tumtum's first contest might as well LOG IT

[tumtum]

Hey guys,

Began prepping this week for my first show. The show is the NPC Battle at the River in Chattanooga in TN, since NPC has not issued a schedule (that I can find) I'm assuming it is the first weekend in June like it always is. So yesterday was 29 weeks out.

I'm planning on having a midway metabolism break where I raise my cals by a few hundred so I'm not going to be dieting for a pure 29 weeks.

I'm following a 5 days split of moderate volume, nothing fancy, nothing crazy. I'm sitting at about 185lbs @ 5'9.5... bodyfat is.. well it doesn't matter at this point.

macros are currently sitting at 200/350/80 p/c/f

pics are from a week and a half ago at about 187 (at night so really about 190)

[tumtum]

[img]{http://forum.bodybuilding.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=6386323&d=1384835694[/img]

[daniellepoucher]

29 weeks out??!!

Looking GOOD

[tumtum]

29 weeks out??!!

Looking GOOD

^^^^^^Nothing better than a supportive wife

[demonwareltd]

Best of luck to you - have some awesome size to be sure.

PM one of the mods and ask them to move this into the contest prep journal section though. You will likely get more people to follow it if it's in the right place.

[tumtum]

Best of luck to you - have some awesome size to be sure.

PM one of the mods and ask them to move this into the contest prep journal section though. You will likely get more people to follow it if it's in the right place.

Thanks demon.. My biggest fear is my lack of thickness.. So I'm going to try and make up for it in conditioning

[MikeCalaminici]

Posing looks good brother. Just a couple things to comment. When doing side chest Expose the side obliques just a bit more. Drop the arms and squeeze the glutes even from the side. Even the back shots. Squeeze the hams and glutes hard. This will show the judges good conditioning. The other poses are descent. Side Tri I prefer feet closer together. Gives the appearance of a big upper narrow lower body. Also 29 weeks is a long time to diet. Alot of muscle can be lost. I find 12-14 weeks works best. All the best. let me know how i goes.

Hey guys,

Began prepping this week for my first show. The show is the NPC Battle at the River in Chattanooga in TN, since NPC has not issued a schedule (that I can find) I'm assuming it is the first weekend in June like it always is. So yesterday was 29 weeks out.

I'm planning on having a midway metabolism break where I raise my cals by a few hundred so I'm not going to be dieting for a pure 29 weeks.

I'm following a 5 days split of moderate volume, nothing fancy, nothing crazy. I'm sitting at about 185lbs @ 5'9.5... bodyfat is.. well it doesn't matter at this point.

macros are currently sitting at 200/350/80 p/c/f

pics are from a week and a half ago at about 187 (at night so really about 190)

[demonwareltd]

Thanks demon.. My biggest fear is my lack of thickness.. So I'm going to try and make up for it in conditioning

This is my point of view everytime I go into a show. I'm far from "thick" to be sure, so I try my best to out condition the rest of the competitors. Sometimes it works, sometimes - not so much

[tumtum]

Posing looks good brother. Just a couple things to comment. When doing side chest Expose the side obliques just a bit more. Drop the arms and squeeze the glutes even from the side. Even the back shots. Squeeze the hams and glutes hard. This will show the judges good conditioning. The other poses are descent. Side Tri I prefer feet closer together. Gives the appearance of a big upper narrow lower body. Also 29 weeks is a long time to diet. Alot of muscle can be lost. I find 12-14 weeks works best. All the best. let me know how i goes.

I definitely agree.. I didn't elaborate on my midway break I'm planning.. I'm going to take about 4-10 wks midprep to up my calls and give myself a break.. That will give me an actual 19-25 weeks of prep..

[tumtum]

morning weight 183.5 lbs

been lacking in my log (already i know)

Yesterday i hit quads and calves

i've started a new training philosphy the last few months.. no longer do i do certain exercises because "they are the staple of a good X workout", but i only do exercises where i can feel the muscle work.. so you'll see i dont squat (half the time), i dont do standard pullups, and i dont do barbel bench press.. because i simply do not feel the muscle working no matter the rep range, ROM, speed, etc

yesterday
8 sets of leg press, narrow stance (last 4 sets i did half ROM, all at the bottom of the rep)
3 sets of one legged extensions
3 sets of standard leg extensions
the next thing i did was quite random.. legs were burned out so i did body weight squats, narrow stance, bottom half ROM, 8 reps.. then straightened up and flexed the outer quads hard for 3-4 seconds, then 6 reps, repeat flex, then 4 reps, repeat flex... (did rounds of these with short breaks in between and nearly puked.. it was fantastic)
4 sets on the adductor machine
3 sets of seated calf raises
3 sets of standing calf raises

TODAY

5 sets of isolated leg curls
3 sets of lying leg curls
3 sets of seated leg curls
3 sets on preacher curl machine
3 sets of rope hammer curls
3 sets of db curls

macros today are around 230/340/75 p/c/f

my goal is to continue to slowly raise my carbs and lower my fat (no lower than 50g of fat) until i find out how high i can keep my carbs in order to continue to drop weight. Until i starting dieting my carbs were 450+ and many weeks they were 550+

once i meet my threshold i will continue until i stall out on my weight. i see some guys wait until they get their carbs really low before they start installing refeeds and some ppl start it right out of the gate.. any thoughts?

cardio is only one short run with my wife on monday mornings (1.5 miles) will probably continue to increase that distance. not doing it for the calorie burn, only to give my heart a little extra help. when i decide to ACTUALLY start doing cardio the first thing i will add will be HIIT..

I'm a firm believer in letting the diet do as much work as possible and use cardio as a tool.. i feel too many ppl rely on it as the entire plan for the prep and end up with 1-2 hours 5 days a week and want to shoot themselves

[tumtum]

Morning weight 183lbs

Feeling good. Had a day off from work with the wife.. Had a great back workout with her

4 sets of Lat pullovers
3 sets of lat pull downs
3sets of underhand bb Yates rows
3 sets P Rows
3 sets Seated rows
3 sets of Hyperextensions

Will possibly be snapping pictures tonight to hopefully show some progress

[tumtum]

Morning weight 183

Work was rough today so I didn't get a break for lunch until 7 hrs in.. So my carbs were 40g below the usual. Definitely won't hurt because I plan on carving out tomorrow at turkey day..

3 sets of incline dB press
3 sets of incline dB fly
3 sets of dips
3 sets of cable flys
3 sets of tri extensions with the rope
3 sets of isolated extensions
3 sets of cable skill crushers

Wasn't about to go on my short run with my wife this week so I did a 15 min stepmill session that kept my heart rate around 160..

Obviously I wasn't able to get my pics in last night.. Will hopefully snap some in the next week.. Will probably be sitting 5-6 lbs lighter

[tumtum]

bodyweight was at 181.5 this morning

So my computer has been out of commission for a while.. and i wasn't able to keep up with my diet spread sheet.. and i started dropping my carbs a bit.. got it working yesterday and was shocked at how low i had somehow let them fall (275). I was already planning a refeed today but then i was really pumped about it..

so today my macros were around 215/430/70 with p/c/f. I'll try to keep my carbs a little higher from now on and i'll institute weekly refeeds.

today i had a great workout with the wife,

3 sets of lat pullovers
3 sets of rope pullovers
3 sets of close grip hammer pull downs
3 sets of lat pull downs
4 sets of rack pulls
3 sets of rows
3 sets of high rows
3 sets of hyperextensions

i promise there will be some pics soon.. will be about a 5-7 lbs difference between them

[IK9]

Loooking pretty lean in your starting pics!

[boxteross]

Looks like your in a good place. 29 weeks in my opinion is perfectly fine. No such thing as ready too early!! Great work so far!

[tumtum]

woke up this morning 1.3 pounds heavier after my refeed @ 182.8lbs (cho been at 270ish and yesterday was around 430)

i've never instituted a refeed while dieting. is it normal to only go up so little on weight? do people usually jump a lot more? basically what i'm asking is do i get to eat more tasty carbs on my next refeed lol.

[Rypt1]

In! Definitely a good start in here.

[tumtum]

Had a quad workout with my buddy

10 sets of leg press
3 sets of burnout body weight squats with 3 second squeeze at the top
3 sets of eg extensions
4 sets of adductors
4 sets of seated calves

Veins are starting to come alive on the legs. I've never been a vascular guy.. This is fun

[tumtum]

yesterday my weight was 181.8

macros were around 220/300/50 p/c/f...

hit a good shoulder workout

6 sets of side lateral machine
4 sets of side lateral db raises
3 sets of rear lateral db raises
3 sets of reverse peck deck
3 sets of front lateral raises
3 sets of modified underhand front raises
3 sets of incline db curls
3 sets of preacher machine curls
3 sets of cable curls

20 min of walking on max incline @3-3.5 mph

[tumtum]

today's morning weight, 182.8..

i think i'm going to bring my carbs down to 275.. i guess i'm not one of those guys who gets to keep their carbs at 400 all during prep

[TakedaShingen]

today's morning weight, 182.8..

i think i'm going to bring my carbs down to 275.. i guess i'm not one of those guys who gets to keep their carbs at 400 all during prep

Relax. You're fine

Especially this far out.

If you've never instituted scheduled refeeds, your body will have to adjust to these changes. During my prep, my weight would go down the day after and up again the following day, then smooth back out.

One of the things I learned is...and this is VERY important...Weighing myself every day f*cked with my head hardcore. Using one or two scheduled days weekly to gauge progress freed me so much.

Refeeds, especially later in prep, become very important for both physical and mental sanity. Hormone levels get a boost, and you get to change up your eating which becomes tedious sometimes.


You're in a great spot, bro. Keep grinding.

In!!!

[tumtum]

You're in a great spot, bro. Keep grinding.

In!!!

Thanks for the support man!

[tumtum]

couple days off from posting (laziness)

yesterday i had a nice refeed with a pretty decent back workout.. my morning weight was 180.4... macros were at 165/580/40 p/c/f @ 3340 cals

TODAY

morning weight was actually 180.0.. down in weight.. winning

macros were at 207/262/58 p/c/f at 2369 cals

had a great quad workout

8 sets of leg press (stance variation)
3 sets of one legged extensions
3 sets of regular extensions
3 sets of burnout bodyweight squats with 4 second squeeze at top
3 sets of adductors in "21's" fashion but with reps of 10
3 sets of seated calvs
3 sets of alternated position standing calvs
20 min incline walk at 15% incline @ 3.5mph

legs feel fantastic.. feeling like i'm leaning out.. going nice a slow

[tumtum]

morning weight.. 179.6 NEW LOW

macros were 203/264/49 with 2268 cals

had a good delt/bi workout

3 sets of side lateral db raises
6 sets of side lateral raise machine
3 sets of reverse peck deck
3 sets of rear lateral raises
3 sets of reverse cable flys
4 sets of db press

6 sets of db curls
3 sets of concentration curls
3 sets of cable curls

[tumtum]

have definitely slacked the last couple weeks on my log.. but i have not slacked on my diet or workouts

woke up this morning at 177.5.. so i'm down about 10 lbs from the start of this thing, and here is a progress pic 7.5 weeks apart

[tumtum]

not amazing with my picture skills as u can see

[Rypt1]

Definitely making some nice progress. Keep up the good work!

[tumtum]

morning weight 178.2

getting a little frustrated, my weight has hit a brick wall (at 23 weeks out) and my cals are already at 2100-2200 (i recognize a problem)..

i think my problem is that my refeeds are too high and it's taking me till day 5 and 6 to eventually start dropping weight.

going to keep my REFEED cals closer to about 3200-3400 and going to add another session of LISS (20 min 3.5mph @ 15% incline on tread)

yesterday i had a great chest workout..

started with some dumbell presses.. did them on the floor so my elbows only go to 90 degrees.. LOVED them.. my front delts always take over and somehow my triceps let my chest do all the work

chest workout

floor presses 4 sets of 8-12
cable flys 3 sets of 8-10
dips 3 sets of 8-10
cable flys 3 sets of 8-10
cable flys 3 sets of 8-10

obviously a lot of flys.. but all different angles and it turned into a good chest day

tris

20 reps with ropes wide grip followed immediately by 20 reps without spreading them apart (4 sets of these)
10 reps single arm palms up followed immediately by 8 reps palms down (3 sets)

[jpfaherty]

woke up this morning 1.3 pounds heavier after my refeed @ 182.8lbs (cho been at 270ish and yesterday was around 430)

i've never instituted a refeed while dieting. is it normal to only go up so little on weight? do people usually jump a lot more? basically what i'm asking is do i get to eat more tasty carbs on my next refeed lol.

That's normal man. I never had a huge gain. Sometimes even no gain!

[jpfaherty]

morning weight 178.2

getting a little frustrated, my weight has hit a brick wall (at 23 weeks out) and my cals are already at 2100-2200 (i recognize a problem)..

i think my problem is that my refeeds are too high and it's taking me till day 5 and 6 to eventually start dropping weight.

going to keep my cals closer to about 3200-3400 and going to add another session of LISS (20 min 3.5mph @ 15% incline on tread)

Also consider something like dropping carbs by 20 and upping protein by 20 at some point. Calories will be the same but you'll most likely see some progress