Our athlete Rory Golden is going to compete this year and we have decided to follow his journey. A diary from start to finish, 18 weeks out until stepping on stage.
Rory Golden - The Prep files
Blog – 12 weeks out.
Nothing was changed heading into this week as progress is steadily being made and the coach is happy. It’s so important to have a strong relationship with your coach, listen to their judgment and execute what they say to the best of your ability. You can learn a lot from someone who is many years ahead of you mentally and physically. Also, you can push yourself so much further as they will always want you pushing outside your comfort zone and consistently making progress.
A problem I see often is people wanting to do too much too quickly, thinking the rate of progress will be quicker. In a way, this is true but only for a short period of time. For example, if you want to lose weight and you are eating 400g of carbs a day and doing no cardio. You don’t need to drop any food during the first 1-2 weeks. It’s better to up your activity levels via cardiovascular training (either fasted or post workout), track your weight daily and when you start to plateau then you can make small food changes which your body will notice and adapt too. This is why consistency is key by tracking food and not skipping out on cardio/training. The idea is to get the most progress from the least amount of changes. This way you will have much more volume of food and cardio to manipulate according to the rate of progress you are seeing.
I have noticed a few changes within myself this week due to prep. No matter how embarrassing some stuff might be putting out there for people to read, the whole point of this is to share my journey and show/tell things you can’t see from a stage shot on Instagram. So one problem this week has been horrific gas which has annoyed everyone who I live with, work with and those who share a car with me!! Sadly its just one of those things which myself and others have to deal with. My hunger levels have spiked massively this week. I normally find when starting prep I crave junk food due to the fact of not being allowed to have it. Currently, I’m craving big bowls of pasta and more calorie dense whole foods however, dealing with cravings is just a mental battle; this is all part of the process. I find what does help is having something you look forward to eating every day such as a low calorie hot chocolate before bed. Kills my sweet tooth and is my little treat of completing another day.
Training this week has been great, still training heavy and with great intensity. Had another sports massage this week where the guy said he noticed I was less tight and knotted which shows the Pilates classes, foam rolling and the occasional ice bath is helping and having and positive impact.
I’ll be awaiting changes for the following week ahead as I’ve been told certain things will change, until then its feet up on the sofa for the rest of Sunday and looking forward to what’s in store for next week!
