Competing

April, 2008 was my second appearance at the Emerald Cup bodybuilding competition. Hosted once again at the Meydenbauer Center located in Bellevue, WA, I was more than pleased with my physique and posing. I credit a great deal of my success to the training and advice I received from my trainer, Justin, himself an amateur bodybuilder. Justin was hired to help me focus on my quads and arms. He also provided great advice on cardio and diet, as well as assisted in my posing. Justin was there to talk me through some tough training times, including the times I wanted to stop and not compete.

The biggest change from last year’s training was not cutting carbs so drastically as well as lowering the intensity of cardio. Carbs were in the triple-digits until about the last 5 weeks of training while cardio was interval training walking on the treadmill at the highest incline. My concern of losing leg mass was assuaged by taking this route as opposed to doing stairmill last year.

The last 10 days of training was the most intense. Carbs were low, cardio was 6 days a week at 40 to 45 minutes, and sleep was difficult as being so exhausted made it difficult. It wasn’t until after weigh–in the day before the contest that I actually could eat, and even that wasn’t that much fun as it sounds as salt intake had to be kept low. Yet, the morning of contest I felt good, and in the next few days when I saw the contest pictures of my quads, I realized I had succeeded.

In 2007, I competed in the Emerald Cup held in Bellevue, WA on April 21. I placed 4th in the Masters 40 class. My diet I based on the book Championship Bodybuilding by bodybuilder–author Chris Aceto. I hired a personal trained named Steve with whom I trained 2 to 4 times per week.

Improving my legs was one of my highest priorities. Steve trained me on legs twice a week: Monday would focus on hamstrings and Friday would focus on quads. There was a marked improvement in my legs from the start of the 16 weeks of training until the date of the competition. It was very intense but well worth the investment.

A brief overview of my contest training routine is below. Please keep in mind that exercises changed each training session to stave off my muscles adapting to a routine. Steve kept the sets in the 3 to 4 range and the reps 10 to 12. The focus was to try and keep the weight as steady as possible rather than to make radical increases. It was more a battle to maintain the muscle mass I had achieved in training before competition training than to try and add more.

Sunday	Shoulders & calves	Overhead presses, barbell, dumbbells, &machine Side raises, dumbbells & cables Seated incline front dumbbell raises
Monday	AM: Cardio; PM: Hamstrings & calves	Curls, single & double, lying, standing, and seated Deads for hamstrings Russian deadlifts 45° leg press for hamstrings see Friday’s Leg routine for quad exercises
Tuesday	Biceps & Triceps	Standing & seated barbell & dumbbell curls Preacher curls, free weights & machine Close–grip barbell press Skull krushers Tricep cable pushdowns, straight, rope, and "v–bar" Dumbbell kickbacks
Wednesday	Back & traps	Deads Bent–over barbell rows 1–arm dumbbell rows Seated cable rows Seated cable pulldowns Trap shrugs, Smith machine, barbell, & dumbbells
Thursday	AM: Cardio	Rest day from weights
Friday	AM: Cardio; PM: Quads & calves	Squats, barbell or Smith machine Box squats Walking lunges, barbells or dumbbells Step-ups with dumbbells Extensions, seated and standing see Monday’s’s Leg routine for hamstrings exercises
Saturday	Chest	Incline press, barbell & dumbbells Flat press, barbell & dumbbells Decline press, barbells & dumbbells Flyes, cable & dumbbells Lying dumbbell 2‐handed overhead pulls