Whats NEW !!?

Whats NEW !!?

I hope everyone had a healthy and safe New Years Eve. I ended up Dj’ing in Downtown Miami at a club but called it quits after that, had to work the next day. Right now I can’t wait for a cruise I’m going on in less than 2 weeks, called The Groove Cruise. It’s set up by the Opium Group who runs Mansion and Prive in Miami. They bring out the best House Dj’s to spin non-stop parties day and night on both the ship and on the different beaches and islands we go to. It’s gonna be insane ! As far as training goes it’s truly never been better. It took a few weeks to get my groove back after the show but I finally have found what has been working great both in the gym and in my offseason diet. I’m sitting at about 240-245 lbs right now and in 10x better shape than I was precontest 12 weeks out @ 240 lbs. It’s wild how drastic the body changes and recomps in that intense dieting phase, and how quick it puts weight back on! My goals right now are to keep gaining but not letting the scale dictate what I’m doing. I could easily be 250-255 in a week if I wanted to incorporate a lot more carbs, but I don’t. I only have carbs post workout, and one high reefed night a week usually Saturdays. This keeps me leaner while still staying slightly full enough but I feel and look much better. I have no set limit but I would like to hit a solid, lean 255-260 before dieting again for a show. Don’t know how long it will take but I’m absolutely in no rush but also not slacking at all ! I’m still cooking, weighing and logging in my food every single day and eating every 2 hours. I actually have to stop myself from eating too much because especially on a low carb, high fat high protein diet food digests very fast, a little too fast lol. Expect plenty of pictures and info on the Groove Cruise

The Experience

The Experience

Its insane how long the process is and how it all comes down to one day. You can look your absolute best 24 hours before the show and then on game day look completely different. That is definitely the hardest part of the sport in my opinion. Nailing it all down on the day of the show. Obviously as contests come and go I will see what works best, it was just kind of hard judging exactly what was needed even though we ran trial runs in the past with my carb ups. Either way I am extremely happy where I placed. I ended up coming placing 3rd in the Mens Open Heavyweight. I did make a few mistakes though.

Mistake # 1: Not entering the Novice Class as well. Being one of the youngest guys in the whole competition and being my first show I don’t know why I didn’t go ahead and do both classes. Dumb mistake.

Mistake # 2: Weighed in @ 202 lbs. The bottom of the heavy weight class. I weighed myself 4-5 days out and guessing since EVERY DAMN SCALE is different it seems, I was about 208 with NO CARBS for about 4 weeks. I thought I was definitely going to come in as a heavyweight no questions asked with the light-heavies not even in my reach especially after a few days of loading. Next time get an accurate scale. There was one guy in the light-heavies that I could have ran with. Everything else was nothing great.

Other than that I’m happy. A few more weeks I would have nailed it. I started 13 weeks out with quite a few carb loads along the way that were pretty high, which didn’t help but were needed to see how I would react. Next time I have a better understanding and will start 16 weeks out.

As far as offseason goes right now its been 10 days since the show and I’ve put on 20 lbs lol. Mostly water (after a huge weekend binge fest this weekend haha) it will come down to 217-218 or so in a few days. But from here on out I’m still logging all my food, slowly incorporating calories and carbs are very low right now on my non sh*t-loading days. It’s time to take a good year off, build some more maturity and put a good 15-20 lbs on my frame. Next time I want to come in at the mid to top of the heavyweight class absolutely peeled.

A HUGE thanks to IFBB Figure Pro Christine Wan. She was helping another competitor backstage and one thing led to another and she found out I was with Afitness Connection too. She helped me tremendously with my color as my big ass still sweats on no water lol and my Jan Tana was running all day. By the night show she cleaned me right up, threw some couger-comments my way and we had a few good laughs  (just messin with you)

Finals are ALMOST over which is why I haven’t posted my post-show blog until a week and a half after the show, been busy as hell studying and am starting to really take off with my Dj’ing. I have been asked to play at a few very well known clubs in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale area and feedback is very good on my performances. All in all everything is going amazing right now. Back to my happy, positive self instead of a little whiny bitch I was the last few weeks of prep 

A Walk To Remember

A Walk To Remember

Inside of the 2 week mark. 12 days to be exact. It is been an INCREDIBLE journey that I’ll never forget. No one ever forgets their first show prep. It opened me up to a whole different aspect of the sport. I’m truly sorry to say this but you may consider yourself a bodybuilder even if you don’t compete, I did for all the years before these past few months. Now that I REALLY see what competitive bodybuilding is about, or if you just plain and simple have never or never plan on competing, you’re NOT a bodybuilder. It’s incredible how mental everything is in this sport. I know now that the main work is done in the OFFSEASON. Way too many guys eat and train like sh*t year round (not that I was one of them, training is always 100%, diet was about 80% clean with a lot of shit on the weekends, and rest on the weekends was non-existant always on the go and out until late hours of the morning with friends) and then decide to do a show and expect to TOTALLY change their physique in 12-16 weeks. Sure you will gain SOME muscle and strength should be increasing granted the diet and training are correct up until the last month or so probably where things just start sucking lol, and you will obviously lose A LOT of fat if you are following diet and cardio religiously, but don’t expect to make improvements from show to show if the only time you bust your ass is precontest. This coming December being my first REAL offseason since never competing until now, things will change drastically. No more grabbing food on the run as much, no more guessing on carb grams and fat grams, I will keep everything monitored and will be running a carb cycling approach following the show. Plain and simple, my body does much much much better on fats than carbs. Too bad the body doesn’t gain muscle at a fast enough pace without carbs present, I will incorporate them, but moderately. When I stall on weight gain, protein and fats will be assessed and increased. Anyways, 12 more days till showtime. Still rotating no fat and somewhat moderate fat days with protein and veggies, sweeteners (stevia) and diet drinks are now cut out completely as are most seasonings besides a pinch of sea salt on foods. I’m excited as hell, posing is ACTUALLY becoming something I enjoy lately since I’m doing it so much and it doesn’t hurt like it used to haha. I’ll check back in once before the show and after and then its time to GET BIG in 09 !

Almost There

Almost There

 

 

   Today was really the first day all week that I felt like I could even function enough to blog. I actually had almost a full page that I had started on Tuesday and had a chance to re-read it today and it really made no sense lol. Now we are incorporating some very, very low fat days (3 g fish oil each meal) and besides that NO fat at all. It comes out to around 1300 calories…WTF IS THAT!? Not all days are like that though thank god. It’s only because my upper body is coming along just nice and looks on track for 3 weeks out but my lower is surprisingly slacking behind so we are throwing some of those days in during the week along with my normal protein/fat days. All in all I’m so excited to finish off the work I’ve put in, get my posing routine together, and get out there! It’s been an incredibly LONG, LONG journey over the past 5-6 months getting ready for the show and I cant believe I only have 19 more days of dieting! What I DID recently realize is I start my carb load on Thanksgiving J . I could give a s**t if everyone else has cake or pie in front of me, I’m literally drooling for my sweet potato and rice lol. Going on 3 weeks now with no carb ups, I’m at least happy that I only have 2 more Thursdays to go before I can hit that 3^rd Thursday and start eating. 19 days to finish off what I’ve been doing! Palumbo is SO RIGHT. “The last 4 weeks are what I like to call the pain zone.” So true…I don’t know how I function some days, It seems like it hurts to walk, but everything still gets executed perfectly from diet to training to cardio. Ill constantly text my friends that compete and every time I get a response saying to just keep going strong and that I’m almost there. People swear bodybuilding is an individual sport. To a point it is, but the support system for each athlete is so important. I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t have friends that constantly remind me they cant wait to come see me on stage. How my mom calls me a few times a week and asks me what I need at the store. It all adds up and makes things a lot more of a breeze. One more VERY important thing that recently happened to me or should I say is happening is I landed my first gig at a club tomorrow night. Very excited about that, except how I have to space my food out every 3 hours tomorrow instead of 2-2.5 and my portions will be much smaller because I need to spread it out from probably 8 am to 3-4 am Sunday morning since I don’t start my “set” (mix) until 1 am or so. I can do it though, just going to be a bit more rough. I managed to do it perfectly for the Battle On The Coast Show that the Afitnessconnection team went to last weekend which ended up being a great show, and we really had a blast. Expect MUCH juicier stories and blogs starting in December because from now till then we know how boring prep is.

I can taste my sweet potato already.

Tunnel Vision

Tunnel Vision

 

          Right now I’m 4.5 weeks out. I know I promised pictures but my posing trunks haven’t come in yet, as soon as they do I will take some. Trust me if it comes down to it I will just post plenty of pix from 1 week out up until the after party after the show. J I’ve heard from 3 people in the past 24 hours that I sound like “crap” (aka…ya know) on the phone. I have reached the point of tunnel vision, literally. Every day is the same. No change. Wake up. Cardio. Breakfast while cooking for the day. Work. Train after work or take care of school/life obligations. Cardio. Bed. Wow…on paper it looks so easy but its absolutely unreal how many things go through my head every minute. “Am I going to be ready?” “Who’s going to show up on game day? “ This is the sport where you can truly not worry about who’s going to show up, just focus on bringing everything you can to the table, at least at my level of competition. National level guys and IFBB obviously will work throughout the year after years of competing and knowing who brings what to the show and what areas they really have to bring in and focus on to look their best amongst others. For ME though at this point and doing a district level show all I can worry about is what I can do. This is my first show and while I have learned so much throughout the process I don’t want to lose. I know not many people win the overall at their first show, let alone a national qualifier (lol) but I haven’t let defeat enter my mind. Either way I’m doing all in my power to bring the best possible package at this stage that I’m at.

          My love for the sport has grown so much in the past few months. It’s sick how much torture you put your body through yet you learn to want more and more of it. You see the drastic changes your making, you look up to others around you, you want to be like them, you want to be better than them. I am so impatient for my first REAL offseason to come December 1^st and lay things out and see exactly what I need to bring to my next show.  It’s very easy to get off track about what else is going on in life when prepping for a show so its VERY important to keep reality in check and make sure everything is still getting done. The sad part is how repetitive things are. Friends call you, you’re so tired you don’t feel like answering. You snap and give attitude to people you love, even though you don’t mean to. Being completely honest it’s hard to even write a good blog lol. Right now carbs are completely out for a while I’m sure until my load starts, no more carb ups on Saturdays. Calories drop weekly. Not sounding too positive on this side of the computer huh? I am though. I’m focused, I want to make a name for myself and I don’t care what it takes. I know I said the blog would not be only about prep, but sadly right now school is going great, work is great, and all my extra focus is on diet, posing, training and cardio. 30 days till showtime. No time for a girlfriend right now. No time to go out with friends. No time to party. Just time to bring my best. I have 28 days to get where I need to be. After that it’s water manipulation and carb loading. 28 more days until I’ll  hopefully be satisfied. 

The Beginning

The Beginning

 

Well where do I begin. My bio only sums up a small percentage of my life but gives you the basic understanding of what I’m about. I sit here and read DJQUADS posts and laugh because I know exactly how he feels. Im sure a lot of you out there do. This is only my first show too so it’s a real wake-up call as to a fraction of what the sport is really about.

I’ve actively been training in the gym since I was 14, but played basketball throughout high school. As soon as high school was over I continued training with SOMEDAY wanting to do a show. Didn’t think I would do it as early as 22 though even though the more I see the young potential in the game I should have delved in quicker. So I picked it. After about a year of light training from developing a hernia in my groin and then going through the surgery I finally felt fully recovered from last years rehab. I started my diet 7.5 weeks ago at 248 lbs. Right now I’m sitting at about 227 or so, and feel like I have so far to go. Carbs are at 0 (besides trace carbs from green veggies and nuts) with one carb up day a week. That leads me to another point. I would be NOWHERE near where I am today without my trainer Wesley, owner of IronAddicts.com. The man simply knows how to get people where they want to be. Trust me he does not need the shameless plugs from me he has plenty of clientele but I can only attest how the results I’ve gotten and knowledge I’ve attained from talking with him and him watching over me the past few years has helped. Anyways back to where I’m heading…

Cardio is at 1.5 hours daily right now and I’m sure will go up next week. Cals will drop too. I usually feel great on keto diets too but with all the cardio and monotony of day in day out same thing and strenuous workouts along with a physical job, being a student, trying to manage a pitiful excuse for a social life lol. Man it sure does seem like competitors bitch a lot doesn’t it? Trust me its only because the blog is a way for me to really let out what my thoughts are and just let me run with it. I’m much more content with life in person.

I don’t and won’t let my blog be ONLY a precontest therapy session. It will definitely have me giving my thoughts weekly sometimes more, but bodybuilding despite seeming to take up most of my time right now is only a small part of what really defines what I do and where my thought process is. I spend A LOT, I mean A LOT of time learning, downloading, recording, music. I haven’t gotten into the producing aspect YET, as I just got into DJ’ing 6 months ago or so but damn I love it. Regardless of age I’ve always been the one with the newest songs for everybody and all cockiness aside, I KNOW good music when I hear it. I had some left over money from my last car I sold so I got my first set of Dj equipment 6 months ago. I got 2 Pioneer Cdj 200’s and a basic Numark mixer along with a cheap pair of headphones and 2 Samson studio speakers. 4 months later (2 months ago) I traded it all in for 2 Pioneer Cdj 800 Mk2’s, a Pioneer Djm 400 mixer, a great set of Technic headphones and 2 Yamaha studio speakers. Im sure 99.9% of you have absolutely no idea what I just said but basically I upgraded very fast. Boredom with the kid setup I had, and my passion to hopefully soon get into the club scene and a need to be more familiar with the higher end equipment I had to upgrade.

So much more is on my mind but I’ll come back next week. I have some egg whites, broccoli and olive oil I have to attend to. Lucky me. I’ll be back soon J

 

P.S. Who the hell picks a show 2 days after Thanksgiving?

 

-Flynn Nolan