jcf
10-13-14, 5:42 pm
Hey Animal Family,
This is my journey to the 2015 NPC Natural Ohio. I will be logging everything from diet to training to everyday thoughts and theories to keep me on track this season. I decided to do this here with hope that I can get opinions and insight from any of my fellow animals who wish to follow and that through my journey I'm able to help others here with theirs.
A little background before we begin:
I am 21 years old and have been a part of this iron world we're all a part of since the day I turned 12. My Dad has been lifting ever since his army days and as I'd spend evenings sitting on the concrete floor of our basement watching him lift, moving weight that at the time I couldn't even fathom moving, I fell in love with the process. My Dad showed me how to do my basic bodyweight movement and told me when I turned 12 I could start using the weights we had and he'd show me how to lift. So every day up till then I did my push ups, sit ups, and pull ups in anticipation for that day. Let me tell you the simple knowledge, the small crash course on iron, and the privilege to use the simple equipment we had in the basement was the by far the greatest present I've ever gotten. I couldn't even tell you what I actually got for my 12th birthday because in comparison to that it didn't even matter.
Lets jump ahead now to 2014. This was the first year I decided to compete. I did my research and found that the NPC Natural Ohio was the biggest show in my area. My philosophy is to go big or go home, when I qualify for nationals I don't want it to be through some small town show through some unheard of organization, I want to qualify with the top competitors of my current division. If you want to be the best you have to beat the best right? So I dialed in, read countless articles, watched copious amounts of posing videos on youtube and made myself a diet and workout plan with the knowledge I had. I took seventh in the spring show and decided to compete again in the fall. I made myself an offseason diet, staying lean, and made some changes to my first pre-contest diet this time around. I had more knowledge and the experience under my belt this time and came in 6th this time. That show was last week, October 4th. I was in the light heavyweight division, but both this competition and last I weighed in at the bottom of my class weighing 190 in the spring and 193 in the fall. Seeing that I am 6'2" and tower above most people in my class, this was my major downfall. I realize that no matter how well conditioned I come in I just don't have the mass on my frame to win so this time around I am taking a year off and gaining some size. This is my log of that journey through all the dieting, workouts and preparation I do for fall 2015. I aim to put on 40lbs relatively cleanly in the next 8 months which will still leave me with 16 weeks to dial it in in time for the show. I've never been over 220 in my life so I will be aiming to break that, assess my progress and continue with an end goal of 240 before cutting back down. I hope that some of you will follow me on my journey and that this log can help to motivate my brothers in their goals and aspirations as well.
But enough about the past, lets start building the future,
Its growing season!
This is my journey to the 2015 NPC Natural Ohio. I will be logging everything from diet to training to everyday thoughts and theories to keep me on track this season. I decided to do this here with hope that I can get opinions and insight from any of my fellow animals who wish to follow and that through my journey I'm able to help others here with theirs.
A little background before we begin:
I am 21 years old and have been a part of this iron world we're all a part of since the day I turned 12. My Dad has been lifting ever since his army days and as I'd spend evenings sitting on the concrete floor of our basement watching him lift, moving weight that at the time I couldn't even fathom moving, I fell in love with the process. My Dad showed me how to do my basic bodyweight movement and told me when I turned 12 I could start using the weights we had and he'd show me how to lift. So every day up till then I did my push ups, sit ups, and pull ups in anticipation for that day. Let me tell you the simple knowledge, the small crash course on iron, and the privilege to use the simple equipment we had in the basement was the by far the greatest present I've ever gotten. I couldn't even tell you what I actually got for my 12th birthday because in comparison to that it didn't even matter.
Lets jump ahead now to 2014. This was the first year I decided to compete. I did my research and found that the NPC Natural Ohio was the biggest show in my area. My philosophy is to go big or go home, when I qualify for nationals I don't want it to be through some small town show through some unheard of organization, I want to qualify with the top competitors of my current division. If you want to be the best you have to beat the best right? So I dialed in, read countless articles, watched copious amounts of posing videos on youtube and made myself a diet and workout plan with the knowledge I had. I took seventh in the spring show and decided to compete again in the fall. I made myself an offseason diet, staying lean, and made some changes to my first pre-contest diet this time around. I had more knowledge and the experience under my belt this time and came in 6th this time. That show was last week, October 4th. I was in the light heavyweight division, but both this competition and last I weighed in at the bottom of my class weighing 190 in the spring and 193 in the fall. Seeing that I am 6'2" and tower above most people in my class, this was my major downfall. I realize that no matter how well conditioned I come in I just don't have the mass on my frame to win so this time around I am taking a year off and gaining some size. This is my log of that journey through all the dieting, workouts and preparation I do for fall 2015. I aim to put on 40lbs relatively cleanly in the next 8 months which will still leave me with 16 weeks to dial it in in time for the show. I've never been over 220 in my life so I will be aiming to break that, assess my progress and continue with an end goal of 240 before cutting back down. I hope that some of you will follow me on my journey and that this log can help to motivate my brothers in their goals and aspirations as well.
But enough about the past, lets start building the future,
Its growing season!