adamjohn32's 2012 Contest Prep Journal

[robertfah]

Great write-up Adam and great placing at the show! I read your comments on the 8th and thought you did a lot worse than 6th, but that's awesome. As you said, each show is different and you might have been overlooked, but as long as you brought your best package, that's all that counts.

Good to see you had some time to spend in Beantown and have some fun! It's such an awesome city with TONS of history. Too much to do in only 2 or 3 days!

Great work pal...keep inspiring

[Ccm644]

Nice write up and well done on your placing.
Bet it was nice to have a few people to spend time with whilst at the show
Pictures are impressive

[adamjohn32]

Great write-up Adam and great placing at the show! I read your comments on the 8th and thought you did a lot worse than 6th, but that's awesome. As you said, each show is different and you might have been overlooked, but as long as you brought your best package, that's all that counts.

Good to see you had some time to spend in Beantown and have some fun! It's such an awesome city with TONS of history. Too much to do in only 2 or 3 days!

Great work pal...keep inspiring

Thanks Bob, looking forward to grinding out for another month

Boston was so much fun, I appreciated everything much more now that I'm older. Definitely will be going back to spend a little more time in the North End and all those great Italian places the next visit though

Nice write up and well done on your placing.
Bet it was nice to have a few people to spend time with whilst at the show
Pictures are impressive

Thanks, it would have been a great experience if I was alone, but having people there to share the experience really made it pretty special.

[NaturalPursuit]

You came in better than you've ever looked! GREAT job man! Really looked peeled and full!!!

[domingochavez]

Completely nailed it Adam!

[Vanguard1965]

We'll be partying down in south FL 11/10! If you don't have plans that weekend, you should make the trip down and join us at the NGA show!

Just found the backstage professional shot on FB:



I ordered the CD from the show, can't wait to get back the pro shots.

Great right up Adam and I love this shot! I hope you post up more of the pro shots when you get them.

[adamjohn32]

October 11, 2012

Training

Hypertrophy Back/Tri's/Traps

working sets only

Back
HS Low Row, 3 sets of 12-15
HS Front Lat Pulldown, 3 sets of 12-15
Wide Grip Supported T-Bar Row, 3 sets of 12-15
Pulldown machine, 3 sets of 12-15
Facepulls SS Straigh-arm Pulldowns, 2 sets 15 each

Tri's/Traps
Close Grip Bench SS DB Shrugs, 3 sets of 12 each
Single arm Overhead Extension SS BB Shrugs, 3 sets of 15 each
Single arm reverse grip cable pressdown, 2 sets of 15-20

30 minutes Precor elliptical

Weight

194.7

Nutrition ( P / CHO / Fat / Fiber )

270.5 / 45.5 / 47.5 / 16.0

Notes

Back to the grind last night. Felt great to get back into the gym and move some weight around. Kept everything conservative and in the 12-15 rep range. Still have some blurriness to my abs at the moment, but my arms and legs are looking the nastiest they ever have in terms of vascularity, so go figure.

Another low day today (70 cho) and then the carb cycle starts back up. Once I get back down to where I was before the cape (~192-ish) Layne wants to start reverse dieting. But I've got some work to do before that happens.

Hypertrophy legs up later today, haven't trained legs hard in over a week so it should be interesting.

You came in better than you've ever looked! GREAT job man! Really looked peeled and full!!!

Thank man, one more to go. Time to get even better than last time.

Completely nailed it Adam!

Thank you man, read your post in Tommy's thread. Another dude I have to start following more closely to figure out how to balance family and bodybuilding... I should have been following your journey more closely anyways, us tall guys need to stick together

Great right up Adam and I love this shot! I hope you post up more of the pro shots when you get them.

Hopefully I'll get the shots in about 2 weeks, I may link to the online, watermarked proofs once they get posted up. Until then, time to kill this peak week you have coming up Dean!

[adamjohn32]

October 12, 2012

Training

Hypertrophy Legs

working sets only

StarTrac Hack Squats SS Seated Calf Press
270x10 / 135x10 (2 sets)
320x10 / 160x10 (2 sets)

SLDL/RDL Hybrid
225x15x3

Squats
185x12x3

Assisted GHR's SS BSS
BWx10 / BWx20 (3 sets)

BFR Adductor Machine
1 cluster @ 80 lbs

BFR Lying Leg Curls
1 cluster @ 65 lbs

BFR Leg Extensions
1 cluster @ 75 lbs

BFR Standing Calf Raise
1 cluster @ 140 lbs

30 recumbent bike (LISS, just to get some blood moving/sweat going while watching MLB playoffs )

Weight

194.0

Nutrition ( P / CHO / Fat / Fiber )

270.9 / 70.6 / 47.5 / 18.5

Had amazing bed-time snack to end my low CHO day, pumpkin protein sludge:

44 g White Cake DeNovo Max MPS Pure
60 g Pumpkin Puree
15 g PB

42.5 p / 8.6 cho / 7.7 f / 2.5 fiber

Mix into a thick sludge by slowly adding water to combined ingredients, not much to eat but tasty as hell. Can easily be adjusted for more food. Tonight I will be adding some Edy's "1/2 the fat" Slow Churned Pumpkin Ice Cream since I'm at 330 CHO today

Notes

Great leg session last night. Everything felt fresh and I actually had decent energy. Must have been a good one since I woke up today at 192.1. Still feel a little watery (or it could be I'm flat as a pancake after 3 low CHO days) but I'm glad the scale is back down. I think I'll tighten back up a good deal by next week, and hopefully working towards bringing in my best ever come 11/10/12.

Progress pics, 4 weeks out from the last one: http://photobucket.com/adamjohn32Updates101312

Oh, and here's video from Paul and I's back/bicep peak week training. Shot all on my new iPhone 5 and made with the iMovie app. Pretty easy to use so I'll probably be shooting more during these last few weeks.

[domingochavez]

Your physique really lit up when hitting those bicep curls, crazy vascularity!

[Ccm644]

Same as what i put on pauls thread

Great footage from you both, very motivating, also looking great! Huge veins

Wow your gym is huge, all of your gyms are massive compared to England

Bet it great having eachother to train with.

Have you received your pro pictures?

Keep it up

[Frankdaddy]

I love the pics, and the touristy stuff is always fun...especiall since the relaxation of letting tour guides make your way through while you relax is perfect post show. I plan on making a trip to Miami on Oct 27th and just sitting my butt in the sand and getting sun burn, since it is so cold here already


I really like some of those shots, some being so far away makes them hard to see. THe in room shot Latspread will be one you will look back for a while and compare to later from the epicness. The veinage is great and conditioning is TIGHT. I am excited for you with 4 more weeks to get rid of some of the loose fat around the areas not very noticeable except to you and the judges, keep grinding. How are you feeling after 2 shows now and dieting for a while? I have dieted for a while slowly, but have only tried peaking for 1 show until next Saturday. I am just curious as I was just thinking of 1 more show myself after my second one.

[demonwareltd]

OCB Cape Code Natural

Vacation time

Then next morning, I actually couldn't sleep all that well so I ended up getting up early and doing a round of HIIT. Good thing I did b/c the wife, Paul, and Mistly met at The Pancake Man (http://pancakeman.com/) and destroyed some breakfast burgers and pancakes (sorry no pics, food was consumed too quickly lol). All have to say about the breakfast... Bacon Jam.

After breakfast we headed over to Cape Cod Nutrition Center where I bought some shirts and hoodies for the gym and talked shop with the owner James Carron and the head judge who just happened to be there.


After the CCNC visit, it was time to head back to Boston. We managed to get checked-in to our hotel in Back Bay and relax for a bit before meeting Paul and Mistly for dinner over by Fenway Park:


The night was pretty low key, just walking to a few places and have a drink at the Cask'n Flagon. Everyone was pretty tired from another long day so me and Paul said our goodbyes as he was flying out the next day.

The remaining couple days, the wife and I spent doing touristy things:

Going on a duck tour:


Visiting historical landmarks (that's the state house behind us)


Eating lots of local foods


But I still managed to squeeze in some training, and even though my mid-section got a little blurry, my legs and arms actually seemed to get tighter. Here's a relaxed shot of my leg after some HIIT at the hotel:


So the plan now is to tighten back up over these next few days and then Layne wants to try and start my reverse diet leading into my final show of the season.

I'm already back down into the 194's (~2 lbs above my morning weight on show day) so I think by the weekend I'll be back in the 191's/192's and my reverse diet will start next week.

Looking forward to final stretch, about 4.5 weeks left and the 2012 season will be OVAH!

Thanks again for everyone who's followed along, the support really means so much.

Late to the party, as usual, but just ready your write up on the show! I think you did fairly well, and definitely improved over the previous show, which is key. 6/10 isn't anything to shake a stick at either, nice work!

Looking at that one pic from pre-judging, their definitely looked to be a good amount of muscle on that stage. Did you feel there were some really big dudes up there with you as well? That's my biggest concern for my upcoming show, is that I have no chance to compete with the amount of mass I will be up against.

Again, I enjoyed following and in for the last hurrah of the season!

Stan

[AustrianOakJr]

just read your write up and it was great. You looked great and you got to spend a good time with some good folks. That's a lot of what makes the sport great. I gotta admit that I'm a bit miffed that you placed 6 after splitting the class into 5 and 5.....but then they never brought you back over to compare you with 3,4 and 5. Seems like common judging sense that if u split a class the end of one and the beginning of the other should be compared before final decisions. But..like you said sometimes this sport is frustratingly subjective. Anyways....I'm looking forward to see how you do.on the 11th. Keep pushing!

[adamjohn32]

October 13, 2012

Training

Hypertrophy Chest/Bi's/Delts & HIIT

working sets only

Incline DB Press SS Incline DB Curls
70x12 / 35x12 (3 sets)

Flat DB Press SS Hammer Curls
75x12 / 40x12 (3 sets)

Dips SS Cybex Machine Flyes
BWx15 / 70x15
BWx15 / 60x15
BWx15 / 50x15

HS Preacher Curls
70x10, +5,+5,+5,+5,+5

DB Side Lateral Raise
25x15
35x12
40x10 drop 30x12 drop 20x15

Cybex Machine Shoulder Press
70x12x3

Machine Side Laterals
100x8, +5,+5,+4,+3

LifeFitness Elliptical
5 minute warmup
9 intervals (30 seconds all out, 3:30 easy)
10 minute cooldown on stepmill

Weight

192.1

Nutrition ( P / CHO / Fat / Fiber )

241.3 / 330.1 / 37.7 / 51.8

Notes

Good session yesterday, high energy and the gym was pretty dead so I was able to keep the pace fast and get in/out (including the cardio) in about 2 hours.

Starting Monday I'll be doing the Juggernaut Method training, currently finalizing the details of my training split with the help of JP and Matt Jansen

Another vid, this is some footage of me and Paul last week training chest, triceps, and delts

Your physique really lit up when hitting those bicep curls, crazy vascularity!

thanks, all those peak week carbs

Same as what i put on pauls thread

Great footage from you both, very motivating, also looking great! Huge veins

Wow your gym is huge, all of your gyms are massive compared to England

Bet it great having eachother to train with.

Have you received your pro pictures?

Keep it up

Thanks, I've been lucky to find a friend like Paul that shares the same interests in training. However, this end of this season is bitter sweet b/c I'll be moving out of the area soon, so we only have a few more weeks of training together

The pro shots aren't up on their website yet, and I won't receive the CD for another couple weeks. I'll post the link to the proofs when they are up and get some hi-res ones posted when I get them. I'm really looking forward to see how they turned out.

I love the pics, and the touristy stuff is always fun...especiall since the relaxation of letting tour guides make your way through while you relax is perfect post show. I plan on making a trip to Miami on Oct 27th and just sitting my butt in the sand and getting sun burn, since it is so cold here already


I really like some of those shots, some being so far away makes them hard to see. THe in room shot Latspread will be one you will look back for a while and compare to later from the epicness. The veinage is great and conditioning is TIGHT. I am excited for you with 4 more weeks to get rid of some of the loose fat around the areas not very noticeable except to you and the judges, keep grinding. How are you feeling after 2 shows now and dieting for a while? I have dieted for a while slowly, but have only tried peaking for 1 show until next Saturday. I am just curious as I was just thinking of 1 more show myself after my second one.

I'm glad I was able to document not only the show but some of the fun stuff after. I'm definitely giving my all these next 4 weeks to be the best I can be, I'll admit I kind of slacked a bit for the last one in regards to posing practice and some of the little things. With 4 weeks left of my last "season" for the foreseeable future, I'm going all out now.

I'm actually feeling great, I think taking a slow approach has really put me in a spot where I hardly ever feel like I'm dieting. There are days that still suck, but who doesn't have those in everyday life? I think it also helps that I've found some great food sources I enjoy while letting me hit my numbers, I really think that's the key. As long as you're enjoying the process, you can keep on dieting. I think you're in a great spot to do another show, so I say go for it!

Late to the party, as usual, but just ready your write up on the show! I think you did fairly well, and definitely improved over the previous show, which is key. 6/10 isn't anything to shake a stick at either, nice work!

Looking at that one pic from pre-judging, their definitely looked to be a good amount of muscle on that stage. Did you feel there were some really big dudes up there with you as well? That's my biggest concern for my upcoming show, is that I have no chance to compete with the amount of mass I will be up against.

Again, I enjoyed following and in for the last hurrah of the season!

Stan

Thanks Stan, basically the feedback I get from the judges is that I just need more size. My conditioning, color, and posing are all on point I just need more mass. I'd just say bring the best package you can to the stage, and as long as you're happy with it, then that's all that matter. I think the only time I've ever uttered the words "I wish I wasn't so tall" was in relation to the bodybuilding stage lol.

just read your write up and it was great. You looked great and you got to spend a good time with some good folks. That's a lot of what makes the sport great. I gotta admit that I'm a bit miffed that you placed 6 after splitting the class into 5 and 5.....but then they never brought you back over to compare you with 3,4 and 5. Seems like common judging sense that if u split a class the end of one and the beginning of the other should be compared before final decisions. But..like you said sometimes this sport is frustratingly subjective. Anyways....I'm looking forward to see how you do.on the 11th. Keep pushing!

I think it might have also been I was in the last class of a very long day, so even though that shouldn't matter, it might have. Regardless, I've learned to take the subjectivity of this sport for what it is and only focus on what I can control. I would've liked to have been compared to the upper 5, but I'm still happy with how I looked and happy with 6/10, since I was expecting to be more on the bottom since they didn't really even move me into the middle when I was posing against the 5 guys I was up there with.

I'm grinding these next 4 weeks for sure, thanks for the support Sean, means so much coming from a great dude like you.

[NaturalPursuit]

Loving the videos man! Keep em comin!

[adamjohn32]

October 14, 2012

Training

Abs & HIIT

Hanging Leg Raise
BWx20x3

Rope Crunch
82.5x20x3

LifeFitness Recumbent Bike @ level 12
5 minute warmup
9 intervals (30 seconds all out, 3:30 easy)
10 minute cooldown on stepmill

Weight

193.0

Nutrition ( P / CHO / Fat / Fiber )

250.9 / 235.5 / 40.1 / 38.2

Notes

Got up and got my Abs & HIIT in early, spent the rest of the day relaxing watching NFL. Was able to get a 2 mirror setup going so I can work on my rear poses a bit more. Hopefully this will help me going into the last show.

Was also able to spend some time putting together a new split I'm starting today. It's a modified Juggernaut training split similar to the one JP is currently doing (mirin those gains JP). I remember in his thread Matt Jansen helped him setup his split, so I've been talking with Matt the last few days and he's given me some great info to work with. I figure I'd start with the 10's wave these last 4 weeks of prep since it's sort of the primer of the Juggernaut system, that way as I increase calories post show, I can hopefully reap some of the post contest gains while getting stronger

Current split will look like this:

M: Bench + accessory work
Tu: Squat + accessory work
Wed: Off/HIIT
Th: OHP + accessory work
F: Deadlifts + accessory work
Sa: Bodybuilder/Bro Day
Su: Off/HIIT

My accessory work will split into training different muscle groups for strength, power, or hypertrophy. I'm paring upper body accessory work with bench/OHP days and lower body accessory work with squat/deadlift day. Bro day will just be getting in the gym from some pump work on some of my weak points (mainly upper body stuff). As always, a big focus for me is also frequency, and I'm hitting everything at least twice a week still.

For strength work, I'll be using the RPE system for major muscle groups and BFR/myo-reps for my arms. I might use RPE for the hypertrophy stuff, but I'll probably just stick to working in the 10-15 rep range for 2-3 good sets. Hopefully as I post my workouts, the training split will make more sense.

So, week 1 of the 10's wave bench is on tap tonight, should be a nice change of pace.

Loving the videos man! Keep em comin!

Thanks Alex, Paul and I are going to try and document as much as possible the NGA show, should be getting some great footage.

[jpfaherty]

Glad to see you caught up with Matt! He hooked me up 4 months or so ago so you'll be fine following his advice! Run with it brah, you're going to see DEM GAINZ.

[adamjohn32]

Glad to see you caught up with Matt! He hooked me up 4 months or so ago so you'll be fine following his advice! Run with it brah, you're going to see DEM GAINZ.

yeah, i looked back recently and saw the progress you've been making (as well as others like Bob (robertfah) and Chris (FrmHoss) made when using the split) and thought it would be a good program to start my grow season with. I eventually want to work with Dr. Z and the DUP, but I don't think my body will be ready right after prep. I think running this split for the full 20 weeks will help me get my strength back while slowly increasing cals during the reverse. I'm thinking after the 20 weeks my strength being better than ever, same with my metabolism, so I might be ready for some DUP.

[FrmrHoss]

Yeah, Juggernaut was definitely a fun/good program to run. Would do it again and I think the way it is laid out will probably be real conducive to letting you take adventure of the prep rebound.

[domingochavez]

Cool video Adam! Showing off those LONG arms haha, I know that all too well.

[jpfaherty]

yeah, i looked back recently and saw the progress you've been making (as well as others like Bob (robertfah) and Chris (FrmHoss) made when using the split) and thought it would be a good program to start my grow season with. I eventually want to work with Dr. Z and the DUP, but I don't think my body will be ready right after prep. I think running this split for the full 20 weeks will help me get my strength back while slowly increasing cals during the reverse. I'm thinking after the 20 weeks my strength being better than ever, same with my metabolism, so I might be ready for some DUP.

The cool thing about doing the modified version is that it starts you with the 10's (hypertrophy) wave. So as your prep ends, you get deeper into your offseason and macros are on the rise you hit the strength waves. It's the perfect program to come out of a prep on and regain that lost strength. You're going to love it. My favorite part is the auto-regulation. Make sure you're honest with your RPE or it's a waste!

[adamjohn32]

Yeah, Juggernaut was definitely a fun/good program to run. Would do it again and I think the way it is laid out will probably be real conducive to letting you take adventure of the prep rebound.

My thoughts exactly.

Cool video Adam! Showing off those LONG arms haha, I know that all too well.

Thanks, the long arms were useful when I was playing basketball... not so much in bodybuilding I will get them to grow though!

The cool thing about doing the modified version is that it starts you with the 10's (hypertrophy) wave. So as your prep ends, you get deeper into your offseason and macros are on the rise you hit the strength waves. It's the perfect program to come out of a prep on and regain that lost strength. You're going to love it. My favorite part is the auto-regulation. Make sure you're honest with your RPE or it's a waste!

I've actually been using RPE on my hypertrophy days after seeing it in so many others journals to judge when to increase weight from set to set and session to session I just never denote it in my workouts. I've gotten pretty comfortable with "feeling" how much I have left in the tank. I just need to focus on stopping myself and staying at the 9 (strength) and 8.5 (hypertrophy) RPE's b/c sometimes in my head I feel I need to go to failure when actually that will hinder my progress.

[adamjohn32]

They finally posted the pics from my class on the photographers website. Some pics I look great, others not so much. Tough to tell at times with some of the weird lighting and shadows that were going on.

http://www.jjsphotodesign.com/p47882...9f96#h471a9f96

some decent pics:

[red_cat]

Doesn't look like they had nearly enough front lighting on you guys. Looked uneven across the stage as well. Kinda disappointing that they can't get that right considering how big of a show it is. Your tan would have been perfect under good stage lighting.

[mattjansen]

yeah, i looked back recently and saw the progress you've been making (as well as others like Bob (robertfah) and Chris (FrmHoss) made when using the split) and thought it would be a good program to start my grow season with. I eventually want to work with Dr. Z and the DUP, but I don't think my body will be ready right after prep. I think running this split for the full 20 weeks will help me get my strength back while slowly increasing cals during the reverse. I'm thinking after the 20 weeks my strength being better than ever, same with my metabolism, so I might be ready for some DUP.

I think this is a great short term leading into a long term plan the program works just stick with it! I would also keep rest perdiods around 90 sec on the 10's wave and 8's wave and really milk it for all that its worth! Hit me up if you need any more help bud

[fltallpaul]

I think this is a great short term leading into a long term plan the program works just stick with it! I would also keep rest perdiods around 90 sec on the 10's wave and 8's wave and really milk it for all that its worth! Hit me up if you need any more help bud

Thanks for all the help. I plan to jump on this as well when my season is over and I can be consistent with my gym time.

[adamjohn32]

I think this is a great short term leading into a long term plan the program works just stick with it! I would also keep rest perdiods around 90 sec on the 10's wave and 8's wave and really milk it for all that its worth! Hit me up if you need any more help bud

thanks for the input, again lol. you're the man matt, can't thank you enough for the help.

[adamjohn32]

Doesn't look like they had nearly enough front lighting on you guys. Looked uneven across the stage as well. Kinda disappointing that they can't get that right considering how big of a show it is. Your tan would have been perfect under good stage lighting.

yeah, that's one thing I noticed from my wife's pics, the lighting really made me get hidden by all the shadows it created. Oh well, just one more thing I can't control lol. thanks for the feedback, you're time will be here before we know it

[red_cat]

yeah, that's one thing I noticed from my wife's pics, the lighting really made me get hidden by all the shadows it created. Oh well, just one more thing I can't control lol. thanks for the feedback, you're time will be here before we know it

Quite true on all accounts! You guys with all your contest photos and Dream Tan and veins popping out everywhere have got me AMPED UP for prep season! 12 weeks until the diet starts!

[Vanguard1965]

Love the pictures but agree the lighting seems a tad dark.