Oh my goodness… I think I touched base about how I come up with my blog ideas in my blog entry yesterday so … I was doing some plant work tonight in the front of the house and …. shut up Melissa, I know you did 96% of it with the kids but during that 4% that I was doing before getting on the computer to work I DID have something creep into my mind that occurred to me when speaking with a client not too long ago. So, buckle yourself in because I am going to go off on a rant here… (lights Dim) ….
Please, please promise me that you won’t ever think a pro card is the end all be all and please tell me that you aren’t going to be willing to compromise your integrity to get one. First, have you ever seen one? They are hilariously and stupidly uneventful and I am completely convinced that everyone that gets one looks at it, looks up, looks back down at it and thinks or says “are you fucking kidding me? THIS is the all elusive pro card??” It literally looks like a library card or something similar. It is flimsy and made simply of paper much like a business card would be. Trust me, you expect sooo much more and it is one big, fat let down. Now, I obviously know that people don’t hunt for a pro card for the card, itself, but for the status that it brings. Sad thing is, what exactly is that status? For some it can turn into money from sales of DVDs and guest posings, etc.. For MOST of the pros, it doesn’t mean shit and most pros can’t function without a “real” job and for some others it means doing things for money that their mother would either roll over in her grave if she knew or have a heart attack that would put her in a grave and THEN she would roll over due to what her son or daughter was doing to keep from having to work a real job. Oh, and isn’t that funny because that brings me to my point. Buckled in?
I have been in this business for a long time and I feel I have pretty much seen it all. I have seen the slutty women at the shows for years and I have seen the insecure guys that flex for 3 hours during a show and …. they are in the audience, not on stage, etc.. At times, this sport is so incredibly fucked up that I just have to laugh and think “did I REALLY trade in what could have been a lucrative future in baseball for THIS?” Then, I realize quickly that I am passionate about what I do and passionate about training and that I need to continue to do what I can to do right for the good people of this sport and there are a lot of good people out there, there really. They just get overshadowed by the complete screw ups in the sport and the industry. I have to say that even though I feel I have seen it all, I am still completely blown away by that person (and there are a lot of them out there) that SWEARS they are going to get a pro card and life is going to change for them. (Pink Floyd plays in the background: “hello, hello …. is there anybody IN there …. is there anybody home …. “) The answer is hell fucking no, nobody is home. If someone were home they would have told your dumbass to quit being so stupid, get a job and quit telling everyone how you got screwed at your last show or you would be a pro already…. Ok, I got carried away so I am going back on topic….
First and foremost and out of the gate I want to say that if you are working towards a goal of getting your pro card then that is your right and I have to respect THAT part of it. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time and money and … a lot of everything. It doesn’t come easy, for sure. It is always good to have lofty goals and I encourage everyone to set high goals for themselves. I am not here to talk about people that are driven and can balance things like a career, kids, a mortgage, etc., with chasing a dream. Those people have my utmost respect whether they will ever get close to a pro card or not. I am talking about the OTHER kind of person that chases a pro card. Yeah, if you read the rest of my blog and you see yourself or someone you know in it, hey, don’t come getting all pissy with me because it isn’t my problem or issue and, honestly, I just don’t give a shit to hear you complain to me. You can’t blame the guy that calls 911 to report your house is on fire after you were playing with matches – he didn’t burn down your house, you did. He just reported it. So, “Yes, 911 operator? I would like to report a dumbass…”
This sport is full of some of the laziest people on the PLANET. They are even lazier than my 17 year old daughter. My daughter is reading this right now saying to herself “no shit, lazier than ME??” For people that routinely train for a couple hours a day, do cardio, eat religiously, etc., you would think that they would have more energy than other people but a lot of the time they don’t. If I told you how many people I know that are sitting at home without a job because they aren’t willing to work while they “chase the dream” you would be shocked. I am going to add another disclamer here so that I don’t get some nasty email responses to this blog: Please know that I think it is one of the most important things that a parent can do to stay home and take care of their children instead of working and sending the kids to a sitter. I am a stay-at-home parent and I am incredibly fortunate to be able to work from home so that I can raise my kids and know what they are doing almost all of the time. I feel it is a priceless responsibility and one that should not be taken lightly. However, I am not talking about those people because those people have my utmost respect, too. Just make sure that you aren’t lying to yourself saying you are home with the kids and they are gone to school all day, either. That is still lame and lazy so… nice try. If you can’t get a job then you don’t count for this rant. If there are other extenuating circumstances, please know that you are the exception. I will be crystal clear that the type I am talking about are right here: If you stay home and don’t do anything because you don’t have kids or your kids are in school all day, and you are planning your next workout or making time to do cardio or get to the tanner, you are a loser. The rest of the world is working double time to balance a career, balance the family responsibilities and just get some TV time for themselves and yet you are just staying at home preparing for your big pro win which, at least statistically, won’t ever come. I know that last sentence doesn’t pertain to you because you are firmly convinced that all of your “hard work” at home all day is going to pay off in a pro card one day and you “will show me”, alright, but it ain’t gonna happen. It won’t happen because that isn’t the definition of working hard and God has a way of evening the score and keeping things fair. Hard work DOES pay off many more times than the easy road does. I just checked with God, himself, and he verified this for me. And don’t laugh at me, either. I don’t laugh at your God, so don’t laugh at mine.
If you are sitting at home planning on being a pro, what is the thought process?? What plan do you have when it doesn’t pan out for you? How long are you going to not work and stay at home doing nothing expecting that big pay off? What skills will you have to enter the work force if you ever do get it through your head that you aren’t going to be a pro?? What if you get divorced or your spouse dies, what will you put on your resume? You could always put something like:
Position: Lazy, narcissistic bodybuilder (sometimes referred to as “domestic engineer” for those that want to REALLY impress others and dodge their laziness)
Time frame: 1997 to present
Skills: Can fuck really well but otherwise, no real skills.
I think my point is being made here.
Being around a bunch of pros doesn’t matter, either. I train next to a lot of pros and have trained with professional athletes but I have yet to ever walk away a professional NFL player or a professional bodybuilder, by proxy. So, if you have a bunch of friends that are pros, I hope you are friends with them because they are good people and not just because they are pros. If not, you better hope THEY aren’t as shallow as YOU because when that day comes that you aren’t a pro and they realize you aren’t going to be one, you are still going to want your “friends” to be around, right?
It is sad, really. In fact, it is so sad that I almost hope those people DO get a pro card one day because they likely have so little respect for themselves that the pro card might be able to provide something to make them feel that they actually are successful. Even with the pro card, what’s next? Big money? LOL Don’t make me laugh. Maybe a 10k sponsorship for some shit nutritional company no one has heard of? Wow, the status of THAT would be pretty impressive. I mean, you could always spout off about how you are a pro and everyone should listen to you on message boards because, I mean, that has worked for some washed up pros, already, right? They get all hot and pissy with everyone because, dammit, they are a PRO bodybuilder or figure competitor, blah, blah, blah. They MUST know what they are talking about, right? Oh, brother.
Here you go, just have the pro card, really. If it makes you feel better, get it and enjoy it and tell everyone about it because I bet they would like to hear it considering you probably can’t carry on a conversation about anything not related to training, diet or nutrition, anyway. Remember: You don’t DO anything that would warrant an interesting conversation. You are one dimensional and, boy, are people like YOU fun to talk to. Woo Hoo!! I guess that would explain why and how bodybuilders hang out with bodybuilders – so they can talk about incredibly exciting current events like “what did you do for bis today?” or “should I have eggs with my oatmeal for breakfast or for lunch?” You know, fun shit like that to talk about.
I like to surround myself with well-balanced and interesting and successful people. Why? Because they have energy and they are fun to talk to because they can talk about a lot of different topics instead of basically just one. Some of my friends are bodybuilders and some don’t workout at all. I don’t pic my friends based on whether they workout or not, I pick my friends whether they are fun to be around and are motivating and exciting people to talk to and people that I can trust to be REAL people and not just someone that wants to be my friend because I am “Skip”. Fake people suck and so I leave you with this: Seriously, if a pro card is important to you then go after it. Just ask yourself: Who will be standing around you in support of you as a friend if you do eventually get the card? Will they be worth a damn and, more importantly ….. will you?

Skip

Oh, I’m having a moment.
I get my ideas for my blog entries from …. well, pretty much wherever and whenever they pop into my head. I don’t sit here and think “what do I write about tonight?” That is why you will find gaps in my blog entries so if you wonder why there hasn’t been an entry for a handful of days: I have not had a client or any of my friends say anything worth a damn to me to get my brain rock n and roll n. In short, it is the fault of my friends and clients, not me, when there are gaps in blog entries.
Earlier today I am on the phone with one of my clients and he is bugging the shit out of me, right? Just kidding, Shawn. Anyway, I digress….. I was on the phone with a “client” of mine that we will call …. let’s say his name is “Shawn” for the sake of this blog entry. Shawn asks a lot of questions because … well… he wants to grow like all hell during the offseason so he wants to understand why my approach will be the best way to approach his offseason or if he should hire someone like Scram from Scratchy Package or whatever the name of that made up business is. So, I am talking with him (speaking? or talking? Damn, this is where I wish I had that english degree) on the phone and he asks the million dollar question: How is it that you think I can gain as much lean body mass (muscle for you dumbasses out there) staying relatively lean than I could if I just ate my ass off and didn’t bother with how much fat I was putting on? And this, my friends, brings me to my blog entry on a Friday night when I could be out with my wife at the movies or a strip club or …. both. Thanks Shawn. Anyway, out of sheer obligation here are the nuts and bolts and the reasons behind my approach…..
First and foremost, Mr Shawn is older than shit so his health needs to be watched closely. Now, that is not to say that young guys don’t have to watch their health but young guys just don’t give a shit. I remember my 20s and I thought I was going to live forever and I thought that 40 meant you were pretty much half dead, anyway. Shawn is 36 or something close to that so he isn’t “old” but he ain’t no spring chicken, either. When you keep your body fat in check and keep it relatively low you don’t have to worry as much about things like high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, etc.. Hell, even things like cancer are significantly reduced by keeping body fat levels lower. Plus, you can pull WAAAY more ass when you are leaner so that might have been the kicker for Shawn, too, I don’t know.
Now, no one likely came to read my blog today for health advice and no one likely reads my posts on IntenseMuscle.com for longevity but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be smart about how you approach adding muscle mass, either. When you add muscle mass – forget about body fat – you are stressing the heart more. So, it is a safe bet that adding a large amount of body weight even when you are staying relatively lean is still a stress to the body. My advice is to keep the body fat lower so that the total weight gain is lower and that is the lesser of the evils when it comes to stressing the body’s systems.
You don’t care about health or longevity?? There are still so many reasons to stay leaner in the of fseason that I can’t possibly cover them all here but I will cover a few of the more obvious ones.
Eating cleaner (notice “leaner” is part of “cleaner” but just drop the “c” – I just noticed that and to think I don’t even get paid for these glimpses of brilliance) also allows the digestive system to work more efficiently. “Cleaner” means you are not only eating natural foods and a variety of foods but you are eating relatively low fat and the fat that you are taking in is “clean”, as well. The process of using clean fats as an energy source is a MUCH more efficient process than converting saturated fat to energy. We also can’t leave out things like milk and other dairy because those will also make digestion less efficient. So, you eat cleaner and leaner and your digestion is more efficient so that equates to more nutrients getting to your muscles and, thus, more potential growth. The alternative is dumping a bunch of food in and just letting the body sort it out. Yeah, real efficient. Nevermind the gas is so bad your wife will have an even bigger excuse to buy more ridiculously priced PartyLite Candles.
Aside from digestion there is the fact that the body functions so much better when it isn’t carrying excess bodyfat. Your natural hormone profile is in much better condition when you are leaner and your sleep will be that much more efficient, as well. I have seen it over and over with clients and with myself that the leaner you are, the less sleep that you will require. Sleep becomes more efficient the leaner you are so that the body can get done in, say, 5 hours what it normally would get done in 8 or 9 hours. I am sure that some of you reading this have experienced not needing as much sleep when you are leaner and even for those that have not, I would bet one of my kids (preferably the teenager just in case I do lose the bet I still come out on top) that most of you reading this that have been heavier at one time, noticed that you could sleep for 10 hours and still not feel completely rested. This is the same situation but in reverse: The body is not running efficiently while you sleep. Keep in mind that I am not even talking about things like sleep apnea that are known to have much higher incidence in people that are overweight. The amount of bodybuilders that are on breathing machines at night is startling to me and this is almost entirely bodyweight related (not always but in my opinion it is no odd coincidence that you don’t find skinny guys or real lean guys with sleep apnea).
“But Skip, how does this equate to more gains in LBM and how does this all measure up to just eating your ass off and growing that way?” There is no real good reason to gain 50 pounds of fat and 10 pounds of muscle. The people that do this are the ones that don’t know any better. I hear it all the time: “I just ate my ass off for the offseason and I grew like I had never grown before.” You got fat, bro. Yes, you grew but you got fat as hell and you are calling that “growth”. Nice try. Those same guys could have made the process that much more efficient by keeping track of their meals and working on timing and balancing calories in vs. calories out, doing some cardio and just plain showing some restraint. In the end they could likely have saved adding 20 or more of those pounds of body fat and yielded the same amount of muscle growth. For those same guys, it will suck to diet for a show when it comes time. Sorry you didn’t listen.
Some points that I feel are strongly recommended in the offseason: Cardio is an absolute necessity. It not only keeps your metabolism primed if the amount of cardio isn’t too high but it also can have you recovering faster between workouts. If you are leaner and your oxygen uptake is better you will get nutrients to where they need to be a lot more efficiently and that equates to growth. Eating leaner we covered, already, but timing is important, as well. You do have to remain above maintenance with your calories, obviously, but it doesn’t have to be 1000 calories over maintenance as that will not equate to more growth. Do you need to consistently add calories and take in as many calories as you can without gaining more bodyfat? Hell yes, you do. I never once said that eating like a bird would make you big as hell. You need to eat big but you need to eat as big as you can without gaining a lot of body fat. When you hear things like “eat big to get big” that doesn’t mean shoveling down the chinese food at a buffet and competing with your friends for who can eat more. That is just a fast track to man titties. So many people take the approach of “more is better” for so many things in this sport and food is one of them. Look, if you are already fat don’t go eating yourself fatter. If you are gaining strength in the gym but you feel it is slow and yet you can’t increase your calories because you are getting fatter, you are going to have to be ok with gaining slow. It sucks but get over it because I guarantee that eating yourself fatter is not going to have you growing any faster and the process of leaning down either for a show or just the summer is going to suck, ten fold.
When you approach the off season you want to go in with the idea of being able to work your calories up over weeks and months in increments that allows your body to adjust to the calories and hopefully to increase your metabolism to be able to handle more and more calories without gaining too much fat. If you increase calories by 1000 in a week, you are much more likely to gain body fat than if you increase by 1000 calories in increments of 330 every 2 weeks for a total of 6 weeks or even more. Go into the off season with the mission of being as healthy as you can be and looking like a bodybuilder instead of a “big guy”. The name of the game is size but you have to make sure that the gains you are making are quality gains. Control your off season by investing the time and effort into looking and feeling great instead of just shoveling the food in and hoping for the best.
Skip

First, I want to give a shout to my TEAMSKIP clients that are competing this weekend:
Shanique will be competing this weekend and is in better condition than ever before. I anticipate her doing very well as she becomes a seasoned, natural competitor. I love clients that can simply execute and not complain and bitch and can still keep a bit of humor about them.
Latattack, another member of IntenseMuscle.com, is competing at Jr. Nationals as a heavyweight this weekend after just getting edged out for the overall at the Gopher State 2 weeks ago. As usual, we have him in his best condition and a tad fuller than at the Gopher so we are looking forward to a solid showing in Chicago. I am from southwest Michigan and grew up spending a lot of time in Chicago so I won’t be gay and sound like a tourist by referring to Chicago as “ChiTown”. If you want to, go right ahead.
Jeff S will be competing this weekend, as well, and we have improved on his conditioning from a few weeks ago, too. He should be a little fuller and leaner and after dropping almost 60 pounds I am proud of the work he has done.

I also want to say good luck to:
Scott (homonunculus from IntenseMuscle.com) at Jr Nationals as he is a heavyweight and, as usual, is always bringing his insane conditioning to the stage representing IntenseMuscle.com very well.
Yusef who is from Colorado and a badass welterweight. He should do very well and will be the next featured athlete for TEAM SKIP when we do an interview with him at the end of June.
Bekim who will be competing in the heavyweight class is a former TEAM SKIP client and has made dramatic improvements to his physique. He should do well, too.
Luis Santa is going in as a welter, I believe. He has a contingent behind him from Colorado with some of them pretending to have a hand in his success but, go figure. People always want to latch onto successful people and pretend they are somehow involved. Luis is a great guy and should threaten to win his class. With a few adjustments he could get a pro card if he goes to Nationals as a Welter in the next couple years. He has already been a featured athlete with TEAM SKIP so if you are interested, check out his interview here on the teamskip.net site by going to the featured athlete section and clicking on his name.

I am disappointed that I won’t be hanging out in Chicago this weekend to have a little fun and take in the show. However, I would rather spend that time with my family being that it is Father’s Day and a show is just a show, really. There will be many more that I can go and see and many more to compete in when the time is right.
Skip

There is a fine line between getting ripped to shreds and overdieting. There is a balance of fullness and size to condition and I am beginning to wonder if I have taken it a little further than needed. Of course, I started to question this after my showing at the Jr USAs and started comparing pictures from as far back as 2003 and 2004 for comparison. I was in great condition those years and was tight as hell but nothing like I am now or in 07. I noticed that I had a fuller, rounder look to my muscles then and my skin wasn’t anywhere near as thin as it is now. I looked “prettier”, for lack of a less gay word. My condition from a leanness and dryness standpoint has blown away past condition and it concerns me. It seems that I may be rewarded for actually not getting into such extreme condition competing in the future. It is a tough call because I am known for condition but at what cost to the overall look?
I think in my quest for getting as ripped as possible I likely should have known that I wasn’t going to get into any better condition than in 07 and even if I did, it wasn’t going to be a “pretty” look. I also wonder what roll this extreme conditioning has taken on my overall size and growth in the offseason.
You have to figure: If you get emaciated for a show you are basically willing to give up muscle the last few weeks to get your bodyfat levels to such low points. I know I have to diet another 8 or so pounds before my back is ready for the stage and yet everything else was ready to rock and roll.
I see a LOT of these guys winning with what is to me subpar conditioning. I want to think that conditioning is rewarded as much as size but it is not and DAMNED SURE isn’t at the national level. Sure, you need to be conditioned and tight as hell but I am talking about the type of condition that few get into – the fringe condition that makes your jaw drop. In hindsight, I think had I come in as a heavy at the Jr USAs I would have done much better at least in placing than I did in the lightheavies. I am not saying this because the competition in the lightheavies was so good but because going after such extreme conditioning likely didn’t have me in my best shape. I could have been “prettier” at a higher bodyweight and not looked so overdieted. I don’t think I looked overdieted but I am speaking in relation to everyone else. It is almost as if the standards for conditioning are getting lower because the large majority of people in my class and in this show were not ripped to shreds, diced and sliced.
It will be interesting to see in the coming months and years but I see the conditioning aspect coming down even further and size and structure being a bigger part of the sport. I have to decide whether to play that game or to keep with going after that insane conditioning. Just remember that getting peeled is fine but if you are giving up muscle to get there and condition is all you are concerned with, you may be taking it a little bit too far.
Skip

You know, it is about this time of the year that I get all turned around and confused about what I want to do. I want to stay lean, I want to get big – I think we all have the head games no matter how long we have been in the sport. After 26 years I still find myself wanting to just blow up in weight knowing full well my fat ass will be holding my back wondering what the hell I was thinking.
However, it is at these same times that my brainstorming sessions go into overdrive. I am thinking non-stop and not just on the toilet where I usually do my BEST thinking. I am talking about thinking while driving or thinking while walking the dog or when my wife is talking to me. I actually prefer the latter because sometimes she is just talking about stupid shit, anyway. Ok, bad joke. My point is that I am constantly trying to figure out what I want to do in my offseason and how I want to do it, for weeks after a show.
I have my training set – that I have no doubts about and I haven’t second guessed it, at all. I am training at a badass gym and I am training with Brandon which is a great fit. I have no issues with training right now or questions around the structure, frequency, etc.. My nutrition is a different story, though. I want to stay lean and yet make some very good gains this offseason that would put me squarely into the heavyweight class so my tendencies are to let my weight start to go up. Bitch is, when I do that I start to have disk issues with my lowerback. Anytime I get over 220 my back gets tight as hell and the problems start to surface. I do wonder if my back is in a better place and could handle a higher bodyweight due to my awesome Chiropractor at Kambeitz Chiropractic but I am not sure I want to risk it. Plus, I feel sooo much better being leaner and I know I look better, too. I am not the most attractive guy so I have to be careful to not make myself any less attractive. I am not going to pull any ass with a gut. I have tried…. a long time ago, obviously, because I am married. *nervous smile*
So, what am I going to do?? Cut to the chase, Skip? Quit rambling on an on….. Ok, damn, I am going to slowly start to add calories back and stay RELATIVELY lean. I use the word relatively because I want to stay lean but if I feel good and things are going well and my gut isn’t poking out and my back isn’t bothering me, I will still continue to go up in weight ever so slowly. I am going to also experiment with some things that I think can keep my gut smaller and yet still get my weight up there. Some of it is going to be from TrueProtein.com supplementation and other things will be playing around with some ideas around my choice of foods, too. Example: Chicken bloats me and doesn’t digest well for me for some reason. I have had it back in my diet for one week and I have had the shits for one week. Otherwise, my food is the same as it was prior to the show. I will also be playing with the offseason SkipLoading as I have eluded to in a past blog. I even played with it Sunday and LOVED it. The results were very, very good – promising, indeed.
I am basically back in prep mode right now. My diet is what it was at about 6 or so weeks out and my cardio is only slightly off pace at 4 days for a total of 150 minutes a week after meal 1. I feel great and my weight baselined at 207 last week. It is not the 207 I was the day after the show but it is still a decent look and I am in my second week back in the gym after the show so my strength is not great but it is improving. The changes I make to my diet are going to be subtle and small and on almost a weekly basis. Example: This week I bumped all post workout protein drinks to 100g protein and next week I plan to go to ALL protein powder drinks to 100g protein. I also added some more waxy to my postworkout drink and I am going to leave out the cereal post workout as most of you know I cut that out somewhere around the 10 week out mark for this last show. It just bloated me too much when I had too many carbs postworkout. The reason behind the addition of the protein to the drinks is because these “meals” are light on the body. They digest very quickly and I feel that it is possible that I can use the extra protein and not have it go against my battle of the gut size due to how fast it digests. I have also been at my current protein level for almost 5 years and was actually higher for the 2004 show that I did and wanted to get back to that level or even slightly higher.
I have a lot of notes for things that I plan to throw around or try out this year. I want different results and to get different results you have to do things differently and think outside the box. I am doing that with nutrition, training and supplementation. I want this to be a good year and I want to make more progress than I have in any offseason, yet. I have every intention of doing just that.

Skip

You know, I was hesitant to even post this because I just loathe people that name drop or pretend to be friends with someone that is a professional athlete. I understand the reasons why but it irritates the shit out of me that everyone in Colorado talks as if they are friends will Phil Heath. I hear it all the time from people that see him in the gym or judges that because they judged him once or twice here in Colorado they are “tight” with him.
So, for the record, I was not in Phil’s wedding and I don’t train with him. I do consider him a friend and have known him since 2003 when we competed together at the Colorado State Show. I hadn’t seen much of him for a while except when he would guest pose a couple of times for the BBing shows that IntenseMuscle.com sponsors in Michigan. I got to speak with him at the show last fall and that was the most I had spoken to him in almost 2 years. So, it was nice to bump into him at Armbrust Gym on only my second day of training there.
He has started his prep for the Olympia and, as usual, had nothing bad to say about his competitors nor would he make any predictions about the outcome of the Olympia other than that he was going to put up an even more improved package this year. DUH. For those that wonder if he does any FST training, he was and had nothing but good things to say about it. Obviously, he is still working with Hany as he and Hany have a long standing friendship and business relationship.
I am looking forward to seeing how things pan out for him at the Olympia this year. I think he is good for the sport and I have said this for a long time. Just a stand up guy.

Skip

Yeah, yeah, I haven’t posted anything up in a while and I am sure you are all checking in only to find nothing new posted. Get over it. I don’t take a break very often so when I do, I take my time. Plus, I needed it so …. suck it.
I am back to the gym as of Monday and VERY glad to be back. I had a great time both in Charleston and with my family here in Colorado but I was turning into a greasy pig. Seriously, I swear I go from in shape guy to fat-assed pig faster than anyone out there. The nice thing is that I can get it back faster than most, too, thank God. I trained on Monday and dropped 9 pounds by the time Tuesday morning rolled around. Can you say fat, water-logged pig? I knew you could. The cramping was fierce. I trained chest, shoulders and tris and during side laterals (DCers are going “WTF?? What are side laterals??”) and my middle back was cramping. I was doing overhead presses and had to extend my legs because my calves were cramping. I was sweating like KD Lang at a Christian Singles Social. Have I used that one before? My bad.
I am now training at what is considered the Mecca for Bodybuilding here in Colorado: Armbrust Gym. I loved Colorado Pro but I moved to the mountains so I am nowhere near Colorado Pro and, truth be told, Colorado Pro was number 2 on my list with Armbrust’s Gym being number 1. It was just soooo far away that I never have gotten the chance to train there. Quite a lot of unknowns train there like Phil Heath and Heather Policky (Armbrust). Of course, Dillon is Heather’s husband and I think of the twenty-five or so people that I saw there late on Monday night, I knew all but about a handful. That is a SWEET environment to train in. Plus, I am training now with Brandon (BigBee) and it looks like it is going to work out very well. Sissy is training again after sitting out the last part of my prep, after the move. She is training with Jen (BankerBabe) so that is working out very well, too.
Missing my chili dogs and big breakfasts everyday but … that is how people get fat and die. I feel MUCH better doing my cardio and looking forward to training legs tomorrow. This way, I can be in shape and die. At least I go out on my terms. Oh, and looking forward to a new and improved “refeed” that I am going to play with during this offseason that isn’t exactly along the lines of what I have been doing. You know me: I gotta experiment. I am in negotiations with TrueProtein.com on different flavors for the TEAM SKIP blend. You guessed it: Chili Cheese Dog is one and Shrimp and Grits is the other. I will keep you posted.
Don’t know if you heard but last weekend 3 TEAM SKIP clients competed and all did very, very well with one taking 1st but missing the overall, another taking 4th and 4th after an 8 year lay off and the other taking 2nd. TEAM SKIP has 2 clients on stage this weekend and I anticipate them to do very well and a couple the following weekend including one at Jr Nationals. TEAM SKIP is representing very well at shows all over the world this year.
I think that about covers it for my first post being back. I would type more and offend some people that I don’t particularly like but I will leave that for another blog entry. I am working on getting into bed earlier these days instead of working until 4 and 5am so I am gotta go. I try to get up by 8am now. God help me.
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After a much needed break to spend time with family after my show, I will be back to work full force on Monday and I will be back to blogging my drivel per usual. I have a lot to say and a lot on my mind so I am looking forward to boring everyone with it early this next week.

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Back shot after pre-judging

FINALLY I am able to put down the chili cheese dogs long enough to type these long-overdue, blog entries. I think I have eaten more chili cheese dogs in a week than I have in 5 years and DAYUM are they good. : )
As promised, I am going to focus a few of my blog entries on the Jr USA weekend and things related to it. For this blog entry, though, I will focus almost entirely on what I did, what could have gone better, my observations about the show, etc.. I know there are people that have been waiting on this entry and I apologize for taking so long. I have had family in town and I have been vacationing, quite frankly, and having a great time. I have also been eating my ass off with my brother and his family and my mother as they are rarely in town and even more rarely in town at the same time.
First and foremost I want to be clear that I was not 100% and will gladly go into the reasons why, shortly. I wasn’t terribly off but it pains me to be off because …. well… I am never off. I know that sounds shittily arrogant (yes, I made that word up but oh well) but I am known for being “on” and I have never stepped on stage without improving from my last outing. What was even more disappointing to ME was that I had to hear people tell me that I couldn’t improve on my condition from December of 07 and I KNEW that I could and I was doing just that until the last leg of the prep. Now, I also want to be clear and say that I wasn’t off by much and I was still in great condition. I was just very flat due to a couple decisions I made at the end that, in hindsight, I would probably change if I could. At the same time, I have no real regrets because I worked harder for this prep and had to deal with so much more personal shit on my plate than ever before. It was something of a miracle that I even MADE it to the stage, let alone to still get into the condition that I did.
What happened? Simply enough I pushed for the lightheavies because it was a national level show and I did not want to have my debut as a heavyweight at a show of this caliber. I would have been destroyed so I felt that my only real competitive chance was in the lightheavies. I was going to bring my A game and my A game is conditioning. I felt that if I could take my conditioning over the top, it would benefit me at this level. Wrongo Dongo. This was where things started to not go my way…
At 2 weeks out I was 198 pounds and the cut off is just that: 198.25. I was not budging from 198 and the reason was pretty damned simple: I was incredibly lean. I didn’t post any pictures but I can assure you that people close to me were backing up what I knew and that was that I had never been leaner, EVER. My skin was so thin it was silly and my vascularity was insane and that was on ridiculously low carbs and fats. For the last 2 weeks I cut my fat intake as low as it would go by not only not having any additional fat in my diet but having my protein sources being scallops, ahi tuna and orange roughy so that the fat intake would be even lower. It was difficult to train, at times, but I got through and my condition was improving even though my weight wasn’t dropping. I moved my refeed to the Tuesday before the show instead of the previous Sunday and I was so hungry getting to that Tuesday that I thought I wanted to kill someone. While training legs on Sunday it occured to me: Why would I load on Tuesday with my weight being so close to the cut off right now (while training legs) only to return to the same weight by the time the weigh in rolled around on Friday? It started to seem like a gamble because, God forbid, I miss the cutoff after going on such low carbs and fats for so long to get my weight down to make the class. It would have all been for nothing in my mind. To come so far and gamble at the last minute just wasn’t sitting too well with me but …. neither was not loading on that Monday night and into Tuesday because I had a pantry full of fat-free cobblers, low fat cookies, cereal, pancakes, you name it. I was not liking the idea of passing on the load until Friday or Saturday morning. However, it became painfully obvious that passing on the SkipLoad for that Tuesday was the best call. I mean, my reasoning after all, was that I was the leanest I had ever been so all I really had to do was to fill out. How hard can that be, right?? I have done this so many times it is silly, right?? Well, I haven’t loaded on Friday or Saturday morning in years but that didn’t seem to bother me too much… Hmmmm…..

Back shot after pre-judging

My weight started to come down to about 196 the last few days and I was feeling pretty good about the weigh in and making weight because my condition was tight as hell even though I was flat as hell, too. I wasn’t too worried about making weight so that was a huge relief. At the same time, I was miserable because I was probably more hungry than I have ever been in my entire life. I don’t want to sound like a bitch but I was DAMNED hungry. I have prepped and dieted for YEARS and I have dealt with hunger before but it has been a lot of years since I have bitched about being hungry during a diet. I could not shut up. All I did was whine like a baby. It was pretty sad, really. lol Things weren’t so bad by Wednesday because we were leaving for Charleston and it was easier to eat and just have fun with the travel and getting out of the house. God love my kids and most of you know I love my kids dearly but I had to get the hell out of there before Social Services got a call.
Fast forward past me being a dick to my wife while she was supportive and helpful and fast forward past me scowling at everything she said, etc.. I would rather forget that but she keeps reminding me of it so I won’t be forgetting it anytime soon. In fact, it will take weeks of ass kissing to get around this one, I do believe. : ) You gotta love a good woman, though. I am very lucky. By Thursday I was cool because we made a run to Whole Foods for the rest of our food that we needed through the show. If you ever travel, don’t rely on room service and don’t try to cook it all yourself. Just go to Whole Foods and you will be good to go with incredible tasting food already cooked for you. I got chicken and turkey breast that was to DIE for. I got peanut and almond butter fresh from the spout. I also got ahi that was the best ahi I have EVER had. I wanted to go back and I think I could have eaten 10 pounds of it, it was so good. On a sidenote I have to say that whoever it was that built the peanut and almond dispenser machines that dispense warm, fresh butters seemed to purposely put a shelf under the spouts for no other reason than to keep people from putting their heads up under there to let the butter run into your mouth. I tried and I tried and I was pissed when I couldn’t do it. If you know of a Whole Foods without this shelf, do let me know. Anyway, eating for the next couple days was a breeze with the nice tasting food. I did up my fat intake to compensate for some hunger and I am never worried about fat intake coming into Friday before the show, anyway. All I had to do was make weight and I did at 198.0 on Friday morning.
At the weigh in I felt good but just really small and I was beginning to really feel sluggish from being so depleted. We went and watched a movie on that Friday (Terminator 3) and it was just a bitch walking all over and I wanted to just sit down. I had contemplated loading on Friday night to get a jump on filling out but didn’t because the two times I loaded on Friday nights I was never as dry as I wanted to be. I actually planned on loading later on Friday night closer to bed based on my condition being so flat on Friday and even went shopping for the food only to pull away at the last minute again. I was just too worried about losing what I thought was my edge and still figured I would load in the morning and be fine. So, I stuck it out through Friday night and got up Saturday morning about 6am ready to load and STILL held off until 8am to start. I almost wondered if I was somehow trying to prove to myself that I could stand the torture. lol Seriously, it just occurred to me at that time that I would be insane to go into the PJing without loading. I got down a good amount of food and some veins started jumping but there was no real “filling out” going on. By this time of the morning my mouth is usually getting pretty pasty but it wasn’t and that is when I started to figure something might not be as it should be. I still felt sharp but the problem wasn’t that I wasn’t “sharp”, it was that I looked emaciated because I was about to stand on stage with some God damned freaks that were going to dwarf me and I was doing nothing but making the contrast that much more obvious. It was like I was standing on the train tracks not thinking a train was closer than a thousand miles a way. Oh, I was in for a rude awakening.
Backstage it wasn’t too terribly obvious that I was going to get destroyed. Yeah, some of the guys were damned big but standing next to someone backstage is entirely different than standing next to them on stage. Some guys can look great backstage and shitty on stage and yet others are the other way around. I was the first competitor to do his free posing and I felt pretty good. A little cramping in my calves (which never happens) but otherwise pretty uneventful. It was about this time that I was to understand what I was in for as each competitor went out under the lights. One by one it was like they were getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider. It was like there were a bunch of sea monkeys backstage and between backstage and the lights someone poured one hell of a lot of water on them and they were swelling up right before my eyes. Guys that didn’t have much detail backstage looked to be in great condition. Guys that had loose skin and terrible hams seemed to transmogrify under the lights. It was absolutely bizarre to me. My condition even if it had been 100% wouldn’t have mattered – I was going to get destroyed on size and structure, alone. Even my “off” condition was much better than most of them but …. I can’t emphasize enough that it just didn’t matter. I was in a league that I didn’t belong. Sure, I had earned the right to be there and I was proud to stand on that national level stage but I wasn’t competitive and I accept this, completely. I am a realistic guy and I likely won’t ever be competitive at that level BUT ….. I am good with it. It hasn’t deterred me from competing, just from competing at that level. It just isn’t terribly “fun” to spend so much time and effort and money to get the last call out and not even do your routine at the night show. You still go out and are introduced and get to do 2 poses but …… that it. lol Now, a quick note to anyone that would be in that same position: Do NOT decide that you don’t want to show up for the night show because of not being able to do your routine. This is incredibly unprofessional and just plain bad sportsmanship. I contemplated it, I admit, because it just seemed to so worthless but the more I thought about it I still wanted to be introduced because I deserved to be there and I needed to set an example being in the position I am, for others, so that they would show up and do the same thing. It isn’t fair to the competitors that are at the top to not show up and show good sportsmanship.

before

12 hours later

I was filling out nicely by the night show but so was my gut. : ) I ended up making a huge change in fullness but still wasn’t anywhere near completely full by the night. I didn’t water over in my ankles until Monday. I was hard as hell all day on Sunday and only got fuller and fuller. I knew I was flat but this was showing me, clearly, that I was so flat that even I didn’t know how flat I was. I did make a few mistakes leading up to the last week, though. One was overtraining. I didn’t take a break or “cruise” for 22 weeks. I had so much on my plate that I just put my head down and forged forward. I don’t know if some of you know but I moved my family at the last minute to a beautiful mountain community and a beautiful home at 4 weeks out from the show. That was stressful enough but I also had a teenage daughter run away from home for over 2 months that returned 2 weeks before the show. Business has been booming for the last couple years and only got bigger this last year so I have had a lot of clients that need my attention and that I need to keep 100% on track for their shows, as well. I am blessed to have a great wife and marriage and a great family but I still had a lot to deal with that I probably should have packed in the prep at several points during the diet. However, it may well have been the prep, itself, that kept my sanity, I don’t really know. What I do know is that I committed to something and I finished it, period. Was it perfect? Hell no. Would I have changed things if I could? Probably, but nothing too major.
In the end I got leaner than I have ever been and I did make improvements with a couple bodyparts that I was very happy to see. My lowerback in particular because my lowerback has been terrible for the last few years and it has been very weak on stage. The changes were very obvious and I was very pleased with my back conditioning as my back looked the best it has ever looked at this show.

12 hours of loading

I also know that in the future I am a heavyweight – not by much but I am a heavyweight. I will never push myself so flat again to make weight and I will likely start to play the game of “how full can I get?” after getting very lean. I will still get insanely lean but I won’t push it to the point of flattening myself out like that again.
My offseason will be awesome and I am excited for the changes as I will training with BigBee at Armbrust Gym in Denver which is the mecca for this area. I am going to stay crazy lean because this is what I prefer and when I feel the best. I don’t even think I care that it might impact my gains – I am going to stay very lean for a while and decide what I want to do. Right now, though, I gotta run because I need another couple chili dogs before I have to be back in the gym Monday.

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