Pre-Contest Training

Here is a shot taken a week before the show in the gym.  In the weeks leading up to the show here is what my training looked like:

6am  45 minutes cardio (15 stepper, 15 elliptical, 15 bike)

6:45am core training (abs)

7pm weight training followed by an additional 30 minutes of cardio

I did resistance training nearly every day with very few off days.  This may seem like I was overtraining, but I limited my weight training to machines only with the only free weight exercises being dumbell curls, dumbell side raises, and dumbell tricep extensions.  My leg training was limited to leg extensions, leg curls, weighted lunges, machine leg press, and the inner outer thigh machines.  Because of my back injury, I had to keep resistance relatively light on all exercises and I kept rep ranges in the 15-30 range for all exercises and all body parts.  I did not want to risk injury in any way.  This was a big adjustment for me as I’ve always been the type of bodybuilder who like to train heavy with very low rep ranges.  I was afraid I would be sacrificing muscle size, but this was not the case.  I was as big and full as I’ve always been and I didn’t hurt myself.  Fortunately, the new gym I joined (lifestyle family fitness http://www.lff.com/Default.aspx) has probably the widest variety of resistance training equiptment I’ve ever seen at a gym.  Granted the place is pretty mainstream and musclheads may feel a little out of place, I’m very happy with the spaciousness and professionalism of the place.  Diet was another subject that I’ll write about later.