Sel's journey to NPA South East 2011! *NEW* Full write up and pics page 13

Hey ladies and gents,
 
So I have decided to compete in my first show:  the NPA South East 2011!  I was a spectator at the 2010 show and was very impressed with the standard of the athletes and the overall friendly feel.  Carl Zambra blew me away with his amazing condition yet functional size (he took the overall at 67.5kg).  The show is scheduled for September the 11th 2011.  I am exactly 22 weeks out.
 
A little about me.  I am an avid bodybuilding enthusiast, personal trainer and self confessed gym rat.  I have never been interested in size for its own sake; due to my extensive background in martial arts I grew up in awe of muscle condition (think bruce lee) over size.  I have been lifting for six years, and consider myself to have poor genetics.
 
I intend to compete as a lightweight (under 70kg), although first timers is still an option - I havn't made my final decision yet.  As I sit here typing I weigh roughly 74kg at 5'7-8, with 9% bodyfat and my waist just under 29 inches.  I shall be over the moon if I can step on stage at a shredded 65kg.
 
I took my body fat down to 7% at the end of Febuary, and since mid March I have been slowly trying to add some quality muscle.  Improvements include legs- I have not been training them hard for as long as my upper body and although size wise they arnt too bad, they lack the condition of my upper body - and back thickness (obviously all over improvements are the goal but these are my primary focus coming into the show).
 
As I am now 22 weeks out I thought it would be a good time to start a journal, to help keep me disciplined.  I intend to slowly add muscle (whilst ideally improving condition) until twelve weeks out, and then start my contest prep.  I sure as hell am not going to start my prep a tub of lard and have to crash diet all the fat off.  I live in London, but I shall be moving to Spain before my diet starts, and flying back two weeks before the show.  I intend to get a natural tan before adding tanning products, and the Costa Del Sol seems like a good place to do it!
 
I am going to try my best to log my diet, training and progress pictures here every day, and I welcome any support and help anyone wishes to add.  The hard part for me will not be the prep itself (I am good at cutting under pressure), but now: adding muscle without eating rubbish- hence the journal.
 
Off to have meal 6 now:  2 scoops myofusion with 5g glutamine.
 
Sorry for babbling and hope you enjoy following my progress.
 
Sel

Today has been pretty ok.  45 minutes steady state cardio this am, and legs (quad dominant) pm:
-BB squat:  2 sets 100kg 5 deep reps, 2 sets 70kg 10 reps, 2 sets 60kg 12 reps (lighter sets taken very deep)
-Leg press:  2 sets 150kg 8 reps
-Leg extensions: 1 set full stack 8 reps, 3 sets much lighter but squeezing hard
-hammer strength ham curl (unilateral): 3 sets: 25,30,35kg 8-10 reps
-toe press drop set beginning at 160kg and dropping by 30kg on each drop taking each portion to failure.
 
I am working legs twice per week, the second workout is more hip dominant (hamstring work), but I am squatting twice per week as a rule.
 
Diet has been as follows:
Meal 1:
2 scoops myofusion, multi vit
45 mins steady state CV
Meal 2:
2 slices wholemeal bread
3 whole eggs
flaxseed oil
cla
Meal 3:
2 scoops myofusion, 5g glutamine
Meal 4:
2 chicken breasts
small baked potato
sweetcorn
WORKOUT
Meal 5:
1 scoop whey, 2g leucine
handful haribo
Meal 6:
Half pound beef
small baked potato
carrots and peas
flaxseed
cla
Meal 7:
Oatcakes and low fat cheese 
 
Totals approx 2800kcal, protein 250g 
 
Will post up some pictures soon
 
sel
 

Best of luck with this mate.
Might be no harm doing the sscv before you have your myofusion.

Thanks mate.  Yeah I usually do it fasted; got to the gym a little later than expected today though so wouldnt have eaten for a few hours if I had.
 
sel

now then mate, great you have decided to go for it!
 
must be nice to be able to pack up and move to spain for the weather!  what do you do for a living? (being nosey lol)
 
looking forward to seeing pictures, sounds like your already in pretty good shape!

Here is a relatively recent picture for reference of my current state:
 

 
Couldn't get my legs in the shot but will continue to post more pics soon.
 
sel

dazc


now then mate, great you have decided to go for it!

must be nice to be able to pack up and move to spain for the weather!  what do you do for a living? (being nosey lol)

looking forward to seeing pictures, sounds like your already in pretty good shape!

Yeah I thought it was about time. 
 
I have been planning our Spain move for a while now.  I'm self employed as a personal trainer (photo is in my studio). 
I'm pretty happy with my physique as it stands but my legs and back thickness need tons of improvement (avoided hard leg training for a while due to martial arts 3 times per week).
Thanks for popping in :)
 
sel

hi sel,
 
you looking fairly lean already, plenty of time still left, im also doing my first show ( hopefully ) NPA Midlands in August Novice, im hoping to learn tons about my body as this is my first prep and im under the watchful eye of Micky Mckay,
 
I will keep an eye on this mate good luck
 
Nav

Hi Nav, yeah it took a while to get relatively lean before I started building.  Thanks a lot and good luck for August!
 
Right, didn't get to the computer yesterday, pretty busy with work.  Tuesdays workout went something like this:
Shoulders:
RC warm ups
Seated dumbbell shoulder press
after warm ups:
30kg 10 reps
32 kg 6 reps (reckon I couldv'e got 8 with a spotter)
28 kg 12 reps
24 kg 12 reps
 
dumbbell lat raise
seated dumbbell bent over raise
cable rope face pull (great for rear delts)
dumbbell front raise
barbbell shrugs drop setted into plate shrugs
 
Diet much the same as yesterday but a cheat meal instead of meal 4 (I intend to cheat the day after both leg workouts).
 
Today
Trained back today, went ok, quads were a little sore so had to forfeit full deadlifts (will do them with hams on Friday).  Felt good, sick pump.
 
Wide grip pull ups from a dead hang (bodyweight with 1 min rest): 12,10,8
Bent over barbell rows mixed grip, 50-80kg: 8-12 reps
single arm dumbbell rows (leaning on rack), 30-42kg: 8-15 reps, with a good squeeze
Plate loaded machine rows with mixed grips
hyper extensions: 3x12 with 10kg plate
wide lat pulldowns: 3x12
 
Threw in some biceps after back:  hammer curls (24kg), incline curls (18kg)
 
Diet
Not a great diet today, very clean but too many supplements:
Meal 1
2 scoops myofusion
50g instant oats
 cla
flaxseed oil
 
Meal 2 (pwo)
go ahead bar (v low fat high carb)
2 scoops mp whey
 
Meal 3
Massive chicken pasta (egg) with low calorie sauce
 
Meal 4
2 scoops myofusion
50g instant oats
cla
flaxseed oil
 
Meal 5
oatcakes
low fat cheese
 
totals: approx 2500kcal, 230g pro
 
Weighed in at 72.5kg this morning, but the only food I had eaten was a liquid meal so weight seems relatively stable.  Want to start cutting somewhere above 75kg with no more than 10% fat.
 
More pictures to come soon.
 
thanks
 
sel


 
 

Ok so since I trained back today here's one form the back.  As you can see thickness urgently required!!!
 

 
sel
 
 

hi welcome ...i think your in need of some food.......your not eating anyway near enough to build ,you want 3 chicken meals in there and you seem preocupied with getting ripped already cardio etc..dont eat crap but for size in a short time you need to up it big time imo your getting the protien but the shakes should be extra s you say ripping wont be your prob so hammer the tuna and chicken  gl

Hi mate,
 
yeah I guess I am slightly paranoid (closet fat boy).  Cals wise, lifts are improving and measurements slowly increasing, def growing.  I always do cardio for cv fitness, that's never going to change.  At the moment it is very low intensity and actually helps with my appetite.  I am eating 300-500 above my tdee.  In my experience much more than that equals fat gain.  Bear in mind I am aiming to be on stage around 65kg, I don't mind how big I manage to get but I intend to come in shredded to the bone.
 
Thanks for your support mate :)
 
sel

ok you ll be shredded but you wont gain any muscle at all on the diet you have. your back detail is v good ,looking about 3 weeks out so take my advice and hit the protien ..real stuff not shakes you wont gain any fat from chicken and tuna but if you ignore this you ll just look exactly the same as now (with a little more cuts )but with a tan,i know 22 weeks out you prob got 14 weeks of potential growth before its too late so make every session count but need fuel in the tank thats all im saying i know you naturals always come in shredded so get a little size to look better than the rest....

Thanks for your input mate, advice taken on board.
 
Ok so weight is up today, weighed 74kg dead this am (not sure what went on with last time's weigh in).  Prominent vascularity in shoulders, arms and abs still plain as day.  Supra iliac measurment was 8mm which is a little on the higher side than previously, but I am still single digit body fat.  Good to see a little fat coming on as it shows that a degree of weight gain is occurring.
 
Hit chest today, and had a great workout.  Was in the mood for some serious volume work and probably slightly overdid it, but really smashed the sh*t out of the gym lol.  Went something like this:
 
db flat bench:  warm ups, 44kg for 8, 46kg for 2 sets of 6 (personal best)
Incline dumbbell press:  30kg for 3 sets of 12 (perfect from squeezing hard- noticably fatigued from initial pressing)
Dumbbell flyes various angles from flat to 45% with 16kg dbs.
Decline presses (havnt done for a long time so went very light and just reintroduced myself to the movement with perfect form)
Incline smith- 4-5 sets higher reps going to failure and resting very little
pec dec (1 drop set)
cable crossovers (3 sets 15 reps focusing on squeezing)
push ups on kettlebells
 
Yup way to much volume blah blah lol I don't care had a great workout sick pump and smashed the original pb I was going for.
 
On a cool note a Korean guy came up to me in the gym and began intently quizzing me on how I built my physique basically pointing at me then pointing at himself and saying "i need this body" lol.  I was very flattered and I guess it's nice to have the occassional boost like that when sometimes you feel like a skinny fat sack of sh*t (he was actually in pretty good nick too).
 
Diet is going well I have been eating a little more (you will be pleased to hear, I'm sure, arniemonkey ;)), since calipers have given the all clear lol.  Will post up tonight.
 
Also took a couple of pics managed to get some legs in the picture and a side chest shot  so will get those up asap.
 
Enough babbling anyway thanks for reading
 
sel

Very good starting position, you should be able to grow as arnie has said for a good few weeks.
 
I would personally reduce the cardio a little and up the macros ever so slightly.
 
Gives you options when come in closer. Nothing worse than maxing out on cardio early on and having to reduce calories too early. Will just lead to a flat, stringy look on stage.
 
Lower back could do with some work, you do any deadlifts/hyper-extensions?
 
 

hey aforementioned pictures as follows:
 
lat spread with legs in dire need of improvement (appalling lighting for this in my studio)
  legs
legs again
side chest
full side chest
again
 
Diet coming later
 
cheers, sel
 
 
 

Chrisla


Very good starting position, you should be able to grow as arnie has said for a good few weeks.

I would personally reduce the cardio a little and up the macros ever so slightly.

Gives you options when come in closer. Nothing worse than maxing out on cardio early on and having to reduce calories too early. Will just lead to a flat, stringy look on stage.

Lower back could do with some work, you do any deadlifts/hyper-extensions?

Hi Chrisla,
 
Thanks mate.  So take CV out completely?  I aint doin much! I've done 2 sessions this week and intend to do a third...or not?  Want to try and stay fit and healthy more than anything.  Yes I have been deadlifting but only recently (had a slightly dodgy lower back which seems to have completely cleared up now).  It really shows on that back shot though doesn't it!  Like a pancake...
I am considering raising cals to 3000 per day, that would mean an extra meal, now that two people have said the same thing might be worth doing.
 
Thanks once again for your input mate :)
 
sel

your thighs look about 4 feet long on the side chest poses lol...

I wouldn't have an extra meal, just increase macros in each meal a little, around training would be my choice.

arniemonkey


your thighs look about 4 feet long on the side chest poses lol...

 
oh behave!