John’s Blog – Arnold Classic 2016 wrap up!

by John Meadows on March 9, 2016

It is unbelievable how fast time flies. It is crazy to think the Arnold is now over. I wanted to give you some of the behind the scenes, snippets of what I did, and other goodies you might find interesting.

What are the things I do to bring my best?

I dieted my ass off, literally. Laying in the tanning bed was extremely uncomfortable because my tailbone was pressing so hard against the bed. A lot of people talked a good game about condition, but my actions spoke louder than words. I feel as if my conditioning was right up there at the top.What you may find interesting is that I never at any point dropped carbs pre, intra, or post. Never, not once. My recovery was perfect. I didn’t get sore from one workout I did, no matter how hard I pushed myself.I also consumed my food bars right up to show day as my preworkout meal. Man were they a nice treat to look forward to everyday.For cardio, if you have been following along you know I just stuck with one am session and that was it.I also did only 1 cheat meal this prep. Why would such an advocate of cheat meals not do more? I advocate doing what works best for you, and with a short 10-week diet, and everything coming in so good, I just didn’t feel I needed them, and I didn’t really have any intense cravings. If I had taken them, I don’t think it would have hurt at all, I just did’t think they were necessary for physiological or psychological reasons so I skipped them. I did take one when I was sick, just to get some extra calories in.

At a week out I brought in a coach, Neil Hill. I know Neil through Flex and have always thought highly of him. I am very good at getting ultra-lean, but once I get to that state, mentally it becomes hard to think clearly. You start to question every little decision you make it, and stress out. I had a day where my weight went up 4 lbs and I had no clue what was going so immediately started to stress, fearing I would have to go through the intense weight loss via sauna that I did last year. I got ahold of Neil via Flex when this happened. The day I brought Neil in and told him what I was doing, he laid out the first day’s plan, and we would continue to monitor every day, and change plan as needed. This lifted the stress right off me. In fact, I felt no stress again. This was a huge help.We never cut water, never cut sodium, and really only had to miss one meal to make weight. This was easy to pull off. Just for fun, here is the first update pic I sent him. Neil did an absolutely CRAZY awesome job working with me! It was so nice to just go into robot mode and not have to think at that point.

I have had trouble over the last few years getting some of my upper thigh detail to show, and also expanding my lats in certain poses. I doubled up on my deep tissue work to ensure everything was freed up and firing well, and WOW did this make a difference. Look at my rear lat spread now, and look at the upper thigh separation!I also had no injuries, could do some squatting and more rack pulls, as my lower back and other joints felt to great right up to the show!!! This was awesome because last year toward the end of my last few shows my joints were killing me, and my strength was gone. I lost NO STRENGTH through this prep at all.

I brought in Fouad Abiad as you know to help me with my posing routine. It turned out really well, and the ovation I got from the crowd was really heartwarming. To hear the crowd cheering like that overfilled me with emotion. Here is the routine.
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My training was a little more instinctual. Some days I did change it up from the standard plan just based on how I was feeling. I actually documented the whole 12-week plan, and will have it available in a week!

Some other random things behind the scenes.

SO what did I eat after prejudging? A cheeseburger, fries, and THIS..

After I left finals to see the family out front, I also was met by Sam Madison, former New York Giant and Miami Dolphin. It was very cool meeting and chatting with him, and of course it was awesome to see a Super Bowl ring!!!!!

I also took a TON of pics with my family and friend and got emotional a few times. It was just so mind blowing to do this show and to be able to see everyone….