Blog
Greetings,
And welcome to the updated 2010 website.
I haven’t posted in a long time. I have been happily consumed over the last year or so with a rad band (www.tandoorifinger.com) and the launch–and, sadly, closure–of this excellent business: www.physiquefoods.com. Check ‘em out if you get a chance.
As you can see in the Training Log page, my last post of 2009 was a listing of training 1RMs of the powerlifting events. My training partner and I “competed” at an APA (American Powerlifting Association) meet in Corpus Christi. And when I say “competed,” I mean we bombed out like amateurs. It was a good experience: the weight drop, the subsequent gorging of steak, rice, pizza, and McDonald’s, the wearing of the singlet–not to be missed! Obeying the commands was the hard part. But also, we are very, very weak in comparison to real powerlifters. I competed in the 198 lb class. My opening attempt in the squat was 315, which made me the third squatter out of roughly 40… right behind a 9 year-old kid and a 63 year-old grandmother. Seriously. For the uninitiated, you are placed in “flights” (does not involve wine–at least, not at our meet) of lifters attempting similar poundages. This prevents the judges and helpers from having to keep loading and unloading plates. It also means that there were about 40 other people (or the rest of the men) who were much, much stronger than me. It was humbling.
After that I blew up to 230 lbs. by the end of December 2009. This was a good time, but I got fat, and not a great deal stronger as I had hoped. I started my diet on January 4, at around 225ish, and as of today I am hovering around 200. I owe this change in conditioning to Shelby Starnes of www.troponinnutrition.com, who is helping me prep for my first (and probably only) bodybuilding contest (Texas Shredder). This has been an exercise in extremes in regards to diet, cardio, and the mind fuck of getting weaker as my conditioning improves. At this point, I am seven and a half weeks out from the contest. Check out how the transformation is coming along in the Progress section, and be aware that I will probably post pictures every other week or so until the contest. Stay tuned…