Road to the Stage: Weeks 10, 11 & 12

Body Weight and Current Condition

Three more weeks of prep are solidly in the books! Things have been moving along in the right direction. I apologize for the delay on the updates. The sites has been having a few issues but hopefully they will be resolved soon. Anyway, let’s take a look at my weight progression.

At the end of my last log I was 192.8 lbs. Week 10 say my weight drop to 192 lbs. This is a drop of 0.8 lbs. To some people this may seem really slow but it is about exactly the rate of loss I am looking for. For the following week I didn’t change anything with my plan.

Week 11 saw my weight drop again, down to 191.4 lbs. This was another pretty solid drop that I was happy with but it is a tiny bit slower than the rate I would like. For this reason I made a very minor change to my plan to try and speed things up ever so slightly without pushing the pace faster than I would like.

Week 12 was actually the week of Thanksgiving. This is a point of a lot of stress for competitors and is usually a time where people go one of two ways. They either completely blow it and binge on all the pie they can get their hands on, or they bring Tupperware with plain chicken and broccoli and have to answer questions from grandma all night about why they aren’t eating “normal food”. Well, I’m happy to say I did neither of those. I will explain a bit more in the “Additional Updates” section at the bottom. Even with Thanksgiving I ended up dropping from 191.4 lbs down to 190.6 lbs. Another loss of 0.8 lbs which is right on the money so I made no change for the coming week.

NUTRITION + CARDIO

As I mentioned above, I made only one change to my macros in this update which was made in Week 11. My new macros are below and I only dropped 10 grams of carbs. It is a subtle drop because I was so close to the rate of loss that I desire.

Protein - 275
Carbs - 265g
Fat - 53.5g

I also have a high calorie day once every 7th day with these macros:

Protein - 250g
Carbs - 505g
Fat - 70g

My food choices are still pretty much the same. I have made a small change by switching out chicken breast in favor of turkey breast. This was for no other reason other than the fact that the store I buy from slices their turkey thin and not the chicken which reduces my cook time without having to cut the chicken myself. Yes, I am that lazy. I’ve also started adding in some almond butter to my oatmeal. If you have never had almond butter mixed with maple and brown sugar oatmeal, then you are missing out.

94% Lean Ground Beef
Turkey breast
Fruit (mostly apples and berries)
Oatmeal
Fairlife Chocolate Milk (This stuff is AMAZING)
Fairlife 2% Milk (typically mixed with the chocolate)
Core Nutritionals Peanut Butter Pro (Mixed with the chocolate milk)
Core Nutritionals ISO
Core Nutritionals MRP
Vegetables (all from Green Giant Sautees)
Breyers Slow Churn Ice Cream
Cinnamon and Honey Nut Chex
Almond Butter

The timing of my meals has changed a little since I had to cut my numbers. Once again, this timing can change if I need it to fit my schedule.

Meal 1 (upon waking) - P-55 C-25 F- 12
Meal 2 (pre-training meal) - P- 55 C- 75 F- 12
Meal 3 (post training shake) - P- 55 C- 45 F- 1
Meal 4 (post training meal) - P- 55 C- 45 F- 8.5
Meal 5 (before bed) - P- 55 C- 75 F- 20

CARDIO

Still no cardio. Not happening for a while still.

TRAINING

Even though I have been dieting my strength has been great and is not really dropping at all! Volume and intensity have been able to remain high as well because I don’t feel fatigued at all. I just keep pushing forward. For a recap here is my current split.

Monday - Upper Body (4-8 reps)
Tuesday - Lower Body (4-10 reps)
Wednesday - Upper Body (12-20 reps)
Thursday - Off
Friday - Lower Body (12-20 reps)
Saturday - Upper Body (GVT day 10x10 for upper only)
Sunday - Off

Here is a sample of my training session this past Tuesday.

Squats - 6x275 6x275 6x315 6x315 6x345 6x345 4x365 4x365
Deadlifts - 6x405 6x445
DB Leg Curl - 10x40 8x45 8x45 7x50
Leg Ext. - 10x200 10x220 10x230 9x240
Barbell Hip Thrust - 10x185 10x225 10x245
Single Leg Hammer Plate Loaded Press - 8x180 (3 sets)
Seated Calf Raise - 8x270 (4 sets)
Decline Sit-ups - 10x30 (4 sets)
Leg Raise - bodyweight x10 (3 sets)

SUPPLEMENTATION

I have kept my usual supplements the same as listed below.

Core ABC (7 scoops per day)
Core ISO (as needed)
Core PRO (as needed)
Vitamin D (1000 IU daily)
Multivitamin (once daily)
Core Commodities Beta Alanine (1 scoop daily)
Core Commodities Taurine (2 scoops daily)
Core FURY Extreme (as needed but typically one full scoop)
Core PUMP (one scoop before training)
Core HMB (4 grams daily)
Fish Oil (2 capsules daily)
Core Commodities Creatine Mono (5 grams daily)
Core Commodities Glutamine (15 grams daily, primarily taken for immune health)

In addition to my usual supplements I have also started a combo of several different natural testosterone boosters. These are listed below. I want to preface this by stating that this combination of test boosting supps is pretty costly and I would recommend that people get the basic supplement first before spending money on anything like this. The reason I am able to do this a little more easily than others is because I am sponsored and get my base supplements covered.

The reason I utilize several different test boosters is because natural testosterone boosters can provide a small increase in test levels. A few years back a client of mine had an idea that combining different test boosters that have varied ingredients “might” have a compound effect by increasing testosterone levels through various mechanisms. Needless to say, I was skeptical. Haha! However, he decided to try it out and he tested his testosterone levels before starting his combo of products and then tested them at 6 weeks of using them. He saw a pretty significant increase and I was pretty interested. I had another client give it a try and also saw an increase as well. For this reason I utilize this method during prep for 8 week cycles. Once again though, this is not something that I can guarantee will work for everyone because I have such limited evidence. However it is something that I think MAY offer a small advantage so I am willing to take that chance. If you have a lmited supplement budget then you will get a lot more out of sticking with the supplements listed above.

Here is what I am using below.

Core Alpha
Core Hard
PES Anabeta Elite
MTS Baracuda
PurusLabs Recycle

ADDITIONAL UPDATES AND THOUGHTS

As I mentioned in the opening section, this past week was Thanksgiving week. This time is usually a pretty rough time for competitors. They typically have a lot of family and friends pressuring them into eating. This can cause some people to give into the peer pressure and overdo it and it can cause others to dig their heels in and not deviate one bit. I personally use two methods to handle this.

The first thing I do is utilize something I call the macro bridge. This isn’t something I recommend doing often, maybe only 2-4 times per year. Essentially what I do is create a 2 day macro goal for the day before Thanksgiving and the day of Thanksgiving. Then what I do is reduce my carbohydrates and fats by about 50% on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and carry them over to the following day. This way I am “bridging” the two days together. This allows me to have a lot more food on the day of the festivities and not have to be so restrictive.

This sounds like a good idea to a lot of people but then they say they don’t know what the macros are on the food they are eating because everything is prepared by other people. This is where you have to use the power of estimating. This is a learned skill and it will never be exact (hence the reason it is called estimating). You simply have to look at what you at eating and take an educated guess at the protein, carbs, and fat contained within. Overestimate to be safe. The estimation combined with the macro bridge gives me a lot of freedom on holidays and I don’t have to blow my progress.

On Thanksgiving I don’t usually do much but my wife, my brother, and his girlfriend were able to go out to a steakhouse in Chicago and have a good time, even though it was way too expensive for the quality of food but that is another story. Anyway, next year I encourage you to give the macro bridge a try!

As always, thanks for following!