NZ's most Aesthetic Powerlifter

[hjp]

Nice pics! Amping to see you on stage, going to be in great shape man. You really are looking ripped and huge mate

[Android]

Wicked pics just checked them out.

Can't show my missus, srs

[Shutupandsquat]

Nipples looking like they cut those abs themselves.

[soundsgood]

I will be honest. I was not happy with how I looked at the photoshoot last weekend. I dehydrated myself too far, didn't carb up, looked flat as hell and had no pump whatsoever. I am glad I did it though because it opened my eyes to what I need to do.

If 70% of your muscle is comprised of water then it makes no sense to try and remove water from out of your body. All you will acheive is smaller flatter looking muscles. What you want to get rid of is the water between your muscles and your skin. I believe the best way to achieve this is to drop sodium, carb deplete then have a solid carbup whilst still consuming enough water that you don't dehydrate but still restricted so you don't look watery. This will hopefully pull all the water out from beneath the skin and pump it into my muscles making them look full and hard.

I am putting this theory to test this week. I'm having a trial run of the last week of comp prep (my comp is 4 weeks away). I have started carb depleting today - only 100g carbs today, then 50g on tues/wed/thurs. Will start carb loading on Friday morning.

I have increased my water intake to 8L a day since yesterday and will continue to do so until Wednesday. Thursday will be 2L then just as required on Friday/Saturday.

I have dropped all sodium intake from today for the first time. Will be interesting to see what difference it makes. I don't intend to reintroduce sodium until after the comp. I believe it smooths you out within an hour of adding it back in so negates your sodium deplete.

I have increased cardio from 1hr day to 2hr day. This will add a little bit in fat loss but more so I think if you are fit, it shines through in your physique.

Weight training sessions are pretty average. Usually taking around an hour. Alot of high reps trying to push the Glycegen into the muscle. I am fatiguing pretty early on in the workouts so intensity peters out at the end but thats to be expected at this stage.

Hopefully my plan comes together and I get the results I am after. I will know on saturday.

[HarryB]

Sodium is a hard one to manage when you take it out so far out, your body starts to produce aldesterone and actually makes you hold water under your skin which is why guys won't normally take sodium out until the last couple of days. I would say if you carb load and only use the amount of water you need to process those carbs and then drop the water and still keep carbs coming in.. your body will need more water to process what you are taking in and will start to drag it from where ever it can find it. IE under your skin.

You also need sodium to move glycogen, fluid across cell membranes. Your body struggles to do this without sodium.

My 2c.

[nate225]

2 hrs cardio / day! I might just have to put the exercycle in my office instead of a chair!! :grin:

You must be shredded as hell now bro!!!!

Can't wait to see your condition on stage bro - should be no mistakes on the day after the few trial runs you've had! By the time you hit the Gold Coast you should have striations on striations as dry as hell! :nod:

[soundsgood]

Sodium is a hard one to manage when you take it out so far out, your body starts to produce aldesterone and actually makes you hold water under your skin which is why guys won't normally take sodium out until the last couple of days. I would say if you carb load and only use the amount of water you need to process those carbs and then drop the water and still keep carbs coming in.. your body will need more water to process what you are taking in and will start to drag it from where ever it can find it. IE under your skin.

You also need sodium to move glycogen, fluid across cell membranes. Your body struggles to do this without sodium.

My 2c.

Very good points Harry, I have researched it a bit and it can be risky pulling the sodium 5 days out as opposed to the last couple of days but its an approach we are going to trial this week. And hey thats what the trial run is for. To try something, and if it works great, if not, no big deal, try something different on comp day :grin:

2 hrs cardio / day! I might just have to put the exercycle in my office instead of a chair!! :grin:

You must be shredded as hell now bro!!!!

Can't wait to see your condition on stage bro - should be no mistakes on the day after the few trial runs you've had! By the time you hit the Gold Coast you should have striations on striations as dry as hell! :nod:

Lol yeah hopefully bro. My bodyfat hasn't moved that much since my test a week and a half ago, the cardio is more for the conditioning side of things.

What is conditioning? It's not just low bodyfat. Its being fit. I have gone from pretty much no cardio a few weeks ago to 2hrs/day (mainly just walking) and hopefully the difference in my physique will be conditioning.

[Android]

you just reminded me SG.... how I don't miss 2hrs cardio a day :pfft:

Do you think being cardio-fit is the same as "being fit"?

...I can get through x2 1hr sessions on the cross-trainer or the bike at 120-130bpm every day but I couldn't complete 1/2 an hour of hitting a bag and some basic sparring.

[musclenz]

Sodium is a hard one to manage when you take it out so far out, your body starts to produce aldesterone and actually makes you hold water under your skin which is why guys won't normally take sodium out until the last couple of days. I would say if you carb load and only use the amount of water you need to process those carbs and then drop the water and still keep carbs coming in.. your body will need more water to process what you are taking in and will start to drag it from where ever it can find it. IE under your skin.

You also need sodium to move glycogen, fluid across cell membranes. Your body struggles to do this without sodium.

My 2c.

Good points Harry. I believe you are talking about osmosis. Equally important is Potassium. The balance between sodium & potassium is important if not essential for the movement of minerals etc into the cell & flushing toxins out of the cell. When manipulating sodium levels in the body one needs to be aware that some sodium & potassium is still required to avoid a range of deficiencies including "muscle cramps, mental apathy, reduced appetite, electrolyte imbalances, dehydration, hyponatremia, decreased utilization of nutrients, impaired nervous functions, fainting, imbalanced osmolarity, convulsions, hypovolemia, hypotension, and further deterioration of renal function"

I have heard that common table salt is stripped of most of its minerals & nutrients in the cleansing process. If you buy unprocessed sea rock salt it can work in reverse to what table salt does in the body. So instead of holding water it tends to work as a durietic & take water away from muscle cells. I dont know if there is any truth in this but it would be interesting to hear from those that have played around with sodium.

[HarryB]

Sodium is a hard one to manage when you take it out so far out, your body starts to produce aldesterone and actually makes you hold water under your skin which is why guys won't normally take sodium out until the last couple of days. I would say if you carb load and only use the amount of water you need to process those carbs and then drop the water and still keep carbs coming in.. your body will need more water to process what you are taking in and will start to drag it from where ever it can find it. IE under your skin.

You also need sodium to move glycogen, fluid across cell membranes. Your body struggles to do this without sodium.

My 2c.

Good points Harry. I believe you are talking about osmosis. Equally important is Potassium. The balance between sodium & potassium is important if not essential for the movement of minerals etc into the cell & flushing toxins out of the cell. When manipulating sodium levels in the body one needs to be aware that some sodium & potassium is still required to avoid a range of deficiencies including "muscle cramps, mental apathy, reduced appetite, electrolyte imbalances, dehydration, hyponatremia, decreased utilization of nutrients, impaired nervous functions, fainting, imbalanced osmolarity, convulsions, hypovolemia, hypotension, and further deterioration of renal function"

I have heard that common table salt is stripped of most of its minerals & nutrients in the cleansing process. If you buy unprocessed sea rock salt it can work in reverse to what table salt does in the body. So instead of holding water it tends to work as a durietic & take water away from muscle cells. I dont know if there is any truth in this but it would be interesting to hear from those that have played around with sodium.

Yeah I was talking about exactly that and yes the balance between sodium and potassium is crucial. Interestingly I found in my personal experience that it was important to also take a calcium magnesium supplement as this also helped a lot with cramps etc etc etc

[soundsgood]

Apples and Oranges Android. Not many guys running around at 4% bodyfat who could hit the bags hard for half an hour. Especially Bodybuilders who have just dropped 10-15kg of bodyfat! Most of us can manage low intensity cardio for long periods of time though If we train into it. If I got on stage at a super low bodyfat but was unable to get through a 45 minute cardio session I think it would show through on my physique. Not to mention the added benefits of vascularity and cuts on your legs you get from long periods of cardio

Today I did Arms. No Stims were used. Weening off at the moment.

I started with standing DB curls. Did a couple of sets of 30 with the 50lb DBs.

Next exercise was seated DB curls with arm between legs. Extending the DB all the way under the seat and then back up to full squeeze. Used the 40lb DBs and did 4 sets of 16-20 reps with each arm.

Surprising for no Stims my arms were pumped to hell. Must have been all the water I had already drunk before training (about 4-5L).

Moved into the squat rack and did barbell curls with an empty bar :shifty:

Wanted 100 rep sets but my pump was so insane I could only manage 1 set of 50 and a couple more at 30ish.

Used the Preacher Bicep curl machine next and did 3 half assed sets of 12-15 reps with 3/4 stack. The fatigue was setting in big time so to finish Bis I did a couple of sets of Standing Cable front double bi's. Moderate weight for 12 reps each set.

Triceps up next.

Warmed up on close grip bench with sets at 60kg and 100kg.

Set the bar to 142.5kg for working sets and pumped out a set of 10. Where did that come from?

Next set I managed 7 then last set was only 4, racked it stripped a plate per side then did 10 @ 100kg then stripped another plate a side again and did 20 @ 60kg. I rest-paused for 10 breathes then popped out another 10 reps.

Lying DB skull crushers next.

4 sets of 10-12 reps with the 55lb DBs

Finished on Cable pulldowns with the rope.

3 sets of 20 with a manageable weight.

Apart from the Closegrip bench it was a pretty lethargic train. All the cardio and low carbs is pretty draining but I can see the finish line now so it's eyes of the prize from here on out :grin:

[soundsgood]

Morning Cardio = 1hr fast walk with a few sprints

Afternoon Weight session was CHEST

Warmed up on Incline DB Press with sets with the 50lb and 75lb DBs

Working sets I did 4 sets of 10 with the 100lb DBs with about 90 sec rest between sets. This was far from fatigue, the intention was to pre-fatigue my chest then smash out a last set to failure. So 5th set was 15 reps. Dropset to 50lb Dbs and pushed out another 15 reps.

Moved into our impromptu Dip Bar setup (you may have seen me modelling on Go Figure). Did 5 sets of 20-16 reps just with bodyweight. Chest forward and feet right back.

Incline DB flies next. Did 5 sets of 10-12 with the 50lb Dbs.

Followed this up with Machine Flies. Did 3 sets of 12 with about half stack

Did a set of 30 on machine Flat Bench with pin set to 180lb while I waited for the cables to become free then finished the workout with 3 sets of Cable crossovers. Increasing weight, decreasing reps, nice big squeeze to finish.

Went home, ate then did another 1hr walk.

I wasn't able to stick to my 50g Carb goal today, I would have been closer to 100g to be honest. Big day of work and all the training wouldn't allow me to function that low today. This is just a trial run of the deplete, will not be working in the leadup to the chch or gold coast shows, but I will def be able to go 50g tomorrow and thurs because of public holiday and short work day for me on thurs, but I'm wondering how many grams of carbs do you other guys who compete decarb on? Im so used to dieting on 250-300g Carb.

Did some posing just now and I'm happy with how I'm looking in a depleted state - definately the leanest Ive ever been, vascular as f*ck (piping hot baths will do that ) and good cuts, had striations running through my triceps too, so thats a good sign. Im looking pretty small but I know I'll fill out pretty quick so thats not an issue.

My little bro is coming over for his assessment with our Nutro tomorrow, will be good to see where hes at. He's looking pretty ridiculous for a 15yo, I'm sure he will turn a few heads in chch!

[trainlikeafreak]

striated triceps bro mean! cant wait to see what you bring later on in the year man.

how are you finding 2x 1hr cardio sessions per day?

[soundsgood]

Cheers TLAF. Yesterday I felt pretty crook by the end of the 2nd session to be honest bro. Problem was I trained mid Arvo, 1st cardio straight after. Ate then about 45 mins later did 2nd session. All crammed together doesn't work.

I did first session at 5:30 this morning, trained at 3-4:15 then 2nd cardio after that. Much more bearable when you spread it out over the day :grin:

[hjp]

Awesome that your bros in mint shape too! He's obviously doing the show with you?

Sounds like the plan is coming together well. Whats your trick to looking more vascular when on stage? Just a random question since you mentioned the bath making you more vascular lol

[soundsgood]

Awesome that your bros in mint shape too! He's obviously doing the show with you?

Sounds like the plan is coming together well. Whats your trick to looking more vascular when on stage? Just a random question since you mentioned the bath making you more vascular lol

Yeah, my little bro will be making his debut at chch with me. He weighed in yesterday at 91kg @ 7.2% Bodyfat so if he really pulls finger in the last 3 weeks he should be pretty impressive for 15 years old.

Getting vascular on stage is a tricky one. It's not something Ive managed to do right unfortunately. I think you look your most vascular when you first get your pump and you are hot so maybe delaying your pumpup till just before you are about to go on stage is a good idea? I've tried running a hot hear drier over my body and that made me really vascular but its effects don't last that long so its not really practical.

I noticed Rigger at the nationals looking pretty good backstage as he prepped then as he got closer and closer to going on stage he looked better and better to the point he was just a big ball of muscle and veins by the time he was called up. Some input here would be great mate!

I read up on literature regarding carb depleting and as a Mesomorph I am better off starting carbs at around 200g then depleting down gradually to 75ish before carbing up so thats what I went with. Yesterday I had 100g Carbs and today I went just under that.

2 x cardio sessions and a hamstring and ab train yesterday.

AM cardio this morning was tough because I had shaved my body the night before and it was bloody freezing walking on the streets. I almost turned back after the first 5 minutes then I thought about everyone else doing the Chch show and how they would be cardioing this morning and I shit you not, the motivation it gave me instantly warmed my body up and I was good to go. Cheesy but true story.

This afternoon I did a depletion workout. Picked 1 exercise for all bodyparts (except legs and abs) and did 4-5 sets of 20-30+ reps squeezing every ounce of glycogen out of the muscle to deplete it as hard as I could. I taked a rest pause set onto the end of each set to to make sure I was fatigued.

Started with Hammer Strength 1 arm single rows. Just used 2pps and squeezed the shit out of my Lats for 20 reps x 4 sets

Next up was DB shoulder press, just used the 60lb DBs and knocked over 5 sets of 20 reps

For Chest I did Flat Bench with just 1pps. 5 sets of 20 reps with a restpause of 10 seconds on the last then pumped out another 20 reps.

For Arms I did 5 sets of 30+ Standing Cable curls with Flat bar. And Triceps was 3 sets of 30 Cable pulldowns with the rope. Both exercises were with a very manageble weight to ensure I could squeeze the whole way through the set.

Surprisingly I did get a pretty good pump but the amazing thing with the vascularity and cuts I had. Looked small but very cut up for me I was bang on 100kg on the scales tonight after the train, expecting that to go down a bit once I stop consuming all the water I am drinking at the moment, thank god, I am getting sick of constantly drinking and peeing :shifty: .

Gonna add some tan tonight then go in and get a bodyfat test tomorrow morning to see how much I have progressed in the last couple of weeks with the additional cardio and restricted carbs.

No cardio tonight, tomorrow or saturday to give the body a rest. Obviously no weight training either.

Will start pumping in the carbs from around lunchtime tomorrow through to mid afternoon Saturday and see what I look like about 3:30pm because thats about what time I will be on stage in Chch.

[rigger]

Hi Soundsgood, I put money on it that seeing you are doing a carb deplete then carb up I would say sometime next week when go back to your restricted diet you will lose some more bodyfat because you have "tricked" so to speak your body into thinking hey here is a whole lot of carbs and often the body will drop a little more fat. So if you go hard again next week you'll drop again I reckon.

Pumping up backstage, well for me at least most of the time the longer the pump up the better I will look. The hard part is doing it as you are dry and usually feeling like shit. The thing is I often do ( rightly or wrongly ) 2 hour workouts and after 2 solid hours if I take the shirt off to have a look or show the Wife for her to pick me to pieces I will be fully pumped and very vascular so why should contest day be any different. Just a thought.

I like the idea of just before going onstage doing static holds on bodyparts so that blood cannot get into a muscle and then when it is released the blood rushes in and you get a wicked pump. Tension in the muscle.

[soundsgood]

Thanks for the ideas Rigger. I will have a play around with it and at certain points in my workout I will do a few poses and see where I look my best. Certainly posing today I noticed I got better the further into the posing session I went. Peaking near the end which was half an hour in.

The Static holds idea is an interesting one too. I have seen guys backstage lying on the back with their legs up for hours until they have to get ready to pump up. Once they get up the blood runs into their quads and they look vascular as. As an open men competitor I am always one of the last to take the stage so doing that would mean I miss out on watching all the competitors before me which would be a great shame so I don't think I'd worry about that. But yeah static holds with a DB overhead or similar would yeild similar results so thats worth a try.

[soundsgood]

So first thing yesterday I went in and met with my Nutro. We did my bodyfat test and found my bicep, tricep and abdominal measurements were all marginally lower than the last test but my back measurement had dropped considerably. I came in at 3.8% bodyfat and weighed 97.8kg. This has meant since I started tracking my bodyfat in mid January I had dropped 7% and gained 1kg of lean mass which was positive.

Heres a couple of depleted pics from earlier in the week. Can't believe how flat my Chest and Arms look in these pics! Im sure I put a couple of inches on them once I carb up :oops:

Meal 1 and Meal 2 were just regular meals then from Meal 3 on I started carbing up. 1 cup of oats and one cup of water every couple of hours. I added a sachet of Natvia sweetner for taste. It was actually pretty bearable.

Once I got through 3 meals of that I switched to baked kumara. No seasoning or salt. Ate that for the next 3 meals (including taking into the movies while I watched the Avengers :shifty: ). With my last meal I added 200g rump steak. I drank about 1/2 a cup of water with each meal

In the morning I had oats and water again and another kumara and steak meal. Then I went into my gym to assess what I looked like. I weighed in at 97kg on the dot I managed to get a bit of a pump but looked tight although pretty flat :? . We decided to try add in a high fat, high sodium meal in the afternoon and see what I looked like.

So off I went to McDonalds and grabbed a couple of grand angus burgers and topped it off with a chicken and rice from the kebab shop. My stomach was churning with all the crap food it hadn't seen in quite some time, its a bit of a double edged sword eating the cheat food but not being able to wash it down with drink so it wasn't as enjoyable as I hoped.

A little bit later I had some more oats and because my joints were cramping quite a bit I had a banana.

The carbs made me feel real sleepy so while the missus and my son were watching something on TV I drifted off for a nap for about an hour. As soon as I woke up I jumped back in my car and shot down to the gym to have a look at what changes the sodium meal had done.

I weighed in at 98.8kg. I was definately way fuller, and vascularity was off the chart. In fact the more and more I posed the more vascular I got. I wasn't quite as tight as I was in the morning but its a trade off I think might be worth it.

I think I will do the sodium deplete then have a high sodium meal about 2 hours before I go on stage. I will have to find something that doesn't make me bloat.

I'm going to have a regular style dinner tonight then straight back into the diet and cardio from tomorrow morning. As Rigger has said, the shock to my system from the dirty food should trigger further fat loss over the last 3 weeks which would be great.

Heres a couple of comparison shots between the morning posing and then afternoon after the crap food.

Morning Hammie

Afternoon Hammie

The second shot wasn't to show the cuts in my quads and hams (trust me they were there), its to show my glutes that are starting to come in. I have more carbed up full body pics but Im keeping my show condition pics off the journal till I hit the stage :wink:

[nate225]

Nice work bro!

Motivating for sure! :nod:

I did a similar deplete in 2000, halving carbs on Mon, halving again on Tues, then zero weds before loading from miday Thurs. This time I was planning a zero carb from the Mon. Thoughts?

[Gym rat]

Mean hamstrings that has just given me extra movation to hit my hamstrings hard

[soundsgood]

Cheers Gymrat :grin:

Everything I have red points to your original plan (gradual deplete) being the better one for bigger guys Nate. You run the risk of depleting yourself so hard you wont be able to fill yourself back up. Especially for bigger guys it can be very risky but I think its worth a try.

I think I will carb deplete a bit harder than I did this week. Start on 200g on Monday, 100g on Tuesday, 50g on Wednesday, just Trace on Thursday then start loading Friday Morning.

[whiterhyno]

Lovin the journal and updates

Looking tight so hope all goes to plan for you as you deff have it all there just need to dial that last bit in for the show

Keep it up

[thatwaslight]

f*ck you look sick bro! cant wait to see the finished product!

[trainlikeafreak]

wow bro you LOOK like a Mr NZ..shredded and you havnt even carbed up properly yet. looks like posing has improved too