THE STORY BEHIND THIS PICTURE

THE STORY BEHIND THIS PICTURE

This photo was taken in 2015 at the INBA Brisvegas Bodybuilding and Figure Championships. This show was on the back of a multiple number of placing in many contests over the previous 7 years of competing.

I was given numerous second place finishes at various contests and Federations. So much so that I had almost accepted not winning another contest.

About 3 weeks earlier I had placed second in the INBA QLD State championships and was frustrated. I was ready to throw it all away. I was in my best shape and I knew I was good enough to win.

Probably not the best sportsmanship but every year I had made improvements and every year I had shown up better than the last contest. Every year I was always in a high place but never winning.

So coming into this show I changed my approach a little and mainly because I was exhausted, frustrated and over it all. I stopped cardio as I figured I was lean enough. The feedback after the show was that that I looked flat.

So I ate about another 100g of carbohydrates per day and focused on just weight training.

The week of the contest I didn’t carb deplete mainly because I was already about as dry as I was going to be. I had people have a look over me to see what they thought and they were surprised how much harder and fuller I was in 3 weeks.

I weighed in a full kilo heavier and did some carb loading on the day of mainly rice cakes and honey, Powerade and good old fashioned salt and vinegar chips. I was pumped up and ready.

The day of the contest the person that beat me three weeks earlier was in my class and I will admit that I was a little worried that it was going to be judged based on the previous placing.

So I went about my plan of adding carbs and pumping up while getting tan on. Just trying to focus on myself.

The person doing my tan was not as experienced as my wife and was a little overzealous and put too much dream tan on. If anyone knows dream tan a little goes along way. Too much and you look like a mud man. The definition is lost to being too shiny.

It took a long time to roll it and slowly take off the excess. In the end there was still too much which blurred the deep lines I had to an extent. The close up pictures show how lean I was but I was just a little shiny.

After the judging I was sure I was the winner as it was obvious that I had the size and condition advantage. But after so many second places finishes I had accepted in my head that I was second.

When they were calling out positions they got to second and said that it was a close result. In my head that meant that I was second place again. The judges were just softening me up ready to accept second place.

When I was called in first place I was actually shocked. I was standing up on stage thinking they made a mistake. I wasn’t even sure how to celebrate.

Once it sunk in that I had won, I was extremely happy and almost in tears. All the hard work had been validated.

The lesson I learnt from this contest preparation especially in the last 3 weeks is that once you get to the last week you need to learn to relax more.

I didn’t do cardio and I didn’t make extreme changes. It’s the extreme changes that can lead to problems. i just tried to stay full as much as I could while trying to be relaxed.

The other lesson I learnt was that the only thing you can control is yourself. You can’t control your placing. You can only give your best.

Keep an eye out for a post on how I trained for this contest and the diet I followed.