Karl’s Last 7 Day Contest Blo

What a day!  Started off with another 18 holes of golf.  Riding and walking mixed.  Then got home, changed into my cycling gear, and hit the road to the gym.  Rode to the gym and back plus an extra 5 miles (total of 21).  Did some shoulder work and traps as well as abs.  I tweaked my knee when I did some dumbell push-presses. Ouch!  Hope it’s nothing serious.  It made me sit down for 30 seconds to let the pain subside.  Again, hopefully just a "tweak" but walking is tough tonight.  Here is my exercise for the day: 

A good day of eating and water.  I drank over 8 liters!  I feel like a camel today.  Let’s say it was a challenge golfing and drinking that much water…  The guys I played with thought I had a prostate issue!!

Food day was good: I hit 45-44-12.  Too low on the fat actually.  I’ll have to bump that up tomorrow.  Tomorrow is interesting as I have to attend a baptism with a nice spread.  It should be a challenge, but I’m up to it.  What’s one more meal missed when I’m this close…

Ok, here is the food for the day:

 June 07, 2008<u />

Today was a mixed day.  My food was sporatic as I was golfing in the AM.  Walked 18 holes carrying my bag.  The burn rate for golfing and walking is fairly high.  It’s my "low level" cardio.  I get enough high level cardio to allow myself to use golfing as a caloric expenditure and build it into my day.  I did legs at the gym today as well.  Squats, walking lunges, leg extensions, adductors, abcutor walk with the band around my legs (that’s a golf specific exercise).  Here is my exercise calories for the day:  Exercise Calories: 1824

 My dietary goals for the next 8 days are as follows:

Day 1-5: Sodium Load and Water Load.  No Carb Depletion and my PCF: 45-35-15 for all days.  8 Liters of H20 a day!

Day 6: Sodium depletion begins.  Add potasium to the diet for electrolytes.  No Carb depletion yet.  7 Litre of H20.

Day 7: No Carbs after Breakfast until the show.  Still no sodium and 5.5 -6 Litre of H20.  Stop drinking water at 8 PM…

Day 8: Showtime!!!!!!!!!!!!!  No Carbs - Steak and Eggs for Breakfast or other protein source. 

No water intake outside of a few sips. 

Intake 1 hours prior to pre-judging:  Load liquid K and glucose (moderate amount) for energy only on stage. 

Remember - I didn’t Carb deplete as I didn’t want to mess with my muscle fullness.  I figured it’s pretty good where it was.  Why mess with it?  What if I mess everything else up?  I’d rather just try to H20 deplete under the skin.

 Below is my actual food intake for the day directly from my food software for :

Hey everyone.  I’m starting this blog to track my last 7 days of Pre-Contest activity.  I’m getting prepared to do the INBF Connecticut Natural Open on June 14th, 2008 in New Haven, CT.  To give everyone a background on me:  I’ve been training and dieting for this show since November 2nd of 2007.  At that time, I had no idea I would be competing again and initially was just trying to lose weight.  When I got to February 15th or so I was down to say 210 or less and thought I might want to compete again.  I actually chose to do a show in May to get prepared for the June 14th contest.  I did my first show in 16 years on May 3rd.  It was the Northeast Natural in Marlboro, MA.  The interesting story there is that I was trying to get down into the light heavyweight class.  I did meet my goal and did my first show at 187.80.  In my first show I placed 7 out of 8.  I was told by Rob Fulton, owner of the Fulton’s Fitness Bodybuilding Team, www.fultonsfitness.com , that the placement was correct.  That I was not as lean as those that were placed above me.  He also told me that if I competed in the Heavyweight class for this particular show, that I may have won the class.  I have been working with Robert Fulton and the team since March of 2008. This is a first class organization and we all practice posing twice a week supervised by Robert.  He is a first class guy and has the insight into what the judges are looking for in poses.  This is very valuable to anyone wishing to get the posing piece of bodybuilding right.  Robert constantly corrects us and his feedback is always spot on. 

Back to my show placement. 

, and it was correct?  After hearing those words I was torn.  I thought I was in great shape.  I had a new problem to figure out: Get more lean, or get more mass.  I asked myself “Why not do both?”  Is it possible to do when getting ready for a show?  From what I was told by Robert and others the answer was “No.  Not in 6 weeks”.  I took that to heart and did some research on bodybuilding.com to try and find the articles on what training and supplements would help me achieve my goal; if it was possible. 

 The photos on my update pages indicate that it appears to be possible to add mass while getting lean.  I figure that I had the advantage in trying to achieve this particular goal.  The reason I thought that it was possible is that I had not trained seriously, outside of cycling and Spinning, for 12-14 years! In that respect, my body was fairly deconditioned to heavy training and new to supplements such as Creatine, or in my case, Kre-Alkalyn. I should have gotten more initial bang for my buck so to speak.  My research indicated that I could add muscle mass and get lean by using the new supplement Kre-Alkalyn.  Kre-Alkalyn is a Creatine based supplement that gets transported directly to the cells without causing the stomach bloating, gastric distress, and sub-cutaneous water retention that Creatine causes.  There is also no “loading”  phase.  I’ve found this to be accurate.  It was a dangerous game to play with my physique to trust the research and opinions of other bodybuilders using bodybuilding.com.  There were great research articles that have indicated to me that I could do both.  My own personal theory was that if I could keep enough Protein in my diet to allow for muscle growth, and increase my caloric deficit by burning my stored energy (body fat); that I could walk the fine line and achieve my goal.  As a nutritionist, I have used my own food tracking software to track virtually everything that went into my mouth.  It was a gift to have this tool.  I kept my PDA on my hip and entered everything I ate into it.  I also entered my exercise to track the calories burned.  Here is the ratio and numbers: 

Height: 69″ Weight: 193-196 

Calories Eaten (Daily Avg): 3050 Calories Burned (Daily Avg): 1250 

Days Training: 6-7 a week.  Between gym time, time in the Spinning Studio, time on the road bike, and time spent golfing.   I have gotten down to the last 7 days following this format religiously.  I have had 5 refeed or “cheat” days this year.  That’s it!  In the 6 weeks I have trained to gain mass and lose body fat I must say that I have achieved my goal.  

May 2nd: 190 and 5% BF June 7th: 195 and 4.6% BF 

That’s 5 lbs of lean mass and .4% body fat lost.  Not too shabby.  

 The following posts will highlight what I did for training, eating, and water and sodium intake for each day.  I’ll try to post my actual intake from my software if possible to see everything I am eating.  It’s not as “clean” as some purist would want.  But hey; it’s worked for me.  The one thing I have learned in the past 4 months in prepping for a show is that what works for me, may not work for you.  There is no Black or White.  You need to figure out how your body reacts.  Hope you enjoy the following posts.

Karl 

Welcome to my pre-contest blog.  The following post will highlight my breif history with my comeback into bodybuilding after 16 years off.  Enjoy!