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 – 3 weeks out.
Monday morning, I woke to tackle another week ahead. My morning weight was 75kg heading into my 2nd low carb day after a rest day Sunday. It’s always important to take rest days through your training week as your body needs the rest physically and mentally. I always like having my low carb day on a Sunday, I still do my cardio but no weight training to make sure I can keep any niggles and tightness managed that’s caused throughout the week. In the off season this may change depending on what’s happening in my training plan at that time but there’s always rest days thrown in somewhere down the line. My cardio session was good on Monday, I felt awake and the time flew yesterday when I was on the stepper (still 30 minutes) – towards the end of the week the cardio sessions get harder as the low carb days mount up and my legs start getting heavy and fatigued due to the cardio and leg sessions.
My back session Monday afternoon was effective and a great way to start the week. I’ve spoken before about setting the tone for the week ahead by starting off on the right foot and making sure that the first session is a good one! I defiantly noticed I was weaker in that session, energy and the pump faded very quickly however those boxes still needed to be ticked. Just focused on the tempo of the session and the execution of the movements.
Tuesday morning, I always expect a lower weigh in due to the day prior. This is due to having a 14-hour working day hitting over 20,000 steps, cardio and a high calorie burning back session. Waking up tighter and seeing the weight on the scales drop is always a good start and makes me want to push harder than the day before. I dropped 0.8kg bringing me down to 74.2kg. I sent check in pictures to my coach and got positive feedback from them. This was my 3rd low carb day and after another good cardio session I started to feel my energy levels drop. This is the feeling I hate the most along with feeling hungry. There was no posing today as it was moved to later in the week which abled me to focus on the push session I had planned. It was the same as Mondays session where it took me a little while to get into the session but when I did, I felt great however was short lived as the energy and pumped faded quickly again – this I know and understanding the reasoning behind from last year’s prep. ( flatten out to allow the high days of carbs to work their magic and to restore the smile on my face!
After a tough low energy working night Tuesday (where clients smashed their sessions making every minute worthwhile!) I woke Wednesday morning to a new low weigh in at 73.2kg. I had a later start at work that day so an extra couple of hours sleep helped massively with energy levels when doing cardio that morning. At this point I started to feel fatigued a lot more as this was my 4th low carb day and I also had a leg session planned with my posing coach which is just savage as I experienced the week before! After doing legs that afternoon there was nothing left in the tank, I felt sick and tired but still had to go to work. There’s always something about a “balls to the wall” leg session in an old school bodybuilding gym when your low on carbs and this still somehow puts a painful smile on your face. This is the side of bodybuilding I’ve fallen in love with and so grateful to be able to partake in it. Being surrounded by people who share the same vision as you, know and feel what you are going through but they somehow push you above and beyond limits you don’t think are possible! This is special and sometimes rare to find in a messed up social media filled industry!
Needless to say, after Wednesday’s legs session the rest of the day was rough. I was very tired and sore and also my hunger levels were through the roof! This made it hard to sleep but when I did, I woke Thursday morning weighing in at 72.6kg a new all prep low! Today was going to be my last low carb day after my coach saw my pictures and weight that morning. I had kind of guess we would do 4 low carb days and maybe push a 5th so the timing of the drop was perfect and them high carbs were calling but first one more day of low carbs. It was a tough day from the moment I got up. Thursdays are another 14-hour working day with my second back session of the week as I do a push/pull/leg split. My legs were so sore from the leg session and just walking around work was painful and cardio didn’t ease them up. Just stretched when I could and I made the list of boxes in my head that needed to be ticked that day from work-diet-training and i made sure I did everything in my power to tick those boxes to the best of my ability. The back session was still a good one, of course the energy was low and the pump even lower but I understand how important it is to make sure I try deplete myself as much as I can before my high carb days start.
Friday morning I had a busy start to the day after my check in pictures were sent off. The start of the high carbs had to be put on hold till after my fasted cardio was completed. I can honestly say ,every step taken on the stair-master was making me smile more and more as I knew my doubled bowl of oats were getting closer! After my oats which went down like a treat it was time to start mentally preparing for my posing session. I was told this week I was going to be pushed hard (when does he not push me hard posing). We focused more on the transitions between poses this week and tightening up on certain aspects. Also a couple of slight changes to my routine which I’m overall very excited to perform on stage! After another tough posing session it was time to refuel and complete another push session. This session felt awesome compared to the last few performed in my later low carb days as I really felt/saw the difference the carbs had made! Focused on moving the carbs around my body by heavy reps , supersets and drop-sets. Overall it was a great day where all the boxes got ticked and went home to do a few check ins and relax before an early start Saturday morning at 4.30 for cardio before work.
Saturday I woke up weighing in at 74.6kg. My check in pictures looked a lot fuller and I still had another high carb day to go. My cardio session was more comfortable as my legs were feeling recovered and energy was good due to the high carb day prior. After a short morning/afternoon of clients I zoned in for my last session of the week which was glutes and hamstrings. I was fuelled off of the carbs and pumped from pharma’s 400mg caffeine pre workout! The leg session was epic! Heavy weight for reps, had the heavy metal blasting away and just fully zoned in with every rep being performed with the vision of the rear and side shots on stage!
This was a great way to end the hardest week to date and I know it will only get harder for the next 3 weeks ahead. My coach said there are some changes coming for the next week so I’ll wait for them to come through and battle through next week day by day!
