NZ's most Aesthetic Powerlifter

[morattigirl]

Luck SG! Have fun with it, actually you don't even need luck lol you'll smash it!! \:D/

[trainlikeafreak]

Nice training there Gymrat!

I suggest you look at the calf workout that Steak posted in the workout planner's. It looks killer and your calves will have no option but to grow after it!

I don't see why you have to train a bodypart more than once a week for it to grow, or put it at the start of the week. Load up the intensity when you hit it and make sure you consume lots of pre and post workout carbs and you'll be good to go

bro do u actually think this works? i have a lagging chest so if i load up on carbs pre/post chest train u reckon itll help?? might give it a try makes sense.

good luck tmo man

[Phedder]

It's been great following your build up SG, all the best for tomorrow!

[soundsgood]

Thanks alot Jess and Phedder

Nice training there Gymrat!

I suggest you look at the calf workout that Steak posted in the workout planner's. It looks killer and your calves will have no option but to grow after it!

I don't see why you have to train a bodypart more than once a week for it to grow, or put it at the start of the week. Load up the intensity when you hit it and make sure you consume lots of pre and post workout carbs and you'll be good to go

bro do u actually think this works? i have a lagging chest so if i load up on carbs pre/post chest train u reckon itll help?? might give it a try makes sense.

good luck tmo man

Yeah man, I really believe you can bring up any bodypart that way. You're welcome to try it and see for yourself If it works for you.

[soundsgood]

Yesterday afternoon kept eating chicken breast and white rice up to bedtime about 10:30pm. Didnt drink a drop of water all afternoon. Had a small class of vodka mixed with a little bit of plum juice.

Went to sleep pretty fast then woke up at midnight with intense pains in my stomach. Went to the bathroom and spewed up acid reflux for a good half an hour. Burnt my whole throat and stomach lining really badly but I couldn't drink any water.

Jumped in the car and drove around Hamilton for an hour looking for somewhere to get some gaviscon but there were no supermarkets open past midnight and the only 24 hr chemist was emergency only grrr. Had to settle with some quick eze and couple of panadol from a servo. Soothed the burn a bit so at least I could sleep when I got back home.

Up now and still to check condition properly but I know I could be drier. Oh well still have almost 12 hours to dry out as much as I can.

[oldfella]

Good luck with the comp.

[HarryB]

Good luck today monster!!

[steak]

Well Done SG! :clap:

[soundsgood]

Thanks Damo!

Yes I managed to win the open men class 3 class at the NABBA WFF nationals tonight.

Am so relieved and will give a full recap tomorrow or Monday, Matrix gave a pretty good rundown of the show in the competition thread. Very stoked at the moment. :grin:

BRB eating 10000 calories and drinking 10L of water :shifty:

[Shutupandsquat]

Thanks Damo!

Yes I managed to win the open men class 3 class at the NABBA WFF nationals tonight.

Am so relieved and will give a full recap tomorrow or Monday, Matrix gave a pretty good rundown of the show in the competition thread. Very stoked at the moment. :grin:

BRB eating 10000 calories and drinking 10L of water :shifty:

Expected nothing less, bro. Congratulations. More KFC?

[Gym rat]

Well done bro :clap: :clap:

[HarryB]

Nice work big man... Do we have to call you Mr NZ SG Sir now? Lol

You looked great bro, another year and that overall is yours!

[soundsgood]

Nice work big man... Do we have to call you Mr NZ SG Sir now? Lol

You looked great bro, another year and that overall is yours!

Lol, cheers bro!

So heres a rundown on what happened at the comp. I was looking pretty dry on Friday night, the dehydration was going well after the first half diuretic. I was definately full enough so stopped taking in the carbs at about 8pm. At about 9pm I had a glass of vodka with plum juice. This was pretty hard to go down at the time but my stomach settled and I went to bed not long after. Woke up after midnight with excruiting stomach pains and kept vomiting acid reflux. In the heat of the moment I took Quick eze and Panadol to calm my insides down. It worked enough to allow me to go back to sleep. The next morning I still wasnt well so I took more panadol and Gaviscon chewys so I could get through the day. The Quick eze and Gaviscon were all quite high sodium and the panadol started to undo all my dehydrating. It was like it was leaking water from my muscles back under my skin and I was starting to soften out.

Even though I kept carbs pretty minimal all day and didnt drink more than 100ml of water all day it was obvious I wasn't going to be as dry and look as conditioned as I was on Friday night. To add to things my back had decided to cramp up something chronic on saturday morning, to the point I was struggling to pose. Fortunately my partners friend is a masseuse so he came and gave me a 40 minute massage before the show which really helped loosen me up and I'm very thankful to him for that.

Went backstage after the intermission and tanned up my TP's. One of them came a close second in the Novice class and looked amazing, massive improvement from his last show and my other TP came second in the Open Men Class 1. Came in shredded and dry but Kristian Bray just had too much size to make it a contest.

When it came time to compete for my class, after only a reasonably light pump up I think I didn't pose too bad. Wait to see the video before I claim it lol. My class win was a little bit hollow because Nelly decided not to compete at this show, but hey they say you beat everyone who decided not to compete too.

Fortunately I was the second to last class before the overalls so only had to wait 20 minutes before I was back on stage posing down with Mark Reed, Kristian Bray, Eddie, Phil K and the Novice winner (didn't catch his name). It was a shame Masters 40+ winner Mark Dryer didn't stick around for the overalls cos he looked insane. As Nate said in another thread, the standard of Physique competitors in NZ is amazing at the moment, especially in the masters catergories! Mark, Phil, Brian Macfarlane, Peter Hunt, what is it with the older guys these days!

Anyway at the end of the day it was a no brainer that Mark Reed would win the overall, combination of thickness and graininess was unbeatable although Phil K probably had him on conditioning. Arguably not a shape that everyone could appreciate but this is NABBA so the win was his. Would be interesting to see how he would go against someone like Daniel Hibbs in front of a panel of IFBB judges though.

So overall I am happy with winning an Open Mens National title in my class, not so impressed with the conditioning I displayed though. I was alot leaner than the pan pacifics and trained so hard yet in the photos I have seen so far I don't really look much different :? I had alot of great feedback from the judges and other competitors on what I need to do to win an overall title. Basically I shouldn't focus on putting on more mass. I should focus on nailing the conditioning and coming in drier. Lots more isolation and high rep stuff and try a different approach coming into my next show cos what I was doing doesnt work. Oh and definately no Panadols before the show!

Next show on the cards is in March - 5 months. Allows me enough time to go back to a little bit of normality for a couple of months before I start dieting again. The plan is to keep pretty lean so i don't have to worry about dieting real hard. This means I wont have a proper offseason where I can chase an 800+ Powerlifting total like I had planned, but I figure if I can make a good run at an overall title next year then I can have the rest of my life to do powerlifting

Thats not to say I haven't been smashing back cake, chocolate, cookies, lasagne etc yesterday and today. The good thing is because I have restricted my eating for so long, my stomach struggles to handle too much food at a time so I haven't really been able to let loose. I actually only feel like eating clean now anyway luckily. Back into the chicken and rice.

Anyways I'd like to thank HarryB and Android for their advice and support coming into the show and can't wait to line up with these boys on stage next season!

Heres a pic from Lisa @ gofigure of the physique overall lineup backstage (Me on the far right). I will post up an on stage one when I get them later.

[HarryB]

Sounds like a good plan man... you are always very conditioned offseason anyways so your work ethic isn't lacking that's for sure... from my perspective and experience (one of the key reasons I DIDN'T make it over) is that I came down ok but my skin just didn't have the look I wanted to come across with. So staying down means thinner skin and tighter fuller muscles.

You still looked awesome even with your travails and yeah you did beat everyone who didn't show up!!

I would also say perhaps being sick started you stressing and nerves can kill your condition. Still a nice lesson for you in prep! Either way I think it's the best I have seen you in pics so that in itself is a great achievement!

[nate225]

Enjoyed watching you on stage Hamish - have to say you were perhaps the only one that had the mass to hang with Mark. Nail that conditioning and you'll be unreal!!

Well done. :clap:

[Android]

Dude you are going to be a Mr NZ and that'd be good to see, would have watched if I didn't have to qualify hopefully the shows don't clash again.

I got some good ideas from your Journal so happy to share back, I think between several BBer's on here the knowledge shared and posting lessons learnt has been invaluable to us all, and Harry has been a solid source for everyone. He's only making harder for himself to win if he does share...but don't tell him, let him dream a while longer :-) LOL

[HarryB]

I am happy resting on my pacific island laurels lol...

Nah I reckon if you can help someone then you share in their success no matter if they kick your ass!

[Android]

I am happy resting on my pacific island laurels lol...

Nah I reckon if you can help someone then you share in their success no matter if they kick your ass!

Yeah I know you think like that, not everyone does mate.

I was gonna PM you a big thanks but wtf - publically thanks :-) you're a good c**t

[HarryB]

I am happy resting on my pacific island laurels lol...

Nah I reckon if you can help someone then you share in their success no matter if they kick your ass!

Yeah I know you think like that, not everyone does mate.

I was gonna PM you a big thanks but wtf - publically thanks :-) you're a good c**t

Thanks bro, I think we just help each other out all around!

[nate225]

A good Coach always gets beat by his apprentice eventually! :nod: I learnt that the hard way training Nickoli & Sam at Strongman :grin: but its very rewarding seeing those you help do well.

I'm calling for a conference in Sydney soon where we can all eat lots of pizza & drink beer while righteously talking about how strict our BBing lifestyle is! :grin:

[HarryB]

A good Coach always gets beat by his apprentice eventually! :nod: I learnt that the hard way training Nickoli & Sam at Strongman :grin: but its very rewarding seeing those you help do well.

I'm calling for a conference in Sydney soon where we can all eat lots of pizza & drink beer while righteously talking about how strict our BBing lifestyle is! :grin:

I'll set up the bbq and it's bourbon for me!!!!

[soundsgood]

Sydney with the big boys. Count me in on that! Need at least 4 weeks notice so I can start a 5/3/1 programme so Im strong enough to keep up with you guys. If not, Ill just high rep it with Android :pfft:

Went into the gym this afternoon and had a chest train.

Jumped on the scales and weighed in at 107kg. That is 9kg in 2 days. Yeah buddy! So fucken full it was ridiculous. After the warmup sets on the bench struggled to get shirt off but once off my delts were about 40% bigger than the whole time I had been cutting and chest looked like 2 big dinner plates. Combined with the tan it looked pretty wicked. Abs were slightly blurred but had a singlet on so who gives a shit hahaha. Hope I can stay like this for a while.

Anyways just a brief workout. Couple of warmup sets on the incline bench then the flat bench then 3pps on flat bench. Went 12/10/10

Incline DBs. Used the 100lbs and did 16/12/12 dropset to 12 @ 50lb and 12 @ 30lb

Incline Flies - 3 sets of 12 w 50lb DBs

Done

Have been 'carbing up' last couple of days, think maybe I better do some cardio tomorrow morning or my heart will give out lol

[Android]

The size gain is wicked ay, that's a huge gain. Am trying hard to figure how to go to a contest with that size and just pull the eater under the skin out. I mean it's almost like you need to prep 5 days before a show, then blow up next 3 days, then pull out water or sum thing like that.

Get to a beach or river in the weekend get some air-time dude, I took my little girl to the pools on Sunday and all the kids are like wow, all the dads are looking away, and all the mums are catching glimpses wen they can lol

[thatwaslight]

, all the dads are looking away, and all the mums are catching glimpses wen they can lol

LOL, and this is just another one of the great things about being a bodybuilder.

[soundsgood]

Haha yip, I always take my son to the pools after a show. The kids love it, so do the mums I think :shifty:

Yesterday I continued my 'carb-up' despite my best intentions to curb it. Things just kept offering themselves to me lol. Did 40 mins cardio in the morning which seemed alot harder than last week.

There was a deal on at the local pak n save for $7.99/kg boneless skinless chicken breast so I went down and got 20kg.

Went into the gym to do a leg train. Took a scoop of Mesomorph and a scoop of jack3d pre workout. The first time in about 3 weeks. To be honest it didn't really get me humming which was disappointing.

Anyway I warmed up in the squat rack with sets at just the bar, 60kg and 140kg.

Thought I'd try 225kg for working sets seeing as I was carbed up nicely. Only ground out 5 reps one set and 3 the next. It felt pathetic because only 3 months ago I was doing sets of up to 15 reps at this weight without a problem. Looks like it's gonna take a while for strength to return. I stripped a plate off each side and did a set of 12 @ 185kg.

Moved to the leg extension and did 5 sets of 15-18 reps of full stack with little rest break.

Seated Ham curls were next 4 sets of 12 @ 3/4 stack which were followed up with 2 sets of 12 standing ham curls at a medium weight.

Finished Hams with a couple of sets of 12 DB stiffleg deadlifts w the 100lb DBs.

Did 3 sets of 16 standing calf raises holding a 100lb DB and a set of lunges still holding the 100s to finish.

Jumped on the scales to see where I was at. Granted I still had iPhone clipped to me, headphones, hat and shoes and had just had post workout shake but when it ticked over to 110kg I chuckled. That's over 12kg in 3 days! Looking every gram of it too. Back onto chicken breast, brown rice and beans today. Looking to curb some of this 'water retention' before I go out this weekend :oops: