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