Greg Bouyer’s BodyBlog

I recently competed in the IFBB QLD Championships and the IFBB Australian Championships. I came 2nd in the State Finals and 4th at the Nationals, competing in the heavy weight division. I must admit to being a little disappointed, not because I didn’t win a title, but because I looked better 4 weeks out. It all went down hill when I started to mess around with salt, water and carbs, experimenting with different peaking strategies.
The next comp I will do is the IFBB Australasian Titles in March 08. The winners of this comp are eligible for a pro card so I’m pulling out all the stops.

3 weeks to go until my competition. I have reached a personal best in regards to weight and skin folds. At 100 kg (220 pounds) carbed up and an average skin fold of 3mm I am very happy to say the least. I have two weeks to see if I can push the envelope a little further and reduce my lower back skin fold to 3mm.
I pushed it hard last week. I was so depleted on Friday I could barley stand up and went through the day in a semi unconcious state. Its kind of weird to get through the day and wonder what you actually did (with no alchohol that is). I will put in the same intensity this week and maybe up it in the second last week. The last week will be all about carbing up and water control.

I wasn’t going to do this comp in October but I was leaning up anyway due to the ultra clean diet I am on. I have been currently sitting on about 4000 calories a day but all clean unprocessed food (not even Diet Coke) with 50% of total calories coming from protein. My intention was to increase size while staying reasonably lean but the more flax oil I added, the more fat I lost. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I was consistently gaining lean weight (total weight minus body fat percentage) while loosing fat. My skin folds are 3mm on chest, 4mm on the stomach, and 3mm on the thighs all with no cardio or hunger pains. It has been the best contest prep I have ever had (so far).

Sometimes I find it very hard to appreciate what I have and what I have achieved when my focus is always on getting to the next level. I read a really good ad in one of the bodybuilding mags with a picture of George Farah’s arm. There was notes scribbled by George all over with arrows and measurements like "need one more inch here more definition there" etc. At the bottom of the ad it said, "every man wants George Farah’s arms except George Farah". It was funny because it was so true. Nobody is ever happy with the way they look, not even Ronnie or Jay. You often hear of people at the top of their field say things like if only I had or I will be happy when.
I have realised that for myself it’s the journey that counts not the end result. It’s the effort I put in and the sacrifices I make that is more important and more permanent. As a Christian I stop each day and thank God for the things I have and the things through his strength I have achieved. It’s awesome to think that I can please God in this way.

Minor flaws have been bothering me in regards to my symmetry lately. My right tricep isn’t as big as my left and my left bicep isn’t as big as my right. I know everyone has those minor differences and even though I know that no one would notice when Im on stage, it still irritates me. I decided to focus on these issues in the next couple of weeks while I am making gains so I can even out the week points. The other bodypart I am trying to bring up is my hams. I would like to see more "hang" from the side.
Diet is going well. After a few years of eating the same food, temptation is no longer a issue. It’s just a routine to eat this type of food at this time. All I change from the offseason to precontest is quantities. I like it better this way. I don’t have to diet too the extreme precontest (even though I do anyway) and I look decent in the offseason as well.

This week has been a awesome training week. Feeling strong, gaining size, and loosing the fat. Getting allot of comments at the gym which is always good for confidence. My leg day was crazy. My legs were so pumped it was painful (in a good way). I could hardly walk.
I went to the NABBA Southern Hemisphere comp to see some of the guys I know compete last weekend. It was a great show as usual. Australia and New Zealand’s best were battling. The girls were gorgeous as usual and most of them ripped to shreds. There were allot of big guys but no body really impressed me with conditioning. Charlie Duca, former IFBB pro from Australia competed and took out the overall. He dwarfed the Amateur competitors and stole all the glory which I think is lame. It’s not fair to the up and coming amateurs to have to compete with former pro’s. Its great for the crowd but not for the competitor who works their ass off just to be ignored.

It may be good or bad psychologically speaking. Depends on the way you look at it. But I feel so much better now I have put some size back on and lifting some decent weights. I love bodybuilding and I love the lifestyle (yes even the dieting) which is fortunate because its now obvious that I am very much addicted.
My wife’s glad to see I am back into it as well. I get so restless and unpredictable when I’m not 100% focused and she hates it. I think it’s to do with that primal masculine feeling you get when you lift heavy. When I’m not lifting stuff I get that feeling from doing dangerous and (yes I admit it) stupid stuff like speeding etc.
I am now on my way to building a bit more mass than last year and keeping the bodyfat low. I am going to play with a technique called nutrient partitioning, which enables you to gain muscle and lose fat.
The theory goes that when you drop calories to lose weight, the body responds by increasing the number of insulin receptors (assuming that all the food is clean). When you increase the calories again, the muscle cells increase the efficiency of nutrient uptake and therefore you gain size (until the muscles are too full then the calories will spill over into fat). If you go back and forth with this scenario, you technically will gain muscle and lose fat. The time period in which you stay in each phase depends on the size of the person and their metabolism and the beauty of it is that you will lose more fat long term due to the high calorie period increasing your metabolism.
A good indication that this technique might work for me would be the extreme post comp rebound I experienced after dieting for 4 months straight. I found that after the comp I gained 10kg (about 20 pounds) in a week with no bodyfat increase and the pumps I got at the gym where painful. Like my skin was going to rip. Very cool, but I found it hard to sleep and even walk.  

I lost a bit of muscle and gained some fat due to a stomach virus I had a couple of weeks ago. I am back on track now, gaining back the muscle and loosing the fat, which feels good.
Last week I found out that the National IFBB show I was going to do in October doesn’t qualify the winner to receive a pro card and the National IFBB show in April next year is the pro card qualifier. I was in two minds about wether I was going to compete in Oct and April or put all my money and focus into just the April show.
After talking to my friends and fellow competitors and reading the advice people have left, I have decided to concentrate on the April show next year and put everything into the one competition that gives me the opportunity to achieve my goal.
This doesn’t mean I am going to sit back for the next 6 months until contest prep time. I plan on gaining muscle and loosing fat (as much as I can loose without compromising muscle gain) from now until April next year. Gain a bit of muscle. Focusing on proportion, thickness, symmetry and quality.
Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback and advice last week. I appreciate your thoughts.

It turns out that even if I won the IFBB Australian Amateur title in October, I still wont qualify for a pro card. The competition I need to compete in is the IFBB Australasian Amateur titles in April next year. The level of competition is about the same as the Australian titles; the only difference is that the Kiwi’s (New Zealanders) compete as well.
Since I was going to put a fair bit of money into the comp this year I would like to at least have a shot at getting a pro card.
It may be a blessing in disguise as the feedback I have been getting from the judges is that I will need more size to stand with the pro’s. I sneak into the super heavyweights at 220 lean pounds but with my structure I need a bit more overall thickness.
I am now thinking of changing my plans and will aim to do the Australasian comp next year. This will give me a bit of time to put on some size and come in with a bit more thickness.
The other option I was thinking about is doing both comps but putting more money into the Australasian. The only problem with that is that I won’t be able to put as much money into the second comp as I would doing the one show next year.

If would appreciate any wisdom from other competitors. I will make my final decision next week. Please leave a comment. Thanks.

This last week was meant to be the start of some serious training and dieting in getting ready for the IFBB show in October. Unfortunately I came down with a stomach virus, which didn’t allow me to absorb anything I ate. It is so frustrating to be sick and all you can do is wait it out. I usually just scale back the training intensity and push through most sickness but this one I was forced to lay off the training all together in the last half of the week. The positive side is that I still have 23 weeks to go so at least time is on my side.