I am now four weeks away from the OCB show in Phoenix on Sept 5th. I may do a local show as a warm-up the week before that.

I had posted some of this info in the quadracarn thread about a month ago but I wanted to pull it together here in this new thread.

This show will be a new milestone for me as I will be old enough to enter the Grand Masters Division this year, so 50+. I plan to enter both the Masters and the Mens open Divisions.

I have done four new/additional things this year to improve my contest prep phase.

1 - I Added 7-Keto to my supplement list in mid-June, taking it twice daily, three tabs each time in the morning and early afternoon. I found that I needed to take the second dose no later than about 2 or 3pm or it would at times cause me to have difficulty falling asleep. I get to bed early most nights by 9pm, so I needed at least 6 hours before that between bedtime and my last dose of 7-Keto.

2 - I also decided to try Quadracarn starting it around June 20th so I have been taking it now for about 7 weeks. I have definitely seen an improvement in vascularity during this contest prep and I am willing to attribute a lot of that to the Quadracarn. Of course being leaner in general also helps, but I have seen added vascularity this year where I have never seen it before and it has been a permanent condition not just post training or post a certain meal. I have also maintained good pumps during my workouts even on a calorie and carb restricted diet, so again I give quadracarn some credit for that.

3 - I decided to try the Ketogenic diet after having done a LOT of research on it. I have been on it now for four weeks and I feel that it has been working very well for me. During that four weeks my weight has dropped only about 1.5 to 2 lbs but I have definitely gotten leaner with a thinner skinned look and all of the other visual indicators of having reached a higher level of conditioning. So the fact that I have been able to do that while also holding on to LBM has been very exciting for me. At this point I will give credit to all three of the above "new" additions to my prep for allowing this to happen.

4 - I have added Density, or really substituted Density for "Mass" in most cases. I have also added Up-Lift during training sessions.

While I do track my weight as a general guide to progress, my biggest indicator of progress has always been the mirror. I can say that at this point I am as lean as, if not leaner than, I have been on contest day the past three years and that is pretty good for me. I am not a big guy, never having weighed more than 180 in my life at 5' 10", but I can usually get into pretty decent contest condition and I am blessed with smaller joints and a small waist so visually I look a little heavier than I am when I get into contest condition.

What I am excited about this year is that at four weeks out I have achieved this level of conditioning while being at least 3-5 lbs heavier than in previous years. Since I have been on the Ketogenic diet I know that I am not holding a lot of water weight so I have to think that I have been able to retain and/or add more muscle mass this time around. I credit both the Quadracarn and the Ketogenic diet for that based on the research that I have read and what each is supposed to provide in the way of results.

I know that Ketogenic Diets don't work for everyone, some of that has to do with individual physiological and metabolic differences and some of that has to do with diet adherence or diet adjustment. I am not trying to advocate a KD for anyone, just saying that in my humble opinion it has been working very well for me. It is not for everyone, but then again a BBing pre-contest diet of any flavor is not for everyone either.

Right now my research and decision making process is focused on if and when I want to try the short carb-up protocol and how I want to manipulate things the week before the show. I think that I am leaning towards an experiment with a KD carb up protocol this coming weekend, probably timing it so that I would have the peak effect on Saturday more or less as a dry-run for what I want to do before the actual shows.

I have remained fuller this year than other years, even while being leaner. That almost goes against the common theory since for four weeks now I have not had any day with more than 50g of carbs and some days have been closer to 30g. Since I have a slight concern about how my body will react to adding carbs back in I think that it would give me some peace of mind to do the dry run. It might also allow me to modify the protocol a little for the actual show week if that would seem to be necessary.

One of the things that keeps me interested in BBing at this ripe old age is the science behind the nutrition and the training protocols. I hope that I have not bored you with this long post, but understanding the impact of various factors on a persons physique, namely on my physique, is just so interesting. Even after doing this for twenty plus years I still have a hard time being patient and watching the results of my efforts come ever so slowly week after week. I will be really interested to see if these last four weeks result in additional improvements to where I am at, or if I have simply hit my mark early and will now just be able to maintain that level. I feel that I can still get a little leaner and still see improvements in those areas that are always the last to come in. For me those areas are my triceps, hams and glutes. I am seeing some definition, separation and some striations now in my hams and glutes, but would like to see more. I have never been able to obtain striated triceps so I am aiming for that this year. Time will tell.

Thanks for being patient if you have read this all the way through. For me BBing is pretty much an individual activity so sharing on a forum like this one allows me to remember that there are other folks out there with some of the same interests and goals.

I'll try to keep everyone posted on progress.

Good luck! You will be super!!

I too have done some ketogenic dieting. I actually gained a light bit of mass in the final three weeks of my contest prep which really suprised me. I agree with you though different things work for different people and a keto diet is hard both mentally and physically

I wanted to post a quick update after my show on Labor Day weekend. I did the OCB Phoenix show which is a big natural show. There were 72 competitors in total. It turned out to be a very competitive show with many quality physiques. In many classes the judges had a very difficult time with several of the placings either being one point apart or even tied where the higher placing goes to the person with more 1's or 2's or 3's compared to the other tie score.

The Masters over 50 class had 11 competitors which is the largest Masters over 50 class I have ever seen in any show that I have judged or competed in. The top 3/4 of this class was very competitive and even the guys who placed lowest would still have done very well in this class at most other shows.

I managed fifth place with some fourth place votes. In this group I felt pretty good about being in the top five. The individual who took first in the 50+ also took first in the Masters overall and first in the Mens Open Tall. Amazing in a show this big.

I felt that I had brought an improved package to the stage and the feedback that I received from the judges afterwards was mostly positive. I was probably one of if not the lightest competitor in the 50+ so others clearly had more size. I do think that I was one of the better conditioned competitors so that helped me get into the top five.

I am already working on trying to make improvements for next year. Easing back into heavier lifting and adding back in rack deadlifts. I have decided to try something new this off-season and will be rotating a leg day with a deadlift day every other week so that I hit either one only once every two weeks insteady of every week. I think that might allow me to be better focused, hit things a little harder and also allow for more recovery time. I plan to try it for a few months to see how that goes.

Here is a link to the show photos. If you look at the last photo in the night time show, which is the top five on stage for our awards, you can see how competitive the class was.

http://mikesimon.smugmug.com/2...GUZN#643418698_KbVqX

This is that photo:
http://mikesimon.smugmug.com/2...GUZN#643485155_xPbfD

Congrats Mike! You look great!

Great job Maddog, looking good ! Congrats