First Post, Taking a week off from training.
Well I have thought about keeping a daily blog for a long time to help keep me focused. I have some serious goals that I am striving to accomplish in the next year. I recently competed in two shows in October and one in March. I was extrememly focused for the shows in October and dieted for 18 weeks. I learned a lot about my body and what I wanted out of bodybuilding. I actually won the 2008 Mr. Anchorage title, and ABFF pro card, but felt that I could have been more on my game. It was only my second show so I really could’nt haver asked for more. I decided to compete in my hometowns first show in March. I struggled to get the diet going and ended up only dieting for 12 weeks. I was lean but definitley not at my best. I made some serious decisions that night about what I really wanted out of bodybuilding.
I became familiar with AST’s Max-OT training principles about two years ago through Skip LaCour after previously following more popular workouts. I gave it a try but it seemed as if my body wasn’t quite ready for consistent heavy weights. After about six months more of the conventional lifting I was a little frustrated with my results. I decided to put my full mental focus and effort into using both the MAX OT Training and Cardio. I had better results in the 6 months of using MAX OT than I did the previous two years with the same old rep schemes and the all important "strict form" concept. I can completely see now the benefits of heavy progressive overload training.
I am currently nearing the end of a week off from training to completely let my body recover. I went for a straight 12 weeks before the show and then 6 weeks immediatly after the show so after 18 weeks I needed the physical and mental break. Most people usually take the first weeks after the show off but I elected to try something that I believed worked very well. With my extremely elevated metabolism, I ate just a bit more carbs in all my carb meals than I was having during the contest prep, and eased into the heavy weight again. I had the best strength gains I had seen in the three years I have been training. It was hard to decided to take this week off but I knew it was necessary. I will beginin a new Max-OT training schedule on monday and continue it for 10 weeks before taking another week off.
My diet has been a bit off this week so I have decided to eat completely clean until July 1st. I already have a date set when I will begin my contest diet and I am very excited about this. I want to bring obvious improvements with both conditioning and size the next time I step on stage. The date is set, March 27th 2010.
I will attempt to post a daily blog with occasional progress pics, thanks to everyone for you support.
