BahamaMan’s BodyBlog

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. 

Gaining muscle while losing weight: Not sure how it works.  I mean, how do you gain muscle while being in a negative energy balance? 

Although I’m confused about this, I’m convinced that it can happen. I mean my body has transformed over the last several years all the while weighing about 195.  So a person must be able to gain muscle AND lose weight at the same time. (If anyone can direct me to a good reference on how this happens I’d be very thankful.)

So, at the beginning of my slow cut I want to maximize my chances of gaining while losing.  And I’ve been reading about the importance of BCAAs to a person trying to do this.

I’m excited that this supplement might be a revolutionary addition to my diet.  And at the same time, I’m a bit scared that it will be a revolutionary addition to my diet.

What I mean is that if these BCAAs work, help me add muscle faster than I have in the past, I will always sort of wonder "what if" I would have started taking these things sooner.

We’ll see. 

I don’t understand getting fat between contests.  The bulks of many guys are testament, to me, that these guys aren’t really committed to a healthy lifestyle.  But I’ve got to give them props, losing 40ish pounds in twelve weeks has got to be tough.

That’s not my style, for sure.  I’m committed to living the relatively lean life.  Have tried to stay under 10% body fat during for the last couple of years while slowly adding muscle. 

Now it’s time to start the "slow cut".  I’m 10 and 12 weeks out from my next two shows and I’m looking to walk on stage at around 185.  That’s 12 pounds from where I’m at, so I’ve got to lose about a pound a week.  I can do that!

Needless to say, when I get into the 180s, I will reevaluate where I need to end up.  Certainly, the goal is to step on stage looking your best, which has nothing to do with how much you weigh!