Merry Christmass everyone

Double S in christmaSS on purpose. MASS time ;).

Gaining strength - Jim Wendler style!

As the title says my current goal is to gain strength.
To reach it I am using Jim Wendler's 5-3-1 program. I am currently in second cycle and am already seeing great results. It is just amazing how my strength is going up.

If you want to find out more about it just visit his website http://www.jimwendler.com/2011/09/531-for-a-beginner/

And some report on my progress. I am slowly gaining weight. I am currently at ~78-79kg. I aim for 82 kg maximum weight gain before starting to cut for competition.

I gained a bit too much in the last 10 days. I had an ear infection and had to stay at home. No cardio an no training. I did lower my intake but obviously not enough. Nothing to worry about. I should be at my short-term goal weight of 77,5kg in about a week or so.

Diet wise I am still following IIFYM which I think is excellent. I track my calorie intake with myfitnesspal.

My current macros are:
- 300 (+/- 15)g Carbs
- 200 (+/- 15)g Protein
- 60 (+/- 5)g Fat

And the most important fact.. I am still learning a lot of new stuff about training, nutrition, recovery, etc. I learned A LOT in competition prep but I have still got a lot to learn.

I find team 3DMJ's video posts very informative specially Alberto Nunez's Lean Gains video series. I made a Youtube playlist.

Competitions are over for this year

With attendance at 1st FBZS-IFBB Maxximum Open on 27th October I concluded with competitions for this year.

I learned a lot from the two competitions I attended. I kinda successfully applied some lessons learned at IBFF World 2012 for MaxxOpen. I was darker, applied some glaze and was a bit fuller on stage. Still didn't fill up the glycogen stores enough so my muscles were still not as full as the should be.

The week to MaxxOpen I gradually increased carb intake. Started with 120g on Sunday after IBFF World 2012. Then 224g on Monday,  231g Tuesday, 303g Wednesday, 375g Thursday and on Friday I stopped counting at 600g. I think I got up to 900g.
Although I increased my carbs drastically (at least for me ;)) my weight started to drop even more! Reverse dieting they say.

So. My plan for next year is to gradually make lean gains and retain a fit form throughout the year. I don't want to diet too much again. I plan to go up to 82kg max. Should make the dieting much easier next year. I plan to loose more body fat in the process so cardio will be on schedule every other day.

Some images from Maxximum Open ;).

The night before the competition.

The night before the competition.

 

Me, Jure Rus and Boštjan Bavcon - Natural Muscle Zone members.

Natural Muscle Zone competitors and their supporters. There were even more supporters but we could not find them all. I think all of us wouldn't fit in this picture ;).

Natural Muscle Zone at Maxximum Open.

Authors of these images are Nika Krušič (Nikart Photography), Maxximum portal (most of the pics in this post), Aleš Oblak and some that my friend Simon took with my Nikon D90 (with wrong settings ;)).

You can view more official pictures here:
http://maxximum-portal.com/Galerija/1/1/320/ - newcomer category
http://maxximum-portal.com/Galerija/1/1/324/ - classic bodybuilding up to 175cm

Oh yes.. I forgot to mention I competed in two categories - Newcomer and classic bodybuilding up to 175cm.
Newcomer I placed 6th of 9. It's such a great feeling when you make the first call-out. I was actually surprised I made it into top 6.
In Classic I placed 6th of 6.

I'd like to thank EVERYONE who gave me advice, gave me support and took pictures ;).

My biggest thanks goes to my family. My wife and my daughter who were very patient and gave (still do ;)) me all the love and support one could wish for. Sadly they could not be with me on my last competition. I missed them a lot.

I Could go on and on but let's finish this post ;).

Maxximum Open 2012 - 1st Slovenian Maxximum Open

Maxximum Open 2012

Tomorrow I will attend another competition. This time it is Maxximum Open, which is organised by FBZS-IFBB (www.ifbb.si).

Competition will take place in Maribor, Slovenia.

My expectations are to be better prepared this time. Although it has only been one week since my last show, my appearance has improved A LOT! I started loading phase immediately after IBFF 2012. I have been gradually increasing my carb intake.

Now. I noticed a very peculiar effect while increasing carbs. My weight has dropped even more. Although I increased carbs up to 375g I only weigh 74,2kg (morning weight before #2 ;)). Needless to say that my muscles are fuller.

I will not be showing any pictures yet. Tomorrow or a few day after I will post my competition pictures. Should be a whole lot better then the ones from IBFF 2012. IF I don't do something wrong again ;).

IBFF World Championships 2012 - Portorož Slovenia

My first contest is behind me. The road to it was a great experience and great fun.
I learned so much but still not enough. Nothing can prepare you for D-day.

I placed 7th out of 7 competitors. I'm satisfied and proud and it's a well deserved placing. The conditioning of other competitors was amazing and I see I have got a lot of work ahead of me to reach their level.

Day before the competition was official registration and weigh-in day. I made the category Fitness Medium with 74kg morning weight. I was really looking forward to starting loading but I did it wrong.

Next day was competition day. Started early counting on possible traffic delays but was really poorly prepared for the delays that actually happened. It took me an hour and a half longer to reach Portorož then expected. I didn't have any food in the car so loading was equal to zero. My stress levels increased and cortisol started doing what it does best in me - fill water under my skin.

When I came to the scene of the contest there was no more room for me to put my bag and no room to relax so I had to squeeze in a corner. That I could deal with. Of course I didn't bring enough food with me to fill the muscles, forgot to bring elastic straps to pump up the muscles and did not apply enough color on my body. Putting some glaze on me would also not be harmful.

Considering all the mistakes I made, being a natural bodybuilder and this contest being my first I'm very happy I made the decision to take part in this championships. I didn't have a trainer, didn't have anyone backstage to "tell" me what to do, only great support from my wife and my daughter. All "problems/mistakes" are a new experience and something I can improve on in the next few days prior to my next competition.

Although I had a friend on stand-by on Facebook I couldn't follow his advices due to lack of preparations for the competition (food, sodium, honey, rice cakes, etc.. ).

I'm not complaining, just analyzing/sharing with you what went wrong.

Enough analysis for now. Let's see some pictures:

night prior to contest - 1st layer of color

night prior to contest - 2nd layer of color. Better shape then on stage :(

My greatest supporter and my life!

40 minutes before going on stage.

 

My posing routine - Decrease the volume (camera problems :/). 

I would first of all like to thank my wife and daughter for all their support, patience and LOVE they give me. I love you girls!

<3!

I'd like to thank my friend Roni Kovačič who gave me advice on posing, training and diet tips. And of course Natural Muscle Zone who were there for me when I hit a mental roadblock and were very loudly cheering for me ;). They also introduced me to IIFYM type of "dieting" which made my whole journey SOOO much fun and easier.

Proudly presenting my diploma ;).

Two weeks out

The form is improving every day.
I've increased cardio to 90 min/day and almost completely dropped carbs.
I'm now training with weights every other day insted of 3 on - 1 off as before. Time to rest my body a bit before the competition.

I'm loosing quite a lot of sleep. Hopefully it will get better as I introduce more carbs into my diet.
Anticipation is just to much for me to go to bed and fall asleep. I'm constantly analyzing my days and thinking about the stage and the entire experience..

Posing trunks have arrived to Slovenia. It took more then a month for post to arrive from States to Slovenia.
They're still not with me but are at the customs office.

Anyway.
Yesterday I went to a "group training" with fellow natural bodybuilders. It was a great meet.

Surrounded by natural made muscle ;).

My form 2 weeks out - pics taken on 6th October 2012

I'm still not satisfied as I have quite a lot of "extra" material (FAT!) ;) on my glutes. I'll just have to work harder to get rid of it. Probably won't succeed in removing all that extra until the competition, but will work on it.

18 days to go still no posing trunks..

And we're down to only 18 day until my first ever bodybuilding show.
It's no Olympia show but it sure feels like it to me and with Olympia weekend ended I'm very motivated to get through these last few days.

So far it has been a pretty smooth ride with a small bump on the way. I lost track and I fell into a "scale trap". By that I mean, that I focused on the numbers like a hungry lion on a baby zebra.
I ate only 1200kcal daily, did 1+h cardio and had 8 or 9 hard workout sessions.. until .. I crashed. Literally to pieces. I mentioned this two posts back I think. 

Well.. the damage is done, muscles are gone to some extent but I'm back on track..

Here are some update shots.

Oh.. I forgot to mention, that I ordered a two pairs of posing trunks from USA (Cherrybombs) on 31st August and I STILL haven't received my order.

I thought that the post got stuck at our customs office, but the Slovenian postal services (who also do customs stuff) said they cannot track the shipment as it was sent as a regular letter. I mean COME ON... who sends posing trunks in a letter (envelope)? I really don't know what to do now.. I can't prove I didn't receive the order so I can't ask for a refund. I really need these trunks as they are so expensive here in Slovenia.. 55+€ for only 1 pair.

FIRST Slovenian NATURAL PRO!

It finally happened. Two men and three medals ;).

As I wrote in one of my previous posts Natural muscle zone at Night of the Natural Champions, Jure Rus and David Brunšek took part in a INBA competition.

David Brunšek in the middle.

Jure Rus in the middle.

This will not be a long post, just long enough to say that I'm proud to know these guys and proud to be a member of natural bodybuilding community. From the images I have seen I think they really stood out.

Jure Rus is the first Slovenian Natural Bodybuilder to earn a PBNA PRO Card. 

You can read more at Natural Muscle Zone. It is Slovenian language only for now.
Videos can be seen here -> https://www.youtube.com/user/NaturalMuscleZone