BC Championships - 4 Weeks Out - Realistic Long Term Goals As We Age

Closing in on 4 weeks out now and still feeling pretty good overall, which does help out a lot for my workouts and keeping them productive. The workouts tend to get tougher as the cut gets closer to show time. I have been splitting my workouts more often and getting the harder compound movements done earlier in the day when I seem to be more up to it and then leaving more of the accessory isolation stuff for the evenings, usually each workout is about 40-45 minutes long so about 1.5 hours per day 6 days a week :)

In this BC Championships - 4 Weeks Out Video I talk about something that I feel is really important. Which is to have Realistic Long Term Goals as we age and transition into our old age.

So many of us only look at the pursuit of fitness for what it can do for us right now, give us a better body, those six pack abs, helps us feel more attractive. But the real reason we should all be pursuing Health and Fitness is for the long term benefit we gain from it, like being bale to horse around with our kids in our 40's and 50's, or even our grandchildren in our 60's and up. How do you want to be when you are in your 70's, do you want to be able to take care of yourself and have enough strength and energy to cope with life? That can be determined by what you are doing about it right now and if you are taking care of yourself for the benefits it will bring to you in later years.

A good plan is one that is kind of conservative, that is not too extreme but at the same time puts you on track to staying healthy and fit long term while still enjoying all aspects of life. I talk about this in more detail in my YouTube video... If you watch till the end there is some workout footage of me doing some Inverted Leg Press and Cable Ab Crunches.

BC Championships - 5 Weeks Out - How I Cut My Weight

Getting closer now but the BC Championships still seems kind of far off, once I get down to about 2 weeks out, and everything starts coming together, that's when it gets real! I am very happy with where I am currently at right now, I'm still keeping my weight up while cutting yet losing body fat and getting stronger, the workouts have been very intense and my body is really feeling it but I am close enough to keep pushing forward.

I have already made a dedicated video about how I cut weight when I want to diet down for fitness contests and such so make sure to check that video out as it is very detailed and you will be surprised at how I do very little of what the majority of people do to cut weight and keep muscle. I did want to go over some of the basics for my new viewers who may not have heard this info before as I feel it is worth taking a look at, especially if you have not had much success using traditional methods to cut weight while maintaining muscle mass.

In short, this is how I cut weight while maintaining muscle mass...

1. Keep progressing in your workouts, this is not the time for low weights and super high reps, it's go time and you need to move more weight then you did each previous workout.
2. Avoid Cardio at all times since cardio does not build muscle but rather uses up energy resources that could be used for weight training. If you need to be in a calorie deficit then simply eat less food!
3. Keep your calories low Monday to Friday (around 1000 under maintenance) and on the weekends eat a little more so your body does not think it is in starvation mode. Just be careful not to overdo it on the weekends or you will have to diet even harder on the weekdays.
4. Macros are less important than most people think, if you nail everything I already said then as long as you get a decent amount of protein, enough carbs to fuel the machine and keep your fats fairly low so your calories stay down then you should be on track to a successful cut while even putting on some muscle along the way. 

BC Championships - 6 Weeks Out - Shoulders, Back & Calves Workout

We are now at the 6 weeks out stage in my contest pre for the BC Championships Pro Am being held in Vancouver BC Canada. I will be competing in both Men's Masters (40+) and Open Physique divisions.

I am still right around 190-192 pounds but feel like I am right on track and compared to this time last year I feel I am stronger and lower in body fat when compared to where I was 6 weeks out for my last Victoria Cup Competition. So hopefully this means I will come in a little better shape :)

I am still struggling with some elbow/bicep tendon soreness especially in my right arm so this week I have been taking it easy on my upper body pulling exercises and trying not to engage my bicep too much/ It is starting to feel a little better so hopefully I can get past this shortly.

In this video I do a Shoulder, Back and Calf workout over at Fit4Less, I was planning on doing some Abs but kind of ran out of time. You can see my full workout details over on my Fitty.co account.

BC Championships - 7.5 Weeks Out

I am about 7.5 weeks away from the Vancouver Pro Am Where the BC Provincial Championships are going to be held. Last year I quailed to compete in both Masters and Open in this years BC Championships so I will take part and do my best to move place at the BC's and move forward into the Nationals.

I am right about where I want to be in terms of my weight and body fat percentage, of course I would like to have a little more muscle but this next several week swill be very intense at the gym and I should add a few pounds will losing a little body fat at the same time. I am currently sitting right around 190 pounds and just a tad over 7% body fat. I need to get down to between 4-5% body fat for competition day.

I am contending with a bit of an elbow/bicep tendon issue. The more work you do the more chance of straining the body and one area I find this happens to me is in my bicep tendon area. It just tends to get soar and likes to make my workouts a little less comfortable ;) I will be modifying some of my exercises around this strain to lesson the stress on the area and hopeful recover from it.

In this video I also show a little bit of my workout routine on this day which targeted Chest, Legs, Triceps and Abs.

May 2016 Update Video - My Dog - Contest Prep - SMP - Apple Watch Case

Some stuff going on in my life right now... My dog Sammy got injured, both of his front legs got broken and we are not entirely sure how it happened, we found him lying mid way in our driveway early  Monday morning. It could have been a car but only his front legs where injured and nothing else. I also think he may have tried to jump the ditch and because there is a lot of tall grass in the ditch he may have not realized how deep it was and landed badly, there was a lot of flattened grass in one of the ditch areas near where he ended up so this is a possibility?

We had our local vet put pins in his legs but this was not holding so we had to take him to a $$$ specialist $$$ where he had plates installed which is much more secure than pins and should help Sammy get back to full heath as soon as possible.

I am about two months out now from my Men's Physique contest (Masters and Open categories). The show is called the Vancouver Pro AM. I feel like I am well on track, perhaps even ahead of schedule in the cutting portion which is OK since I can focus a bit more on my Workouts and add some muscle mass for the show. If all goes well at the Vancouver Pro AM and I place in my Masters division then I will be going to the Nationals in August, you never know I could also being going to Nationals as an Open qualifier but I am not counting on this one :)

I had my 3/4 session of SMP (Scalp Micro Pigmentation) and it's looking real good up there, I plan to go back for one more slight fill in to hit a couple spots that perhaps need just a little tlc. But overall I am happy with everything so far.

Lastly I received a new Apple Watch Case called the Lunatik EPIK, I went with the Polycarbonate version since I was a bit worried that the aluminum one may scratch my Apple Watch, the Polycarbonate version looks the same and is a little less money. Right after I bought mine Lunatik came out with the H2O water proof version but I don't plan to swim with my Apple Watch so simple is better for me. I plan to do a review of the Lunatik EPIK once I have worm it for a while but so far so good!