BahamaMan’s BodyBlog

            I’m 5 weeks out from my Oct 25 show and 7 weeks out from my Nov 8 show.  Plan is to peak for Nov 8 show by being stage ready on the 25^th and then holding/tweaking that for the 8^th.  Appear to be losing fat, but the weight is not changing much.  Is it possible that I am in that elusive diet/exercise zone where I am losing fat while gaining muscle?  If so, want to be sure to capture my diet for future reference!

            Early Morning Snack (6 AM)   - 1 piece whole grain toast with butter and jelly, 1 cup coffee.

            Breakfast (7:30) - 4 egg whites (1 yolk), chopped onions, salsa, small handful of grated cheese, 32 oz diet Coke on drive to work

            Mid Morning Snack (9:30) - 1 Clif Builder’s Protein Bar, 32 oz water

            Lunch (11:30) - Bowl of lettuce, 1 can tuna, Italian dressing, 100 cal pak Sun Chips

            Mid Afternoon Snack (2PM) - Handful of almonds or 1 stick string cheese, 20 oz diet coke

            Drive home -    32 oz water

            Late afternoon Snack/Pre-workout (5PM) - 1 scoop Whey Protein powder in 6 oz hot water, BCAAs, 1 piece whole grain bread with Natty PB, 1 cup coffee

            Post-workout Snack - 6 oz orange juice, 1 scoop Whey Protein powder in 6 oz hot

water

            Dinner (7:30) - Usually some kind of high quality protein, a good veggie (i.e. fresh green beans, broccoli, or squash (with some butter and brown sugar)), 1 cup coffee

            Late night snack (9PM) - 1 piece string cheese or 1-2 boiled egg whites

            Don’t always do the late night snack and often throw in a couple squares of dark chocolate with either breakfast or lunch.  Needless to say, no post-workout snack on non workout days. 

            I have no idea how many calories this is (or grams of protein, etc.), but what’s cool is that there are several places that I can cut calories pretty easily.  I’m thinking that for the last month, as necessary, I’ll cut the chips and natty PB and probably mostly stay away from the dark chocolate; that’s 300 calories or about a 1 pound loss a week! 

            I’ve done at least a couple of these “Why do I do this?” blogs in the past, at times when I’ve been wondering, well…just “Why do I do this (at my age, no less)?”  To date, I’ve always been able to come up with not just good reasons to stay at it, but things about weightlifting and bodybuilding that I still just love. 

            Yesterday was one of those workouts I will remember for awhile and is a great example, to me, of why I do this. 

            By way of scene setting, you have to know that the power was out at my house all day yesterday.  The light filtering in through the little window under the deck barely lit my basement gym.  However, I was not going to let low light get in the way of my deadlifting.  I deadlifted heavy - squinting to see where to record the big numbers in my training log.  Then it was heavy bent-over rows and heavy shrugs.  When it was over I was dripping with sweat in my almost dark basement.  Priceless!

            Yesterday’s workout was one that hit muscle fibers that I hadn’t reached for years and I’m sure it sent levels of circulating testosterone in my body to levels approaching those of a 15-year-old boy. 

            Today, I’m sore in all the right places and feeling that the pursuit of getting stronger and the process of sculpting my body is something I can’t imagine ever getting tired of, even if I never competed again. 

            It is definitely all good today, my friends.  Very all good.

I’ve been in pre-contest diet mode for about a month now and have that “is it time to eat, yet?” feeling most of the time lately, but the needle on the scale hasn’t moved for a couple of weeks.  At 8 and 10 weeks out from my next two shows I’m not sweating it as I’m within about 10 pounds of where I think I need to be AND I seem to be leaning out (and getting bigger?!) AND I haven’t started doing any cardio yet.

It’s just that I’m so excited to see the latest version of me at 3-4% BF.  I’m thinking I may have added around 6 pounds of muscle since Oct 06 and I think I’ve added it in the right places (shoulders, calves, back).

But being stuck at 196 also has me wondering a bit if I still have what it takes to get into contest shape.  Perhaps I need to be eating fewer calories and doing more cardio than I’m prepared to eat/do at 43.  Maybe I’m getting to old for this…

Then again, nah!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I’ve got to remember that this is the part of the process I like the most.  This exact challenge of doing what it takes to be ready on contest day.  And that these 8-10 weeks are the reason that lots of guys will never compete.  Because they don’t have what it takes to get contest ready. 

In my opinion, this is the sh#t that keeps a guy young.  Competition.  Pushing yourself and achieving something you didn’t think you could.

Oh baby, I’ve so still got what it takes to get contest ready in 2008!

See you on stage…

I’m 43 today, taking the day off, and treating myself to a workout at the local Gold’s Gym.  Emerging from my basement gym for a workout once in a while is a good thing.  The admiring stares don’t hurt either.  I’m also hoping for a little gym eye-candy but, since I’ll be there in the middle of the day, not much hope of that.

Had thought about doing a Jack Lalanne-type feat of strength today (you know, like swimming a couple of miles while towing a small fleet of boats).  Actually, I had thought about doing 1000 pushups on my b-day.   Figured that I’d need to do something like 60/hr over the course of 18 hours.  Doable, I think.  But would sort of get in the way of doing anything else that day.  Maybe next year (or if I ever find myself in solitary confinement).

The birthday workout that I will be doing will likely include leg press and arm work.  Leg press because I don’t get to hit my legs with this machine at home and arms because I’ve got big ones and sometimes I like to show them off in all their pumped-up glory! 

Not only are they narrow but I have the darndest time getting them to grow.  Over the years I have tried almost every shoulder exercise in the “Grow your shoulders” book and still these stubborn delts almost NEVER get sore.  It’s strange too, because my other sets of pushing muscles, pecs and tris, grow just fine; get sore after just about every workout.  But not my sorry excuse for deltoids.  

What’s sort of funny is that on the rare occasion they do get sore after a workout, the workout wasn’t for my shoulders!  Most recently I went heavy on lying tricep extensions supersetted with standing barbell curls.  Anterior and medial heads of my little delts were tender to the touch for a couple of days afterwards.  Then, last night I drill shoulders with db presses and side rows and rear laterals and funky pushups using hanging rings and today – Nothing!

Woe is me I guess. Not much useful info here kids.  Just a whiney blog L  Or maybe it’s a cry for help.  Yeah, that’s what this is.  I admit it.  Although I think I’m a pretty smart guy when it comes to this building muscle stuff, I’ll accept any/all advice on this topic if it means that maybe someday I’ll be able to fill out the shoulders in my shirts!!

First, let me say that I am extremely thankful for all the natural bodybuilding shows these days giving all kinds of folks the opportunity to step on stage and fulfill the "Pumping Iron" dream.  Personally, I would have never competed again if I had to share the stage with a bunch of roiders!

And the fact that there are several professional natural bodybuilding organizations that crown new professional natural bodybuilders (every weekend) is kind of cool too.  Becoming a "Pro" certainly wasn’t something I had on my radar several years ago, but now it is at least a possibility.

Having said all this, though, I’ve got to say that a lot of the guys stepping on stage at these shows are downright scrawny.  I’ve heard someone call them shredded grasshoppers and I sort of like that description.

Look, I’m all for symmetry and such, but some of these guys, many of whom are winning shows, look more like swimmers/divers than bodybuilders.  You know: lean with nice lines and a well defined core.  They look more like they should be winning FAME male swimsuit comps than bodybuilding shows.  Hell Michael Phelps is just about ready to win some of these shows!

Just because we don’t take drugs doesn’t mean we can’t have big muscles.  I mean look at those muscle beach guys of the 40s and 50s.  The only stacks they were taking were stacks of pancakes.  Did those guys compete at 0% bodyfat?  No.  Did they need to compete at 0% bodyfat?  No.

I mean if you’re 5′9" and weigh 300 pounds at 0% bodyfat you can afford to lose the muscle that it takes to get shredded glutes.  But if you’re 5′9" and natural getting to 0% BF means that you’ll step on stage looking like, well, a shredded grasshopper, not a bodybuilder.

Note to the natural bodybuilding world:  Let’s not ruin a good thing (natural bodybuilding) by forgetting that natural bodybuilders are still supposed to have big muscles. 

Awhile back there were several holier than thou folks on this site that were giving folks (like me) a hard time if their goal was to earn a pro card.  These college edgumacated pinheads would get all philosophical about how shallow we pro-wannabes were.  I think their argument went something like, "Would you not be doing this if getting a pro card wasn’t an option?".  Followed by a few other smart guy questions like, "If a tree falls in the woods, does it make any noise?" and "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

I have to admit that those budding Buddhas got to me.  Heck, I even changed my goal to something sounding much more impressive, you know "Embracing the challenge of staying fit and healthy."

But lately I’ve realized that embracing the blah blah blah really isn’t my bodybuilding goal.  My bodybuilding goal is to get bigger and better every day.  My goal is to be the envy of guys who want muscles. My goal is to get to the point where the judges all agree that my physique is worthy of distinction as a natural pro.  My goal is to get a pro card, dammit!

So, screw you if you have a problem with my resurrected goal.  If you’re motivated by purer thoughts and intentions, good for you.  But the challenge of becoming one of the best is the challenge to really keeps me going at this.  And I’m not ashamed to admit it!

Watched Pumping Iron with my 6-year-old son yesterday.  He couldn’t wait to go downstairs and workout.  He was so pumped that we didn’t even finish the movie.

Down in the basement he took his shirt off and I proceeded to direct him through a series of bench press, chins, push-ups, bent-over rows and of course, concentration curls, a la Arnold.  In between sets he took swigs of his grape juice and had a fruit roll-up for his post workout meal.

My budding Arnold says he wants to be a bodybuilder when he grows up (at least that’s what he wants to be today).  He asked if we could put some Arnold posters on his bedroom wall. Oh yeah, and throughout the movie, he keeps saying that I’ve got bigger muscles than Mike Katz, Ed Corney, etc. 

After the workout we went fishing.

How much better than yesterday afternoon can it get?  Really!? 

After awhile planning your meals and workouts in advance just comes naturally, doesn’t it?  So natural that I have a hard time understanding why folks have trouble doing it.  Even when traveling 

For example, I am travelling for work today and tomorrow.  So, tonight I will workout at the gym near the hotel that I’m staying at.  Already know what I will be doing (plus or minus): upper chest, shoulders and triceps. Tomorrow night, it will be some kind of HITT cardio.

And regarding meals for the next couple of days: Had a piece of steak this morning b/c I knew I was out of the cheese I use with my eggs.  I needed to use the steak before I left anyway (and I didn’t eat it last night b/c I needed to deal with some fresh fish).  Packed a piece of the steak for lunch (b/c meeting lunches are usually pretty crappy).  Will have a Cobb salad tonight at the hotel restaurant after my workout and save half of it for lunch tomorrow.  Breakfast tomorrow will be eggs and bacon (at the hotel) with some whole wheat toast that I bring from home.

Snacks for my drive to and from Peoria (my destination) will be Clif Protein Bars and some beef jerky.  And of course I’m bringing a couple of scoops of whey protein and my BCAAs.

 Simple, right?!  I just don’t get it when folks complain about not being able to eat well on the road.  At least when you travel infrequently like I do.

Started taking BCAAs about a week ago and I feel like I’ve gained a bunch of muscle almost overnight! 

Not really. 

But I did start taking BCAAs about a week ago with the hope that they would help me add/maintain muscle during my contest prep.

Am certainly aware of what I call the "supplement effect".  You know how it works - a person dishes out a bunch of dough for a supplement then starts eating better and training harder (because they dished out a bunch of dough for the supplement), and when the gains come the supplement gets all the credit. 

Oh well, for all we know those little pills are full of sawdust, but I guess if the sawdust, I mean supplement, gets you/me to train harder and eat cleaner the sawdust, I mean supplement, just might be worth it.