BWelch's 2011 Contest Prep Journal

[TheHeirApparent]

subd

[bwelch1985]

Solid leg workout man. Those DLs are money. Keep pounding the weight man. Are you working with anybody or are you going at this prep on your own?

Thanks Train! I plan to keep it hard and heavy all prep long...but these first few months should be no different from offseason as far as hitting PR's and having all around great workouts.

I'll be going at it alone. I realize I'm far from an expert at this stuff, but to me the fun part of preparing for a show is organizing and adjusting all the different variables (diet/cardio/training/supplements) and trying to put together the "prep puzzle" as best I can

[bwelch1985]

subd

thnx man!

[AustrianOakJr]

Wow. Thanks a lot for following Sean. I'm a big fan of yours (no homo/no e-stalker) so it really means a lot to me!

Very similar kcals indeed. I'm still working my way down on the protein front haha. I dieted on 250g for my last prep (obviously way too much) but I've worked up the courage to pare it down to 230g this time (still probably excessive). I guess a part of me is still scared my muscles will fall off if I drop any lower. LOL.

Based on your most recent pics I'd say we are pretty close in bf% at the same height and weight....so how much do you expect to weigh on stage this time around? Personally, I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for the mid 150's. I know it's gonna play tricks on my mind to see such a low number, but this prep is about achieving elite conditioning for me so I'll do whatever it takes.

Thanks man....yea, I have never really had much more protein in my diet. I might get as high as 215 in the depth of my diet, but thats about it.

As for weight. I stepped on stage at 162 depleted last time......im guessing I might have put on a couple lbs of muscle, but I am also aware I was a few lbs fat. Soo.....I am figuring on 160 depleted with the possibility of dipping to the high 150's.....its all a guessing game until I start shedding the pounds though.

[bwelch1985]

Thanks man....yea, I have never really had much more protein in my diet. I might get as high as 215 in the depth of my diet, but thats about it.

As for weight. I stepped on stage at 162 depleted last time......im guessing I might have put on a couple lbs of muscle, but I am also aware I was a few lbs fat. Soo.....I am figuring on 160 depleted with the possibility of dipping to the high 150's.....its all a guessing game until I start shedding the pounds though.

Gotcha. Such a mind-f*ck thinking of you as 160 or Alberto as 155! But hey...the lightweights always seem to be the most competitive class at just about every pro show I've seen. It's just a number after all...if ya wanna place well, ya gotta get shredded. PERIOD.

[bwelch1985]

PUSH

Dips
-10
-25x8
-45x6,6,6
--hopefully I can work these up to some respectable numbers in the next few weeks. if i stay upright i can strap on twice this much, but to lean forward and get down deep +45 is pretty damn heavy for me.

Incline BB
-135x10
-185x8,8,8
--felt pretty good. i was planning on having flat db in this place but just hated it during warmups. i'll stick w/ the barbell for the time being.

Seated Laterals
-25x10
-30x10,10,10
--meh...i'm gonna switch to single arm leaning laterals next week. i can generate a lot more power and always get a great pump from that exercise.

V-Bar Pressdowns
-190x6,6,6
--my elbows took a beating during the last push cycle w/ decline cgbp and skulls so this time I'm gonna give them a bit of a break.

Dip Machine
-20,20,20
--for teh pumpz.

Also did 4 sets of abs. Gonna try to get in pull tomorrow so I can rest Thursday and come back fresh for deads and front squats on Friday.

[mivi320]

deads and fronts on friday = good way to end the work week.

you got final exams next week too buddy?

[AustrianOakJr]

Gotcha. Such a mind-f*ck thinking of you as 160 or Alberto as 155! But hey...the lightweights always seem to be the most competitive class at just about every pro show I've seen. It's just a number after all...if ya wanna place well, ya gotta get shredded. PERIOD.

The problem for me is that im at the very bottom of the mid-weights. 155 for the top of the lights might be a stretch for me. But, I guess I gotta beat everyone anyways, so what difference does it make?

[zbert]

I'm all kinds of effed up today! Glutes, lower back and quads hate me right now haha.

405x3-4 then 435x1 just a couple minutes later is pretty freakin legit bro! That's where I wanna be.

It's gonna be a battle at States brother! I know you won't slack so I've gotta bring my A-game!



Oh yeh. A good training partner can really bring a workout up to the next level. On the other hand a sh*tty training partner can all but ruin a workout even for dedicated bb'ers like us. Choose wisely who you train with!



Thnx man!


On another note, I'm gonna head out to do 20 minutes of cardio in a bit. My glutes are just so ridiculously sore I can barely sit or stand. I typically don't experience any significant muscle soreness until 2 days after a workout so I'm pretty much terrified of how I'll feel tomorrow. Hopefully cardio will get some blood moving around down there so I can be a productive member of society tomorrow!

yea my entire body is trashed, it was definitely a good workout indeed.
na man, you helped push me to get those numbers seeing you dead pretty easily.
your right having a good workout partner can definitely help out alot, but having a bad one can ruin a good workout quickly.
Solid workout from today man, your incline is always looking like your are improving at a steady rate.

[deltpecx]

yea my entire body is trashed, it was definitely a good workout indeed.
na man, you helped push me to get those numbers seeing you dead pretty easily.
your right having a good workout partner can definitely help out alot, but having a bad one can ruin a good workout quickly.
Solid workout from today man, your incline is always looking like your are improving at a steady rate.

Looks like you two are just pushing each other real good!

[bwelch1985]

deads and fronts on friday = good way to end the work week.

you got final exams next week too buddy?

yes sir! i've got one tomorrow and two next week i won't miss any workouts or anything though. i can always spare a couple hours of the day to hit the gym!

The problem for me is that im at the very bottom of the mid-weights. 155 for the top of the lights might be a stretch for me. But, I guess I gotta beat everyone anyways, so what difference does it make?

yep...you're at the point in your amateur career that it pretty much doesn't matter anymore. you're going to stand out whether you're the lightest in your class or the heaviest. plenty of time to start worrying about weight classes once you hit the pros!

yea my entire body is trashed, it was definitely a good workout indeed.
na man, you helped push me to get those numbers seeing you dead pretty easily.
your right having a good workout partner can definitely help out alot, but having a bad one can ruin a good workout quickly.
Solid workout from today man, your incline is always looking like your are improving at a steady rate.

i wish my incline would keep improving! i can't seem to get past 250. hopefully i can work on some higher reps for a while then go back to hitting it heavy for some new PR's in a few weeks.

Looks like you two are just pushing each other real good!

you know it!

[bwelch1985]

ok check this out.

just logging my foods like any other day and BOOM....perfect macros! haha. this almost never happens for me. typically i'll be off by a gram or two in one direction or the other (which i don't worry about), but today it just fell into place like magic!

[ScottishMark]

ok check this out.

just logging my foods like any other day and BOOM....perfect macros! haha. this almost never happens for me. typically i'll be off by a gram or two in one direction or the other (which i don't worry about), but today it just fell into place like magic!

Lol, madness.

[zmcdole]

ok check this out.

just logging my foods like any other day and BOOM....perfect macros! haha. this almost never happens for me. typically i'll be off by a gram or two in one direction or the other (which i don't worry about), but today it just fell into place like magic!

Do you log your foods as you eat while checking to see where you're at before you eat your next meal, or do you follow a set meal plan?

[bwelch1985]

Lol, madness.

iknowright?!

Do you log your foods as you eat while checking to see where you're at before you eat your next meal, or do you follow a set meal plan?

well, traditionally i'll plan out an entire day of food the day before...but so far this prep i've been winging it a bit. i'll decide what i want to eat, then pop it in fitday and make the numbers work. i always do 5 meals per day and i typically partition most of my carbs towards breakfast and preworkout, w/ most of my fats for my last two meals. other than that pretty much anything goes lol

[bwelch1985]

PULL

Pullups
-10
-10x8
-25x6,6,6
-10
--feeling really good on the pullups lately! would be sweet to strap on a 45 in the near future.

Seated Row
-150x10
-180x8--->150x6--->120x6
--decided to go w/ a nice balls out dropset rather than straight sets today. felt good. ran out of gas pretty damn quick though lol

SA Rope Pulldowns
-3 sets of 10ish

BB Curls
-10x10
-20x10,9,9
--i'm really weak...but i felt good about these. used the Arnold elbow support thingy again and will continue using it.

Hammer Chins
-8,7,6
--these were really hard.

Hammer Curls
-30x10x10
-35x8x8
-40x6x6

Then I did some static hold chinups each lasting about 15-20 seconds including a long negative.

Ok...back to studying

[ScottishMark]

well, traditionally i'll plan out an entire day of food the day before...but so far this prep i've been winging it a bit. i'll decide what i want to eat, then pop it in fitday and make the numbers work. i always do 5 meals per day and i typically partition most of my carbs towards breakfast and preworkout, w/ most of my fats for my last two meals. other than that pretty much anything goes lol

Basically just hit your macros with rough rules as regards to carb and fat placement within the diet?

[bwelch1985]

Basically just hit your macros with rough rules as regards to carb and fat placement within the diet?

well not rules per say...i just try to taylor the macros to each days schedule/activities. i always want carbs pre workout and i always want a big meal in the evenings...

priority #1 every day is just to hit the numbers though.

[deltpecx]

ok check this out.

just logging my foods like any other day and BOOM....perfect macros! haha. this almost never happens for me. typically i'll be off by a gram or two in one direction or the other (which i don't worry about), but today it just fell into place like magic!

Why did it only record 1,026 calories?

[bwelch1985]

Why did it only record 1,026 calories?

i typically don't bother w/ calories when i'm creating custom foods...i know that 60/300/230 equals 2660kcals so i don't need fitday to tell me that everyday

[zbert]

nice on hitting your macros man, that is pretty nice.
250 is pretty legit on incline press man, you are beating my weak numbers haha.

[AustrianOakJr]

iknowright?!



well, traditionally i'll plan out an entire day of food the day before...but so far this prep i've been winging it a bit. i'll decide what i want to eat, then pop it in fitday and make the numbers work. i always do 5 meals per day and i typically partition most of my carbs towards breakfast and preworkout, w/ most of my fats for my last two meals. other than that pretty much anything goes lol

You guys and your fitday.....high tech! I carry around an index card with me and just jot my numbers down as I eat. Pretty much make it up as I go along like you do.....then the last meal of the day is always like a puzzle......"gotta get 31g of protein, 50g of carbs and 9g of fat.....hmmmmm......maybe 2 serves of ice cream, a scoop of protein powder and a half serving of peanut butter.....that'll work!" Keeps things interesting.

The nice thing about fitday is that you have a log of exactly what you ate that you can refer back to for reference......at the end of my day, the index carb just gets chucked.

[deltpecx]

You guys and your fitday.....high tech! I carry around an index card with me and just jot my numbers down as I eat. Pretty much make it up as I go along like you do.....then the last meal of the day is always like a puzzle......"gotta get 31g of protein, 50g of carbs and 9g of fat.....hmmmmm......maybe 2 serves of ice cream, a scoop of protein powder and a half serving of peanut butter.....that'll work!" Keeps things interesting.

I use a steno pad. On the right side I list the food on the left the macros.

I also make up my meals as the day goes.

[bwelch1985]

nice on hitting your macros man, that is pretty nice.
250 is pretty legit on incline press man, you are beating my weak numbers haha.

thx bro! i guess incline bench can be the ONE exercise that i'm stronger at! haha

but watch out or i'm gonna getcha on deads!

You guys and your fitday.....high tech! I carry around an index card with me and just jot my numbers down as I eat. Pretty much make it up as I go along like you do.....then the last meal of the day is always like a puzzle......"gotta get 31g of protein, 50g of carbs and 9g of fat.....hmmmmm......maybe 2 serves of ice cream, a scoop of protein powder and a half serving of peanut butter.....that'll work!" Keeps things interesting.

The nice thing about fitday is that you have a log of exactly what you ate that you can refer back to for reference......at the end of my day, the index carb just gets chucked.

oh god! how do you live?! i can't imagine tracking macros w/out some sort of program doing the calculations for me. i just simply don't trust my math skills.

really the best thing about fitday is how easily you can manipulate everything.

for instance: i need 40 carbs and i want a bagel....well a bagel serving is 95g and totals 50 carbs....so all i have to do is mess w/ the grams until i get the amount of carbs i need. 76g of bagel = 40g carbs. yeh...it's awesome. i'm not a slave to "serving sizes" anymore.

have you tried fitday? i bet you would absolutely love it.

I use a steno pad. On the right side I list the food on the left the macros.

I also make up my meals as the day goes.

GET YOUR ASS ON FITDAY!! it's sooooooo much easier!

[AustrianOakJr]

have you tried fitday? i bet you would absolutely love it.

I really do like the idea of it......I am very often stuck doing algebra to figure out partial portion sizes....the ole' cross multiplication trick. I have messed with fitday and get bogged down with entering everything in and then I dont like the fact that everytime I eat something I have to get to a computer......or I have to write it down to enter it in later (which defeats the whole purpose). Every time I have tried to do the computer thing I wind up back to my index cards. However, I did just get a black berry so if I could link that up with fitday, that might be the ultimate ticket....

[Bnizzle163]

Dude, talk about hitting your macros on the nose! lol.

Good stuff going on in here

[ErickStevens]

I love using Calorie King's software myself. Plus it's cool to go back 150+ days and see what I was eating then. I'm so damn OCD I couldn't have prepped without it.

[Work-Hard]

Dude, thats a buttload of pullups. I've always wanted to try the Arnold arm support things, but have never been to a gym that has one. Did you feel like the Oak himself?

I use an iphone app called The daily burn to track all my macros. Kicks fitday out of the water. I recently switched to a droid, and they have some calorie tracking apps too, but I liked The Daily burn so much I still use my old phone to track my macros.

[deltpecx]

GET YOUR ASS ON FITDAY!! it's sooooooo much easier!

I would still have to write everything down so I could enter it on Fitday.

A steno pad, pen, food list and a calculator work fine...it's a bit old school but it works.

[bwelch1985]

I really do like the idea of it......I am very often stuck doing algebra to figure out partial portion sizes....the ole' cross multiplication trick. I have messed with fitday and get bogged down with entering everything in and then I dont like the fact that everytime I eat something I have to get to a computer......or I have to write it down to enter it in later (which defeats the whole purpose). Every time I have tried to do the computer thing I wind up back to my index cards. However, I did just get a black berry so if I could link that up with fitday, that might be the ultimate ticket....

as mentioned below there are some awesome apps you can get for macro tracking on your phone. i'm vaguely familiar w/ one called "lose it" in which you can scan the barcode on a food item and it'll automatically save the nutritional info!!

Dude, talk about hitting your macros on the nose! lol.

Good stuff going on in here

i know right? now that i think about it, i'm not sure if i've ever gotten perfect numbers like that.

I love using Calorie King's software myself. Plus it's cool to go back 150+ days and see what I was eating then. I'm so damn OCD I couldn't have prepped without it.

i've tried thedailyplate.com but didn't like it. not nearly as user friendly imo. calorie king may be awesome, but i've got soooooo many custom foods stored in fitday i don't think i can ever make a switch lol

oh yeh, i recently scrolled all the way back to my prep from early 2009 on fitday to see what i was eating. pretty cool. i would read the meals for a certain day and actually remember the events that went on that day! food nostalgia!

Dude, thats a buttload of pullups. I've always wanted to try the Arnold arm support things, but have never been to a gym that has one. Did you feel like the Oak himself?

I use an iphone app called The daily burn to track all my macros. Kicks fitday out of the water. I recently switched to a droid, and they have some calorie tracking apps too, but I liked The Daily burn so much I still use my old phone to track my macros.

thanks man. pullups and dips are big for me as far as the effect they have on my physique.

the Arnold arm support thing is sick! I have craptastic biceps but when wearing that thing it smushes your arms so you look heuwge in the mirror!

i'd love to get a smart phone one day...

I would still have to write everything down so I could enter it on Fitday.

A steno pad, pen, food list and a calculator work fine...it's a bit old school but it works.

nah man, all you'd need to do is write how many grams of each food you ate then enter it into fitday at your convenience. no calculations, no estimations.

what do you mean by a "food list?"