Alright everyone let's get this party started!
I have a contest coming up July 17th the NPC Natural Texas State Championships and I began my prep this past Saturday and at this point I am 13.5 weeks out. I am sitting right at 8% with a body weight averaging about 200 depending on how far away I am from a carb refeed I am. Sometimes a little heavier and sometimes lighter. The weight on Saturday is in a relatively depleted state at 195 lbs. So that means I am carrying a decent amount of muscle and don't have too much fat to lose. Well I will start off by saying that this is obviously sponsored considering I am an Anabolic Innovations Sponsored Athlete, and I thank them for investing in my potential. There will be other supplements taken during this log as well and I will touch on them but the main focus will be what HGHpro and the SWOLE Stack are doing for me. I will start the prep with HGHpro to take advantage of the extra recovery that HGH provides. This is good timing as I needed to stay anabolic during my time away from Test boosting supplements. Going into the second month of prep I will begin my use of the SWOLE Stack and continue it's use throughout the rest of the prep. I will more than likely continue using HGHpro throughout the prep to take advantage of the sleep and recovery agents. In order to do so I will follow the suggested dosing pattern of 4 pills before bed on an empty stomach 7 days a week for the first 30 days then the last 2 months running it at 5 days a week with the same dose.
Diet Pills - DCP /OEP, then OEP/ReCreate
My diet is relatively dynamic regarding nutrient ratios however calories are relatively consistent at 2400-2600, you will see up to 200 more calories on weight days then on cardio or off days. I will change the ratios from day to day, there will always be an ample amount of protein and fat in the diet. However carbs will vary from 50 grams in a day, up to 200 on some weight training days. Even as high as 1500-2000 grams of carbs in a day during my practice runs at SkipLoading. I plan to start documenting my practice runs with pictures around the 12 week mark so for those of you who enjoy pics that is not too far away. I will take pics of me pre carb load, while spilled over, and each day after once in the morning and once at night to assess timing and when I reach my peak. I am not saying I will post all of these but this is how I am going to monitor myself since I do not have anyone else to monitor my progress. I will start putting up progress shots at least every 2 weeks starting the 12th week out.
I think this is the most overlooked portion of a prep. We get wrapped up in the diet and the training and then al of the sudden, crap I need to be better at posing. I could not beleive how difficult posing was until I actually started practicing. Due to it's importance I will be posing no less than 3 times a week for the rest of the prep and holding my poses for 15 seconds to start gradually increasing to 60 second holds. I will link up a few videos of my posing practices in the log so you can see what I am working on or with. Those of you with actual posing experience are more than welcome at that point to critique the posing and offer constructive criticism. I do not have a posing coach and will be learning from a DVD and review the videos on my computer for feedback, so any help from veterans is appreciated.
I am working a 3 day split right now, all exercises are done with a slow tempo of no less than 2-0-2 with a squeeze at the end of each contraction. My body is really enjoying a little higher volume and less frequency, hopefully the tendons will recover nicely with this split.
Tempo 2-long enough to squeeze at peak-2, I do a shoulder specific warmup before any upper body work. Including lightely weighted multidirection rotations, rotator cuff exercises and even some core activation. Due to this and the lighter weight being used no more than one warm up is needed. The First exercise of bodypart gets 1 Warmup and 3 worksets. The second and third exercises the joints are already adequatey warmed up and there is no need for further warm ups sets. Unless the exercise is new, or challenging you should not need an exercise specic warm up to get your CNS ready to change exercises or angles. I digress the second and 3rd will have 2 worksets each but the third exercise which is an isolation movement in all cases will be accompanied by a double drop set.
Workout 1 Chest Back and Shoulders
Chest - DB Incline low, HS Wide Bench, Cable Cross Overs DS
Back - Dorian Row, Wide Grip Pull Down, Pull Overs DS
Shoulders - Standing Military Press, Front Shoulder Press, Lateral Raises DS
Workout 2 Legs & Abs
Quads - Leg Press, Front Squat, Leg Extension DS
Hamstrings - Stiff Legged Dead Lift, Lying Leg Curl, Seated Leg Curl DS
Calves - Donkey Calf raise DS, Bent Knee Raise DS
ABS - Drawbridges 3 sets DS knee raises
Workout 3 Arms Traps
Traps - Rack Dead Lifts, HS SHrugs, Rear Delt Machine DS
Biceps - Oly Curls, Preacher Curls, Pin wheel curls DS
Triceps - Close Grip Bench, Skull Crushers, Cable Extensions
I chose rack deads for not only what they will do for my traps but the rest of my back thickness without taxing my lower back as much and offering my knee tendon stimulus to grow as well. I will be using wraps for sure on these and probably holding for 3-5 seconds at top. They will also increase the energy expenditure of the workout. If anybody wants to use it feel free just say you snagged it from me. I split it for maximum recovery for my arms and in some places there may be better choices for you but for me these selections work well.
Oh yeah don't worry, there will be some libido checks both by me and visitors to the log. Those are always an added bonus. Also we will discuss just about whatever comes up in conversation in here. When this is over you will know Kleen the Athlete as well as the Man.
Support Supps
BCAA's, Glutamine, ALCAR, Fish Oils, MCT Oils, CISSUS, CEE, Protein powders, PreWorkout supps varied.Diet Pills - DCP /OEP, then OEP/ReCreate
Nutrition
My diet is relatively dynamic regarding nutrient ratios however calories are relatively consistent at 2400-2600, you will see up to 200 more calories on weight days then on cardio or off days. I will change the ratios from day to day, there will always be an ample amount of protein and fat in the diet. However carbs will vary from 50 grams in a day, up to 200 on some weight training days. Even as high as 1500-2000 grams of carbs in a day during my practice runs at SkipLoading. I plan to start documenting my practice runs with pictures around the 12 week mark so for those of you who enjoy pics that is not too far away. I will take pics of me pre carb load, while spilled over, and each day after once in the morning and once at night to assess timing and when I reach my peak. I am not saying I will post all of these but this is how I am going to monitor myself since I do not have anyone else to monitor my progress. I will start putting up progress shots at least every 2 weeks starting the 12th week out.
Posing
I think this is the most overlooked portion of a prep. We get wrapped up in the diet and the training and then al of the sudden, crap I need to be better at posing. I could not beleive how difficult posing was until I actually started practicing. Due to it's importance I will be posing no less than 3 times a week for the rest of the prep and holding my poses for 15 seconds to start gradually increasing to 60 second holds. I will link up a few videos of my posing practices in the log so you can see what I am working on or with. Those of you with actual posing experience are more than welcome at that point to critique the posing and offer constructive criticism. I do not have a posing coach and will be learning from a DVD and review the videos on my computer for feedback, so any help from veterans is appreciated.
Training
I am working a 3 day split right now, all exercises are done with a slow tempo of no less than 2-0-2 with a squeeze at the end of each contraction. My body is really enjoying a little higher volume and less frequency, hopefully the tendons will recover nicely with this split.
Tempo 2-long enough to squeeze at peak-2, I do a shoulder specific warmup before any upper body work. Including lightely weighted multidirection rotations, rotator cuff exercises and even some core activation. Due to this and the lighter weight being used no more than one warm up is needed. The First exercise of bodypart gets 1 Warmup and 3 worksets. The second and third exercises the joints are already adequatey warmed up and there is no need for further warm ups sets. Unless the exercise is new, or challenging you should not need an exercise specic warm up to get your CNS ready to change exercises or angles. I digress the second and 3rd will have 2 worksets each but the third exercise which is an isolation movement in all cases will be accompanied by a double drop set.
Workout 1 Chest Back and Shoulders
Chest - DB Incline low, HS Wide Bench, Cable Cross Overs DS
Back - Dorian Row, Wide Grip Pull Down, Pull Overs DS
Shoulders - Standing Military Press, Front Shoulder Press, Lateral Raises DS
Workout 2 Legs & Abs
Quads - Leg Press, Front Squat, Leg Extension DS
Hamstrings - Stiff Legged Dead Lift, Lying Leg Curl, Seated Leg Curl DS
Calves - Donkey Calf raise DS, Bent Knee Raise DS
ABS - Drawbridges 3 sets DS knee raises
Workout 3 Arms Traps
Traps - Rack Dead Lifts, HS SHrugs, Rear Delt Machine DS
Biceps - Oly Curls, Preacher Curls, Pin wheel curls DS
Triceps - Close Grip Bench, Skull Crushers, Cable Extensions
I chose rack deads for not only what they will do for my traps but the rest of my back thickness without taxing my lower back as much and offering my knee tendon stimulus to grow as well. I will be using wraps for sure on these and probably holding for 3-5 seconds at top. They will also increase the energy expenditure of the workout. If anybody wants to use it feel free just say you snagged it from me. I split it for maximum recovery for my arms and in some places there may be better choices for you but for me these selections work well.
Body Composition as of Saturday morning.
Pectoral - 5mm
Abdomen - 14mm
Quadricep - 5mm
TOTAL - 24
Bodyweight - 195
% Bodyfat 7.94
lbs Bodyfat 15.48
% Lean Mass 92.06
lbs Lean Mass 179.52
Pectoral - 5mm
Abdomen - 14mm
Quadricep - 5mm
TOTAL - 24
Bodyweight - 195
% Bodyfat 7.94
lbs Bodyfat 15.48
% Lean Mass 92.06
lbs Lean Mass 179.52
Oh yeah don't worry, there will be some libido checks both by me and visitors to the log. Those are always an added bonus. Also we will discuss just about whatever comes up in conversation in here. When this is over you will know Kleen the Athlete as well as the Man.