Contest Prep Weeks 30 - 31

What's been happening recently

On Monday of last week I made my trip to LA from Sydney. I have of course made the trip numerous times before with various degrees of difficulty (illness/food poisoning, low calories, lack of aisle access/seating have all been challenges I have experienced previously). This time I asked that I receive adequate macronutrient guidelines for the day. In particular we agreed on two days macros 600 P, 500 C, 70 F over a 42 hour waking period. Even so I experienced a lot of hunger on the flight simply due to planning meals for the flight that fit one day's macros only. Anyhow I made it through the flight and have been enjoying my time training at Venice Beach since then. Special thanks and mention to my buddy Daniel Gaitan who was nice enough to pick me up from the airport and drop me to my hotel!

Nutrition

Since arriving here I've been going through a digging phase. This involved no additional cardio but did involve caloric restriction down to ~ 2500 kcals which to me felt like death. This has been very effective at inducing fat loss (2.4 kg loss over a 2 week period) but also very difficult for my body to handle. Workouts have been basically free of energy, I've been needing to lie down between sets and a large coffee has been an absolute necessity pre workout. I have experienced some diet related symptoms numerous times which are less than desirable - nervousness, anxiety, irritability, mood disturbance, fatigue, weakness, feelings of emptiness and detachment, difficulty thinking and concentrating have all been unnerving and scary symptoms to manage. I've also found that I am wiped later in the afternoon/evening and fall asleep easily.

I had a few refeeds for the past couple of days which have helped me immensely to manage the lows that I was experiencing in numerous areas. Moving forward I am on low day macros again for a couple of days and then will be beginning my peak week which is a complex plan that I do not wish to divulge the details of in my blog as it is not something that people other than myself need to know. However the macronutrient ratios, planned training, cardio and show day plan designed by Alberto all look very promising and I am looking great at this point in time. We may or may not make changes to what is currently planned throughout the week.

Training

This week we deloaded my accessory lifts which was much needed for energy reasons. I also tested all my lifts - squat, deadlift, bench, OHP, row. All went well. Each of my estimated 1 RMs were maintained or slightly improved which I was happy with considering I am at the tail end of an extended deficit and we've been running my program for eight weeks. My new 1 RMs (estimated) were bench press 151 kg, high bar squat 186 kg, OHP (seated dumbbell) 52 kg, sumo deadlift 218 kg, t bar row 125 kg. These will be used for my future programming.

Since I usually have a rest day on Sunday and am instead having a rest day tomorrow as part of my peak week, I took the opportunity this morning to do a full body hypertrophy workout at Golds (which I don't normally do). I made the workout "machines only" and made use of lots of the equipment that I usually don't make available to myself in my normal workout routine. The workout was really enjoyable, I got a great pump. It just felt good to do something different and use all the great equipment I had missed to this point whilst here. See below for workout:

Vertical Leg Press 3 x 10
Plate Loaded V Squat 3 x 10
Seated Leg Curl 3 x 10
Hammerstrength Underhand Grip Single Arm Low Row 3 x 10
Lat Pull Down Long Straight Bar 3 x 10
Lat Pull Down Shoulder Width Reverse Grip 3 x 10
Hammerstrength Decline Chest Press 3 x 10
Old Incline Chest Press Machine 3 x 8 - 10
Hammerstrength Incline Chest Press 3 x 10
Hammerstrength Chest Press 3 x 8
Smith Machine Shoulder Press 3 x 10

Other Stuff

So far I've been just getting through these last few weeks of training/prep. I haven't put a huge emphasis on sight seeing and have just been doing the basics (training, eating, resting etc). I expect to have a good few weeks to enjoy the culture and cuisine of the USA post shows (Boston, New Orleans, San Francisco and Las Vegas). Speaking of cuisine I have acquired numerous delicious food items of interest in my trips to the supermarket so far. See below for photos of some of these foods and a few other photos of pieces of equipment at Golds Venice.

 Left to right - pumpkin spice coconut milk, marshmallow oaties, buttermilk pancake mix, dark chocolate peanut butter, double choc chip cookie

 Pumpkin Pie Icecream

 Hammerstrength Decline Chest Press at the Mecca

 Plate Loaded V Squat at Golds Venice

 Various Poptarts and treats

My right leg upon waking this morning after two days of heavy refeeding

Remember you can contact me at Muscle Academy for coaching (contest preparation, off season, general weight loss, nutrition, training):

Email - evansmuscleacademy@gmail.com
Website - www.muscleacademy.com.au
Facebook - www.facebook.com/MuscleAcademy
Instagram and Twitter - @evansoooon

Thankyou for your continued support. Check back for more updates #soon

- Evan

Contest Prep Weeks 28 and 29

What's been happening

Something I didn't let you guys know is that I was going to do a local warm up show before I headed overseas for my pro debut. I competed over the past weekend at the ANB Nationals in Sydney. My main reason to do this show is because being a natural pro all my shows are now overseas (as Australia currently holds no professional shows). So essentially I wanted to do a show where all my friends and family could attend.

 Diet Break

Leading into Nationals we decided not to peak and we just made one change which was the implementation of a diet break. My calories increased by 500 kcals. The result was a fuller, leaner physique which I was very happy with. I didn't change my training or cardio at all and even trained legs the day before my show (a big no no in the bodybuilding world). In my opinion I ended up looking my all time best on stage. I'm not discounting the importance of peaking well but it just goes to show that zero ridiculous methods such as water loading, sodium depletion, glycogen depletion etc are required to present yourself at your best on stage #justsaying

The Show
 
I feel everything went well in the lead up to the show and on show day, perfectly in fact. My training, my cardio, my macronutrient intake, my food sources, my fluid and sodium intake etc were all on point and I looked great. I had a lot of help on the day and as a result there wasn't too much stress for me, my tan looked great and I was able to pump up really well. I feel that for the most part my posing was very good with a few minor errors that I intend to correct for upcoming shows. After the first round of mandatories I was moved to the middle of the line up next to Luke Belcher (the eventual over 90 kg division winner) and we repeated the mandatory and symmetry rounds. I felt during the round and afterwards looking at photographs that basically it was neck and neck with myself and Luke. I was a little more conditioned and I have a more aesthetic physique with a tight waist and good V taper. Whereas Luke was in condition but less so and has a thick muscular physique (big chest and thick back) but also is a little blockier eg thicker waist. So it could have gone either way depending on whether you prefer thick, muscular but blocky or the aesthetic and conditioned X frame. Anyway myself and Luke stayed in the middle of the line up throughout the comparison so to my surprise when the placings were awarded I ended up placing third. I'm not going to have a whinge about my placing because it is what it is. Bodybuilding is a subjective sport and comes down to the opinions of a panel of 5 or 6 people. Other than presenting yourself to the best of your ability on the day you have no control at all over your placing. Regardless of the placing I am happy because I gave my best, looked my best, don't believe I could have done anything better at this time and as I mentioned earlier it was very special to have my friends and family with me at the show. So I would not change a thing.

Plans

Onwards from the warm up show we have ceased the diet break and gone into a phase of digging in preparation for my pro shows. We have reduced my caloric intake by ~ 1000 kcals. I am certainly feeling it in terms of hunger, energy, motivation, sleep disruption etc but it simply has to be done to get to the destination. I have opted for more volumous foods at the moment in an attempt to keep my hunger levels at bay. For the most part I am managing.

The next phase is going to include my trip to the USA. I will spend numerous weeks training at Golds Venice in LA in the lead up to my two professional shows. I've trained at Golds for extended periods numerous times before and it is my favourite gym in the world to train at. So I'm definitely looking forward to that and also to seeing some of my buddies in the USA.

One change to my show schedule I am making is I am dropping the PNBA Natural Olympia from my show schedule. The reason being is that this show is for me perhaps the biggest "hassle" of all the shows I have planned. This is because I have to drive there, it is mandatory to stay in the host hotel so I won't have cooking facilities making peaking properly difficult, the weekend schedule is excessive in terms of mandatory attendances to certain things, competing is a stressful experience and I feel I just don't need that. Especially not one week out from WNBF Worlds which is my main and final show of the season. So I'm going to do my first show, take some time to train and chill for the week and then head out to Boston for the Worlds. I am happy with my decision and feel it is the right one.

Photos

I have included some photos from show day below:

Remember you can contact me at Muscle Academy for coaching (contest preparation, off season, general weight loss, nutrition, training):

Email - evansmuscleacademy@gmail.com
Website - www.muscleacademy.com.au
Facebook - www.facebook.com/MuscleAcademy
Instagram and Twitter - @evansoooon

Thanks for all the positive feedback and messages. Looking forward to bringing you more updates from the USA soon.

- Evan

Contest Prep Week 27

The Contest Prep Rolls On

Another week has flown by and I have made some good progress. I am now just over 6 weeks away from my main show. In fact I just sent my entry form in today. So things are getting official.

The Diet

I've been trying to keep things fairly consistent, hitting my macros dead on as usual, not changing food choices around too much, opting for lower calorie options and volume for the most part. Of course I still keep my daily dessert in. I think I'm a little food focused as there is a lot of different foods I simply can't have (or it would be stupid to try to have at this point). However I'm really not that fixated on it. Certainly not to the extent I was last time where I was planning my itinerary post show based around food nearly exclusively, looking up restaurant menus and such. It's more like I drive past pizza hut and I'm like "oh I wouldn't mind having a pizza" and I know in time I will be able to. After I eventually have it I know I will think to myself that it wasn't a big deal after all. So I like to think each prep I do I try to grow and mature further and become aware of myself more behaviorally. I think so far I can say this season (whilst not without it's obstacles) is a success in terms of how I'm managing it.

The Training

Coming off the end of the deload last week I'm feeling great. For the most part my strength has maintained and in some cases for exercises I feel like my performance is actually up. I have become accustomed to my pre workout coffee and I'm actually really enjoying my coffee now. I've been converted. That along with prioritising my pre workout meal to being a bigger meal really helps me in terms of satiety and especially in terms of energy/performance in the gym. So things on that front are all good.

I actually purchased a tricep bar this week for the purpose of close grip bench press. It arrived promptly the next day which was great and the bar is high quality. However it turned out to just be impractical for two reasons: 1. it's just too short/narrow so unless I use small plates (which limits the weight then the plates collide with my biceps reducing the range of motion, 2. since the bar is short there is really no way to rack it in a bench press and using the kind of weight I'm using for close grip bench press there is no way I can go from a seated position to a lying position with this bar. Even having a friend pass me the bar is extremely difficult. So instead I'm going to use this bar occasionally for hammer curls and lying/seated tricep extension variants. I'd love to get a longer version of this bar but (a) they are expensive, (b) I don't have space in my car to transport it and (c) I don't like leaving my equipment at the gym.

Pictured: New Tricep Bar

Progress

Last week we made no further changes to our approach and I'm pretty happy because I've continued to use the variable of "time" to just let things develop visually. I can see the changes happening almost daily now. My legs are getting leaner, my glutes and hammies are coming in more and my upper body is getting even more vascular. I'm quite confident with my progress at this point. I know you'd like to see more progress shots but I'm going to keep things under wraps and stay covered up just for now just in case there are spies reading this :p .

My Tips for Deloading

I forgot to add this in last week when I actually deloaded so i figure I'll do it now. I think firstly we need to understand the difference between a taper and a deload. A taper means a reduction in training volume whilst maintaining intensity at a normal level and usually keeping training frequency constant. A deload is a reduction in training intensity whilst keeping training volume up and again usually maintaining training frequency. Both are recovery tools which are usually done consecutively ie taper first, then deload. But they can also be used simultaneously if desired (theoretically your training adaptations might be more at risk if you reduce multiple training variables simultaneously but considering it's for a short period it probably won't make a huge difference - in practice it certainly doesn't appear to).

Tips:

- during a taper volume is typically reduced by up to 50%

- during a deload intensity is typically 60 - 90% of normal, usually erring on the lower end

- do not go to failure during a deload

- whilst deloading take the opportunity to: practice correct form, work on power/explosiveness, focus on contracting the correct muscles.

That's it for another week. Remember you can contact me at Muscle Academy for coaching (contest preparation, off season, general weight loss, nutrition, training):

Email - evansmuscleacademy@gmail.com
Website - www.muscleacademy.com.au
Facebook - www.facebook.com/MuscleAcademy
Instagram and Twitter - @evansoooon

Thanks for all the support!

- Evan