NZ's most Aesthetic Powerlifter

[soundsgood]

All great constructive critism, thanks for your input Android, Gymrat, Matrix, MusleNZ and ShutupandSquat.

I won't be doing the nzifbb nationals. I have 2 weeks to sharpen up for my main goal and I have got a plan to get me there. I had a good chat to Mateo straight after the show and he gave me a very simple method of sharpening up in regards to my diet coming in. It's incredibly simple so hopefully it pays off.

I will share it with you after the show

As far as cardio is concerned I like your idea MuscleNZ. 2 short (30 min) sessions per day of intense cardio. Maybe 3 in the last few days.

I'll post up some comp pics for reference later.

Just popped in to the gym for chest train and cardio. Weighed in at 108.2kg. 9kg in a day. That's a lot of water lol.

[genetic freek]

My question would be to you is your Nurto (Jake is it) looking at you week to week? and if so he thinking that your on track or not? If not is he making Adjustments?

You will know by now what works for you mate, do you think the heavy carb up on Mcds and dunkin doughnuts is the way to go?

I agree with the decision to focus on the Nabba nats as two weeks of solid diet etc will be more than enough for you to bring in your conditioning from the position you are at.

Everyone will give you a million different sorts of advice (like me lol)

But I do think the high intensity cardio is the way to Esp with someone like yourself carrying alot of muscle mass.

Kill it.

[tomsammce]

Crossfit brah.

[soundsgood]

Nah bro, this is a Zumba body :pfft:

[soundsgood]

Here is a couple of pics from the show on Saturday as promised. The less said about it the better :oops: . Will be doing everything I can to bring in conditioning for the NABBA WFF nationals in 2 weeks, and there will definately be no spilling over due to excess carbup!

[Riccardo]

Saw you on stage in Hamilton and thought you looked mean. Conditioning just wasn't quite there. I'm of the same opinion of what most of the guys above have said. I'd forget about sodium, just keep it low the whole time. Keep water high the whole week until comp day just sipping during the day. Start the carb up earlier (wed) it will give you more margin for error, you will look harder and avoid spilling over easier.

[Android]

Keeping sodium levels low for a length of time has the risk of your body producing a hormone called Aldosterone, which isn't helpful

[soundsgood]

Thanks for your input Riccardo.

I am aware of the effects of aldesterone Android so I think the truck is to drop your sodium levels a lot lower than they usually are but not drop it altogether. So somewhere between 500mg-1000mg a day would be good level if you normally consume 3000ish mg a day.

[Riccardo]

When I say keep sodium low, I mean within the RDI. No need to actively try and eliminate all sources of sodium from your diet just keep it sensible. Truth is it will be low anyway if you are eating non-processed foods. Aldosterone in an otherwise healthy person only serves to return sodium/potassium balance to normal. Even patients with primary hyperaldosteronism don't have oedema.

[genetic freek]

Saw you on stage in Hamilton and thought you looked mean. Conditioning just wasn't quite there. I'm of the same opinion of what most of the guys above have said. I'd forget about sodium, just keep it low the whole time. Keep water high the whole week until comp day just sipping during the day. Start the carb up earlier (wed) it will give you more margin for error, you will look harder and avoid spilling over easier.

I disagree with a Carb up that early.

[soundsgood]

Heres a pic from last wednesday when I was carb depleting and water loading, no pump. Before I f'ed it all up lol.

I want to stay tight like this with just a really light clean carb up on the day.

[tomsammce]

There are various ways to do it, until he finds what works well for him then they are all just as good as guesses.

[tomsammce]

Just saw pic.

Need to get leaner bro, eat less, cardio more.

Sometimes u need to compromise abit of muscle to get shredded i think.

My unqualified opinion.

[soundsgood]

Absolutely agree bro. Diet is very minimal and cardio as hard for as long as I can manage. Don't care about retaining size, heaps to play with, get shredded at all costs

[genetic freek]

White fish & cabbage + belemic

All costs lol

[Shutupandsquat]

happy birthda, darling

[soundsgood]

Haven't been updating journal but def been training and dieting hard.

I'm not going to talk about my physique , I'm just going to show up on Saturday and let it talk for itself. I have a better feeling about my prep for the nationals than the warm up comp so hopefully it talks in a language I like lol.

Weight is bobbling between as low as 98.4kg in morning up to 103ish at night.

Last weight train and cardio tomorrow. Looking forward to having Friday off then hitting the stage about 4pm on Saturday.

See you guys there :grin:

[soundsgood]

Was up and down to the toilet at least 10 times last night peeing.

Woke up this morning, jumped on scales and was 97.5kg, the lightest I have been since Oct 2009 :shock:

Went for an hour powerwalk. Just finishing up my last weight train - high rep biceps/triceps. Each muscle group got 4 exercises - 4 sets of 20 reps.

Will do one more 30 min high intensity versaclimber session tonight then done for the show.

I haven't carb depleted, I've just kept carbs between 50-100g/day since the Waikato show. Won't do much of a carb load either. Hopefully less is more :think:

[Android]

mate you're gonna look much better by the sounds of it....dont change a thing!

and hang in there :-)

[genetic freek]

Looking big and vascular bro.

Wendy

Burger fuel

Non non nom

[Phedder]

All the best for tomorrow mate :clap:

[Gym rat]

Good luck mate and kick some butt for Gym Rat

[tomsammce]

All da best cuz!

[soundsgood]

Thanks guys.

I'm not as hardcore as you Genetic 'burger fuel twice for carbup' Freek lol.

Kept my diet pretty clean today, chicken breast, cabbage, oats and a couple of oat bars.

Tomorrow should be more of the same.

Looks like a massive show tomorrow, if you have tickets you won't be disappointed.

3 in my class. Joram who won the Wellington Nabba NAC show, a guy from Dunedin who is really sharp and me. I weighed in at 99.5kg which was almost 2kg above my morning weight even though I had already dropped my water etc. diff scales I guess.

Class 2 looks like a cracker. Steve Orton will dominate but unfortunately Big Darren didn't quite make the height cut for class 1 so will be lumped in there with big Nate and a few others. Was chatting to some of the NZA guys and it looks like Sifa was going to be struggling to make the cutoff weight for wff so he may have to do class 2 Nabba instead. This would make a very interesting lineup!

Class 1 will be a massive contest between Kristian Bray and Optimass althiugh judging from a pic Opti showed us from this morning id have to say he might take this one!

Brian Macfarlane will be very menacing in the masters as he is always very very sharp and you can't count him out.

8 in the massive novice class including a surprise competitor from the forum

Aron Noble and Jon Pyers were lingering around looking shredded thru the cheekbones so they will have a great showdown in wff I'd say.

[soundsgood]

Finally I have done a show and came in a condition I am happy with.

My thoughts of the show are posted in NABBA WFF 2012 nationals thread so personal view of my performance.

Here are a couple of pics from the show, I will post more when I get them

In the end I failed to defend the title I won last year and placed 2nd to Yoram Kalev in class 3. Yoram was probably the most shredded competitor to take the stage on Saturday, WFF contestants included. He had see through skin and absolutely no bodyfat on him at all, king of conditioning.

However I feel that with my 15kg+ of extra size I had on him my shape was more 'bodybuilder'. Bigger capped delts, quads were flared, waist was tight. I also was in reasonable condition. The Judges put us through the comparison rounds twice with Me in the middle and Yoram on each side to make up their minds. I havent seen the judges scorecards but I hope it was close. The thing is that Yoram came in the best he possibly could have and I still have improvements I can make. I doubt I will ever get beaten by a guy like that again as I wont take the stage until I hit the next level of conditioning.

I got alot of positive feedback after the show from other competitors, judges and people in the crowd. I felt a wave of motivation come over me and I thought I would try extend my season one more week. Diet super hard the next week and do the last NZIFBB comp in Whangarei this weekend. But unfortunately I couldn't make it work, I've got too much on this week so I can't get there.

Nevermind, I am happy with my season. 4 comps. One 1st place, a second and 2 thirds. I bombed a show then came back 2 weeks later alot better. I learnt alot about dieting and especially about how my body reacts with different approaches to shows (it works best when I change hardly anything!!!).

I am now on cruise mode. Normal eating has resumed, not sure when I will start training again, and then what kind of training I will do. I have no aspirations to powerlift again any time soon (that can change in a heartbeat though lol). I have hammered my body in my prep so I just need some rest and need to focus on other parts of my life.

This will be the end of this journal for now. Maybe forever.

Thanks for following :grin: