TLAF prep

[FUBU]

Your still a winner man. Placing in the top 3 is still an achievement, hell, even just managing to compete is an achievement in itself. Most people don't have the self-discipline to compete. How many people in your category?  

 

Now I get it. HarryB is your mate. Which is him in that photo he used as his profile pic. I was wondering why he stole your pic, I thought he was just being weird. My bad, sorry, HarryB.

[trainlikeafreak]

I will post pics as soon as I get them guys. I don't want to talk about judging because it is what it is and at the end of the day it's their decision.

Food wise was nothing diff to the 3 previous test runs and water was as simple as water can be. Will go more into detail at a later date

[trainlikeafreak]

This was a positive

[HarryB]

It's a funny old game sometimes. Morning of the show the pics you sent you were right on. I think pics from the show will show that you didn't slip much. I did notice in between morning and night some loss of condition but that's what it is. I'm putting it down to stress.

You did achieve your goal of prepping natural for the show and came in looking your best to date. You can't really ask for more than that. Judging is what it is as you say and you can't stress about it. Now to work out where to from now... and I think we've worked that out

Hope that doesn't sound like I'm on your nuts but I'm proud of you man.

[trainlikeafreak]

It's a funny old game sometimes. Morning of the show the pics you sent you were right on. I think pics from the show will show that you didn't slip much. I did notice in between morning and night some loss of condition but that's what it is. I'm putting it down to stress.

You did achieve your goal of prepping natural for the show and came in looking your best to date. You can't really ask for more than that. Judging is what it is as you say and you can't stress about it. Now to work out where to from now... and I think we've worked that out

Hope that doesn't sound like I'm on your nuts but I'm proud of you man.

my feedback was that I looked better at night.. Maybe cos I added to my tan lol who knows.

Yup bro onwards and upwards and what's next is going to cause I few shocks indeed

[trainlikeafreak]

No stage pics yet but here are a few from sat morning upon waking before any food or anything.

[Pseudonym]

Damn. Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you, bro. But that's life sometimes. Take what you can from it and move on to the next one.

 

Have you got an idea of what you could do differently next time?

[trainlikeafreak]

Damn. Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you, bro. But that's life sometimes. Take what you can from it and move on to the next one.

 

Have you got an idea of what you could do differently next time?

creating an even playing field would probably be a good start haha.

But na man I don't know aye. Haven't really thought about it too much. I think I need to stress a lot less and I think I was possibly too lean for too long. Just my guess tho

[trainlikeafreak]

Back in the gym today just taking it easy. Wanted to get a quick pump cos of all the food I've eaten. Weighed in on fri 97.5 and I'm now 102.7

Stretching

Incline db 40kx8x2

Flat bb 60kgx15x3

Incline fly 12kgx15x3

Incline bb 60k s15x3

Seated shoulder press 20kgx15x5

Lateral raises 10kgx20x3

Nothing to failure. Was so pumped felt like my skin was going to split lol. Arms have blown up.

[soundsgood]

Got to love that post comp pump.  Still tanned, still vascular, full as a house

 

Looked the best you have ever looked on stage.  Take that as a win mate

[Pseudonym]

Got to love that post comp pump.  Still tanned, still vascular, full as a house

That is the one reason that would make me compete again. So awesome.

[trainlikeafreak]

104.5kg lol. Getting fat. Easy back and arms sessions today.. Light and nothing to failure just having fun and getting a pump.

Stretching

Tbars

Db rows

Lat pull downs

Straight arm pull downs

Straight bar push downs

Rope push downs

Cable curls using rope

Cable curls using straight bar

2-3 sets for everything and reps were 10-15. Apologies for the boring post lol. Feeling quite big at the moment and feels good to be filling out clothes again even tho my belly is back

[trainlikeafreak]

Got to love that post comp pump.  Still tanned, still vascular, full as a house

 

Looked the best you have ever looked on stage.  Take that as a win mate

thanks bro. Still disappointed with the final package but hey into th next one!! And yeah have to be happy in that sense.

[Michael Knight]

You looked great, but why be a glutton for punishment.

 

Wanting to look good is one thing, but competing against juicers is a recepie for disappointment.

[nate225]

I have to say I think you took some poor advice on board with the "carb" load and last few days prep.

As you said things didn't pan out as well as you'd have liked in the last part of your prep. And the approach of eat all sorts of shit to load up is a real crap shoot as you have virtually no control of macros or micronutrients (particularly sodium).

If you're gonna hit stage again don't run with a hit n miss guesswork approach when the rest of your prep has been planned.

Happy to share my approach (this time & previous shows) or that I've seen others use if it's of interest to you. Good prep coaches will be able to give you some other ideas worth trying.

Other than that though I've gotta say you certainly proved a point. You put a great physique on stage and without the use of gear. Definitely did it hard being lean for so long, but at least you showed you can tough it out and hang with the best juniors NZ has to offer. Well done Jearl

[maccaz]

without having too much knowlede on the topic etc (keen to know more) but do you think the massive carb up threw you off?

like nate said surely some kind of structured approach to carb up would have been better like knowing exactly how many grams carb and sodium you are taking on, then you can better predict the end result? rather than just eat everything and hope for the best (im all for eating everything though but this is why il never be on stage) 

 

maybe best if i quote/paraphrase gym rat: us kiwis dont have much muscle so dont need much carb up, only the pros need to do 7 day carb up  :pfft:

[HarryB]

I'd have to disagree with saying there was a poor decision taken in the carb up process. I have a hand in this aspect because there was plenty of discussion with me in relation to what Jordan was going to do. We dry ran the process 3 or 4 times leading in to the comp and it worked out every time. Was full as hell the day after eating then basically just a return to his normal intake and just watch the water run off him so that by the 3rd day he was still full but dry. On the morning of the comp he was in. His glutes, hams and lower back were tighter and his upper body was full because Jearl has a tendency to really flatten our through his chest and back. If there was wrong advices then I gave them so I'll put my hand up hand for that but from my perspective he was better than he's ever been and the lead up allowed dry runs which worked exactly as planned every time. I see in pics that he faded in condition from what he sent me pics of when he woke up and what he took to stage (still the best package he's taken mind you) and I have some ideas as to why that loss of condition happened and how to amend it for next time.

End of the day for my money that's the best Jearl to date onstage and no gear. Not a bad effort. Pretty sure the winner of the juniors smoked all but one of the open class winners

[trainlikeafreak]

My 2cents.. I have no issue with my carb up as as Harry explained we ran through it 3 times leading up. I got sick on Monday and from there it went down hill. I think stress from being sick, stress from stressing about the show lol and stress from my personal life caused a bit of change in the way I looked. I hate blaming stress for not being in shape so no excuses.

Another factor could be, and anyone who saw me in person would know, I was pretty much in comp shape 6 weeks out. 6 weeks out and everything was in apart from my glutes. This is when I really got talking to Harry as I knew holding condition that long, especially naturally would be an up hill battle.

All in all, I wasn't exactly fat lol. As Harry said I woke up lookin kinda ok was still my best package to date and held my own without any gear. Onto the next show!!

[trainlikeafreak]

You looked great, but why be a glutton for punishment.

 

Wanting to look good is one thing, but competing against juicers is a recepie for disappointment.

hardly when a large majority of steroid users look average at best. Serious bodybuilders yeah but not just steroid users.

[nate225]

Definitely agree Tom was top 3 overall, possibly 2nd?

But dry runs with combinations of foods that are highly processed still leaves too many variables IMHO.

Sausages, bacon, pancakes, syrups n sauces have macros that are at best a guess (even if you go off the label you'll know if you've worked in food manufacturing it's not perfect! Trust me the guy adding the salt n flavoring ain't thinking about your need for accurate nutrition panels on hour 9 of his 10 hour shift!!).

I don't disagree Jearl looked the best he has, he just could've been tighter like ww saw often pre comp.

That said it's not easy nailing it 100% on the day and even the most experienced guys stuff it up from time to time, often with no real explanation when they repeat a previously winning approach.

Maybe worth a topic on its own on the last week of show prep approaches? Probably all learn something e.g. I know zero on fat loading protocol or why some prefer these.

[ngapuhi strong]

will look even better when you jum on the gear and level playing field

[HarryB]

will look even better when you jum on the gear and level playing field

Be interesting to see the size difference and there was lessons learnt which no doubt will bring a drier package to next comp. I guess the thing to keep in mind is that mindset is more important than anything else imo. There's lots of guys who take ever increasing amounts of gear and spout a whole bunch of science. But I have to wonder what's going on when they're not improving in terms of size. Seems to me more and more steroids are being used but there are less and less big guys

[Realtalk]

as I asked earlier in thread is there a point of diminishing returns on a carb up feast. Would your opinions change now?

Gonna do same approach next time bro or you gonna change it?

Seems like an awful waste of effort to muck it up on the day after months and months but I suppose that is bodybuilding...

[HarryB]

I think the main point of manipulating carbs etc at the end is to help get water out from under the skin giving the thinner skin look. Is it worth a potential 5% gain for a possible 15% loss of condition? I'd say no not really. The key is.. would the extra 5% make a difference to the placing. That's why guys take the risk. You live and learn.

[trainlikeafreak]

as I asked earlier in thread is there a point of diminishing returns on a carb up feast. Would your opinions change now?

Gonna do same approach next time bro or you gonna change it?

Seems like an awful waste of effort to muck it up on the day after months and months but I suppose that is bodybuilding...

na man I stand by what I said.. I think once you hit a certain amount of Cals it's not gna matter if you eat more or less body comp wise as long as it's not stupid over 2 days or whatever. I didn't look awful bro I just didn't nail it. I'm not blaming the carb up by the way. Like I said we practised it 3 times and it worked every time. If u think about the system it's pretty simple really.. Ur shredded.. Eat a tonne of Cals to get as full as possible then drop the water off over the next few days. Next show I need to chill the F out and turn into a robot the last few weeks.. Do everything I'm told and avoid sluzzys cos they are nothing but stress that close to a show lol..... I can get in shape I think stress management will be my goal for the next show.