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- Joined
- Mar 1, 2005
- Messages
- 90
Well, for once in my life, I'm entering the New Year with more than six months of continuous training under my belt, instead of having to resolve to start over again. Back in June, I set some goals for 2005 and am proud to say that I’ve achieved every one of them. I wanted to get my weight up to 210, and beat that by five pounds; break 200 on bench press, got 210; and simply make it to the gym every workout, which I managed to get done, even when on the road. I’ve been following the HST program and after 4 cycles my physique is coming along. My muscles are getting harder and more filled out, I’ve been regularly practicing my posing, and I like the changes I see in the mirror. My main disappointment is size. Even though I've put on about 20 pounds in the last six months and my strength has increased a lot on all lifts, my arms have only gone from 16 to 16.25". I really, really want to turn this around.
So now I'm setting new goals for 2006 and would appreciate any and all feedback. My ultimate goal is to compete in the NPC Excaliber on December 2nd. This is a contest that I entered in 1994, and though I only got 5th out of 7 in the Novice LW, I really enjoyed the whole experience, and got a trophy! This is one of the last contests in which I'll be able to enter the Over-40 division and feel like I've got to enter at least one more before I turn 50. Looking at the competitors in last years contest, I don't think I'm overreaching at all. I think that if I continue to make gains, I can be competitive in the Over-40 and possibly the Novice LHW.
Click here to see what I'll be up against: http://www.graphicmuscle.com/index.cfm?go2=contests_year&ContestYearID=194
My current stats are:
6'2 - Kinda tall for bodybuilding, I know.
215 - Still pretty lanky for my height.
20% BF - No comment.
My plan is to continue bulking until the end of August which will then give me about 14 weeks to prep for the contest. That’s 8 months, and if I can average a 3 pound gain per month, that would get me close to 240. Am I being over-ambitious? My workout is based on the HSIT program that RazorCuts has posted. I've split the workout in two, and train on MWF. This means that I'm training a given body part on either MFW or WMF - three times in a two week period. Three days per week has helped me prevent overtraining, which has always been a big problem of mine. My current workout is this:
Workout A
Squats
Leg Extensions
Stiff leg deadlifts or leg curls
Calf raise
Incline Bench press
Dips
Workout B
Deadlifts
Pulldowns
Seated dumbbell press
Curls
Tricep pushdowns
Abs
I've just started this training cycle, so I'm doing 3 sets of 12, stopping just short of failure on each set. I religiously keep a log and make sure I increase weight every workout. I keep the increments around 5%. A cycle lasts about 6-8 weeks, with weights increasing and sets/reps decreasing over that time frame. The last week of the cycle, I like to go balls out to failure on every exercise, then take about ten days off. Then I change the exercises, keeping the same basic order, each cycle.
I’ve really tightened up my diet over the last few months. I try to eat every 2 ½ to 3 hours, and get 30-40 grams of protein every meal, mostly from egg whites, chicken breast, ground turkey, lean beef, and whey protein powder. Carbs are pretty much based on how I feel. If I’m feeling a little bloated, I’ll cut back. Oatmeal, pasta, yams, long grain rice, and pearl barley (thanks for the tip, Xcelbeyond!), are my primary sources. The only fats I get are from the meats and fish oil caps. I do however work in an office with a well-stocked snack machine and haven’t been shying away from chips or peanut butter cookies. If I keep enough food on hand, I can resist. I figure I’m getting about 3500-4000 calories a day right now, and about 300 grams of protein.
Up to now, the only supps I’ve been taking have been a multi-vitamin, fish oil, and creatine (CEE). Today I received an order of some glutamine and bcaa’s. (This order took three weeks to arrive! PM me if you want to know which online seller to avoid.) I also have a small supply of M1T purchased before the prohormone ban, which I just started taking. Taking one a day, this should last about 5 weeks. I will get some OXO and start taking that after the M1T.
Come March when my car is paid off, I will be in a much better situation financially. I’m thinking that will be a perfect time to start using more potent supplements. I’ll have finished the M1T and will have enough time to do a couple mass building cycles, then a pre-contest cycle. If I can pack on another 25 lbs by August, and if most of it is muscle, then I’ll have about 40 lbs of fat I’ll have to get rid of by December. Less if I am able to gain muscle and lose fat between now and then.
So to summarize, I’ve put on some decent muscle in the last few months, and I would like to put on about 25 pounds more, and then train for competition. I think that with the amount of muscle I have now, and will add, I will be entering the LHW class at (hopefully just) under 198lbs. By my calculations, I should be <5% bf at that point. I guess my questions are these. Are my goals realistic, and am I on the right track in achieving them? Do I worry about fat at this point, or keep bulking? How much time should I give myself to strip the fat for competition?
By the way, if you’ve read this far, many thanks! I know this got pretty long, and I’ve got a long way to go, but I appreciate any advice I can get.
Keep pumpin’
Rick
So now I'm setting new goals for 2006 and would appreciate any and all feedback. My ultimate goal is to compete in the NPC Excaliber on December 2nd. This is a contest that I entered in 1994, and though I only got 5th out of 7 in the Novice LW, I really enjoyed the whole experience, and got a trophy! This is one of the last contests in which I'll be able to enter the Over-40 division and feel like I've got to enter at least one more before I turn 50. Looking at the competitors in last years contest, I don't think I'm overreaching at all. I think that if I continue to make gains, I can be competitive in the Over-40 and possibly the Novice LHW.
Click here to see what I'll be up against: http://www.graphicmuscle.com/index.cfm?go2=contests_year&ContestYearID=194
My current stats are:
6'2 - Kinda tall for bodybuilding, I know.
215 - Still pretty lanky for my height.
20% BF - No comment.
My plan is to continue bulking until the end of August which will then give me about 14 weeks to prep for the contest. That’s 8 months, and if I can average a 3 pound gain per month, that would get me close to 240. Am I being over-ambitious? My workout is based on the HSIT program that RazorCuts has posted. I've split the workout in two, and train on MWF. This means that I'm training a given body part on either MFW or WMF - three times in a two week period. Three days per week has helped me prevent overtraining, which has always been a big problem of mine. My current workout is this:
Workout A
Squats
Leg Extensions
Stiff leg deadlifts or leg curls
Calf raise
Incline Bench press
Dips
Workout B
Deadlifts
Pulldowns
Seated dumbbell press
Curls
Tricep pushdowns
Abs
I've just started this training cycle, so I'm doing 3 sets of 12, stopping just short of failure on each set. I religiously keep a log and make sure I increase weight every workout. I keep the increments around 5%. A cycle lasts about 6-8 weeks, with weights increasing and sets/reps decreasing over that time frame. The last week of the cycle, I like to go balls out to failure on every exercise, then take about ten days off. Then I change the exercises, keeping the same basic order, each cycle.
I’ve really tightened up my diet over the last few months. I try to eat every 2 ½ to 3 hours, and get 30-40 grams of protein every meal, mostly from egg whites, chicken breast, ground turkey, lean beef, and whey protein powder. Carbs are pretty much based on how I feel. If I’m feeling a little bloated, I’ll cut back. Oatmeal, pasta, yams, long grain rice, and pearl barley (thanks for the tip, Xcelbeyond!), are my primary sources. The only fats I get are from the meats and fish oil caps. I do however work in an office with a well-stocked snack machine and haven’t been shying away from chips or peanut butter cookies. If I keep enough food on hand, I can resist. I figure I’m getting about 3500-4000 calories a day right now, and about 300 grams of protein.
Up to now, the only supps I’ve been taking have been a multi-vitamin, fish oil, and creatine (CEE). Today I received an order of some glutamine and bcaa’s. (This order took three weeks to arrive! PM me if you want to know which online seller to avoid.) I also have a small supply of M1T purchased before the prohormone ban, which I just started taking. Taking one a day, this should last about 5 weeks. I will get some OXO and start taking that after the M1T.
Come March when my car is paid off, I will be in a much better situation financially. I’m thinking that will be a perfect time to start using more potent supplements. I’ll have finished the M1T and will have enough time to do a couple mass building cycles, then a pre-contest cycle. If I can pack on another 25 lbs by August, and if most of it is muscle, then I’ll have about 40 lbs of fat I’ll have to get rid of by December. Less if I am able to gain muscle and lose fat between now and then.
So to summarize, I’ve put on some decent muscle in the last few months, and I would like to put on about 25 pounds more, and then train for competition. I think that with the amount of muscle I have now, and will add, I will be entering the LHW class at (hopefully just) under 198lbs. By my calculations, I should be <5% bf at that point. I guess my questions are these. Are my goals realistic, and am I on the right track in achieving them? Do I worry about fat at this point, or keep bulking? How much time should I give myself to strip the fat for competition?
By the way, if you’ve read this far, many thanks! I know this got pretty long, and I’ve got a long way to go, but I appreciate any advice I can get.
Keep pumpin’
Rick
