A day in the life of naturalguy

[The Solution]

Creating epic Animal Whey Flavors, and talking smack on J Dawg

[naturalguy]

Where you at naturalguy??

Creating epic Animal Whey Flavors, and talking smack on J Dawg

Sorry fellas. I am here and training very hard. This whole month I have been traveling a lot. Went to visit bb.com recently



That was a cool trip, I got to train with Jesse Norris while I was out there. I have a meet coming up next week (Nov. 15) so all my focus has been on that.

Here is a recent deadlift I hit from the other day 525 x 1:

https://instagram.com/p/9rS2psl-Ne/?...by=naturalguy1

[The Solution]

Good luck on your meet big man!!!

[naturalguy]

Good luck on your meet big man!!!

Thank you brother, it's been over a year since I hit the platform, been working hard and I am itching to go

[B Con]

Thank you brother, it's been over a year since I hit the platform, been working hard and I am itching to go

Still lurking in here. But dominate the meet.

[naturalguy]

Good luck on your meet big man!!!

Still lurking in here. But dominate the meet.

Thanks bros

[_Aggression_]

Let's do this.

[brazilianbadboy]

Good luck Eric!

[NaturalPursuit]

Goodluck bro!

[dest0]

Jealous of that bb meeting! looks awesome.

Good luck with your meet brethren

[SupremeMMA]

Here is a recent deadlift I hit from the other day 525 x 1:

https://instagram.com/p/9rS2psl-Ne/?...by=naturalguy1

Nice work brother, glad to see that old age isn't slowing you down.

[naturalguy]

Let's do this.

Good luck Eric!

Goodluck bro!

Jealous of that bb meeting! looks awesome.

Good luck with your meet brethren

Nice work brother, glad to see that old age isn't slowing you down.

Thanks fellas

[The Solution]

Someone say 50lb Squat PR?

[naturalguy]

So I competed this past weekend at the RPS Autumn Apocalypse in Newark, NJ. I had the best day I've had so far as a competitive powerlifter. The last time I competed was September 2014 with a total of 1305, I took over a year off to get stronger and really work on my technique and it paid off. Here is how it went down:

Squat 525 which is a 50 lb PR for me. I really wanted to get in the 500 lb club for a while and I hit that on my 2nd attempt.

Bench 330 not a PR but it put me on track for my goal total which I set at 1400

Deadlift 565 which is a 15 lb PR

Finished with a 1420 total so 115 lbs better than the previous year. I went 9 for 9 and didn't get a single red light!

I was very strategic about picking my attempts, I went in with a plan that I wrote down on paper. It took some discipline to stick to the plan because at the meet you are hyped up and sometimes you want to follow your gut which is risky. Attempt selection can make or break a meet. One thing I always do is open up conservative. You never know when something may not go your way such as at this meet they were moving so fast that I had to rush my squat warm ups but since I planned a conservative opener it was easier to deal with.

Some of the things that really helped me improve:

1. Taking a long time off from competing to simply get stronger. I had patience, in today's "insta" society where everyone wants instant results I took an old school approach to take my time.

2. Working on my technique. Every set including my warm ups is done with competition technique. There are no high squats in training or non locked out benches. Every single time I did one of the big 3 lifts it was with comp technique even when it was the empty bar!

3. Paying attention to nutrition. I didn't eat "whatever" fit my macros, I ate for performance.

4. Listening to my body. Some days you feel great and some days you don't. I never missed a scheduled training session but there are days I'd back off or ramp it up based on how I felt.

5. Writing down a specific goal and constantly reminding myself of it. 10 weeks out from the meet I wrote "1400" down as my meet goal and I looked at it everyday. I was obsessed with that number. I'd go through the scenarios in my head and on paper as to how I would arrive at that total on meet day.

6. Training under less than optimal conditions. I traveled a lot during this prep especially the last month and had to train at different gyms, different time zones with different equipment. I think this really helped because when you get to the meet they have the best bars, plates, equipment etc. and everything feels better.

7. Visualization, I constantly visualized my results many times before meet day. I'd go through each lift in my head over and over.

8. J-Dawg - training with him helped push me to another level. He pushed me to do more volume plus we are competitive in a friendly way. He's got a great attitude and we hold each other accountable for our training. We have a philosophy of no excuses, put in the work. When you get on the platform the weights don't care what challenges you've overcome to get there.

As a bonus I am fortunate to be around some really great people on a daily basis like G Diesel, C Coronato, Lady Ignite, Jimmy, T Dirty, and even G Six. All are positive, driven people who rub off on you.

Here is the meet video:

[The Solution]

#1 cannot be stressed enough in bodybuilding and powerlifting.
Take time off, make a NOTICEABLE change, and come back and turn some heads.
The people that want to compete every 6 months or 8 months never give themselves a chance to totally change for the better IMO

[naturalguy]

#1 cannot be stressed enough in bodybuilding and powerlifting.
Take time off, make a NOTICEABLE change, and come back and turn some heads.
The people that want to compete every 6 months or 8 months never give themselves a chance to totally change for the better IMO

True but nowadays everyone wants insta success, they want it now

[The Solution]

You got that magic pill brah ?

[naturalguy]

I started a new training cycle shooting for an RPS meet in May - The Jersey Rumble

This training cycle will be based on 5/3/1 with adjustments. I've had very good success with 5/3/1 & The Cube style training but I also add in things I've picked up from other methods like Westside.

1/1/16 New year's day (just like a resolutioner) - Benchapalooza at Powerhouse Gym Staten Island

Bench:

195 x 5 reps

225 x 5 reps

255 x 5 reps

In between sets I did Spider bench supported rows 5 sets x 8 reps

Hammer strength tricep extensions:

4 sets x 8-12 reps

Lying dumbell rollovers:

4 x sets x 8-10 reps

Cable tricep extensions:

4 x 10-15 reps

Rotator cuff work

[naturalguy]

1/2/16 Squats - Powerhouse Gym Staten Island

Squats:

275 x 5

320 x 5

355 x 4

SSB bar pause squats:

245 x 3 pause reps x 3 sets

Standing leg curls:

4 sets x 8 reps

Ab/Adductor machine:

3 x 15 reps for each

Abs

[koweanguy]

Squats Squats Squats. . . all anyone really needs

[naturalguy]

Squats Squats Squats. . . all anyone really needs

Agreed my friend

[naturalguy]

My training schedule will look like this:

Sunday - Squats
Monday - delts/bi's (bodybuilding day)
Tuesday - conditioning (martial arts)
Wednesday - Deads
Thursday - conditioning (martial arts)
Friday - Benchapalooza
Saturday - conditioning

I'll work in upper back probably with bench but I may give it it's own day possibly Thursdays

[naturalguy]

A big goal I have by the end of this cycle is to hit 500 squat with no wraps.

I am undecided right now if I'll use wraps at the next meet but I am leaning towards not.

[naturalguy]

1/6/16 Deads at the Universal gym with J-Dawg

330 x 5

385 x 5

430 x 5

Thick handle trap bar block pulls:

3 sets x 3 reps

Barbell weighted hyperextensions Pete Rubbish style:

3 x 5-8 reps

[The Solution]

3 months later he rises from the dead
In for smack talk on J Dawg.

[naturalguy]

3 months later he rises from the dead
In for smack talk on J Dawg.

I had this awesome bowl of ramen for lunch the other day, great spot near Universal Headquarters:

[naturalguy]

1/7/16 Benchapalooza at the U gym with J-Dawg

Bench:

210 x 3

240 x 3

265 x 3

Legend fitness dip machine:

4 sets x 8-10 reps

Cable tricep pushdowns:

4 sets x 10-12 reps

A lot of rotator cuff work and stretching (my right shoulder is bothering me on bench)

[The Solution]

we having a bench off in the cage in march big man?

[naturalguy]

we having a bench off in the cage in march big man?

You want a piece of me????

[naturalguy]

We had an amazing Animal Barbell Club event in my hometown gym Powerhouse Gym in Staten Island, NY to celebrate the return of Evan Centopani. 100 people showed up: