Reid's Offseason Journey to become a Natural Pro

[Reid456]

What's up, everyone, many of you may know me or have seen me posting around these parts, but for those of you who don't know me, I'll give you a quick rundown of my lifting/bodybuilding background. Also, check out my old log at:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...053173&page=45

Background

My name is Reid, I'm 22 years old and one of my goals in life is to become a pro natural bodybuilder. I also currently am working toward my Bachelor's degree in Chemistry at JMU and am very blessed to have the opportunity to do undergraduate research with one of the top enzymologists in the country.

I began lifting in 2008 during my senior year of high school for track. I went from being a sedentary unhappy person to someone that had a renewed sense of purpose and satisfaction in life. I became addicted to progression and self-improvement. I worked really hard in track and found myself getting better than those around me who had been running for much longer than me because I put in the effort. That's when I learned that I truly could do whatever I wanted to do as long as I put in the work and never gave up. The effort was worth the risk of failure. When I graduated high school I knew I wouldn't be able to run track in college but I also knew I needed a physical outlet and something to satisfy my need to progress so I kept lifting. Somehow I became interested in bodybuilding and continually tried to improve myself both mentally and physically. I knew I wanted to compete, but I also knew I had a long way to go before I was willing to get on stage. In May 2012 I decided that it was time to try my hand at a contest prep. I was sitting around 181lbs at 5'9" and I thought I was decently "lean". Here's what I was working with (19 weeks out):



Looking back, I got pretty fat, but I was the strongest I've ever been and feeling great about how I looked. I hooked up with Brad Loomis at 3DMJ to do a contest prep. It was probably the best decision I could have made. The 3DMJ coaches and community are amazing and I don't think I could've been nearly as successful (or stayed sane) without them. I highly recommend them to anyone who wants to do a contest prep. Fast forward 24 weeks later and I ended up with this:





I placed 1st out of 2 in Men's novice at the DFAC Suburban Warfare September 29, 2012
I placed 2nd out of 2 in Men's lightweight open at the INBF Neptune Classic October 27, 2012 and the guy who beat me went on to win the overall.

I was disappointed I never got to really compete with more than one other person, but I learned that I need to do more research about picking shows. Treat everything as a learning opportunity. Overall it was a draining, yet rewarding experience. Coming out of contest prep mode, more than any other feeling, I feel humbled. I have a lot of work to do, and it's hard to be patient, but I'm going to do what I need to do to make a name for myself in this sport, not forgetting to enjoy the experience.

Looking to the Future

At this point, I'm unsure of my post-graduation plans, but going to graduate school is a strong probability and that takes priority over bodybuilding, so at this point I anticipate at least a 2 year offseason before I think about competing again. That's fine though, I need some serious time to bring up my weakpoints.

For the first phase of my offseason I'm going to really focus on building my strength back up to pre-prep levels at a much lower bodyweight. Right now I think I am going to stick with 5/3/1 BBB and ride out the strength gains as long as I can. I want to really focus on hammering away at the compound lifts to build a better strength foundation.

Program: 5/3/1 Boring But Big
Starting 1RMs: (bodyweight - 154lb)
OHP - 120 lbs
Deadlift - 360 lbs
Bench - 180 lbs
Squat - 285 lbs

These numbers are underestimated but kind of embarrassing regardless. Main focus is on bringing up the OHP and Bench numbers.

Short-term Goals
At or below 165lb bodyweight

OHP - 150 lbs
Deadlift - 405 lbs
Bench - 225 lbs
Squat - 350 lbs

Once I hit those, we'll go from there. For now, full focus is on strength gain and minimizing weight gain but not starving, haha. Join me for the ride, friends. This is going to be fun.

Also, for you newcomers, expect some serious......

[Reid456]

Food!

French toast + blueberry sludge + blueberries


Turkey/vegetable stir fry


Spaghetti w/ broccoli


Banana/Pumpkin baked oats + chocolate sludge + strawberries




Spaghetti w/ broccoli + corn

[Reid456]

Apple baked oats + vanilla sludge + peanut M&Ms + toasted oats


Pumpkin/vanilla steel cut oats w/ blueberries


Meatloaf




Young's Double Chocolate Stout

[Reid456]

Chocolate mini-loaf




Pumpkin cheesecake


Edy's Pumpkin ice cream on top!


More spaghetti!


Every good chef needs a good apron. My friends got me this for my birthday, hah!

[jpfaherty]

Yes! IN

[antevans007]

Im IN for this man. you had a great first set of contests

[Ccm644]

In, well done for achieving what you have so far!

[jaredmus]

I'll be following on this man, another young guy and food porn hell yea! Good luck!

[Rypt1]

Definitely IN!

[NaturalPursuit]

IN brotha! HUGE work already!!!! Pumped to see your progress!!!

[curjo]

In! All you guys transitioning to bulking are making for some epic food porn lately!

[offroadatv200]

In for this !

Mainly for the food porn

[Bnizzle163]

Mirin' eats. Mirin' apron lol.

[Reid456]

I had sushi for the first time ever Sunday night for my birthday. It was better than I expected! No pictures sadly, but I'll surely be hitting up this place for some more soon! It's especially awesome because sushi macros aren't too crazy for 2 full rolls. Going to go crank out some cardio and then I'll update here with some recent workouts.

[Reid456]

Calling all reverse diet experts!

How do you know when to increase macros and whether to increase fat or carbs? I actually hit 153.0 this morning which is pretty much stage weight and I've been holding around 45/300/200 for the past week and a half with one refeed @ 45/450/180. I'm thinking about starting to increase carbs by 25g a week starting next week.

[Reid456]

5/3/1 M1W1 OHP

OHP
3x warmup sets
1x5x75
1x5x90
1x5omx100 - 10
5x10x60

Dips
bw x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

5/3/1 M1W1 Deadlift

Deadlift
3x warmup sets
1x5x230
1x5x270
1x5omx305 - 8
5x10x180

Wide grip pullups
bw x 10, 10, 8, 7, 7

5/3/1 M1W1 Bench

Bench
3x warmup sets
1x5x115
1x5x135
1x5omx150 - 7
5x10x90

Pendlay rows
115x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

5/3/1 M1W1 Squat

Squat
3x warmup sets
1x5x185
1x5x215
1x5omx240 - 10
5x10x140

Smith Calf Raises
2pps x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

[Reid456]

5/3/1 M1W2 OHP

OHP
3x warmup sets
1x3x80
1x3x95
1x3omx105 - 7
5x10x60

Dips
bw+10 x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

5/3/1 M1W2 Deadlift

Deadlift
3x warmup sets
1x3x200
1x3x235
1x3omx305 - 8
5x10x170

Wide grip pullups
bw x 10, 10, 9, 8, 7

[Reid456]

Food

Pumpkin cheesecake w/ chocolate syrup and blueberries


Egg omelette w/ green peppers + sriracha + mustard


Chicken + cheese + vegetables + bbq sauce + sweet potato


Pumpkin cheesecake w/ chocolate syrup and cinnamon crunch



Linguine + ground beef + carrots + green peppers


English muffins w/ chicken + pumpkin cheesecake

[Reid456]

Food

Apple pancakes



Beef + egg white + corn + green pepper


Linguine + chicken + mustard


Banana blueberry pancakes + blueberry syrup




Tortilla pizza w/ turkey and mushrooms

[The Solution]

Congrats on your competition bro! Only thing missing is some recipes with this food porn!
Will be following along!

[Reid456]

Congrats on your competition bro! Only thing missing is some recipes with this food porn!
Will be following along!

Thank you, kind sir. I've been lurking your log a lot recently. Ask away about any recipe you want! I mostly freestyle things so most of my foods are one-off creations, but the nice thing about myfitnesspal is that I can go back and find out what I did to create them.

[The Solution]

Thank you, kind sir. I've been lurking your log a lot recently. Ask away about any recipe you want! I mostly freestyle things so most of my foods are one-off creations, but the nice thing about myfitnesspal is that I can go back and find out what I did to create them.

Stop in my journal anytime man!

The pancakes and baked oatmeal would be cool! i think people in the MEN (meals eating now) would agree.

[Reid456]

Stop in my journal anytime man!

The pancakes and baked oatmeal would be cool! i think people in the MEN (meals eating now) would agree.

Well I think I still do a pretty poor job with the pancakes. They come out too flat. I was using whole wheat flour so I switched to all-purpose (have never baked with anything besides whole wheat, haha) and I thought that would solve the problem, but they came out even flatter somehow. I think I might be overmixing the batter and letting the gluten develop too much. Any tips for me for fluffier pancakes? I'm a complete noob when it comes to baking/cooking and I mostly make stuff up as I go. Here is what I've been using recently:

90g flour
1 egg
0.5 cup milk
0.5 cup mashed banana (or applesauce, pumpkin, etc.; replacement for butter)
1 tsp baking powder
added fruit or other toppings/spices

As for the baked oatmeal, I'll copy over my post from the MEN thread:

They are super easy!

Actually I just looked back and I think the pumpkin/banana baked oats is actually pumpkin/raisin baked oats, I must have mislabeled it. Anyway, here's the basic idea for baked oats:

80g rolled oats
0.75 cup milk (I used fat free milk, but I'm sure any kind would work)
120g pure pumpkin (here is where you could substitute applesauce, mashed banana, etc; experiment!)
1 whole egg (or egg white)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
pinch of salt

Mix all of this up in a bowl and pour into your oven-safe dish of choice (it will rise a little bit, but not a lot) and bake at 350 for around 20-30 minutes or until you can put a fork into the middle and it comes out clean. Depending on if you use pumpkin puree or whatever other mix-in you may have to experiment with the amount of milk you add to get the desired consistency that you want. I pretty much make stuff up on the go and never follow recipes exactly.

[Reid456]

5/3/1 M1W2 Bench

Bench
3x warmup sets
1x5x115
1x5x130
1x5omx145 - 9
5x10x85

Pendlay rows
120x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

[realniceathome]

Log looks awesome!

Do you have a recipe for the mini-chocolate loaf?

[Reid456]

Log looks awesome!

Do you have a recipe for the mini-chocolate loaf?

I sure do! About the loaf pan: I used a loaf pan that holds 2 cups of water. Not sure on the exact dimensions but the volume is 1/4 the volume of a normal 5"x9" bread pan (which holds 8 cups of water). So if you don't have a loaf pan that holds that amount, just multiply the ingredients by whatever number to adjust to your own bread pan. For example, if you wanted to make a whole 5"x9" loaf you would just use 4x every ingredient.

60g whole wheat flour
10g hersheys cocoa baking powder
0.25 cup milk
1 whole egg
15g chocolate chips
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Bake at 350 until you think its ready. Probably around 10-20 minutes. If you can spare the extra fat it probably would make it more moist to add in a couple tablespoons of butter too. I think you could also use applesauce or pumpkin to make it a little more moist.

[Ccm644]

I sure do! About the loaf pan: I used a loaf pan that holds 2 cups of water. Not sure on the exact dimensions but the volume is 1/4 the volume of a normal 5"x9" bread pan (which holds 8 cups of water). So if you don't have a loaf pan that holds that amount, just multiply the ingredients by whatever number to adjust to your own bread pan. For example, if you wanted to make a whole 5"x9" loaf you would just use 4x every ingredient.

60g whole wheat flour
10g hersheys cocoa baking powder
0.25 cup milk
1 whole egg
15g chocolate chips
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Bake at 350 until you think its ready. Probably around 10-20 minutes. If you can spare the extra fat it probably would make it more moist to add in a couple tablespoons of butter too. I think you could also use applesauce or pumpkin to make it a little more moist.

Thank you for your recipe!! Your eats look great and its nice to try one out

Worked a treat and was amazing


Used A different size pan

[Reid456]

Thank you for your recipe!! Your eats look great and its nice to try one out

Worked a treat and was amazing

Glad I could be of help. You could adapt this recipe to almost any flavor if you want as well. I think it would be worth experimenting with throwing in some ff/sf jello mix to see how that alters the texture.

[Shazriki]

Dude, I was unaware to the extreme. IN.

[Reid456]

Dude, I was unaware to the extreme. IN.

Well now you are aware. Also, just spontaneously bought this at a discount store today. It has everything and a lot of the science behind cooking. I'm in heaven.