Hello Everyone,
Thanks for all your advice to your advice to my posts. I won first place (out of 5) in my 2nd show at the NGA Night of Champions 06/07/08 in Greensboro, NC in the Novice Lightweight. I placed 3rd overall out of 6 in the open lightweights. I entered open just for fun. The first place winner got his pro card and the 2nd place open lightweight had competed 8 times before.
Where to go from here?????
I am psyched but scared in a way. Now I want to win and Open lightweight class. But where do I go?

Chris,

Thats great congrats....we are all here for support. What are your goals, sounds like you want to remain a lightweight, you should look into increasing cals slowly, with plenty of protein and carbs for growth, but no reason for you to bulk up.

Thank you Jason. The advice from all you guys helped tremendously.
I want to stay at lightweight, right now I am around 161.

sounds to me like you should look to formulate a plan to give a more mature look the muscle you have, diet and training all towards that goal. How much room do you have to add size within your class, what did you weigh at your last show?

Jason,
I am 5;9, weight around 154.5 on show day. I could add a little size, but I want to continue to compete at lightweight.
When you say mature look - what is that - how do I work towards achieving that look? I am 31 btw..

I found that with a diet a bit higher in carbs and getting my electrolyes under control, etc I was able to train harder for my Northern KY show and thus took on a more mature look.

If you nail your diet for your lbm and keep training heavy this will come...a flat muscle looks less mature becuase its not as dense etc...

By eating more and doing more cardio I looked more mature and denser.

In the offseason you would do the same, get your diet down right and train heavy and consistent. None of this low carb **** so that you are constantly flat.....

thats what helped me a lot.

To add to what Jason said, if you don't have high blood pressure or a family history of such, keep your sodium levels on the higher end. Bodybuilders are too sodium phobic. IMO, keeping sodium at low levels year round creates an unfavorable anabolic environment within the system. The final week into a show is when sodium should be manipulated, not offseason, or even 4 weeks out.

quote:

Originally posted by Aram:
To add to what Jason said, if you don't have high blood pressure or a family history of such, keep your sodium levels on the higher end. Bodybuilders are too sodium phobic. IMO, keeping sodium at low levels year round creates an unfavorable anabolic environment within the system. The final week into a show is when sodium should be manipulated, not offseason, or even 4 weeks out.

Exactly right which is what I referring to with electrolyes. I added white potato twice daily for potassium with a dose of gdas along with adding 1/4 tsp of sea salt to all meals, I just took on a more mature look, I was not the only one noticing it.