SP's on/off-season log

[snowpatrol123]

Weight 208

I drank a tonne of fluid yesterday and had to wake up a bunch of times to pee during the night, but slept in fairly late so that was nice

Took a look in the mirror when I was getting ready for work and was impressed to see some abdominal vascularity (despite being fairly hairy atm)

Good day at work, got a nice nap in and hit powerhouse to help a friend with posing then kill legs with my sister afterwards


Wed - legs/calves (pump day - universe wk11)

warmup - incline treadmill

seated leg curl - three warmup sets of 15 reps then three work sets of 8 reps, followed by 15, 30 and 45 sec isoholds (per set/respectively)
+++
superset adductor machine - one warmup set and four working sets of 15 reps

cybex "heavy" leg press - pyramiding weight up doing sets of 25, then two heavier sets of 6 reps with 5 second descents
25 reps x 2 plates per side (180lbs + sled...)
25 x 3 plates (270)
25 x 4 (360)
25 x 5 (450)
25 x 6 (540)
25 x 7 (630)...this was pretty damn hard, moved on to the sets of six with slow descents
6 x 9 plates (810)
6 x 10 (900)

sumo hack squat - four sets of 8 really slow, deep reps (all the way to the stops at the bottom of the machine) pushing outwards to hit the vastus lateralis

glute/ham hyperextension - four sets of 20...when you do these right they really annihilate the hams

calf raise/toe press - four sets of 20 followed by hard 20 sec stretches
+++
superset dorsiflexion - bodyweight to failure for about 60 reps after each set of calf raises


cardio - none postWO but earlier in the day I went for about a 30min walk after lunch because it was really nice out...sunny but not too hot, bit of wind etc


Ab shot...and btw my oddly-placed hand is trying to protect my junk from the corner of the counter, nothing weird going on here:

 

[China_Wall]

looking crazy good brother... I've been absent for a couple months, I come back on here and... BAMM... you're looking like you're from a different planet

awesome results as usual man, keep it up!

 

[snowpatrol123]

looking crazy good brother... I've been absent for a couple months, I come back on here and... BAMM... you're looking like you're from a different planet

awesome results as usual man, keep it up!

Thanks a lot man, welcome back~!


Weight 208

Pretty decent sleep last night, feeling grateful when that happens

Moderately easy day at work, had to get things in order for my time off to head to kelowna this weekend for my friend's wedding

Few things to get to tonight, between weights, cardio, and posing I should also get a tan and make sure / double check my meals are prepped/frozen/sufficient for the trip


Thu - chest/delts/tris/abs (pump day - universe wk11)

warmup - incline treadmill

reverse pec dec - two warmup sets of 20, then four working sets of 25/20/15/10 reps, increasing weight each time and a 1 sec hold/flex on every rep

unsupported hanging leg raise - four sets of 15
+++
superset rope crunch - 15 reps after each set of leg raises

seated side lateral DB raise - one warmup and three working sets of 10, quite heavy

HSPL incline chest press - pyramiding weight up, did 15/12/10/8 reps with a hard lockout on each rep for work sets

flat BB press - no decline bench at powerhouse so I did flat, it was pretty sad weight but I just went for three sets of 8 reps again with a hard lockout and flex at the top of each

smith incline press - three sets of 8/7/6 with a 2 sec pause at the chest...lost a rep each set

double-rope tricep pushdown - four sets, pyramiding weight up...did 20/16/12/8 reps with a 1-2 sec flex/squeeze at the bottom of every rep


That was it for weights, back to work for a meeting and just killing some time now until rush hour dies down. I'll head home for a nap then hit the rec centre for cardio, hopefully mrs.SP will come keep me company.


edit: the salon where my buddy's girlfriend works & I tan at (and get haircuts from) closed early so I ended up just heading straight to the rec centre for cardio


cardio - 10min warmup on the track, 30mins hard on the stair mill then another 15mins around the track

 

[tx045]

Great conditioning

 

[snowpatrol123]

Great conditioning

Thanks!


Weight 203

Woke up early-ish so I could hit the gym before we left for the wedding

One coffee and energy drink later I got a quick back workout in then helped my friend who's competing tomorrow go over his posing one more time

Home, packed and prepped meals in the cooler...Mrs.SP is driving now and I'm painfully tapping this out in the passenger seat


Fri - back/abs/calves (pump day - universe wk11)

warmup - incline treadmill

low cable row ***8211; I did these individual handles and used a supinated grip for 3 sets and then a pronated grip for 3 sets. All sets were 8 to 10 reps with a very hard squeeze on each rep.

unsupported hanging leg raise - four sets of 15
+++
rope crunch - 15 reps after each set of leg raises

smith deadlift - four sets of 6 reps keeping tension on the lats through the whole set

pullup - three sets of 10 with wide grip, slow and full ROM then two sets of 8 with a narrow grip focusing on pulling my chin super high and contracting the lats really hard at the top

seated calf press - four sets of 20 full reps with a pause/squeeze at the top, 15 partials from the stretch position and a 10 second hard stretch on each set


edit: drove all day, ate prepped meals with gas station coffee every 2-3hrs and checked into out hotel. Sat in the hot tub for a bit then headed to the fitness centre...


cardio - 40mins on the incline treadmill, moderate/LISS

 

[snowpatrol123]

Weight 204

Decent sleep for a hotel, woke up pretty early and headed to Global fitness and Raquet club...

Expensive drop in but very cool facility. 45 and 60 degree versions of leg press, regular and variation squat machines

Probably the only thing I was hoping to see (never have before) was a vertical leg press, but just for novelty I've gotten this far without one


Sat - legs/calves (pump day - universe wk11)

warmup - incline treadmill

45 degree incline leg press - I just did sets of 15 adding weight until I got to a weight where I couldn't get all 15 reps straight with no breaks...I made it to 9 plates, not bad considering my current state

60 degree incline hack squat - regular hack squats here - basically did them until I started to lose my pump which was about set 5, so I stopped there for a total of 5 sets of 8 reps, all very deep and controlled

glute kickback machine - This is the "donkey kick" machine where you kick your leg back and flex glutes...I did 4 sets of 8 on each side (leg/glute/whatever...)

prone hamstring curl - I was pretty much out of gas here so I did 4 sets with very little rest breaks, pyramiding weight up and getting 20/15/12/8 reps per set

standing calf raise - did 4 heavy sets of 10 on the standing calve machine with perfect form to finish

 

[snowpatrol123]

Weight 203

Got home from the wedding last night and decided to do some late (early) cardio

Had a middle of the night prepped meal, slept for a bit then woke up and got a few eggs from the hotel breakfast

Workout for today was just arms, abs and calves so I couldn't really justify the ex*****ant drop in at Global fitness

Grabbed a coffee and hit the goodlife instead which was a perfectly adequate facility, no difference from the others I've been to really

A middle aged, fit guy came up and asked "what show in doing" mid set and we ended up chatting a bit, turns out he's won masters BCs and open ABs back in the day

Finished up my workout, showered and back to the hotel to pack and head home...MrsSP is taking a turn driving us between revelstoke and golden right now in fact


Sun - arms/abs/calves (pump day - universe wk11)

warmup - incline treadmill

Ez-bar curl - two warmup sets and four heavy working sets of 8 reps with a hard squeeze at the top of every rep

unsupported hanging leg raise - four sets of 15 reps
+++
rope crunch - 15 reps immediately after each set of leg raises

reverse-grip Ez-bar curl - four sets of 10, slow and methodical to hit the brachialis
+++
superset v-bar pushdown - five sets of 12 with a hard 1-2sec squeeze/flex at the bottom of every rep

preacher machine curl - four sets of 10-15 reps, increasing weight each set but still flexing as hard as possible at the top of every rep
+++
superset standing calf raise - five sets of 10 reps with a quick flex/pause at the top of each

rope pushdown - three sets of 8 reps, heavier on these
+++
superset one-arm rope pushdown - 10 reps per arms to burn out the triceps after the rope pushdowns


That was it - fairly short and sweet, showered and took off.

I may go do some stairmill when we get home but at the same time I'm worried about my weight / preserving muscle so I may not...


cardio - did round one around 1am as mentioned, 35mins moderately hard on the incline treadmill while watching the pilot for "The 100" on several recommendations


cardio (2) - we got home around 10 so I headed to powerhouse since the rec centre closes at 10:30...turned out powerhouse closed at 10 (on sundays...) so I reluctantly came home and did MORE treadmill...35mins moderate again, my feet are really starting to bug me from the damn treadmill (sore/pre-blister feeling)

 

[snowpatrol123]

Weight 207

Didn't sleep well last night, surprise surprise...but I slept in, went to work late and decided to bail after lunch

Home for a quick nap, some salad and preWO oats then hit powerhouse for what turned out to be some LISS and a 'meh'-grade chest/delt workout


Mon - chest/delts/abs (last chest day - universe wk12/1 week out)

warmup - incline treadmill

rear delt/reverse pec dec - two sets of 20 warmup reps then three heavy working sets with a 1-2sec flex/hold on every rep, 25/20/15 reps increasing weight on each set

unsupported hanging leg raise - four sets of 15
+++
superset rope crunch - 15 reps after each set of leg raises

seated side lateral machine - four sets of 12 with a quick flex/hold at the top of each rep, pyramiding weight up slightly on every set

HSPL chest press - pyramiding weight up doing sets of 8 with a hard lockout on every rep, a few warmup then four working sets...couldn't go as heavy as I wanted here, stopped at 2.5 plates/side

incline BB press - three sets of 8 with a pause 2" above the chest (on as many reps as possible...)

flat DB flye - I don't do these often, subbed them in for the flat DB press instead and got a good 20sec stretch with the DBs after each set of 12 reps


cardio - against my better judgement I did 30mins on the incline treadmill to kill some time waiting for my preworkout to kick in...I may do some stair mill tonight but my feet are now killing me, derp


Took a look in the mirror after my nap and noticed that now my abs are vascular even when I've got water in me: June 20/2016 - 1 week out, afternoon ab vascularity - Album on Imgur

edit: met my brother in law at the rec centre, did some laps around the track while we planned out his first contest prep


cardio (2) - 30mins hard on the stairmill, then cooldown on the track before 45mins of posing practice

 

[snowpatrol123]

Weight 206

Slept in past my dentist appointment this morning...luckily they had an opening an hour and a half later so I was able to get in anyways

The crown they made didn't quite fit though, so I'll be going back for a new and improved version sometime next week it sounds like

Straight to work from the dentist to deal with some client stuff, took a nap then headed home to see Mrs.SP for a bit before heading out again

Met my sister and mom for a pedicure (a birthday present from us to her)...my first one, basically in preparation for the show on Saturday

We then met my youngest brother at the Goodlife there and got a good leg workout in with some posing afterwards...


Tue - legs/calves (last leg day - universe wk12/1wk out)

warmup - step mill for a few mins

seated hamstring curl - three warmup sets of 15, pyramiding weight up then three heavier working sets of 12 reps, still pyramiding weight such that the third was almost impossible to get all 12 clean reps
+++
superset unsupported hanging leg raise - three sets of 20

smith stiff-legged deadlift - these were tough, I actually think I might've overdone it a bit but we'll see tomorrow I guess...four heavy sets of 10 reps, all the tension on hamstrings and squeezing glutes at the top

HSPL incline leg press - haven't used one of these in awhile which is weird since it's all I used to use...just pyramided weight up adding a plate each side from 4 to 10 plates a side...could've kept going but played it smart

smith split-squat - four sets of 10 reps per leg, nothing fancy but these sure do a number on your glutes
+++
superset adductor machine - four sets of 20 with the full stack

standing calf raise - four sets of 10, very slow and very heavy with a hard stretch at the end of each set


That was it! Did some posing, worked on my own stuff of course and ran my brother through the basics while my sister took a few pics for his reference/practice

 

[snowpatrol123]

Weight 208

Low carbs, but almost 10L of water in me so far when I weighed in...

Had to go visit a client site on a reservation today, crazy place...no cell reception even

Got back to the office, napped, sent a few emails then headed home to work on my posing routine a bit

Haircut, tan and hit the gym for my final back day (pre-contest) with my brother in law...


Wed - back/abs/calves (pump day - universe wk12)

warmup - indoor track

unsupported hanging leg raise - four sets of 15
+++
superset rope crunch - 15 reps after each set of leg raises

low cable row - three warmup sets then three working sets of 10 reps, fairly heavy with 10 partials at the end of each work set

HSPL high row machine - three sets of 10 with moderate weight, really focusing on a full range of motion from extended scapulae to elbows rammed all the way back on every rep

DB pullover - three sets of 10, short ROM for constant tension as usual

straight-arm rope pulldown - five sets of 10, similar exercise to the pullovers but from a different angle so it felt great
+++
superset standing calf raise - four sets of 10, heavy with a hard stretch at the bottom of every rep and another 10sec stretch at the end of each set

assist-machine wide-grip pullup - three sets of 8, slow with a really high/hard contraction at the top of each rep


I was really on the fence about doing any cardio, all of the stairmills were in use then all of the sudden one opened up and without actually deciding I hopped on and got started...


cardio - 30mins pretty hard on the stairmill postWO then a few laps around the track to cool down


Low carb'in (so..."flat" of course, lol) and fairly high water and sodium right now (10L / 4-6g NaCl) but took a picture this evening anyways:

 

[snowpatrol123]

Weight 210

Even more water! How high can we go...I've been peeing at least once an hour, funny but annoying

Frustrating day at work, my boss picked the wrong day to be a fuckhead but luckily for him I was kind of tired and didn't feel like opening a can of whoopass lol

Compensated with a double nap, some staring into space and forum trolling then headed to powerhouse after work for some posing

Ended up doing some light cardio while I was there, then came home and had some eggwhites with Mrs.SP and we hit the rec centre for my final pre-contest workout

Posing practice for a good half hour - pretty happy with my mandatories so the main focus was transitions

Tomorrow I will finalize my routine...(design, learn, practice and master lol)


Thu - upper body (universe wk12 - final workout)

warmup - indoor track

rope tricep pushdown - four sets of 12-15 reps with a hard squeeze at the bottom
+++
superset one-arm cable curl - three (or four?) sets of 12-20 reps, squeezing as hard as possible at the top of every rep

cable side lateral raise - three sets of 12 per arm, leaning away from the cable and going above eye level for a huge ROM
+++
superset rope face-pull - three sets of 15-20 reps...I rarely do these but wanted to hit the rhomboids and rear delts at the same time

seated row machine - did these one arm at a time, three sets of 12 reps per arm...lats are sore from yesterday so I didn't go very heavy, maybe half the stack
+++
chest press machine - kept the reps high here, 25/20/16 per set increasing weight on each and adding half as many partials at the end of each set

seated shoulder press machine - did these backwards on the seat, which turns it more into a behind-the-neck press...two sets of 20 reps


cardio - did this earlier on at powerhouse, just under 60mins of moderate pace LISS on a steep incline treadmill while watching The 100


posing - as mentioned, 30 mins focused mainly on transitions both between mandatories and quarters

 

[carverelli]

Good luck at your show my friend. You've put in the work ....time to reap the benefits

 

[snowpatrol123]

Good luck at your show my friend. You've put in the work ....time to reap the benefits

Thanks man, appreciate it.

I've had a busy weekend obviously and fully intend to update with pictures and story tomorrow ( on work time )

In the meantime, here's a picture of me and my chesty friend who got 3rd place (one spot ahead of me, AGAIN!) right before hitting the stage

We weighed the same but he's four inches shorter...eek

 

[Gainjin260]

Looking good man. Great job!

 

[snowpatrol123]

Weight 210.5

Fri - tan and weigh ins

That 210.5 was Friday PM around 6:00 at weigh-ins...I'd had 8 or 9L of water at that point (and of course peed some of it out)

...earlier on...

I planned, and was approved to have the Friday off but ended up getting called in for a department meeting

Very frustrating, I made it clear I needed to leave by 11:30 and bailed out to go downtown and get my tan sprayed on

I parked about 10 minutes away from what I thought was the host hotel/spray tan location but when I got there realized it had moved

For the first time in years, literally, they picked a different host hotel about another 10-15 mins walk away

SO...I booked it over there, still on foot...got my tan, and then walked back to my car...giving me an inadvertent/unplanned 45mins cardio session

Then I stopped in at powerhouse, and coincidentally a few guys I know and IFBB RON PALTROW showed up at the same time for a back workout

Ron was in town to emcee the morning show at the provincials, and it worked out that I sat and talked with those guys for a good 30-40 mins while eating some fish and asparagus

Then they eventually were going to workout, and as cool as it would've been to join them I thought better of it (the day before competing)

So, I went home and took a quick nap before Mrs.SP showed up to drive me downtown to the athletes meeting

It ran late, I eventually weighed in (above) then I stuck around for the second meeting to keep my sister company

Her bikini E (tall) class had literally 20 girls in it, a complete fuck up on the part of the organizers...

The meeting was running very long so I finished my last container of fish, asparagus and brocolli cold

Headed home, took a half tab of dyazide and ate some rice cakes before trying to sleep for a bit

Sat - show day

I was up for most of the night, snacking on rice cakes and peeing

Slept a little bit before my dad picked me up...we had breakfast (steak & eggs) then he dropped me at the venue

Got my tan touched up, ate some yogurt pretzels then eventually hit the stage for PJ

I was in the first callout, which was a relief but I knew there were some shorter/bigger guys that'd be tough to beat

When it was all said and done I took fourth in the heavies...again, not the Win that we're all training for but it does give a two year nationals qualification so that was my main goal going in

Knowing that my arms were still a little on the small side particularly, and I had maybe over-dieted a bit too much weight off in the final two weeks I would've been surprised (but happy of course) with a significantly better placing at this level

The men's classic physique division took FOREVER to do, so the show was running hours late and my sister (in the evening show) didn't hit the stage until 6 or 7 hours after I was done

Luckily there's no shortage of (junk) food backstage and I was able to eat half an oreo cheesecake, split a small pizza with mrs.SP across the street and finish off my bag of carb-up twizzlers in the meantime

Unfortunately my sister didn't make the first callout in her HUGE class of 20 girls but she looked great and wasn't overly let down, knowing the competition is a higher calibre than either of us had experienced before and the sheer number in bikini E meant she was facing steep odds

We eventually finished up at the venue and headed to cactus club...unfortunately that was full to the brim so we abandoned ship and went to our secondary/backup location which was still ok. I had some fish tacos, a piece of pizza, shared some appetizers and probably drank a little too much diet coke (based on my weight the next day)...


Weight 218 (evening @ the rec centre with a lot of food in me...up quite a bit!)

Sun - post show

My sister and I went to a friend's friend's place for a photoshoot Sunday morning

Having never done one before I had no idea what to expect, but the guy is a very adept amateur photographer with a studio in his basement and walked us through the whole thing.

I saw the raw pictures that came up on his laptop while shooting and I can say I'm excited to see the finished product when he returns from vacation

Afterwards we went out for brunch, eggs and pancakes but not too much and discussed the show, placings and plans for the next year

We're both going to take a whole year off to improve, my sister is still qualified for provincials so she'll likely return next year and I am hoping that by that point I'll be comfortable stepping up to the national stage...

After brunch I met a friend at powerhouse and he took a few pictures of me doing some key exercises
- hanging leg raise
- pullups
- SLDL
- walking lunges
- squats
They turned out decently for iPhone photos, I'll try to get those together / uploaded soon too

That evening we had a birthday BBQ dinner to celebrate my brother in law's birthday, both families attended (mine and mrs.SP's) and it was a fun time. I ate a few burgers and tired out quickly so I actually missed round one of dessert, but made up for it with a few pieces of icecream cake for the road that didn't see the light of the next day...

After the BBQ, mrs.SP and I grabbed our gym clothes and went to the rec centre to do some cardio...I felt like I wanted to get some blood moving and she wants to 'prep' for her friend's wedding in two months so it worked out well


cardio - 25mins moderate intensity on the stair mill + 15mins LISS on the indoor track


It was nice to use their shower to get a lot of the spraytan off, then we went home, prepped food and headed to bed

I'm still working on sorting pictures so those will be coming shortly but I wanted to finish typing this and get it posted today as promised...

To be continued...

 

[Southernfish]

Love that squat picture brother!! Congradulations on locking down that 2 year pass!!

 

[halfwit]

Love that squat picture brother!! Congradulations on locking down that 2 year pass!!

Seconded. Holy traps!

 

[Megatron28]

Congratulations! Not the win you hoped for, but a huge accomplishment nonetheless! You should be very proud of all that you have done.

 

[bigben66]

Well done brother! Apologies for the lateness in the congratulations... just back from Budapest and a slippy 4 hand massage from Nora and Brigit!

You look awesome up there on that stage buddy, progress just keeps on coming!

 

[snowpatrol123]

Weight 223

My ankles have been pretty fucked up with water for the last few days, obviously I'm holding a lot of it and I'm not sure why...

My water drop protocol and diuretic use was mild to say the least and following the same scheme as my last two shows when I had no issue whatsoever

Anyways I wore socks today (ugh) and took a quarter dyazide in the morning which seemed to help a lot

They were pretty much normal (skinny af) when I took my socks off at the gym

Work was super meh...day was long, I didn't get a chance to nap and my boss (the co-owner) keeps trying to get himself throat-punched

I headed home for a quick preWO omelette then met my friend, who was a judge at provincials for a workout at LA Fitness

Pretty nice gym, we talked about the show, my class and the others...he's an insightful guy, has placed well at nationals before and I value his input

Train train train and bring up my arms is the verdict...nothing new but it doesn't hurt to reinforce it

So in that spirit...we trained legs


Tue - legs (random workout)

adductor machine - five sets of 15-20 reps, this machine is heavier so I couldn't quite do the full stack for that many reps
+++
superset abductor machine - five sets of 15 reps...I don't normally do this one so I used a bit less weight than the other one

prone hamstring curl - two warmup and three working sets of 15-20 reps, keeping torso elevated off the pad to really focus hams

highbar ATG squat - god I haven't done these in forever, I was weak as f**k but it was good to get back under the bar
10 x bar
10 x 135
10 x 225
10 x 275
10 x 315
5 x 365...LOL, I seriously couldn't believe when I dropped down for my sixth rep and literally couldn't get back up...good thing I had a spotter

reverse hack-squat - training partner wanted to do these backwards (facing the pad) so I gave it a shot, having never done it before I kept the weight moderately heavy for three working sets of 8-12 reps

seated leg extension - five sets, slow and methodical reps, pyramiding weight up...about 20/16/12/10/8 reps per set approximately, full stack for the last two sets


I would've normally hit calves or even finished with SLDL then calves but with all our bullshitting that had already taken 100+ minutes so we called it there


cardio - earlier in the day it was nice (before it started thunder and lightning...and I rode my motorcycle but that's a different story) so I went for about a 25-30min walk at lunch