The Nick Bare Podcast - 008: My Bodybuilding Prep Experience

Episode Date: April 17, 2023

In this episode, I take you through my intense 13-week prep for my first bodybuilding show in over a decade. I lost over 40 pounds, gained immense clarity, and learned many powerful lessons - a humbling yet rewarding experience. I recap my entire prep, from workouts to diet and everything in between. And I breakdown the big day, sharing my thoughts and feelings as I stepped onto the stage and the results that unfolded. Enjoy the episode! Topics: (00:00) Intro (00:46) Contents (02:10) Most challenging prep I’ve done (06:15) Prep background (09:48) Show day placing (11:40) Beginning of prep (19:03) Changing the show (25:27) Effects of an aggressive prep (27:40) Bloodwork results on prep (29:45) Prep struggles (35:15) Peak week (48:35) Show day (56:15) Post-show updates Follow for more: https://www.instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ Bare Performance Nutrition: https://bit.ly/3Nviqpc

Welcome to the Nick Bear podcast. I've spent the past decade as a CEO building an industry leading supplement brand. There's a story. There's a mission. Serving in the U.S. Army. First video in Korea. And creating a community of inspiring leaders. The mission isn't changing, but it's evolving.

So I'm excited for this next chapter. It's out of you, man. Through powerful, unfiltered conversations. You have to be careful with entrepreneurship. You can get hurt. My mission is to help you unlock your full potential and create the life you desire. This is it. I'm a different person now.

Camera's rolling and we're on. I'm your host, Nick Bear. Enjoy the episode. This episode of the podcast is my post-bodybuilding show recap. And there is a lot to unpack in this episode. I was thinking about it this morning. This probably could be a four-hour conversation between yourself and me. but I'm going to try to keep it pretty consolidated and move through all the topics that I want to cover.

So the things that I'm going to be diving into is this last 10 months of the build and the cut preparing for my bodybuilding show, which was March 25th, 2003. At the point I'm recording this right now, it's a little over two weeks after the show. I'll talk about performance and placing at the show, beginning of prep, some changes I made throughout prep, specifically the show that I decided to do. The last six weeks of the true dig before the show, peak week, and then we'll dive into show day and post-show feelings, how I'm feeling right now after being out of a deficit and and back to maintenance, a little bit of surplus, and getting back to normal.

There were a lot of highs. There were a lot of lows during prep. And I think it's safe to say, and I thought about this a lot, this was probably the hardest prep that I've ever done for some sort of physical fitness challenge. And that, for me, says a lot. I've prepped for 200-mile ultra-marathons, one of those being Leadville 100 in the Rocky Mountains. I've prepared for multiple marathons, iron mans. But this being my first bodybuilding prep for a while.

I mean, I did my first bodybuilding show ever. The only other bodybuilding show I've ever done was in 2012 when I was in college. And when I compare that bodybuilding prep and this bodybuilding prep, I thought going into it they were going to be very similar. But I was surprised by how different they were. And in retrospect, it makes sense. When I was in college, I had very little responsibility. I wasn't married. I didn't have a kid.

I didn't have a massive business. And I looked back when I was in college, I had BPN, but it was much, much. much smaller. I was in college taking courses. I was in the Army ROTC program, but I didn't have as many obligations or responsibilities. So a bodybuilding prep, I could be more selfish with my time,

my energy, my resources, but now with more responsibility and obligations, I can't be as selfish with my time, energy specifically, and resources. And I think what has made this prep or what made this prep so difficult was realizing I couldn't be selfish with my time and wanting and needing to be present for my wife and my daughter, my nine-month-old daughter, and my business and my team and my employees. And I think just realizing how selfish a bodybuilding prep was and can be is what made it so difficult and challenging.

And, you know, a few weeks ago, Jeff Cunningham, who has coached me through my last two marathons, he was on the podcast and he made this really strong statement. And he said, there's the difference between being all in and all consumed. And with a lot of the preps I've done in the past, I have been all in. but I can confidently say this has been one of these preps that I was all consumed. I was thinking about the next meal. I was thinking about the next training session.

I was thinking about am I going to lose enough weight? Am I going to be lean enough for the show? I became extremely obsessive and all consumed through the process that it didn't allow me to be present in my current life and what I was doing and showing up for my priorities. That is what made this prep so difficult. And I can honestly say the hardest prep I've done for something up until this point

in my life, given the conditions and scenario of my current life in the chapter that I'm in. I wanted to put that out there prior to jumping into all this. and I think some of the things that I cover are going to paint a pretty clear picture of what I just described and why I think this has been one of the hardest preps that I've done. I finished my last marathon in the end of May, 2002. It was a Buffalo New York Marathon. And I ran two hours and 48 minutes. Extremely happy with that performance and that outcome.

That was the fastest marathon I ever run. I lost significant weight. and mass, lean tissue to get quick and light for that race. And I crossed the finish line two hours, 48 minutes. After that race, at the end of May, I wanted to change the direction of my training and my performance goals. I was just itching for something new. And I kept reflecting back to the nostalgia

that a bodybuilding preparation and show brought me. You know, when I first started my company, When I first started BPN in 2012, fitness for me was strength training. It was hypertrophy. It was bodybuilding. That's what I fell in love with and that's what I was doing. So after crossing the finish line at the Buffalo New York Marathon, I knew I wanted to train for something different. And a bodybuilding prep just kept resurfacing in my mind and in my life.

And that's what I decided to pursue. And I knew it wasn't going to be a fast or easy journey because I wanted to rebuild prior to starting a cut. And I knew it would probably take at least a year, if not over a year. But the way I spent these last 10 months after finishing that last marathon is from June 1st until about the middle of December of 2020. I focused on putting on size and strength and eating and consuming in a caloric surplus. Crossed that finish line in the marathon at about 190 pounds. The lowest I saw during that marathon prep was 187 pounds on the scale. But I'd say race day, I was probably around 190 pounds.

And at the peak of the bulk in the middle of December, I reached 220,000. pounds, 228 pounds. I didn't see that on a scale for, for years leading up till that moment. And I was about 14% body fat, 228 pounds at the peak before I decided to start my cut. And I started the cut middle of, of December 2022, and I cut until, you know, show day being March 25th, 2020. So the first quarter of this year, I was dieting in a chloric deficit and losing body fat. And I'll talk about throughout this process how low and how lean we got. Now, that's kind of the context and background to where the direction of my training and performance

goals evolved after this last marathon. They really shifted from performance to physique goals. Now to share some insight before we dive into the meat and potatoes of this prep, how did I place? How did I do at the show I competed at, which was in Orlando, Florida. Like I said, March 25th, 2023. It was the NPC clash. and I got first place in my class of novice,

and then I competed against the other winners of their novice class, and I ended up winning the overall novice, and then I got first place in my class in the Open Division, but I did not win the overall of the open. So if the judges pull you into the center, it means you're probably first, second, or third place, but someone else won. His name's Jacoby.

Big guy. He came in conditioned. He deserved it. Maybe I got second or third place for the overall, but I was very happy. We came home with three medals. And it was a great experience. Honestly, it was an amazing, amazing experience.

Now, let's dive into the beginning of prep. What that looked like when I first started about the middle of December, 22. My macros and calories, I started around 3,300 calories, so I was in a deficit at that point. My protein was set at 225 grams, carbs were 350 grams, and fat was about 110 grams. I've always preferred higher fat, even right now. You know, I'm not tracking too tightly, meeting intuitively, but...

If I just go and eat to eat in any given day, I'm probably consuming anywhere from 120 to 150 grams of fat. I feel great and I'm attracted to higher fat foods. Whole eggs, you know, 80 to 85% lean ground beef, salmon, nut butters. I just enjoy higher fat foods. And I would actually prefer to keep carbs a little bit lower and fats higher. just preference.

I just feel great that way. Like I said, beginning of prep, 228 pounds, 14% body fat, and that was measured via Dexas scan here in Austin. And I did dexas scans throughout my build and throughout the cut, which we documented on YouTube through the two series. Training, I was lifting about six days a week and running about 25 miles a week in the beginning of this prep.

And running was my choice of cardio, which we actually eliminated the last couple days, last probably two weeks before the show, which I'll dive into because of just, I was carrying so much fatigue and I was getting exhausted from running. Mentality. I really wanted to talk about the mentality

in the beginning of prep. Like I said, there was this nostalgic, feel to bodybuilding for me when I was in, you know, in the beginning of this prep in December. I wanted to do a bodybuilding show because of the nostalgia of the foundation that BPN was built on when I started sharing and documenting my fitness journey and actually how I got into fitness. I got into fitness through bodybuilding and watching these bodybuilders on YouTube, like Jay Cutler and Ron Coleman and going to the Arnold Expo in Columbus, Ohio. Like that is the world that I was obsessed and involved in early on in my fitness days.

That's how I found fitness. It's how I found training in nutrition and motivation. And when I first started this prep, it brought back those nostalgic feels. It was exactly what I was hoping for. you know, these late night training sessions and prepping your foods and tracking your macros and very quickly incorporating this structure and seeing changes to your body composition and your physique. And it brought back this sense of motivation that was just different from an endurance prep.

It was just nostalgic. It's the only way to describe it. And I loved that feeling. And in the beginning, at this point, PrEP felt effortless because calories were higher. I had an abundance of carbohydrates and fats to work with. And, you know, Steph and I could go on to eat still here and there, and I could loosely track and fit it into my allocated macros and calories for the day. So it felt effortless those first couple weeks because you have more flexibility. You have more flexibility with what you eat and when you eat.

You have more flexibility because you have higher energy levels and vitality and you're still feeling good and strong and fast. So this first couple weeks definitely felt effortless. And if we look at my blood work, this was in December. This was before I started prep actually. of my health biomarkers in terms of hormone health. Now, the reason I like getting blood work done is I look at my blood work as a snapshot in time. And that snapshot in time can change based off of how you're training, how you're eating, how you're recovering, how you're sleeping, things that happen in your life.

you have a lot of stress at the moment that you just have a child. I like getting blood work done. And over the last two years, I've gotten more routine blood of work done than ever before because I've been very curious what the snapshot of my biomarkers, my health look like based off of the stimulus that I'm applying to my body. You know, over these last couple years with some of my training goals, there has been high stress.

not just high stress in terms of a physical stimulus with training, but also work-related stress and life-related stress, getting married, having a baby. And I've been being curious what happens to my health with these added stressors or stimulus. So I'm very curious with blood work and my health and how training and nutrition affects that. So December 2022, I would consider this baseline. My total testosterone was 492 nanograms per deciliter. My free testosterone was 6.98 nanograms per deciliter. My LH was 2.8, FSH 3.0, SHBG, which is sex hormone binding globulin, was 51.

So something that I've noticed with my blood work over time is this is actually the highest I've ever seen my total testosterone, 492 nanograms per decilator. This was when I was running the least that I've run in the last five years of my life. I was in a strong caloric surplus. sleep was good. We did, you know, have a baby a few months prior to, so that was a stressor in my life. But Charlie's been a great sleeper, a great baby, I would say easy baby. So, like, for me, this is the healthiest I've ever actually seen my hormones since getting routine blood work done. And that was before starting to cut.

But we'll see how tank they got throughout this prep, which I'm still recovering from. So this first couple weeks of prep, training was great, mentality, mindset was great, things were flexible in my life. I just felt really, really good. And then I reached a point where actually I decided to change the show. And I want to talk about why I decided to change the show that I was doing. Originally the show that I was going to do was April 15th. and we were on track for that show. But as we, you know, got a few weeks into prep,

I actually started noticing my energy, my vitality, decreasing pretty quickly as we dove into prep. And I started to notice a few things. One, as I talked about in the beginning of this podcast, I started to become all consumed rather than all in. I started thinking about that next meal and hitting my macros perfectly and avoiding anything that would mess with my training or my nutrition for that day in terms of social events, going out to eat with friends and family, really just starting to isolate myself.

I was very aware of this happening. I saw this happening, but I really couldn't help it. I was obsessed on controlling the variables that I could control and manipulate to achieve this result for the outcome. And it got very selfish, very quick. I saw the effect that this had on myself, my family, my presence at home, work, life, overall, social life. really I would say where I saw this affect my life the most being all consumed rather than all in. And to give a little context, you know, when I was younger, when I was 14 years old, I had a severe eating disorder that hospitalized me.

And I've talked about this many times before. But I knew going to this bodybuilding prep that when you have a history with unhealthy relationships with food, and a previous eating disorder. Going into a bodybuilding prep might not be the smartest choice or option. And it definitely resurfaced some of those old behaviors and mentalities around food and controlling food and manipulating those variables that I could control. Some of those feelings definitely did resurface during this prep, which I expected.

I anticipated that, but not in a way that it would affect my presence at home with my family. So to give an example, you know, the deeper we got into this prep, knowing that the show was April 15th, or thinking that the show was going to be April 15th, I would run in the morning,

I'd be in a clerk deficit, very busy throughout the day at work, I would train after work, I would get home, I'd have my last meal. And then I started becoming a zombie at home. The leaner I started becoming, the more we started pulling calories and carbohydrates away, the deeper we got into this cut.

I was in zombie mode where I would come home and I had my last meal the night. There would be about two hours before we put Charlie down for bed. And I just was out of it. Like mentally, I could not pull. together. I just felt like I was a zombie. Part of that was being in a chloric deficit. Part of that was just

probably the compounding effect of running higher mileage on top of training and my hormones starting to take a significant hit and just feeling that effect. And I hated who I was

becoming at home in the evening and not being present for Steph and Charlie, my daughter Charlie. And on top of that, I was coming in leaner faster than I expected. Part of that, not part, mainly because I was getting pretty aggressive. I was starting to pull more calories away. I was starting to increase running mileage. I was just getting pretty aggressive with the cut.

And at this point, I didn't have a coach. In retrospect, looking back, it would have been smart to hire a coach from the beginning of prep to help me avoid making some of these very aggressive changes to my cardio and diet early on, which then I probably could have went until April 15th and felt better and be just as lean showing up showday. but that didn't happen. So I started getting really aggressive with a cut, started pulling more calories away,

increasing cardio, wasn't present at home. So I made the decision, I'm moving the show up. I can be lean enough, which I was definitely lean enough. I can be show ready by the end of March. So I started doing a search online and I found,

I didn't find many shows, which is honestly how we ended up on the Clash NPC in Orlando, Florida. I realized it was March 25th. That weekend was free for us. I could do it. I knew that I could be lean enough at that point for that show.

It looked like a pretty big show. I reached out to some people I knew. They said it was a reputable show. They always put on a really good show at the clash. So I decided that's the one we were going to do. We were going to travel to Orlando, Florida. and compete in that MPC show in the physique division. And when we got more aggressive, I dropped calories down to, you know, about 2,200.

And then shortly after that, we dropped to 1,800. 1,800 is the lowest I got in terms of my caloric intake. And to break that down into macros, what I was shooting for roughly each day was about 225 grams of protein, about 115 grams of carbs and about 50 grams of fat. Now for someone, like I said earlier, someone who loves and feels great on dietary fat, 50 grams of fat a day sucked. I was consuming a lot of egg whites,

a lot of chicken breast tenders, and 99% lean ground turkey. All very, very, very lean sources of protein. So this is where things started to get more aggressive. The last really six weeks is where I dug deep. And those last six weeks were painful and challenging. So I actually got some blood work done on March 9th, which was, you know, about two weeks prior to the show. because I was curious.

I was feeling absolutely trashed. Energy was super low. Vitality was non-existent. So I was just very curious. And I remember walking into the lab core where I got blood drawn on this day. This was probably one of the worst days for me of prep. Energy was extremely, extremely low.

Brain foggy, very light, I did not feel good. Got blood work done. March 9th, like I said, two weeks before the show, got the results back. And I was, I was mind-blown. How tanked and trashed my hormones actually were. I was mind-blown, but at the same time, it made sense based off the way I felt. So before I read off these numbers, I do want to preface, I don't use PEDs, I don't use T-R-T, I don't use exogenous hormones, I don't use

SARMs, I don't use any of that stuff. And I've shared this blood work online, these numbers specifically, and there were a lot of responses, oh, that's what happens when you get off of gear, you tank your numbers. No. Like these numbers right here are a direct reflection

of going super aggressive, being in a steep chloric deficit, adding running on top of that, adding life stressors on top of that. My total testosterone was 109 nanograms per deciliter. Normal is anywhere from 300 to 180. Free testosterone was 1.08. Reference range is 4.7 to 24.4.

Sex hormone binding globulin was 67, which was out of range. It was high. My heboen globin A1C was 5.5. Normal range is 4.2 to 5.6. My free T3 was 1.1. Normal range is 2.2 to 4.2. FsH was 1.9. LH 1.5.

Wow. So we can see right here, hormones got absolutely tanked, which is a direct reflection of why I felt so shitty towards the end of prep. Now that's like objective data. Subjectively, how was I feeling these last couple weeks? The last like four weeks, I found that I couldn't sleep throughout the night anymore. I was waking up every two hours to get the bathroom and I was waking up just restless. The last like four weeks, I really slept horribly on prep.

libido and sex drive was non-existent, truly non-existent. I had a lack of energy, lack of focus, and my workout performance started significantly decreasing. And as we were getting dexas scans throughout the cut, these last six weeks, we started to see a significant loss in lean tissue. So I was losing some muscle, significant muscle, these last couple weeks. of prep. So we dug deep. We dug really deep these last couple weeks, and I felt the effects of the diet,

but I stuck to the plan. We made it to peak week. We made it. Now, the last couple weeks of prep, but to the last, like, three weeks of prep, I started working with a coach, Brady Oakey. And to be honest, I wish I would have started working with Brady

from the beginning of prep. Just having someone who's a third party unbiased outsider to guide you through this process, I believe is a very smart option. I've had coaches for the triathlons that I've done. I've had coaches for the ultras that I've done. I've had coaches for the marathons that I've done. This is the first prep that I decided not to have a coach, at least in the beginning. because I know nutrition, I know training, I know how to manipulate your caloric intake, your energy intake to achieve a desired result or outcome.

But what I neglected to realize or at least appreciate was the fact that your mind starts playing tricks on you throughout a bodybuilding prep. and some of that is just body dysmorphia where you see the scale is not changing the scale is not moving so you become reactive and you make changes to your diet maybe more aggressive than you really needed to or you increase energy expenditure you increase mileage, increase cardio on a daily basis

you don't think you're going to be lean enough for your show based off of where you're at in that moment of time and how many days or weeks out you are. So you make changes, aggressive changes. Having someone monitor your weight

and your body composition and your training and your energy intake versus your energy expenditure and making changes to your plan to make sure you show up show day as lean as possible, as healthy as possible

in as much of a sustained approach as possible, I think is very important. So if I were ever to do a bodybuilding show again, which I actually don't plan on it and expect, but who knows? Who knows what could change in time? But if I were ever to do a bodybuilding show again, I would hire a coach from the beginning.

And if you are considering a physique show or a bodybuilding show, I would recommend a coach throughout the, entire process. I really would. The way I started working with Brady actually was just with posing. So Brady is a BPN ambassador. He was at the BPN ambassador weekend, which was the weekend of the Austin Marathon in the middle of February. And we were just talking and he asked, you know, who's helping you with posing? I said, I don't have anyone yet. So I started working with Brady. He helped me tremendously in the beginning with posing. And as we were talking about the show,

you know, he was asking, well, who's helping me you with these last couple weeks of prep? Who's helping you with peak week? Who's helping with you with show day? And I was like, you know, I plan on doing it myself. And he offered to help. And he was a tremendous help. Brady Oakey, he's a coach for bodybuilding, physique, and lifestyle. If you just want to lose weight or gain weight or change your body composition or improve the

you look and feel. He's been an excellent coach, and I highly recommend Brady. So it started just with posing lessons. Then he started helping me with these last couple weeks of prep and peak week. And, you know, his help during peak week and show day was so tremendous.

It made such a big difference. And we're going to review our peak week plan that we implemented. But I peaked perfect for the show. I peaked perfect. And the goal with people is, peak week, you know, with a great peak, and that's like the last seven days before the show, you might look five to 10% max better than the prior week. And the goal of peak week is to not make significant changes, but to fill out muscle glycogen

and show up show day looking full and tight. So those weeks leading up to peak week, my carbohydrates were at 115 grams a day, which means that my muscle glycogen wasn't topped off. Your body stores carbohydrates in the form of glycogen in the liver and in the muscles. Your muscles, like my muscles might be able to store like 700 grams of carbs and my liver can probably store about 100 grams of carbs. And when I'm consuming 115 grams of carbs a day and running and lifting weights,

I'm depleting those carbohydrates. I'm depleting that glycogen on a daily basis. So what ends up happening is you look kind of soft and watery and you look kind of stringy and you don't feel full and tight and muscular. Again, part of that is body dysmorphia, but there's actually science to, validate those

those ways you feel about your body. You're just depleted. You're just depleted on carbohydrates. I was depleted on carbohydrates. So the goal with peak week is to top off muscle glycogen so your muscles look and feel full.

You can get a strong pump. You look better on stage. But to not spill over. Right? Like you don't want to consume too many carbs because you look watery. You look soft, you don't look tight and hard on stage. So you want to top off muscle glycogen, not spillover, and you want to control that process.

So it's not just a soup sandwich. Some people take the soup sandwich approach. They just throw some random amount of food and carbohydrates to the body and say, do magic. And it doesn't work that way. So Brady had a really great plan for me. We tested it two weeks prior. So the day actually after I got that blood work that resulted in horrible hormone levels, the day after that, March 10th, we did a carb backloading test.

We wanted to see what 600 grams of carbohydrates would do to my body. So on March 10th, it was about two weeks out from the show, I had 180 grams of protein, 600 grams of carbs, 65 grams of fat. that was spread out through multiple meals throughout that day. And what happened was I woke up that next morning feeling tight, hard, and firm. And even in the afternoon, I got tighter and harder. So I consumed those carbs. The carbs don't shuttle directly into the muscle.

They have to digest and assimilate. And then they are stored in the liver and in the muscles as glycogen. So it takes about 24 to maybe 36 hours for all those carbs to digest and assimilate. And at about 30 hours after I tested this carb backloading approach, I was filled out. I still had some room left. I could have filled out more, but I was filled out. So we tested two weeks prior. We knew my body reacted well to that test.

So that's what we decided to do for peak week. Now, what's interesting is Brady had me stop running March 15th. My last run was March 15th because I hit a point where my body weight as large of a deficit that I was in won't really break past 195, 196 pounds. I was stuck at like 195, 196. and I was still running at this point. And what we hypothesized was while I was running higher mileage in a caloric deficit, it's a lot of stress on the body.

My body was holding a lot of stress, a lot of fatigue, a lot of inflammation, and it was just fighting against me. So March 15th was my last run of prep. and it was so interesting to see what happened to my weight after that. So like I said, I was stuck around 195, 196 pounds. March 14th, I was 196, March 15th, I was 194.4.4. My last run. March 16th, 191.8.

I went from 194.4.4 to 191.8 after I stopped running. Then March 17th, 193, March 18th, 192.5, March 19th, 190.4, March 20th, 191.4, March 21st, 191.6. March 22nd, 190.4. March 23rd, 190.2. March 24th, 191. So the lowest we saw during prep on the scale was 190.2 pounds. I said in middle of December, I was 228 pounds at the peak of the build. So we lost almost 40 pounds during this 13 week prep. Now, as hard as it was to pull out running and we replaced running with inclined treadmill walking, as hard as it was to stop running for those two weeks mentally, not that.

physically, mentally. I saw exactly the reason why and what happened to my body. I mean, weight just started falling off. We lost five more pounds in those two weeks. The impact in stress of running on my body, like I said, in that caloric deficit and my body trying to hold on, it was in starvation mode, it was just creating too much stress, too much inflammation. As soon as we pulled that out, literally, as soon as.

as we pulled running out and replaced that with inclined treadmill walking, I lost five pounds in those last two weeks, which was crazy, crazy. So my peak week, the plan that we had started on Monday. From Monday to Thursday, we increased calories and changed macros a little bit. So protein actually decreased to 200 grams. Carbs increased to 200 grams. Fats increased to 65 grams. So we increased carbs, increased fats, decreased protein.

That was Monday to Thursday. And from Monday to Thursday, we slowly started to reduce my cardio, which like I said, was inclined treadmill walking. So we started to taper the. amount of cardio is doing throughout that week as well. On Thursday, we actually started to load carbs a little bit. So on

Thursday, it was 200 grams of protein, 275 grams of carbs, 75 grams of fat. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday was those original calories, 200, 265. Thursday, we increased fats a little bit more,

carbs a little bit more. And then Friday was the main load day, which was the day before the show. And I was actually traveling this day. We traveled to Orlando, Florida that morning. The plan was Friday, 165 grams of protein, 650 grams of carbs, which we actually ended up consuming 710 grams of carbs,

and 85 grams of fat. and Brady wanted me to consume about 500 of those carbs before 12 p.m. We wanted to keep fiber less than 30 grams, which we did. I consumed two gallons of water on Friday the day before the show, and we controlled sodium and potassium intake. Now that Friday before the show, to get 500 grams in before 12 while traveling, And traveling with a team and a baby was fun and challenging. So I woke up around 3 a.m. because we had an early flight.

And I had like four to five servings of honeynut Cheerios with like three tablespoons of honey and almond milk with some eggs. Delicious. That meal slapped. It was like 200 grams of carbs at 3 a.m. And then I prepared foods to carry onto the plane. So on the plane, I had two meals. Each one was in like a Ziploc baggie.

And it was 325 grams of rice, five grams of chicken thighs, or five ounces of chicken thighs, 325 grams of rice, five ounces of chicken thighs, I think one to two tablespoons of honey and a little bit of salt. It was like an eighth teaspoon of salt. I just made that night before, put it in Ziploc bags, and I ate them out of the of the Ziploc bags on the plane. So I was able to get all of my carbs in before 12. And as soon as we landed in Orlando, we went to the gym and did a light pump workout.

And there was, to this day, one of the best workouts my entire life. I mean, I was full of carbs. I knew I was competing the next day. I looked and felt full. Vascularity was out of control. It was the leanest I've ever been in my life. So from like a physical feel, a mental feel, an emotional feel, all these things coming together the day before the show were just monumental. It was beautiful.

And like I said, we ended up actually consuming a little bit more carbs. We had 710 grams of carbs because that night before going to bed, after getting checked in for the show and getting my first layer of tan, Brady actually wanted me to look a little bit softer. He wanted me to look a little soft that night before the show to wake up hard the next morning, like looking harder. and tighter. So I trusted him.

I consumed a few more rice cakes with some honey. It topped us off about 710 grams of carbs total for the day. Went to sleep, slept like a baby, woke up the next morning, looking full, looking tight, not looking soft at all. The whole plan worked. like peak week worked perfectly we peaked absolutely amazing for the show and that was a really good feeling like waking up Saturday morning knowing that the work was put in we peaked perfect followed a plan now it was just time to execute that's one of the best feelings that you can

experience is when, you know, whether it's lining up at the starting line for a race or dropping off all of your gear, your drop bags and your bike for a triathlon or an ultra, and knowing that the haze in the barn, the work has been put in and now it's just time to execute. And you've done everything you could up until that point to have the strongest chance at the best execution possible, that's a really good feeling. And if you've never had the opportunity to experience that feeling, I highly recommend you choose something challenging and difficult that requires an enormous amount of attention to detail and effort to get you to that point.

Attention to detail, effort, and time. Time. You can't rush that process. but if you've never experienced that, I highly recommend finding a way too. Now let's talk about show day. Like I said, I woke up feeling fantastic, looking fantastic. And we had a meal right away.

I had a bagel with some honey on top and some egg whites. and the plan for that day was to keep it light. I didn't have to fill out anymore. We topped off. We filled out perfectly. It was just to keep some food in my body, but keep it light. So I was the first meal I had. And then about every hour and a half after that,

I had two rice cakes with some peanut butter and some honey. So we went to the venue, which is about 30 minutes away from our Airbnb. I got my second layer of tan on. At this point, I was pretty dark. And then we went to show athlete check-ins, like the athlete meeting in the morning, and we just waited until it was time to step on stage, which there were two times to step on stage.

For every class that I was in, there was the prejudging in the morning, and then the finals in the evening. For lunch, I just had a little bit, of rice and chicken. I had about six ounces of chicken breast and about 30 grams of carbs worth of just white rice. And like I said,

it was about every hour and a half consuming rice cakes, peanut butter, and honey. Now, for prejudging in the morning, here's something I didn't anticipate or expect to happen. I didn't think that the energy and the adrenaline backstage was going to be as high and as intense as it was. It was nuts. It was crazy.

The energy, intensity was, I can't even describe it. I was just like in an element. We were backstage, wait and get called out. And what we saw, or what I saw at least, was all the people I was competing against we're starting to pump up like an hour before we were going on stage. So I felt the need to start pumping up. I was watching all these people. If I would have been there by myself,

I would have started pumping up like an hour before going on stage. But having a coach really helped me control those variables. And Brady told me, you know, it's way too early. That's way too early to start pumping up. We started pumping up like 15 minutes before going on stage. We used bands, resistance. Spans, did push-ups. I got the craziest pump within those 15 minutes before going on stage.

And I went out there for the novice classes and for the open classes. When they pull you to the center, that is such a good feeling, this just shot of adrenaline started rushing through me. I came off the stage with just this newfound love for bodybuilding and competing. The experience there was just so great. it was so great. And having a coach, having Brady walk me through it was so helpful. So, you know, prejudging went great in the morning.

We were feeling very confident with the outcome. And showing up that day, actually, I told myself and I told other people, I didn't care where I placed. You know, as a natural athlete competing in a tested, or sorry, a non-tested show, I just assumed that I would have no ability to place. I thought I would have no way of competing against enhanced athletes, guys on gear. But after that morning, after the prejudging and seeing that I could compete in that show, that's when my mindset started to shift a little bit.

I was like, okay, let's go for this overall. I want this overall now. You know, this entire prep for me was part of a brand campaign we launched in the beginning the year. It was called Prove Yourself Right. And the concept behind Prove Yourself Right is don't do things. Don't sign up for events. Don't set the trajectory of your life goals and ambitions and objectives

based off of other people's wants and needs for you or others' doubts against you. Don't do things to prove other people wrong. Do things because you want to do it to prove yourself right. So this bodybuilding show for me was, I don't want to prove people wrong. I'm not trying to prove anything to anyone else. I want to prove myself that I can dye it down,

I can get as lean as possible, I can step on stage and do a bodybuilding show again. Ten years later after doing my first. This was a personal goal, competing against myself. But once I stepped on stage and the work was put in and the hay was in the barn, and I realized I had a competing chance, I got the itch for the overall.

I wanted the overall. So I was feeling very confident, pre-judging in the morning. We came back for finals in the evening after getting a tan touch-up, staying on top of food intake. I consumed a gallon of water throughout that day. And like I said, won the novice class, won the novice overall, won the open class. Didn't win the open overall.

but I was extremely happy and proud of the performance. And it was this, it was this energy that I didn't expect. I did not expect to have on that day. But it was the energy and the excitement and the experience that I hoped for and that I wanted. Show day for me in Orlando, Florida with an amazing team. and support system, that was the experience that I hoped it would have been. All of the nostalgia came back.

All of the 2012, starting BPN, loving bodybuilding, getting into fitness, all those feelings came back in that moment, and it was exactly what I wanted and what I hoped for. So that was the last 10 months of prep through the hybrid build into the hybrid cut, finishing the Buffalo New York Marathon, crossing that finish line at, you know,

190 pounds, two hours, 48 minutes, spending months, balking up, 80 and a caloric surplus, running less, peaking at 228 pounds, and then dieting down for a bodybuilding show on March 25th, 20203, to come home with some medals, not the overall, come home with some medals,

but a great experience and an amazing learning lesson. It taught me a lot about body competition and manipulating macronucine, nutrients and calories and energy expenditure. And what types of cardio is useful for bodybuilding and losing body fat and where running is useful and plays a role and where it does not.

That was a massive eye-opener for me. Now post-show, post-show, we, I did want to talk about this because I've seen so many people compete and put on like 30 pounds in 10 days. Like I shit you not. I've seen a lot of people online on social media just go so hard on food and binge for one to two weeks after their show and they've gained all their weight back in no time.

You know, two weeks after show day, I'm up about four pounds total. I've been very disciplined and controlled with my diet, very conscious of what I've been consuming. But the night after the show, probably like two hours after stepping off stage, we went to Shake Shack. I got a double cheeseburger, double shack burger,

truffle fries, chocolate shake. Biting into that cheeseburger for the first time post-show was an out-of-body experience. That's the only way I can describe it. And I'm dead serious. This is not like, this is not metaphoric. This is realistic. I felt that burger in my testicles.

I bit into that burger and I could feel it in my testicles. Like that's not an exaggeration. I'm dead serious. It was a wild. That meal was so wild in the way it made my body feel. I've never felt like that. in my life before, but post show Shake Shack, it hit different. It hit different.

But after that meal, went back to the Airbnb. We all had a margarita together, went to bed, and the next day, I got back on track. I haven't tracked my food since, but I've just been very intuitive and conscious with what I'm consuming. Just getting back to maintenance calories, calories right now are probably anywhere between 3,200 and 3,400. Feels really good to have fats higher again in my day, like anywhere from 120 to 150 grams. But energy came back pretty quickly post show.

Within days, it came back. And workouts felt stronger, sleep, normalized again after the show. and things are now falling back into place. But I did get some post-show blood work done. This was on March 30th. This was five days post-show. So total testosterone was 210 nanograms per decilator. Free testosterone increased back to 3.13.

SHBG was 48.4, so that was decreasing, which is good. LH. 1.1, FSH, 1.4. Free T3, 1.6. but we're seeing improvements to the biomarkers, that snapshot in time of my health and through blood work. And I'll continue to get blood work done every couple weeks or months post-show to see how we're improving.

But my biggest takeaway from this prep, or I guess a few key takeaways from this prep, If I were to ever do a bodybuilding show again, I would hire a coach from the beginning. I would do a longer prep, probably make it anywhere from 16 to 20 weeks. I would find ways in my life to eliminate stressors and be more present and active at home.

I wouldn't run the deeper I got into prep. I pulled running out about, I guess it was about 10 days before the show. I would have pulled running out way before then and did a lower impact, more steady state cardio source, like incline walking treadmill, to reduce that harsh stimulus and stress and inflammation on the body,

which would honestly probably help with hormones and weight loss and stress and energy and everything in between. But that is the post show recap. That wraps up the hybrid build, wraps up the hybrid cut, wraps up my, at least one of my prove yourself right missions and campaigns for 2020.

So thanks guys for following along, for tuning in and for all the support. And we'll see you in the next episode.