robthomson’s BodyBlog

13  weeks began my strict contest diets, keep my carbs high until this week. My main concern was to keep bringing in my midsection and keep adding size and shape to my legs. Started my cardio began with 30 minutes a day. Adding 5 minutes every other week.

8 WEEKS OUT

With 8 weeks before my first show of 2 shows in September, I began cycling my Carb intake. God I hate training on low carb days cause i get real cranky but it needs to be done lol. I’ll be mixing it up, I’ll be statring with 3 low dats and one high carb day, or 2 low days and 2 high days.We’ll see how well my conditioning is coming along. I want my body in full fat burning mode. I want to make sure I keep my  strength and muscle mass up staying big and full. Still not happy with my legs I’m really going to have to hammer them in the next 8 weeks to bring them where I want to be and keep them proportion to my upper body.

My first ever bodybuilding contest I placed 3rd, easily could have finished 2nd. It was my first ever show I was pretty happy with the results. There is no substitute for winning, being a former pro football player that had been ingrained into my psyche. I have since reflected back on my first show. Despite not winning it was still a very positive learning experience. It brought back something I had been missing since giving up the game I love, Competition! It gave me a reason to hit the weights hard, for the first time since playing football; I was training with emotion and purpose. It’s a different type of training which made it fresh and exciting.  For my first show I went with an old school training program, the Venice Beach/west coast system which had produce all the great champions of the golden era. It was basic, yet intense which was perfect for me. My gains were outstanding, I was adding size and shape like it was nothing. 11 weeks out my body was on track to blow everyone away. Then disaster hit, during my 10^th week, I was feeling really run down. But I had being working like crazy ( 14-15 days straight) including the Arnold Classic weekend, Muscletech booth so I assumed it was as a result of that. Towards the end of the week I was getting a really bad pain in my upper leg, which started to make me worry. The beginning of the following week I felt really ill, and my leg had swelled up quite badly. I had contracted a Staph infection in my left leg. It had swollen up so badly it looked like a huge slab of meat. It was a result of small cut getting infected with the bacteria. Being rundown by working so much and the hardcore training my body couldn’t fight off the infection. Me I think it was just a ****ing fluke. 3 days in the hospital another 8 days laid up, hooked up to an IV. I was pissed I had lost like 15lbs and 11 days of dieting and training. Considering the severity of the infection I should consider myself extremely lucky that’s all I had lost.  Considering what had just had happened everyone expected me to pack it in. Screw that I had come back from much worse during my football career no way was bacteria going to prevent me to compete in my first show, especially since I had really busted my ass to that point. I was also really pissed that everyone was so quick to write me off. I had lost a lot of size mainly in my legs. But I had a huge chip on my shoulder and the motivation to prove everyone wrong. I was able to recover very well; my legs never fully recovered the size and shape lost. My conditioning was off as well, I cut back because I was still trying to gain the size lost. I was please with my chest, shoulders and biceps. I was very happy with my back. My rear double bi blew away the other competitors and appreciation from the crowd. I recovered enough to place which was a victory in itself because I proved all the doubters wrong. I had learned a lot, a lot of do’s and don’ts through trail and error. This is frustrating but it is an invaluable learning tool. After a few days of eating it was back to training for my next show which is in mid September.  My main focus was to add as much size and shape to my leg as possible, really taper in my torso improve my conditioning