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4 weeks out from the competition!

I’m into my final weeks of preparation for my upcoming bodybuilding competition so I’m beginning to spend a lot of time posing.  When you practice your posing, it’s like doing another training session; it’s physically exhausting.  After each training session I’m trying to spend about 20 minutes going through the mandatory/compulsory poses.  I’ve been doing this by myself which has been difficult.

What I’ve learned over time is many people say they’re a bodybuilder but when it comes down to the fine details of what makes a bodybuilder a bodybuilder, they’re clueless.  A prime example of this is posing.  I’ve found very few people who can pose properly.  Every person has their own spin on it and each one conflicts with what someone else says.  When you try to point something out about they’re posing they get defensive and say, “This is the way it’s supposed to be done.”

People tend to overlook the posing aspect of bodybuilding, which is very shocking to me because posing is the culmination of all the hard work in the gym and in the kitchen.   All the months of lifting heavy, eating an abundance of calories, then the dieting, repeated cardio sessions, tanning, shaving, etc…  Some folks go on stage and have a great looking physique and mess everything up because they don’t know how to pose.  What ends up happening is someone walks away with a bad taste in their mouth and talks about how the judges are messed up.  Granted, sometimes there is controversy in competition and politics can come into play, but at the amateur levels many people miss the boat on how important posing is.  The bottomline is, you have to be able to effectively display what you have and capitalize on your strengths.

My current dilemma: I’m at a disadvantage right now because I’m currently living in New Orleans , LA and my team (Team Body Tech) and Coach (Tim Gardner) is in Tampa, FL.  What we’ve come to rely on over the past few months are photos, emails, phone conversations and text messages.  In a perfect world, I’d be there where they are, training together, attending the team meetings, posing together, allowing my coach to have eyes on me all the time so fine tune adjustsments can be made.  Well, this isn’t the perfect world and I’m not able to do that right now so I have to be clear in my mind what I’m supposed to be doing because there are so many outside influences.

What I’ve been doing over time is listening to what people say, carefully observing their posing, making critiques in my head of what I shouldn’t be doing.  In a sense, I’m watching others to observe their flaws to make sure I’m aware of how bad it looks so I don’t make those same mistakes.  That seems kind of bad but it’s what helps me put everything into perspective.  When my coach tells me not to do something and I see others do it, it becomes very clear to me.  I’m a very observant person and when it comes to bodybuilding, I’m locked on like a laser beam because this is my passion and I want to be the best at it.

Since my show is nearing I’m in the process of putting my music together.   I’ve never done this before so I’m watching videos and listening to various soundtracks to determine what will best suit me.  This is my first show and I plan to keep it simple.  I’ll be going into this show with confidence and an extremely shredded physique so I want to use that to my advantage.  I don’t want to make everything more difficult than it has to be with trying to put a dancing routine together with my music – too much at this stage.  That will come with time, and I’m definitely looking forward to it.

To all the amateurs out there, don’t let the outside influences overwhelm you.  Get a clear picture of what you’re trying to do and stick with it.  If you don’t have a coach, do your research and homework.  Communicate with other people and watch them for weaknesses and flaws.  This will help give you a mental picture of what not to do because you’ll remember firsthand how bad it looks.

If you don’t have a hired cook, than you should feel like one with part time duties as a dish washer! My fiancee (Ann) gets a kick out of calling me “the kitchen bitch”. I’d love to defend myself, but unfortunately, she’s right (she’s a pro at being right). Call it a cliché but the saying is true – a body isn’t made in the gym; it’s made in the kitchen.

Diet is everything to bodybuilding, yet, funny enough, I hardly get asked about my diet. The more popular questions are: “What supplements do you take?” and “What type of workouts do you do?” Look, going to the gym and knocking out a good, intense workout is relatively easy. Taking the latest and best supplements money can buy…again, pretty easy. Spending countless hours everyday prepping and preparing meals, going grocery shopping a few times a week and eating every two hours…now, we’re getting to the hard work, dedication and focus that separates the weak, the skinny, the fat and the hardcore bodybuilders.

Food Is Fuel for the Body

Besides the grueling work and time involved in preparing your meals there’s also another small factor that pretty much sucks; there is little variety or room for actually enjoying the food you must eat/consume. I’m not kidding you, by the time I’m done eating and cleaning up – I might get an hour before it’s time to do it again. Food is fuel.

How about some plain brown rice and chicken…4 times a day? How about broccoli, everyday? Well, if you’re going to be a bodybuilder than you better get use to it. Okay, so maybe you can sometimes change the chicken to beef, or maybe fish, but it’s all still the same because there’s no butter and not much flavor. You’ll find that in bodybuilding “burned” is good seasoning!

Prior Planning and Preparation

Piss poor planning and prior preparation will lead to missed meals, incomplete nutritional balance and prolonged catabolism. Diet should be developed based on desired goals and results. Ultimately, people should eat every 3 hours, or so, to keep their metabolism up. By eating on a schedule like this, the body is able to maintain a positive nitrogen balance which is key to building muscle.

For those who bodybuild, there is no shortcut around diet. The bottomline is, diet is the staple of any regimen. It doesn’t matter what supplements you’re taking or how great your workout is. If diet isn’t a primary focus than the results yielded will be limited and you will more than likely end up overtraining.

Now that you realize how important diet is to becoming and being a bodybuilder; we’ll discuss food, nutrition, preparation tips, and perhaps even share recipes…hey, you too will become a good “kitchen bitch”.

The Exception: There are some people out there who are true genetic freaks. You’ll see them eat whatever they want and remain shredded while displaying a world class physique. Not everyone is that blessed. Those of you who are not have to ensure you work extra hard because these genetic freaks will be the competition when you finally get up on stage.

If people really want to gain positive, realistic results they’ll stop spending crazy amounts of money on the newest supplements that make unrealistic promises and get back to the basics; proper diet and nutrition combined with a strict workout program and a solid supplement profile.