summary of week 3 and 4

Week 3 was a good week. I made it my last week of allowing myself sauces, so I made the most of my chicken and rice with lots of Jack Daniels BBQ sauce. That stuff would make any meal taste good! Eating has been good and working 6 days and 1 night a week hasn’t got in the way. I arrange my meetings in work around when I need to eat, I have 2 great bosses at www.letwithease.com who understand my commitment to training and not only give me the time I need in a day to eat but have to agreed a sponsorship deal with me to pay for all of my chicken on the lead up to the show. My chicken and steak is being supplied by www.mjdaltonbutchers.co.uk also situated on Gloucester Road. These guys are great and have agreed a reduced price with me on chicken fillets and rump steak, considering their chicken is only £5 / 2lb of pure chicken breasts anyway they have given me a great deal! I can’t wait to go to these guys in the off season as they have the widest selection of meat I have ever seen offering , bison, boar, ostrich and venison. My bosses at Let With Ease have got a lot in return though by allowing me to have my time to eat as in January we recorded the best month the business has ever had. As records now show we can let a property on average 4.3 X faster than any other letting agent in Bristol!!

My strength is still increasing day by day and week 4 I matched some old PB’s from the end of last year, including 6 plate T-Bar row for 12 reps and 150kg behind the neck shoulder press for 1 rep and 160kg incline barbell press for 2 reps (nearly killed myself on the 3rd one so don’t count it as a rep)
My principle for training is to train hard and heavy for as long as possible. Bodybuilders who inspire me by their training are guys like Markus Rhul, Ronnie Coleman, Branch Warren and Jonny Jackson they train as heavy as they can for as long as they can to build and keep full thick muscles bellies and grow mature muscle mass. I accept that much closer to the show when carbs are at their lowest then training will have to change to lighter weights and more reps for depth in cuts and striations, but until then I’m just gonna keep adding iron to the bar! That is how my body reacts the best, I’ve trained for 5, nearly 6 years now, and I’m far from knowing my body inside out but I do know I grow all over by training heavy for my first 2 exercises, sticking to the 4-6 rep range as heavy as I can with basic compound exercises, then 2 or 3 exercises of isolation and blood fillers.
One thing I am a total rookie to though is this dieting business and I found in week 4 my fat loss has slowed right down. I changed from rice to potatoes for my carbs as they are moister and easier to eat with no sauce. So now I eat 3 medium sized potatoes throughout the day with my chicken meals. Still not a lot of carbs! My cardio is still at 50 mins every morning and I haven’t cheated on my diet at all other than my planned Sunday. Even then I haven’t really had a massive blow out, im keeping it to one cheat meal, that’s it. Next week I plan on adding in 20-30mins of cardio after every workout to see how much benefit I get from this. Id rather do more cardio than have to cut carbs so we’ll see how this affects things.
Most people have one mentor to help them through their first show but unfortunately due to my busy work schedule I don’t have time to meet with someone of a regular bases and get checked out and have diet anyone has given me to stick to. I have taken advice from my brother who you can read about on www.trojannutrition.blogspot.com who won the 2008 First Timers West Britain easily and is competing again this year in a UKBFF show. Sadly, his family and work commitments stop us having as much contact as we would need for him to dial me in. I have also taken tip bits from Gary Farr who came an impressive 2nd in his last show ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ late last year. Gary always displays rock hard conditioning and has glutes and hams to beat anyone on stage on the day.
So this experience for me is very much a learning one, and one I am enjoying lots at the moment. I have some more videos and pictures from an arm workout last week taken by Page ‘Iron Singh who is the longest and most reliable training partner I’ve ever had. A friend of mine Rob Bailes comes to join us once a week for a workout, Rob is naturally very very strong and pushes me rep for rep in our workouts which is great for me!
People think bodybuilding is a solo sport, and to a degree they are right as on stage you are on your own, the spot light is on you alone and what you’ve worked for is very much out on display for criticism. However, behind the scenes friends, family, sponsors, training partners, and colleagues all play their part in making someone what they are when it comes to competition.