"Pro Builder, Make Me a Pro!
The real influence to do the Nationals actually came in large part from Jeff's meeting MD's own George "The Pro Builder" Farah before the finals at the USA. In his typical blunt and to-the-point style, George wasted no time with pleasantries.
"What the hell are you doing?" he demanded to know. "When are you going to be in shape?" Taken aback by Farah's interrogation, Jeff had no comeback. So George continued.
"You are better than all these guys , but nobody knows it because they can't see your true physique. Hire me for the Nationals, and I guarantee you two things: you will be shredded and you will absolutely be Top 5 at the very least."
Jeff stifled a laugh at the audacity of these promises. He had heard the same song from many a guru or nutritionist peddling their services. Of course, Long was aware that George did have a solid and distinguished track record working with elite bodybuilders, but he remained skeptical.
"It was my own doubts and insecurities," he explains. "I was feeling so shitty at that point that I didn't think there was a diet plan in the world that could get me truly ripped." He took George's card and really had no intention of calling him. After a week of inner debate, Jeff's gut told him that this was a strategy that just might work. It was a - wait a minute - a long shot, but he had to have a little faith and give his dream one last chance to come true.
"You gotta be kidding me - this is how I'll get shredded?"
Once Jeff glanced at the diet George sent him, he thought either a mistake had been made with the numbers, or Farah was out of his Lebanese mind. "The major thing that seemed wrong was the carbs," he begins. "They were ranging from 500-550 grams a day. With Dave's diet, I had been on zero carbs, and even doing my own diet for the USA I was only having 100-150 grams a day. My fear was that all the keto dieting had probably made me extra sensitive to carbs."
But George assured him this was the amount he wanted him to start eating. "The fats were low, around 20 grams a day, and I was also surprised at how little protein he had me eating - just seven ounces at a serving. That just didn't seem like enough for a heavyweight. I had been doing a gram and a half to two grams per day for many years."
Again George explained that this amount would increase over time as his carbs were slightly decreased, and that in the meantime his protein didn't need to be any higher due to the generous amount of carbs, which are protein-sparing. Five weeks into this new way of eating, which was six weeks after competing at 222 pounds at the USA, Jeff was shocked to step on the scale and see he was up to 243 pounds - and in better condition that he had been onstage at the USA.
Jeff was turning into a believer in the Pro Builder, but he still found a final element of the prep regimen a bit ridiculous - the cardio. "At 14 weeks out, George had me start doing cardio first thing in the morning, but it was only 20 minutes, and only three mornings a week! I kept asking him should I do more cardio? He said no, don't worry, just wait and see what happens. George didn't bump it up until eight weeks out, when it went to 25 minutes , five mornings a week. That still didn't seem like enough. I had done up to three hours of cardio a day in the past and I still didn't get in shape, so I was starting to worry by that point. But George said to trust him.
"At four weeks out, the cardio became 30 minutes every morning, and that's where it stayed. By then I was already leaner than I had ever been in my life, and the changes I saw in my body over those last four weeks were insane. But if you had ever told me I could get into the craziest condition of my life, and be one of the most shredded guys in one of the toughest NPC Nationals in history, by doing only a half-hour of cardio a day, I would have laughed in your face and thought you were an idiot."
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