Rich's Road to the NPC Ohio State and INBF National's: Controlled Labs Sponsored

[rich55]

One week till Precontest Cutting!

Well, I am one week away from beginning cutting and very excited to get lean and attain an improved look on stage in September in 13 weeks!! I will be keeping a detailed log of my diet, training and supplementation until showtime. I plan on coming in better conditioned and a little bigger.

My diet has been about 95% clean versus 98% this past week as I am having some things I enjoy like Subway, Italian food, and whatever I deem necessary to consume prior to cracking down on the diet. Diet has been around 4200 on workout days my first drop will be to 3700 for the first 3 weeks.

Training continues to go well as my strength and muscularity continues to improve each week. I hope to make some small gains during the first few weeks of dieting while my calories are still relatively high. I have chest and back on Tuesday, and then I will be taking off 4 days to recharge.

I continue to rehab my back, and am interested to see how it feels in another week. I plan on doing some specialized total body training to create some growth during the first 6 weeks, however, I may have to make some adjustment based on my lower back.

[pu12en12g]

Hell yea !

[rich55]

Can't wait to get started tomorrow

Today is my fourth and final day off from the gym. I cannot wait to get started tomorrow and begin my prep. I will post up full details then.

I am sitting about 4-5 lbs heavier than the last time my waist measured 31 inches precontest and I'm also about 3 weeks ahead of schedule compared to last time. So, I should be able to come in a little bigger and harder. Good thing because I will be kinda light in the middleweight class at the Ohio, which isn't tested.

[rich55]

12 WEEKS OUT

During my precontest prep, I will gradually lower my calories, add cardio and add lipotropic supplements as needed. I am ahead of the schedule versus last my prep last time, which should enable me to come in harder. My first phase of cutting over the next 3 weeks should enable for me to lean out yet make some good gains.

DIET

My diet for the first 3 weeks will a small cut from 4200 cals to 3700 cals on my weight days. My calories will be 3200 on my cardio days and less on my one off day.

UPON WAKING- BCAA's, glutamine, 1 T green phyto foods, 4 mass aminos, 4 ultra 40
MEAL 1- 3/4 c oats, 1/2 banana, 1 scoop UMP, 1 scoop ON whey, 2 super epa, 1 Sesaglow
MEAL 2- 5 oz 96/4 lean beef, 1 c 4% cott chz, 1 apple
MEAL 3- 8 oz chicken, 1 medium sweet potato, 1 c broccoli, 1 t olive oil, 1 Sesaglow
MEAL 4- 3 scoops Ultra Size & 1 c strawberries
PRE & DURING WORKOUT- 70 g waxy maize starch (lifting days only), 2 scoop Purple Wraath, 4 scoops GlycerGrow, glutamine - Drink half before and other half during
MEAL 6 POSTWORKOUT- 1 scoop GF Pro & 4 scoops Mass Maker
MEAL 7- 8 oz lean steak, 1.5 c broccoli, 2 super epa, 1 Sesaglow
MEAL 8- 2 scoops UMP & 1 T almond butter

Training

My training will be quite different the first 6 weeks as I will be doing some special full body training 5 x 5 style to make some gains while my calories are high enough. The difference with this training is that I do not train to failure, do any forced reps and if I fail, then I move onto the next exercise. The weight remains the same for each set, so in theory I could get 7 or 8 reps on the first set. By the time I reach the fourth and fifth set though its damn tough.

SUNDAY:
A1- Squats 5 x 5
A2- Lying Leg Curls 5 x 5
B1- Benchpress 5 x 5
B2- Bent-Over Bar Rows 5 x 5
Seated DB Laterals 3 x 7

MONDAY:
Seated Calf Raises and Donkey Calf Raises
20 minutes moderate cardio

TUESDAY:
Deadlifts 5 x 5
A1- Weighted Dips 5 x 5
A2- Weighted Wide-Grip Pullups 5 x 5
B1- Barbell Curls 3 x 5
B2- Reverse Incline DB Laterals 3 x 7

WEDNESDAY:
Abs
20 minutes cardio

THURSDAY:
A1- Front Squats 5 x 5
A2- Straight Leg Deadlifts 5 x 5
B1- Standing Military Press 5 x 5
B2- Hammer Low Row Machine 5 x 5
Incline DB Flys 3 x 7

FRIDAY:
Hammer DB Curls 3 x 7, Calves, Abs
20 minutes cardio

SATURDAY:
Off

SUPPLEMENTS

During the first 4 weeks I will back off of stimulants and use other lipotropic supps saving Red Acid and White Flood for the final 8 weeks. I will also be adding Blue Up at the 8 week mark. Here is the list of other supps taken not included in my diet section:

Superpak w/ breakfast
Ultra 40 4/meal
r-ALA w/ breakfast and postworkout
HMB twice daily
Lean Green twice daily
ALCAR three times daily
White Blood preworkout
Green Magnitude preworkout
Beta Alanine preworkout
Joint Care postworkout
E-Bol three times daily
ZMA before bed

[Spartan]

What lipotropics do you use and how well do they perform? I need to drop a final ~10lbs to get to my goal and my weight loss has stalled and I don't have alot left to cut out of daily intake. Down to 180 from 215 in October, slow and steady, but stuck!

[rich55]

What lipotropics do you use and how well do they perform? I need to drop a final ~10lbs to get to my goal and my weight loss has stalled and I don't have alot left to cut out of daily intake. Down to 180 from 215 in October, slow and steady, but stuck!

I start off with Lean Green, Acetyl L-Carnitine and Sesaglow. In 4 weeks, I will add Red Acid. Add more cardio if possible too if subtracting calories is not possible.

-------------------------

This week was my first week after a few days off doing new exercises, so naturally I am REALLY sore. Cardio three times a week is not bad and the diet has me just a little hungry. No big deal, but certainly adjusting a little. I'm looking forward to front squatting tomorrow...man I'm a freak, haha!

[rich55]

With the first week down, I am very pleased with my workouts. My strength is good and I am going to see how my triceps feel throughout the week as I'm considering adding an isolation move to Friday.

I have hardened up a little, but I think I mostly was shedding what I may have put on in the 4 days off and splurging haha. I prefer to cut slowly the first few weeks to enable gains since my conditioning is well on track. I weighed in at 182 lbs and my waist measured 31" today.

[rich55]

My core is becoming better accustomed to squatting despite the less than 100% percent lower back. Last week I did 275 for 4 x 10 to ease back into squatting and today I was able to do 305 for 4 x 8. Next week I am aiming to do the full 5 x 5.

I have nixed the bentover bar rows after squatting in favor of of seated rows with a wide, underhand grip. This felt really good and seemed to hit both my rhomboids and lats nicely. Bench was kinda weak today due to a hampered wrist as I pushed 250 for only 2 complete sets of five, failing on my third set.

Cheat meals will be only once per week. Yesterday, I had some barbecue chicken and potato salad at a barbecue with the woman. It was really good!!

[rich55]

Workouts are going great as I continue to get stronger each day getting all 5x5 on weighted dips with 90 lbs and weighted wide-grip pullups with 10 lbs. Bar curls could be better as 110 was tough nailing strict sets for only 5 and 4 reps. My lower back is feeling better and I did 275 on deads for 4 x 10, an improvement from the light 225 the week before.

I will be measuring my waist and weighing in on Friday. Cutting progress usually starts out slow for me, which is fine because of how lean I am. But, I would like to see my waist a little smaller.

[rich55]

Getting stronger!

Looked a little harder upon waking this morning, which is cool. I worked out over lunch with a client who is getting ready for a few shows in October, and we had one helluva a good workout. I got all of my sets on EVERY exercise!! More weight next week! My goal is to get up to 225 on A2G front squats. Next week, bring on 205...no prob.

I decided to throw in pushdowns today for 3 sets of 7 to work on the lateral head of my triceps. I just have not felt my tris getting blasted as much with this routine. In keeping with the method of this routine though, I will keep the weight the same on each set and move up when only all 3 sets of 7 are achieved with NO forced reps. Given the high frequency, this method helps prevent overtraining.

[rich55]

10 weeks out!

Weighed in at 181 lbs (down 1 lb) and waist measured 30.75" (down 1/4") since last week. Strength gains continue on my 5x5 full body routine.

Here is my plan for the next few weeks:

10 weeks: Add fourth day of cardio
9 weeks: Decrease calories to 3200
8 weeks: Add Red Acid, Blue Up & begin posing

[pu12en12g]

Weighed in at 181 lbs (down 1 lb) and waist measured 30.75" (down 1/4") since last week. Strength gains continue on my 5x5 full body routine.

Here is my plan for the next few weeks:

10 weeks: Add fourth day of cardio
9 weeks: Decrease calories to 3200
8 weeks: Add Red Acid, Blue Up & begin posing

Nice !

[rich55]

Weight going up, website coming soon

The last two days in the weight room have gone awesome....

Squats - 335 for 5 x 5, bring on 345
Lying Leg Curls - 150 for 5 x 5, bring on 155
Bench - 250 for 3 x 5, 1 x 4, better than last week
Seated Wide-Grip Rows - 180 for 5 x 5, bring on 190
Seated DB Lateral Raises - 36.25 for 3 x 7, bring on 37.5

Deadlifts - 315 for 5 x 5, bring on 345 (moving up slowly due to back injury)
Wide-Grip Weighted Pullups - 15 for 4 x 5
Weighted Dips - 95 for 5 x 5, bring on 100
Barbell Curls - 110 for 1 x 5, 1 x 4
Reverse Incline DB Lateral Raises - 31.25 for 2 x 7

In between the two days I did some cardio and laid a pummelling on my calves. The preliminary version of my website should be up for test by the end of the week with a splash page made available. Phase one will be primarily informational with online personal training functionality added for phase tw. http://www.RichBodyFit.com

[rich55]

Another good day

Moved up to 205 on A2G front squats and 315 on straight-leg deadlifts...blasting out for all 5 x 5!! Standing Military Press with 150 was tough as I failed on the 3rd set, but the Hammer Low Row Machine was all mine at 140 each side for 5 x 5.

I replaced cable v-bar pushdowns I added last week with the whole stack of 150 to the more difficult rope pulldowns at 120 for 7 and 6 hard reps. I'm gonna like doing these cuz they are hard, and my triceps surely need the beating!

I added an extra day of cardio by doing weights over lunch today and heading back in for cardio later in the evening. My metabolism is jacked up right now from the split session judging from my hunger.

[rich55]

It is definitely go time!! I saw pictures from the INBF Naturalmania June show and it got me all fired up to compete! Bodyweight is at 180 (down 1 lb) and waist measured 30.5" (down 1/4") since last week.

I felt like laying a pummeling on my biceps yesterday, so after doing hammer curls with 52.5 lbs for tough set of 7 and 6 reps, I then added a new exercise. I did some close grip EZ-bar curls with the arm blaster for 3 sets. I also smashed my calves, forearms and did cardio then had my first BIG cheat with pizza and bread last night, which was awesome!

Tomorrow begins lower calories. I will be going to 3300 cals on my workout days and 3000 on cardio only days. I cannot wait to start posing next week!!