1st Time Stepping on Stage!

[justhime]

Good luck!

Thanks brojo!

Pretty close to my goal physique, nice man.

What's your ab routine look like?

Cheers bud! Always feels good to hear that

Ok so my ab routine isn't anything like it used to be.

When I first started getting into lifting/attaining aesthetics my main goal believe or not was solely to achieve a 6 pack. So for about 3 years 2007-2010 I did this routine every day:

100 Crunches
30 Wide Pushups
100 Crunches with my legs elevated
30 Close Pushups
30 Reverse Crunches
30 Diamond Pushups
30 Laying Leg Raises
30 Incline Wide Pushups
30 Swiss Ball Crunches
30 Incline Close Pushups
30 Laying Oblique Crunches
30 Incline Diamond Pushups
Repeat.

This was my routine day in day out for years. I would occasionally do a random weight session here and there in my garage or in my mates garage. I was all about trying to emulate the Hollywood body (Brad Pitt, Ryan Gigandet, Ryan Reynolds etc).

Once I actually started taking lifting seriously, I still kept my ab routine, but now a days it's not nearly as hektik neither is it daily.

This is my current ab routine which I do around 2-4 times a week:

12 Reps Hanging Leg raises/15 Leg Raises on the Roman Chair
30 Reps of Cable Crunches
30 Reps of Swiss Ball Crunches
30 Reps of Reverse Crunches
Max out Crunches
30 Reps of Laying Leg Raises

Now sometimes I'll do this twice over, although most times I only do it once. TBH my ab development is already quite good thanks to the all the years that I did my previous routine.



^Also pic was taken this morning. Weighed in @72.4KG. Half natty lighting of peace/10

Will update you guys with my back workout that I did last night!

[Gizdawg]

This is my current ab routine which I do around 2-4 times a week:

12 Reps Hanging Leg raises/15 Leg Raises on the Roman Chair
30 Reps of Cable Crunches
30 Reps of Swiss Ball Crunches
30 Reps of Reverse Crunches
Max out Crunches
30 Reps of Laying Leg Raises

That's a lot of crunches!

[justhime]

72.2KG weigh in the morning...lowest weigh in thus far!

[GableGrip]

In. You got this brah.

[justhime]

In. You got this brah.

Thanks South Aus Brah!

So this weekend was good. Didn't veer off my diet, weather was great and was able to catch up on some zzz's. Went skating on Saturday for a good 2-3 hours and yesterday for a good 1.5 hours so was able to knock off some cardio too! Had my first refeed day yesterday. Felt good, just ended up eating a chit ton of rice cakes and crumpets to hit them carbs...haha.

Anyway yesterday was also leg day and also the last body part of my deload week.

LEGS:

Warm Up: Weightless walking lunges, light leg extensions for about 20-30 reps. Aiming to just get the knees moving and blood flowing to the quads.

BB Squats:
20KG x 12
60KG x 12
100KG x 12
110KG x 10

Front Squats on Smith Machine (first time doing this on the smith)
40KG x 12
40KG x 12
40KG x 12

Stiff Legged Deadlifts BB superset Standing Leg Curls:
60KG X 10, 15Kg x 10
80KG x 10, 15KG x 10
80KG x 10, 15KG x 10

Stiff Legged Deadlifts DB:
30KG x 10
30KG x 10
30KG x 10

Leg Extensions superset Single Leg Extensions
45KG x 10, 15KG x 8
45KG x 10, 15KG x 8

Seated Leg Curls superset Single Leg Curls:
40KG x 10, 15KG x 8
40KG x 10, 15KG x 8

Ended it off with some foam rolling and static stretching, my 1.5 hour skate session followed.

This week of deloading has been great! Mentally I feel refreshed, and my body feels recuperated. There we definitely days that I didn't want to leave my ego at the door, but that's when I tell myself to "suck it up princess, do what needs to be done!"

[buffren82]

Subbed, Lookn good Brah!

[justhime]

Subbed, Lookn good Brah!

Thanks bro! Will update post later with my chest workout dudes!

[justhime]

73KG weigh in this morning.


So my didn't type up my back routine from Friday, so I'll include that in this post as well as my chest routine from last night. Now I was meant to be doing a deload workout for back but went and did a pretty hefty non-deload workout...haha, back is one of my favourite body parts to train and is definitely something that I have been working to improve as it was something that I had neglected in the past. So I went semi-heavy that day.

I've dropped my carbohydrate intake to 165 grams a day, protein is at 230 grams and fat is at 40-45grams a day. I feel like I'm semi stalling in fat loss at the moment, so we shall see if the slight drop in carb intake will make a difference this week + some added cardio.

Back routine:

Warm up - 3 Sets of Wide Grip Pull ups to failure + Serratus rope pull downs on cable

Seated chest supported rows superset with Bent Over DB Rows
Wide Grip 120KG x 10, 30KG x 8
Wide Grip 140KG x 10, 30KG x 8
Close Grip 120KG x 10, 30KG x 8
Close Grip 140KG x 10, 30KG x 8

Bent Over BB Rows superset standing One Arm Cable Rows
60KG x 10, 12KG x 10
80KG x 10, 12KG x 10
90KG x 8, 12KG x 10

BB Deadlift Conventional Stance
20KG x 15
60KG x 10
100KG x 10
130KG x 8
160KG x 5

Reverse Grip Lat Pull downs superset Seated cable face pulls with Rope
77KG x 10, 26KG x 10
87KG x 10, 26KG x 10

Wide Grip Lat Pull Downs superset Seated cable face pulls with Rope
77KG x 10, 26KG x 10
87KG x 10, 26KG x 10



Chest Routine:

Warmup - Seated Chest Flys on Machine
55KG x 30
55KG x 25

Incline DB Press:
32KG x 12
42KG x 10
42KG x 10
42KG x 8, drop set to 28KG x 5

Incline Flys:
22KG x 12
22KG x 12
22KG x 12

Cable Crossovers from the Top superset with Cable Crossovers from the bottom:
13KG x 10, 6KG x 10
13KG x 10, 8KG x 10
13KG x 10, 7KG x 10
13KG x 12

Flat BB Bench Press:
60KG x 10
80KG x 6
100KG x 4

Seated Chest Flys on Machine Dropset
85KG x 10, 55KG x 10, 25KG x 12
95KG x 10, 55KG x 10, 25KG x 12

So my chest routine was a little different today, the beginning half was as per usual, but I've never done a triple dropset on the Machine Flys before. Felt really good, especially with the last 12 reps at 25KG, explosive concentric movement with a slow controlled eccentric movement.

My calves DOMS were pretty hektik last night, might have been from all the skateboarding, and also the fact that I did a calf workout on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. So after my chest workout I just did some general leg stretches and lots of foam rolling.

[ghoulsy]

Why have you decided to go light on squats and not max out? Keep it up looking good!

[justhime]

Why have you decided to go light on squats and not max out? Keep it up looking good!

Was a deload week bud!

[Carter770]

Awesome. Definitely in.

[justhime]

Awesome. Definitely in.

Thanks matey!

Quick question for those that have competed, What was the lowest you dropped your fat intake too during your prep?

[JVDTWG]

Mirin Bathroom tiles

Have started my shreddin log brah . In sig.

[jpfaherty]

^Also pic was taken this morning. Weighed in @72.4KG. Half natty lighting of peace/10

LOL

Keep up the good work man!

[justhime]

LOL

Keep up the good work man!

Thanks brutha!

Weighed in @ 72.8kg this morning.

[justhime]

72.4KG this morning, good to know I'm still slowly shedding weight, continuing to look a little leaner day by day.

Did some cardio yesterday, 30 mins of rowing, kept it quite rigorous, didn't do hiit though. As for muscle group trained, it was shoulder night last night.

Shoulders:

Warmup:
Standing OHP Bar x 20
Rotator Cuff warmups

Seated DB Press superset with Shrugs(Using Plates):
24KG x 12, 15KG x 18
32KG x 10, 20KG x 18
34KG x 10, 20KG x 18
36KG x 8, dropset 22KG x 5, 20KG x 18

Seated OHP Press superset Standing Side Later Raises
50KG x 10, 8KG x 10
60KG x 10, 8KG x 10
60KG x 8, 8KG x 8

Seated Bent Over Reverse Flys Dropset
14KG x 18, 8KG x 12
16KG x 14, 8KG x 12
14KG x 16, 8KG x 12

Seated DB Side Lateral Raises superset Standing Cable Front Lateral Raises
10KG x 10, 5KG x 10
10KG x 10 5KG x 10
Normally I will only do two set, but I feel that my delts lack dimension from the side when viewed front on, so I decide to throw in a triple dropset of Standing Side Lateral Raises:
14KG x 10, 9KG x 10, 5KG x 10

Standing Front Lateral Raises with a Plate superset with Standing Cable Side Lateral Raises
20KG x 10, 3.5KG x 10
20KG x 10, 3.5KG x 10

Cool down exercise:
Rear Delt Cable Crossovers from middle range
3.5KG x 10
3.5KG x 10

[justhime]

72.5KG this morning @ weigh in.

IT'S FRIDAY, FRIDAY, GOTTA GET DOWN ON FRIDAY.

Anyway, last night I did arms and abs, went for a short skate before hand, nothing to extreme. Will plan to get a cardio session in some time midday today, and already have my back routine scheduled for tonight! Love back day
Plan to bring my carbs down by 10g on Sunday for the next week which will have me eating 155C a week, see if this helps in the fat/weight loss department as I feel that I'm starting to stall.

But with that being said, still feel good in the gym and throughout the day, I guess seeing as this is my first time actually tapering into a diet as opposed to other years where I would just crash diet and starve myself, I actually still feel full of life even though I'm gradually eating less and less. My strength hasn't really gone down at all, but it hasn't gone up either!

44 Days to go!!

[justhime]

Weighed in @ 72.4KG this morning.

Sooooo I didn't updated this yesterday, I actually took the day off from training. Friday night is normally my back night, but one of my good mates just got back from being away for a year so we had a welcome back BBQ and a nice home game of poker. I did do cardio though, just took the night off from the weights. Had a couple of sneaky beverages and some chocolate too...

Anyway woke up yesterday (Saturday) feeling a little bummed that I had eaten chocolate/ice cream and drank, but didn't let it deter me to much. Went skating for the most part of 3-4 hours, climate was beautiful but the wind was so damn annoying!
After the skate I went to the gym with my buddy and hit up back! Nothing beats going to the gym on Saturday night....almost every single time we have the entire gym to ourselves, last night was no different.

Anyway to my back routine:

Warmup: Wide Grip Pullups - 3 Sets to failure

Seated Chest Supported Rows superset with Bent Over DB Rows:
110KG x 12, 34KG x 10
120KG x 12, 34KG x 10
130KG x 10, 34KG x 10
140KG x 10, 34KG x 10

Bent Over BB Row on Smith superset with Standing One Arm Cable Rows
60KG x 12, 13KG x 10
80KG x 12, 13KG x 10
100KG x 10, 13KG x 10
80KG x 10, 13KG x 10

BB Deadlift:
60KG x 8
60KG x 8
100KG x 8
140KG x 7
180KG x 3

Reverse Grip Lat Pull downs superset Seated cable face pulls with Rope
77KG x 10, 26KG x 10
87KG x 10, 26KG x 10

Wide Grip Lat Pull Downs superset Seated cable face pulls with Rope
77KG x 10, 26KG x 10
87KG x 10, 26KG x 10


Finally hit 180KG dealift! I was a late to deadlifting crew kinda guy, so I was so stoked last night when I got 180KG up, especially as the last time I had attempted it I wasn't able to even get it up for 1. Also what helped massively was last night was the first night I had DLifted with chalk. People don't lie when they say how much it helps!

[justhime]

So weighed in @ 72.6KG this morning, put a little bit of weight.

This week I'm going to drop my carb intake too 155G while keeping my Protein consumption at 230 -/+ 5-10 grams and fat at the 44 mark.

Yesterday was leg day, overall energy levels going into the gym were not the greatest, but once I got under the bar for my first set of squats things got better to say the least If there was any one body part of mine which I feel may have slightly suffered thus far due to dieting (in terms of lifting strength) I would definitely have to say that it is my legs. Then again though I am quite blessed in the leg genetic department!

So I guess that's about the most that will be changing this week. Aside from that, I'm actually doing a steady 3 days a week of cardio now too, so hopefully we will see some more weight/fat loss!

Anyway too my leg routine that was completed yesterday:

Warm Up: Walking Lunges, Light Leg Extensions 15+ reps x 3 Sets

BB Back Squat:
60KG x 10
60KG x 10
100KG x 10
100KG x 10
140kG x 8

Seated Leg Press Machine superset Front Squat on the Smith
175KG x 12, 60KG x 10
175KG x 12, 60KG x 9
165KG x 12, 60KG x 10

BB SLDL superset with Standing Leg Curls
60KG x 12, 30KG x 10
90KG x 10, 30KG x 10

DB SLDL superset with Standing Leg Curls
34KG x 10, 27.5KG x 10
34KG x 10, 27.5KG x 10

Seated Leg Extension superset Seated Single Leg Extensions
97.5KG x 10, 35KG x 8
100kG x 10, 35KG x 8

Seated Leg Curls superset Seated Single Leg Curls
65KG x 10, 30KG x 8
75KG x 10, 30KG x 8

Machine Glute Extensions
75KG x 10
75KG x 10

Volume wasn't as high as normal (for myself anyway) but as I said my energy level for some reason upon entering and even before going to the gym were not the greatest. Got through my squats and felt good mentally, but physically the whole work out I was feeling a little behind. Could also have been the fact that I did back the night before where as usually Saturday is my rest/deload day of the week.

Ah well still feeling in the glutes and quads this morning!

[justhime]

Weighed in @ 73KG this morning....

So I have actually consistently been weighing in at 73KG the past few days where as last week I was clocking in at around 72.5KG, the 0.5KG increase in weight may be from the inconsistency of my diet over the weekend. As I said carbs have been lowered and am now doing cardio 3 times a week, so hopefully by Friday I will be back to dropping weight at nice steady pace.

Even so with the weight going up a little bit, I do feel like in the mirror that I am still losing body fat. Starting to see some striations in my glutes and my hamstrings are definitely looking more defined. I have come to realize through this prep that I hold a lot of fat in my legs as they have definitely taken the longest time to start seeing finer detail in the muscles.

Officially #40 days out (5.5 weeks). Getting a tad bit nervous, hoping to really nail my conditioning on the head. Meeting with my prep/posing coach this Friday. Was actually meant to do so on the Saturday that just passed but some family business came up that had to be attended too. Pretty excited to meet with him and get some face to face time with someone that has experience! Everything I've done thus far has been done so on information and knowledge that I have acquired simply by reading articles and watching videos (mostly youtube).

Yesterday was Monday...i.e. international chest day! Energy levels going to the gym were quite good, both mentally and physically. I've been steadily dropping my caloric intake weekly but my lifts have still pretty much remained the same, and in some instances I've still been able to push out some PR's!
Last night was a very intense session, kept rest time between each and every set to the bare minimal.

Routine from last night:
Warm up - Machine Flys 55KG x 30 Reps for 2 sets

Incline DB Press:
32KG x 12
40KG x 10
42KG x 10
42KG x 8, dropset 24KG x 5

Incline Flys:
20KG x 12
22KG x 12
22KG x 12

Seated Chest Press:
70KG x 10
80KG x 10
90KG x 7, dropset 70KG x 10

Cable Crossovers from the Top superset with Cable Crossovers from the bottom
13KG x 10, 8KG x 10
13KG x 10, 8KG x 10
13KG x 10, 8KG x 10

Seated Chest Flys on Machine Dropset
95KG x 8, 65KG x 10, 35KG x 10
90KG x 8, 65KG x 10, 35KG x 10

The other exercise I did which I did not add as I felt it was more "waiting for a certain machine, don't want to cool down" exercise was some "party" reps. Basically doing a quarter ROM rep then completing a full ROM rep and counting the two movements as 1 rep. Did this on the Smith Machine with 45KG on the bar 3 times for 10 reps with basically 30 seconds of resting time of between all 3 sets. Nice way to keep the blood flowing and sweat dripping!

[AlwaysBeShepard]

Not sure how I ended up in the contest prep section but I started reading your thread and now I wanna see how you get on so I'm subbed

Will be interesting to see what goes into contest prep because I'm beginning to consider the possibility of competing (in several years of course. I've only just really started this lifting business)

Good luck and great physique btw!

[justhime]

Not sure how I ended up in the contest prep section but I started reading your thread and now I wanna see how you get on so I'm subbed

Will be interesting to see what goes into contest prep because I'm beginning to consider the possibility of competing (in several years of course. I've only just really started this lifting business)

Good luck and great physique btw!

Welcome brotha! and thanks for the kind words

Finally after being told by many many supplement shops that they are sold out/waiting for shipments to arrive, I finally found a supplement store with a supple of Quest Bars.




hnnnnnng. come @ me.

[justhime]

73KG weigh in today, last week I was coming in @ 72.4-72.6KG....hrmmm could it be the fact that I have dropped my Carb intake but upped my protein intake? I'm still eating at 2000 calories....will drop protein intake over next few days by some grams and see what happens:/

Anyway just a little serratus/obliques shot

[justhime]

Last night was arms night, bicep focused. Also did some abs and calves at the end of my workout.

Routine:
Warmup - BB Curls 25KG x 20 for 2 sets

EZ Bar Preacher Curls superset BB forearm curls (Forearms rested on top of a bench)
30KG x 12, 12.5KG x 10
35KG x 10, 15KG x 10
40KG x 10, 15KG x 10
45KG x 8 dropset 35 x 4 dropset 25 x 5, 15KG x 8

Standing Alternated DB Curls superset Standing BB Forearm Curls
18KG x 10, 15KG x 10
20KG x 10, 15KG x 10

Standing Alternated DB Hammer Curls across body superset Standing BB forearm Curls
24KG x 10, 15KG x 10
26KG x 10, 15KG x 10

Seated Incline DB Curls superset One Arm DB Overhead Tricep extensions
14KG x 10, 12KG x 10
14KG x 10, 12KG x 10

Seated Hammer Curls superset One Arm DB Overhead Tricep extensions
20KG x 10, 12KG x 10
20KG x 10, 12 KG x 10

Standing BB Cable Curls superset Single Arm Tricep Cable Pulldowns
28KG x 10, 10KG x 10
28KG x 10, 10KG x 10
28KG x 10, 10KG x 10

Abs & Calves
Hanging Leg Raises superset Roman Chair Hanging Leg Raises
15, 15
Seated Calf Raise on Leg Press Machine
155KG x 15 dropset 95 x 15
Swiss Ball Crunches
30 reps
Seated Calf Raise on Leg Press Machine
155KG x 15 dropset 95 x 15
Laying Leg Raises
30 Reps
Seated Calf Raise on Leg Press Machine
155KG x 15 dropset 95 x 15
Cable Crunches
28KG x 30 Reps
Hanging Leg Raises superset Roman Chair Hanging Leg Raises
15, 15

Gym was packed last night, luckily it was only an arms night so I didn't really need to utilize much more than DB's and a bench at most times. Kept resting to a bare minimum really focusing on keeping the pump in my arms as well as keeping my cardiovascular high throughout the whole session!

[justhime]

72.5KG weigh in today! Back on track

[justhime]

72.1KG weigh in this morning.

Yesterday I did my cardio:

15 Minutes on the Eliptical
15 Minutes of Rowing

With this I also went skateboarding for a good hour. Was going to actually take a rest day from the weights but actually went and ended up doing arms and some hamstring/calf work. I miscalculated my carb intake and actually input an item in twice, so if anything I think I ended up under eating carbs yesterday which could be a factor in the weigh in...but with that being said this is the lightest I've weighed in quite some time!

Anyway exciting times ahead, am going to see a prep coach today. My only thoughts on this is that maybe I should have done so earlier, but tbh I feel like I've handled my own quite well with just doing my prep all by myself up to now.

I'll keep ya'll updated on how it goes with the coach, hopefully my condition at the moment is on track.

5 Weeks out! Getting close!

[justhime]

Guys I'm still alive, haven't had a chance to update my journal this weekend, but it has been quite an eventful one at that!

Met with my prep/posing coach for the first time on Friday, and although my plans were to compete on the 29th of September, he believes I'm ready to get on stage in 2 weeks time on the 8th of September.

Even though I had decided to meet with him so late into my prep he was glad I had done so as he believes I have great potential for the near and far future.(Sigh of relief ) He tweaked my diet, upped my cardio but pretty much said to keep training the way I'm training.

Did Back on Friday night, my routine was pretty much identical to my routine last week. So i won't make this post epicly long by posting it again.


Saturday yielded the best weather in quite a while. Sun was out, wind was down to a minimum, the Winter chill seemed far gone. Took advantage of this and went skateboarding all day with my friends.

Seeing as I had posing practice class to attend on Sunday, I decided to do legs on Saturday night rather than my usual Sunday afternoon.

I'll post this routine up, I took very minimal rest between all sets, 2-3 minutes between my squats, and no longer that a minute for everything else. It's now Monday Morning and the DOMS at the moment are still insane! Don't know if it's from the amped up amount of cardio I've also added, but I do feel that I went pretty ham on legs!

Warm up:

Walking lunges, some foam rolling.
Leg Extensions;
55KG x 15 reps for 3 sets

BB Back Squats:
60KG x 12
60KG x 12
100KG x 10
130KG x 10
150KG x 7

BB Stiff Legged Deadlifts superset Standing Leg Curls
60KG x 10, 25 x 10
90KG x 10, 30 x 10
100KG x 10, 30 x 9

Seated Leg Press
250KG x 10
120KG x 25

Seated Leg Extensions superset Single Leg Seated Leg Extension:
95KG x 10, 32.5KG x 8
100KG x 10, 30KG x 9
100KG x 10, 30KG x 8

Seated Leg Curls superset Single Leg Seated Leg Curls:
75KG x 10, 30KG x 10
77.5KG x 10, 30KG x 10
80KG x 10, 30KG x 10

After this I did my cardio. I did HIIT on the eliptical, 5 minutes warm up, 1 minute 30 seconds of 70%, 30 Seconds 100%, did 5 cycles of this.

Normally I would include some DB Romanian Dead/SLDL's but I had actually done these as well as calves on Thursday night, plus with all the skating through out the day didn't feel the need to over do it.

Needless to say, my legs are killing me.


Sunday was my first posing practice class with Mike and gave me a chance to meet the rest of the team. Naturally I'm a very shy and reserved guy, so I was a little bit awkward when I got there and sorta sat by myself as everyone arrive 1 at a time till we were all there as well as Mike.
He made me get up in front and intro myself which semi-broke the ice, but I hate speaking in front of a crowd!

Anyway did posing practice, was really fun, but I never realized how tiring it really is! On the plus side Mike said I had already somewhat improved from what he had seen on Friday and said I must be a quick learner and well coordinated, I said it's from all the skateboarding!
Got home at night, prepped my food and hit the gym up for a cardio session:
10 minutes easy/medium pace on the stationary bike
15 minutes medium pace on the elliptical
10 minutes of HIIT on the elliptical following the same 1.30/30 cycle.
Calories are down now, hoping to get to under 70KG by the 8th of September to get on stage!

[justhime]

[justhime]

Howdy guys, so an update of whats been happening as I haven't been doing my usual updates as of late!

My contract with Anytime Fitness has finished up and I have since joined a new gym. Start my training there as of this afternoon for shoulders!

Pics of said gym:




The gym is run by two brothers, and they definitely have got things right! Really loved the passion they have as well as their philosophy's on what a gym should be about. Let the PR's commence!

As for my chest and bicep focused arms days I've kicked it back old school and just trained in my Garage, so all free weight work there, no machines.

As much as I hated cardio in the past, now that it's becoming habitual it is definitely becoming easier both mentally and physically. Been rowing 20 minutes and eliptical 20 minutes everyday.

Weighed in at 72.7KG, I think the influx was from a mild junk binge I had on Sunday night :S
Will not happen again!

[JVDTWG]

I walked past Unity the other day... Looks like such a mad gym!

I'm at Anytime myself, and cos' my days vary so much I need the ability to train at random times, often at 9 pm onwards which is why I'm going to stick with them.

Do you know what the one off fee is for Unity or casual rate?

Depending on your work and training times I would stay with anytime or another 24 hour joint and train at unity when you feel like lugging your crap to work.

I know there is this place at Eastwood which is apparently pretty cheap (according to a mate0 and 24 hours too - http://www.plusfitness.com.au/clubs/eastwood

Not sure of the cost but they do 1 week free if you wanna try it out.