Road to the Canadian Nationals 2019 - Carb Refeed Day

This Monday which is tomorrow as I type, I will begin my ultra low carb high protein diet that will consist of a lot of white fish, eggs, high fibre vegetables and a little bit of chicken. But this video isn't about tomorrow it's about today and what I will be eating which may seem a bit unconventional.

The main idea for today and a to some degree yesterday was to bring up my carbs for a kind of carb refeed for a few reasons. Reason number one is to see how my body reacts to the carbs, this will help me figure out how many carbs to add in when I do carb up for the GNC / ALLMAX Canadian National Pro Qualifier about 10 days from now.

Reason number two is to give my metabolism a little boast before I get into the really hard dieting and cutting, loading up on your carbs for a couple days can help jump start your metabolism especially if you have been under calorie for a while.

And reason number three, well just because carbs taste really good and getting some of my carb cravings out of my system again so I can focus on my rather strict diet over the next couple of weeks.

Join me as I show you what as day of carb refeeding looks like for me!

Road to the Canadian Nationals 2019 - 2 Weeks Out

Yet another update video for the Road to the GNC / ALLMAX Canadian National Pro Qualifier in Toronto. We are 1 day away from 2 weeks out and this is when it really starts to get serious, not that up until now I have been playing around.

Starting on Monday I will be on a very strict diet of around 2000 calories per day consisting of mainly white fish and high fiber low carb vegetables, virtually no fats and starchy carbs will be allowed. 2000 calories of this type of food is actually a lot of food and can be hard to eat but the body knows it's missing some of that good stuff and even though I will be fairly full I will start to crave carbs and fats.

Another thing that changes next week is how I will workout, because of the low calorie diet and high activity I will have less energy and will also need to be careful not to overdo it. An injury in the gym at this point would not be good. Workouts will be all about getting a good pump and burning as many calories as I can!

Other than that things are going really well and I am very happy with where I am sitting 2 weeks out from the show. This is the strongest, biggest and leanest I have been this close to a show to date. Watch my YouTube Road to the Canadian Nationals 2019 2 Weeks Out Update Video for more details on what's going on...

Road to the Canadian Nationals 2019 - Contest Prep What is it

So I'm doing the GNC / ALLMAX Canadian National Pro Qualifier in Toronto which is coming up really soon by the way, about 2.5 weeks out... Where I need to be stage ready so I can hopefully impress the judges and perhaps get that all elusive IFBB Pro Card! Like anything in life if you want to do well then you need to be prepared for it.

Contest Prep is really no different, it's making sure you are ready by getting yourself in the best possible shape that you can and for Men's Physique that means being muscular but not too muscular while also being conditioned but not too conditioned. The truth of the matter is that as Men's Physique has evolved over the years the judges seem to be rewarding the biggest and most conditioned guys but that's another topic.

So how does one get in Contest Shape? It's really a process of building muscle first, usually in a slight caloric surplus followed by a caloric deficit for cutting as much fat as you can while keeping as much muscle as you can. There are several ways to go about this (without getting into too much detail as I explain a lot of this in the video), I touch on the bulk and cut method and the grow into the show while cutting method which is more or less what works for me as I have found out by trial and error.

Road to the Canadian Nationals 2019 - 3 Weeks Out

We are getting really close now, this is the time when you can start to see all your hard work paying off and have an idea if you are on the right track or not. Now is the time to make some small adjustments to the diet to get the absolute best out of each week and each workout in terms of building muscle and cutting fat while still trying to have some sort of energy and focus to do it all.

I talk about all of this in this 3 Weeks Out to the GNC / ALLMAC Canadian National Pro Qualifier video and show you an update of my conditioning in the Fit4Less Tanning booth as always :)

Road to the Canadian Nationals 2019 - What Does my Training Look Like?

*Workout Training Videos at the end of this YouTube Video*

Many of you have been asking me to post some workout videos of my training especially during contest prep. At this point in time during my contest prep about 4 weeks out I am still focusing on building muscle as I have been for several months. My weight training focus is on trying to get stronger and put on more muscle since this is a good thing for a fitness contest, this takes overloading the muscle and making sure my workout intensity is at its maximum. At 4 weeks out from the GNC / ALLMAX Canadian National Pro Qualifier I can still be in this high intensity mode as I am not too lean just yet and my food intake has not been restricted as much as it will during the last two weeks. Once that happens my workouts will also change to more of a volume and pump focus still with as much intensity as I can muster up.

In this Road to the Canadian Nationals 2019 - What Does my Training Look Like video I talk about how I break up my workouts and why I do it the way I do, I have also included some sample video of today's workout where I hit upper body with some calves and core at the end.