I started this week going back to a 5 day split chest/back/shld/bi,tri/legs.  In an attempt to still gain results without having any higher workrate cardio start to use muscle as fuel, I am doing a cardio circuit training lift of that bodypart in the morning, and a mass lift at night.

Overall:

6 exercises per

AM: 3 sets per exercise of six sets, rotating around and running through all six exercises three times(so for chest, inc press, inc fly, flat press, flat fly, dec press, dec fly, then do all of that 3 times), with the reps going between 20 to 30, like a 28 26 24 or so(not going to total failure, but hopefully getting fatigue), then ending with a round of abs (4 exercises circuit training style constantly going for 3-5 sets or about 15 totall min, and heavy or light ab day rotating).

reasons: resistance exercise helps prevent muscle loss, help shred up that muscle and all the different parts(more striations and the pump, so just carving out the last few details on the piece of clay, if you will)

pm: 3 sets, 10,8,6 reps(trying to hit failure 2 or 3 reps before, good slow negatives(4 sec), and on the last set drop set til 20 reps or so to really make the muscle fail/fatigue.  2 min rest between most sets except the last set, and not in circuit training style but traditional style.

reasons: maintain the mass, fill out any spots that are lacking for growth(for me, rear delts and lats), and all the usual reasons.

this is not to gain mass, as I weigh between 190-195 right now with creatine(10g a day).  I am just trying to change the visual of the muscle (so eg slow twitch muscle fibers in the morning, and fast twitchish more).  It is not as black and white as that, but that's the general idea. 

Before you shout overtraining, yeah it sucks in the beginning, but I will be taking the weekend off from lifting and just do fun activities and nothing that's necessarily work (hiking, hopefully building a fence around my vegetable garden, maybe surfing at the shore soon!!, etc).  Compare it to a gymnast that's on the rings for 5-8 hours a day.  They can do it and not get too sore, you or I do it for the first time and we are sore for a week.  It's about the muscle acclimating to the exercise(eg for this increasing the endurance properties especially).  It will take some time to acclimate but now that I have time to lift at night inbetween work and class, I'll be trying this out(and traditional cardio I just burn out, except for walking...anything hiit or higher work rates when i'm low on carbs is just a mind ****, and I for one don't need that).

sometimes i'm horrible at explaining.  So if I left anything out or if anything doesn't quite make sense, let me know what you think.  It is a thursday and I am sore as hell, but already very excited to try this routine out for the next few months!

and i'll be taking a 1 week break from cycling my carbs so low (60g mon-fri) after my first show, then getting back into it after there.  These shows are just an end state goal as I think you should be in shape all year round...otherwise what is the point?  As you can tell i also don't believe in turning into a fat blob and calling the bulking, that's just called being a fatty.

Thanks, Matt

OCB Eastern Regionals, Bmore, MD. April 14, male fitness model category

2012 NGA Mr. & Ms. Natural Philadelphia, May 5th, Plymouth Meeting, PA, male model category

2012 NABBA Keystone Classic Bodybuilding - Ms. Figure -- MS Bikini Championships, Lancaster,PA, June 9, men's athletic category

NPC Philadelphia Bodybuilding Championships & Tracey Greenwood Fitness/Figure Classic, swarthmore, pa, June 23, men's physique category

then hopefully...CAPITAL TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS,Silver Spring, MD, June 30. male fitness model category

This might feel like a lot so far, but I am not doing anything to burn myself out.  I'll see after the first show.  I would like pictures to look back and say look what I accomplished, I gave it all, I succeeded, and I took my opportunity and ran with it.  All of this is terribly exciting!  Any suggestions or opinions on other local shows around Philadelphia to try to compete in?

Does anyone not use their bodyfat scale and go by bodpod or water displacement etc?

My bioimpedance scale states i'm around 17% bf (even tho I'm apparently still 24 haha).  That aside, somebody thought for my pictures i was around ~ 9% bodyfat currently.  I was very humbled by his guestimation of my bodyfat percentage obviously!

 I like to use the bioimpedence as just another tool to check progressions, as I think the objective mirror is the most valuable important tool for the end state.  The mirror can't lie to you and can't hide what you are.  You get out of it what you put in to it.  I like total bodyweight and checking the fluctuations (when you're full of carbs,lacking carbs, higher sodium intake, full of fiber, etc.).

It's very humbling to know I can possibly hit 6% bodyfat or drop 3% more bodyfat(6 lbs) before my warmup show in april 14 in baltimore!

I understand all the calculations, and while I might technically be at 17% bf, maybe my pennsylvania deutsch butt is carrying 8% of that bodyfat and that's why it's not visible to the mirror haha.

Any suggestions etc to deal with this issue? 

My goofy girl Jenny is modeling my new gravity boots(sorry about my inability to flip the iphone pictures back upright)!

I just bought a pair of gravity/inversion boots as a way to progress from the maximum on a decline situp table of 35 to 45 degrees to full 90 degree on the pullup bar.  Has anyone used this before?  So far it's been a lot of fun to bring in a new toy to the gym to play with for a heavy ab day.  

and the hooks are wide enough for a pullup bar on a standard universal system or the straight bar that's the EZ bar size for weighted hanging leg raises(so I can use it in my circuit heavy ab session for a weighted hanging leg raise and add plates to the side of the smaller straight bar or complete situp rocky style) 

Any questions/comments/critical thoughts/new exercises about this would be greatly appreciated!!

Matt 

So I'm hoping to do a few physique, a few "fitness model", 1 "male model", and all these other terms.  Either way I plan on following the same routine.  I am hoping for any of you to critique what I plan to do, as this might be a little bit different of what other people are doing, for me I think it will work.  I just need a few things to tweak, so any advice would be humbly appreciated!!

Overall goals, dehydrated and carb depleted.

Dehydration: gallon plus water a day first week, down to two
to three glasses a day first three days, next two days a glass a day, last two
days no water

Carbs: Two weeks out, cut them out(~20g CHO), last 5 days 0
carbs. Lean Meats

Cardio: Forget about cardio last two weeks due to flattening
out muscles and feeding off of muscle mass due to lack of cho.

Lifting Program: four sets of ~ 30 reps with 30s rest
inbetween sets. Mass builders into
shaper lifts exercises.(30 26 24 20 rep scheme). Cardio in the lifting program while working
the program.

Sleep on empty stomach. Last two days, all liquid nutrition(protein etc).

Tanning: for multiple shoots, self tanning of spray tan or
self tanning lotions (jiffy tan for face, l’oreal or jergens to build up, self
tanners up to 3 applications(3 days) to see effect, then continue for up to two
weeks before the shoot), for one shoot only( tanning booth)

Try no diuretics first time to see how to naturally
dehydrate self and carb deplete self.

Night before: 1 glass red wine night before could try

Morning of shoot: dextrose substance(candy corn? Corn
starch?), no liquid day of shoot to prevent body from holding on to the liquid.

Pump: Pushups/Pullups, NO triceps & abs, light
legs(triceps abs and legs will look more bulky and less shredded)

Don’t ruin the picture with making weird facial expressions
or exhaustions! Find good angles (left
side or right side). Learn to blow out
all of the air out of your body while still smiling! Visualize or play the part eg acting (just
came off volleyball court, beach, etc.)

Questions to be considered: amt
carbohydrate day of. Salt
ingestion(heavy and when to go light(heavy two weeks out then reduce as reducing with water?)/Potassium

Thanks all,

Matt

I was flattered that someone already got in contact with me already after barely being on bodyspace for such a short time!

How do you tell the legitimate people from the fake people?  What questions do you ask to filter through?  I am very lucky and blessed to have someone get in contact with me, but at the same time I would like to protect myself and not fall prey to some scam or spam.

Thanks,

Matt

ps, starting to lurk on the forums, but if this was already discussed and you have the link, I would insanely appreciate it!

So a little background....I work out at 5:30 to 5:45 and do a 5 day split(chest/back/shoulders/bis/legs) with triceps added into shoulders or bis, and end every workout with abs except for sometimes on back day, as sometimes it doesn't feel right.  I rotate abs heavy (get those valleys and deep lines of the fascia and linea alba) for 10-20 reps, or a light ab day(nothing weighted, just about the pump and feeling everything out), with serratus anterior(finger-like muscles included) as part of the ab workout.  I superset and do prob 7 sets, with 3 sets per exercise of a the superset(hope that makes sense), to keep my heart rate up.  All of this takes about an hour to an hour 20 if I'm lazy or just long workout and lots of equipment.

I go high protein (up to 1.5x bw), low carbs(right now rotate to 60g a day with a full depletion workout sat followed by a high carb day(up to 1000g, but i usually only go to 600.  I like Lyle McDonald's carb cycling book called Ultimate Diet 2.0).  And low fat of just monos and try to hit 3-4 g of fish oil a day(9-12 capsules depending on how you buy as most are 300 total of epa/dha of omega 3).

So for this stuff I just say I'm like 200 lbs to keep it simple.

Pre workout: Gaspari superpump max(or any cheap pre workout), additional creatine monohydrate as well to hit 5g pre workout, ~50g whey(dymatize i like), maybe a keurig coffee(those are sweet!)

Post workout: creatine monohydrate 5g(so total 10g partitioned around workout), ~50g whey, 6 capsules(750mg HMB per capsule), 10-15 g glutamine, and a more dextrose source of candy experimenting with 10-20 g CHO(candy corn or sour patch kids haha, don't sip the hatorade, cheap and efficient, but depending on the day will save carb source for dinner for a hot date[lol] or something)

Rest of the day is just hit the macros of under 60g carbs while dieting down(was going just to 100g carbs before diet so it's not that tough), make sure over 200g protein, and fill up the fish oil.

Also take my awesome dog jenny(beagle/foxhound) to the trail and go for an hour long walks on the weekend much later in the day and trying to monday and tuesday.

My idea is go hard on the diet of eating clean, and less cardio except for easy walking, so I don't get my hormones all out of control and keep my testosterone and everything else in place(too late and tired to mention everything that gets ****ed up from severe dieting, but i'm 3 weeks in and still feel great and my bioimpedance scale has gone from 19.something% bf to 17% bf in the first two weeks,(I check fully on sat mornings).  Everything is working out amazing, and unless gaspari, scifit, or dymatize put steroids in their supps, i am dropping ~1% per week bf.  My ideology is take supplements that help strength and reward clean eating and help retain as much muscle as possible(thus hmb is the only strange thing I take).

When do you guys usually plateau out?  I was going to take a break and up my carbs back to 100g a day on week 9 depending on if I stop getting results or whatnot...I feel like I have good abs, but I'd like to have my bioimpedance scale(nautilus) have it widdle me down to 10-12% bf over the next 8 more weeks.  I'd be happy if it read 13%, satisfied at 14%.

Everything seems to be working and I haven't completed week 3 yet of being serious about getting ready for a few fitness model and physique contests.  If anyone has any opinions or tweaks of anything for me to watch out for, I'd love to hear it!!

right now my workout is starting on a tuesday(chest back superset), wed (shoulders/tri), thurs bis, fri legs, sat upper body tension workout(8-15 with 20 rep drop sets in there), sun legs, mon upper body power day(1-6 reps depending on how it goes while setting the weight to hit 3-5 reps ideally).

Also right now I'm not focusing on if a body part looks unsymmetrical as I believe I need to get under 12% to really evaluate and compare aesthetics of what i'm lacking or have too much of.

A little long winded, and i'm missing a lot of things, but would really like to hear your input! thanks

Matthew

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass guys, it's about learning how to dance in the ****ing rain....So Dance Mother****er, Dance!!"

"weakness leaves, pride comes in, confidence grows...successfull life"

Hey,

I'm new to bodyspace, but I'm looking forward to trying to use this site as a community to discuss my goals and hopefully a future bodybuilding show!

If anyone has any information on anything, or suggestions for me personally, I would love to hear them!

Thanks for your time,

Matthew