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 – 9 weeks out.
So after the re-feed Sunday night with 100g extra oats with 50g of jam added to my last meal, I woke up Monday morning a little heavier which was expected. I felt fuller and looked fuller in my morning posing. The plan for the week ahead still remained the same with no changes to food or cardio.
That Monday, my leg session was one of the best I’ve had all prep, energy levels were great and I was strong throughout all my compound movements, with great tempo from set to set and short rest breaks in-between. I always sick to certain compound exercises no matter what stage of dieting I am in. Over time the weight will start to decrease that you are lifting due to the lack of energy, support from joints and other dieting effects. It’s important to always train 100% which goes without saying! However, you need to have the right mindset that even when you will be tired due to a lack of food or lack of sleep, you still train 100% like you are in a middle of a surplus feeling as strong as ever. Just tick the boxes that you need to complete, day to day, session to session!
Tuesday was another good day, all boxes were ticked and I was very pleased with how things were going. However, Wednesday was the day where everything got rough for the first time! I woke up and went through my posing, I noticed I was a lot tighter than the last couple of days so I jumped on the scales to see where my weight was sitting and noticed I dropped down to 79.2kg from 80.5kg on Monday. I don’t weigh myself every day until my coach asks me to do so. The reason being, I’ve enjoyed just doing the work every day. I just say to myself everyday ‘tick the boxes’ and try to push harder than the day before. Last year I felt I was more focused on the scales in the morning and seeing abs in the mirror. This year I know abs won’t win you shows! And numbers on the scales are not always a true reflection.
From Wednesday I felt awful! My back session Wednesday was very tough and a huge difference from the start of the week with the all guns blazing sessions. I completed everything in my workouts that I set out to do however just felt very tired and weak. Over the next few days leading up to Saturday I felt very tired and hungry. I started to train a little earlier in the day as my energy levels were higher at that point even though I had one less meal in me. I found this did work better.
Thursday was an arm session, with the carb powder that I consume during my workout I always get a good pump. I also find having an arm session on Thursday always helps my nervous system to relax a little before legs on Friday and upper body on Saturday. Legs on Friday was another battle as expected, I trained early morning with my training partner and hit good numbers again on my compounds, good tempo throughout my session which was helped by having someone there. Legs are one of if not the main body part which are looked at on stage, every leg sessions counts! Saturday my training partner and I went to another gym in Watford. I’ve heard good things about the gym and by the time we got there I was so tired due to an early start doing cardio before a busy morning/afternoon. I even left my carb drink at work which made me even more annoyed. As we walked up to the door we could hear the music blasting from the gym! We walked in, saw all the awesome equipment and got to work! The next 90 minutes or so was just a blur, the first time I’ve never had to use headphones in a gym, the atmosphere was great and by changing my surroundings brought the best of out me for the last session of the week.
The idea from Wednesday when my weight dropped and I started to feel tired and weak was to push through and flatten out till the re-feed Sunday. It was the first time throughout this diet phrase I felt like was on ‘prep’. In a weird way I enjoyed the feeling and I know much more tiredness and hunger is still to come! Until then I have my Sunday morning cardio to complete, await this coming weeks instructions from my coach and then we go again, day by day, session by session, just ticking the boxes!
