destiny shmesstiny my 2007 nationals blog

nationals weekend destiny shmesstinyby: V Delcampo - November 21st, 2007
I arrived in Dallas Thursday afternoon poised and confident that this was my year to win the Nationals. I have been competing in the Nationals since 2002. In 2002, the Nationals were also held in Dallas and this was my first time back to compete since. I have to admit there was a part of me that some how believed it was my destiny to win this year and finish my amatuer career where it started. All I had to do was show up and collect my trophy. Now don't get the wrong idea I went prepared. I trained with full intensity and dieted without wavering once. The pictures will prove that! Unfortunately, this destiny crap was not going to be. I arrived knowing that I was a heavy favorite and recieved a lot of attention from the press. This only further boosted my confidence as I was sure it was my day to shine. At about this point a certain nickle back song started to ring in my head. I think the words are something like I'm feeling so good there's gotta be something wrong or something like that. So, I mentally prepared myself for disappointment just in case. I still never thought I had much to worry about at this point. But bodybuilding is a subjective sport and I'm counting on human opinions to determine my fate. At weigh-ins, I stood out as the one to beat. Weigh-ins are 24 hours before the contest and a lot can happen to your body at these shows in that short of time. Lucky for me my physique stayed in tact (tight and full) and I felt I looked my best ever by the time I hit the stage. Unfortunately, some of the other guys whom were less then impressive at weigh-ins filled out and looked incredible by the time they hit the stage. We were brought out on stage and I was feeling good my routine was flawless and as we were getting ready for call outs, I was pretty certain that I was still going to take this show. First call out, not me, awe. Second call out, not me, ok,ok keep smiling. Third call out, What!!!!! Not me? Ouch, what happened Fourth call out, again not me. That was the first time, in a long time, I was not in the first call out. I was on the outside looking in. Since I dont find myself here to often anymore, it was quite humbling. Well, I was the first call of the second group and handled my business there and ultimately ended up in 5th place. So, what the hell happened? I had a chance to talk to a few people who are friends with the judges and apparently, I let my left quad go few times on stage and didn't flex it causing it to appear soft. The top three looked very good but if I had not made this critical error, I would probably have gotten that call out and had a chance to show that I'm better then the other guys. It seems I make a new mistake at every show. I don't know if it's good that I don't make the same mistakes twice or bad that I keep coming up with new ones. Over all, I do consider the weekend a big success and I'll list a few reasons why. I know some of you have read this in the forum but here goes: 1. One of my personal goals was to beat the guy who placed second last year. His name is Jesse Sabutur. did that. 2. I was at my all time best, so, what else can I do. All I can do is be better from show to show. Anymore then that is out of my hands. I was at my best for sure thanks to the help and guidance of George Farah (love that guy). 3. I beat this year, last years, (and I believe there was another former) USA class champion. Now thats something to be proud of. 4. I got to spend some time with a bunch of great people, Jess and Peter Putnam are both really nice. I spent some time with George Farah of course, Bob from Optimum and many other during the weekend. I learned that there is nothing guaranteed and destiny is for fairy tales. I'm more motivated then ever now and I just can't wait to see the new and improved me next season.

getting the most with minimal effort doesn't mean im lazy

When I am getting ready for a show or just getting back in shape I have to have a plan to set in motion. The best way I can explain this is to compare it to the movie Spaceballs when they go into hyper speed, then warp speed, then ludicris speed. Or imagine a car with gears and when one gear is maxed out you move to the next for more acceleration. Ok, right about know your probably thinking, what are you talking about? I'll explain. First you have to understand that the human body is a highly adaptable machine. When I start my journey, I don't play all my trump cards at once otherwise once I reach a plateau or a point when my body adapts where do I go from there. In the beginning, I just clean up my diet a bit. Ex: take sugar out of my diet and go to the gym on a regular schedule. This alone will get me to a certain point. But this will only get me so far before I need to take it up a notch. When I feel I need to speed things up, I will then take my diet a bit further and actually write a structured diet that is geared toward my goals. Now going from just working out and avoiding sugar to actually following a well thought diet will take me a step further. When planning this diet I don't just go from zero to sixty either. I start with a decent amount of calories and a nice amount of lower glycemic carbs. From here, I haven't started cardio yet and I have already seen major changes. Basically, I am only in second gear with a few more gears and don't forget the turbo button. A few more weeks may go by before changes start to slow. This tells me that it is time to up the intensity orplay another trumpcard. There are a few things I can do from here. I can start with cardio. Just adding a little cardio, like 20 minutes, will start the changes going again. I could tighten or adjust the diet. You see from here with my diet established I am applying this simple rule for losing weight, you must burn more calories then you take in during the day. I could even take it one step further and add a fat burner like thermo-cuts to the mix or up the cardio or restrict calories even further. You see, what I'm doing here, I'm getting the most out of one level of intensity. Then when I feel I need a change, I add another factor. Otherwise, if you play all your trump cards at once you will reach a point where you will get stuck. By doing this you can avoid starving yourself for changes and doing endless ridiculous cardio sessions. It's all about priming your body and getting the most out it then adding a small change step by step to get you one step closer to where you want to be.

carb timing

The first thing I do when planning a new diet is figure out how many grams of protien, carbs, and fat are going to be necessary for me to reach my goal. To begin with I eat 40-60 grams of protien with every meal.Most people are surprised that while dieting for a contest I almost never eat less then 180 grams of carbs. The key to dieting for a bodybuilding contest and in any diet should be to lose bodyfat while maintaining or better yet gaining lean bodymass. I am going to give you a run down of when I eat the majority of my carbs assuming my carb intake for the day is only going to be 180 grams. It is important to note that I am only talking about starchy carbs not fiberous carbs. I think this is a good time to point out that when dieting I find that the more fiberous carbs I eat (ex: green vegies) the leaner I get also they help to make me feel full at night when I'm not eating the starchy carbs. There are two meals a day that should take up the majority of your carb intake. These two meals are breakfast and post workout. I eat 50 grams during both of these meals. At breakfast I eat the carbs because after waking I haven't eaten in at least 8 hours. I want to get my body back into an anabolic or muscle building state, also I am able to eat more here because I will have all day to burn them and I really need the carbs for energy. I eat 1 cup of oats in the morning which is roughly 50 grams of carbs and very easy to make. Post work out is a bit different. I still use oats but I like to get some simple sugars in at this time as well. My goals for my post workout meal are the same as at breakfast but I want to get these carbs in faster so I use a higher glycemic carb as well as lower ones to make a sort of time released carb post workout meal. I find that if I take one pack of sugar oats and add to it 1/2 cup of plain oats, I get the perfect combination of fast and slow acting carbs. The fast acting carbs will get right into my body and boost me back into a muscle building enviroment while the slow acting ones will stick with me. I have 80 grams of carbs left to spread through out the rest of my meals. I eat 40 of these about an hour before I train. Then take the other 40 and split them between two other meals. I don't eat starchy carbs after 5 o'clock pm unless it is a post workout meal.

how i figure out how many calories i need to eat

start my diet like this I take my lean mass and I eat about that many grams of carbs, then i eat 1.5 to 2 times my lean mass in grams of protien, also I eat about 30 grams of fat
as I gothrew my diet I make adjustments to carbs sources first.
ex: switch from brown rice to yams
then I may lower fat or adjust carbs slightly, finaly towards the end i take fat out completely
i eat the same diet every day as long as im still making improvements at a good pace.
i usually dont have to start cycling carbs till last four weeks
food sources:
eggs wites
egg yolk
chicken breast
flank steak
tuna
brown rice
yams
brocolli
whey protien

really thats all you do

When I meet new people who have never met a bodybuilder before they always ask, "How much time do you spend in the gym? Six hours." When I tell them 45 minutes to an hour a day, 5 or 6 times a week they just don't believe it. They always say "Really! That's all you do?" I think it was Lee Haney who once said, "stimulate don't annihilate the muscle." Some people, including myself, make the mistake of thinking the more you lift the bigger and stronger you get. I remember when I first joined a gym, I was probably 17 at the time, I would do every single exercise I could think of in one 4 hour long workout. In the beggining this worked but it didn't take long for me to hit a wall. So, I went looking for answers on why wasn't having more progress. The first key thing I learned was the idea of a training split. You know, when I first started I was one of those guys who only trained chest, arms, and abs. It wasn't long after I started that I teamed up with my first training partner and we decided to train each bodypart split over 6 workouts during the week. This way of training (concentrating on either one or two bodyparts in a workout and doing each body part once a week) was great. This made a huge difference and I really started to grow.Training this way has two benefits:1. It allows you to concentrate on the one chosen muscle and really blast it hard set after set.2. It allows you a full week of recovery. I didn't realize just how important this was at the time.The second key thing I learned was you don't grow in the gym while your lifting, rather you grow at home while your recovering. It wasn't until I applied this knowledge that I really started growing. I was told years back by my first bodybuilding coach that less is more. And that the body won't stay anibolic if you train for much more then an hour or so without food. This means that after about 2 hours of lifting your body will start to catabolize which is the opposite of what you want. He recommended doing 12 sets per bodypart. ex: 4 sets of 3 exercises, or 3 sets of 4 exercises per bodypart.I was able to blast out 12 sets and finish my workout in one hour. I was in and out of the gym and on with my life. The amazing thing was that even though I was training with less volume or shorter more specific workouts my strength just consistently went up along with my weight. This is when my body started to really make consistent changes. These are the basic rules I have stuck with for training volume and the basis for how I built my physique. Using these rules for lifting weights I have gained a total of 22 lbs of lean mass going from 143 lbs at the 2003 jr USAs to 165 lbs at the 2006 Nationals, while maintaining good balance and symmetry. I should point out that during the last three years when I made the most significant changes to my physique; I followed a very strict and healthy diet program which may be the most important facter of all. I will get more into that when I write about nutrition.

nationals here i come

Its july 3rd and I have spent last few weeks since I decided not to do USAs eating everything insight. I do enjoy myself, but I try not to let myself get fat and maintain abs.
I am definitly doing the nationals and I will begin my diet around august 1st.
Right now I am currently 200 lbs with vissible abs I would say some where around 10% bodyfat. last year I competed in the natiionals as a welterweight weighing 165 lbs. This year I would love to step on stage a full 10 lbs heavier. That would put me in the high end of middleweight class.
Starting in August I will keep a journal of everything I do up to the nationals. I am tracking how much weight I lift, how many reps and sets , what and when I eat, sleep, how much cardio I do. This detailed discription of my contest prep will be found on my members page so you will know just how I transform my body for the biggest show of the year in an attempt to earn my pro card.

no usas for me

well i was planning on hitting the usas in vegas this year but my plans have changed. im still training my ass off still growing and always improving. i have changed gears im gonna spend time putting on some extra mass and attempting to move up to middle weights this year. should be exciting i think my frame could use some extra muscle and will hold it well. so look for me in dallas as i will be at my all time best and plan on taking the class.