BahamaMan’s BodyBlog

Very happy with the way I looked on show-day.  Clearly one of the most muscular dudes in the show.  Went on-stage at 187 and could have been about 2 pounds leaner, but those 2 pounds might have cost me a couple of pounds of muscle, and this show wasn’t worth that loss. 

Realized (FINALLY!) that my choices on how to present myself during symmetry and mandatory rounds are causing me to place lower than I should.  Bottom-line I need to assume the flared lat position in front and back relaxed (even though I think it makes us all look like muscle-bound meatheads).  Regarding the mandatories, I finally figured out that if I "personalize" the mandatories then it is hard for judges to compare me to the other guys in the line.  Duh!

Scheduled a 30 minute photo shoot with the show photographer.  We did it between the prejudging and evening show.  Money will spent.  For less than $100 I got a couple hundred professional frames both backstage and back at the host hotel! 

Will do at least 2 shows next year.  One in July (in STL) and am thinking about doing the NANBF show in Evansville in August (pro-qualifier).  Then maybe, if I’m close to winning my class in Aug, I’ll do Dave Yeates’ Chicago-land NANBF show in lateOct-earlyNov. 

I know time will fly and I can hardly wait till July/August.  I believe I am getting close to a pro-quality physique!

Started to get a scratchy throat and body aches last weekend and started to freak out.  At two weeks out I decided to stop working out and start mega-dosing vitamin C to keep from getting sick.  I will just do push-ups, chinups, some cardio and posing for the next two weeks.  This should help prevent any muscle loss while avoiding overtaxing my body with having to repair itself after tough workouts.   

is that you walk on egg shells regarding your health.  Can’t get sick.  Can’t get a cut or bruise.  Can’t pull or strain something.  And everything becomes super-regimented during this time: my meals and workouts are scheduled several days in advance.  Finally, I begin to not have the energy that I need to have to be the best dad or husband.  In general,  I become me when I was 15: I think a lot about what I’m going to eat, my workouts become the most important thing, and I get plenty of sleep.  Then again, maybe that’s one of the reasons I enjoy contest prep.  It sort of removes me from the grown-up world for awhile!        

Contest prep has switched into high gear.  Decided not to do Nov 8 show so now I’m planning to peak for Oct 25.  At 191.5, I’m feeling about 3-4 pounds from where I want to be, so plan is to do some cardio everyday and cut calories by about 300/per day (up to now I’ve only occassionally doing cardio).  To cut calories I’ll do half a Clif protein bar at mid-morning and the other half at mid-afternoon (see previous blog on contest diet).  Perhaps just one piece of bread (without natty PB) as part of pre-workout/late afternoon meal.

Have started posing every morning for about 30 minutes.  Working on holding relaxed and mandatory poses for at least a minute.  Also, taking pics of poses and working on "perfecting" them.  Seems like there’s always something that can be improved/tweaked and bad habits to be corrected.

Workouts are still heavy.  Am still setting PRs on big movements.  In my world, contest prep does not include weeks of doing mostly "cutting" moves.  News Flash:  Cutting comes from diet.  And if you’re too weak during contest prep to move big weight then, in my book, you’re doing contest prep wrong!

Also, have decided not to use tanning beds to get base tan.  Everyone knows that laying under those things isn’t healthy, and since natural bodybuilding is supposed to epitomize health, getting that kind of artifical tan seems inconsistent with the effort.  We’ll see how the Pro-Tan only approach works.

Shaved my legs a couple of weeks ago and am now just maintaining the smoothness.  I like shaving early because it allows time for any cuts or post-shaving "rashes" to clear up.  It also helps me see my leg definition (or lack thereof) better.

Beginning to get excited about the show.  Listening to my posing routine music I get little adrenaline rushes.  Sort of can’t wait to get under the lights!

            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.