It was an ultra busy week for me last week to the point to where I couldn’t get to my wordpress. There’s always a lot going on in the final week of show prep. For starters, I had to sacrifice a day or two so I had to cram more people in at different times than usual. Another thing is that I had to go through the process of hair removal, spray tanning, and water depletion, the last of which is always the toughest aspect of show prep. And then of course, finding the show venue was a big challenge, as I had rarely been that far east of Pittsburgh to the point where we were seeing the beginnings of the mountain range. Greensburg is a good forty-five minutes away from Pittsburgh.
The good news is that I managed to take fifth place at the NPC Natural Pennsylvania Championships and secured a qualification to the NPC Team Universe, a pro-qualifier. Now, I do want to secure one more top five finish at a Team Universe qualifier to ensure that I can hang with some of the best natural men’s physique competitors in the country, preferably facing a larger class of at least fifteen competitors or more. My class at the Natural Pennsylvania consisted of nine other competitors, which is a fairly decent size.
My plans for the near future are simple: for one, I need to find someone to give me some honest critique on my presentation. A few (including one prep coach backstage) let me know that I had the best look of the entire class. This leads me to believe that my presentation was off…….way off. So, this is definitely what needs to be corrected. Luckily, I have a friend who has a good connection to a well respected member of the NPC, who lives about thirty minutes down the Ohio River. I can’t wait to talk to this guy, as he knows the ins and outs of presentation in every single NPC division, being around the sport for so long.
As for my fitness shoot update, it seems like it will be taking place on Wheeling Island in November before the prejudging of the NPC West Virginia State and Mid Atlantic Grand Prix. I can’t wait to do the shoot, but I’m still on edge about possibly hopping into the fray in November as well, something I had no intention to do as recently as last week, but we’ll see how things play out. I really wouldn’t mind hopping in though, but again, we’ll see. This is due to the fact that I may get talked into doing the show during my trip down the river this weekend since my friend’s prep coach is very good friends with the contest promoter. Being that I like to remain close to my contest look year round, with some critique on my presentation, I may be set to do very well if I did in fact decide to compete.
As for my workouts, I really only have one for you all this week because last week was more of my lighter weeks, since I wanted my body to be completely rested before taking the stage last Sunday. I really lightened up the load last week, in an attempt to prevent any and all injury as I strode to simply burn a bit more energy with lighter weights and higher reps. This is something I only do the week of a show, but it is still good for anyone to try every three to four months after lifting heavy for that time, just to give the joints a break for a week without really stopping what you are doing, which one should never do, and it gives the muscles a little bit of confusion since they are so used to one particular style of training.
As for this week, I am a big fan of the afterburn team training workout that was distributed this week. If I thought last week was up my alley, then this week is two times that. Six sets of every exercise, consisting of twenty seconds on, ten seconds off Tabata style training is always intense. Even more intense than last week’s do as many circuits of ten reps of each movement as many times as possible for ten minutes straight, and trust me, that is my style of cardio right there. I have to thank one of my best workout partners ever for introducing me to that and being consistent with it before running off to college (see ya in December, kid)!
Anyway, I started my normal, routine two a day sessions again yesterday, which is another reason why I took such a long break in between posts. My first workout of the day was simply a three mile run, a ten minute ab workout, with agility movements being performed after every quarter mile that I ran. Last evening was my shoulder workout, which looked like this:
5 sets/10-20 reps
Face Rows/Seated Machine Rear Delt Fly
4 sets/7-20 reps
Inverse Barbell Shoulder Press/Lateral Raise
4 sets/10-15 reps
Cable Upright Rows/Underhand Grip Dumbbell Front Raises
6 Single Sets/50 reps
Battling Ropes of all varieties, 20-30 second break in between
4 sets/12-15 reps
Bodyweight TRX Fly/Cable Pirate Ships
In total, this workout only took about forty-three minutes to complete, and my set total reached forty. Not a bad start to the next macrocycle.
Like I said, now’s the time to really take control in mastering every little aspect of the sport. Qualifying for the national level is big, but if I am unable to present myself then it just defeats the purpose of competing. In physique, it’s more than just having the best look, one needs to present themselves with that look, showing people why they should be the winner here. I can’t wait to improve on that, and as always, improve my current level of conditioning, which anyone and everyone can do. It’s time to take that next step, be it at the November show or at my next show that I am certain I’ll be at, the 2015 NPC Natural Ohio, at which I took eighth place last year in a class of fifteen. Let’s improve on that score. 
Shot from the pre-judging.
Todd Matthews 