Wedneday morning I weighed 152.  That evening I began carb and fat loading.  I weighed in at 157 the night before the show.  That evening we had the steak, potato, butter, bread, and cheesecake dinner.  The next morning I woke up very dry and full. 

I had a lot of difficulty with my tan due to skin issues (I kept turning green.  Most likely because of potatoes and the potasium they have), but the group at Liquid Sunrayz did a miracle.  My color looked awesome!

When I got on stage I just concentrated on each pose and didn't get nervous at all.  Anyone wanting to compete should put the time into their maditory poses.  Too many people put in all the hard work, but never learn how to show it.  I saw a lot of that in the show, but almost everyone that one was good at posing.  Another thing people do is put to much effort in their individual routine.  Finding the music was my hardest part.  After that find points in the song and hit your manditories at those times.  If you feel like tweeking those and making them fancy have someone else evaluate.  It may look good to you, but it may just look silly.

Overall, the last part of the process was brutal, but in the end it was all worth it.  It was one of the most rewarding challenges I've ever faced.

Today was my last depletion day and last workout.  I did a light back (12 sets of various pulldown and row exercises 12-20 rep range) and a light bicep workout 6 sets of 2 different movements 12-20 rep range.  I finished with a 20 minute walk.  Tonight I start with a carb-fat load meal

Meal 1 6 egg whites

           1 tomato

Meal 2 5oz exta lean ground beef

Meal 3 and 4 are 2 scoops Ultimate Muscle Protein

15oz potato

2 cups oatmeal

2 bannanas

2 tpsp butter

10 grams creatine and 10 grams of Glutamine

sodium is 1/4 tsp sea salt per meal

1 extra multi mineral and 1 extra vit c are also added per meal

Thursday

If everything looks good in the morning I'll repeat this meal.

The next 5 meals will be 8 oz 80% lean beef with 1 grapefruit.

sodium is 1/8 tsp sea salt per meal

5 grams creatine and 5 grams glutamine with each meal.

another multi mineral and another vit c are also added per meal

Friday

this will be a repeat of Thursday without the carb meal.  If I look the way I want then I will add 3-4 rice cakes per meal.

That evening I will have a small steak, 2 rolls, a potato with salt, 2 tbsp butter, a glass of wine, and a small dessert

another multi mineral and another vit c are also added per meal

Saturday

Repeat of Friday without the evening meal.

1 snickers bar at pump up time.

Then showtime!

45 minutes of cardio @ 6am every training day.  Training is 2 on, one off.  Although I still do 1 hour of LISS cardio on off days proceeded by ab and calf work.

10:30AM

Quad/Hams

A1.Squat Machine 6x12

A2.Leg Press 6x12

A3.Db Leg Curl 6x12

A4.Seated leg curl 6x12

Arms

B1.Cable Crossover curls (looks like a front db bicep pose) 7x12

B2.Cable Pressdowns 7x12

C1. DB alternating curls (alternate each arm hold one in the contracted postion while you take 5 seconds to lower the other) 1x10 rest pause 3-6

C2. Skull Crushers (I do this on a decline in oder to get more of the long head) 2x8 rest pause 3-6

D1. Ez Curl Standing (5 second contracted hold and 5 second negative) 1x10 rest pause 3-6

D2. Dips 2xAs many as I can do or 2x8 rest pause 3-6...it depends on my shoulder

Just like the others I follow this with 15 minutes of HIIT cardio

Workout #3

A1.Incline bench Unilateral Cable pulldown (Lying on side of incline bench grab cable @45 degree angle and pull to side.  This gives a great stretch) 3x15

A2.Cable Cross over pulldown 3x15

A3. Incline Bench Db flyes 3x15

A4. Incline Db Bench Press 3x14

B1.Rope Pullover 2x15

B2.Lat pulldown 2x15

B3.Flat Db bench fly 3x15

B4.Flat Db bench Press 3x15

C1.Upper back wide grip cable Row 3x15

C2.Underhand grip low row 3x15

C3.Flat Machine Bench 2x15-20

D. Standing neutral Grip Row (looks like a lat spread pose) 2x15-20

Shoulders

Since I'm having some pain in my shoulders I have gone easy on them, but this is what it should look like.

E.Shoulder Machine Press 2x8 rest pause 3-6

F.DB Shoulder Press 2x8 rest pause 3-6

G1.Front raise 7x7-10

G2.Side raise 7x7-10

G3. Rear laterals7x7-10

Light Arms (Superset between biceps and triceps)  I will finish the A's supersets and then move on to the B's and obviously finish with the C's.  Even in this depleted state this is a great pump.  Although I normally would love them supersets with two bicep or two tricpep exercises back to back is counterproductive so I just do the bi/tri superset.

A1.Incline supinating Curls 3x15

A2.Reverse Grip Pressdowns 3x15

B1.Incline bench rope cable curls 3x15

B2.Prone Grip Pressdowns 3x15

C1.Spider Cable Curls 3x15

C2.Overhead Cable Extentions 3x15

A.Heavy Legs (When I say warmups the leg extention are the only real high rep warmups.  Everything after that are more of acclimation sets and will range from 10 to down to 2 reps)

B.Leg Extentions (after several warmups) 1xdrop set (I drop the weight 3 times 6-10 reps each drop)

C.Squat machine (after several warmups) 1x10-12 (I've dropped the rest pauses for legs at this point in order to avoid overtraining)

D.Squat (2 warmups) 2x6-12

E1.Low foot position leg press (It's like a hybrid leg ext and leg press) 7x8-12

E2.Standing leg Curl (I front load my FST sets for hams in order to isolate them more) 7x8-12

F.DB Leg Curl 1x10-12 rest paused 3-6

G.Seated Leg Curl 1x10-12 rest paused 3-6 reps (I hold the contraction for 1 second on these.

H.Wide Stance Squat feet out below parellel 2x8-12 reps (These are to help with the glut-ham tie in.)

15 sprintsx15 seconds with 45 seconds rest between.

This is my heavy day on chest and back and light shoulders.  I do a light chest and back and heavy shoulders the next time I hit these muscles.

I start out with shoulders.  Since it is light and focuses on traps and side delts it doesn't effect chest and back.

Shoulders Giant set

A1Calve machine shrugs 4x10-15

A2Upright rows 4x10-15

A3Side laterals 4x10-15

Ches/Back (several warmups are not included)

A1Incline DB Bench 1x8-10+3-6 rest pause

A2Wide Grip Pullups 1x10-12+3-6 rest pause

B1Incline BB Bench 1x8-10+3-6

B2Close Grip Pulldown 1x10-12+3-6 rest pause

C1Flat DB Bench 1x8-10+3-6 rest pause

C2B Rows 1x10-12+3-6 rest pause

D1Flat BB Bench or machine 1x8-10+3-6 rest pause

D2DB Row or One arm Hammer row

E1Cable flyes 7x8-12

E2Lat pushdowns 7x8-12

15 minutes of Sprints (15 sec sprint 45 sec rest)

I was doing one high calorie day, aka UP DAY (3500-4000) and one low calorie day aka DOWN DAY (1300 calories).  At five weeks we have now changed that to two down days and one up day.  The up day caloires have also come down to approximately 3000.

Here is the hard part of this protocol not only am I doing cardio every morning, but I'm doing my weight training (A hybrid of HIT and FST-7) on my down days.  I follow my weight training with 15 minutes of HITT cardio as well.  This is brutal and I would not recommend trying to just cookie cut this approach.  I have a very knowledgable coach and has worked with my closely on this.

I'm not saying that don't do this, but find someone knowledgable to help.  This is brutal and is designed to get you into the low single digits on bf.