ellie687's Journal, 16 March 2016

go you! 

Way to go! I'm entering my own bodybuilding contest hehe. I'm on day 2 of my Hammer and Chisel program. Ive got 58 more days. My problem is I'm 5'4 125 as of this morning and 21%BF. I wonder if I should have leaned down more before I start to sculpt? I see you want a goal weight of 115. For my frame I think that 10lbs would be too much. Idk though, I'm new to this body fat stuff but after losing 35 lbs in about 9months, I'm on fire!;) good luck with your training and competition!! 

Wow, that's amazing. So do you check out these ladies pictures, that are bodybuilders? That's when you know your addicted. You need to attend a contest. I have never been to one, but I hear they are most interesting. Men enjoying watching other men, I hear. lol 

I have a number of strong and cut women at my gym it's great. For Men, I prefer the Physique Competition, the classic 'Frank Zane' look is gone...look up some old pics...just fantastic physique. As for your contest. Make sure you check out some vids and tips on posing, also...your tan package at the event :-)....and bodybuilding.com has some great info on contest prep...when to increase water..decrease water, glucose depletion workouts, etc...all to get a nice 'Dry Cut' for the contest. 

oh geez, u have to decrease water?  

Yup, I have a great trainer who's a pro (won his pro card in 2006) so he's been walking me through it. I was in a beauty pageant last year that required some fitness but I'm gonna go this time around and just do the bodybuilding portion of it and see how I like that better. The water aspect of it doesn't change until I'm week or two out from the competition, right now I'm at gallon and a half daily which is pretty normal for me.  

So for a dry cut there are several things you need to do in specific order...increasing sodium...then decreasing sodium...increasing water...decreasing water...low carb, etc.. Anyone competing on stage is weak and dehydrated..but they look great. As soon as the contest is over they go back to normal routine. Any fitness model uses this same routine for a photo shoot. Google "7 Scientific Steps To A Camera-Ready Body" Jim Stoppani has a Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology... Once you increase water you shed more water...then suddenly dropping water will take a few days for your body realize less water is incoming and slow down its rate of shedding water leaving you with less puffiness under the skin and a tight dry look come contest time.  

Mahjohn, my friend Bill Pearl said he was the only five time Mr. Universe, that didn't take steroids, Arnold was a bigtime abuser. 

He also won it, when he was 20 and 40 years old.  

I'm not worried about the water depletion at the moment since I am still 14 weeks out. When I trained for a comp last year, I went up to 2 gallons/day with apple cider in it and then the day of the comp was 10 oz all day  

Bobybuilders on the most strict diets of anyone. 

Hi Ellie. In my opinion, you absolutely do not have to manipulate water, carbs, sodium or anything else to compete in bikini. The bodyfat levels that you will be at in order to be competitive in that category are nowhere near low enough that you have to worry about looking "dry" or vascular. In fact, that will hurt your chances of winning. I strongly suggest you check out my video on contest prep for bikini. The link probably won't show up on fatsecret, but go to YouTube and search Miller Method Episode 14: Dieting for Contest Prep. There is absolutely no reason to be weak or dehydrated when competing in bikini. My wife followed the exact approach I describe in the video and took 2nd in her class in a huge NPC show in Baltimore.  

I will definitely check it out, thank you! I have a couple of friends that competed in bikini and figure and I completely trust my trainer. Congrats on your wife's win! 

I also suggest watching episode 15, as it gives an example of what we usually see when people do excessive cardio coupled with a low carb diet. This is the standard approach for people training for competition and its disastrous. Good luck! 

My carb intake at the moment is fairly normal, definitely more than what I was doing before. I heard about people doing insane diets and going extreme but I don't want to risk my health so I'm definitely doing as much research as possible. 

Ok well if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'm director of the Weight Management lab at George Washington University and a large chunk of our client base are competitors we prep or who's metabolism we end up "fixing" after bad prepping.  

A few years ago I had 4 friends a lot like you - I am speaking attitude, goal, and motivation wise - well we all fed off of each other and I tell you we really benefited from it. All of us ended up lifting in competition and we all did really well. The biggest boost was for me personally when we all took a vacation the following winter to mark the one year point when we were all working out together. By this time we all were in such fantastic shape. I was standing at one of the bars at the resort we went to in the Dominican Republic and this younger girl walked in. She did a double take at me, there was no mistake - nothing ever happened, we never hooked up or anything ( I was married at the time and would not have done anything like that) but just knowing that members of the opposite sex found me sexy was so satifying - When I was younger things like that happened from time to time but not in my older age. It was just very gratifying to have a total stranger admire my body. It may sound weird to some people but some people will understand. (If not I will sound like a total conceded idiot - lol) Yeah, I know most girls probably think "what's the big deal?" because they get it all the time, but guys don't and especially old guys. It just felt nice to feel attractive.  

That's awesome sky, it sounds like it was a good motivation for you! For me it's having the date itself and being in control. I've trained a lot but having a dateline that would put me in the spot is what making me get up at 5 every morning and continue to do what I'm doing. 

good job Ellie, what do you do at 5am?! Whats your daily schedule look like? Just curious. 

Thank you Misty! Daily schedule is wake up at 5, do 30 minute cardio then off to work. After work I teach kickboxing as a second job then gym session for hour, hour and half and then meal prep in the evening. Between all of that it's making sure I get through my 6 meals throughout the day without skipping any.