Patience

Patience is a virtue. Never has this been more true. Patience is key, it is everything, without it you will either fall short of your goals, or attempt to rush the progress and end up with problems and ultimately failure.

As a natural bodybuilder patience is a huge part of the journey, I hear it all the time that I can't get big without steroids, or if I take this or that I will gain 10 pounds in a week, or in a month, or I will not win because I am not big enough. BUT, with patience you can achieve your goals, and stay natural.
2 and a half years ago I stopped Kickboxing and started to focus on Bodybuilding, and in those 2 and a half years I have gained 32 pounds of muscle mass. That's pure muscle, calculating out the fat and water weight, so with patience and dedication you can do it, it takes a long time, but anything worth doing is worth doing right, take your time and do it to the best of your ability.

Patience is also very important when you are preparing for a show, you can't shred down in 3 weeks, unless you are already sitting at a low body fat to begin with, and even then it may take at least a month to get ready. You need to be patient and consistent in your endeavour. Patience is also a big necessity for the day of the show, you may have to travel for hours or even a few days to make it to the show, and when you finally get there, there is a lot of waiting before you get on stage.You may be registering at 11am, then not on stage until 2pm for prejudging, and then not on stage again until 8 or 9pm for the night show. So you need to be patient, don't go out after pre judging and go nuts with food, if you can be strict for 12-14 weeks you can be strict for 6 more hours and actually look good for the audience that night.

Patience is vital to any athlete, growing slowly, day after day, getting one more rep, losing 1 more pound, and growing that little bit better each and every day. So keep your head up and keep aiming higher, every day is an opportunity to get better, to learn and to grow.

Fresh Air

At this time of year it can be hard to get some cardio done, especially in the great outdoors, but this morning we had a great clear, bright and dry autumn morning. So with the sun shining and the leaves crunching beneath my feet I set of for a relaxing Sunday walk.

I drove to Stormont park and began there, walking around the lower forest paths before leaving the park and heading along the road towards another favourite spot of mine. After about 15 minutes or so I was there, the best bit being that it only took 1 traffic light crossing, so there was very little waiting around and almost no interruption to the steady pace cardio I had planned. Then it came into view, Motte Park. The site of an ancient Motte and Bailey castle in Dundonald. The view this morning looking back towards my house was epic and so I snapped a quick pic from the top of the mound before heading back down the steps and along the road to the forest paths of Stormont once more.

In total the walk lasted around an hour, and it is one I will use now and again to mix up the otherwise repetitive cardio section of the gym, especially after weeks of contest preparation when you want the variation and ease the gym cardio equipment provide, as well as the easy heart rate and calorie monitors they have installed. 

But there is nothing better than a nice walk in the cool fresh air to help clear your head and let you get your thoughts in order for the day and week ahead. And when you have the great scenery around you like I had this morning then it makes it even better.

Blueberry and Cinnamon Porridge

This is a high carb and low fat breakfast I use some days to load up before a training session, not only is it an effective kick start for your day but it's also pretty tasty.
Take 100g oats and pour them into a bowl, then add 100g of plain natural yoghurt on top. take 1 banana and 50g blueberries and lay these on next, before sprinkling it all with cinnamon. Nice, simple and quick to make. and if you want to add some more protein you could add some nuts or a protein shake to the mix, but today I chose black coffee, leaving the protein until post workout.

Ingredients:
100g oats
100g natural yoghurt
1 banana
50g blueberries
1 tea spoon cinnamon
1 cup of black coffee

Nutritional Values:
Protein - 23 grams
Carbohydrates - 78 grams
Fats - 5 grams

IBFA All Ireland 2014

So its been a few days since the IBFA All Ireland Show in Londonderry. I have to say that night I had mixed emotions about the result. Personally, like everyone else bar the winner I'm sure, I felt I should have placed higher, but having said that it was a very tough line up and I will happily take a top 5 finish.
Placing 5th as a natural body builder in a non-natural show, going up against guys who almost all out weighed me by at least 10 pounds, in some cases 30 pounds I can feel proud and satisfied with my personal performance.
In terms of my own package I gained 7 pounds of muscle from the previous contest in April and had almost as good conditioning, with lighting playing a part as well, in the presentation. So that is a big plus for me, that was my goal, to bring a bigger physique and I did it. I was also super, super excited and thrilled with my posing routine, the crowd loved it, I loved it and I wanted to just stay there and keep hitting shot after shot as each was greeted by a roar. When you have an atmosphere like that, you honestly don;t care what suffering you went through to get there, you just love every second, and want to get back on stage as soon as possible. So when I step back and asses it again 5th place seems acceptable, and like I always say it is you against you, you can only try to bring what you want to look like and what your goal is and if the judges like it great, if the fans like it even better, but as long as you are happy and improving, then you are a winner.

The venue itself was awesome, the Guildhall is a sight to behold and the backdrop to the stage was a massive and beautifully carved organ, the walls lined with stained glass windows and the entire building felt magical. it gave me almost a religious ceremonial feeling while pumping up and then posing in such a beautiful and ancient arena.

If you want to see the pictures from the show check out the gallery page or the routine page at the top and you can enjoy some of the best shots of the night.

So, what's next? Well a few months of off season and then I begin to look for the next contest, but before then it's all about hard work, making improvements and as always working on being the best you, both physically and mentally that you can be, every single day.

Training Montage for IBFA 2014

Here is a fun little training montage I have compiled over the last 12 weeks of prep, just something fun to share and look back on fro myself so I can see what I was doing and how I looked. Plus there is a lot of clips and exercises you haven't seen on this blog before so check it out and let me know what you think. Almost there now baby, just gota keep working, 2 days to go!

Check out my full youtube channel at youtube.com/user/kurtyweir1 if you want to see more training and workout videos, as well as my previous show prep diaries.

IBFA Prep 2014 Arms Day

So its just over 1 week to the show and I thought I'd share my arms routine with you. Now the reps are a bit higher than normal at this stage would normally be around 12 but I pushed for 15 in a lot of sets for the last few weeks.
So as always we begin with stretches, mainly as I have already done cardio for 45 mins prior to this arm workout. Then its into the routine, I start with seated curls before hitting the first superset. I use the straight barbell and take a narrower grip than normal in order to hit the outer bicep head more to try and improve the peak fort the back double biceps shot, and super set that with hammer curls.
Then its concentration curls to finish off the biceps.
You may notice that I have hanging crunches next, this lets me forget about biceps, hit some abs and get the blood out of the biceps before I go straight into triceps, it helps me focus on the mind muscle connection more in each muscle to give them a break for 5-10mins in between.
So after the hanging crunches, it is triceps time. I start with heavy push downs for 5 sets then into a superset of held rope pull downs and a sloped grip push down. for a finisher i use dumbbells to do skull crushers. I find this lets me get a better mind muscle connection on the tricep and relieves stress on the elbow that an EZ bar can bring.

My full Arms routine:
Stretches -10mins
Seated Dumbbell curls - 5 sets of 12 -15 reps
Super set - close grip bar curls - 4 sets of 12
                - dumbbell hammer curls - 4 sets of 12-15 reps
Concentration curls - 3 sets of 12 reps

Hanging ab crunches - 4 sets of 25-30 reps

Triceps pushdown - 5 sets of 12-15 reps
Super set - rope tricep pulldowns - 4 sets of 12-15
                - sloped grip pushdown - 4 sets of 12 reps
dumbbell skullcrushers - 4 sets of 12 reps
Stretching - 5mins

Reading to Relax

For me I need intensity and focus in the Gym, especially the last 3 - 4 weeks of the prep as it comes into crunch time, when calories are at a lowest, energy levels can be lacking but we need to be pushing harder and harder.

So when I'm not in the gym I need to be relaxing my body, but not my mind. I believe in keeping the mind working, but relaxing the stress it is working under. So I read books. Lots of Books.

Between January 20th and April 26th I read 21 books. For my Show Prep for WABBA Ireland (August 11th - November 1st) I read a further 19 books. Including a lot of Shakespeare plays, Macbeth, the Tempest, 12th night and Julius Caesar. Dante's Divine Comedy and Homer's Odyssey as well as a lot of other fiction and historical fiction. 

For me reading is a great way to relax and take my mind of the stress of a show prep when I'm not training or working. And it also helps take your mind away from any stupid craving you may develop as your sugar levels are lowered, because unlike when you are watching tv, your mind is less likely to wonder when reading a book, especially if it interests you. Other people play video games and stuff like that and I do as well, but not as much.

In the words of Socrates “The mind is everything, what you think is what you become.”

Keep dreaming, keep working and never give up.