Step one; Get rid of all body fat.

Monday night at Natick gold's started with flat dumbbell bench press, 60,70,80,90,100 to failure. Incline free weight machine 185lbs 4sets, all to failure. Incline dumbbell flies, 50,60,70,70 all to failure and cable crossovers 4sets to failure.

Standing straight barbell curl, 4 sets to failure, French barbell curl (like a two handed hammer curl) 4sets to failure, preacher curls, 4 sets to failure

And what I mean by failure is, we don’t count our reps, we just go until we can’t go no more, while maintaining form. You go until you can't keep form or can take the burn anymore...

Alex and I held mandatory’s in one of the yoga rooms afterwards.  I basically called them out and we ran through them as you would if you where completing. We plan to do this after every workout up to the show. This only takes 15 minutes to run through 3 times and the benefit is huge. Gives you shape, hardness, control, burns fat, flexibility, strength, stamina, helps you relax and aids in muscles memory to name a few.

I always believed that muscle memory comes from visualization and how you see yourself and remembering how you look will help you get back to where you were, faster. Always strive to see yourself better , so that your muscle memory keeps growing as well. sB

Tuesday night at Natick gold's was LEGS... Alex and I ran them backwards, Donkeys, Lying legs curls, seated legs curls, stiff legged dead lifts, leg extensions, legs presses, we started with 3 plates each side and did 4 sets going up 3 plates each side each set, ending with Jefferson’s for 3 sets

Just only after 3 days of Alex going back to 25 grams of carbs a sitting, his weight came right back off, from 205.4 on Saturday to 201 today.

What this tells me is if Alex eats 50 grams of carb's every 2.5 hours, instead of 25 grams every 2.5 hours he will be 5 pounds heavy (more filled out) and at 50 grams of carbs he's still dry, which tells me we might get away with 75 grams or 100 come contest and add 7 to 10 pounds of muscle weight

Step one; Get rid of all body fat. Step two, Fill your muscles up with as much water as they will hold, Step three, Get rid of all your subcutaneous water.

sizeBIGGER

Salt Water Carbs

Muscular Development Magazine conclusion part 3 “The final week contest preparation”.

We previously discussed about water and how cutting your water out before a contest seems kind of ridiculous and counterproductive, because if you are carbing up the last few days, cutting back on your water doesn’t do any good since the carbs need the water to fill you out.

Also the fact, that you can’t reduce water on the muscle (under the skin) without reducing water in the muscle (giving you fullness). This is your water balance that maintains a 70/30 ratio of water held in and on the muscle that doesn’t accept variation and immediately adjusts to keep the balance, so if you reduce water on the muscle you will reduce water in the muscle, causing you to become flat.

We previously discussed about salt and how it helps the carbs absorb the water and going zero sodium can make you flat and hold water under the skin. Your kidneys regulate the water excretion: the more sodium you take in the more water gets excreted and the less sodium you take in, the less water excretion etc., so why bother zeroing sodium out!

The bottom line is… get SHREDDED! If two weeks out you look incredible, then don’t change a thing, but if you do not have cross striations in your ass muscles, there is no magic trick that’s going to make them come in on the day of the show.

I’m off to LA with my cousin February 4th to the 8th to visit a friend and of course we are going to Muscle Beach to train! When I come back, it will be 12 weeks out from the Jay Cutler classic on May 2nd and though I’m not too fat, I’m going to start preparing for the show.

For the first 4 weeks, the plan is just eat what I eating now, which is pretty clean, but stop over eating, drinking alcohol and add 30 minutes of the Stairmaster at the end of my workouts and I will see where I am come 8 weeks out and make adjustment to my diet then if need be…

Normally starting a diet, I would cut out my sugars and just run off of complex carbs such as rice, potatoes and pasta, but I think for the first 4 weeks, I’m going to keep taking in the Weight Gainer drink I take, which has sugar.

I want to see what happens by just stopping drinking and over eating and adding cardio. I bet just by adding cardio and cleaning up my eating habits I can get ripped.

That’s my plan for now…

Time for a protein drink

Ended 2009 on vacation

I ended 2009 by not eating much food, what I mean by this is… for these past two holiday weekends, I stopped eating every 3 hours and only ate when I was hungry. I was definitely not taking in 350 grams of protein a day, whereas, since the Northern USA in NYC on November 8th, 2009, I had been eating every 3 hours anywhere from 700 to 1000 calories a meal. That’s a lot of food! I sit around all day long at work and I don’t burn many calories sitting around, so for the holidays I stopped eating every 3 hours and I pretty much eat when I am hungry. I don’t even know how much I weigh? Guessing around 220. One could say I am on vacation from my second job of eating!


Now we start a new year, time to think about preparing for the Jay Cutler classic the first weekend in May. Thinking about how long I plan on dieting? Should I go 8, 10 or 12 weeks out? I guess that all depends on how fat I get. I pretty much eat clean, but I also over-eat, which does make you fat, no matter how clean the food is.

Well let’s think about it, 12 weeks out puts me at February 13th, seems so close doesn’t it? 10 weeks is February 27th and 8 is March 13th. I guess I’ll have to see how excited I am come February 13th. I might want to slowly ease my way into it. Controlling what I eat by mainly stopping over eating

Another though I have, is do I want to do cardio this time around? One benefit cardio has besides burning more fat, it causes a nice sweat and helps pull water out of your skin and I can eat more, which if done right can make me bigger, but too much cardio and not enough food, I can become stringy, looking more like a swimmer.

I did do cardio for the Cutler in May 2009, but not the other two later in October/November, and I did see my legs get small from the cardio near the end, for the Cutler. I should have stopped sooner; maybe I just need to pay more attention to my body signs

Well, it’s been a nice couple of weekends being on vacation from my eating job (and this one’s not over), but because of the type of person I am, I’m starting to get excited about the Cutler in May already and come Monday, it’s time to start focusing again and getting back on track, back to my eating job, besides rumor has it, I might be getting a raise this year…

Happy New Year and I hope everyone’s 2010 goals are accomplished!

Time for a protein drink!

Pass the sodium

In my last post I talked about a column I’m reading in a Muscular Development magazine, about contest preparation theory verses science and from a scientific point of view, why water depletion isn’t a good idea and why it’s simply doesn’t’ work.

Sodium depletion is another typical contest preparation and the results can be just as disastrous.

The article talks about sodium balance directly affecting your fluid dynamics and blood volume and because of its effect of blood volume it also effects blood pressure and since blood pressure is kind of a big deal there is a very tight regulation on blood sodium levels.

The kidneys will decrease or increase sodium excretion, depending upon how much sodium you take in. The more you take in, the more the excretion of sodium will be in your urine and if sodium is reduced, the kidneys will decrease their excretion of sodium and increase the re-absorption of sodium back into circulation.

A study was performed and the researchers restricted the sodium to practically zero for 6 days and examined the results for your serum (blood) sodium, urinary sodium and aldosterone (aldosterone is a hormone that causes re-absorption and retention of water and sodium)

After 6 days of zero sodium, the blood sodium concentrations were perfectly conserved. In fact, by the 6th day, the kidneys had almost stopped limiting sodium all together, so all that sodium depleting you did for a week doesn’t even charge the actual blood sodium levels.

There are some things that the sodium depletion does do however, it increased the hormone aldosterone big time, and after just 2 days of sodium depleting your aldosterone has almost double and almost tripled by day 6

Elevation in aldosterone will cause an increase in water retention, as the kidney reabsorbs both the sodium and water back into circulation, compounding this with the fact that the deficiencies in sodium with lead to a drop in blood pressure, means that plasma water has been push out of the vascular system.

Now instead of having water in your blood vessels making you look full and vascular, it will be around the vessels interstitially (i.e. subcutaneous) making you look softer

The article continues to say, if you haven’t realized that sodium depletion is a pie-in- the- sky fallacy by now, perhaps this will change your mind…

During the contest preparation, some bodybuilders also deplete their carbohydrates. The idea being that depleting the sodium will make you tighter and when carb loading (after 3 day of depleting) will fill you out to skin-stretching proportions.

I already stated how depleting your sodium will actually make you softer, but did you know that it will also impair your ability to achieve fullness as well.

SLGT-1 is the co-transporter in the intestine that is responsible for glucose (blood sugar) absorption. It is called the co-transporter because it uses sodium concentrations to drive the glucose from the intestine to be absorbed.

Research has demonstrated that sodium restriction will actually reduce the expression and activity of this transporter, limiting your ability to absorb glucose and thus preventing you from achieving the great fullness you desire.

Now all that undigested glucose is going to remain in the small intestine and pull water into that area in order to maintain proper osmolarity, and it will cause bloating in the small intestine.

So now you managed to put water in two places you didn’t want, the subcutaneous layer and the gut, making you appear softer and bloated

They end by saying that we have all heard someone say they looked soft and flat on stage and then talk about how much better they looked after they went out after the show and pigged out.

Most people think this means they didn’t carb up enough, but that simply isn’t true because they loaded carbs for 2-3 days… the pig-out meal contained lots of sodium and they drank a lot of water with it… The result, the sodium and water finally allowed them to fill out properly

Part 3 next months issue they will be offering some recommendations for proper peaking

Oh boy, I can’t wait… stay tuned

Time for a protein drink

How dry I am…

So I’m reading this article called “The Final-Week Contest- Prep Fallacy” in a column in Muscular Development magazine called No Juice Bodybuilding.

This column claims it’s going to bust the myths behind contest prep, it talks about how so many bodybuilders prepare the final week out of theory instead of doing it scientifically

How many times have you heard a bodybuilder say they looked great a week out from the show and then looked terrible on stage?

This first of 3 articles talks about cutting out your water and using diuretics. It’s interesting to read the scientific side of this, they talk about water being held in the bodies intracellular (inside the cell) and extracellular (outside the cell) at a 70:30 ratio. Intracellular held water is what we want as a bodybuilder, giving us that full and volumized muscle belly look, that we try so hard to bring to the stage and the extracellular water which is what as a bodybuilder we try to eliminate by cutting out the water and taking diuretics approximately 24 hours before hitting the stage.

But scientifically speaking, in reality, since our body regulates the balance so closely, we can’t change one side of the water balance with changing the other side instantaneously.

So to cut out the water or to take a diuretic isn’t really helping you achieve the desired look of pulling the water out of your skin for the dry look on stage and giving yourself volumized muscle bellies, in fact scientifically speaking your causing you body to flatten out, because as you remove water from the outside cells, you are also removing water from the inside cells, causing your muscle to become flat

Further more we as bodybuilders deplete our carbs for 3 days from Monday to Wednesday and on Thursday up until the contest we carb-up eating tons of carbs, but ironically, we can eat all the carbs we want but they will do nothing to our muscles in terms of filling them out, if we don’t drink water…

Cutting your water out seems kind of ridiculous and counterproductive when you think about it…

Part two: I will talk about the myth behind sodium…

Time for a protein drink

Let’s put things into perspective

So my 6:30am weigh in seems to be leveling off at 215. I’ve been as heavy as 219 but at this point it’s only excess water weight from over eating and drinking

Weighing 215 with my abdominals showing is clearly the biggest I’ve ever been in my life and I’m growing be the week. You can’t expect your weight to increase extremely if you consider how much muscle actually weighs

Lets take 3 pounds of steak, if you were to lay this out on a table you would appreciate how much meat that really is and to put that much meat on your body, well that is quite a bit.

For my body weight to stay at 215, but continue to become leaner and leaner, well that’s growing even though my body weight hasn’t increased.

Increasing body weight faster then a pound or two a month is too fast, especially if you’re increasing it by eating tons of non fatting foods and you are fully carbed up all the time, you weight should not change much

Increasing body weight at this rate, under those conditions, assure that it is muscle you are putting on and not fat or external water weight
Let’s take a look at what I consume in a weeks time from Monday to Sunday

7 pounds of pasta
14 cans of tuna fish
14 weight gainer drinks
27 protein drinks
4- 400 calorie carb drinks (pre-workout)
6 pounds of chicken
14 cups of rice
And sugar of some sort we like to have after dinner, i.e. gum drops, fat free ice cream, frozen yogurt or any candy that doesn’t have fat.
In one week’s time, that is well over 35 thousand calories and no more this 10% coming from fat. That’s pretty amazing when you put it all into perspective…

As I mention in my last post this is truly a second job. I find myself always eating when I’m not hungry to eat. But I know it’s my job to keep the calories coming, so that I continue to heal from my workouts as fast a possible, continue to grow lean muscle mass as fast as possible, and continue to have the energy to train as intense as possible. I know if I don’t eat like this, I‘m only fooling myself thinking I will grow as fast as possible

Remember, the more you eat the bigger you get, the bigger you get the more weight you can push, the more weight you can push the bigger you become, the bigger you become the more food you need to eat…it’s a vicious cycle and I want to do it….

Time for a protein drink

It’s a second job

It has been 4 weeks since the New England’s and 2 weeks since the Northern USA.

For the New England’s I weighed in at 197.7 but was too flat and small. I need to be bigger and fuller on stage. So I started eating more carbohydrates and for the Northern USA (2 weeks later) I weighed in at 207.6. I was 10 pounds heavier and just as tight, but this time I was bigger and fuller and I still felt I could have even been bigger and fuller, but I was very happy and in the best shape so far for me.

So it’s all about growing right now and we all know you need to eat to grow, in fact, the more you eat, the more you grow, it’s just the way it is. But it’s all about what you eat that really makes a difference.

Seeing that 1 gram of fat is 9 calories and 1 gram of a carbohydrate or protein is only 4 calories, you need to just about eat double the amount of food to get the same calories in carbohydrates and protein that you get with fats

I have been eating anywhere from 3500 to 5000 calories a day (700-1000 every 3 hours) and by not eating fats, I need to eat tons of food, it’s like having another job…

This whole week I’ve been waking up weighing 215, I did manage to get to 217.6 for a few days but I leveled off back to 215. And because of Thanksgiving I was able to gets some fats in and it felt funny getting filled up on such a little amount of food by comparison.

On Thanksgiving (and the last few days since) because I took in a large amount of calories without stuffing my stomach as I normally do with non-fat foods, I was able to really increase my calories. I just kept eating until I got that full stomach feeling that I normally do.

I woke up yesterday and 217 and today at 218.6, the heaviest so far and I’m just as lean, which tells me I could have been even bigger for the stage… but lets not worry about that

Here is a breakdown of what I’m eating

Weight gainer drink when I wake up and before bed
1 pound of pasta
Carbo force (400 calories/100 carbs) a pre-workout drink
2 cans of tuna
10-12oz chicken
1 to 2 cups of rice
3 protein drinks

This is my second job and although I don’t get money, it does pay!

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving weekend

Time for a protein drink

The more you eat, the bigger you get

6:30am weigh-in 215

For the second day in a row, I’ve weighed this. I am still so lean and I can’t be more then 6% body fat. This is the heaviest I have been with my abdominals still showing, I have most defiantly grown from competing 3 times this year.

My plan is to see how big I can get without changing my waistline, so I won’t have to buy new work pants.

To build muscle as fast as possible, it’s all about pounding down the calories (carbohydrates and protein), so that your body has enough to grow as fast as it can, but also eat clean fat free foods, so you don’t get fat fast too.

If by over eating my “clean foods” and they turn to fat, because I don’t use them, this is a good thing. For one, it ensures I’m getting enough caloric intake to grow and two, my body needs some fat, let it makes it’s own, I don’t need to give it fat.

Besides, I’d like to see this food turn into fat, because the more I eat the harder I train. Eating more allows you to train harder, training harder burns more food.

So all this week, I’ve been eating somewhere between 3500 to 5000 calories a day, having 5 meals, ranging from 700 to 1000 calories every 3 hours.

Now there is one thing to eat that many calories with a high fat content, but it’s a totally different story eating all those calories with low to no-fat, fat having 9 calories per gram and carbs and protein only 4, It requires you to eat almost double the amount food.

So on Monday I decided to have a Weight Gainer drink that has 1840 calories to one serving and only 2/5 grams of fat, not bad! (3 rounded scoops 24 oz water)

Well after drinking all those calories at 7am before work, all I wanted to do was sleep. It completely wiped me out and ruined my appetite for the whole day, but I did manage to force myself to eat every 3 hours (after waking up from my naps) :-)

At first I was going to have this drink every 3rd day, seeing you only get 5 servings in the 5 pound tub it comes in. I figured if I have it every 3 days, it will last me for 15 days.

But seeing what ingesting 1840 calories at one sitting did to me, I thought it might be best to have 1 scoop every day instead.

Now taking the serving size and dividing it by a 1/3 has the protein coming up short at around 16 grams, so I added a scoop of whey into the mix, just to get it close to 50 grams of protein, which is what you want to take in ever 2-4 hours because protein builds muscle.

Other then drinking to increase my calories, the only other food for me that I’m able to eat a large amount of is pasta, for some reason I can pound down the pasta, warm or cold, with nothing on it. I can put away a pound like it was nothing and that is 1680 clean calories and one of the best carbohydrate energy sources. So every morning I’m boiling up a pound of pasta and taking it to work

So far so good, I’m having fantastic results, I’m growing like a weed, and my energy is through the roof, I feel like a friggin machine in the gym, strong, thick and huge and for the most part injury free…

The weights are going up too with my body weight increasing, this is how it’s suppose to work, there is no magic, just stick to the plan

The more you eat, the bigger you get, the bigger you get, the more you weigh, the more you weigh, the more you can lift, the more you can lift, the bigger you will get, but this all has to start somewhere and that somewhere is what and how much you eat.

Time for a protein drink

New York City or bust

6:30am weigh-in 207.8

My BF says…. Much thicker and looking so much better at this weight than at 197
It is a complete green light to the Northern USA in New York City. I’m very pleased with the condition I was able to keep for this weekend.

There is less then 30 hours left before I hit the stage and I don’t see a problem bringing this package there to compete.

Just like yesterday, I will eat a potato every hour and chicken every four. This worked out nicely yesterday keeping me thick and hard throughout the day. I’ll just sip water as needed. I only drank ½ gallons worth yesterday and will probably drink less today

Last night I was looking nice and thick and my legs were coming in again, it’s amazing what a zero sodium diet will do to your skin.
I was a little nerves at first, thinking I wasn’t going to get the water out of me, having been so carbed up, but it happened slowly and the water became less and I became more and more defined

I was able to get two coats of Pro-Tan on last night; we got to bed just after 11. Today I'll do another three coats; you can never be dark enough for the stage.

Today it’s all about eating and keeping my insulin up, staying full and hard with carbohydrates and growing back all the broken down muscle I caused during the week and concentrating on flexing and posing

We will be leaving at 3am tomorrow morning and coming back around the same time on Sunday and as much as I would like to write in my blog tomorrow I don’t think I will have time… but I will be sure to tell everyone all about my trip to NY when I come back

I’m in it to win it!

Time to compete

Back to potatoes

6:30am weigh-in 208.8

My BF (best friend) the mirror, is still getting dryer looking with each passing day, I did hit the sauna last night and I’ll grab one more tonight.

Notice how my weight is slowly lowering, it’s the water I’m losing from going no sodium this week. I’m just as carbed up and big as I was at 212, only now with definition

But like I’ve said, I’m very happy with how I look right now, full and healthy looking, nice and thick and still very lean, abdominals pushing though with very little effort. Legs cuts have been a little deeper, but I still have a couple of days to dry out

I called my buddy yesterday to see if we are still on for Saturday’s departure at 3am for NY and he’s all for it, a true friend that would do anything for me, as I him!


So tonight after the gym, I’m coming home shaving my whole body, (thank god for my hairless chest and back) and putting on the Pro-Tan. I figure I’ll put on 2 or 3 coats tonight and another 2-3 tomorrow. I will need to make sure I wear head to toe clothes for bed so I don’t ruin our sheets, this shit stains like no tomorrow….


A little change of plan for my food, I decided to switch to potatoes for my carbohydrates. They tend to be a little dryer than pasta and are high in potassium.


So after the gym last night I grabbed 10 pounds and 2 gallons of distilled water and had 4 big spuds before bed. I’m figuring I’ll eat a potato every hour or so, just to make sure I keep my calories high and continue to have this muscle bound look, which I’m trying to keep for Saturday.

I’ve put myself through some intense workouts this week going heavier then normal to shock the body and keep it swollen, now I have to eat tons of carbs to heal back even bigger and tighter for this weekend… tonight’s workout ends the week with Shoulders and Biceps


Time for a protein drink

Completely different package

6:30am weigh-in 210.4

What did I tell you and I didn’t even eat as much as I would have liked to yesterday, but hitting the gym in the morning and filling myself up on carbs caused the body to hold more water in the muscle.

In one week’s time from pounding down carbs (mainly pasta) and training the whole body, I have gained back 13 pounds.

Please realize it is the weight lifting and not just the pounding down of the food that caused this. Sure if I eat a lot of food, I will gain weight, I don’t know about 13 pounds in a week, but I’d gain some. The weightlifting is where you’re breaking down muscle, causing them to pull in carbs and water and grow back fast

I like to call this the “swollen tic” affect, where you walk around all day with a pump. Everything is full and thick, you have that muscle bound look.

This is the look I want to bring to the stage.

Bev Frances, the women who put on this past New England’s competition I competed in, is doing another show, The Eastern USA in New York City this coming Saturday another National qualifying show.

I’m hoping the judges will notice I’ve brought a completely different package this time around

Here are my plans…

Starting Monday zero sodium, back to boiled chicken, but this time I am going to use pasta for my carbs. I’ll start out with a pound, but I have a feeling this will not be enough and it will probably end up around two. Why pasta? First off it gives me great energy to train hard and it’s easy, good cold and sodium free

I’m going to train Monday thru Thursday like an animal and as HEAVY as possible. (Carbohydrates enable me to do this) so that my muscles continue to get shocked and want more food.

To keep that “swollen tic” affect I will need to train even more intensity than this past week, giving the muscles a reason to stay big.

Come Thursday if I was able to pull this water out of my skin, which I don’t see why not and I still have this “swollen tic” affect, I will start the Pro-Tanning junk and on Saturday morning at 3am I will leave to pick up a close childhood friend Eric Calvert and road trip it to NY

Time for a protein drink

Back to the grind

6:30am weigh-in 203.6

Last nights workout was Back, Hams and Ass

My training partner and I decided to change things up a little.

We are going to hit hams on a different day than with legs (I may do them twice a week)

Day one: Back and Hams/Ass/Calves
Day two: Chest and Triceps
Day three: Legs and Hams/Ass/Cows
Day four: Shoulder and Biceps

This way here we can have shorter workouts and have more energy to concentrate on weaker body parts

I started yesterday with dead-lifts working my way up to 4 plates (405) for 2 set of 5 reps, then onto bent-over rows, going up to 2 plates (225) for 8 reps, then pull-downs for 4 sets, ending with close grip pull-down for 4 sets. Back is not a weak point for me, so you won’t see me doing too much in terms of sets or exercises

For Hams, I started with stiff legs going up to 150 pounds for 4 sets, then into that Ass exercise I talk about and finishing off with Standing Leg Curls. I would have probably hit my Calves too, if they weren’t so sore from posing at the competition

In hindsight, I realize the mistake I have been making for contest preparation. Years ago in my 20’s I would eat myself up to competition, but for some reason I’ve been eating myself down to competition, leaving me left with no muscles (It’s been a long time)

When I was in my 20’s I would eat more food while preparing for competition than I would when I wasn’t getting ready to compete… this is my problem, because what I’ve been doing now for contest prep, is eating less food and because of this, I have been coming in too small for my frame.

I can’t compete at less than 200 pounds; I'm not built that way anymore. I need to come in close to 210; this is where I’m nice and full with size

So the plan is, as I mentioned in my last post, to eat myself up to 235 and then depending on how fat I get (hoping not too fat) I will start to diet as early as 12 weeks out from May 2nd for the Jay Cutler Classic, only this time when preparing for competition, I will keep my calories over a 3000 minimum to start

Time for a protein drink

How I plan to grow:

6:30am weigh-in 203.8

Eating more and lifting heavy is the fastest way to grow.

I’m not looking to get fat; I will continue eating a clean, high protein, high carbohydrate, low fat diet.

I’d much rather over eat my carbohydrates and get fat that way, than to eat fat. Chances are the carbohydrates will never have a chance to turn to fat, because they will give me the energy to train even harder and burn fat efficiently, keeping my muscles big and full

Caloric intake values will be 60% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 10% fat.

I’m going to start with 300 grams of protein a day, equaling 1200 calories 30% of the caloric intake.

I’ll double the calories for carbohydrates to 2400 equaling 60% of the caloric intake and the remaining 400 calories will come from fat at 10% of caloric intake, totally 4000 calories, eating 6 times a day

I’m going to start here and see what happens. I should grow pretty steadily around one pound a week, that is, once everything slows down.

I’ll most likely be around 218 in a couple of weeks, 3 pounds heaver from where I left off. You always end up growing a few pounds more after you compete.

Now all I want to do is eat around 500 calories more than what I need each day, so that by the end of the week (7 days) I’m one pound heavier, this will assure to me I’m growing and it’s not fat

For training, I plan to concentrate on the basic movements and try to get as strong as possible. I plan to try and keep increasing the weights a little every time until I plateau and then go from there. The heavier I get (body weight wise) the more weight I will be able to move.

Everything works hand-in-hand, the more you eat, the bigger you grow; the bigger you grow, the more food you need to eat. The bigger you get, the more weight you can push; the more weight you push, the bigger you get.

But it all starts in the kitchen; you need to eat food first, good clean healthy whole foods

Time for protein drink!

1 day out from competition – Final carb-up day

6:30am weigh-in 198.2

My mirror (best friend) says… dry, ripped and filling out :-)

I started eating yesterday at 7:30am, 6oz of boiled chicken, 10oz of boiled skinless potatoes, my morning cup of black coffee made with distilled water, taking my second cup on the rode

Every 3 hours, 6oz of chicken, 10oz of potatoes, sipping my crystal light flavored distilled water as needed, trying not to over do it.

2800 calories yesterday doubling the calories without the carbohydrates, but now with the carbohydrates, my muscles are filling up with water becoming harder

I knew by 4pm I was starting to become slightly dehydrated and needed more water. While flexing my intercostals they started to cramp, but it went away with a little stretch and didn’t last but a second.

The carbohydrates in my body are looking for water, but not too much, the cramp did not last long (slight dehydration). Try listening to your body and know why things happen. I just needed to drink a little more water.

Carbohydrates hold water in your muscles, along with potassium (potatoes having the most potassium) any water sitting in my skin will be pulled into the muscles from the carbohydrates, because I’m limiting the water intake or I’ll sweat it out with no return. I’m not taking in any sodium and sodium holds water under your skin, this is how we “saran wrap” the skin

Today will be a repeat of yesterday’s food and water intake, another day and I should be right where I need to be for Saturday.

Will get the last spray tan and hit some compulsory poses for my buddy Mark (the guy with salons) there are 8 compulsory poses (judging poses).

Tonight I’m going to apply Pro-Tan on as well, 3 coats should do the trick. You can never be dark enough for the stage.

Let the games begin…

Time for a protein drink

2 days out from competition – carb-up day #1

6:30am weigh-in 197.8

Down just over a pound again from yesterday… looks like I’m going to be a heavy weight this time around (over 198) unless I lose more weight during the carbing up, which is possible, by not likely

At this point I don’t care what weight I’m at, I just want to keep the look I have now for the stage

I am extremely pleased with my BF (the mirror) this morning, besides being ripped, I’m dry too, and this is the look I need to keep for the stage.

Now I’m going to carb up, so I become Bigger and Harder!

Last night I finished making the remaining 3 packs of chicken (9 pounds) and boiled 5 pounds of Russet potatoes. Russet’s always seemed to me to be the driest of all spuds.

So basically I’m going to eat ever couple of hours 7oz of boiled chicken and a couple of potatoes (300 grams). I’ll drink my distilled water as needed, trying just to sip.

But today I will do what my body asks for in terms of how much water to drink, however tomorrow is a different story. Tomorrow depending on how I look in the morning, I may want to be keep myself slightly thirsty throughout the day into Saturday

Got sprayed tanned again last night and I’m starting to get really dark, one more time should do the trick on Friday and I have Pro-Tan just in case and I’m not afraid to use it ;-)

All I’m looking to do is fill out a little in terms of hardness which the carbohydrate will do for me. This will give me the muscle contractions I need to flex really hard.

Something I will be doing all day long these next couple of days. Just keep flexing and watching the muscle fill out and staying dry and ripped.

I don’t want to go too crazy eating too many carbohydrates and drinking too much water, but I also want to eat and drink enough so I fill out and more importantly take on a nice pump back stage before going out.

It should be an effortless pump; I shouldn’t have to work on trying to get a pump. If everything works as I planned it to, then I should easily get a long lasting SICK pump!


Time for a protein drink

4 days out from competition – 0 carb day #8

6:30am weigh-in 200

Chicken and water all day yesterday and I have to say, it was pretty easy. Chicken went down with out a struggle and I looked forward to every meal

My best friend hasn’t look this good ever… I can say I’m in the best shape of my life!

I went to my buddy’s place last night, (Mark the guy with the tanning salons) to get spray tanned. He wants to me to go back on Wednesday and Friday and that should do the trick.

http://www.glowtanningcenter.com/ thank you for hooking me up Mark!

I did buy some Pro-Tan (the shit that stains you) just in case come Friday I’m not dark enough, you can never be dark enough for the stage

Mark did see me at the Jay Cutler classic back in May and he knew right off the bat, I was 100% better then back then

Bigger, Harder and more cut. I could tell be the way he was looking at me and asking me to hit certain poses, he knows I am going to do really well this coming Saturday at the New England’s

Tonight I’m going to hit the whole body at the gym. Just like the other day.

My training partner, who has some type of bug or something is feeling 90% better and has planned to workout with me tonight.

This will be cool, because as I’m doing one exercise he can be on the other, as we go back and forth. That way we won’t lose one machine when we are on the other.

Can’t wait to train tonight and squeeze even more water out on my muscles!

Time for a protein drink

5 days out from competition – 0 carb day #7

6:30am weigh-in 200.8

Well I can’t completely call yesterday a zero carb day. I did have that Carbo Pump yesterday morning at 9am and by 10am I was already starting to get hard, starting to be able to really flex everything so intensely. Something you lose when completely depleted (carbs are used for contraction) and I had no change in definition, zero sodium did the trick.

Legs stayed deeply separated all day as I continuing eating 7oz of boiled chicken breast every two hours and drinking my Crystal light and they even started to get harder as the day went on

So last night I decide to try something… the last thing I tried to eat before I want to bed was one box of Matzol, which has an 1100 calories to the box and it’s a dry complex carb, no salt. But I was only able 8 of them down, which are 800 calories and 16oz of water, I could have drank more, but chose not too

I wanted to see what would happen to me in the AM… I’m so lean right now and hardly have any water in or on my muscles

If you remember last weekend I eat 10 pounds of potatoes and I was able to flatting back out in one day of zero carbs.

I wonder how I would have looked last weekend if I was zero sodium when I was eating all those potatoes…

This is why I wanted to see what these 800 calories of dried unsalted complex carbs would do to me

My best friend the mirror says… perfect! I found my formula; I put 2 pounds of water back into my muscles, I’m nice and filled out, hard and separated, I can’t ask for more

Now if I can bring this look to the stage, (I don’t see why not) I will be a force to be reckoned with

The best thing is I still have 5 more days to become even better, if that’s even possible… but of course it has to be… never settling…

Back to boiled chicken and water for the next 3 days

Time to find my buddy and work on my tan~! http://www.glowtanningcenter.com/

Time for a protein drink

6 days out from competition – 0 carb day #6

6:30am weigh-in 198.8

I lost 2.5 pounds of sodium held water in one day of going zero sodium. This is water held under your skin, not in your muscles

Man, I’m not going to lie or play it off. The first day of just eating boiled chicken every 2 hours (3 pounds) and drinking just water really sucked to say the least. I ended up drinking 1.06 gallons of water, thank god for crystal light

My best friend (the mirror) is looking unbelievable right now. Just when you thought you had deep cuts, well after this past day of zero sodium, WOW they are deep now.

I keep saying how my legs never looked this good, so separated with deep cuts. Well, I’m going to say it again today; they have never been so separated as they are this morning. And I still have 5 days left, I am very happy.

I think this morning I’m going to drink a Carbo Force. I would normal drink one before every work to help give me energy for an intense workout

The Carbo Force is a 400 calories drink with 100 grams of carbohydrates that are not simple sugar carbs. This drink gives me an amazing pump in the gym and I prefer never to workout without drinking one first.

I’m looking to see how much it fills me out and how fast. Seeing I’ve just about gotten rid of all the sodium held water under my skin.

Now the Carbo Force does have 110 milligrams of sodium, but it’s so low and what I’ll get from the drink, will out weigh the little sodium it has.

I want to see if I may be able to use this drink as part of my carbing up carbohydrate. If that one drink fills me out enough, then I would think about staying pretty much 0 carbs right up to the show and maybe having 2 pounds of potatoes the night before and having a Carbo Pump an hour before going on the stage.

All I’m looking to do is fill the muscle up with a little water to become big and hard. (Carbohydrate held water in the muscles) with out spilling over and smoothing out, by over doing it

First I need to see how much of a reaction I get from this drink today… I’m so ripped and dry right now, this will not hurt me, and if anything it will help me make it through these next 5 days with out emaciating myself, the extra calories will help that

Time for a protein drink

7 days out from competition – 0 carb day #5

6:30am weigh-in 201.2

So last night after playing bowling ball helper (setting up the pins) at my son’s school’s Halloween event, I headed over to the market to buy some chicken and a few gallons of water

I figured 7 days left, 8oz servings x 8 = 4 pounds of chicken a day, so I bought 28 pounds on sale for 54 bucks. I wasn’t thinking…

After cleaning up 6 pounds, it turned into 4 pounds, then after cooking, it turned into 3 pounds. So if 6 pound turned into 3, then 28 pounds in more like 14 pound when it’s all said and done… I'm going to need more chicken

Minus that 1500 milligrams of sodium I would have been taking in, I will probably drop a pound or two and my skin will become even more transparent, in the next couple of days…

Boy I love this stuff!

You are what you eat comes to mind… it’s so true and no I’m not going to turn into a chicken… what it means, by eating certain foods you can change yourself and not just for bodybuilding, but for life, for healing, for health, food is everything.

(Please understand what I’m doing now is extreme and is preparation for a bodybuilding competition and not recommended for a day to day healthy life style, this is only short term)

Starting today and for the remaining workouts, I will be training my whole body.

I’m not looking to breakdown muscle tissue as I would normally for growth. What I'm going for is to get a good pump, and really squeeze the muscles to make them even deeper with cuts and separations.

This will also give the muscles a reason to suck in the carbohydrates when I start to carb up. I will group push and pull muscles together and go back and forth between exercises

Basically the workout will go as follows

Dip and pull-ups 3 sets
Flat bench and bent over rows 3 sets
Chest flies and low rows 3 sets
Pullovers which works both chest and back, 3 sets

Then for shoulders, I’ll go from over head pressing, to side laterals, to rear laterals, to front raises and I’ll run through this for 3 sets

Then onto arms where I will do lying down triceps extensions with standing barbell curls for 3 sets
A triceps push downs with a bicep preacher curl for 3 sets
An over head triceps extension with hammer curls for biceps for 3 sets

Then for legs where I will go from calves, to legs curls, to legs extensions and I could do this as many as 6 times around, along with flexing and stretching and really squeezing the whole body throughout the workout

So all day today and for the next 7 days, I will eat 8oz of chicken every 2 hours and drink crystal light flavored water

Then 36 hours out from competition, I will start to carb up and add potatoes to my chicken meals

Time for a protein drink

8 days out from competition – 0 carb day #4

6:30am weigh-in 200.8

No change except for my BF, my legs are even tighter

So last night I started thinking about my sodium intake, at this point that is the only thing that is holding any water under my skin.

When I competed 20 years ago, I remember I would take in close to nothing for sodium.

So I deiced to have a closer look at what I’m taking in for sodium

Here is the breakdown

Whey ISOCOOL 40 milligrams a serving (scoop) x 2 = 80 x 5 serving a day = 400 milligrams of sodium

Ground extra lean chicken breast 8oz serving 500 milligrams x 2 serving a day = 1000 milligrams of sodium OUCH!

Tuna in a can 70 milligrams x 2 = 140 milligram of sodium

Total intake of sodium is over 1500 milligrams. This is WAY too much!

Back in the day I would boil chicken breasts, there is no sodium in boiled chicken breast and I would eat eight 8oz servings every two hours each day with water (crystal light) on my carbohydrate depleting days

Know I remember how much the last week sucked!

But I didn’t come this far to care because with suck-ness comes, F N Awesome-ness!

So its time to suck it up… no pun intended~

Off to the market for… you guessed it…

Time for a chicken breast