Cliff Wilson- Prep for 2013 with Core Nutritionals

[red_cat]

Things were a bit challenging this weekend with my diet as I was in St. Louis for a show. Thank god for Wendy's Ultimate Chicken Grill. Makes is so easy to grab some food out. Things went well this weekend as my client won her masters pro card but I was kind of pissed at the way the judging went though. When my client walked out for the open class it was clear that she was the leanest competitor on stage and really wasn't giving up any size. There was a girl with better symmetry but I thought it wasn't really that close and it should be an easy win. I knew things were not looking good though when the head judge did not move her near the center. The girls then walked off stage and they realized the same girls had to go back on for masters bodybuilding. So they sent them all back out. This time the head judge must have actually looked looked at her and moved her to the middle. When the placing came out that night my client took DEAD LAST in the open, but then with the exact same girls in master she WON the whole thing WTF? How she goes from last to first in a matter of 1 minute is beyond me. I know for a fact that they just didn't look at her. I realize this happens sometimes but it is no less frustrating.

Been lurking. Nice job so far! I've heard a lot of...interesting...feedback about the STL shows. Very rushed judging, swapped placings within just a minute of each other, just a very haphazard feeling to the show. Not to talk trash or anything, but your client definitely isn't the only person this kind of thing has happened to.

[pureintensity]

Been lurking. Nice job so far! I've heard a lot of...interesting...feedback about the STL shows. Very rushed judging, swapped placings within just a minute of each other, just a very haphazard feeling to the show. Not to talk trash or anything, but your client definitely isn't the only person this kind of thing has happened to.

Yeah, I have been to all 3 St. Louis shows this year and all of them had poor judging. It was mostly the same judges too. To be honest, I don't even think my clients class was the worst. I saw some really bad calls that had nothing to do with any of my clients. It is a little disappointing because the shows in St. Louis are nice shows in terms of audience, venue, and competition.

[chuckles_345]

Yeah, I have been to all 3 St. Louis shows this year and all of them had poor judging. It was mostly the same judges too. To be honest, I don't even think my clients class was the worst. I saw some really bad calls that had nothing to do with any of my clients. It is a little disappointing because the shows in St. Louis are nice shows in terms of audience, venue, and competition.

That is interseting because I was just thinking about how the juding was sub-par at St. Louis contest this past summer. I know you, Tim, and I were chatting about that backstage even before we knew what any of the placings were. I remember telling Tim when we walked offstage after prejuding that I don't know where we placed, but I can guarentee with the rapid rate the rushed our class of ~12-14 competitors offstage it can't be right. It is really unfortunate to hear that occured again at the fall St. Louis show. I can definately feel for anyone who felt shorted this past weekend.

Also, your workouts are looking solid! Keep crushing it!

[Trapzillaoo7]

This info is great to hear, I will be steering all Clients away from St Louis in 2013......it's tough enough dealing with bad judging at a good show. However, I can not tolerate not allowing people to have as much time on stage as possible. It's just not right.

That is interseting because I was just thinking about how the juding was sub-par at St. Louis contest this past summer. I know you, Tim, and I were chatting about that backstage even before we knew what any of the placings were. I remember telling Tim when we walked offstage after prejuding that I don't know where we placed, but I can guarentee with the rapid rate the rushed our class of ~12-14 competitors offstage it can't be right. It is really unfortunate to hear that occured again at the fall St. Louis show. I can definately feel for anyone who felt shorted this past weekend.

Also, your workouts are looking solid! Keep crushing it!

[NaturalPursuit]

Thanks for the heads up on those shows! Its a shame...if people are getting rushed after putting in month of hard work...thats just not right yanno.

Great work up in here Cliff!!!

[pureintensity]

Yeah, the promoter of the Master's Cup in July is actually a client of mine. His name is Keith Hunter. I have already spoken to him about him needing to change a few things up next year with the panel. He said he agreed, so that show should be a bit better next year.

[pureintensity]

I am finally out of my post show coma. lol. After I attend shows with my clients I am usually zapped for a day or two, but I am feeling better now. It was another really great show this weekend. We were at the NANBF Great Lakes show. One of my clients named Jeremy Coleman won the overall men's bodybuilding title and an IFPA pro card. Also, my female client names Susan Parker won the women's overall for bodybuilding and also won her IFPA pro card. We also had the Mens' physique overall winner (Ed Anderson) and Novice Short class winner (Diante Johnson). So I was very happy to walk away from the weekend with two pro cards and three overall wins. Great times for sure.

Things are just rolling smoothly for my prep. Nothing spectacular to report as I have not had to change a thing. I am still doing no cardio and have not adjusted my macros. My weight as of this morning was 205.0. Strength hasn't really taken a hit yet and the shoulder is getting better and better. I know that things will get hard soon here but I am hoping that this will continue as long as possible. I should have progress pics up next week.

Until next time!

[mneugeba]

I just got caught up on your log, and I have to say... you're really generous with the amount of information you put out there. Thanks for that! I heard Mike Neumann interview you a while back and I also heard your interview just recently on NattyTalk, and really enjoyed them both.

I'll be following along, keep the great info coming!!

[GHOSTN]

I just got caught up on your log, and I have to say... you're really generous with the amount of information you put out there. Thanks for that! I heard Mike Neumann interview you a while back and I also heard your interview just recently on NattyTalk, and really enjoyed them both.

I'll be following along, keep the great info coming!!

X2

Really enjoyed the nattytalk interview! Interesting to hear your take on things and how you approach peaking differently..

[pureintensity]

Well, as promised I finally got some more current progress pics on here. Some of them are a bit blurry, sorry about that. As you can see I still have a long way to go but I have plenty of time. Right now it almost looks like my legs are lagging behind my upper body but I can assure you that this will change because my upper body has more fat to lose. I didn't really flex my calves in the back pose but they are a bit small. Something I have always struggled to bring up. I guess there are worse body parts to struggle with though.

Overall I am happy with the pics. I have never been this lean at this weight before. My body fat distribution is a bit strange as I actually have far less fat on my glutes than my abs. I can literally see my glutes from the side about as well as my abs. It hardly makes for a good beach body unless I plan to where speedos to the beach. It doesn't matter though because it all has to go anyway. The lighting isn't the best where I took these, I am probably a tad bit leaner than these are showing but not much.

Shoulder is almost 100% pain free. Strength has taken a hit because of it but I will keep pushing to bring it back up. Looking forward to a good weekend of heavy, hard training with the wife. Nothing better than that!

[pureintensity]

I just got caught up on your log, and I have to say... you're really generous with the amount of information you put out there. Thanks for that! I heard Mike Neumann interview you a while back and I also heard your interview just recently on NattyTalk, and really enjoyed them both.

I'll be following along, keep the great info coming!!

Thanks for jumping on! Yeah, I had fun with both of those interviews for sure. I try to put out as much info as I can. This sport has given me so much and it is only right that I give back as much as I can. I am just glad people find it helpful.

[pureintensity]

X2

Really enjoyed the nattytalk interview! Interesting to hear your take on things and how you approach peaking differently..

I'm glad you like the interview! The big backload peak is a subject I really do like to talk about a lot but in the interview I tried to not dwell on it too much. Sometimes I think that people focus so much on how unique the peak is that it almost seems like a gimmick to some people if you know what I mean. But I can tell you that if you do your homework and get totally shredded the giant load will add some serious size on show day. It can be really hard to eat 900-1300 grams of carbs though. lol. It is not as fun as it sounds.

[pureintensity]

Sorry for being MIA lately. We had the USA super pro qualifier in Omaha this weekend. It was a great weekend. I got go give a seminar on metabolic adaptation the night before the show which was fun. Brian Ahlstrom and John Gorman also gave some great talks and it is always good getting together with those guys. The show the next day couldn't have gone much better as there were two classes at the super pro Q. Each class winner gets a pro card and fortunately I had both class winners. I got to watch two of my clients go head to head in the overall and it was a HUGE relief knowing that they both got to walk away pros at the end of the show. Great times!

Anyway, since i have been away I have been still nailing my macros but progress has slowed a bit. I am down to 203.2 right now. This is my flat weight. My official weigh in day is still a few days away so I will have to see if some more changes are in order. I am aiming to be completely ready by mid April so that I can have my pick of the spring shows and not have to worry about rushing. I know I have been making some good progress because everyone that I ran into at the show this weekend commented on how thin my face was. lol.

The shoulder has also still be getting better. It is almost 100% but not quite. I am planning on finishing up this week and then trying a 3 -4 week stint of smolov jr. to see how it is doing. I have always made great gains when running smolov jr. so we will see how it goes now that I am dieting.

So the season is just about finished with only one more show to go. I shouldn't be dropping off the forums as much any more. lol.

[pureintensity]

So I had to make a change to my macros. It occurred to me that I had made a change before I had never reported. So here are my current macros as of right now.

P- 235

C- 345

F- 60

I can definitely feel a zap in my energy levels but my strength is still there. With my shoulder feeling much better I started smolov jr. for bench. Tonight I was able to complete 8x4 with 200 lbs. As you can tell I have a ****ty bench. lol. I have always been terrible at it. I have long arms that make me good at deads but bad at bench. The good news is that I was able to perform all of these sets with no pain in my shoulder.

I had mentioned before that I gave a lecture at a bodybuilding camp over the weekend. Luckily, Mike Neumann from Inside Natural Bodybuilding was recording the whole thing and and got a video of my speech on metabolic adaptation. For those of you that are interested here is the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=KXWSmMnn7sM

I hope you guys will find it useful. For now I just keep grinding out this prep and doing my thing. Sorry I don't have more to report but things have been seriously easy so far. I can't complain.

[pureintensity]

I also wanted to get you guys in a convo that I started on ******** to see who can get behind this.

I HATE THE NIGHT SHOW IN BODYBUILDING! I think that this is something that holds back the popularity of the sport. I propose that the prejudging be moved to night and make that the main event. Then only the top 3-5 placings would earn the right to do a posing routine.

As a fan of the sport I want to see the action and this happens at pre judging. The way our sport is set up is crazy. Let me put this in terms of another sport. I am also a basketball fan. This would be like me going to an NBA game at night. When I get to the game the announcer says, "right now we are going to have a skills competition with a 3 point and dunk contest. But guess what? It doesn't count for anything". Then the announcer would inform us that the two teams actually played a game this morning when nobody was around, and after all the skills were over he would then let us know who won the game that was played this morning. I would think, why in the hell didn't they play the game in front of me?

I realize that many in attendance at a bodybuilding night show are family members that don't know anything about the sport. How are they ever supposed to figure out what the sport is about if we don't give them a chance. I'd like to think that if someone watched a few prejudgings that they would start to pick up on what is going on. Besides the only time I hear the crowd get really fired up at a night show is during the overall posedown anyway. By the end of a night show everyone is burned out and we have to beg the fans for applause. It makes me a bit sad.

I realize that this will never happen but a guy can dream

[pureintensity]

Well it looks like the post I made caught a lot of attention. It looks like there are many others that feel the way I do about changing the show day. Alberto Nunez, myself, and my wife have started a FB page as a petition to try and get the show day format changed. Here is the link. Please like the page if you are in favor of the change.

https://www.********.com/NaturalBody...page_new_likes

[Trapzillaoo7]

This is AWESOME and let's hope this catches some serious FIRE. Thanks Cliff!!!!

Well it looks like the post I made caught a lot of attention. It looks like there are many others that feel the way I do about changing the show day. Alberto Nunez, myself, and my wife have started a FB page as a petition to try and get the show day format changed. Here is the link. Please like the page if you are in favor of the change.

https://www.********.com/NaturalBody...page_new_likes

[adamjohn32]

Well it looks like the post I made caught a lot of attention. It looks like there are many others that feel the way I do about changing the show day. Alberto Nunez, myself, and my wife have started a FB page as a petition to try and get the show day format changed. Here is the link. Please like the page if you are in favor of the change.

https://www.********.com/NaturalBody...page_new_likes

Read that today on FB actually, couldn't agree more.

And why haven't I subscribed to this journal yet? Keep crushing it Cliff

[Trapzillaoo7]

This was a great show and great seminar as well. It was great seeing you guys as always! Congrats again on the 2 pros. It's not a bad weekend when we both get to walk away with 2 Clients with Pro Cards!

The Overall Pose-down is awesome when they are both Clients but tough as well. We had the same situation a few weeks before and I was a deer in the headlights, LOL. Of course, only 1 of them was walking away with a Pro Card. The cherry on top was handing out the trophy to the Overall Winner, Client, Friend and new Pro (Carl Sievert aka Drago).

Anyway, keep doing your thing, you are inspiring as heck! Great work Cliff! T-minus 16 months................

Sorry for being MIA lately. We had the USA super pro qualifier in Omaha this weekend. It was a great weekend. I got go give a seminar on metabolic adaptation the night before the show which was fun. Brian Ahlstrom and John Gorman also gave some great talks and it is always good getting together with those guys. The show the next day couldn't have gone much better as there were two classes at the super pro Q. Each class winner gets a pro card and fortunately I had both class winners. I got to watch two of my clients go head to head in the overall and it was a HUGE relief knowing that they both got to walk away pros at the end of the show. Great times!

Anyway, since i have been away I have been still nailing my macros but progress has slowed a bit. I am down to 203.2 right now. This is my flat weight. My official weigh in day is still a few days away so I will have to see if some more changes are in order. I am aiming to be completely ready by mid April so that I can have my pick of the spring shows and not have to worry about rushing. I know I have been making some good progress because everyone that I ran into at the show this weekend commented on how thin my face was. lol.

The shoulder has also still be getting better. It is almost 100% but not quite. I am planning on finishing up this week and then trying a 3 -4 week stint of smolov jr. to see how it is doing. I have always made great gains when running smolov jr. so we will see how it goes now that I am dieting.

So the season is just about finished with only one more show to go. I shouldn't be dropping off the forums as much any more. lol.

[pureintensity]

This is AWESOME and let's hope this catches some serious FIRE. Thanks Cliff!!!!

This was a great show and great seminar as well. It was great seeing you guys as always! Congrats again on the 2 pros. It's not a bad weekend when we both get to walk away with 2 Clients with Pro Cards!

The Overall Pose-down is awesome when they are both Clients but tough as well. We had the same situation a few weeks before and I was a deer in the headlights, LOL. Of course, only 1 of them was walking away with a Pro Card. The cherry on top was handing out the trophy to the Overall Winner, Client, Friend and new Pro (Carl Sievert aka Drago).

Anyway, keep doing your thing, you are inspiring as heck! Great work Cliff! T-minus 16 months................

I think this show day reform might actually get a chance. We just need to keep spreading that word. Could imagine how nice it would be to attend 1 show for 3-4 hours and be done? It would be soooooo nice. lol.

Having two guys in the overall was crazy. Although I have to say that the pressure was a lot less than what you had the few weeks before because I knew they both had pro cards.

16 months!!! Hell Yeah!

[pureintensity]

Read that today on FB actually, couldn't agree more.

And why haven't I subscribed to this journal yet? Keep crushing it Cliff

Thanks for jumping on bud! Very much appreciated!

[musclemass22]

Making good progress Cliff! Glad the shoulder is near 100%. I have some nagging injuries that are just starting to resolve themselves as well. It was great seeing you at the USA's.......and yes....your face looked thin. See you around in the Spring!

[pureintensity]

Hello All,

Well the contest season is over and I can now bank on having no more trips for a while. It was an unbelievable season to say the least. I almost can't believe how great it was. My wife is pretty amazing and she made this absolutely sick montage video of every single client we had compete this year. I seriously don't know where I would be without Katie doing things like this. Anyway, here is the link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=Gy-igw2Ix-A


I am down to 201.0 on my lowest day of the week. This means I have lost 2.2 in the last two weeks. While this is not bad I am looking to move just a bit faster to make sure I am ready as of April so I have adjusted my numbers:

P- 230

C- 325

F- 58

Strength is still really good. I just did legs tonight and here was my lift:

Squats- 8x225 6x245 6x275 4x315 4x315 3x345 3x365 3x385

DB Walking Lunges- 16 steps x 80's 14 steps x 90's 12 steps x 100's

Leg ext.- 12 x stack 12 x stack 12 x stack 13 x stack (to failure on last set)

DB Stiff Leg deads- 15x 100's 15x 100's 21x 100's (to failure on last)

Deep Leg Presses- 20x 360 20x 380 20x 420

I was pretty spent after this. I was really happy with the squats though. The strength is still staying up there with really not much a drop at all. I almost seem to be increasing the last few weeks. I'll take it

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I'll be brining my food scale to Thanksgiving dinner. lol

[pureintensity]

Making good progress Cliff! Glad the shoulder is near 100%. I have some nagging injuries that are just starting to resolve themselves as well. It was great seeing you at the USA's.......and yes....your face looked thin. See you around in the Spring!

Thanks Brian. Maybe we will run into each other on stage next year. That would be pretty cool!

[fltallpaul]

I caught your post about bodybuilding show reform. This year I have been at both extremes. At the Gaspari we were on stage at 9am and out of the venue and completely done by 11:30am. Best show ever! Then last weekend we had to be at the athlete meeting at 8 am, and didn't get off stage for the finals until 10:30pm...

Another thing I think which would be great to consider is to get rid of the athlete's meeting. Athlete's should be able to check in the day before, get their numbers and be given a list of rules and times. Then you can just show up and compete and not have to arrive at the venue 4-5 hours before you get on stage. This is how the Cape Cod show was run and it made things so nice. I learned alot from the way James and Katie Carron run their event!

[pureintensity]

I caught your post about bodybuilding show reform. This year I have been at both extremes. At the Gaspari we were on stage at 9am and out of the venue and completely done by 11:30am. Best show ever! Then last weekend we had to be at the athlete meeting at 8 am, and didn't get off stage for the finals until 10:30pm...

Another thing I think which would be great to consider is to get rid of the athlete's meeting. Athlete's should be able to check in the day before, get their numbers and be given a list of rules and times. Then you can just show up and compete and not have to arrive at the venue 4-5 hours before you get on stage. This is how the Cape Cod show was run and it made things so nice. I learned alot from the way James and Katie Carron run their event!

That is a good point Paul. I think that there are some promoters out there that are very interested in improving things. If they make changes for the better the other promoters will have to follow as people won't tolerate it as much after they have competed in a few well run shows. The athletes meeting is a huge time waste though, you are right.

[NaturalPursuit]

Happy New Years Cliff!

...in for update

[pureintensity]

Well, I am BACK! I didn’t die. Lol. Sorry to be MIA for so long. After a long 2012 season of working like a dog I decided to take a several week period to work a little less and spend some much needed quality time with my wife. Last night we just celebrated 9 years of being together. Time sure does fly by, seem like only yesterday that I saw her in my freshman geography class. I actually had just started training a few weeks earlier. I am sure she thought I was nuts when one of the first things I said to her was that I was going to become a bodybuilder. Haha!

Anyway, just because I have taken some time off from logging and writing articles doesn’t mean I was taking time off from prepping for my show. I have been busting my ass as hard as ever and making some pretty good progress. Here is where I am at.

NUTRITION:

Last time I logged I was 201.0 on my lowest day of the week. This past Sunday I just hit 190.4 for my lowest weight yet on this prep. After my high carb day on Sunday I bounced back up to 194.6 but this will drop back down fast. So this is a loss of 10.4 in the last 10 weeks. It doesn’t get much better than that.

I was on these macros when I last checked in

P-230
C-325
F-58

Since then I have actually made some very minor adjustments but not much. Here are my current macros.

P-245
C-310
F-60

I added a bit of protein and I little bit of fat back into the equation. At one point I began to lose a bit faster than I wanted so I needed to add some additional kcals in. I didn’t want to add any additional carbs for fear of it slowing too much. I added a little extra protein and fat and things slowed where I wanted them to. I have been on these macros for 4 weeks now. I will stick with them until they stop working for me.


TRAINING:

For training I have been doing a plan that is a bit confusing so bear with me here. I have been training each body part very frequently lately as I find that when dieting increasing frequency can actually help hold on to strength. This plan is a combination of PHAT training but combined with block training. Here is the split:

Day 1- Whole Body Power Lifting
Day 2- Chest, Triceps
Day 3- Legs, Delts
Day 4- Back, Traps, Biceps
Day 5- Chest, Triceps
Day 6- Legs, Delts
Day 7- OFF
Day 8- Whole Body Power Lifting
Day 9- Back, Traps, Biceps
Day 10- Chest, Triceps
Day 11- Legs, Delts
Day 12- Back, Traps, Biceps
Day 13- Chest, Triceps
Day 14- OFF

I gave a two week sample so you can see that off days are set every 7th day and powerlifting days will begin each week. These are set. The other days that are bolded are done in a more typical bodybuilding fashion and they rotate on a three day split. The three day cycle completes one and two thirds time each week. When these style of training resume the following week it simply picks up where it left off the previous week. These workouts are also done in block periodization style. Here is the progression.

First three (3 day cycles)- 5-7 reps on all movements

Second three (3 day cycles)- 8-10 reps on all movements

Third three (3 day cycles)- 10-12 reps on all movements

Fourth three (3 day cycles)- 12-15 reps on all movements

As I said, this is a confusing program but it works really well. I have run this before in the past and it is a killer plan. I just started the first day tonight with the powerlifting day.

So that pretty much catches me up. I have still not set a show date yet. I still want to get closer to show conditioning before I step on stage. I want to be fully ready before I get up there. I have been extremely happy with the progress though. Here are a few pics to show what I look like. These were taken about a week and a half ago when I was 194.0 after one of my high carb days. Things are coming together.

photo-10.jpgphoto-11.jpg

I keep pushing onward and upward. I am coming for that stage hard!

[NaturalPursuit]

MAN! Already looking really lean! Keep it up!

[pureintensity]

Hey Guys! Here is my very first video log. This log will focus less on the specific details of prep and more on general thoughts I have about how to approach this sport from a mental aspect. Essentially about what it takes to win. Hope you enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=uGlTP1B6ABA