"Constructing a Competitive Physique": Natural 21 Year-Old's Journey To The Stage

[BrandonRamsey]

'Sup everybody. My name is Brandon Ramsey, I am a 21 year-old Senior at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana where I am an Economics major and Assistant Basketball Coach. I played a year of baseball and a year of tennis before giving up athletic competition to focus on my goal of becoming a college basketball coach (and so I could focus on lifting for bodybuilding instead of athletics).

I have been lifting pretty seriously for about 3 1/2 years now, and have really focused on it for the past year. With the gains that I have made I have set my sights on doing a competition at some point in the future. I am not sure when that will be yet, but I will step on stage sometime in the next few years.

I have 2 goals for this thread...#1 is to hold myself accountable. By posting on here regularly I will be sure to keep my self on the straight and narrow towards my ultimate goal. #2 is to promote my roommate & I's fitness organization, the Construction Crew. We started this a couple of years ago as a student organization at Hanover and have seen it grow a lot already. This year we have a $1725 budget to spend on campus (we are buying some weight room equipment, new t-shirts, and will be hosting a fitness expo w/ proceeds going to charity). Also, we have a ******** page (********.com/constructioncrewbodybuilding) and a YouTube channel (YouTube.com/theconstructioncrew). Please like & subscribe! I am also on Instagram @brandonramsey_ccrew

Hopefully everyone will enjoy following my progress and the progress of the Construction Crew, but if nothing else I will enjoy posting here and holding myself accountable.

'Merica

[BrandonRamsey]

I just got home from a 10-day vacation to Marco Island, Florida where I did not track single macro! It was awesome, but I did gain some weight. However, I continued to hit the gym hard while I was done there and stayed pretty active so its not like I got fat by indulging for a week.

While on vacation I didn't have my pre-workout with me, so when I got home and went to the gym last night I was excited to throw down some MAN Sports Game Day. I typically take a full scoop and did the same last night...bad idea. Should have eased back into a little bit. I had a great bi's & tri's workout, but I was jittery for the rest of the night and struggled to fall asleep. That is literally the first time I have ever felt that wired from taking a pre-workout!

Construction Crew President, Chip Hockenbury, and I have started looking into a couple of powerlifting events. He is much more into it than I am...I am much more interested in bodybuilding while he is all about just lifting heavy weight. Chip has a best pull of 530 on deadlift as a 22 year-old sitting at about 210 pounds. He also benches 380 and squats 405. He just turned 22 so has nearly 2 full years left to compete as a junior, so I think he could be pretty competitive in that class. He is going to start training for his first competition soon so I will keep everybody updated on how that goes.

Today is Leg Day...time to get those Wheelz!

'Merica

[BrandonRamsey]

Yesterday I had the opportunity to deadlift and train back with some local legends including world record holder Marty Montgomery. Marty holds the 65-69 year old deadlift record with a pull of 506 and will be going for the 70+ year old world record in about a month at Worlds in Las Vegas. The current record is 463 and Marty plans to pull at least 475.

I got a bunch of good footage so be sure to stay tuned to the YouTube channel: youtube.com/theconstructioncrew to see all of that.

I personally set a deadlift PR of 455 pounds (at 181 bodyweight) so I was happy with that. Deads have always been my weakest lift by far so I was pretty pumped to pull 455.

My roommate and Construction Crew President Chip Hockenbury has decided to begin competing in powerlifting with the goal of qualify for 2014 Junior Worlds in Las Vegas. Chip is a deadlifting machine and will be competing at the 220 pound weight class. I expect him to pull over 600 pounds at Worlds next year easily. Last night he set a PR of 555 pounds while weighing 210. Here is the footage of his pulls:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFjNL...ature=youtu.be

Like I said, stay tuned for more footage of everybody's deadlift!

[BrandonRamsey]

One of the men that worked out with us during our "deadlift party" a few days ago was Powerlifter Tracey Conner, a 52 year old from Richmond, Indiana. He is a great guy who gave Chip and I a bunch of tips to increase our deadlift strength. He pulled 550 during the lift...here is video of him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oACVS...ature=youtu.be

Still have a couple more of the deadlifting videos to post, then will start in with new footage next week.

[BrandonRamsey]

Had a great Chest & Hamstrings training session yesterday w/ a fellow Construction Crew member. A missed my 315 max attempt on Bench Press a couple of weeks ago and set my goal to get it up off my chest within 8 weeks. To prepare, I changed up my bench routine a little bit moving from 5x5 to 3x5, 2x3, 1x1 in order to go a little heavier. Yesterday I got 245,245,250 for my 5 sets, 265 and 275 for my sets of 3, and finished up with a clean rep of 290. Will be benching 315 by the end of September!

Today is my 2nd to last day at Family Fitness in Richmond, IN before I move back into school for my senior year at Hanover College. My roommate Chip and I will be representing the Construction Crew on Friday at the Freshman Activities Fair. That is always a neat event and a great way to add new members and ensure that interested freshman don't gain that dreaded "Freshman 15".