14 weeks out from 2nd show. Time to get RIPPED!

[SB100%Natural]

Originally Posted by FigureAngel21

No falling off the treadmill you! Bruises & stitches don't look good on stage...maybe you should try swimming? hehe Hope you could smile a little at that one.

Keep it up only a few more DAYS!

Hahahaha

[SB100%Natural]

05:30am SHOW DAY!

Hi all. Its 05:30am and today is the day! I've just finished my first meal - Sirloin steak and sweet potato, not your typical breakfast I know. I've done a brief 10 min pump up routine and had my Xtend. I'm feeling on top of the world today... ready to do the business.

Laynes peak weak system is the best! I must admit that a few days ago I started to have my doubts but if how I look this morning is a reflection of how I will look in about 8 hours time on stage, then I'm one satisfied SOB! Basically it worked exactly as described and today I look as lean as and perhaps leaner than ever before, jackpot!

It feels so good to finally see all the months of hard work and sacrifice come together. I'm motivated like never before. Knowing that quite a lot of people will be there to cheer me on in my home town motivates me to no end. I don't care that this is a non-tested show. I don't care who turns up. All I care about right now is putting forth my best today. I will say whole heartedly that I have given my all... and... "If somebody beats me, it WON'T be because they outworked me!"

I'll be back in the following days with a full write up of todays events and of course pics as soon as I can. Thanks to all that have checked into my log and given words of encouragement. Wish me luck, lets do this

[NEVERSCARED]

good luck man!you really worked hard to get to this point and i hope u will do good!we got to see some pics!

[FigureAngel21]

THE BIG DAYYYYYY! GOOD LUCK!!!!! Can't wait for the pictures! I'm sure you are already a winner to your friends, family, & those of us online following your progress! Represent the NATURAL world!


GO STEVE!




(sorry I'll never stop being a cheerleader haaha)

[AustrianOakJr]

IM glad things are looking good for you. I cant imagine waking up and having the physique be "off" after all that sacrifice in prepping. Get ready to rock! ......and we need pics/vids as soon as possible!

[Blahzay128]

Steve - best of luck today....you worked your ass off...so enjoy the spotlight!!!!

[Transformer08]

good luck bro...cant wait to see the pics!

[aguy fish]

Good luck Steve, can't wait to see the pics!

[Blahzay128]

Bumping for an update.

[cmamath13]

Steve,

I hope you competition went well. Let us know when you get a chance.

Chris

[AustrianOakJr]

STEVE!!!! What happened? Youre leaving us hanging!

[SB100%Natural]

I looked awesome in the morning at about 05:00. I was ripped to shreds. Flat but very, very lean. Leaner than ever before. I felt great and was confident that this would be my best performance ever. The quads were ripped with great cross-striations on the teardrop. The abs were all the way in, very lean with more veins than I've seem before, kinda grossed me out lol! The day started great and I was feeling on top of the world.

My joy was short lived however. Something seemed to go wrong at some point during the day. Very, very wrong. I'm still sitting here scratching my head trying to figure out what happened. As I started the carb-up at about 5:30am with sweet potatoes (2x before stepping on stage), then white baguette with chicken and cheese. It felt good to get some real food at last. I applied Dreamtan early in the morning after my first meal and then walked around covered in a loose sheet for several hours.

My tan seemed to become very "matted" despite touching it up somewhat prior to stepping out. I didn't noticed it myself but the video shows that my tan looked like crap on the night.

Again, like last show I couldn't get any type of pump going at all. I just felt flat but this time I saw that I'd somehow started to go "soft" and this time, especially around the abdominals. Something was going quite wrong for me between the hours of my first meal at 05:30 and the night show. I looked around at some of the other competitors and they all seemed to be eating the same things, mainly rice, some veg such as red peppers and small amounts of chicken. It seemed I was the only one eating a chicken sub with cheese. One competitor even advised me to "stop eating that right now" and "only drink tiny amounts."

I feel very disappointed with myself having seen the pictures from the night. And I'm almost embarrassed to post them on here but I will anyway. I feel I looked awful and not ripped in the slightest. I would go as far as saying I looked better at my first show than this one.

The show itself seemed to be pretty badly organised. For a start the backstage lighting was, well, almost non-existent. They did bring in some old lamps that produced a weak yellow splash of light but they were far from adequate for those trying to apply bronzer. Very poor. Secondly, I was the first person to go out for the night show routines. I got myself ready, pumped and ate my pre-stage meal (a candy bar) at 5mins out. Then, when my time arrived they came backstage and said there would be a 15minute delay because they wanted to talk about something to the audience! WTF??? That kinda pissed me off. Couldn't they have told me and the others that earlier so that we... or at least, I would know when to start pumping up and when to eat the candy bar? Very un-professional if you ask me.

Its now 2 days after the show and I like I've already mentioned I look far better now than I did on the night. I’ve been eating quite a lot of rubbish and junk food since the night. OMG! What a positive difference it has made to my physique. I seem to have lost subcutaneous water. I look pumped and very vascular, much like upon waking on show day… only with much fuller muscles. Perhaps I should have eaten loads of crap in the days before show day? I look 100% better for it.

Well here is the link to pictures and the whole event is also on film. One thing I will say is that I was very pleased with my posing routine, it came of great and despite the fact that I looked terrible the routine itself went very well. A final thought. I don’t think I’ll enter a non-tested show again. It was real hard to get undressed knowing that you have worked so incredibly hard the last 4 months in preparation for the show only to have your confidence immediately crushed in an instant by guys that make you look like you have never trained before in your life. Oh well like they say, you can’t help who turns up… but at least if you do a natural show those that show up may be naturals and you won’t feel stupid in comparison. The lighting as you will see in some of the pics was pretty bad and wasn’t distributed evenly over the stage so there were several dark patches.The speaker at the show did come up to me at one point during whilst we were all on stage and asked me to say a bit about natural bodybuilding. I think he did this to help me promote natural body building a bit as the general population over here hasn’t really heard of bodybuilding without steroids. I spoke a bit about that which I thought was a nice touch.

I am in a way bitterly disappointed with myself for coming last (I placed 6th out of 6) and also for some reason getting on stage with what I personally felt was an embarrassing physique. I’m so pissed because I looked freaking awesome in the morning and the day after and even now I look better than on show day. Dammit I got a lot to learn.

I would like to say thanks to Layne for his guidance and advice. I respect him greatly and always will. Unfortunately something went wrong for me this time. I’m not placing blame on the techniques that were advised to me, but something didn’t work right for me. I don’t know what happened… any suggestions are more than welcome. I’m still a beginner in this sport and still trying to learn as much as possible.

Finally thanks so much to everyone that has encouraged me here on the forum. You guys have been great and I appreciate everything. I must say I enjoyed the journey and also that it has been the hardest, most demanding 4 months of my life. I have never, ever worked so hard for anything… period. I’m proud of that at least, giving it my all. Take care all, stay natural and train hard

Here is the link to the video of pre-judging. I am the competitor with an almost shaved head furthest to the left. I am number #1. As you can see the lighting wasn't up to scratch.

http://www.treningsforum.no/index.php?mode=live after you click on the link go to the list on the right hand side and click on: 27.09.2008 - S?rlandmesterskapet 2008, del 1

Here is the link to the individual routines. There is a little intro at the start and then we all come on stage. Then we all go off and I do my routine 1st. This at least I was very pleased with.

http://www.treningsforum.no/index.php?mode=live (after you click on this click look to the right at the list and click on: 27.09.2008 - S?rlandmesterskapet 2008 - Finale, del 3

[SB100%Natural]

The rest of the pics...

[SB100%Natural]

here are a few shots of the winner in my class. He looked great so congrats to him

[fltallpaul]

What you describe above sounds like a spill over. I have only one show under my belt but this was something that I was very worried about. I followed the same protocol as you did for my show and had no issues at all, in fact I was fuller and harder than I had been in a long time on show day. I guess its all a learning experience.

Since you don't have pictures of yourself from 5am up I can't disagree with you but to me you look pretty ripped. Ofcourse you are a much better judge than I but there is nothing to be ashamed of. That guy who won really does not look much different than you...a little leaner but not much.

Thanks for posting everything it has been fun following along.

[Blahzay128]

Steve -

First off, sorry to hear that you are disappointed with how things went.....On the other hand.....I think your being too hard on yourself...In my opinion, looking at your pics...You look AWESOME! I'm not just saying that either....Legs looked awesome.....everything was tight and ripped....I do believe you that something went wrong from how you looked earlier that day...but don't get down, b/c you still looked great...Just missed your peak...I guess that happens...I'm also relatively new to the bodybuilding scene and I guess things like that happen...not that it makes you feel any better.....I just know how hard you worked and you should be proud of yourself!!!!!!

Do you have any pics of yourself now? would love to see how you look after a few days of 'carbing up.'

Steve - Again, great job...thanks for doing the log....and post some more pics if you can.....What's the plan now...some time off to add more size? What are your goals...where do you think you need to improve?

You never know

[Transformer08]

steve i can relate.Same sorta thing happend to me. When i woke up, it was the dryest and tightest i looked, however the more i carbed, the more spilled i looked. I even done a circuit routine to help shed excess water, but i put it down to the fact i didnt get lean enough. lesson learned.
from ur pics, u look real shredded tho? probably the best ive seen u on stage.
ne ways bro, back to basics...keep diggin"!

[aguy fish]

Steve
I'm sorry for what happened to you. i quite agree on saying it's a spill over. It happened to me once when I competed in England 15 years ago.
Like you said you've done your very best, train and dieted as hard as possible so you should be so proud. This sport is harsh and this is why there are not so many competitors.Being on stage is already a victory.
Keep on training hard!

[cmamath13]

Steve,

I think you VASTLY improved since your last competition. Congrats! Don't worry about placing, you BEAT your previous showing (IMO)!

[AustrianOakJr]

Steve, I think you looked fantastic. Honestly, I was pretty shocked when I saw the pics of you and the difference with the tan on. You are pretty lean, man. If you were, in fact, competing with a bunch of guys on the gas, how can you get down on yourself? Its like showing up to a wrestling match with one hand tied behind your back and then getting down on yourself because you lost.

I agree that it would be better to compete in tested shows. I think you would do AWESOME at a tested show. Based on what ive seen of guys around here, your physique is right up there with some well-placing natties.

Was this the open class?

[SB100%Natural]

Thanks so much guys. I've looked over all the pics again and it's amazing how much better one can feel looking at things with "fresh" eyes. I feel a bit better now and perhaps I was a bit too harsh on myself. You guys know how it is though... you end up really expecting a lot of yourself in this sport. Yeah it was a non-tested show but there is no point clutching at that and saying "yeah but." Fact of the matter was those guys looked awesome and thats it. I will be sticking to tested shows from now on but I learned a lot more during this prep than last and I gained some much needed experience.

I will perhaps get a few "post binge" pics up here soon, I'll see how I look lol!

Whats the plan now?
Bulking, bulking, bulking. I want to do a slow and steady bulk for at least 1.5-2 years to really gain some serious mass. I used a very similar technique to Laynes "cut-bulk" cycling during my previous bulk and it worked very well so I'll be using the same tactics this time again.

Some like to compete frequently. In fact a couple of the guys I spoke to at the show said they had competed 5 times in the last 1.5 years! If I did that I wouldn't gain a shred of muscle thats for sure. I feel I need that much time to really make a BIG difference to my body. I don't see the point of competing again if one hasn't improved significantly, I've got to be better each time!

I really want to continue to work on my legs. They are greatly improved from 2 years ago but they still aren't the oak tree trunks I dream of lol! I'm going to thrash the crap out of them this season and come back with some serious wheels My arms are also not as good as I'd like. The are balanced and well defined but as they are ridiculously long I need to pack even more meat on them before they look as big as a guy with shorter arms.

Thats about it people. Thanks for everything again... I've stopped feeling sorry for myself now hahaha. Right now I'm gonna chill for the rest of the week and enjoy eating a bit more junk before the fun starts. Stay strong.

[SB100%Natural]

Originally Posted by AustrianOakJr

Steve, I think you looked fantastic. Honestly, I was pretty shocked when I saw the pics of you and the difference with the tan on. You are pretty lean, man. If you were, in fact, competing with a bunch of guys on the gas, how can you get down on yourself? Its like showing up to a wrestling match with one hand tied behind your back and then getting down on yourself because you lost.

I agree that it would be better to compete in tested shows. I think you would do AWESOME at a tested show. Based on what ive seen of guys around here, your physique is right up there with some well-placing natties.

Was this the open class?

Hahaha thank you sir you have made my day

[Yantzen]

you looked fantastic steve!

And your posing routine was damn fine bro!!

[SB100%Natural]

Originally Posted by Yantzen

you looked fantastic steve!

And your posing routine was damn fine bro!!

hehe thanks man I was most pleased with the routine. Kinda made up for how I felt about not being in the shape I would have liked.

[SB100%Natural]

Originally Posted by Blahzay128

Steve -

First off, sorry to hear that you are disappointed with how things went.....On the other hand.....I think your being too hard on yourself...In my opinion, looking at your pics...You look AWESOME! I'm not just saying that either....Legs looked awesome.....everything was tight and ripped....I do believe you that something went wrong from how you looked earlier that day...but don't get down, b/c you still looked great...Just missed your peak...I guess that happens...I'm also relatively new to the bodybuilding scene and I guess things like that happen...not that it makes you feel any better.....I just know how hard you worked and you should be proud of yourself!!!!!!

Do you have any pics of yourself now? would love to see how you look after a few days of 'carbing up.'

Steve - Again, great job...thanks for doing the log....and post some more pics if you can.....What's the plan now...some time off to add more size? What are your goals...where do you think you need to improve?

You never know

Thanks so much buddy. I'm always really hard on myself, kinda the perfectionist in me. You are right, I'm damn pleased with the work I out in, I just feel the end result wasnt really a true reflection of all the effort. What would you say I should work on? I was thinking keep hitting the legs hard and perhaps a bit more biceps.

[str8flexed]

Originally Posted by steve_boutcher

I looked awesome in the morning at about 05:00. I was ripped to shreds. Flat but very, very lean. Leaner than ever before. I felt great and was confident that this would be my best performance ever. The quads were ripped with great cross-striations on the teardrop. The abs were all the way in, very lean with more veins than I've seem before, kinda grossed me out lol! The day started great and I was feeling on top of the world.

My joy was short lived however. Something seemed to go wrong at some point during the day. Very, very wrong. I'm still sitting here scratching my head trying to figure out what happened. As I started the carb-up at about 5:30am with sweet potatoes (2x before stepping on stage), then white baguette with chicken and cheese. It felt good to get some real food at last. I applied Dreamtan early in the morning after my first meal and then walked around covered in a loose sheet for several hours.

My tan seemed to become very "matted" despite touching it up somewhat prior to stepping out. I didn't noticed it myself but the video shows that my tan looked like crap on the night.

Again, like last show I couldn't get any type of pump going at all. I just felt flat but this time I saw that I'd somehow started to go "soft" and this time, especially around the abdominals. Something was going quite wrong for me between the hours of my first meal at 05:30 and the night show. I looked around at some of the other competitors and they all seemed to be eating the same things, mainly rice, some veg such as red peppers and small amounts of chicken. It seemed I was the only one eating a chicken sub with cheese. One competitor even advised me to "stop eating that right now" and "only drink tiny amounts."

I feel very disappointed with myself having seen the pictures from the night. And I'm almost embarrassed to post them on here but I will anyway. I feel I looked awful and not ripped in the slightest. I would go as far as saying I looked better at my first show than this one.

The show itself seemed to be pretty badly organised. For a start the backstage lighting was, well, almost non-existent. They did bring in some old lamps that produced a weak yellow splash of light but they were far from adequate for those trying to apply bronzer. Very poor. Secondly, I was the first person to go out for the night show routines. I got myself ready, pumped and ate my pre-stage meal (a candy bar) at 5mins out. Then, when my time arrived they came backstage and said there would be a 15minute delay because they wanted to talk about something to the audience! WTF??? That kinda pissed me off. Couldn't they have told me and the others that earlier so that we... or at least, I would know when to start pumping up and when to eat the candy bar? Very un-professional if you ask me.

Its now 2 days after the show and I like I've already mentioned I look far better now than I did on the night. I?ve been eating quite a lot of rubbish and junk food since the night. OMG! What a positive difference it has made to my physique. I seem to have lost subcutaneous water. I look pumped and very vascular, much like upon waking on show day? only with much fuller muscles. Perhaps I should have eaten loads of crap in the days before show day? I look 100% better for it.

Well here is the link to pictures and the whole event is also on film. One thing I will say is that I was very pleased with my posing routine, it came of great and despite the fact that I looked terrible the routine itself went very well. A final thought. I don?t think I?ll enter a non-tested show again. It was real hard to get undressed knowing that you have worked so incredibly hard the last 4 months in preparation for the show only to have your confidence immediately crushed in an instant by guys that make you look like you have never trained before in your life. Oh well like they say, you can?t help who turns up? but at least if you do a natural show those that show up may be naturals and you won?t feel stupid in comparison. The lighting as you will see in some of the pics was pretty bad and wasn?t distributed evenly over the stage so there were several dark patches.The speaker at the show did come up to me at one point during whilst we were all on stage and asked me to say a bit about natural bodybuilding. I think he did this to help me promote natural body building a bit as the general population over here hasn?t really heard of bodybuilding without steroids. I spoke a bit about that which I thought was a nice touch.

I am in a way bitterly disappointed with myself for coming last (I placed 6th out of 6) and also for some reason getting on stage with what I personally felt was an embarrassing physique. I?m so pissed because I looked freaking awesome in the morning and the day after and even now I look better than on show day. Dammit I got a lot to learn.

I would like to say thanks to Layne for his guidance and advice. I respect him greatly and always will. Unfortunately something went wrong for me this time. I?m not placing blame on the techniques that were advised to me, but something didn?t work right for me. I don?t know what happened? any suggestions are more than welcome. I?m still a beginner in this sport and still trying to learn as much as possible.

Finally thanks so much to everyone that has encouraged me here on the forum. You guys have been great and I appreciate everything. I must say I enjoyed the journey and also that it has been the hardest, most demanding 4 months of my life. I have never, ever worked so hard for anything? period. I?m proud of that at least, giving it my all. Take care all, stay natural and train hard

Here is the link to the video of pre-judging. I am the competitor with an almost shaved head furthest to the left. I am number #1. As you can see the lighting wasn't up to scratch.

http://www.treningsforum.no/index.php?mode=live after you click on the link go to the list on the right hand side and click on: 27.09.2008 - S?rlandmesterskapet 2008, del 1

Here is the link to the individual routines. There is a little intro at the start and then we all come on stage. Then we all go off and I do my routine 1st. This at least I was very pleased with.

http://www.treningsforum.no/index.php?mode=live (after you click on this click look to the right at the list and click on: 27.09.2008 - S?rlandmesterskapet 2008 - Finale, del 3

sorry you felt like it didn't work well steve, but honestly those pictures are the best I've seen you at so either I just didn't look at the old pictures correctly or I'm going crazy. either way I apologize if you feel it didn't work well. I kind of wish you would have sent an update to my email about the show as well.

Thanks
-Layne

[SB100%Natural]

Originally Posted by fltallpaul

What you describe above sounds like a spill over. I have only one show under my belt but this was something that I was very worried about. I followed the same protocol as you did for my show and had no issues at all, in fact I was fuller and harder than I had been in a long time on show day. I guess its all a learning experience.

Since you don't have pictures of yourself from 5am up I can't disagree with you but to me you look pretty ripped. Ofcourse you are a much better judge than I but there is nothing to be ashamed of. That guy who won really does not look much different than you...a little leaner but not much.

Thanks for posting everything it has been fun following along.

Oh well, **** happens. I have learned from this and I don't think it will happen again.

Originally Posted by Transformer08

steve i can relate.Same sorta thing happend to me. When i woke up, it was the dryest and tightest i looked, however the more i carbed, the more spilled i looked. I even done a circuit routine to help shed excess water, but i put it down to the fact i didnt get lean enough. lesson learned.
from ur pics, u look real shredded tho? probably the best ive seen u on stage.
ne ways bro, back to basics...keep diggin"!

Will do, thanx buddy

Originally Posted by aguy fish

Steve
I'm sorry for what happened to you. i quite agree on saying it's a spill over. It happened to me once when I competed in England 15 years ago.
Like you said you've done your very best, train and dieted as hard as possible so you should be so proud. This sport is harsh and this is why there are not so many competitors.Being on stage is already a victory.
Keep on training hard!

You live and learn I guess.

Originally Posted by cmamath13

Steve,

I think you VASTLY improved since your last competition. Congrats! Don't worry about placing, you BEAT your previous showing (IMO)!

Thanks Chris... any advice for the off season?

Originally Posted by AustrianOakJr

Steve, I think you looked fantastic. Honestly, I was pretty shocked when I saw the pics of you and the difference with the tan on. You are pretty lean, man. If you were, in fact, competing with a bunch of guys on the gas, how can you get down on yourself? Its like showing up to a wrestling match with one hand tied behind your back and then getting down on yourself because you lost.

I agree that it would be better to compete in tested shows. I think you would do AWESOME at a tested show. Based on what ive seen of guys around here, your physique is right up there with some well-placing natties.

Was this the open class?

The class was actually divided into 2. I was in the under 180cm class were the max weight was 86kg (189lbs). I weighed 81kg (178lbs) on the day. I won't point my finger and say who I thought was juicing, I don't see any point. But what you are saying is absolutely correct, its just.... hell I wanna win and do my best! Well I acheived the latter at least What do you feel I should focus on in the off season? Any advice is welcome.

[cmamath13]

Steve,

Here is my advice. Relax. Take some time to gather your thoughts and set some realistic goals. Don't think you can gain 15 lbs of muscle in a year. Maybe you can put on 5 pounds though.

Stay relatively lean during your off-season, and then shoot for another show next year. CLEAN bulk for 9 months and prep for 3 months.

You will continue to progress (like you have just demonstrated). Remember, you are competing against yourself NOT anyone else.

Take care brother!

[SB100%Natural]

Originally Posted by cmamath13

Steve,

Here is my advice. Relax. Take some time to gather your thoughts and set some realistic goals. Don't think you can gain 15 lbs of muscle in a year. Maybe you can put on 5 pounds though.

Stay relatively lean during your off-season, and then shoot for another show next year. CLEAN bulk for 9 months and prep for 3 months.

You will continue to progress (like you have just demonstrated). Remember, you are competing against yourself NOT anyone else.

Take care brother!

Roger that

[AustrianOakJr]

Originally Posted by steve_boutcher

What do you feel I should focus on in the off season? Any advice is welcome.

Is there any other option? MORE MASS! Dont get me wrong, you have a nicely balanced physique. You've done really well. Im thoroughly impressed and if I come in as lean as you, I will be real happy with my performance.

That said......You need more thickness in your upper body. More overall thickness in the shoulders and back. Quads and hammys look better than before, but like mine, lag a bit. I mean, its kind of a generic critique, but you just need more muscle. Who doesnt?

Any idea what your BF% was? Or did you not measure with anything but the mirror?