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| Image 1: Adelfo now, 9 days before the show. Even if he had not been bedridden, when he began dieting, this is an awesome result - the work of a true pro! And wherever he is going to place in Florida, I am proud to have Adelfo aboard, here at the SuppVersity! (Click here to learn more about his journey!) |
The Final Countdown - Don't Panic, It's Going to Work Out!
Well folks, a week and a half left or, I should say, just 9 (in words "nine" ;-) days left until it's going to be show time! And for now, there's nothing else for me to do, than simply keep doing what I’ve been doing for the past 4 months now: Staying on the course. As some of you who have been in a similar situation may know, this "simple" exercise can sometimes be really hard, though... I mean, you know about how important this event is going to be, you want to look your very best and everything you can / shall do is keep on rolling? I guess, not everyone will sympathize with having difficulties not to but back on calories anymore, not to reduce your carb intake to absolutely zero and not to try out any other stupid things of which you consciously know that they won't help and yet still feel urged to to them.
Although I know that Dr. Andro is probably going to address this in his introduction, I want to take the chance to tell you in person that I am now a sponsored athlete for Myotropics Physique Nutrition. And I would like to thank Vince Andrich for giving me the opportunity to represent his brand.
The best thing to avoid being in mischief, is to reiterate your plan over and over and that is what I am going to do now: The coming week - starting on Sunday, is going to be my peek week, in which I will finally cut out all starchy carbs except for the roughly 40g of carbs from 1 purple potato or 1 banana I eat right after my workouts. As I have pointed out before, I don't even count vegetables, so that the rest of my meals (in my way of "calculating" my macros are "carb free" protein + vegetable meals with a moderate amount of fat (45-50g). |
| Image 2: By further reducing my starchy carb intake, I hope to lose the little subcutaneous water that is still left. |
For bodybuilders, playing with water and salt, is like playing fire
Other than the reduction in carbs, of which I expect that it will help me lose the last milliliters of water I am still carrying under my skin, I will not make any of the bro-scientific stupidities, like cutting back sodium or pounding gallons of water. And even my training will stay the same, at least until Wednesday, when I will start to taper the intensity, to avoid last minute injuries (I mean, who wants to compete with a "torn" biceps ;-) or running out of glycogen, which would put me into the very unfortunate position of having to "re-load" (meaning to replete my glycogen stores) right before - thus exactly what I am trying to avoid by doing the front-load.
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| Video 1: The "Burn Machine" is part of my HIIT cardio regimen (click to watch) |
I must admit there is one thing, I did not tell you... but this is something I did already change, so no stupid last minute change, here ;-) I have stepped up, or, for someone like me, who actually never does any cardio, I should say, I started doing cardio these past 3 weeks. Not being a big fan of cardio, but a firm believer in doing what it takes to get shredded by diet and high intensity lifting, alone this is actually quite a novelty for me - if nothing else, because I can do none of the "classic" cardio exercises: Jogging on the treadmill? No! Fidgeting around on the crosstrainer? No! Taking steps on the stairmaster? No!
Not much left, I could do for "cardio", right? In essence, that's what I've been telling myself, as well, but I did not want to miss any chance to improve my conditioning and thusly came up with two forms of HIIT cardio which work pretty well for me.
- HIIT with the "Burn Machine": Assuming that most of you have no idea what this small beast is and how it works, I suggest, you take a look at video 1. In essence, the burn machine is no more than a 10-pound hand cycle that can mimic using a hand cycle or even hitting a speed bag. It combiines aerobic and anaerobic work and is perfectly suited for HIIT training. This is like sprinting with your arms, and I do it for a total of 20-30min
Swimming and hitting the heavy bag: Apollo Creed knew what he was talking about, when he told Rocky Balboa in Rocky III that swimming would work muscles that he thought he never knew he had before - I can attest to that and have been a huge fan of swimming, ever since the inhuman soreness after my first laps subsided *lol*... But all jokes aside, I really do enjoy swimming and I believe you can also see that in the video footage I took for you (click here to watch the video). Swimming gets my heart rate up and my muscles stimulated. Plus, I really feel my back muscles working, when I swim. In fact, my back begins to get really tight after a couple of laps and I get an awesome pump! It would be great if I could swim a lap or two before I roll on stage to pose... to swim a couple of laps and then hit the heavy bag, an exercise which also helped tremendously with the conditioning of my arms, shoulders and chest. Its conditioning effects aside, it also keeps you from biting other peoples ears off ;-)
Image 3: The cardio may have helped a little, but nutrition still is the #1 factor if you want to lean out.
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| Image 2: I have come a long way along which my physique was by no means the only thing that changed. |