Ian’s BodyBlog

Ahh where to begin? Its been awhile since my last post, and things have been hectic!  Between school finishing up and this show coming up at the end of the month i dont know what to do with myself and how to manage my training time and study time between work and everything else! To tell you all the truth I am scared, just like with anything else the first time you do something its scary.  I just feel like there are fifty different things I need to do in order to make a good showing at the monster mash and none of them are getting done.  Although I am a true believer in working hard and things will fall into place, Ive never done this before and its hard! First, I over shot my diet and target weight by about four weeks so I had to diet back up ten pounds NOW two weeks out I feel like Im looking bloated and too full.  My mind is racing and I cant seem to slow it down much like this blog entry! The only thing that is keeping me sane is the fact that this is something I love! lifting, competing, putting myself out there! these are all things that I want to do and things that I will do again no matter the out come.  My mindset has not changed in the slightest, I will still be a pro by 2011, I still want to be on stage at jr. nationals in 09′, these are all just stepping stone problems and jitters! I just want to thank everyone reading this and sending words of encouragement because all of those things help with this journey that I set out on and stage one is gonna be complete in two weeks! wish me luck and keep in touch, I will try to get some photos up from this week, one week out, and me on stage, Ill keep you all updated! thanks, ian

Wow! that is about all that I can say for how I have been feeling for the past three to four days.  Well to give a brief history; I was dead lifting last Sunday, doing a moderate weight without a belt for a set of 12 or so.  During, the set I felt nothing other than intensity until I dropped the weight back off at the bottom of the set and stood back up and felt a pain take over my whole abdominal area!  It was the worst feeling I’ve felt in a long time with the mixture of pain and emotion, asking myself "what have I done?".  The pain subsided and I took the back workout fairly light that day.  I went on for the past couple days with know pain until about three days ago when I started experiencing localized pain on the left side of lower abdominal area.  Emotion set in for the past few days with that being all that I could think about.  I went on with my regular lifting schedule taking it somewhat light the past few days and I finally had my doctors appointment today so as you can imagine I have been pretty jittery with the thoughts of possibly having a hernia only 12 weeks out from my first show.  I saw the doctor and we talked, I explained what had happened and he did a physical exam.  Tension was high and I was getting sweaty unfortunately for him while i waited for his thoughts.  It turns out……..its a slight abdominal strain!! normally that would be a bummer but compared to an abdominal hernia that was music to my ears!  His instructions were…….don’t change a thing, its because of the heavy weight training that I do that I probably didn’t sustain a hernia!  A huge sense of relief came over me and I went and had a huge leg day about an hour after the appointment.  I thank god for watching over me and ask him to bless all of us training for shows out there to be safe and keep our bodies healthy!  thanks for reading!  -E

For about the past year I’ve really enjoyed my training.  Theres been some highs and there has been the lows but all and all I don’t think I would be the person I am today if I hadn’t begun to workout.  Today, as well as the past couple days, I’ve been off school and work and really had some time to think and ponder who I am and where I’m going.  During, this time to myself I got a chance to really buckle down in the gym and on my diet (and for those of you who also eat very clean you know that the dieting is in a sense much harder than the lifting).  I found myself realizing that this is me!  The lifestyle, the dieting, the lifting, the not drinking at the bars and going to bed at 10pm on Friday and Saturday nights, the early morning cardio sessions, this is what I was meant to do in life.  Don’t get me wrong I love firefighting and the career aspect and I intend to carry on with that as long as I do not have pro status, but I realized that although the road to IFBB pro status long and grueling, I can….no scratch that, I am going to do it.  The work ethic I have brought to the table the support of my mom and dad because I couldn’t have even gotten this far without them, the passion for the sport, not the money nor the fame, those are the things that are going to make me a pro!  Some, will probably laugh at this entry and to those of you who do, to each his or her own opinion and those are the opinions that keep me driving on and wanting to be the best, and to those who read this and support my thoughts and future aspirations I thank you because it is all of you who also keep me driving on.  This has been my brain for the past couple days, I cannot stop thinking about it.  I cannot wait to go into the gym tomorrow and push this body to its limits and take that step closer to achieving my goals.  I am honestly not one of those corny blow bags that just wants other support and wants them to have a perception of me that is not true, I wrote this in order to prepare, everyone out there on this website and bodybuilding community as a whole, to prepare them to meet a future sandow holder, a future Olympian, a future pro and friend and colleague.  I  just want to thank those of you who read this and I would also like to thank you workout partners josh and ethan and jay and to a couple others if you get a chance to read this.  -E