John’s Blog: Arnold Diet, The Family Flu, Posing and more
by John Meadows on January 15, 2016Here are we are at about 7 weeks out. This last week I really fought the flu as we passed it around the house several times. I usually take Nyquil and Robitussin DM before bed every night when I get the flu and it knocks it out fast, but man this was a persistent bug. I am sure many of you can relate based on the number of emails I have received with people out sick.
I wanted to talk a little bit about my morning routine again as it has new additions.
I started using Matt Porter’s Vasoburn underneath a “waist trimmer” while doing morning cardio. I also drink 1 scoop of Intra MD EAA+ before I do the cardio. The waist trimmer is more to remind me to keep my waist sucked in as much as I can, and to create heat with the Vasoburn. With my achy lower back, it actually feels pretty good to heat that area up to.
I did another sauna last night at the gym. They told me it was 190 degrees. I have no idea if that is true, but man was it hot. I made it 20 minutes and got out. My plan is to do them here and there to build up more of a tolerance as I am pretty sure it will take some sauna time to get me down to 212.
Speaking of getting down to 212, so I started the week at 222 in the am and 225ish at night, and now I am 224 in the morning and harder. This is not unusual for me at all, and everything is firing on all cylinders, BUUUUT I still have to make 212 so I can’t really afford to keep going this way. I am going to pull back on carbs a tad, and continue to increase my cardio as I go. I am now at 40 minutes in the am.
I also added posing this week as with the announcement routines will be scored, I feel this is a way I might be able to work myself into a higher position. We’ll see.
Diet
Meal 1 – 1 cup of whites, 148 grams of red potato, 2 tbs ketchup, 1 tsp of coconut oil
Meal 2 – Peanut Butter chocolate food bar (Best Bar Ever) and a coffee
Intra – 3 scoops of Intra MD
Meal 3 – 40 grams of whey iso, ½ cup of cream of rice (dry), 1 tbsp of nut butter, 0 calorie choc syrup
Meal 4 – 8 oz od cod, ½ cup of oats, 1 cup of green veggies
Meal 5 – 6 oz of cooked chicken, 1 cup of white rice (dropped from 2 to 1 cup of rice here)
Meal 6 – 8 oz of cod, 1 cup of white rice, ½ cup of black eyed peas, hot sauce
Breakdown – 253 grams of protein (36%), 355 of carbs (50%), 44 of fat (14%) = 2823 calories
Cardio continues on a 3% incline and walking is now at 2.7 on the treadmill.
Firing on all Cylinders
I was listening to an interview with Kevin Levrone on the Gear’d Up podcast, and he talked about how he took time off every year to rest and prepare for an all-out assault pre-contest time. This really resonates with me because pre-contest I like to be going balls out as hard as I can go, BUT you cannot train like that year round. If you do, you will either burn out or get injured unless you have Ronnie Coleman genetics. After the San Antonio show I was really burnt so I took my intensity way down (this was late August) and kept it there for 3 months. Once I started training hard again a few weeks ago, everything started changing dramatically.
I mention this as I want you to think about this in your own planning, there are periods of time where you need to go all out, but be mindful that you must back off for periods of time too. Listen to your body!!!!
Until next time,
John Meadows
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