Weight has dropped to between 72 and 71kg. (My cut off weight being 71kg to make my class at the classic Worlds) This past Sunday after my clean higher carb (re-feed) day I was up a bit at 72,2kg
I got to say It’s been brutal hard work mentally and physically to get back into my groove after the Samson show (I Dropped a total of 4kg of mostly water/glycogen and some fat over the two week Since the post Samson Classic Pig out) But I’m finally back at it!
The glute fairy has been visiting this past week, and the Glute hamstring striations I’m known for are finally coming through!

* As far as training goes I’m…

• posing nonstop for 20 minutes in the morning every day! – this is tough, at the end I’m drenched!
• I’m doing easy cardio (recumbent bike) with abs circuits most lunchtimes (10 min cardio, abs circuit, 10min cardio, abs circuit, 10min cardio) 3-4 days a week
• I do a Russian kettle ball class and another intense boxing/bag drill workout for my two upper body high intensity cardio work on Tuesday and Thursday.
• And one hill Sprint session (if my legs feel up to it) on one of my smaller upper body part gym days (normally at lunch time)
• As far as weight training I’m training with Andrew Hudson most days (One body part a day 6 days a week – legs get hit twice – One more quad dominant work out the other being more ham/glute emphasis)
• lots stretching & foam roller work in the evening after gym.

Trying everything I can for recovery right now… extra naps, massage, Epsom salts baths…
Sunday (Hi carb day) off – complete rest.

So as you can see I’m really giving it everything I’ve got right now… 49 days to go! 

Gotta get to it! Because no one’s going do it for you!

Well, it’s the 19^th of October… the Samson Classic now just 9 days passed… I weighed in at 89,2kgs and today am tipping the scales at 98kgs. Some of the other guys in my line up (Quentin, Mario) are over a 100kgs at the moment!! Damn… food is great treat!! Looking forward to pushing my weight up a little more to a new all time high… hoping to get up to 105kg this year, to diet down to 95kgs pre-contest… and dehydrate/deplete to 90,00kgs for the weigh in next year.

 We are already focusing on what needs to be done to improve and come in better next year – AND are really enjoying the training again. Leading up to the contests we are so depleted and over-trained that just generating enough motivation to get to the gym is difficult, let alone lifting the weights… So it’s back to hard training, and post workout carbs (Cytomaize is the bomb!)! Yeah, that’s the fun part of what we do…. Train – to eat – to grow.

 We will soon be launching the “Training Journal” function on the website to allow people to follow weekly diets and training plans, while we change our “phases” of training and preparation. It should be a useful tool to use as a reference to guide to those of you that are wanting to learn more about bodybuilding, or just about improving your physiques… remember that’s our primary goal – and it should be yours too! To make improvements to your physique each year so that you build a better, healthier, fitter, more toned body…. So WATCH THIS SPACE!!

 Follow our entire preparation strategy “step by step” while we prepare for the 2010 contest season, right here on the SSN website.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

This weekend at the Samson Classic went really well I thought! … I ended up in 3rd place out of 16 athletes in a very competitive light weight class (under 70kg)

Not a first…but…I was thrilled none the less, as I managed to beat the guy who had won the overall lightweights at our IFBB SA Champs 4 weeks earlier, and quite a few other well known athletes too!

I got a lot of callouts but I think the guys who beat me just had more muscle for their height than me, our condition & shape IMO was comparable (I may even have been harder in some areas).Mario thought I may have had it, and one thing I really appreciate about his feedback is his honesty with me (not bias) and he is a very competent Body Building judge, so that tells me how close I was.
Feedback from others was my back was the best/most dry in the class, and I got better and harder the longer I posed and was on stage (the more I sweated) Whilst others faded from dehydration and being posing unfit.

So all things considered I was really pleased with how things went this weekend. As much as I improved from the SA’s and as good as some said I looked at that show, I still have some fat to burn to get the glutes freaky hard..so there is no time to become complacent!

Friday making weight was rough! But I followed my “making weight plan” exactly, after a intense back and bicep workout I went to the weigh in venue and got on the scale and my weight was 71,1 kg! So I walked on the treadmill for 15 minutes when I got on the scale it read 70kg on the dot! I literally jumped off the scale! LOL
I then followed everything I had planned out for Saturday. I think I did look better /drier prior to limiting water/food on Friday, so if I don’t have to do that for the world champs in 9 weeks it will be ideal.

I ate a lot on Sunday…some clean… some not clean! but stayed very depleted (face sucked in) the whole day …my body seems to handle a lot of carbs very well…More than anything It was just an awesome break not weigh my food or think about carb/protein amounts for one day after 20 weeks of dieting…I can see I’ve spilled over a bit Monday but was very vascular (my weight is up to 75kg on Monday) for breakfast Monday I ate a bit off plan but for the rest of the day I was back on track. Packed all my meals and carbs at about 100g for the remainder of the day…I’m was sore from all the posing… so Monday, Tuesday I trained but nothing crazy but will start picking proper cardio and weight training up again from today (Wednesday) My weight is down to 73kg today.

Just need to refocus now, and get back into that laser focused groove I had going!
Little bit over 8 weeks (58 days) to go till the IFBB World Classic bodybuilding Championships, so it’s time to turn up the heat and really Smash it!

Stay tuned..it’s definitely going to be exciting! 
Justin

Quadzilla’s first blog entry!!!

This is my first post, on our new BLOG. Hopefully i can provide some meaningful information in the future, offering some updates to my training etc. and some tips where possible. Otherwise, just follow the SSN Junkies through the prep and daily life while we train, prepare and grow for the next competitive season!!

With little more than a day and a half to go till prejudging at the Samson Classic, the end of a FIVE month diet is in sight…. looking forward to some sort of normailty to life again.

The most difficult part of such a long contest season is the fact that the part we “love” is the training… but when overtrained, calorie deprived and cardio’d out…. it makes the best part the most difficult!! Damn its difficult to even muster up the energy to go into the gym to train… looking forward to going back into the gym FULL OF CARBS and ready for an intense workout or two!

A note to all you “Junkie followers”… feel free to join me in my upcoming workouts, but beware they are going to be brutal, heavy and intense as i have learnt some new techniques over the last few months to really turn up the intensity button!

Who wants to join legpress next saturday or sunday…. try sets of 20-30 reps with 400kgs. Its very easy to slap 600kgs-700kgs on the machine and rep out 8 or 10, but when you start going above 15 reps… you wish you had called in sick that day!!

Come see us on stage this weekend at the Samson Classic – 10/10/09 at the ICC in Durban. ALL THE SSN JUNKIES will be there to give KZN a big shout out, and really hope we give our home town crowd something to shout about… and silence all the “haters”….

See you in the gym

I’m feeling it now….this is really starting to feel like a long haul!  I don’t know how long it’s been since I started this years pre-contest preparations??…….around 10-12 weeks prior to the KZN provincials on the 22nd August if memory serves me correctly.  That would mean in all I’ve been on a calorie restricted diet for around 4 months now…..no wonder I feel like I’ve had enough now!

Anyhow it’s time to bite the bullet…….I absolutely must present my best package to date in 4 days time!!!  Not long to go now and I’m sure I’ll be hating the site of food ……not!  I’m really trying my hardest to present my best conditioning ever at the Samson’s Classic this coming weekend and as a result I’m really low on carbs and calories (have been for the last two weeks) and I’m even doing cardio, which I hardly did for the KZN & SA’s.  My morning weight is currently around 94kg’s and I’m around 96kg’s in the evening.  Traditionally I would have started my carb up tomorrow (Wednesday) but I have decided to really push things and see how low and depleted I can go.  I’m hoping that this will pay off in terms of conditioning…..it’s just that it may be a little risky as it presents me with the dilemma that there’s such a fine line between me coming in lean and really ripped versus coming in too flat and somewhat smooth looking as a result.  For now I’m going to play it day by day and keep my diet as is until I feel I need to change things up…..I don’t feel too flat for now.

To give you an idea my current schedule is as follows:

30 mins cardio on an empty stomach in the morning (I do take Ignite fat burner caps pre & BCAA’s & Glutamine pre & during this cardio session)

Then Breakfast – 6 egg whites & 100g Chicken breast

Meal two – 50-60g Whey Protein

Weight Training Session

Meal Three – 6 egg whites, 100g chicken breast or ostrich + 100g Sweet potato

Meal Four – 6 egg whites, 100g chicken breast or ostrich (or 200g Tuna with balsamic vinegar and omega seed mix sprinkled over it)

Meal Five – 200g Tuna Steak (or 200g Tuna with balsamic vinegar and omega seed mix sprinkled over it) + Large Garden Salad

Second 30 min cardio session + 15-20 mins posing practice

Meal Six – 45g Whey + Glutamine

Throughout the night – snacking on the odd Marie biscuit &/or Rice cake with organic peanut butter – I can’t lie can I …..damn I find nighttime difficult!!  I can get through the day but somehow at night all resistance crumbles!

I trained back & calves today with SSN team mate Andrew Hudson……tomorrow, which would normally be a depletion style complete body workout, I think I’ll tackle shoulders and abs then come Thursday I might do a general all over body part workout depending on how I’m feeling, how I’m looking & what diet strategy I’ve decided to employ at that stage.  So as you can see for now I’m just playing it very much day by day and being really instinctive about things…..which is in contradiction to my general approach of entering the last week with a specific strategy & plan…..right now the only plan I’m thinking about is the one that’s going to get me into my best condition ever…..which I ironically don’t know what it will be??…..Keep posted

Train & Live with Passion!

Mario