DCNINJA

I hope you feel better. Do what you gotta do to stay healthy.

Robert, gotta love you, and as a competitor I get it. That said, dude you know the body needs rest to receover. You also know recovery is more important than training at this stage in the game. Since you suffer from the same nuerosis that I do try what I do. When I get to where I am so fatigued and so stressed and time is crunching in I will change up a workout and do nothing but giant sets with minimal rest. I limit myself to 30 minutes maximum. I just try to burnout with giant sets with drops and forced reps even. It burns me up fast, and I can take the extra time to sleep. Take care bro, you are going to do great at your show. Less than a month out now.

Weighed in yesterday without the help of a pre-weigh in yoga "push". 190 at five weeks out somewhere in the seven or eight percent range. It was a long training day. I had psoing practice, yoga, back and cardio. I missed tanning, oh well. Last week I had a great time in England, but was worried several days without a gym might be too much. I had ramped training up pretty hard so that when I hit those days they were essentially rest days. The martial arts training in Englad was perfect, and I really enjoyed seeing everyone again, especially my friend who is incorporating crossfit into his classes. I want to do that, but am not sure what it is going to look like yet. He started the experiment three months, and it is going well. The numbers are good, I am defintely getting lean, and with five weeks to go I am certain I will be in the best condition of my life. I experimented with trying to deplete on the plane while going to England so I could come in the day before the show, and no way. That hurt. I am not trying that again. I will come into PDX on Thursday. Friday will be shave, tan, pose, and make sure I am in a good place mentally. I might hit a sauna, but really just relax. My diet is not changing. Still about 2000 calories a day. Mostly whole foods. A few protein powders thrown in for good measure, and a lot of water. I just read Thrive, one of the best nutrition books I have read in a long time. I will probably start shifting my diet more towards that in the coming months after I am in full swing this season. In the past we have had great results mvoing endurance athletes to more bodybuilding looking diets, and Brazier makes sense. He is close to where I am on a lot of things and has thought some other stuff out too. The new gym has been a god send. I did cardio last night with a woman who is competing in Pittsburg on the same day I am home. I also hit it during a time when there are some big dudes in the house. Nothing like someone stronger than you to make you hit it hard.

I trained a "new" gym a couple of times last week. It was great. My gym is located in an office building. We are the gym of yuppie resort. I like the folks there, and who doesn't like "free" towel service. That said, the bells only go to 100. I am the only that has done a weighted pull up in there ever. The good news is there is no line for the one squat rack. If it weren't for hammer strength I wonder how much use the plates would get. I was happy to train in a gym with a real dead pit. There were people there bigger than me. I enjoyed being around other people getting ready for shows that around the same time as mine. The workouts there were really good. I had a few days with bad sleep and occassional headaches. Okay so much for dieting. I get it, been here before nothing big. Take the pain for a few days and push on through. Got it. Cardio: Still a yoga baby. I love the stretch, and love the fact that it is no impact cardio. The hot aspect of Bikram is kind of challenging too. I ran the other day for the second time in months. It was a short run, and I was happy to turn in 2 miles in sixteen minutes, then go and some longer softer cardio. I run because the Army makes me, and I like to switch it up a little. Weights: Since I will be in Europe for a few days with sketchy weight training at best, I am foregoing off days this week in order to break things down pretty hard. Four days off should be adequate for my recovery. My strength has been good with a little loss, but nothing big. I think the off time will allow me to recover fully and come back a little stronger. A note about England, it will be four days of martial arts with maybe some cross fit thrown in for good measure. I am really looking forward to this. Today's weigh in was after morning yoga so the number is skewed. I knew it would be, but I want to see where I was with just a little water push. I did nothing unusual other than going to class this morning. Today's numbers was 187 pounds. I did not do a bodyfat measure. I simply looked at myself in the mirror. Lats are huge, getting better separation in my legs. The shoulders are striating, and my beloved abs look decent. I am just starting to see the vein that pops out on the left side of my abs when I get into contest shape. It is faint, but in two weeks it should be popping out.

You mean Pokemon is not an agent of Satan? What else don't I know?

Weighing in on this debate is like weighing in on the existence of God. Everyone has made up their mind. Few will change it. So wading into the pool and mixing my metaphors here, and I have to say the movie "Bigger Better Stronger" really is nothing more than sensationalism. It is the anabolic equivalent of refer madness. Having never used any illegal drugs to include marijuana, I find all of this sensationalism hinders any sort of real discussion about ethics, personal choice, and performance. I have been around long enough to remember the eighties when everyone told us steroids did not work. Then came the nineties when it was, "Well they work a little, but they are dangerous." The latest argument is, "They work, but only bad people use them." If we really want to have a candid discussion about steroid use, let's all admit our biases. Claiming this guy uses or doesn't use will probably have nothing to do with whether the post originator will make a decision to use. I am concerned the thread originator said he has a heart valve concern. My recommendation is that he find someone (a trained medical professional) and talk about his concern. There are doctors who will help you determine if steroids are appropriate and if so in what dosage. I wish you the best of luck in making a well researched and informed decision that works for you. Whatever that decision might be.

That is what I am doing now mostly. The truth is I am basically lazy. I hate to cook, tan, do cardio, or even breath if I have to. What can I say if I could trade places with my cat I would probably consider it. LOL Thanks.

Guys, just posted some pictures to myspace. Here is my URL myspace.com/stevearntt. For some reason I am having difficulty getting my photos on here. For example this one keeps coming up sideways.

Does anyone know of any DC area personal chefs who will do vegan foods specifically for athletes? Work is getting too crazy for me to deal with food prep these days. Thanks in advance.

WOW, I learned something new about those horse pills I have been popping.

Weighed in yesterday just prior to posing. My weight was the 192 pounds I was looking for the other day. Yeah me. Picked my posing music and put my routine together. For 8 weeks out I am pretty happy with my physique. My posing is getting crisper, which is good since I have always considered myself below average in that category.

Rob, your legs are looking really good. Keep it up, buddy.

That is the bad thing about cutting fat. You cannot control where you cut. You can control the look with cosmetics or cosmetic medical procedures, but telling your body to lose fat in the hips but not in the face usually doesn't work. Sorry.

The word for the day is accountability. You are 100% accountable for who you are. Last night I was teaching class (martial arts), and one of my students said he would kill to have a physique like mine. I wondered how true that was. I said it was just putting in the work. He said he was too old. I pointed out I had him by half a decade. Of course he looks ten years older than I do. He made a lot of excuses for why he could not get there. That led me to today's word of the day. I am 100% accountable for what I do and or do not do. Not only in bodybuilding where every day shows you are either doing the work or phoning it in. In life everything counts. There are no insignificant moments.

Yesterday the scale tipped at 195. Ouch, but wait... Wait a second what happened, I also noticed something I had not seen in a while on my body, striated delts. So I peeled my tank top off and looked in the mirror. Abs looked good (okay they looked at least as good as they did last week), my chest is starting to get the hint of a split in the upper half. So I finished my workout and headed home for a quick look at the body fat measure, which as we all know is not the best measure in the world. I managed a slightly lower body fat measure. I will take that all day long. Lower body fat and maybe some extra muscle. I looked at last weeks posting. Out of town guests were making my training and diet a little tough. The increase in rigor this week probably caused a bump in muscle. OR more likely, I had more sodium over the weekend when I ate some microwave popcorn on Sunday while watching a movie. MMM, a likely culprit. That could easily set me up for failure since my diet has been ultra low sodium and no processed foods to speak of. I had about two gallons of water yesterday. I also did a great Bikram class that had me sweating like a fiend. I am going to make a small wager that I will be under 195 today. Also, I noticed when I left yesterday the scale was not zeroing out correctly. I go through all of this stuff to point something out. Just because one number looks wrong, it does not mean what you are doing is not working. I could have gained a pound last week even though at my weight I am eating at a 500kcal per day deficit not incluidng my exercise deficit of roughly 500 calories. This should amount to 2 pounds of weight per week. This weeks net increase in weight could be due ot a lot of things. The bottom line is that I am not going to get worried. Instead I am going to keep training hard, sleeping, and dieting. I am increasing my cardio slightly, but I had done that last week already. The increase in cardio is for two reasons. One I want to come in a little leaner, and more cardio is a good insurance policy. Secondly I have a running event coming up to which I am committed so I have to make sure I don't embarass myself too badly. 8 more weeks until the show, and I am confident that I am going to do very well.

Sorry bro, in DC. Would love to come do abs since they are by far my weakest body part. Keep it up and be sure to post some photos of your show!!! You will do awesome!!

nonipwr, keep it up. I can't wait to see your new photos. The last ones were good. I am sure you are a leaner and better now. Great job.

Yeah, coming home to OR to get on stage, and do my thing. I miss the PNW. DC is okay, but let's face it the quality of life on in PDX is the best.

There are a variety of protein options out there not involving meat that might or might not work for you. Your allergy situation makes me wonder if there is something bigger here. Check with your doctor. It is not unusual to see people who are allergic to soy or eggs, but you seem to have more than your fair share of allergies. You could try hemp protein or brown rice protein or even pea protein or a blend of those. With your limited protein options I would look at taking branch chained amino acids (BCAA) with your proteins since you probably not get a lot of protein in your diet, and none of these are complete proteins in and of themselves. I hope this helps.

Dude, I saw this. It was great. Of course I always say it is great when people agree with me. I guess that is what defines a person as smart in my world. LOL.

Robert, you and your green crew are getting close to contest time. Keep it up guys. Looking forward to seeing how you guys do.

Another week flew by. Second week in a row with house guests, which means I missed some cardio and my diet was well... not where I wanted it. I did manage to push off two pounds to a weight of 194 mostly because I was taking everyone sight seeing and I cut calories during that time. I checked my bodyfat and it is right at 10%, I trust this measurement better than I did the 10.7 or so I got last time. My abs look good, muscles are full, and I am pretty happy with where I am. Today I started a new supplement, Mitotropin. Since the ban of ephedra I have been down on all fat burners. I have yet to see one that works half as well, okay one that works. Secondly I miss that buzzy feeling. I am upping my cardio a little bit. I have a lot of time left to dial it, but I want to get a little leaner early on to preserve muscle at the end, and I do not want to be too restricted the last two weeks. So I expect a little cardio now will pay big benefits later. Also I just found out I have to travel for a week about four weeks out from my show. I might be able to recover from what is sure to be a an awful week if I am leaner earlier. If not, I may need to put off to a different show by two weeks. Either way I am not going to get stressed out about it.

Good point on the aminos with the incomplete proteins they are a real boost.

Okay this one goes out to all my competitors. In the past when competing as a carniovore, I cut all supplements at six weeks out. As a vegetarian, I find a lot more of my protein comes from supplement sources. That said I am curious what competitors are doing to avoid that soft and bloated look that comes with too many supplements (e.g. protein barrs) close to competition time. If you are normally a bar/powder person, what are you doing to up the protein during that last month and a half? I usually don't lose a lot of muscle during that last little bit of dieting, and I am curious what other vegan competitors are doing to preserve muscle during that last leg of contest prep. Thanks in advance, Steve

I have to agree with Christina here. Post again. There are a lot of great folks here who would love to help. I have a lot of bodybuilding experience, but only a small amount of vegan bodybuilding experience. So here goes my 2 cents worth. First and foremost is water. If you drink less than a gallon a day you are just dead wrong. Muscle is largely water so drink it. If you can hit two gallons a day, then you are doing great. Calories: find your maintenance caloric intake. I recommend hitting 250 calories more than that. See where it goes. Unless you are using anabolics, then you need to think about eating more than that. If you are gaining lean mass (and you need to take weekly fat measurements), then you can experiment with 500 kcal per day. I actually find that when I tighten up my diet, I gain muscle without adding a single calorie. Next protein, I find it damn hard to get a gram per pound per day. You have a ton of soy in here. Soy is good protein, but not enough. Get a variety of protein sources. That means tempeh, hemp (my latest find), some brown rice protein, and other veg proteins. The problem with veg protein is that they are incomplete proteins. What this means for you is adding some BCAA to your diet. I am the worst about these things because they are big as horse pills, and I hate taking them, but if you want to put on some size you better think about taking them. I noticed you are taking fats into account, good job. You might like Udo's oil. I love it with my protein. It is a great source of Omega 3, 6, and 9. My muscles feel fuller with it. Equally important to all this is training. What are you doing for training?