RICH'S MISSION: NATURAL PRO CARD 2008

Alright my BN brothers and sisters! My bodybuilding journaling began on this forum and I'm sticking to my roots. So, here is my journey to a natural pro card.

2007 has been a successful year in bodybuilding for me. I began the year in March with placing 5th at a VERY large non-tested show, the NPC Northern Kentucky. The next weekend I won the welterweight class at the NPC Natural Ohio and challenged well in the overall. I then signed with CONTROLLED LABS and set my sights on the NPC Ohio State Championships and the INBF Naturalmania Nationals.

6 months later I competed at 165 lbs versus 161 lbs in March and brought my best package yet to stage. I placed 4th in the middleweight class at the Ohio (non-tested) and finished 4th at the INBF Nationals. The 2nd and 3rd place finishers at the INBF Nationals each had me beat by only one point. The real victory in all of this is my own personal progression. I have come so far since when I first started competing and yet I have just scratched the surface of my own potential. Also, this fall I learned that I can hang with some big boys and going forward; a natural pro card is my mission.







After dieting 7 of the last 12 months, an offseason is much needed. To obtain a natural pro card, a few things must be improved.

1) Improve Conditioning - I need to dial in my conditioning to the show more hamstring, glute and abdominal definition. This will simply take 3-4 more weeks of dieting and I will surely give myself plenty of time to come in more shredded. As always, I will stay lean during the offseason to make this objective easier.
2) Bring Up Weak Areas - My focus this offseason is predominantly on my arms, shoulders and chest. I will train with 150% intensity on these days and will increase my caloric intake accordingly to bolster growth.
3) Add More Size - Adding more size in general is a necessity and I have landed a solid training partner to help me push myself beyond my limits.

The shows I'm aiming to do for 2008 are the exactly the same, which gives me 7-8 months to grow and more than enough time to cut...

The NPC Ohio State Championships and the INBF Naturalmania Nationals

Meanwhile, I will continue to work with CONTROLLED LABS whose supplements have become vital to my training and diet regiment. I have also signed with MAX MUSCLE SPORTS NUTRITION who will be providing me with their excellent line of protein powders. I continue to grow my training business and my website http://www.RichBodyFit.com will continue to be enhanced. This next year will be very good for me to simply lift hard and eat big. LET THE GAINS BEGIN!!!

Looks like we have similar weaknesses, good to know i have another log to compare with, to see what I am lacking in within my own training and dieting.

Have fun with the next year of eating and lifting

btw, do you have any plans on where you would compete for the pro card or is it too early to answer?

Looking good Rich! I'll definitely be following this log during the course of the year and up to your competitions.

For your traps, do you do anything other than deadlifts and shrugs to hit them?

It is listed in bold, red letters above. NYC next year man! You should do the the teen division for your competitive debut!

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DIET AND SUPPLEMENTS

My diet will be around 3000 calories for the first 3-4 weeks postcontest with substantially more carbs and a little more fat, which will provide a very substantial anabolic boost. Supplements will be kept to the essentials plus a megadose of cissus to hopefully help some nagging joint issues. Cissus is dosed 30 minutes before meals. I will also continue to take Ultra 40 caps with each meal for extra b-vitamins. I also drink 1.5 to 2 gallons of water daily.

Cheating is typically once maybe twice per week, typically done after weak point training when I want to max my cals. After my show, I slammed food and beverage for an entire day and then got on this plan the very next day. I have since stuck to my plan with the occasional cheat and am sitting SUPER lean still at 167 lbs!!

Meal 1:
1/2 c oats
1/2 banana
1 scoop banana MaxPro
1 scoop peanut butter fudge Max Gourmet Protein
3 Orange Triad caps (to be added this month)
2 super epa caps
1 g cissus powder

Meal 2:
8 oz 96/4 lean beef
1 small apple

Meal 3:
8 oz lean chicken
1 t olive oil
1 medium sweet potato
1 c broccoli/green beans
1 g cissus powder

Meal 4:
1 scoop banana Max Pro
1 scoop peanut butter fudge Max Gourmet Protein

30 minutes Preworkout:
2 scoops White Flood
1 scoop Green Magnitude
2 g ALCAR
100 mg R-ALA
1 g cissus powder

Immediately Preworkout/During Workout (split evenly):
2 scoops Purple Wraath
10 g Max Glutamine
30 g waxy maize starch

Postworkout:
30 g waxy maize starch
3 scoops berry blast Max Iso Xtreme whey
3 caps Orange Triad

Meal 6:
8 oz lean steak
1 slice 100% whole wheat bread
1 c broccoli/green beans
2 super epa caps
1 g cissus powder

Meal 7:
1/2 c cottage cheese
1 scoop strawberry MaxPro
1 T natural peanut butter
ZMA (before bed)

Good luck during the coming year. Ill definately be keeping it locked onto this thread to steal some of your training and diet methods

Good stuff! Basically just shrugs, but deads certainly help. I did these two days ago. I know I can bust out 130's for DB shrugs, but instead I grabbed 100's and squeezed real hard at the top holding the contraction. I then lowered the weight down very slow and paused at the bottom feeling the stretch even on my middle traps. I barely got 12 reps, but I'm REALLY sore today.

Speaking of training.....

RICH'S TRAINING PROGRAM

I switch up my workouts every 5-6 weeks. My style is quite high intensity. So much so that my dentist has required me to where mouthgaurd when lifting so that I stop grinding my teeth flat. Slow negatives, strong contractions, full stretch, constant tension, work the muscle to DEATH....not the weight. I also use mini rest pauses on most sets to squeeze out extra reps. My training partner has allowed me to take it up a notch as well with more forced reps. This boy is a genetic, natural freak and competes as well.

This has become my favorite training split and will allow me to focus on my two priority days.

Day 1- Legs
Day 2- Chest & Bis - PRIORITY
Day 3- Off
Day 4- Back
Day 5- Delts & Tris - PRIORITY
Day 6- Off
Repeat

This is how it went down the past few days just getting back after it with several days off and not having lifted heavy really in 3 weeks.

Legs
Squats 315 x 7 x 5
Front Squat Machine A2G 270 x 9, 290 x 9+
Lying Leg Curls 110 x 11 tendon hurts, 90 x 10
High Stance Leg Press 450 x 15, 500 x 10
Donkey Calf Raises 320 x 10 x 9
Seated Calf Raises 145 x 10 x 9

Chest & Bis - PRIORITY
Incline DB Press 90 x 8 x 7 x 6
Incline DB Flys 65 x 10 x 9
Flat Benchpress 225 x 4, 205 x 6
Weighted Dips 35 x 9, 40 x 7
Barbell Curls 95 x 9, 100 x 7
Preacher Curl Machine 70 x 10 x 8
Standing Hammer Curls 40 x 8 x 7

Back
Deadlifts - legs too sore to do this week, still feeling em 5 days later
T-Bar Rows 135 x 7 x 6 x 6
Wide-Grip Pulldowns 190 x 8 x 6
Close-Grip Weighted Chins 25 x 6 x 6
Standing DB Shrugs 100 x 12, 105 x 10 really slow
Rear Delt Machine 90 x 11, 95 x 9 x 9

Delts & Tris - PRIORITY
Seated Military Presses 165 x 9, 170 x 7 x 6
Seated DB Laterals 27.5 x 11, 28.75 x 10
Upright Bar Rows 70 x 11, 75 x 9
Close-Grip Bench 185 x 8 x 6
Decline EZ-Extensions 85 x 9, 90 x 6
DB Kickbacks 25 x 11, 26.25 x 10

I train high intensity all the time, but I will use every single ounce of energy in my body on my priority days. My cheat meals or higher calorie meals will also be consumed postworkout pushing my calories in excess of 3600 on those days. The next morning I will eat a little more clean as well adding a few hundred extra calories. Yesterday, I cheated clean and did the following to ensure maximal growth:

Preworkout: 1 cap P-Slin & 15 g extra waxy maize starch
During Workout: 15 g extra waxy maize starch
Postworkout: 15 g extra waxy maize starch
Meal 6: 8 oz lean beef, 1 c whole-wheat pasta, 3 roma tomatoes & 1 t olive oil made into sauce, 2 t parmesan cheese, 2 super epa, 1 super enzymes cap
Meal 7: 50% more everything w/ 1 super enzymes cap
This Morning/Afternoon: 1 extra scoop Max Gourmet, little more oats, slightly bigger sweet potato, 12 mass amino caps

hmmmm, i really should sign up for the teen class thingie they have at the place.

although ill need help with the posing, especially the lat spread (i have the hardest time with that)

LEGS
Legs yesterday were kinda tough b/c I was still kinda sore from my workout 6 DAYS BEFORE! Regardless, I pounded it out and did particularly well on my hamstring exercises moving up on both. My tendon felt much belt as well doing the lying leg curls SUPER slow with 90 and 95 lbs. Maybe the cissus is working already.

CHEST AND BIS
Chest and bis felt awesome today as I got more reps on most things and moved up on dips and hammer curls. I just focused on working the muscles as hard as possible. Mega clean calories have and will be smashed since to generate growth

WEEKEND EXCITEMENT!!
This weekend I have a photoshoot, client's first show in Cleveland and I begin shooting my training DVD with Max Muscle. My photoshoot is with Nevrilk Photo to build my personal portfolio. My conditioning is still on par with how I looked a few weeks ago strangely despite eating much more food. Keeping it clean makes a world of difference! Eating more food has seriously jacked up my metabolism as it was probably slowed from the dieting.

I'm holding at 167 lbs and everyone keeps telling me I should just tan up and do the NPC Natural Northern. I am done though for the year and it is my client's time to shine now! My client is looking RIPPED and he should definitely bring home some hardware in his first show. I'm prepping my training partner for this next few weekends too who looks UNREAL! He'll be gunning for top honors in each show, including a WNBF pro card next weekend if he takes the overall.

My photoshoot prep has included hitting the tanning bed a few times with a few coats of sunless tanning lotion. I cut sodium and lactose today and tomorrow. I will be trying a new product, Max Diurx, tomorrow and Saturday to cut water a bit. I did not feel like drinking excess water and tapering down, so I'll continue to drink my normal 1.5 to 2 gallons and see how this works. I figured experimenting while still ripped up could be a learning experience. I'll do my typical Friday and Saturday peaking diet with plenty of carbs and grapefruit.

I'll talk more about the training DVD later.

Natural Northern and Photoshoot

The weekend was great, but extremely hectic. My client placed 7th out of 13 in a very competitive class that included the overall bodybuilding champ. He looked great and he certainly transformed for his first show.

The shoot was quick, but we certainly snagged a few good pictures. I am interested to see the shots. He showed me some as we were shooting and he joked that I should of jumped up on stage.

Back and Delts/Tris

After the shoot I smashed back at the Sheffield Lake World's west of Cleveland. I did deadlifts for the first time in a while pumping out 365 x 9 and 375 x 8. These felt good and I will certainly be jumping up quickly on these. I didn't feel 100%, but I am certainly SORE today. T-bars and lat pulldowns felt good. I threw out the close-grip pullups and substituted wide grip seated rows to prioritize thickness in my back versus width.

Delts and Tris went AWESOME...

Seated Military Presses 170 x 9, 175 x 7 x 6
Seated DB Laterals 28.75 x 11, 30 x 9 x 9
Upright Bar Rows 75 x 11, 80 x 8 x 8
Close-Grip Bench 185 x 9, 195 x 6
Decline EZ Extensions 110 x 5, 100 x 6
DB Kickbacks 26.25 x 11, 27.5 x 12

Strength felt awesome and I looked much fuller than ever before. These next 7-8 months of growing are gonna be fun!!!!!

The DVD shooting was postponed to next due to the owner of Max Muscle being ill. We are shooting a training/nutrition DVD for the average person.

How long do you typically spend on your workout?

Typically 45-60 minutes in the offseason. Quick and efficient.

You know you're a bodybuilder when....

You eat twice on one date Certainly a first for me!

This was a second date with a girl who is very much into health and fitness. We hit up a healthy, organic restaurant to start. I slammed a bowl of brown rice, fresh veggies, tofu and extra chicken topped with an awesome curry sauce.

Then, coffee at starbucks and we headed to one of the best patios in town for two glasses of red wine. Midway through the second glass, I asked if she was in a hurry. She was not, so I ordered a kobe beef strip steak with extra asparagus. She happily had a few bites. Delicious!! Next time, I will tell them to hold the butter though.

ETG = EATING TO GROW!!

Sounds like a pretty good date to me....awesome that she's into the fitness scene too. It'll be much easier just having her understand why you need to eat/drink certain things (or more importantly, why you can't eat/drink certain things) and your schedule, etc. Dating someone who doesn't "get it" can be tough...always having to explain things to her and her still not understading why it's important to you.

She sounds great to me. ETG... you'd be such a good powerlifter.

Yeah, it was a great date and she certainly has potential. I'll certainly be seeing more of her. Regardless, it has been fun getting back into the dating scene again.

I haven't ruled out doing a meet this next year. All of my focus needs to be on my weak points though.

Did 30 minutes of cardio yesterday split between jogging and elliptical out of guilt splurging on Brio and First Watch food smashing after my shoot.

Today was legs. I'm still struggling with my squats due to lagging soreness. Day 1 deads after about 5 weeks off made my lower back quite sore. I did move up on all my ancillary lifts and was able to do a little mor volume. Next week should be promising.

Tomorrow is weak point training for chest and biceps and I'm psyched.

Go Riiiich Go Riiiich!!! No eggs for breakfast?!!

How's that P-Slin?

Bust some ass for me bro, no slackin'!

I saw you took off your deads but what is typical poundage for ya?

Hey Big Ben! I prefer to drink my breakfast. Quick and I can slam more cals this way.

The