Men's Novice Overall Champ - 2014 INBA Inland Empire Classic

Hardware!   Check out my sponsors FORGED IRON TRAINING at ForgedIronTraining.com!  Enjoy 5% off with WAY in the code box! I've never seen my legs in such conditioning.... wish I could have held this throughout the day!  ;P I am lazy as hell, aren’t I?  LOL – I apologize for another long disappearance.  Although, if you have been following my IG and/or Facebook accounts, then you are up to date with the latest happenings.  Going back to March 1st, the result of my INBA debut was: 1st Place, Men’s Novice Overall 1st Place, Men’s Novice Short 2nd Place, Men’s Open Tall I am incredibly ecstatic for my performance!  It’s another step towards progression as I earned my first overall win!  The competition was fierce, even moreso than my previous two competitions with the NPC.  All competitors were very well conditioned.  The INBA put on a great competition!  It was a lot smaller, but a more intimate production.  Of course, things could have always been better—I felt that I looked better the morning of when I woke up on the day of the competition.  Perhaps if I was able to keep that level of conditioning all day and through the show, then perhaps it could have given me the extra edge I needed to place 1st in the Men’s Open Tall… The keyword was “perhaps,” and I wasn’t able to, so se la vie.  Every competitor faces this challenge.  So in typical Waylon fashion, I remain positive—“I’ll get ‘em next time!”  In all honesty, I am happy to mark this moment as the end of my competition season.  I’ve been militant about my diet and training for almost a full year as I started dieting in April of 2013.  I can surely use a break!  I am happy to have met so many hard working, inspirational, and fun loving people through this journey during my prep.  A lot of good came out of it – to be a better bodybuilder, to learn more to educate others, to achieve more to inspire and motivate others, to kickstart my online coaching project, to become a sponsored athlete of Forged Iron Training Apparel, to become an ambassador of HPN High Performance Nutrition… it’s been a WILD ride!  And it doesn’t end there!  Enter the offseason… The focal point of the offseason are my legs.  I need to build these babies up.  Thus, I will be taking a long offseason to do that.  My plan is to reverse diet back to a healthy maintenance caloric level and optimize my training towards my goal.  Then slowly add more and more calories to hover in the slight-surplus range of calories to create an environment that supports growth.  I’ve never truly been in an offseason bulking mode for too long, but this time, I need to keep the overarching long term goal in focus and not be afraid of gaining perhaps a bit too body fat in the process.  Of course, it’s all about the balancing act. I will look in the mirror as a gauge and if I feel like I am not happy with how I look, then I will scale back on my calories; but otherwise, the long term goal reigns supreme.  I am chasing gains now.  The plan will be revealed in detail on the next post!  J

13 Days Out & Traveling During Contest Prep

I'm sitting on the plane en route from LAX to OKC for a business trip for my day job. One thing that loomed over my head is that I am just 2 weeks away from the Inland Empire Classic--what am I going to do? Will this trip be detrimental to my prep?

The real question is how am I going to prepare myself so I can stay on track whilst taking care of business. This is a very important trip for me to add value to my work experience and I need to stay razor sharp while sticking to my prep plan. Obviously, it's a game of prioritization.

Work comes first, and when time allows for it, find time to train. I've shifted my training schedule around so I trained Push this morning prior to departing to the airport in lieu of taking a rest day. I assigned my full day working in Oklahoma as my rest day. The company I will be working with has a gym facility in their offices. I plan to squeeze in cardio through the day when I can as a final push to advance my conditioning before I enter the final week leading up to the competition in which I plan to take it easy with the cardio and begin to slowly reverse diet into the show. The great thing about cardio is that you don't need a machine or a gym. Just go for a walk!



Today is Sunday and I will be working around the clock and essentially on-call until Tuesday AM. I fly home Tuesday afternoon. If I can find time to train Pull on Tuesday AM I will. The hotel I have been provided has a small gym as well, so there is another opportunity there. Otherwise there are other local gyms in the area.

As for my diet goes, as long as I hit my macros, I'll be fine. I've packed easy to prepare and convenient to eat foods in my carry on. A tupperware of each--egg whites, hash browns, and veggie stirfry. I've also packed a bunch of little fast food condiment packets which I nabbed from the restaurants in the airport terminal to flavor my foods. Tip: hot sauce and mustard goes a long way!

Monday will be a challenging day. I am not sure whether I will be able to get a good night's rest as I will be on-call all day for the project. Thus, I rescheduled my usual Saturday refeed to Monday so I have more flexibility and freedom to eat more and eat diversely to hit my macros. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do and make it work because that's life!

I also have a back up plan in case I either run out of food or through running around I get separated from my food, I know there are fast food and grocery store options in the area I will be staying/working at. No problem there. Also, because I have rescheduled my refeed to allow myself to consume far greater calories on Monday, I can actually accept an invitation to have business lunches/dinners. It is important to be social when you need to especially if it can advance your career or any other important aspect of your life. I heard my hosts love steakhouses so there's a possibility I may have steak, sweet potato, and a salad on this trip! I pre-added this meal into MyFitnessPal in advance as a placeholder just in case this meal actually happens.

And that's really it! It may seem OCD but this is contest prep. If you desire to win, you must do what you can to stay on track with your diet, your training, and be flexible to continue advancing in the other aspects of your life. Just 13 more days... I can't wait!

16 DAYS OUT!!!

  

Snapshots of current conditioning -- will continue to dial in!

 

 It's official!  I am now an athlete and member of the INBA!

 

It’s funny—a lot has changed, yet, a lot has stayed the same since my last post.  I apologize for not updating regularly.  Fast forward from my last post, which marked 5 weeks out, it is now 16 days out.  During this span of time, my clientele list has exploded and the good news for me is that I am loving my new responsibilities as an online coach.  I feel blessed that many of your have asked me questions about anything fitness related and actually cared about my opinion.  Some of you have inquired for my services and that is incredibly humbling.  And some of you are working with me now, bestowing your faith into me to assist you and guide you towards reaching your fitness goals whatever it may be—lose a few pounds for a cruise, build lean body mass, preparing for a photo shoot or an aesthetic-based competition!  I am incredibly thankful that I have the opportunity to do this and I am extremely dedicated to my clients and passionate about helping them reach their goals.  This is probably the main reason as to why I have not been updating my blog regularly, but for frequent updates, I invite you to follow my Instagram -- @way_protein !

So what hasn’t changed?  The main thing is my diet and training protocol – it has stayed relatively the same.  The only difference is that I am doing more cardio and consuming a bit less calories.  The good news is that I do not anticipate dropping my caloric intake further than what it is now and I am living life just fine without the feeling of incredible fatigue and hunger, which I have had experience with while bro dieting two years ago for my first competition. 

Current weekly cardio burn: 1400 calories

Current daily caloric intake: ~1800 calories on regular days, ~3200 calories on refeed days

Macros on regular days are approx..: 150P 200C 45F

Macros on refeed days are approx..: 150P 550C 45F

Training is 6 days a week on a Push / Pull / Legs / Repeat program

Rest day is optional, but lately it’s been a cardio/tinker day

My bodyweight has been hovering between 150.4 to 156.0 lbs. for the past few weeks, and finally today, it has dropped to 149.8 lbs.  But only for a moment until the monitor finally landed on 150.0 lbs.  I probably should have done a few jumping jacks and see if I can pee more to bring it back to the 149s – LOL jk.  Honestly, I just use the number on the scale as one of many determinants for progress.  The main determinant is the mirror.  I believe I will end up somewhere between 148.0 to 151.0 lbs on contest day.  Hopefully it will be on the higher end as I am considering incremental glycogen storage weight.

How I will approach my peak week is well…. nothing.  I feel like I can continue doing what I do and on Saturdays wake up with a physique I am proud of and just do a bit of carb loading to dial myself in.  This time, though, I will be more aggressive with the carb loading because during my last show in December, I believe I looked a bit depleted and flat.  This time, I am more confident in the amount of carbs my body can comfortably handle without spilling over.  Perhaps 200g carbs and 50g fat would be a good idea prior to stepping on stage each time, based on my experiences with refeeding the past few weeks and observing my body’s reactions post feed. 

I may not be able to post again until right before the competition or even right after.  Either way, please check back and see how the story unfolds J  My goal is to have fun and earn a strong placing in my first natural bodybuilding show.  Please follow my Instagram @WAY_PROTEIN to be up to date with my life in fitness.  Thanks for your readership and support!

5 Weeks Out & Updates!

 

 

An example of a Savory Oat concoction that I love!  Oats, fat free cheese, and eggs!  So UMAMI!

 Something fibrous and bulky and with tons of volume, like egg whites and salad greens!

 Each week that goes by, I am increasingly more vascular.  I can't wait until I reach my final form!  5 more weeks to go!

I’m almost 5 weeks out of my target show on March 1^st, 2014 – The INBA Inland Empire Classic.  I’m at the point of conditioning where I can no longer utilize the scale to track my performance.  My only goal is to carve deeper striations in my glutes.  When I visually notice this, then I can rest assured that progress is made.  I will not allow myself to suffer on bland food, so condiments will stay in my diet and I’ll moderate it the final week leading up to the show.  Life has been incredibly busy from all angles:

-wedding planning

-house hunting

-traveling for leisure to San Francisco to visit family for Chinese New Year

-traveling for work to Oklahoma City for a few days (probably 2 weeks out from competition!)

As you can see, there’s a lot going on even from a big picture point of view in my life that can derail my diet.  Thanks to the lifestyle I chose to implement my diet—flexible dieting—I am able to continue to meet my fitness goals to prepare for my competition with all of these milestone events occurring in my life at the same time.  My food choices have been simplified for convenience.  I chose a few meals that I love to eat most and will eat them daily.  This makes it easy to plan and prepare without fail.  Lately I’ve been on this oatmeal kick, so based on a 2200 daily caloric intake, this is practically what I’ve been eating:

Meal 1:  Something Oaty like Savory Oats w/ Kimchi & Eggs

-2 serv oats

-200g kimchi

-3 large eggs, whole, cooked overeasy

Meal 2: Something Salady or Omelettey like Egg white / Broccoli / Salsa Scramble

-10 servings egg whites, microwaved in Tupperware to cook

-as much broccoli it takes so I’m stuffed (1-2 lbs), microwaved in bowl with water to steam

-glops of hot salsa

Meal 3:  Something Oaty again like Savory Oats w/ Kimchi & Eggs

Total meal prep time: a few minutes of microwaving and combining ingredients per meal.

This has been how I’ve been hitting my macros daily this week. 

I only eat when hungry and if my schedule permits me to eat multiple times a day.  Sometimes I eat 2 meals a day, or I split up my meals in half so I graze throughout the day.  Whatever the meal frequency is, it doesn’t matter.

Refeed days are more flexible.  Throughout the week, whenever I think of something I want to devour that’s delicious and out of the ordinary, I add it to my Saturday food diary (my refeed day) in MFP.  My macros are much higher with calories ranging from 3200-3500, so I can continue to enjoy delicious foods that are typically on the restricted list of contest prep diets.  Lately, it’s been burgers, burritos, and rice bowls of some sort; all very savory foods.  I find that I am prone to addiction and anything sweet can trigger my addictive personality.  Thus, I am staying away from sweet foods because it really heightens my hunger and cravings.  The only sweet foods I will keep in my diet are diet sodas and Splenda for my coffee.  I will refrain from the use of Walden Farms products unless it is to make my zero-calorie salad dressings.

The LA Fit Expo is happening this weekend!  I’m so excited!  There is so much I want to see and do, and people that I want to meet!  I will be there practically ALL DAY on Saturday, January 25^th.  Prior to attending the expo, I will be training legs in the morning at the 24 Hour Fitness in Downtown LA, as well.   

So the plan is to dial in my conditioning the in the final 5 weeks leading up to the show.  Each week, I will gradually cut daily calories by 100-200, and increase my cardio by 50 calories per session.  Currently I am performing 200 calorie burn sessions 5 times a week for a total of 1000 calories burned per week.  Next time I increase cardio, I will be doing 250 calorie burn sessions 5 times a week, or do a total of 1250 calories a week.  I have a rest day on Sundays in which I can perform the bulk of my cardio on that day without taxing my body from any other weight training.  The amount of volume in my weight training will be adjusted based on feel.  The incredible fatigue and exhaustion feeling I experienced for a few days last week ensued after continuous bouts of high intensity, high volume training.  I love training this way but it isn’t physically possible while on a caloric deficit.  I know this now and will be making decisions to back off and minimize the amount of reps and sets I perform each training day so I am not left so battered and beat up that I pay for it later.  The trick is finding balance where I am doing JUST ENOUGH for continued progress and without pain or discomfort so I am in for the long haul.  That old adage, “no pain, no gain,” is stupid.  Sure, train hard, but train smart.  I believe I’ve found this balance now and am trucking along nicely.  Mental health and physical health is in tip top shape.  I can’t wait to see if I can break any personal records on conditioning! 

Have a good day!  Will update again next week!

Deloading for the Mind, Body, & Soul

It’s funny how important a deload can be, especially to the active individual that trains hard consistently.  I am the kind of person that find it difficult to take a real rest day.  My rest days usually turn into “tinker days,” where I do direct ab work, maybe some traps, and other muscle groups I may have neglected during the week.  Usually I do some cardio too.  All of this caloric expenditure can really add up and if your caloric intake is not supporting this level of activity, complications can occur over time.  The stress of constantly being on a caloric deficit and/or carbohydrate restriction can be really taxing on the body if energy output (far) exceeds caloric input.  You can’t expect to drive 400 miles on 300 miles worth of gas in the tank.  An effective cutting phase is just like that – trying to travel 305-310 miles on 300 miles worth of gas in the tank – small steps forward to net big rewards over a long period of time.

I train pretty hard with high volume and with sets close to failure.  My body felt like it weighs a ton the past few days.  My mind is foggy.  My motivation to get off my ass is nonexistent.  I’m 7 weeks out from a competition.  I don’t need to feel this way, at least not now this far out!  Sure, it could be that my caloric intake may not be enough; but based on historical data, my caloric intake is the highest it’s been at this level of conditioning in my whole life.  This cannot be the case.  So if it’s not my intake, it’s got to be my output.  I don’t remember the last time I took an actual full on rest day.  I don’t remember when I didn’t train max effort, and just deload for a few days. 

Now’s the time to act and regain my mental and physical health to continue performing at tip top shape in and out of the gym.  Deloading entails dropping the weight to loads where you can easily perform 10-12+ reps without reaching failure.  The focus is shifted to perfecting form.  This allows your body to catch up on much needed rest to recuperate, yet you are still able to continue burning calories and staying on track with your goals.  Sure, progress in weight loss may stall for a week, but a very small price to pay to gather the strength to carry on optimally—taking 1 step back to take 2 steps forward. 

Today, I feel so much better.  I invested 2-3 days of deloading and today, on squat day, I was able to 1RM 3 plates ATG high bar squat.  I haven’t done this in a long time.  I weigh 150 lbs and I’m at about 5-6% bodyfat.  I didn’t think this was possible, but it worked out well.  There is definitely a balance between energy input and output, a synergy, that if balanced, can keep you feeling healthy, performing strongly, and meeting your body composition goals all at the same time—mind, body, and soul.  The trick is finding that synergy!