My husband and I - National's 2013 Edition!!!

[steve_d]

Been a crazy couple weeks. Sure as hell looking forward to the contest! Win or lose, this has been a fun prep with its ups and downs. Overall sleep has been great, training great,workouts awesome, cardio easy (next to none overall except the last couple days). I chose to live my life and train around my life rather than fit my life around my contest. Clean the car, put up shelves in the garage, yardwork, house work, that was my cardio... Playing with the kids, going for a walk, etc... That was my cardio. Rather than do 1 hour on a stepmill and make the rest of my day a zombie mess on the couch, I did easier life living cardio events and was as normal of a person as I could be!

The last week has been a bit rough though. We had some crazy hot days, made for difficult work conditions in my baking office with no AC. Too much humidity, etc. On the plus side, I am ready as I'll ever need to be lol... I think my condition has surpassed last years. Harder, drier... Perhaps not head to toe, but certainly the legs are drier. Abs tighter for sure. Bit rounder here and there. Overall I think I have a definite improved physique from last year. As much as 1 can expect with 1 year of hard work. 2-4 pounds muscle on my tiny frame - hope its enough!! I am really gunning for a top placing. As much as I always say its about improvement - I already know I improved!! 1 more week until I jump on stage with the best in canada... WOW... My first national comp - scared a bit, yes - but confident that I am ready to battle it out on that stage. Shape and conditioning is there. Mass is almost there, lol... Need a few more year to be really competitive against the mass monsters!

[steve_d]

Well, I lost a lot the last week. Too much, and I think I looked better last year -- was smaller than last year, leaner this year, but the fullness was not there. It wasn't really anything I did wrong in the final days. Perhaps the final few weeks. A few bouts of sickness and I just knew I wouldn't be able to hold onto any more size and decided because of that I would be best as a welter. I had a feeling this was going to be an issue but was hoping it wouldn't and I would bounce back... It didn't and so I made the switch to welter last minute since I knew I'd be low end of middle and look way too stringy. My frame is suited as a middle, and as a welter, it was a tough class to stand out in, and I was in the final call out (3 call out). Some great guys to say the least! I am most proud of my old gym buddy in Ottawa, Chris Hebert who squeezed into welter as well but was rock hard and made the first call out. Not sure if he'll place top 3 but I think he'll deserve it.

Was looking much better weeks ago, but its just part of the game. I am glad the prep is done, and look forward to some off-seasons, but MUCH more important to me is spending some quality time with my family. I love them so much and they are better than any trophy could have been. They were by my side the whole time throughout, and even though this wasn't a really hard prep, it was hard mentally to stick to it knowing that I have so much other things going on to enjoy. Don't get me wrong. Love competing, love the camaraderie and meeting the good guys of the sport. Randy Madsen, another good guy, in my class, looked amazing - fellow east coaster - he's got a good head on his shoulders and a bright future.

My plans aren't really set in stone. For the last few weeks I have been looking forward to really the contest being done so I could have some more training and off season time for growth. Competing yearly isn't necessarily a good thing for me - some guys can get away with it, but I think just when the injuries of last year started to heal up, I was back into prep and couldn't really soak up any advantage of some true growth. The focus now will of course be normalcy, but of course for me normalcy definitely includes putting up some serious weight in the gym. Time for some off season growth!!

[steve_d]

To add to the above... And this isn't necessarily applicable to everyone since the human body is vastly different from person to person. I looked better at night I was told. Actually the exact words were "natural vs. geared - what the heck did you do"... lol. And I am in agreement. The difference was plain and simple - water. Nothing to do with carbs, nothing to do with salt, etc. When I knew I wasn't coming back for routines, I basically went home, drank a litre of pepsi, 2 litres of water. a big salad, some apples, a few quest bars, a bit of rice, 2 iced caps at mcdonalds. And in total came back nearly 10 pounds heavier. my chest popped more, my abs were more etched, and I looked a little more like me again.

So there is something to be said about screwing up the last few days. There were a couple other issues that went wrong in the last few weeks that I won't get into, but the biggest difference is that this year I cut my water at about 4pm friday, vs. last year not cutting it until the dying moments before bedtime. I dry out like you would never believe when i am lean - so for my body personally, it is a big mistake to ever cut water. And that is without 'diuretics'. So lesson learned. In the years to come I will have to once again play around with my last week. trial and error I guess. Funny you can do 20+ shows, and each time learn something. The problem is not only learning knew things, its the fact that your body ages, and generally what worked when you were young may or may not work the same as you get older. It's a difficult sport to get right I'll tell you that much! However... the biggest advice I can give anyone is to get really really shredded first. Pose your ass off in the gym, and if you think you look good and you think "wow, I could hit the stage looking like this" you might actually be right!

I wasn't able to see much of the show aside from the angle backstage - so I wasn't able to comment about who looked best or deserved to win. Athletes were generally not allowed in the audience unless they bought a ticket. As I hear it, Zane Watson looked insane and most thought he would win the overall. Until it come to pose down and it looked like it could have gone either way with zane vs. HP in the SHW. HP must have bought a drier crisper look - perhaps a more balanced physique. Zane would easily deserve the 2nd card. I am not sure if he's actually a top end heavy or if he's one of those giuys who could actually step on the 212s/. Would be interesting to see those wheels in a 212 lineup!

I had a blast on the weekend despite my placings. Which is funny, because I actually did put a little pressure on myself to come home with some hardware. Not getting the first call out was actually surprisingly not that heart sinking. I really did have a blast. Normally the 'day' of the show is the least favorite part of the entire prep for me. However this time I just felt relaxed and did my thing. I was actually most concerned about being one of the 4-5 people who ended up passing out backwards on stage. It was humid out especially in the morning. 30+ degrees with east coast humidity and absolutely no air circulation on stage. Combine that with NS stage lighting being the hottest lights I've ever stood under and you had a recipe for disaster. I believe a few had to be taken to hospital, but everyone was ok in the end. Passing out is not a good feeling and a few sips of water won't fix it. It takes a good hour for the blood to circulate back to the brain. I did see a few of the guys at the night show and they were as good as new.

Predictions for the future: Johnny doull - 4-5 years of muscle mass and he's the next IFBB pro to really start turning heads from canada. As far as potential goes - he's the future of canadian bodybuilding on the pro scene. People expected some big things from him this year. Unfortunately even with the blinding conditioning he brought, he still wasn't able to crack a first call out in the SHW. But thats the thing. Conditioning is only 1 part of the equation. He's nailed that. Now all he needs is time to bring up all bodyparts. The good part for him is he has no weak bodyparts. the symmetry is perfect already. Conditioning is out of this world. 4-5 years of mass at say 5-10 pounds per year... 250+ pounds will be hard to deny on that kid. I believe he's only 22. and was 233 dry as a bone on stage.

[ironwill]

Good job Steve. It is nice to hear the after the comp is done thoughts ...
You know what, it sucks when you realize you didnt have enough water.
Same thing happened to me. I went off stage and felt like wtf, so i drank a whack of pepsi, had a steak and a potatoe, more water than a human should drink. Then went back to niteshow.
The head judge came over and said, whatever you did for the nite show, do that next time because you were in line for top 2 spots on niteshow, and ended up in fourth. The difference for me was ai was looking great, i was talked into taking a bit of a diuretic. I pissed all nite non stop, and ended up losing 10 lbs in 20 hours. Gained almost all back for nite show by taking in a bunch of crap, and salty stuff, and water and pepsi etc. And looked great..
I felt like a holocaust victim in the am, and the pics and vids were like 2 different folks.
Good job though, great work, and have a great offseason man.

[steve_d]

Couldn't sum it up any better. I simply couldn't hold onto water for the life of me. People said they didn't recognize me on stage. They were like - thats steve alright, but he doesn't look like the steve from the gym. Local judge was saying it was night and day what I looked like on stage compared to what I was looking like a couple weeks prior. Like popping a balloon. Weird! I didn't follow anything too different than before, and in fact I didn't cut water until late friday and actually kept on sipping and eating watery foods (apples, bananas, watered down oatmeal - ie oatmeal soup lol). Basically looking down at the scale I knew I couldn't stop eating or drinking or else I'd appear flat. But the damage was already done all week.

After thinking about it, the only true conclusion I came up with was water loading. I was used to about 4-6 litres, which was upped to nearly 10-12. throughout the last week while keeping sodium near constant. I simply had NO water under the skin, so what was I trying to get rid of?! lol... live and learn. I guess as I get older, so do my methods as my body changes. It would seem if you're not lean enough, you likely hold onto more water (ie - 5-6 weeks out, this method would have left me looking tight for a photo shoot say). But once I got as dry as I was, any 'tricks' backfired and pulled all water from the muscle tissue. I mean, it was partially my fault - I should have stuck to my guns and did middle. I just figured I would be able to suffer a little and fill up. instead, I made the class easy, and couldn't bounce back. Local guys trying to give me tips: go eat some burgers and fries and drink a small amount but load the diuretics. I am like I am not even going near a diuretic. the moment I breath near one I would likely go into a coma.... Nope. once you're lean, you don't need to resort to those things. getting dry is NOT my problem. Staying full was. However I have a new outlook, and a new plan for next time. Which will likely make the prep the easiest of all preps, the last week the easiest of last weeks, and my weight the highest of all weights. Essentially - do nothing the last week. You've done your work, just make sure you're shredded. Then wake up and go... If that works, at least I'll have a show the following week to do something else!

For now, its grow time. Already 16 pounds heavier than stage weight, and still have striated glutes, hams, abs are sharp, chest is full... No rebound whatsoever even though I have been on a non stop all you can eat fest all week. Not going to ease out of prep until I show at least a sign of blurred definition! Until then, bring on the food.

[ubcpower]

Interesting insight. Are you doing any cardio since the show, keeping water high? How can you account for maintaining such good condition with all the eating? Everyone else is swollen ankles and moon face lol

[steve_d]

I've eaten as much as I could basically everyday since the show, not too mention how much I was eating 2 days prior, 1 day prior, and the day of the show. 7000 calories thursday, 7500 friday, 5000 saturday. Ice cream cake sunday (almost a whole 10 inch), smores in front of a campfire monday (full 700g bag of marshmellows + a whole box of graham crackers and 2 large chocolate bars), all you can eat pizza buffet tuesday, wednesday more dairy queen first day back in the gym. Yesterday regular daily intake (approx 2000 calories) then big supper - tasti taters + fish + ice cream cake.

I have yet to eat under 4000 calories in over 7 days and most days are in the neighborhood of 6000 calories. Still no rebound! I think the rebound has more to do with aldosterone levels, and being dehydrated for a long period of time. Carbs and not being used to them also have an impact on post show rebound. I was doing no cardio, so post show no cardio is not changing much there. My weight is 175-176 in the morning which compares to about 172-173 1 week out. Mostly glycogen, and just the smallest amount of definition blur - only in my stomach. I had not really ever cut my water for the show, so I never really had the chance for the aldosterone levels to rebound in the opposite direction. Just kept things steady. Of course, part of the reason for that was my muscles expelling all water and I simply couldn't get the water to stay in the muscle. So I didn't DARE cut water - I figured I had shrivelled up enough as it was. 8 pounds lighter than last year stage weight, same conditioning. However throughout the entire prep I was just as dry and 3-4 pounds heavier - so basically the last week was the problem for me. Funny cuz I didn't change much from what I did last year! 15-20 shows under my belt and still have to change my own last week stuff to adjust with my changing body... what a sport lol

Water is same post show as it was pre show. about 4 litres. I still get all my protein and fats - I simply have added to that alot of carbs. I do believe in reverse dieting post show - and I am sure there will come a time where I slow it down a little. I can already tell my appetite is finally slowing down, and I am sure if this continued I would eventually start storing fat FAST.

I've rebounded in the past - so I know what it feels like. And it sucks. (ie 30 pounds in a week, etc). I know when to back off, but my body hasn't let me know to back off yet. No moon face, still look like an ectomorphic alien in my face , lol...