My journey to a pro bodybuilder

[samanthamturner]

@7thfloorwind I did ULULU with progressive overload. My rep and set ranges were different every week for my compounds depending on the percent weight I was lifting. The lowest was 3x3 and the highest was 5x4. I'd have two days of heavy and 3 days of hypertrophy work. My hypertrophy days would range from 3x7 to 2x9 on big lifts.

 

[7thfloorwind]

@samanthamturner Thanks man, and for accessory movements did you do the 3 x 10?

 

[samanthamturner]

@7thfloorwind Yeah, give or take a couple reps depending on movement.

 

[evea]

@samanthamturner Awesome job! When I was looking through the photos, I thought you looked familiar. I remember seeing one of the last pics in another thread here or /r/bodybuilding and saying your shoulders looked sweet and asking you what you do for them.

6 feet and 165 lbs onstage? That's sweet. What's your offstage weight? Or heaviest weight you've ever had?

I was 5'8" 150 pounds on stage for my last show, got 4th. Later competed in the IFBB Pro Natural Qualifier in Toronto over the summer, and got smoked there.

 

[samanthamturner]

@evea I wish I could say I had some magic secret for building big shoulders, haha. I do all your standard lifts such as OHP, lateral raises, rear flys, etc. I think the big thing though is I constantly try and push my accessory lifts while maintaining good form.

My offstage weight is around 200lbs. The heaviest I had ever gotten was about 211lbs and I felt pretty fluffy than, but that was after an extremely fast and dirty bulk.

 

[evea]

@samanthamturner Awesome, thanks a lot for sharing! Do you think I have a chance at doing better? I've been working out for about 8.5 years now, here's some footage of being onstage this summer

 

[samanthamturner]

@evea You look great man! I'd say try to add a little more width to your upper body (shoulders/back) and work on your posing. A few small tweaks and I think you'll do very well in shows.

 

[evea]

@samanthamturner Thanks a lot!

try to add a little more width to your upper body (shoulders/back) and work on your posing.

This is EXACTLY what the judges told me, lmao, thanks again! Hitting lots of heavy deads now, and trying to build up those shoulders All the best

 

[jmjinks]

@samanthamturner great job man, very nice read.

could u show whats ur diet like right now on gaining phase? or maybe even when u were dieting?

 

[samanthamturner]

@jmjinks My approach on my reverse has been a bit aggressive since I'm not competing for a while and am not too worried about getting fluffy quick.

P:185 C:340 F:100......this has been slowly increasing over the past six weeks. I'm currently about 20lbs over my stage weight. My fat probably won't get much higher, but my carbs will shoot up to around 450 and protein around 220 when I'm fully into bulking.

 

[jeromek]

@samanthamturner Great progress! Have you ever done or considered direct neck training?

 

[shibolet]

@samanthamturner if this was r/bodybuilding I would have said your calves are lacking but because it isn't I will keep quiet.

 

[samanthamturner]

@shibolet Man, I wish my calves would grow! They get just as much volume as every other muscle. If you find the secret, please share!

 

[fearey]

@samanthamturner Don't we all

 

[redwolf6]

@samanthamturner I used to do a lot of hypertrophy work for my calves. Then during my last cut I was doing a lot of incline treadmill work and had pretty much ceased calve training.

For the first time ever my calves got veiny and were noticeably bigger.

 

[samanthamturner]

@redwolf6 Oh my calves get veiny, just hard to tell in the pics. Mine look bigger when I cut, but I think that's just because their are more noticeably defined.

 

[jacktomczak]

@samanthamturner Tacos.