Get Fit Over 40 Update Video - 4 Weeks Out Victoria Cup (No Shirt)

I'm now 4.5 weeks out from my Men's Physique Victoria Cup Fitness Contest in beautiful Victoria BC! I have been really good about sticking to my eating program and for the most part I am at a deficit of about 1000 calories Monday to Friday with a break period on the weekends where I hit my maintenance calories on these two days.

This gives me a 5000 calorie deficit for the week which should equal about 1.5 pounds of weight loss per week. So in theory I should be down about 4-5 pounds of fat but to be honest my weight has only dropped a couple of pounds. I am at right around 192-192 pounds each morning and only weight a pound or two more by the evening. I can say I am getting leaner and I know by my extra training in the gym that I am putting in the time and effort to not only keep the muscle I have but also add a little while I cut! And to the critics out there yes it can be done and without any "special" supplements.

All you have to do is skip cardio by adding in extra weight training sessions, keep pushing yourself harder each workout. None of this super high rep light weight cutting crap. Make sure to get enough carbs to replenish your glycogen levels and give yourself enough time to get the job done, so no radical calorie restrictions!

I recorded this update video outside this time to get more natural lighting, it was a bit shadowy in places but you can get an idea of where I am so far in my cut, to be honest the video is not doing me any justice but at least when I get contest ready you will see some big changes. I figure I will be walking on stage at around 185 pounds. Last November at the Sandra Wickham Men's Master Physique Contest that I won, I was 175 pounds but was a dehydrated 175. This time I am going to dehydrate less and trust that my conditioning will get me as shredded as I need to be. The problem with dehydrating is you also lose muscle size from water loss in the muscle fibers :(

Well stay tuned for more Victoria Cup Contest Prep update videos...

Get Fit Over 40 Update Video - 5 Weeks Out Victoria Cup (No Shirt)

Getting a bit closer now, only 5 weeks plus a few days out from my Men's Physique contest at the Victoria Cup. I started last week with my weight cut since I do not have a lot of extra body fat to lose. I really only need to lose about 5-6 pounds of fat, last week I was able to cut out about 5000 calories below maintenacne from my diet so that should of equaled around 1.5 pounds of fat loss. I am currently aorund 192-192 pounds and my Skulpt Aim Muscle Quality Meter as showing about the same body fat percentage as the week before (about 7.5%).

I am not surprised at these results, tech gear is not always 100% accurate so there are going to be slight deviations. What I need to do is stay focuses and trust that my program is going to get me to my body fat percentage goals, over time I will see the results I want!

The lighting in this video was not all that great for showing cuts so you may not notice any improvement over last weeks video update, after all it is only a little over a pound of fat loss so there is not much to see just yet. The big changes will take place in the last 2 weeks as I get really aggressive with my diet at that point :)

Get Fit Over 40 Update Video - The Cutting Begins (No Shirt)

I am 6 weeks out to my Victoria Cup Men's Physique fitness contest in Victoria BC and I have officially started my weight cutting for this competition. I plan to compete in both the Masters and Open categories of Men's Physique.

I am currently somewhere between 7-8% body fat according to my Fitbit Aria WiFi Scale and Sculpt Aim Body Composition Reader.

For the record I am just over 6 feet tall, I used to be  6 foot 1 inch but I think I have shrunk a bit in my old age perhaps under the pressure of heavy squaring and Deadlifts ;) I am also around 191-195 pounds depending on the day and time I weigh myself. (So on average around 193 pounds.)

I want to get down to around 5% body fat for contest day which means I need to lose 2 pounds for every body fat percentage decrease I need to make. This means I need to lose around 6 pounds of pure fat in total and get down to around 188 pounds and 5% body fat. I will be training hard this last 6 weeks so putting on a bit of muscle is not out of the question while cutting, I have done it before so I know it can be done again.

My plan is to cut 500 calories per day for the first couple of weeks and then reassess where I am and be either more aggressive or stay the course with my calorie intake. My last week of cutting is always pretty extreme since I do a veggie and fish diet that is super low carb and low calories, I usually lose at least 2-3 pounds in that week and if there is any fat left it will be all gone :)

I will be making weekly videos of my progress up until the week before the contest, then I will most likely be making daily videos in a VLog format till the contest. So keep checking back for more cutting videos to watch me while I shrink :)

Get Fit Over 40 Update Video - Victoria Cup - TheFitExpo Anaheim

In this video I talk about a couple upcoming events I will be attending in August of this year. The first event is the Victoria Cup Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure, Bikini & Physique Championships and Expo taking place August the 15th 2015. I will be entering the Men's Physique Class but instead of going in the Masters devision, I have decided to compete with the young bucks this time in the Open Division. The reason for this is because I am already qualified for the BC's since I placed 1st place in my last Men's Masters Physique competition back in November of 2014.

My reason for entering the Victoria Cup is mainly for some more experience and to keep myself on track and motivated till the next BC's come around. Hey, you never know, I could even get my BC's qualification for the Open Class but I kind of doubt it since the under 40'ers are in pretty good shape generally!

We are about 2 month out from the Victoria Cup and it would be pretty normal to stat cutting for a competition like this but to be honest I am really well setup right now sitting around 7-8% body fat and only really need to lose 2-3% before the competition which is only around 4-6 pounds. I should have no problem doing this a month out, so my contest prep videos will begin in another month or so...

The next Big August announcement is that I will be attending TheFitExpo in Anaheim California and as it turns out this expo is literally the weekend after my Victoria Cup Physique Competition. This means I will be going to "TheFitExpo Anaheim" August 22nd 2015 in pretty much contest ready condition. What a great time to mingle with other Fitness folks and make some new connections in the industry!

If you are also planning to attend the "TheFitExpo Anaheim" this year then send me a shout out and perhaps we can connect at the show!

I also mention a couple of other things in this video, mainly to do with my nagging chest shoulder injury that has not really stopped me from training but has limited how much I can push myself on certain exercises. I have been doing higher reps and lower weight to work around the muscle strain and I'm getting pretty close to a full recovery. I have noticed a little bit of a strength loss but not so much of a muscle loss which is good.

Keep posted in about a month when I start my series of contest pre videos!

February 2015 Update - Inspire Fitness Leg Conversion Kit - New Fitness Contest Dates

This video covers some information about the Inspire Fitness Leg Conversion Kit which ties in their SCS Bench to their Leg Extension Accessory so you can attach the bench and leg add on to the FT2 weight stack using the cables.

The problem I am having in my area is my local Fitness Depot where I bought my Inspire FT2 has been out of the Inspire Bench and leg attachment. So what is a person to do? Improvise! I already a different brand of adjustable bench with leg attachment so I did some preliminary eye balling , grabbed my drill and added the Inspire Fitness Leg Conversion Kit to my already existing bench and leg attachment. I am sure that this is not what Inspire Fitness had in mind and if one was to do this, it would be at their own risk because not all of us are handy with tools and fabrication...

All in all my work was sound and everything works really well using my improvised setup!

My next point of discussing in this update video is a change in plan for my Men's Physic fitness contest prep. I was planning to attend the BC Body Building Championships here in Vancouver Canada as I am qualified from my last contest where I placed 1st :) The problem is a conflict of interest. The BC's are to be held on May 23rd which happens to be the same day of a close friends wedding of which I am a groomsman. Since I can not change either date, I had to pick the more important occasion and decided to go to the wedding. Such is life and we must adapt to what life gives us and make the best of it.

There is always next year for me to enter another BC qualified Men's Masters Physique Fitness Contest, but for this year I have decided I will most likely attend the Victoria Cup being held on August 15th in Victoria BC.

At least it gives me a bit more time to prepare, I did have plans on coming in with a bit more muscle this time and that takes a lot of work :)