As
I sit here on my flight to Dallas, headed to the Europa for Myotropics, I finally have a little uninterrupted time to reflect upon the last week and a half. As usual, my life is a roller coaster. Everything from my show life onstage, my business projects offstage and my personal life seems to intensify and become more complicated by the second.
Back in April, I competed at Jon Lindsay’s LA Grand Prix where I placed eighth. I had just come off my first pro win two weeks prior and was severely disappointed with my placing. I am not afraid to admit that I was a bit embarrassed since I had my entire family fly from across the country just to see me onstage in LA. Personally, I was pleased with my physique. I came into that show even better than I had visualized. I ended up landing eight photo shoots within a ten-day period because of my conditioning. However, I did understand why the judges placed me where they did after getting their feedback and reading the judges’ reviews on NPC news online. Once again, I knew that I had to make many changes if I were to do well in MP.
After working the USA’s for Myotropics, I had the itch to get back onstage! Myotropics put on a free posing/nutrition seminar backed by the NPC/IFBB. I was there to help teach posing along with head judge Lee Thompson.
By the end of the day, I ended up learning even more about MP. In particular I learned the changes I would need to make to my own physique. Changes that I didn’t notice until Lee Thompson explained them to me in-depth. I had some pictures of my back taken, and I had no idea how thick my back truly was from all my years of bodybuilding. I also had made the mistake of pumping up before the Grand Prix, as soon as I touched the weights backstage, my shoulders and arms blew up.
I knew if I decided to do the OC Muscle Classic, I had just two weeks to make some major changes to my body. Once I had made up my mind that I was going to compete, I dove head first into training and dieting harder than ever before. I needed to lose size, period. I was able to make a transformation that still is mind boggling when I compare the photos of my body to just two weeks prior. I had to think outside the box and put my body through a great deal. In the end, I knew it would come down to the psychological side of training and dieting. If you have control of your mind, your body will follow. It has no choice. Never before had I done so much intense cardio on such a restricted amounts of calories. I knew I had two choices with my workouts the last two weeks; either neglect training or over train. Seeing as I had been under large amounts of stress, I decided to over train intentionally but also neglect certain aspects of training. It was all instinctive; the diet, cardio and training. I listened to my gut and trusted the vision I had in my head of what I would look like come August 11th. I decided to leave out my cardio and training split and ridiculously low caloric intake for two weeks, simply because I didn’t want to give any of the other MP competitors the wrong idea and try what I was doing. I always tell my clients and competitor friends, “Do as I say, not as I do.” I know my body and I have learned how to manipulate it when I need to. Typically, I eat a very balanced diet and live a healthy, balanced life. I knew that to do well, I had to give the judges what they wanted, not what I wanted. To do this on such limited time would require me to dig deeper into my mind and body then ever before.
Sometimes you must put your ego and pride aside and do what needs to be done. I love this new division. I am so thankful my passion has become my career. Over the last 13 years, I have made many sacrifices. I knew this was one more sacrifice that I needed to make for the better of MP. MP is not about me or anyone else specifically, it’s about a Physique Fitness Revolution that is taking over. The camaraderie in this division is something that hasn’t been seen since the “Golden era.”
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