Off Season Begins... Road To The Amateur Olympia 2019 - Weekly Update BLOG #1
So I’ve decided to document my journey to probably the biggest show in the UK. Why? documenting my progress will provide information for you guys contemplating competing and to show what it takes to get into the best shape possible and most importantly keep myself on track with my progress providing clear information of my progress this in itself will encourage me to work even harder.
I will outline my diet, training and supplementation plan that I feel works best and provide details of changes made during the course of my preparations.
I will be working alongside a coach this year, I have had great pleasure working with some great bodybuilders and credible coaches but as a trainer myself who lives and breaths bodybuilding as a fan and athlete Ive found it hard to work with the generic coach given my own experience. As of yet i’ve not conquered that first place trophy, plenty of 2nds, 3rds and 4ths but number one is my goal secondly to that Pro Card
I will be looking to compete prior to the Amateur Olympia (October) for stage time, practice posing and obviously shoot for number 1… My goal for the Olympia is Pro Card, regardless of placing I want that Pro Card, an achievement any aspiring bodybuilder desires!
So Prior to this blog I came off the back of the PCA East Anglian (July) in the classic class where I felt my best shape was on display, I got down to 4% body fat and filled like a house after the second loading day I was super happy…. there is a but… Ive found my body to loose fullness within hours of optimal look, I feel this could be down to nerves, burning up unwanted energy and on this day the heat completely flattened me out hour before I was to hit the stage. I literally ran to the nearest McDonalds to load up on sodium and kcals (burger fries and coke) frantic to get back in time to tan and pump up. I managed 4th place narrowly missing Top 3 in a hard class of 9. That show cemented 2 key areas of improvement .. Fullness and Overall muscle density… The off season begins
Since then I have been working on different training systems and diets to keep progressing thus finding 2 key aspects that worked really well… and I will apply to this years preparations
Higher fat intake - I suffer with bloat and poor appetite most of time so I had to adjust my diet now to identify where my body was and wasn’t working, I’ve found eliminating heavy carbs ( potato, oats ) helped massively, my digestion improved coincidentally improving my appetite. Our Bodies are made of two primary nutrients fats and protein (with water filling the gaps) After looking deeper into this style of ketosis diet I adjusted my Macro nutrients to see if these would help food intake and training intensity. They did!! I moved primary carbohydrates around training (rice,cereal,cyclic dextrin - fast absorbing carb) and on rest days eliminated all to most carbs. As you can see below i’m still holding relatively good fullness whilst implementing this style so for now Im sticking with this during my off season
Low volume HIT training - similar to the DY style training and everything i’ve learnt from reading Dr Scott Stevenson I have dropped my working sets by half and created a bigger energy balance for the big working sets, a typical workout would consist of 9-13 working sets implementing rest pause drop sets and forced reps to push each set to true failure. I will go into more detail in another post about a typical working day and how I would attack certain muscle groups.
So here goes…
Date 1 of Off Season
Current weight: 243Lbs
Current Shape
Image 2
Diet
Meal 1
2 whole eggs 6 whites 85g baby rice nut butter 20g honey 20g
Meal 2
Chicken 175g Rice 100g Greens
Meal 3
Fillet 175g Rice 100g Greens
Meal 4 / Pre
2 Scoops whey 85g Ground Rice 100g Blueberries
Meal 5 / Post
175g Chicken 100g Cereal 1 Bagel w/ Jam
Meal 6
250g Greek Yog 40g Nut butter ! scoop Whey
Training
Training is specific to me, my primary goals are to thicken and improve my posterior (back glute’s and hams) and more details in my legs - I will train these areas more frequently creating a higher volume range whilst maintaining my training approach with the low volume HIIT training
Day 1 Chest Triceps
Day 2 Back Width Biceps
Day 3 Rest
Day 4 Legs Quad Dominant
Day 5 Delts Arms
Day 6 Back Thickness Glutes Hams (RDLs)
Day 7 Rest
Supplementation
During my previous prep and general stress’s of running a gym My blood pressure was elevated and digestion wasn’t optimal, these were my two areas of real concern everything on top was purely for general health. I added extra supplementation like Vit D Probiotics and echinacea purely due to our poor eastern diets, limited sunlight and gut health
Mornings sups
omega fish oil
Vit D 3000IIU
Strong Multi Vit - 100% plus RDA
Digestive enzymes after post meal and upon wakening
Manuka Honey with morning Brew (peppermint and nettle) sets the gut in good stead before food
Glucosamine
Vit C throughout the day not around training (anti-inflamatory)
Drugs - Began cycle this week off the back of a low dosage cruise - coaches orders
Test 500mg P/W
Primo 450mg P/W
EQ 450mg P/W
This is blog Numero uno, Please feel free to message me if you would like to know the how’s and why’s. Thank you for reading my first post, week 2 is approaching
Marty