Road to the Leigh Brandt Muscle Classic 2021 - 11 Days Out

I am now only 11 days out from the Leigh Brandt Muscle Classic and the question is have I left it too close? Is there any way I can get lean enough to be contest condition? If I had been prepping for this show the way I normally would done, I would be a lot leaner at this point but I would have also been in a much harsher diet deficit for a much longer period of time making my body less responsive to continued dieting.

The advantage I have not being in so much of a diet deficit leading into my last two weeks before the show, means when I do push my body into a hard diet deficit this last two weeks, it will respond to it much better as my metabolism is healthy and my body will be more willing to respond well to the harsh dieting at least for the two week leading up to the show.

So in theory I am hoping to see really dramatic changes over the next week and by this coming Saturday I hope to have a better idea on if I will be ready or not for the show. I hope everything goes as planned but at 52 years of age sometimes my body doesn't always do what I want it to do! Fingers crossed and see you on Saturday when I do another check-in...

October Update Video - Possible Upcoming Show

I have been missing in action for the past several weeks mainly as I have been spending a fair bit more time taking care of my other YouTube Channel or should I say past YouTube channel. My Replica Airguns YouTube channel was taken down by YouTube with no notice other than a termination notice and so we are now in the process of uploading over a thousand Airgun related videos to Vimeo which is another video streaming platform.

On a more positive note I just might be doing a Fitness show, the Leigh Brandt Muscle Classic in a little over two weeks from now, I have my work cut out for me for sure and so it really depends on if I can get into the shape I need to be in and I probably won't know until about a week out from the show as my prep time is limited but I feel I can make the changes I need to as I was not super far off going into the process.

How Not to Peak on Show Day

It's been a little over a week now giving me lots of time to reflect on competition day for the Vancouver Island Showdown in beautiful Victoria British Columbia Canada. All in all I had a wonderful time, it was kind of like a mini getaway for my wife and I, just would have liked to have spent a couple more days there for sure.

Getting back to the show, I do like some time to think things over and in some cases come to terms with what exactly happened. This show could for sure have gone a lot worse but I know it could have also gone a lot better if I timed things better as I know I was in really good condition and had good size leading into this show, so what went wrong?

In this videos I talk about the carbing up process and how important this is since by carbing up you can either nail a full and dry look, come in too dry and not full enough, or come in overfull and spilled over. You want the first one by the way. I however came in really full and spilling over slightly which at the end of the day means I looked full and big but lost a lot of the detail and ended up being a bit bloated with too much water coming out of my muscles and going into my mid section and anywhere that I had any fat at all, so my mid section, my back and my face.

I also talk about how that happened and where I made some mistakes that I will use as yet another learning lesson. Will I use this new information for a future show??? I'm not sure at the moment, I like to relax after a show and not put any immediate pressure on myself and that's exactly what I am going to do, enjoy life, enjoy eating, enjoy my workouts and let the future unfold on it's own...

Vancouver Island Showdown - Show Day

The day of the show is here and so as always I bring to you as much as I can while doing my best to focus on the show and make some videos of the days events. There is no way for me to include any actual stage photos or video since I am on stage when this happens but I have ordered stage photos and videos of the event that when I do get them will share with everyone so stay posted for that.

I do talk a lot in detail on how I felt the show went near the end of the video but in summary this is how I placed. I placed 5th out of 7 guys in Open Classic Physique Class C. And 6th out of 8 guys in Open Physique Class D. Pretty sure I was the only Grand Master in these lineups so not bad considering.

I felt like I brought a good look to the stage, felt I added some size while still retaining conditioning but I'll wait on the stage photos and video packages I ordered before I can really say for sure.

A big thanks to everyone involved in making this event happen, it went off very organized and professional and felt more like a pre-covid type of event!

Vancouver Island Showdown - 1 Day Out

Just one day left to to go till I make it to the stage of the Vancouver Island Showdown. Today was all about checking in and loading up with carbs to fill in for show day. If you're not sure what carb loading is, it's when you purposely deplete yourself from carbs and glycogen so as to make your muscles go flat or less inflated looking in preparation for loading them up right before stepping on stage. So in effect your muscles will actually absorb more glycogen and water making them as full as possible for the competition.

That is the plan at least and getting it just right is a bit tricky as you can come in underfull or overfull. Underfull means you didn't eat enough carbs and your muscles still appear a bit flat and dry. Overfull is probably worse since if that happens the glycogen spills over into other tissues like the skin and any fat in it washing out the hard full look of the muscles. Let's hope I got it just right!!