18 weeks out

Well I had a great offseason, stayed lean and made some good improvements.  My weight got up to 232lbs and I was happy with my conditioning.  Originally after last years competitions I had decided that I would take off from competing in 2011 in order to move up to the heavyweights, however I spoke with national level competitor Lorenzo Jones who made a great point.  He suggested that I shouldn't worry about moving up a weight class until I have placed well in the lightheavies due to the fact tat size wasn't my issue, conditioniong was the problem.

He has been around the sport for a long time so I took his advice into consideration very strongly.  I had already been getting an itch to compete so I talked it over with my nutritionist Jason Theobald (www.nattynutrition.com) and we decided that the pros outweighed the cons.  So with that said, once again its on!!!  My diet this offseason was very different than in the past, I felt it was way more structured thanks to my awesome nutritionist.

My macros were 665 protein 401 carbs and 229 fats, I only had one shake which was in the middle of the night so needless to say that was a TON of food and it was definitely a job getting in every bit of it.
              Meal 1: chicken, cottage cheese, olive oil, honey nut cheerios
              Meal 2: chicken, olive oil, almond butter
              Meal 3: tilapia, olive oil, almond butter
              Meal 4: Pre Workout : chicken, oive oil, sweet potatoe, almond butter
              Meal 5: Post Workout: 96% lean ground beef, olive oil, trix cereal (non-training days white rice)
              Meal 6: chicken, almond butter, string cheese
              Night shake: casein

That is a total of 6300 calories, after my 2010 shows we slowly worked up to this volume of food each time my weight would stall.  I did cardio 7 days a week, it started at 30 minutes and we ended up decreasing it to 20 minutes walking on the treadmill.  I train 4 days a week and on off days I do what I like to call touch up work.  The touch up work involves training triceps, calves, and forearms.  I train my triceps 4 days a week and my calves and forearms twice a week.  My training style is very instinctive, low volume, and progressive.

Over the next 18 weeks I will be taking the necessary steps to be the best that I can be on June 18th at the 2011 Jr. Nationals.  I hope to win the lightheavies  and I believe 100% that if I show up shredded, hard, full, and dry this is within my reach.  I will be keeping you guys updated with a weekly blog that I will post Sunday nights or early Monday.  Please follow along and enjoy the journey with me, if you guys have any questions you can email me at southernmuscle_214@yahoo.com and I will answer your training or nutrition questions here in my blog.

I would like to thank my sponsors Joe Lobell with www.mostmuscular.com, John Hicks with www.theironmulisha.com, and Ron at www.genisipeptides.net.  See everyone next week