What's going on guys? Welcome back to Eat, Train, Prosper. This is episode 192. And we are recapping my first ever bodybuilding comp contest, I guess is the proper term that I just competed in three days ago. But before we dive into some of that, some updates as always. Brian, what's going on? Yeah, I don't want to steal the show. This is all about about your you're looking super jacked and tan on stage. So I'm excited to get to that real quick, though. I just want to let you guys know the new pod that I started. Life Reflected is about to drop episode four. So by the time that this episode airs, it's likely that that episode is out. Episode four is with our good buddy, Jordan Lips. We've had him on our podcast before. And I was really excited to interview him on life reflected and kind of dig deeper into some aspects of his life that are obviously related to fitness since he like me works in fitness, but really dig into some of his past and what makes him the person he is today, going through some of the kind of trials and tribulations that he did as a kid. Yeah, we just kind of explored all of that stuff and then In the middle of the episode, he dropped some really insightful information and thoughts on his cardio journey, his progress. He just had a realization that he was kind of improperly tracking his progress via a conflict between his chest strap and his watch and realizing that he actually was underperforming to what he thought he was doing. So. That whole thing was not only interesting from like a technical side of this could happen to you, but also a side of him kind of coming to terms with the fact that he's not potentially as fit as his devices were telling him that he was and how he's kind of dealing with that mentally and stuff. So I think it fit pretty well into the like aura of what we want to achieve with life reflected. And I think it's gonna be a great episode. So looking forward to dropping that uh second. As I've discussed on here a couple times, I recently changed to a three times a week full body program where everything is just for one set. So literally I had seven exercises for one set each that cover the entire body. And I would do that like a Monday, Wednesday, Friday type approach. That's been going really, really well for my upper body. It's actually been surprising how I've been able to progress week to week. with a rep or with a pound or two pounds here and there, despite being, you know, a complete failure the prior week, not seeing the same type of response with my lower body. And so I've had a number of conversations with some guys in the industry, some guys from the abbreviated training Facebook group that I'm part of, that I really respect and have been in the industry for a while. And uh I think my intuition being that my legs respond better to higher volumes with lower frequencies is uh something that is becoming like a firm reality, I think, at this point. So I'm going to stick with the current setup for another week or two and just be sure that this is what I'm experiencing before I go and make any changes. But it's been interesting to note that my upper body really is responding quite well to this lower volume approach with the higher frequency. ah My lower body has not progressed. Maybe like I've made a rep like maybe once since I started this a month ago, uh, whereas upper body is progressing, you know, every single session. So I'm, on the verge of making a change where I think I'm going to keep three times a week frequency with low volume for upper body, but swap out the lower body to be higher volume, but every like five days instead of every other day. Um, that's been the most effective cadence that's worked for me really well in the past. The reason that I went away from that was strictly because I wanted to to create a program that would completely eliminate soreness in my lower body, which would then allow me to do my cardio without having to plan, hit sessions here and longer endurance zone two sessions here and walking here. ah I just wanted more freedom with my cardio. Unfortunately, I don't know if that's going to be able to come to fruition. so if I have to go back to this structure of having higher volume leg days with, with lower frequency, then I am going to get sore in my lower body. And it's just going to be something that I have to deal with in kind of programming my cardio around that. So I'll keep everybody updated as far as, uh, as far as that goes. Uh, but really excited with kind of the general structure of, you know, 45 minute sessions, brief one set. The one set thing has been just so awesome mentally for me to know that If I just bring it as hard as I can on one set of a movement that that's like it for the day. um I just don't know if I can continue doing that for lower body. So that's where I stand there. Yeah, that's I get that. um I mean, I definitely do that for certain things. Like I just train legs today. um If I'm doing in things that like conclusions I've come to if I'm doing a Bulgarian split squat, it's one fucking set. That's it. It's such a high fatiguing exercise in, but also like fortunately stimulus is like through the roof. uh I'm doing one set. That's it. Right now. I've also been for since, you know, for months now, I do one set of a bilateral squat pattern at the end of my training session. So fortunately here they have the gym, Leco pendulum squat, which is my, I think all time favorite pendulum squat. It's. It's just so good. And it's my current ultimate regret with Undefeated because I passed on it and I just, I'm so fucking angry at myself every time I use it somewhere. I mean, it just smokes to me and then I'm like, sick. I'm done now. Yep. Yeah. Letko, the one that makes the leg extension that you love as well. Yeah, we have a lot of Jim Leco at Undefeated. um But I had never before, so when we ordered it, I had never seen a pendulum without a counterbalance that had like a really nice smooth profile. I'd used like two or three pendulums without a counterbalance and they were just brutally heavy and like unforgiving. And I was like, fuck, I'm not gonna buy this one. Cause all of my experiences on pendulums without a counterbalance have been horrible. So this can't be good. And I could not be more wrong. with that one. It's so good. interesting. um Yeah, so that's interesting that you've had a similar experience, but you're also doing significantly more total volume. So even if it's one set per exercise there on your Bulgarian split squat or your pendulum squat or whatever, you're still hitting your quads with multiple sets during that session. Um, whereas mine is like, Hey, you know, I have this one set to get in there and just destroy my quad. So take it to the house. And, I'm just kind of beginning to learn. think that maybe doing two sets or three sets to one RIR is potentially better than one set just all the way to failure with like higher frequencies for me. So, we'll see how it plays out, but I guess that's all part of this fun experiment and journey is just kind of figuring out like for you. Like on paper, might say, hey, know, one set every other day is great. You know, you get three sets a week, it's perfect, but maybe three sets once a week for me just happens to be better than one set every day, even though for upper body, it's the opposite. So all part of this kind of process of learning yourself and then what works for you individually. Yeah. For me, first one, I have some roster spots open for clients. So uh please reach out if you are in the market and thinking, have been thinking about it. A very unexpected, I guess, um characteristic of my prep and stuff, I have been really enjoying working. um I'm fortunate I haven't really got the like... low energy levels, things yet I feel, mean, in part of it's just purely the PEDs, but I'm like very like kind of sympathetically driven. But I'm able to use that like really productively, which has been really, really nice. So I'm in a definitely uh a portion of like really enjoying work and just like wanting wanting to do more. let's take advantage of that while it's there, right? So I really like this particular section of Bangkok that we come to when we stay. It's called Sukhumvit 24, which is really just the street. like Unreal Gym Bangkok is on the street. There is a mall on like the other end of the street and it has a lot of like, you know, like I went and got some pants that I need for like before the wedding there today. And everything is just like, there's so much good spots. on this one road and I'd literally just like walk up and down the road and get everything that I need. There's like a special Starbucks there where I can get like the coffee that I like. There's the mall, there's the gym, there's a supermarket called Fuji Super. And the ease of food prep here is staggering. It's like it's of course like an Asian, you know, uh supermarket but they have like 200 gram portions of pre cooked rice, but not in the like vacuum sealed ones that have been that are like shelf stable for months there. They do it like every single day. So it's like fresh cooked rice. And I literally just got like five of them. And there's our rice for like the time that we're here. There's multiple flavors of individually packaged chicken breast, smoked flavor, like a garlic and pepper, a base of tomato basil. And then I just like buy those, open them, like chop them up. I bought asparagus and green peas and I like chop them and cook them. And that's the only like cooking that I did was a quick like pan fry, flash fry of or steam, I should say of my vegetables. And everything's been done for me. It's been. It's been insane. And 7-Eleven also has the chicken breast and cooked rice and fresh vegetables and everything that I need is like in this, it's literally across the street. It's been so cool. And I just really, really enjoy like how simple it is to live like my little life. Yeah. here on the road. I've, and the same thing happened last, last year when we were here, but I just, it's a, it's a great spot. And I wish I would have kind of discovered it a little bit earlier in our time spent over here. Cause it's only my second time here, but I feel like I should come every like four months for like five days. Yeah, that's great. mean, having all that fresh food available at what we would consider convenience shops like a 7-Eleven or whatever. Lori is in Okinawa right now. And she's been posting the exact same thing. Like she'll walk into their version of 7-Eleven. If it's not a 7-Eleven, it's whatever their convenience store is. And same thing. She's just like on the shelves. It's fresh, like available chicken and all these different, you know, healthy meats and then the rice is and the salads and blah, blah, blah, just like all there. but you would walk into 7-Eleven in the US and it's like hot dogs and pizza that have been sitting out for like 12 hours and you're like, no, or it's like vacuum sealed, like bologna sandwiches or something like that, you know? Yeah, it's really wild, but I'm definitely enjoying it while I'm here, for sure. Is your plan after the wedding, which is I believe late September, is that, are you planning on going back to Bali or is that like the end of the Eastern world experience? no, we'll go back to Bali. We're kind of tossing up like when what months we want to like, well, not months, like when we want to honeymoon and stuff. no, pretty much after the wedding, we go to Utah for a couple days to be like, okay, I think this neighborhood is where we want to buy a home. um And then we come back to Bali until at least mid January. Yeah. Yep. Cool. we good here? Should we move into the bulk of the episode? All right, well, I am curious to take this thing chronologically, if you're cool with that. I wanna kind of build the story for everybody. So you did your first contest, getting on stage, getting all jacked and tan, doing the whole oil and tanning thing. um Obviously you had mentioned that the goal wasn't to... peak for this show. But kind of take us through what it looked like the week leading into it maybe so kind of start with the nutrition and stuff going a week out and kind of take us forward from there. Yeah, so show was on Saturday on Monday. Jackson instructed me that we were going to run a little bit of like a depletion for three consecutive days. And it's really hard to actually call it a depletion. We were just pulling like residue contributing foods from the diet. a lot of like pretty much my fruit came out, my vegetables came out and it was just like eggs. protein and rice variations, right? To just try and reduce that residual uh gut contents so that by the time we get into show, like any of that has been cleared. um Obviously lower calorie as well, body weight kind of titrated down. There was, you know, some hunger, but it was three days, right? So like pretty minimal. We traveled on Wednesday to here and then I spent two nights. here in Bangkok and then the show was in Pattaya, which is about like a two to three hour drive ish depending on traffic. So then we took a car up Friday morning um there, but I started two days out. We started a food load. So Jackson's kind of instructions and adhere or advice where we're only going to, we're going to food peak for this show to like test some things, see how you respond, but we're not going to like manipulate water. We're not going to manipulate sodium. We're not gonna change like the standard PED protocol. So like no orals or anything went in. That's like very common before a show. We just kept everything else the same. See how I responded to food. So we had that information. So Thursday, two days out started my food load, which was pretty much just six meals on the day. The first meal was 50 grams of chicken, so small amount of protein, 400 grams of cooked white rice. And what did come with that one? 10 grams of peanut butter, just to get a little bit of fats in there. So that was the first meal. The second meal was 150 grams of cream of rice and then 10 grams of dark chocolate again to get some fats in there. So I had each of those meals three times on Thursday. So one of those, like the three of those meals didn't really have any protein in them. Only two or three of them did and three didn't. Yeah. And the macros on that, that Thursday day, cause that was the only day actually like calculated it out. Uh, was 120 protein on the day, 730 carb on the day and 40 fat on the day. So how how did you feel like in the two days doing that? What do you feel like you noticed in your physique? So I was, I was, and I should also say Thursday, yes, Thursday I had my final like training session, but it was just like an upper body pump session. So it was three to five sets for every single muscle group, upper body. So like, you know, chest, back, lateral delts, biceps, triceps. Yeah. Just like, yeah. period type metabolic focus or whatever? Yeah. that actually fasted Thursday morning as kind of a final like depletion or like, you know, a glycogen um reduction and then the food load went in, you know, on the back end of that. um I was quite hungry. I was surprised how hungry I was on Thursday because normally I eat my meals kind of at a pretty set schedule and it's pretty much just to keep me So I'm not like, fuck, it's 9 p.m. I still have two meals to eat, know? So I eat pretty much at like seven to eight a.m., something like that, around like 11 to 12. I have my interest somewhere in there and then I pretty much eat at like post-workout around three-ish and then I have like four, six, eight is pretty much my eating schedule there. So I tried to follow that but I found myself like quite hungry and then. I was way ahead of my eating schedule and I finished my final meal by like six ish. um And I was like, I could eat, I wanted a lot more food, um which I thought was pretty interesting considering like 730 grams of carbs on the day. Obviously protein was quite low. and that you like usually eat late. Like when we do this podcast, it's 9 p.m. your time usually, and then you're still having to eat after the podcast usually. So maybe it's just like a change in kind of the structure and the timing of the way that you do things. I definitely think the uptake too, but on Thursday, I'm looking at like, I wake up, know, Thursday, we took physique photos first thing fasted and I'm looking at my, you know, physique throughout the day. And like, I don't have like the veins in my forearm or anything like that. And I'm like, I don't look so hot, you know, and I start getting a little bit worried, you know, I'm very, very flat. um And you know, I'm telling myself that logically, but the human brain is works in mysterious ways. And I'm telling myself that like, you know, you're fucking this whole thing up and blah, blah, blah. I also had to shave myself that day. That was not fun. That was a very unpleasant experience. took way longer than I thought. And then I started getting really lazy and just trying to like get it done quickly. And then I started cutting myself a lot. So that was a that was by far a low point. in my bodybuilding experience was shaving myself on Thursday. the one, the one show I did in 2015, I can a hundred percent relate to that. I waited until like the final moment to shave everything down and doing the armpit was like shaving the armpit was fine, but the after effect of shaving the armpit, I was surprised at how weird that felt for like a number of days. And then as it continues to grow in, feels weird as well. So you're left with like a multiple week or month problem that kind of follows this. Yep, definitely. Yeah, so that was that was unexpected. um Yeah, and think that was Thursday. Also, one of the days. I think it was Thursday night, horrible night of sleep. Horrible night of sleep. um And I would and I was just like kind of worrying there, and that one was really, really not fun. um So that one wasn't great. And then I woke up Friday and took my fasted photos to compare. I look worse on Friday than I did on Thursday. So like I'm now like really unhappy a little bit. um But then also I realized I hadn't had a bowel movement since Tuesday and it's now Friday morning. Even with all that food and stuff, you know, that I ate. So. There was that and then that led into a little bit of like concern ah into Friday morning. But then we just followed with protocol. Are you still there, Brian? Okay, so Brian had a little bit of a power outage quickly at the home, so we're just gonna pick back up. ah Yeah, Friday morning, realized I hadn't had a bowel movement, and you can just see it. I mean, if you've ever had it, you can see there's just, even when you're pulling in, there's there's stuff in there. So ah we did a little... Friday morning, extra coffee, and an additional espresso shot, and fortunately uh started really pushing water in between the meals, and that was enough to get the bowel movement to happen, which really kind of eased my concerns. Had a light walk Friday morning, and then it was really just ordering the car to head up to. oh Pattaya. So something that I should really, really point out is one of one of our friends, uh Ben Broughton, who's who create or started the unreal gym uh Bangkok here he's he's from Singapore, but he's a classic physique pro. He was was like my right hand man the entire week and said, let me know what you need. He cooked my food for me. He like he did. everything for me and I cannot state how appreciative of him I am and how fortunate I was to have someone of his caliber to be like my stagehand at my very first show, you know, so he really, really helped out. He had food at my, you know, with the quantities that I needed when we got in the car, he ordered the car, like he really, really handled a lot of the things for us, um which again, I'm like infinitely grateful for. Yeah, that's an incredible asset to be able to have that there at that time. yeah, and then like, like then day he would say, Hey, hang out the hotel room. Like I'll tell you when you need to come over here based on how the show's like flowing. He helped me backstage. He was like, okay, we're going to pump up now. This is what we're going to do. Like he literally walked me through it. So it was immensely, immensely helpful. So just quickly talk about the pump up stuff? Cause I find that really interesting. Did you have bands and stuff that you were using? Was it light dumbbells? What were you kind of doing back there? some people had some light dumbbells like five kgs. I just had a single band um and I think now that with a little bit experience, I think like a one thin single like red band, assuming it's like a band company that follows a kind of standard coloring, I think is probably the best bet um because a lot of it's going to be like lateral delts, know, you're I mean, you could do like push downs, but you're probably better off just doing pushups, you know, right at the end, which is what I did for me. Ben said like your lats are already way big enough. Like let's get like your upper back pumped rear delts. So we did the upper back, like rear delts, lateral delts. I did a little bit of like a incline, you know, chest squeeze, kind of like fly simulation things. Um, and then some biceps. Cool. Yeah, that's about right. I remember being told that there's like certain muscle groups you don't want to do because they're harder to flex when they're pumped like abs being one and like, I think leg muscles as well. Like if they get too pumped, you can't even flex them. Yeah, did nothing with legs, did nothing with calves, did nothing with abs. I don't think we really nailed the pump. I think it moved a little bit too quickly. Like I remember going on, like I feel like if we call it like zero out of 10, I would say maybe about seven is where you want to be. Like you can be too pumped because then it blurs your lines and stuff like that. And I was probably around like four-ish. So, you know, not as pumped as I wanted to be. um But now that I know that for next time, I'll just get started a little bit. earlier there. um But then in the Friday we check in, you know, at the hotel we immediately go over to registration and that registration was the first time where I started feeling like pretty uncomfortable. um I felt like how I would imagine the child feels like when you take your six year old to like first grade for the first time or kindergarten for the first time where it's like you're in this new environment. You don't know anyone. You don't really know the flow of like what you're supposed to do. You're like way out of your element. And I could, I remember like not really know, cause there's multiple like lines, right? And I don't know where to go. I'm, it all hits me at this time. Like this is what I'm doing. And I start getting like really uncomfortable. And then I start doing things that like don't make any sense. So you go look for your name, right? And they're like, okay, here's your registration. Like take that, you you go over there and then they give you like your number, right? So they give me my number and then I need to go to like the next spot. And he's like, okay, where's your number? And like, I don't have a fucking clue. And I'm like, what pocket did I put it in? Did I put it in my like sling bag? And I'm like completely, and then I'm panicking because I'm like, they gave me this number 40 seconds ago. Like, where did I put this number? um And then he's like, you're taking photos and stuff. I... I got through like 30, maybe like three quarters of it and then I'm like standing in the corner and I'm like, Aaron, you gotta fucking compose yourself. You're 37 years old. Like this is not that big of a deal. Like get your fucking shit together. And then I went over and had to finish like something like show them like my, you know, that I was already signed up for the NPC and then I bought my like stage photo package. And then fortunately, Jenny at the time came over and she's like, Hey, while we're here, like, let's look and see, like, we are going to come in from the right side of the stage. Like look at the distance between like the back to the front. And I was really grateful that she had said that because of that. had not thought of that, even though we practiced all sorts of different. entries and stuff in my posing uh classes, but she's like, here you get to see like what you're going to need to modify. So that was really helpful. And then we went right into tanning and uh Tanning's it's cold, which I was not expecting it hits you and you're like, fuck and of course you're super lean I Had an eating yet Friday morning because registration or no No, I did that time. Yeah, I had already eaten. So I but I was when you're how do I put it? Like you're really cold when you're really, really lean like that. I I'm like, damn, you're like shivering in the booth. And then you go stand there to dry off. And he didn't tell me how long to stand there. And then the guys that had gone before me, because I watched them when I'm in line, they're still just standing there. And I'm like, these guys have been here for probably 30 minutes drying off. Like how long do I fucking stay here for? And then eventually Ben came and like patted parts of me and he's like, you're dry, let's go. And I was like, why are those guys still fucking standing there? You know, but they're probably like me, have no idea what they're doing, you know? So that was unpleasant. The first pass of tan hit me right in the mouth. And I was like, all right, well, I gotta keep my chin up now. So I learned that, you know, pretty early on. Did you then just throw on like massive garments to cover yourself and get warm? You know, I don't have massive garments anymore because and all my other massive garments now just like fit normally because I'm 227 pounds. So yeah, I just had like a pair of shorts that I didn't care if got like ruined like sweat shorts and then just like an old training t-shirt that I had kind of stretched out and don't wear anymore. I remember when I did it, my coach, the guy I was from, uh from the gym, the guy I hired, he had me like some, it was like an oversized long sleeve, like button up shirt that I would like never ever wear if it wasn't for just like this one situation that was trying to keep me warm. But it was like put on sweatpants and this like. hoodie followed by this other shirt that he gave me and like a beanie and like literally just trying to keep me as warm as we possibly could in the back. And I remember just like you being so cold. uh And a lot of guys in the back room had already started pumping up and I'm still just like sitting there shivering and all of my stuff and I'm having like conversations with them. And then I go to take it off and start pumping up and one of the guys walks over and he goes, dude, I didn't realize you were hiding all of that under there. You know, and it's I think there's like a piece of that too where as you cover yourself up and you look so lean, like at least as a natural, you you look small and just like struggling human as you're just like shivering and in all these garments and then you take them off and you look pretty ripped and much more impressive. I don't know if the same occurs in the enhanced realm, but it was always surprising to see people stripped down and realize what they actually have underneath. Yeah, yeah. There was definitely some some of the competitors when I showed up to tanning and like took my shirt off were like, whoa, and they were like asking and everyone's from like, you know, the like the guys that I was talking to were from Myanmar. And they were asking me like what my weight was and if I was competing in the pro show. then when I said no, I was there for the regional like that dude's jaw hit the fucking floor. So there was definitely some of that. But then on Friday, really just eating the meals and waiting around. And one of the things that you're instructed, like, hey, stay off your feet because we want to try and keep as much of the fluid retention in the upper body. We don't want anything pooling. um I was really just laying around, and I didn't really care for that. I was just bored. um Unfortunately, I was like preparing things and I was, you know, doing a few rounds of posing after each meal, that sort of thing. And then I finally did get a good night of sleep Friday night. So Jenny had melatonin on her and I just hit like three milligrams and that typically puts me down pretty well. So Friday was like pretty uneventful. One thing I did start, I started getting a lot of heartburn and that was not fun. And what was interesting is it would happen like between meals. So I'd eat a meal and then maybe like an hour and a half later, it started getting like a lot of like really bad heartburn and that was just kind of unpleasant. So what Jackson said when I said that he's like, all right, drop the fats from the final meal because the fats can contribute to heartburn. And then he also had me pull my morning coffee. uh because that can also contribute. I was, that was the only time I was a little bit like minorly pissy cause I was so looking for like that, that was like that espresso in the morning and then that got pulled. that wasn't my favorite. And then that takes us into like Saturday morning. Things change, just rice cakes with either honey or like a, I had a jam, like a jelly, just another simple sugar and What did I have? some chicken with that. So still I'm like 50 grams of chicken again. So I ate three of those. The final one, three hours before the show, before anticipated like stage time, um just to keep me kind of full, but keep food volume as low as possible so stomach and stuff can stay as tight as possible. ah just basically add chicken, rice cakes and honey. no additional fat leading up to it. No additional fats, but right before my pump up, we put a tablespoon of peanut butter in just to replenish some blood levels of the triglyceride and potentially maybe some intramuscular triglyceride. um and no water on Saturday. we did like a, and you know what's funny is I really didn't need any. I was quite surprised. um And I still continued to like pee throughout the day, which I was pretty surprised about. I mean, don't get me wrong. I wanted some water, but it didn't feel like unnecessary. um And then Saturday was the day where things really came together. Like I woke up and I was like, I went to the bathroom, like peed and like, you know, lifted my shirt and I was like, there it is. Like, okay, we're ready. We're ready. You know, after like 24 hours earlier, I was like, I don't know, man. I don't really, I remember thinking on Friday, like I looked better on like Monday or Tuesday than I look right now. And then Saturday morning, like everything came together and I was like practicing my posing and I'm like. I'm fucking shredded. Like this is great, you know? And I was like, this is why Aaron, you just turn your brain off and you pay someone else to tell you what to do. yeah, that worked well. Saturday was very, very boring. Just kind of waiting for show to start. Fortunately, what ended up being cool was there was a pro show, a men's physique pro show integrated throughout it. um And what happened is in a couple of weeks leading up to it, there was only four pros registered for the show. So whoever the promoter was, did his job and reached out to people and ended up with 24 men's physique pros competing. So what I got to do. Yeah. Is I got to go and I got to like sit and watch and I'm like, okay, like compare. And I'm like, you know, if this is my goal to, qualify, you know, and earn my pro card, like this is what. Like these are what these physiques look like. And of course there's a gigantic range of the quality of the pros and stuff. Excuse me, but ironically enough the guy that won, I can't remember his name off the of my head, is from the UK, but he's super tall. He's probably like six foot three or six foot four. um I saw him backstage as I was wrapping up and I'm like, dude is a giant. um So that was just cool to see like a really, really tall guy who's also like very large, um, the show, but fit in of those 24 just kind of looking at it, you know, from the outside? The last of the 24 rows. last. um But it was like, just to cool to see how, you know, how it ran. And I was like, really trying to like really pay attention, right? Like how are these guys carrying themselves? You know, what, what the comparisons and stuff like that's what I was really nervous about were the comparisons. Cause you see when people are like rubbing, bumping elbows and they're too close together, like I wouldn't say I don't do well in like those kinds of confrontational situations. And in my mind, I'm like, this is gonna really fuck with me if I like can't get my hands in the perfect position for my back pose that I've practiced 200 times, like what am I gonna do? So I was quite concerned about that. And that takes us pretty much up to right about the time when I go on. I go on, at first I do my like, know, stage routine, which is like your little stage walk where I just. go through that one pretty well. In watching it back, I moved way too fast. And I wanted to, next show, slow down a little bit more, but I didn't stop. ah 40, like the pros get like 60 to 90 seconds, but in the amateurs, you really get like 20, like 30-ish kind of. um You do have to move quickly, some of my transitions and stuff were just way too fast. And if you watch like the comparisons shots that I posted, I'm like the first one into my pose each time where you typically want to be one of the final ones because if that that's like a, mean, it's so much of it's like human psychology sort of thing. Like if you're the final one moving, someone's eyes are naturally drawn to you, you know, that sort of thing. But I was like the first one into my poses each time. So just like slowing down a little bit. but it's when you're nervous, you typically move fast. When you're nervous, you speak really fast. It's a human nature sort of thing. And it shows a lack of experience, which is completely true. So. uh It went well. And then I entered novice class because I just wanted to gain more stage experience and I've never competed. I am a novice. So I did that class and then the open D class D is obviously my height. So that, and then when we went out for the comparison rounds um I ended up actually really holding my own in the when you're like bumping elbows and stuff, I kind of forget. I do get a little bit competitive or moderately competitive when I care, but it's, it's just like, it's just like a switch that turns on at the last second. So like when we're like bumping elbows and stuff, like I just stood my ground and I was like, you're not moving me. Um, but I was really, I didn't anticipate myself doing that, but in the heat of the moment, I am someone historically, I always, I perform under pressure well. And I never, I only know that out of experience now, but every time something like that happens, it's like, I'm so scared that I will get it right. But I'm always scared that I won't, but I historically tend to do well. For example, right? When we competed at the CrossFit um regional, I didn't hit that snatch weight all of our practice. I never hit it once in our... practices. I hit it the day of. No, 215. But it was it was a the hang. Yeah, but it's like I never got close once in practice. But I hit it the day of. So it's one of those things that I've always just kind of known. Yeah, the comparisons went well, I was immediately moved to the center, which typically was a nice bit of positive reinforcement. I won the novice class, I won the open D, and then went into the overall comparison and there was four classes. So I was moved to the middle next, you know, so there's four classes, there's four people in the comparison. Typically, if there's like an odd number of people, you know exactly what the placings are because it's like first is in the middle, seconds typically to the left, third and then it kind of fans out. But when there's four, first and second are in the middle. So I didn't really know. um And when you're up there, you I can, you can tell from like stature, I'm larger than the other guys, but that's, that's a very small part of the... scoring right. It's obviously the presentation of the physique and those sorts of things. So I knew I'm like, okay, I at least have a second place. Like, that's, that's cool. Of course, I wanted to win. But the guy that beat me is his back is way better than mine, way better. So um that I learned my back is not my strong point, which I thought it was this entire time. And I was just completely not right. What part of the back specifically, because you had talked earlier about how your lats are developed fine and you need to focus on more upper back rear delts, is that right? It's like upper back and like the traps, the rhomboids, those sorts of things. Like the width is just there. Wide is all fuck already. um It's really just like the details through that. And another part of it, I think it's like kind of threefold. My upper back execution isn't the best, so it's something I learned and now I can start working on. That's one part. of technique of lifting? Uh, kind of both. I don't typically do like the shrugging part of upper back stuff. I just pull my arms wide sort of thing. Um, the posing kind of let me down a little bit in displaying that. And then also I guess there's fourth, my back tattoo does negatively contribute to that because you hide some of the details and my back's just not nearly as lean as my front still. Um, So we knew I wouldn't be as lean as I will be for the, pro qualifiers, um, at the regional, but there's just definitely still, you know, improvements to be made, which honestly now, you know, once my emotions and stuff settled, like I'm excited about it. I think if I would have won, I maybe it would have kind of gotten to my head a little bit and thinking that like, I'm ready, you know, I'm going to cruise into this pro qualifier. But it was a good motivator to be like, you're not ready. You still have a lot more to do. You have to get like your posing needs some good improvements and stuff. So I think it was a blessing in disguise of not winning the show. totally. I I totally agree with that. Like you always will put more effort in when you're not the number one, you know, to try to get to the number one. So that makes total sense psychologically. So the big things that you need to instill kind of between now and the next show, next show being when, what's the date? July 19th. so you have a little over a month and you want to work on the posing aspect of specifically your upper back, the transitions, things like that, slowing down a little bit, being more methodical and diligent with your movement. uh What does this mean as far as changes to your training in the next four to five weeks? You know, with the more focus on the upper back, is that like... you know, slightly lighter weights with more focus on really making sure the elbows wrap around and you're getting like a full contraction in the mid trap rhomboid area. Kind of what have you guys talked about and what's the plan? Yeah, so going to prior, like right now all my first like three lifts on all of my pull days are all lap focused. And then I like have one upper back on once I've one up two upper back exercises on one day, but one's only one set. And then the other one only has two sets for it. So switching that around, right? Putting upper back in the priority position and then really, really focusing on just like hard contraction, right? And in really perfecting my like execution of that. I think that's the best way I'm going to make the most kind of notable any improvement in such a short period of time. And then posing to bring out a little bit more of the back. So one of the things too, if you kind of look. One thing that they like harp over and over again when you're like learning posing, so you gotta lean back. You gotta lean back to like show your, you know, your back. Cause the judges are lower. But then if you look at me on stage, like I'm leaning back way more than everyone else. So I think I took that maybe like a little bit too literally. And then that also kind of like negatively contributes to the displaying of it because I'm kind of like hollowing out the back a little bit. um are coming from above, then you're not actually getting any lighting on your back. Yeah. so all these little like tweaks there. So that's the plan for that. Tweaking the posing and then actually prioritizing the upper back um in training over the next. I have just under six weeks. Yeah, and then so that's as far as training and then obviously you need to work on your posing. What about from the side of nutrition and loading and like any changes you would make to the protocol there? I mean, fortunately, I have Jackson, so I really don't have to do anything there. He's just like, he knows what he wants to do. We, we tested the foods that that are safe on my digestion. I mean, I'm really fortunate that we use so much of the like the cream of rice, and it's like our cream of rice. So I know exactly what ingredients are in it, because I created it. And that works really, really well. The way I'll just like to travel with I was fortunate that the We spent a month here last year, the way that we had got, know, last time I had Ben just get for me, I had that, you know, controlling the food variables as much as possible. I know I digest, you know, white rice really, really well. We just went with like really, really safe foods. um And then things will change a little bit with the next show being the pro qualifier like the the gear protocol changes a little bit There's some like Orals that come in um in the in the final weeks that I Honestly have no experience, know with so not going to speak on them to any You know decent ability, but apparently they change They're purely cosmetic so Interesting, so cool. That's more or less all the information there. Anything else that you feel like we missed that we should talk about before we get into the questions from your followers? I will say it, I said this on my stories actually, this is probably the best thing. When I came out, didn't, you don't know how you look, at least I didn't. And I felt like okay about it, I'm like, right, I'm in the middle, I won my class, so at least I'm doing pretty decently. And then, I was very, very salty that I didn't win the overall like immediate, you know, immediately. So when Jenny came back and she was like, ecstatic, she was like, you know, you did amazing. Like, I'm so proud of you. Like, how do you feel? I was very angry that I didn't win. And she was like, Oh, I thought you would be like happy and you're like fucking grumpy master 1000 right now. And then when It wasn't until like really after, because she had my phone and she like took videos and photos and stuff. And I was like, can I see the photos and stuff on the phone? And then when she showed me, I was like, what? Like, that's what I looked like up there? I was like, holy shit, like that looks pretty fucking decent. You know, I didn't think that's what I looked like up there. um for me was really impactful too. I mean, you looked insane. Like you look like a GI Joe of some sort. Like, I mean, you were just so etched. Yeah, I was really surprised um because it didn't feel like that for sure. So that was like a really, really cool, cool thing. And then of course, afterward there was some, I remember when I went to Jackson's pro qualifier in Malaysia last year, like right when he got off stage and we were talking with all of his friends and stuff, there was a couple like. I remember there was like a fangirl who was just like... Can I take photos with you? Like, can I take videos with you? And it was like kind of funny because he was like, you know, a little bit like uncomfortable with it. And she was just like recording him and I don't know what language she was speaking, Japanese or a completely different language. She was like vlogging it. And we're just like standing there and I can, you know, see him being like a little bit uncomfortable. And then someone did it to me. And then I was super uncomfortable. And they're just like standing literally three feet from me, just recording me. And I'm like talking with Jenny and I'm like putting my clothes on and stuff. they're just standing. No one else is around and they're just recording me and I'm just fucking dying inside and I felt so uncomfortable and then they asked if they could like take a selfie with me and stuff and that happened a couple times and it was it was cool even though it's obviously like very very uncomfortable um for me but there was some people there who were fans of my physique so that was at least cool uh to see. if I was there for you. Yeah, and then after show Jackson instructed me like immediately a liter and a half of water with electrolytes and then get one big meal in it was 300 grams cooked chicken 300 grams of cooked white rice. So getting like some nutrition back into the body and then I was instructed to eat till full that night. So we went out to like a Middle Eastern restaurant got like kebabs, rice, pita bread, that sort of thing. And then I got a fruit platter from one of the local stands, I lied, Ben got it for me. um And I just had pineapple, watermelon, papaya, kiwi. um That's what I really want. I just love fruit. I don't want cake or any, I just wanted a bunch of fruit. um And then Sunday morning, back in my cardio. We trained at a, at at a gym out there, Ben and I, and he said, this is how we fix your upper back. So that was very, very, I was very grateful for that and just been right back, right back into it. Yeah. wanna jump into these questions from your followers? Yeah, we can do it. Do you want to read them there? one was, did you enjoy the stage time or was it ultimately an unwelcome but necessary part of the process as a whole? Unfortunately, I would say the latter. um think... I would say, think nerves and stuff were way too high for me to be able to say it was like, enjoy, enjoyful? Is that a word? Enjoyable, thank you. uh Enjoyable, I was just so focused on like. left foot goes here, then we do this, now I need to smile. Like it felt like I was just like, you know, really like just memorizing like patterns in my head and stuff and trying to stay on point the entire time. I wouldn't say it was necessarily like enjoyable. um But a welcome but necessary part of the process as a whole, definitely. Yeah, yeah, it's a bit pageantry like, like, I mean, you're, you're following these structures of, know, you have to do this routine as dictated and you got to follow these patterns. And if you step outside the lines, you get dinged. Um, so yeah, I get that. All right. was the experience what you expected or different and how Yeah, it was about what I expected a little bit unorganized, a little bit chaotic, not originally going to plan. Like one of the things that we had planned for when I was working with the posing coaches, like you're going to walk to like the back of the stage. There's going to be like one pose that you kind of hit in the back. And then you have maybe like a 10 or 12 foot, like walk forward to the front of the stage where you do like you're actually posing. Wasn't set up like that. I just walked like right to the front one. There was in the guy, there's a guy it's like damn near forcibly like guiding you to the front. like all these things that I had practiced immediately like go out the window. that was like a little bit unexpected. um But yeah, you know, fortunately the smell, the tan smell didn't get to me as badly as I thought it would. The tanning is just like uncomfortable. And then, you know. you start to smell with your armpits and stuff because you can't put on like deodorant and you're wearing the same clothes for like 24 hours straight and you know you feel kind of gross a little bit even though like you're not sweating or anything but sticky yeah uh the thing that i would say for for next show i need to have things to do m the day of like I need like things to watch because I kind of plan to like work. So I'll just work. But then I was like, no, you need to stay. You need to like be horizontal with your feet up. I'm like, well, there goes the working plan. I kind of like reached the end of the Internet and was just really bored. So I need like a book or something like that that I can just read for sure. Yeah, feel that for video games maybe. Yeah, maybe. All right, next question. Are you excited to compete again? I'm excited for the opportunity to improve. um I think the next show is the big one. That's the pro qualifier, right? So um I'm excited for an opportunity to do something that could be like pretty cool, but will require a lot out of me, which I'm enjoying a much more of the latter. Yeah, for sure. What have you learned about yourself from the prep and competing so far? Maybe this is something that I should have started a long time ago because I'm coming to find out I'm pretty good at doing prep. ah me at all given your kind of rigid, structured nature. uh I mean, this is like the most rigid, the most structure and I'm kind of just thriving. Like I enjoy just turning like I turn my brain off. I eat the same thing. I place the same food order. There's no opportunity for me to like a dick it up. I definitely do not mind it. And I like, I'm like, ah, I wake up, I walk down to the Starbucks over there. That's about eight minutes. I get my coffee, I'll walk back. That's like eight more minutes. So now I'm at like 16 minutes. Let's call it 15. Now I get on the treadmill for 25. There's my 40 minutes. I come make breakfast. Like I do really, really like that. See, I've kind of learned that potentially I'm a little bit like built to do these things. I don't and I don't mind. Like I'm not the person who gets like the foam of like, you know, friends are eating out and I can't eat those things. I forget where we were. But we are somewhere where everyone was like eating and I couldn't and I was literally perfectly fine. I was like, I just can't have these things like it's it is what it is. It's just like. There's certain things like you just can't do and this is one of those things that I just can't do so I'm not even going to Get upset about it. It's just it's not forever. But for right now, I can't do this It is what it is and I'm not gonna think about it Do you have a sense of whether this would be easier or harder with or without the PEDs? to be harder. 100%. PEDs are cheating. Anyone who tells you otherwise is just lying to you, or maybe they're lying to themselves. I guess cheating is a hard word because it's like cheating at what? But if it was like with PEDs versus without PEDs, I think it's so much harder. I'm more just talking about the sense of like, you know, the rigidity and the structure and the following through and the, you know, like you said, it really embracing prep. Like you're good at this, right? Like you're good at prep. Like would you be good at prep without PEDs too? And my sense is that you would, but I'm just curious. I think I would. I mean, I've never had issue with dieting any of my diets in the past with like, you know, breaking the diet or being like having like binges. Like I've never just experienced that. But I think the difference, I think it's like up to a certain point, right? Like I'm pretty fucking lean right now. Like I'm starting to get like glutes, striations and stuff, but I don't have like. the brain fog that comes with that. Like I said, in the beginning of the podcast, like I'm really, I'm like, want to work more and do these sorts of things. And that's, that's the, that's the androgens. That's the super elevated androgens that are keeping me more like sympathetically dominant was if you're a natural, your hormones start tanking a little bit, you know, and that impacts your ability to think clearly and work. It impacts like your drive where, you know, with the PEDs, like you bypass that. I mean, I can't say completely. Eventually you get lean enough where it does still start to impact you, but I think it's to a significantly different degree. um And you get more food because you're bigger and you get improved energy partitioning and you can take fat loss drugs that Burn fat while you're fucking sitting on your ass, you know It's it's completely different um Like I'm still it's hard for me to wrap my head around how much food I'm still eating day in and day out and how lean I am It's absurd So with that in mind, much leaner have you talked to Jackson at all? How much leaner do you feel like you would need to get as far as, you know, getting to the next show in six weeks? I don't really know how to quantify it really. The thing is like I'm already leaner than I was last week. Just from like being here in higher steps and stuff and I'm sure like the depletion and there was a number of days of increased calorie deficit from like Tuesday through effectively maybe every day but Saturday was a large calorie deficit and then Sunday I'm right back into it. um I don't really know. So the morning of show I was 225.4 or something like that. I would say maybe I'm in the like 217 something like that maybe, but I just don't know. Yeah. pounds is a lot, yeah. Yeah, that's speculation, right? Eight pounds ago from where I am today was my peak weight in my bulk. So I really, it's hard to answer because I just honestly, I don't know. Yeah. you were natural and you finished your last cut and you were down at like, you know, seven or 8 % body fat, I think you were 192. 191 was my final one, Yeah, that's wild to the 20, 30, 34 pounds or something like that. It's crazy. Okay. So I think my last question here is, uh, we kind of briefly alluded to the training and how you're going to kind of swap in some more upper back stuff instead of lat stuff. You are, I believe doing your own training and Jackson's doing your nutrition, right? Yeah. So what does, does anything with your training change? aside from just, you know, displacing some last stuff with some upper back stuff. I picked up, I trained with Baxter, Kyle Baxter, who we had on the podcast, uh you know, maybe around like Q, Q4 last year. um I picked up some great cues from him. He is just a wealth of knowledge around things and not even like training specific, but these like intricacies that we're doing chess flies. And he was like, no, no, and externally rotate or no internally rotate here, move your hand up here, put your hand pressure there, go. And I'm like, fuck, that feels so much better. So like these like little things of, know, how I move my body and stuff. anyway, so I picked up some like takeaways from him, which is really, really nice. um I'll incorporate those just to try and increase like stimulus and then potentially I can get away with like a little bit less volume. If my like stimulus provided per rep. increases. um We also got a new upper back machine at the gym. So naturally, that makes perfect sense to put in and start using. um But I really haven't been able to like sit down and think about it yet, because it was really get back here Sunday. And now as of Monday, I'm like full blown back into work mode, taking care of making sure all my clients and stuff and everything is set up there. And now tomorrow I travel to Chiang Mai, which is for work. not striking nutrition code, undefeated stuff. So. Nice. Well, anything else to kind of add here to wrap up the experience? I don't think so. I'm really, happy that I finally did it. It was something that I would say I can't say it was a dream of mine. That would be a lie. But I remember when I first got into like training, you know, having the bodybuilding magazines and stuff. And I'm glad I finally got over my like nerves and fear of spray tans and having to get up on stage in front of people to actually like say that I did it. Yeah, well you looked great and I think you represented well. So way to put it out there for Eat, Train, Prosper. Perfect. All right, so next week I'll be back home in Bali. I think he said we're gonna do a, that would be a June Q &A. we missed April, so we got to hit the May Q &A before the month's out. Or rather, we missed May, so we got to do June before the month's out. Yeah. got it. So cool. As always guys, appreciate uh you guys listening. Any questions about anything, you can just ping me on Instagram and Brian and I will talk to you next week.