Muscle Mania Matt’s BodyBlog

2008 Mr. Olympia Predictions
1.  Jay Cutler- After a couple of narrow victories, I don’t see Jay competing out of shape this year; and he has had all year to get ready. Even though his waist isn’t what it used to be, Jay in shape is hard to beat; and if you want to beat the champ, you generally have to knock him out.
2.  Dexter Jackson-This is competitive fight, but with Victor absent and this (supposedly) being his last show, Dexter has a chance to seize what he has been after for a decade. Rumor is that he has put on a solid five pounds or so, which is a lot for his frame. We never have to doubt Dexter’s conditioning, so if he did get a little more size, expect him to be fighting for the top spot. However, unless Jay is off, Dexter won’t be able to unseat him.
3.  Dennis Wolf- Dennis is amazing, and can legitimately stand next to Jay in my opinion. He has better symmetry and proportions than the big man, and is only slightly edged out on size. Depending on his conditioning and Dexter’s newly added size, he is going to be in a tight race for second.
4.  Phil Heath-This guy is a freak! I also think he is going to surprise us. It reminds me of pumping iron when Frank tells Arnold, “The wolf at the bottom of the hill is hungrier than the wolf on top of the hill”. He lost to Dexter in the spring, which I think actually helped his psyche for preparation for the Olympia. While he has a few things to work on, he has huge potential and will debut in the top five.
5.  Branch Warren- The O is a show for freaks, so Branch fits right in. He’s got nutty size and typically has great conditioning, but I don’t see him bumping higher than fifth due to the lack of aesthetic quality of his physique.

I just started using NitroCarn from STS(along with their Pro Muscle Nitric). I have to say, I am quite impressed with it! My workout quality and energy levels are quite a bit better than before, so even if I feel tired and tanked going into the gym, I am still getting excellent workouts! I also feel like I am getting a stronger pump out of it, and its coming a little faster as well. Only about a week into it, so I will post further results.

I had a good workout yesterday, and had a good amount of volume. Despite being a little sleep deprived, and tore through a good pull workout. I have still been taking aplodan and leukic, and I honestly think they have been helping me out. I have been training very hard with short rest breaks, and I am in a deficit, but I am still pushing good weight. I took my anabolic halo down to one scoop, and that was much better. I would like to try some gakic next time around. Besides the MuscleTech products, I am also taking Lifepak Nano, Animal Stak, Lean Body, and a couple things to help me sleep. I will be going back to my normal split, which has always worked well for me. It is similar to what Ronnie has done. 3 day split done 6 days per week; push, pull, and legs. the first half of the week will be heavier, strength and power movements. The second half of the week will be 20+ reps with more overall volume and more "bodybuilding".

We at customer service have been fortunate enough to recieve a large quantity of MuscleTech Products to support our fitness programs. They thought it would be helpful to give everyone a chance at their products, so we will be giving them a run for a couple of months. I am currently adding Aplodan, Leukic, Anabolic Halo, and NitroTech to my program. I haven’t really noticed anything with Aplodan or Leukic. Aplodan is just a form of creatine and ALA in a fairly low dosage, so I wasn’t expecting a magical difference, but maybe over time we will get something from it. I have been getting stronger, but with everything that I do, it is hard to assign credit. Leukic I haven’t really noticed anything yet. I have tried Anabolic Halo(blue ras) and I don’t like it at all. My first workout with it, I used two scoops. It tasted a little odd, and leaves a very strong "cough-drop" sensation in your throat. Must be the cryogenically frozen ingredients!!! I then got a very upset stomach a short while later, which was quite intense. This was a few days ago, and I haven’t wanted to take it again. As to the nitrotech, i have the strawberry banana, and it tastes pretty good. For normal protein supplementation, I usually take Dymatize Elite Whey, so I switched them out.

Ridiculous! I had one AC joint resection last october, got another one coming on the other side. I have some space issues there, so our supra-man on top gets impinged. What is dumb is the effect it has on training. I press 200-250 fairly easily, easily db press 120’s for 10, and closegrip 225 for 10, but my bench is under 400 because my rotators can’t make the lift. If they weren’t impinged, and were fully trained, I am sure I could press over 500!

Last night I was stretching my piriformis, and I had only gone about 10% when I heard a loud ripping noise come from my knee, and a buttload of pain! It felt like either the connective tissue of my IT band or my fibular lateral ligament had torn. 12 hours later, there is no swelling, no color, nothing! It still hurts pretty good, but I can walk on it. I think I am ok, and that my knee is just pissed at me, but I am going to have it looked at anyway. With how it is now, I wouldn’t have been too worried, except for the loud ripping sound when it happened, during a stretch I do twice a day.

I have always carried a little more than I would like to(it’s all relative, what is good to me can be different than what is good to you). I have put good muscle on over the last year, but much more fat than I should have, simply because I didn’t care enough or didn’t use the discipline within me to make it happen. The last year and a half was rough; I went from working at Golds, working at Micron, switching to a different Gold’s, moving into a private studio, and finally(thankfully) over to BBCOM. I’ve been in school full time. I have gotten married, and had some major surgery on my shoulder. I have moved 3 times in 15 months. I think with all of these distractions and instability I lost sight of what was important to me at the time, and my nutrition suffered horribly. I feel like I am only now getting my life out of the feeling of chaos and back into normalcy. Now in front of me lies the challenge of getting into my best possible shape to compete again. I won’t ever step onstage unless I feel I am ready, because I am sick of mediocrity. I am planning for a couple shows in April/May, and will do everything I can to make it to them. However, if I don’t think I am ready, I will continue dieting for shows later in the year. But until I can see the striations in my hamstrings, and have a roadmap across my back, I will not step onstage. I don’t mind a whole lot if I don’t win, as long as I feel I did my best. To rephrase, I don’t care about winning if I didn’t beat anyone that impresses me. I would rather place third behind a couple of fantastic athletes, then win in a very weak group.

Man! My workouts the last couple weeks have been great! This week I have been running giant sets across the board, and I basically got hammered by my training. Today, after my warmup, I just ran 4 straight sets of military presses, bringing it up to 185 for 10, although I tend to lift rather slow in most training phases. After than, I ran a giant set of arnold presses, DB laterals, and rear delt flies, and my delts were hurting so bad and were so pumped up I couldn’t use my arms for a few minutes. I LOVE IT. I also ran a tri-set for triceps, french presses, DB Kickbacks, and dips. Also of note, today was my last day on Omnevol, and the results were astounding!