Men's Physique in 8 Weeks

I have to admit, this is a little out of the ordinary for me to put myself under the microscope, but I thought, if my clients are willing to let me take pictures of them for the world to see, then shouldn’t I be willing to do the same?

On April 13th, 2013 I will be competing in a Men’s Physique competition in Los Angeles.  I have never even considered doing something like this until around 5 months ago.  Over the last 4 years I have spent most of my time focusing on endurance training: marathons, half-marathons, triathlons and the like.  Once I completed the Malibu Triathlon in September I realized I weighed less then I did in high school!  I was losing too much weight, muscle mass to be specific.  I needed a new challenge.  Something I’d never done before.  Something that would take me outside of my comfort zone.  Body Building!

Now, when I say body building, I mean more specifically Men’s Physique.  Check out the general rules here.   I’ve never given myself the challenge of gaining a specific amount of muscle mass with the intention of then getting completely shredded, until now.  Over the last 5 months I’ve dedicated my training to gaining muscle mass.  This means I’ve cut cardio down to a minimum and started lifting as heavy as possible.  I’m not going to pretend I’ve done this alone.  I happen to work at a gym where there are several amateur as well as professional body builders, so I was able to pick some of their brains for guidance.  With their help I’ve designed a workout and nutrition program that has helped me gain almost 20 pounds in 3 months.

Over the next 2 months or 8 weeks I will be working to shed as much body fat as possible while trying to keep as much of the muscle mass I’ve worked so hard to build.  I will post a new update at least once or twice a week discussing my process.  This will include pictures and videos, the workouts I’m doing, what I’m eating and how I’m feeling along this journey.

Here is my goal.  This morning I weighed in at 184.6 pounds.  I will try to get my body fat calculated this week at FitnessWave in Westwood.  I think I’m around 10-12% body fat, but I could be wrong.  I’d like to get down to around 3%.  When I’m training for triathlons I know my body fat drops to around 5%, so I know that I’d need to be a little less then that in order to be at a competitive level at the Men’s Physique Competition.  Crazy!

Stay tuned and please leave comments.  I’d love as much support as possible.