It Begins - 2025 Vancouver Open - 56 Years Old - Post Open Heart Surgery

So it begins yet at least one more time! Last year I did a show called the 2024 Vancouver Open Regionals and competed in the regionals which is "Open" to everyone, no qualifications required. I competed in Classic Physique 45+ along with Physique 40+ and Physique Open.

The goal of this show for me was to see how my body would respond now after the open heart surgery and to see if I could get anywhere near being somewhat competitive on stage. I did end up placing 3rd in Classic Physique 45+ and 3rd place in Physique Open, which I was happy with but more importantly I was very happy with how my body responded to the contest prep as it is very stressful on the body and I have to say this contest prep was probably one of the easiest and most comfortable I have ever done.

That brings us to this year and I have decided to compete again at this years Regional Vancouver Open which is on July 12th, so that gives me over 3 month to contest prep which is perfect. Last year I only had around 5-6 weeks to prep and my starting weight was 185 pounds with a body fat percentage in the high 9%. Right now I weigh 195 pounds with a body fat percentage in the mid to high 8% so I am in a much better starting place with an extra 10 pounds yet around the same body fat percentage.

With all that in mind my expectations for this years Regional Vancouver Open will be much the same as last year. Which is first and foremost to not stress my body out too much and to come in highly conditioned and with as much muscle as is healthy and realistic to expect, knowing that I can not rely on drugs to do much of the work for me. I am just not willing or prepared to jeopardise my health for a plastic trophy a the end of the day. This means I will more than likely not be holding as much muscle as some of the guys that have less to risk, so I will have to focus a lot more on conditioning to make the muscle I do have look as good as possible.

Hopefully at this years show the judges will be awarding conditioning a bit more than last year as in my opinion they were looking more for size over conditioning based on what I saw in the judging and placing of those on stage.

If at any point I do not feel good or have any health concerns I will be shutting down contest prep, but I am confident that it will go well this time around as I do have more time and can take things slow and adjust along the way.

53 Year Old Contest Prep 4 Days Out Update Peak Week

Even closer to the finish line where this Grand Master will be taking on the youngins at the Vancouver Fall Classic! in this video I take you along with me as I push through another challenging day filled with tons of activity and very few calories. As long as I keep moving things seem to be OK!

Some of the video clips highlighted today are some basic thoughts, a bit of food eating, a little bit of tanning booth post posing, a preview of my new posing shorts and my Classic Physique posing routine at West Coast Iron with Jeff. Join me as I get closer to stepping on stage and showing off all the hard work over the last several months...

53 Year Old Contest Prep 5 Days Out Update Peak Week

One day closer to the Vancouver Fall Classic and today I am in a better mood! Getting back on the low carbs has flushed out a ton of water as I am done almost 5 pounds literally overnight sitting at just under 195 pounds. Still got another 3 pounds or so to lose but it is happening for sure, leaving no stone unturned!

In this Vlog styled Video I take some random video of my day starting with a morning chat at A&W about what's going on, then I go over what my day will look like, some food shots and talk, a little bit of tanning booth posing video, a look at my new posing shorts ending with dinner and a little more conversation...

53 Year Old Contest Prep 1 Week Out Update Peak Week

We are in the home stretch now and this is generally the time I start to get really excited for the show as I am so close to stepping on stage and enjoying all the hard work that has gone into the full prep.

In this video I cover days 7 and 6 out documenting what I am eating and some of what I am doing each day alone with an update posing video. Normally even though at this point in the prep I am super fatigued I seem to find my second wind and get kind of reenergized. Unfortunately not everything is going exactly as I want it to but life does bring challenges and it's how you deal with these challenges that really tells what kind of person you are.

I plan to make video logs of each day during Peak Week so do join with me on this last Peak Week and hopefully you will get an idea of the ups and downs, joys and disappointments that go along with it. Life is not always what you want but it is what you make it to be.

53 Year Old Contest Prep 2 Weeks Out Update & Posing

We are nearing the home stretch with 2 weeks to go until the Vancouver Fall Classic and so it's time once again for an Update with some Posing so you guys can see how things are looking and if I am on track to be ringing hopefully my best size and conditioning to date on stage?

Yesterday I gave myself a higher calorie refeed high carb day to give my body a bit of a break and also see how it would react to higher carbs since I have been low carbing it for several months now. In the past when my body is struggling from a hard prep adding carbs in to carb load and fill in my depleted muscles has not always gone as planned and if I'm not really careful I can spill over even on a moderate carb load.

Yesterdays test run carb load was around 500 grams of carbs as compared to my 75 or less tropical diet I have been doing. To be honest I barely notice the carbs this time and only gained maybe a couple of pounds form the addition of glycogen and water filling my muscles. This tells me everything is working well and I should be able to carb load even a bit higher come contest day but I will still be somewhat conservative just to be safe.

I am happy with things overall and according to my body fat measuring devices I am somewhere around the high 6% or low 7% body fat right now. I want to be in the low 55 or even high 4% come show day so I need to lose around 3 to 4 pounds of fat still which is very realistic since the last two weeks I tend to be aggressive with my diet and usually lose at least 5 pounds during this time from past show experiences.

I feel I look a lot better from 2 weeks ago when I made my 4 weeks out posing video but you be the judge!