Fitness Hollywood 2007

[Insex]

It's that time again, to start getting myself ready for another bodybuilding competition.

Fitness Hollywood is a compilation of different fitness events, all performed at one venue. Last year, I entered in the Musclemania show (bodybuilding). There were a total of six competitors in my weight class (heavyweight). They only rank the top five, and I was the odd one out.

This year, my goal is to improve upon last year and place within the top five. I plan to reach my goal by practicing what I preach; which is a sound diet, a hard work ethic, plenty of rest, and a helping hand from God. I am going to use a relatively flexible program. Just a simple Chest, Back, and Legs split, with Abs done on various days of the week. I will hit each body part once to twice a week, depending on how I feel and how busy I am for the week. I am a student at San Diego State University, so I have plenty of schoolwork cut out for me.

Basically, I'm going to do the same thing within this thread as I have done previous times. I will record what I do throughout the day, each and every day. This includes what I ate, what types of workouts I did, and how many sets, repetitions, and weights I used. I will also be giving myself a grade for each day. The grading system consists of the following:

- Great!

- Good.

- Bad.

- Bad (due to illness).

- Really bad.

Feel free to comment me on my progress, and to help push me. I try to take comments as fuel to help push me to do my best. If I start slacking off, feel free to tear me up.

Right now, I'm about 220 pounds. I'm guessing I'm about 14% body fat right now. I really ballooned up since my last show in April. After that show, I had to study for my finals, and I was falling behind in my classes. So that meant I was under a lot of stress and pressure. Because of the amount of schoolwork I had to catch up on, I stopped exercising for a while (because I didn't have much free time) and resorted to my "comfort foods." But over the Summer, I was under much less stress, because I ended up passing all of my classes and I finally had time to get back into my regular exercise routine. Now it's time for me to really dial down and get in the best shape of my life!

[Insex]

A little information about the show, Fitness Hollywood. Their website is here:

http://www.fitnesshollywood.com

Enjoy.

[wil]

Good luck Insex!!!

[PowerHouse]

This isn't about luck it's about busting your ass off and reaping the rewards. Your going to get what you put into it so... how bad do you want this? You set a goal now follow through with it. Don't bullshit around, give 100% in everything and there will be no excuses. You dont want to be up on stage knowing you could have done more to get in better shape, it sucks and you will feel like shit. Stay hungry for it.

*Leaves to go watch Rocky*

[tidalwave]

Go for it, man! I hear that stress coming in the way of fitness, but the time is right and you have all the materials. Before you know it, you'll be in the best shape of your life. As it is, already you're living a dream many of us aspire toward - competing.

If I recall from your last competition, you had not used any sort of fat burner supplement. Is that going to be the plan for this competition prep?

Keep us updated. I'll be scanning for the "Big Grin" emoticons!

[Insex]

First day was not bad, but nothing great. I did one workout with the weights in the afternoon, and one cardio workout later in the evening. Diet was OK, but I still need to do some grocery shopping to get some more vegetables in my diet. The workout with the weights was so-so. I wasn't quite feeling the intensity today. Probably because I didn't get much sleep last night. I will go to bed by midnight tonight, so I will sleep better and have a better workout tomorrow. So far so good.

Diet:

10:30 AM - Omelet (egg beater) with onions, tomatoes, and cheese. A side of tater tots and two sausages. One glass of milk. 4 fish oil pills, 1 multivitamin, 1 glucosamine chewable.

12:00 PM - 2 ounces of wheatgrass.

2:30 PM - A bowl of oatmeal, mixed with a teaspoon of brown sugar and a dash of cinnamon. 4 coconut oil pills.

4:30 PM - Workout #1 (Gatorade midway through).

6:00 PM - Protein shake with 10 grams of glutamine.

6:30 PM - Roast beef with gravy with a side of mashed potatoes, carrots, and a vegetable strudel. 4 fish oil pills, 1 multivitamin, 1 glucosamine chewable.

9:30 PM - Workout #2.

10:30 PM - Chicken breast sandwich. 4 coconut oil pills.

12:00 AM - Bedtime.

Workout #1

Stepmill - 10 minutes.

Bench Press - 1x15, 135; 1x12, 185; 1x12, 185; 1x12, 185; 1x12, 185; 1x20, 135.

Coach Lito's Ultimate Ab Workout: With a 4-pound ball.
Lying Torso Twists - 1x30 seconds.
Jackknives - 1x10
Toe Touches - 1x20
Knee to Elbow Crunches - 1x10 ea.
Crunches - 1x20
Lying Torso Twists - 1x30 seconds.
V-Touches - 1x10 ea.
Sit-Ups - 1x20

Incline Bench Press - 1x15, 135; 1x15, 135; 1x12, 135

Kickbacks - 1x12, 40 ea.; 1x12, 40 ea.; 1x12, 40 ea.
Internal Rotations - 1x10, 20 ea.; 1x10, 20 ea.; 1x10, 20 ea.
External Rotations - 1x10, 20 ea.; 1x10, 20 ea.; 1x10, 20 ea.

Reverse-Grip Cable Pressdowns - 1x12, 40 ea.; 1x12, 40 ea.; 1x12, 40 ea.
Overhead Rotations - 1x10, 20 ea.; 1x10, 20 ea.; 1x10, 20 ea.
Underhead Rotations - 1x10, 20 ea.; 1x10, 20 ea.; 1x10, 20 ea.

Workout #2:

Stepmill - 35 minutes.

Grade for today:

[Insex]

Some abbreviations I should probably clear up:

The "," separates the numbers for sets/reps and amount of weight used. The ";" separates the individual sets.

"ea." means each side. So if I did a set of Dumbbell Bench Press with a 100-pound dumbbell in each hand for 10 repetitions, it would look like this:

Dumbbell Bench - 1x10, 100 ea.

For the above:

Obviously, the "1" is the number of sets I performed in that immediate time frame. The "10" is the amount of repetitions performed. The "100 ea." stands for 100-pounds each side.

When I leave a space in between each exercise, it means each exercise was performed individually within different time frames. However, if I place them together, that means I either did them immediately one-after-the-other, or I performed super sets with them. Example:

Calf Raises - 1x20, 100; 1x20, 100; 1x20, 100.
Shin Raises - 1x20, 50; 1x20, 50; 1x20, 50.

This means that I performed a set of Calf Raises, then immediately performed a set of Shin Raises, then started the process over again with my next set of Calf Raises.

[Insex]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, guys. I'm liking what I'm reading, and it helps me when I know people are cheering me on. Yes, it most certainly is about busting my tail, and very little luck. In competition, victory is earned, not given. My last competition was sort of a so-so effort. There were days where I was intense and on-track; then there were other days where I fell off-track. This time, I'll be consistent.

Originally Posted by tidalwave

Go for it, man! I hear that stress coming in the way of fitness, but the time is right and you have all the materials. Before you know it, you'll be in the best shape of your life. As it is, already you're living a dream many of us aspire toward - competing.

If I recall from your last competition, you had not used any sort of fat burner supplement. Is that going to be the plan for this competition prep?

Keep us updated. I'll be scanning for the "Big Grin" emoticons!

True, I never used a fat burner supplement in the past, and I don't plan on using one for this competition either. I just don't like the idea of cooking myself on the inside. So I choose to stay away from them.

[JoeBAR]

Hi Insex. I see you're going for light weight x high reps for your workouts. I dare suggest you consider low reps x heavy weight with short rest ... As per the principles of the velocity diet

Reason: if you don;t sufficiently exercise a muscle while on calorie deficiency, you will loose muscle before fat. Why? Because loosing muscle help your body drop your metabolic rate and therefore adjust its calories need to your calories intake. Not to mention that your body ain't gonna keep muscles it doesn't need.

Whichever you decide, as a marker, measure your biceps. Since one can't flex fat, it's a fairly good indication of body composition. If your biceps measurement drop by more than 1/4" you're not loosing just fat. This is perso experience, not backed by science, but if you account that it takes 10~15 lbs of lean mass to grow an inch, it is safe to assume that loosing 10~15lbs of lean mass will also drop your arms an inch. I followed a more or less full body workout in 8x3 fashion, 30~45s rest (45s for squats and deadlift, 30 everything else). Squating 80~90% 1RM for 3 reps, 8 times with 45s rest make you feel you've burnt some cals

routine shamelessly stolen from the velocity diet article on T-N

[Insex]

Thanks for the tips, JoeBAR.

Yes, I usually like to train with heavy weights. Yesterday was an exception because I didn't sleep much the previous night, so I just wasn't feeling the intensity that day. Most days in the future will not be like yesterday's workout.

I will try the arm measurement tip. Right now, measured from the middle of my biceps and triceps, is 14 3/4 inches relaxed and 16 inches flexed.

I will also do a waist measurement. I have done these in the past, and I feel they are the best measurement indicator of fat loss. Right now, I'm at a staggering 37 1/2 inches. I think that's the most I've ever been!

[Insex]

I figured that I should also be recording my daily water intake as well. So from now on, I'll record how much water I drank for the day. All other fluids I list individually within the diet list.

[Insex]

Today was better than yesterday. But I still wouldn't go as far to say that it was a great day. I didn't have time to do grocery shopping last night. But I finally got some vegetables tonight, so I'll be eating better tomorrow. The workouts for today were good. Compared to yesterday's mediocre workout, today was an improvement.

Diet:

10:30 AM - Omelet (egg beater) with onions, tomatoes, and cheese. A side of potatoes and a couple strips of bacon. One glass of milk. 4 fish oil pills, 1 multivitamin, 1 glucosamine chewable.

12:30 PM - Chicken breast with onions, tomatoes, and cheese.

2:00 PM - 2 ounces of wheatgrass.

4:00 PM - A bowl of oatmeal, mixed with a teaspoon of brown sugar and a dash of cinnamon. 2 Tiger's Milk protein bars. 4 coconut oil pills.

5:00 PM - Workout #1 (Gatorade midway through).

7:00 PM - Protein shake with 10 grams of glutamine.

8:00 PM - 2 Chicken breasts with a side of carrots, green beans, spaghetti, and zucchini. 2 glasses of milk. 4 fish oil pills, 1 multivitamin, 1 glucosamine chewable.

10:00 PM - Workout #2.

12:00 AM - 2 glasses of chocolate milk.

12:30 AM - Bedtime.

Water drank for the day:

1 1/2 gallons.

Workout #1

Stationary Bike - 10 minutes.

Front Squats - 1x12, 135; 1x12, 135; 1x12, 155; 1x10, 175; 1x10, 185; 1x15, 135.

Lying Calf Raises - 1x15, setting 8 ea.; 1x15, setting 8 ea.; 1x15, setting 8 ea.; 1x14, setting 9 ea.
Shin Raises - 1x25, 45 ea.; 1x25, 45 ea.; 1x15, 70 ea.; 1x15, 70 ea.

Hammer Strength Iso Leg Curl - 1x10, 30 ea.; 1x10, 35 ea.; 1x9, 40 ea.

Leg Press - 1x20, 405; 1x15, 765; 1x10, 855; 1x9, 900.

Seated Donkey Calf Raises - 1x15, 495; 1x12, 535; 1x11, 555; 1x10, 575.
Dumbbell Lunges - 1x8, 35 ea.; 1x8, 35 ea.; 1x8, 35 ea.; 1x8, 35 ea.

Workout #2:

Stepmill - 35 minutes.

Grade for today:

[Hans_Rachid]

You didn't mention the deadline, when is the competition taking place ? Anyway, I suppose it's soon enough that you don't have any time to waste on bulking, so avoid the chocolate milk right before going to bed !!!

low fat Cottage cheese or a casein shake in water would probably be a much better idea.

[wil]

Originally Posted by PowerHouse

This isn't about luck it's about busting your ass off and reaping the rewards.

Please forgive me for simply using a polite phrase to send along my best-wishes.

How's this...

GET OFF YOUR ASS AND WORK!!!! DO IT... DO IT ... DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!


And ... have a nice day.

[JoeBAR]

Originally Posted by Insex

Leg Press - 1x20, 405; 1x15, 765; 1x10, 855; 1x9, 900.

Grade for today:

I see what you mean by heavy sets, much better indeed

900lbs jeeeeez! is that in a 45 deg press????

37 1/2" waist hehehe, I know the feeling, I passed that! If you keep it up, we'll see you in Powerlifting meet next year

I'm sure you can drop that by a couple inches within the next 6 weeks. That might be enough with the rest of your bulk. I know you wanna stay supplement free, but you might wanna look at CLA, it did help me a lot last time I tried to shed a bit of fat (which I have promptly put back on, of course ).

All the best mate. I've put a bookmark for the FH 07 in my firefox to see the results on Nov 15

[pliny_2001]

Great job starting up the mountain. I'll just add my advice:

I use the same measurement protocol joeBAR does, and go even further down the crazy slide by logging it in a graph alongside my a.m. weight (I'm anal, and love graphs). For me, this offers the best visual representation of weight relative to lean body mass - don't know about the 15lbs/inch, though - that doesn't seem like much mass gain for a whole inch.

Also: you're going 10-12 hours at night w/o food. It's great if you're getting enough sleep, but that's too much time (for me) without food. First thing in the AM (well, second after bathroom and measurements) I have some Tang and whey - easier and tastes alot better than OJ and whey (again, to me). And I'll never condemn an athlete for mainlining chocolate milk - I love the stuff - but I try to stay low-sugar at night. I'm with Hans on recommending cottage cheese.

10 PM workouts! Another reason to love being in undergrad. I never lifted then, but remember bball games going deep into the night. To bore you with a story, one of my biggest changes from undergrad to grad school (and now The Real World) was shuffling around my workouts to do AM cardio (dating, eating out, insurance, salary, etc - all easy. AM cardio? The one change I still hate).

And how's this for inspiration: pliny - at 16.5" bi's and a 35" waist - may now be bigger than you. Of course, you've posted pictures, so I can't really compete.

And don't you just love the ego-boost that is the leg machines? I use a supersquat machine at the end of my leg work and max it out (810) for 8 reps - had my ex sit on it to bring it all the way up to 915, but ended up laughing too much to get much done - I don't care if it's not the best exercise - it makes you feel like you're moving a mountain.


Wow - long post, full of info you probably already know. Work hard - good luck. I'll be following you.

[Insex]

Pliny, you've not only inspired me, but I feel ashamed at myself right now. Normally, I'm around 35 inches.

Originally Posted by pliny_2001

Also: you're going 10-12 hours at night w/o food. It's great if you're getting enough sleep, but that's too much time (for me) without food. First thing in the AM (well, second after bathroom and measurements) I have some Tang and whey - easier and tastes alot better than OJ and whey (again, to me). And I'll never condemn an athlete for mainlining chocolate milk - I love the stuff - but I try to stay low-sugar at night. I'm with Hans on recommending cottage cheese.

I usually eat breakfast first thing in the morning. So the time I list my first meal is usually when I wake up, approximately. But from now on, I'll list the time I wake up.

In the past, I used to gulp a protein shake right before bed. But in one of my recent blood tests, it showed that my creatinine levels were a little high. Which means that I was consuming too much protein at the time. So in an effort to get those creatinine levels down, I've stopped consuming the protein shakes right before bed. But I'm usually really hungry by that time, so I'll try to cottage cheese idea sometime.

Originally Posted by JoeBAR

900lbs jeeeeez! is that in a 45 deg press????

Yes, it's one of those standard 45-degree Leg Press machines that you find in most gyms. By my last set, I ran out of room on the sides. So the jump from 855 on my 3rd set to 900 on my 4th set was an extra 45-pound plate placed on top of the apparatus. Maybe next time, I'll try to find a 100-pound girl in the gym and ask her if she can help me out.

Originally Posted by Hans_Rachid

You didn't mention the deadline, when is the competition taking place ? Anyway, I suppose it's soon enough that you don't have any time to waste on bulking, so avoid the chocolate milk right before going to bed !!!

low fat Cottage cheese or a casein shake in water would probably be a much better idea.

The show is November 15-17. Less than 10 weeks from now.

Yes, I probably should have left out the chocolate and just had some regular milk instead. I gave into that temptation last night. I'm discontinuing the protein shake before bed, because my last blood test showed that my creatinine levels were a little high.

[Insex]

Today was a good day overall. I slept in today, so I missed breakfast down at the cafeteria. So I had to fix myself a late breakfast with oatmeal. However, my workout with the weights today was great. I felt like I really pushed myself and outworked all of my competitors. I challenged myself with something new today. At my gym, the heaviest dumbbells they have are a pair of 120-pound dumbbells. Since today was my Back Day, I wanted to do some Dumbbell Rows. But the 120s aren't that heavy for me for Dumbbell Rows. So I grabbed a short bar (same as an Olympic bar, but is about 4 or 5 feet long) and loaded some 25-pound plates on one side and used the bar itself kind of like a dumbbell. My lifting partner secured the opposite side to the ground. The bar itself weighs about 25 pounds, so I loaded 5 additional 25-pound plates. So I went up to 150, which is the first time I've ever done Dumbbell Rows with that much weight. It didn't quite feel exactly like a Dumbbell Row, but it was good enough for me because the effort was there. For the sprints I did later in the day, I warmed up, then I would run 100-yard sprint, immediately jog back to the start line, then immediately do my next sprint. Tomorrow, I'll wake up earlier so that I don't miss breakfast again; I'll also help myself to another serving of vegetables tomorrow as well.

Diet:

12:30 PM - Awoken.

12:30 PM - A bowl of oatmeal, mixed with a teaspoon of brown sugar and a dash of cinnamon. 4 fish oil pills, 1 multivitamin/multimineral, 1 glucosamine chewable.

1:30 PM - A bowl of spinach and broccoli.

3:30 PM - Workout #1.

5:00 PM - Protein shake with 10 grams of glutamine.

6:30 PM - Teriyaki Beef with sauce with a side of green beans, and broccoli. 2 glasses of milk. 4 coconut oil pills, 1 multivitamin/multimineral, 1 glucosamine chewable.

8:30 PM - 2 chicken breast sandwiches. 4 fish oil pills.

10:00 PM - Workout #2.

11:30 PM - 2 glasses of milk.

12:30 AM - Bedtime.

Water drank for the day:

1 1/4 gallons.

Workout #1:

Pull-Ups - 1x9, 35; 1x8, 35; 1x5, 45; 1x4, 45.

Dumbbell Rows - 1x12, 120 ea.; 1x11+1, 120 ea.; 1x8+2, 120 ea.; 1x3+6, 150 ea.; 1x2+6, 150 ea.
Dumbbell Curls - 1x8, 45 ea.; 1x7, 45 ea.; 1x6, 45 ea.; 1x6, 45 ea.; 1x5+1, 45 ea.

Barbell Curls - 1x20, 55; 1x16, 55; 1x9+1, 55; 1x7+2, 55.

Reverse Flies - 1x15, 25 ea.; 1x15, 25 ea.; 1x15, 25 ea.

Dumbbell Shrugs - 1x16, 75 ea.; 1x16, 75 ea.; 1x16, 75 ea.; 1x16, 75 ea.
Hanging Leg Raises - 1x10; 1x6+2, 4; 1x4+4, 5; 1x2+6, 5.

Cable Crunches - 1x15, 130; 1x12, 145; 1x12, 160
Rotating Dumbbell Rows - 1x12, 45 ea.; 1x12, 45 ea.; 1x10, 45 ea.

Workout #2:

100-Yard Sprints (outside) - 6

Grade for today:

[Insex]

Another thing I should add about my workout labeling:

1x8+2, 150.

For the above, the "1"stands for that particular set. The "8" stands for the amount of repetitions I performed continuously. The "+2" means that I went for 2 extra reps, but I took about a 5 to 10 second rest after the continuous 8 that I just did to fix up my grip, catch a breather, reset the bar position, or whatever.

[JoeBAR]

Hiya again... Some comments about diet.

You wanna loose fat, so argueably, droping calories ingested below calories burnt will help you drop weight. That said, it isn't efficient enough. And looking at todays diet, I wanna refresh your memory about Berrardi 7 rules ... And subsequent diet findings from T-Nation (again )

As ItalianAngel pointed out to me earlier this year for the March slimming contest (cant remember how it was worded exactly), one need to drop calories by droping carbs ... A lot. And my initial plan had a lot of carbs, which I eventually reduced to progress on my weight loss.

Berrardi's diet is low carb too. Principles :
- eat carbs + prot or fat + prot and avoid fat + carbs.
- have most meal as fat + prot, and only eat carbs around training time.

Hence:

breakfast : NO oatmeals. saussages and fried eggs, yes FRIED! (count your calories and adjust amounts, of course!). Try to look for chicken/turkey saussages, they have more protein than pork. Also look for soya filling, you'd wanna avoid that

evening meal ... Well, you know, what normal people call evening. Since you get up at 12, it's kinda a bit later for you Post workout you have beef + greens (fat + prot) and milk... Yet 2 hours later you have sandwich (I assume bread, ie carbs...) How about swapping it around? It would really fit better good ol' Dr Berrardi's model.

near bedtime... more milk ... I know, prot, etc ... but lactose too. I would suggest, in your current condition (pre-contest, not bulking) low carb whey in water with a spoon of olive or flaxseed oil ... Again ... check your calories, vary amounts accordingly. The spoon of oil will slow down the digestion, give you plenty of essential fatty acids, etc etc ...

You'll get used to the taste. Myself, I usually had a tin of tuna in oil with a salad of mix veg and tomatoes for evening meal, and the shake as above on training days, and a low fat cottage cheese (~1/2 lb) on non-training days for variety. But I remember that you don't see tuna as too healthy, but it's worth considering. I was loosing 2lbs/week on a 3200 cal/day diet on workout days and 2500 cal/day no-workout days.

A PT I know advised me to drink up a cup of coffee just before hitting the sack. it speeds up metabolism overnight and has similar effects to pills like hot rox and what-have you. It prolly isn't quite as effective, but it seemed to help and would be an acceptable solution for an all-natural like you. That is, if it doesn't keep you awake. I had no such problems, but I could feel I was sleeping slightly less deeply.

Hope any of this is usefull to you. All the best!