WEEK ONE HUNDRED-FOUR :: Have You Accomplished Your Bodybuilding Goals This Year?

[the_fake_webmaster]

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TOPIC: Have You Accomplished Your Bodybuilding Goals This Year?

For the week of: November 29th - December 5th
Tuesday @ Midnight Is The Final Cut (Mountain Time, US & Canada).

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As the year narrows down we begin to wonder how much progress we made throughout the year. We wonder if we’ve met our goals and how we can improve ourselves for the next year to come.

Have you accomplished all of your bodybuilding goals this year? Please describe what those goals were and how you made sure you met them.

Are you satisfied with your bodybuilding accomplishments this year? What made them successful?

Why didn’t you meet all of your bodybuilding goals this year? If you didn’t meet the goals then what will you do differently next year to make sure you complete them?

Will your bodybuilding goals be any different next year?

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[Dallas68]

TOPIC: Have You Accomplished Your Bodybuilding Goals This Year?

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As the year narrows down we begin to wonder how much progress we made throughout the year. We wonder if we’ve met our goals and how we can improve ourselves for the next year to come.

Have you accomplished all of your bodybuilding goals this year? Please describe what those goals were and how you made sure you met them.

I believe I have surpassed many of my goals for this past year. In the December holidays of 2005, I had been told on the bodybuilding.com forums that I needed to bring up my back. I of course found that to really increase your back size the lat muscles would have to be sufficiently developed. Therefore I asked for a pull-up bar from Santa to do just that. That and many other exercises led to my back exploding, and I believe it to be my strongest point now.

I found an old diary where I had scribbled down my goals for the year. I will list them as follows. Note that these were my goals I shudder to think of where I was before.
A bit of background info, I was overweight in my primary school, then thankfully rugby and the general good pressure from my peers steered myself towards muscle building. In high school rugby quickly made me skinny from the intense fitness practices.
I had a personal body complex and believed I was still fat which was very untrue as I look at pictures now of my earlier years in high school.
This would explain the low body fat percentage in the list of my goals, which is contradictory to the other goals. I have learnt much of what is reasonably obtainable now.

My one stat I did have dated was the following; 24/12/2005 arms were thirteen and three quarter inches cold. So this means I have gained two inches on my arms this past year.

my goals for 2006 ( written in December holidays )

here is a picture of my transformation for 2006
http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/img/97248/progresspic/299orig.jpg

Arms fourteen point five inches
Legs twenty six point five inches
Waist thirty two point six inches
Body fat nine percent%
Weight one hundred and eighty seven pounds

Bench over one hundred and fifty four pounds
Squat over two hundred and sixty four pounds
Dead lift over three hundred and fifty four pounds

Of course there is a myriad of goals here some which can bring conflict to the other.
I want to take you through how my year has progressed and how my body has dramatically changed for the better.

I really have been much more focused these last four months of the year achieving perhaps all my gains in this time period. I progressed through a massive bulking up program which went from three-thousand calories to an unprecedented amount which I recall could have easily been over five thousand calories. I ate day and night in the process gaining strength, size and way too much fat. I had once forced myself to eat three quarters of an oatmeal box in one sitting which I believe was at least two-thousand five hundred calories, add milk and you can see I was really gaining too fast and in the wrong way.
My arms swelled to fifteen and a half inches cold, legs finally reached their mark, my waist was out of control but I weighed one hundred and ninety pounds at five foot seven. I am now benching one hundred and ninety-four pounds for a one rep max. I am still struggling with squat but am aiming on strengthening this further in the New Year which brings new beginnings. My strongest dead lift is now three hundred and seventy pounds.

My body fat had risen to eighteen percent and I finally said I feel too lethargic and unfit now. I cut myself down to one hundred and eighty pounds at twelve percent body fat in this past month and a half. With that my arms came down to fifteen and three quarter inches, my waist went from thirty six inches to a comfortable thirty three inches. My bench is still the same and I believe my other stats are as well.
All in all I am happy with how I have progressed this year, I have gained more size than I had set myself to gain, and I have now brought my body under control again, in this process I have learnt valuable lessons and will never make any of the same mistakes which arose. Another goal which I was always mindful of was to bench more than I weigh. Now I weighed one hundred and seventy eight pounds on the day I benched one hundred and ninety four pounds which means my strength has changed impressively this year.
I believe this last quarter of the year is when I gained much of my new strength and size.

The only negative which I can attest to my excessively quick growth is stretch marks around my arms and chest. Yes it is a very clear marker for the hard work you put in, but it is not very attractive. Indeed I take these marks as a compliment but am now using an oil to lighten the marks so they are not so visible. They do work and you should go by a doctor’s direction as to which products will work effectively.

The interaction with the board members on this forum and generally reading up on all the information and crucial knowledge shared by all those who know what they are doing is what helps you to progress that bit further.
You must not be scared to experiment, yes I never wanted to see any fat on my body again after I had been so embarrassed about it in my youth, yet if I never ate over and above what I should have, I may never have gained what I have this year in terms of values like confidence, motivation and patience.

Bodybuilding is an incredible mind game which you must conquer everyday and night.
I do believe I am instinctive, I have my goals consistently running through my mind but if I feel I can achieve the goal sooner I will go for it. I wont wait another week because you should rest your body for X number of days before you attempt it. I do not believe in that, if you feel you can do it, go for it. I had no spotter when I benched twenty two pounds more than usual, but I believed in myself and I then found that I could bench it. There is nothing more exciting than knowing your stronger, which means you have gained more muscle. now as a precaution you should have a spotter available.

You have to be ready to receive pain and anguish. I struggled to pull three hundred and forty eight pounds the one night on dead lift. But you must ask yourself, what is wrong why can you not do it? You then must focus completely on the job at hand, bodybuilding is a thinking sport. The barbell was drenched in my palm’s sweat. I went to get a towel dried it up. Then I felt my gloves were going to get in the way so I took them off. After all this I lifted it successively. This took a good ten minutes of frustration and thinking to finally lift all the way up.
Most people would have given up and blamed it on their previous chest workout but I say you are too weak-minded to be successful in the weight room. Take that extra edge off yourself of your humanity in the gym and bring everything you have got.

I am preaching going past your limits because that is precisely how I achieved maximal results this year.
After a heavy dead lift session I am literally shaking while I eat dinner. My central nervous system is in total shock but therefore it becomes adaptable to the pain.

Please remember this quote by a regular forum member 'It's a lifestyle, not a 2 month project'' - Pu12en12g”

[Dallas68]

Are you satisfied with your bodybuilding accomplishments this year? What made them successful?

I am indeed satisfied but am hungrier as I have gained further confidence and want to grow to even larger proportions and size. My ability to take punishment and large bucket loads of pain is what sets myself apart from much of my peer group and those around myself.

To be very honest I am kept together and marching on by a couple of things. Firstly would have to be my friends at my high school. They keep my spirits high as they all remark on my bodybuilding efforts. I am humble and do not ask for it, yet it does help you to hear comments to make you realize your efforts are appreciated. Family is another large foundation. Without my parents I would never have had a weight room, without my brothers, I may not have learnt my valued place in the hierarchal system, which is valuable to keep one sane. The last contribution which set off my whole muscle building journey is simply animalpak.com, and the animalpak.com manual which I have read to bits. I remember each lesson one must understand to grow as a person and a bodybuilder. Knowing that these men believe in what you do provides much needed motivation in everyday nuances. These are those things which pass you by but what really keep you afloat. Everyday you are held together by friends, family and other motivational people to make you successful.


Why didn’t you meet all of your bodybuilding goals this year? If you didn’t meet the goals then what will you do differently next year to make sure you complete them?

I believe im not at the body fat level I scribbled down ( nine percent body fat ) because it would not be viable or intelligent for me to go down to that level. I will lose too much strength and muscle building ability as the whole body is restricted from growing in an anabolic state.
I will change my perspective on diet though. I will stop myself from eating too many excess calories to keep the waist under control. I would like to hover around the percentage of body fat I have right now ( thirteen percent ), this next year im going to bring in a few new protocols to further my lean muscle gains. I am training earlier each day so I can try eating my carbohydrates earlier in the day and then after a cut off point I stop eating carbohydrates. I believe this will restrict the bloat which I am used to from the past. Then of course I will only be having protein and fats in the night. I have been testing it out and I feel it works well. I will keep my calories to an optimum level with clean foods so that I gain dense hard muscle which I can be proud of and retain.

Will your bodybuilding goals be any different next year?

Yes, this past year I was focused on simply growing larger for the sake of doing it I did not have as much ambition as I am feeling for this next year. My goals are very clear and I have a very good idea as to how I will achieve and be successful in them.
These past few months I have been watching professional bodybuilder’s videos and have been learning about all the aspects of this profession. I have grown to be passionate about the livelihood of the brothers of iron. This is made even more complex by the fact that many of the people in our developed countries are obese, thus this gives my immediate future a boost as I will work towards creating a career for myself which will help these people find a healthier outlook on their lives. I believe personal training to be effective in this side of this business. To work towards this goal is for me to now gain as much knowledge as possible, I will then be more confident after leaving school to attain the career I wish for.
However for now this next year it is going to be based on smaller goals which will be leading up to a further and more difficult one. I plan to compete in my early twenties and before im twenty I want to be “contest-size” so that when I do decide to walk into a show I will be on my own level.
I plan to do this by gaining as much pure lean muscle as is possible every week and every month. I am going to stick to one hundred percent clean foods without cheating with any fast foods, and will train harder than I have ever before. I do know this is a load of talk right now yet I will allow anyone to challenge all that I state here right now.

I am extremely dedicated to this life as it changed my whole life upside down and inside out. The cold hard iron is my soul for which I push and pull but embrace everyday.

I love to live past the expectations of people so that when it is all said and done I am much better than the rest.

my solid plan

My training will be based on Arnold Swarchenegger’s advanced training which is found in his book “encyclopedia of modern bodybuilding”, I did give this a test run and I gained a load of strength in that week. It indeed weakens you at first as you are not used to the volume of work but you will become used to the pain after consistent application.

My diet will be higher in protein nearing double my bodyweight in pounds and I will keep carbohydrates to be consumed before a certain time and if I am training late then only after the workout. This is what will keep my waist under control as I gain weight.
I will have to drastically improve my sleeping times. I do not have great sleeping cycles and I know this may impend on many important hormonal and anabolic factors. I swear to myself that I shall increase my sleeping times by sleeping earlier than I have in the past. I plan to do this by finishing everything I need to do in the early evening then relaxing until I drift off to sleep.

In summary: my training will be intensive, my diet plan will be strict and structured to my body type, and my sleeping will recover my aching bodyparts each day.
There is only one thing left to add here. Do you know what that is? Hydration! I have been good this last month or so as I have been drinking a good five liters of water each day. This helps to keep muscles looking full and flushes out anything in the body. It is the easiest improvement one could make to their livelihood. A jug of ice cold water to keep metabolism fired up and the muscles full. Does that sound good to you? It does to me.

It is said one can gain twenty-four pounds of lean muscle tissue in a year optimally and naturally without any androgenic exogenous hormones. If you break it down this is achievable with hard and dedicated work. When you think about it is a lot of muscle in a year. In a month that is two pounds of lean muscle, in a week that is naught-point five pounds. That is surely easy to accomplish and will result in a massive change in your bodies’ composition. If this is done slowly and properly you may retain very close to the body fat you had twelve months earlier. Now doesn’t that sounds awesome? Does that motivate you to pay more attention to your diet and training? Good now do it! I am.

I look forward to anyone else who is looking to hit the professional bodybuilding stage one day, perhaps I will meet you there. Thank you for reading.

[redhawk76]

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[Sciamach]

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