Road to the Leigh Brandt Muscle Classic 2021 - 5 Days Out

We are now well into Peak Week with only 5 days left before the Leigh Brandt Muscle Classic and so far the plan is progressing well. This weekend I knew was going to be tuff as I needed to stay in an aggressive calorie deficit even with some social stuff going on and no actual workout on Sunday. I did manage to get a lot of walking in on Sunday and keep my food take-in really low so over the weekend I would estimate I burned 3500 calories less than I used which would yield around a 1 pound of fat weight loss. I am currently sitting at 194 pounds so around 5 pounds under where I stated just over a week ago and I should loss another sold 2-3 pounds of fat by show time settling in just a hair over 190 before carbing up.

Carbup will be conservative and I plan to leave a little extra carbing up on show day if need be as I will probably not step on stage till around 11am-12pm based on past experiences with this type of show format. I did manage to book everything I needed to for the show on Sunday including tanning hotel stay and which categories I will be competing in (More to come on that next video).

This next 4 days is going to be harsh in terms of super low food intake and high activity but I feel really good and seeing the progress happen before my eyes almost daily is super motivating and will keep me on track.

Road to the Leigh Brandt Muscle Classic 2021 - 1 Week Out

Today was the day I planned to decide if I was in fact going to compete in the upcoming Leigh Brandt Muscle Classic and much of it depended on how my body responded to a hard week of fairly severe calorie deficit dieting and I have to say I am pleased with how it went and can say I will be in fact competing 7 days from now.

I for sure have my work cut out for me but based on how my body responded this past week or so and how I feel at the moment I am fairly confident I can lose an additional 3-4 pounds of fat for the show which should place me at a competitive body fat percentage on stage. I don't expect this week to be easy but it will be an interesting learning experience finding out how a short and intense cut works for me as I have never prepped for a show in only two weeks. That said I was maintaining a fairly low body fat and decent amount of muscle going into this so I was not super far off the mark.

Watch my update video and take a look for yourself and see what I am looking at 7 days out from the show! I will be posting more videos this week as it is peak week and lots will be going on to talk about...

Road to the Leigh Brandt Muscle Classic 2021 - 11 Days Out

I am now only 11 days out from the Leigh Brandt Muscle Classic and the question is have I left it too close? Is there any way I can get lean enough to be contest condition? If I had been prepping for this show the way I normally would done, I would be a lot leaner at this point but I would have also been in a much harsher diet deficit for a much longer period of time making my body less responsive to continued dieting.

The advantage I have not being in so much of a diet deficit leading into my last two weeks before the show, means when I do push my body into a hard diet deficit this last two weeks, it will respond to it much better as my metabolism is healthy and my body will be more willing to respond well to the harsh dieting at least for the two week leading up to the show.

So in theory I am hoping to see really dramatic changes over the next week and by this coming Saturday I hope to have a better idea on if I will be ready or not for the show. I hope everything goes as planned but at 52 years of age sometimes my body doesn't always do what I want it to do! Fingers crossed and see you on Saturday when I do another check-in...

October Update Video - Possible Upcoming Show

I have been missing in action for the past several weeks mainly as I have been spending a fair bit more time taking care of my other YouTube Channel or should I say past YouTube channel. My Replica Airguns YouTube channel was taken down by YouTube with no notice other than a termination notice and so we are now in the process of uploading over a thousand Airgun related videos to Vimeo which is another video streaming platform.

On a more positive note I just might be doing a Fitness show, the Leigh Brandt Muscle Classic in a little over two weeks from now, I have my work cut out for me for sure and so it really depends on if I can get into the shape I need to be in and I probably won't know until about a week out from the show as my prep time is limited but I feel I can make the changes I need to as I was not super far off going into the process.

How Not to Peak on Show Day

It's been a little over a week now giving me lots of time to reflect on competition day for the Vancouver Island Showdown in beautiful Victoria British Columbia Canada. All in all I had a wonderful time, it was kind of like a mini getaway for my wife and I, just would have liked to have spent a couple more days there for sure.

Getting back to the show, I do like some time to think things over and in some cases come to terms with what exactly happened. This show could for sure have gone a lot worse but I know it could have also gone a lot better if I timed things better as I know I was in really good condition and had good size leading into this show, so what went wrong?

In this videos I talk about the carbing up process and how important this is since by carbing up you can either nail a full and dry look, come in too dry and not full enough, or come in overfull and spilled over. You want the first one by the way. I however came in really full and spilling over slightly which at the end of the day means I looked full and big but lost a lot of the detail and ended up being a bit bloated with too much water coming out of my muscles and going into my mid section and anywhere that I had any fat at all, so my mid section, my back and my face.

I also talk about how that happened and where I made some mistakes that I will use as yet another learning lesson. Will I use this new information for a future show??? I'm not sure at the moment, I like to relax after a show and not put any immediate pressure on myself and that's exactly what I am going to do, enjoy life, enjoy eating, enjoy my workouts and let the future unfold on it's own...