leveraging some carb cycling, starting posing practice sooner, making the prep 4-5 weeks longer, and most importantly not allowing prep to take precedence over every other aspect of my life.
Now its time to take a long off-season to build as much muscle as possible to try and fill out my tall frame. And implement all the things that I've learned from my first attempt at prepping to push my conditioning even further. And, hopefully, next time I step on stage I bring home a trophy.
Again, sorry for the long post. I just had a lot of thoughts and feelings I felt like I needed to share. Hopefully you maybe even found some useful information in all of my ramblings. And a huge thank you to you all for providing me with a sense of community and making me feel like I am not alone in my effort to build the best god damn physique that I can.
