10-29-13, first entry.
I have decided to keep a running journal of my Fall through Spring training and dieting experience along with a powerlifting meet after having a lot of people want to know what our dieting and training is like for our Team Gorman clients. A lot of what you will see my clients do to get ready for the stage will be reflected here in my own prep. I am now 7 weeks out from my first powerlifting meet, an APA event in West Plains Mo on December 14th. I will be doing push/pull (bench and deadlift) and would like to aim for a 350 bench and a 500 lb deadlift. I am basically ramping my training up and over-reaching for 2 weeks from 4 to 2 weeks out, then deloading 2 weeks out and then training into the meet. I dont have a traditional powerlifting split, but I am making sure to hit all my lifts 2x a week, once heavy, another time in the 8-12 rep ranges. When I Train upperbody, I am hitting all rep ranges each time I train- 3-6 rep range, 8-12 rep range, and 15-30 rep ranges that way I hit all muscle fibers twice a week for the maximal overall hypertrophy. Legs however (I have to be careful, I have had degenerative arthritis since I was 24 and they hurt like hell) I will train very high rep on refeed day, and mid week I train them in the 8-12 rep range.
Here is my current training split:
Sunday- Legs and 5 HIIT intervals on the bike, High Rep, 20-30 reps sets, and 500 carb refeed.
Monday- Push (heavy bench) Chest/Shoulders/Tri’s
Tuesday- Pull (heavy deads) Back/Bi’s
Wed- Legs and 5 HIIT intervals on the bike- 8-12 rep range
Thursday- Push Chest/Shoulders/Tri’s
Friday- Pull Back/Bi’s
Sat- off
I really REALLY like this approach to training. Why? Because your muscle groups are recovered 2-3 days after you train them, and there is no hypertrophic response after that until you train them again. So, why not train them 2x a week vs 1x a week? You can get double the response to hypertrophy and growth this way. And, by hitting all 3 rep ranges during each training session, you essentially break down every muscle, 2x a week leading to a nice set of gains. I have been doing this with clients this year, and myself and I have noticed anecdotally more gains from this training approach than any others I have used. An example of a Push (chest/shoulders/tri’s) workout would be: Bench- 3-6 reps, 3 sets Incline dbell- 8-12 reps, 3 sets Fly, 20 reps, 3 sets Dbell press- 3-6 reps, 3 sets Side laterals, 8-12 reps, 3 sets rear delt cable extns, 20 reps 3 sets skull crushers, 3-6 reps, 3 sets cable rope pushdowns, 8-12 reps, 3 sets underhand cable extns, 20 reps 3 sets This is one workout, the other workout for Push later that week would be the same except to use different exercises in that rep range. I didnt do any cardio the first month of my prep, but after stalling one week I added in 2 HIIT sessions of 5 intervals on the bike right after legs. HIIT is just an extension of leg training anyway, and this is the perfect place to do it. Here are a couple videos of my training for the week of 10-28, I hit 2 PR’s deadlifting I am happy about.
I started my diet at about 224 lbs, my heaviest I have been while bodybuilding. These pics below are after cleaning everything up and dieting for 4 weeks. I am 216 here in these pics from the first week in October, I am currently sitting at 214 and should see 213 this week. My short term goal right now (besides getting stronger into this powerlifting meet in 7 weeks) is to diet down to 200 lbs and assess. If I feel I have the size I want after the last 4 years off since my show in 2010, I will continue to diet down into the 190’s, and 180’s. Each time I will assess my look and decide, and if I like what I am seeing I will be getting back on stage in 2014. The only way I will be doing that is if I am happy with my look. 
My current macros are: 240 protein/300 carbs/55 fats for training days and looks like this:
meal 1- whey, pbutter and low fat sherbet 1 hour before the gym.
- train here- 2 scoops bcaa’s, creatine, and 40 carbs from dextrose
meal 2- post workout, whey and dextrose
meal 3- chicken, green veggies, olive oil, 55 carbs from any source I feel like. Could be pretzels, rice, lowfat sherbet, or whole wheat tortillas.
Meal 4 and 5 are just like meal 3.
Meal 6- whey and pbutter
Off days I simply hit my macros except I dont have the intra workout carbs, so I am at 260 carbs on off days, protein and fats are the same.
Supplements are the following: NRG-X Maxx Test- for testosterone boosting and strength. NRG-X CEE- creatine NRG-X Beta Maxx- 1 gram beta alanine before and after the workout NRG-X Vital Core- post workout to fight free radicals NRG-X Sublime Whey NRG-X Extreme BCAA’s or Xtend- intra workout, 2 scoops Optimum Amino Energy- I have been taking this pre workout and like it. The biggest difference in the way I am prepping now versus how I did in 2010- I will be training 6 days a week and doing very little cardio instead of training 4 days a week and doing a lot of cardio. When I do start to add the MISS sessions, I will NOT being doing fasted cardio- that is the most catabolic thing a competitor can do besides train fasted. With these two changes in place, I KNOW I will hold onto a lot of muscle this time around and not feel so terrible. Hell the food is the easiest part- I eat whatever I want and fit it into my macros right now as long as it’s a legitimate food that can be tracked with a nutrition label. (things like pizza, mcdonalds and all that shit- if you think you are going to diet for a show trying to fit that into your macros you are going to be fighting an uphill battle) Before I stuck to the same foods for 25 weeks with no cheat meal, this causes a mental rebound I dont care who you are. This time around I will be having the refeeds every Sunday after legs to keep them growing while I prep. I will keep this updated weekly to bi-weekly with training videos and changes to diet, update pics, etc etc. Once we get rolling it will be updated more regularly, I’ll also highlight training on the road the next month, hitting macros while traveling, etc etc. Who knows, I may comment on some things going on in the industry from judging, to IIFYM vs clean eating, etc etc……….but I will have to watch it or Leslie will have my A$$ if I take it too far 🙂
11-20-13, Second Entry.
Ok 3 weeks have went by since my last entry and a lot has happened. Since the first entry I have had to take a deload week and we also had 3 very big weekends for our Team Gorman clients that saw many of them win- including Robert Johnson winning the Pro DFAC World Championships, Matt Eubanks winning 2 shows sweeping them Masters Overall and Open Overalls, and quite a few class wins in there including Tyler Russell winning his IFPA Pro Card. So with all that being said, not only was my body taxed from training 6 days a week, going out of town 3 weekends in a row definitely lends a hand to needing to take some rest. What I did was still train 6 days a week but NO heavy lifting, everything I did was in the 20-30 rep range and after a week of that I felt much better this past week. Here is a video I put together with some training clips from various days. Nothing too dramatic, but I did hit a few PR’s (one wasnt caught on video but training with Brandon Cass I hit 475 for a single on deadlifts, a PR)
On the weight side of things my body has hit a sticking point so I went ahead and added in two 10 minute MISS sessions a week to go along with my 5 HIIT intervals I am doing after leg day twice a week. I also adjusted diet to use more of a carb cycling approach. Here is the new plan and macros: Sun- Legs high rep, 5 HIIT, 350 carb (high)
Mon- Push, 250 carbs (med)
Tues- Pull, 10 mins MISS 280 carbs (high)
Wed- Legs, 5 HIIT 250 carbs (med)
Thurs- Push, 10 mins MISS 280 carbs (high)
Frid- Pull, 250 carbs (med)
Sat- Off, 220 carbs (low)
Current Macros: High Day– 230 pro/280 carb/ 50 fat Med Day– 230 pro/ 250 carb/50 fat Low Day– 230 pro/ 220 carb/ 50 fat REFEED– 230 pro/350 carb/50 fat Here are the latest update pics as well, sitting about 212 here.
The meet is December 14th so we are about 3 1/2 weeks out, I will be training into the meet, I will back off the heavy lifting the week of the meet but I will def be training as I plan on stepping on stage next Summer so no slacking there. Right now I am looking to hit PR’s in the meet with a 335 bench, 500 deadlift and 450 squat.
2/3/14 UPDATE:
It’s been quite a while since I put an update on here, we have been super busy and I have just been plugging away at my prep. As of right now I am 5 days out from my next powerlifting meet- the SPF Strong Gym Missouri State Championships and will be dropping down into the 198 lb class instead of the 220 lb class I was in back in December. Here is a video of the meet Leslie and I did (my first one) highlighting all our lifts- I was extremely happy and had a BLAST, and am officially hooked.
At this next meet on Feb 8th, I will be in the 198 lb class which brings me to my current weight- 198 lbs on the nose. I have kept my strength for the most part and will be looking to go after a few of the Strong Gym meet records for the gym- record for bench in the 198 class is 325, and the squat is 500. I plan on giving both of those a go and trying to get my name on the board there. To me, that’s a damn big deal because that gym is one of the most legit, if not THE most legit strength gyms in the nation. I will be water loading this week a bit basically just upping my water intake to 2 gals a day to make sure I make the 198 class pretty easy.
I will be loading carbs on Friday and here is how peak week will look for me: Mon- Start 2 gals water, bench session very light. Tues- 2 gals water, deadlift session very light Wed- 2 gals water, squat session very light focusing on setting up. Thurs- 2 gals water, shoulders, triceps, abs, calves- 30 rep ranges nothing to failure. Fri- weigh in 9 am, drink a shake and start a light full body circuit followed by carb loading- I will play this by ear by will load more than likely about 600 carbs or so. Sat- Meet day. Will do sea salt and 1st Phorm Alpha Cre (beta alanine and creatine) along with 15 carbs from Ignition for each event. I found at the last meet during warm ups that sipping on fast acting carbs kept me feeling great but also kept the muscles full of water. I will have some caffeine though probably just about 100 mg before squats and bench. Before deads I will prolly hit a full Sugar Free Monster and go balls to the wall haha 🙂
As for bodybuilding, I am pleased with where I am sitting. My current macros are like this
: High- 225 pro/280 carbs/60 fats Med- 225 pro/250 carbs/60 fats Refeed- 200 pro/600 carbs/60 fats (trace fats all day) I am doing ZERO steady state cardio. I think it’s the biggest waste of time in the world and we are finding a way to eliminate it from our preps and our clients preps this year. What I am doing is 2 HIIT sessions on the upright bike after legs, only 5 intervals. I am also doing 2 MIIT sessions (Medium Intensity Interval Training) and that consists of 5 intervals and can be anything from battle ropes, punching bag, and jumping jacks. Usually I will do all 3 in a row 20 secs each, rest a minute and repeat for 5 total circuits. My thinking, why do something like steady state cardio that raises cortisol, only burns fat at the time it’s being done, and takes a long ass time to do? Yeah, exactly. Intervals give you the “afterburn” that elevates metabolic rate for hours and hours after the event, making fat loss much more pronounced. Here are the current pics of me at 198. I am eyeballing the AFPA KC Championships but that is 12 weeks away, a stretch for my current conditioning but if I am ready I will be doing that show. Guess it’s public now haha. Also, I will be doing the NPC Muscle Mayhem again, that was my first show back in 2008 and it is special to me. From there, I said I didn’t want to compete all summer long, but I may just jump in the Mo State with everyone then retired and be done. Looking forward to pursuing powerlifting, but I want to go out looking my best ever on stage and close out that chapter for myself on a high note. As far as diet foods go, I haven’t had anything “clean” in 4-5 months.
Here is my exact diet with foods I eat every day:
Meal 1: Whey/Casein, Pbutter, Cocoa Powder Train- 30 carbs from 1st Phorm Ignition, and 2 scoops Xtend PWO shake whey protein and 30 carbs from low fat ice cream
Meal 2: Chicken, Pretzel chips, low fat ranch dressing, lettuce
Meal 3: Chicken, Pretzel chips, low fat ranch dressing, lettuce
Meal 4: Whey/Casein, cocoa, low fat sherbet
Meal 5: Whey/Casein, cocoa, low fat sherbet
3-5-14-
Things are going well on this end so I thought I would drop another line and give some updates. Last weekend we traveled to Iowa to stay with Kristina and Tyler Russell for 4 days, and support them at their powerlifting meet. Things went very smooth on the way up, I packed a lot of chicken and buffalo flavored pretzels crisps, and whey and granola bars to hit my numbers perfectly. We stopped in Lee’s Summit on the way up to see good friends and get a workout at the best gym in my opinion in the KC area, Xtreme Family Fitness. It was a good workout, I got to meet Kyle Clark a client of mine and trained Pull Hypertrophy, and also ran into a bunch of our other clients and friends. Was def a nice change of pace.
My weight last week was in the 194-195 range all week, I need to hit 193 for a low but didn’t hit it by Sunday, so I skipped my 600 carb refeed and ended up hitting 193 for two days in a row Monday and Tuesday so I went ahead and did my 600 carbs last night. Woke up today about 195, about right after filling out with carbs and water, etc etc.
I made some changes to diet last week, and cardio. Still not doing any steady state cardio and don’t plan on it. I have stated my thoughts on steady state above and feel it’s horrible during prep, and not worth the time spent to do it so I replace it with MIIT and HIIT (medium/high intensity interval training). I have been doing 2 days of MIIT (battle ropes) and 2 days of HIIT (hard intervals on upright bike after legs) for 5 intervals each lasting about 5-7 minutes. I decided with a flat week I would increase all sessions to 7 intervals, so I am looking at about 7-10 minutes of cardio that will burn WAY more than walking for 30-45 minutes. Intervals continue to burn fat for hours and hours after you are done, while steady state cardio such as walking on a treadmill burns fat during the exercise only, and not a ton of calories at that. I’d rather spend my time getting the most fat burning I can.
On the diet end of things, yes I am still eating ice cream 3x a day, and pretzels ranch and chicken for my other meals haha. I don’t plan on changing it either, I am going to prove a point here that flexible dieting and IIFYM will work if you are not a genetic freak, or someone with a super fast metab etc. I can think of no better example of just an average guy like myself who is going to lose about 40-45 lbs to get on stage eating nothing but foods like ice cream, and buffalo pretzels crips and ranch 🙂 Here is my current diet set up, still pretty high carb. My protein stays at about 215 grams a day all days, and fats about 60 all days.
Sunday- Refeed- 600 carbs
Monday- Low day – 240 carbs
Tuesday- Low day- 240 carbs
Wednesday- Medium day- 280 carbs
Thursday- Low day- 240 carbs
Friday- Low day- 240 carbs
Saturday- Low day- 240 carbs
I am starting to feel that “death” feeling a bit, but not too bad. It is that feeling you get when breaking into new bodyfat levels that your body doesn’t like, and fighting to get pretty lean. I welcome it, it just means work is being done. Caffeine has been kept a tad lower this whole time, maybe 1-2x a day I’ll have coffee and amino energy before workouts, or treat myself to a sugar free Monster 1-2x a week, and this was by design that way when I reached for the caffeine it would work better and it is. I got a case of Monsters now in the car, and I have coffee in the mornings while doing work at computer, and then 1-2 Monsters a day. Usually once I hit the caffeine I am good to go and can get a lot of work done, and good workouts in.
Here are the current pics of me taken this past Sunday in Iowa, 3-3-14. Looking to try and be ready for the NPC Muscle Mayhem for my first show of the year, and then onto whatever I can jump in with clients like the NPC Mo State show in my hometown of Springfield Missouri.
Update 4/3/14
Current Weight- 188.2, down from 224 at start of prep.
Hey everyone, it’s been a super busy month for us here at Team Gorman- we have been deep into our own preps but we have got to travel and do some cool stuff such as give a contest prep seminar in Bentonville, Ark to a BIG group of men and women. Then after getting home from that 3 days later we flew out to Tampa for the the University of Tampa’s Human Performance Conference put on my Dr. Jacob Wilson and it was AMAZING! So for 12 out of 14 days between the seminar we gave and the conference we attended we were living out of luggage 🙂 Here’s the first hand experience.
We arrived in Bentonville on March 14th to spend some time training and Worlds Gym and to catch up with our client base there- we have about 15 people just in Bentonville and we love getting to catch up with them, hit the Springdale Worlds Gym (highly recommended!) and shop at Your Total Fitness Shop (YTFS who sponsors Leslie). Both Leslie and I are deep into prep, so we got a room at the Suburban Extended Stay with a refrigerator and stove. Easy stuff, we just took our food scale and cooked our food for being there 3 days and hit our numbers. Hell I even got ice cream at Walmart haha. You know me, I am consistent.
The Contest Prep Seminar came and we had a blast. Probably around 50 people total showed up, broken into women and men’s sessions. Leslie taught the figure/bikini posing and I taught women’s physique and men’s physique, and we both did the nutrition/supplementation/training portion as well as a small Q and A. I love being able to interact and see folks getting into the sport!
After the Seminar we headed home for 3 days before boarding a plane for Tampa. Now, most that know me know I HATE flying. I had to fly over the ocean for 16 hours straight to Korea back in my Army days, and I suffer from air sickness something awful, but this was worth the 2 hour flight to attend Dr. Jacob Wilsons Conference! I sucked it up 🙂
Myself, Leslie and Josh Heob all flew down to Tampa and made it without any probs, except that I didnt have caffeine haha. We landed, got our rental car and headed to the nearest gas station and bought a bunch of sugar free Monsters. Yeah I drank 2 of them in an hour. I have problems. Shortly after we arrived at another Suburban Extended Stay and got all checked into our rooms for the week. It was pretty damn ghetto, I must admit. But hey, I couldnt tell when booking the room. It was straight side of the rode Motel type shit, and poor Leslie tried not to say anything but I could tell. Me and Hobe, yeah we dont care. We are dudes afterall, give us a place to sleep, eat, fart and change into our gym clothes and we are good BRO.
After a shopping trip and getting some chicken, eggs, veggies, Pam, etc etc we headed out to find Powerhouse Gym, the Southern Mecca. Let me be clear about something, I have trained in some damn good gyms over the years but THIS was the best gym I have ever been to. We paid $50 each for a week membership, not bad at all and def worth it. We trained here 6 days in a row and I can def see myself coming back here real soon.
On Thursday we werent invited by Jacob Wilson to go meet him and his grew at the Human Performance Lab at University of Tampa. This was def the highlight of the trip for me. Jacob showed us every single piece of equiment, demonstrated a lot of it and answered our questions. We talked quite a bit about different methods, some of the studies and research they were doing in the lab. For a super-geek like me this was “kid in candy store” type stuff. Being a prep coach, I look up to the legit scientists in our field like Jacob Wilson, Gabe Wilson, Brad Schoenfeld, etc etc. They do the research and provide us as prep coaches the info on new possible ways to help our clients out, and we take that and not only test it on athletes but get them some real world in the trenches feedback.
The Conference was on Friday night, and most of the day Saturday. We loved meeting all the key-note speakers, and meeting the vendors and their reps. Lots of good networking going on that is for sure. And I will have to say, it happened numerous times- I had people either come up to me in the gym or at the conference and ask if I was John Gorman and that they followed Team Gorman and loved what we were doing. That will always blow my mind, I know with FB and the internet people can follow prep coaches and keep up to speed but it still amazes me. I met 2-3 in the gym that did that, and at the conference one guy just heard my voice when I asked a question and came up to me and said he recognized my voice from watching the Reverse Dieting Seminar I did that’s on Youtube. Turns out he is the Dietitian for the Tampa Buccaneers.
Some important things I either learned or had verified or was just plain reminded of at the conference were these that I want to pass along:
- Quality whey protein. There are supplement companies that load up their whey with taurine, glycine and creatine, sometimes all sometimes not all 3 but some of each. These show up as “protein” and they are much cheaper than protein. Some companies I would watch out for are Body Fortress and Muscle Tech. You know the white “crystals” you see in the whey protein you get from Walmart or other places, yeah not good. This is why we are associated with 1st Phorm, only the highest quality comes out of their products.
- Cutting edge supps that have been tested at U of Tampa. 4 supps I think are very VERY beneficial after seeing the research done on them are Arachidonic Acid (X-factor supp), ATP (Promera Peak Muscle), HMB Free Acid and Phosphatidic Acid (PA). I have already applied the ATP product Peak Muscle from Promera to my plan along with X-factor with the Arachidonic Acid. If you order Peak Muscle off of www.promerasports.com use 20% discount code MattE20 . Here is the link to the ATP product. http://www.promerasports.com/products/peak400/
- During the Q and A, one of the questions was asked to every speaker “What is one thing you recommend for reaching your goals and moving up in the industry?” and every single person echoed the statement “Surround yourself with GREATNESS”. Also, to hold yourself to a higher standard and to ask yourself, what are your standards? I know personally it hit me hard, I know I have high standards but I need to set them so high I have to reach really far to grab them. STRETCH GOALS!
- Nutrient Programming. I wont go into all the science and detail here, but I have been doing this for 6-8 months myself and for a lot of my clients. Basically have a lot of your fats at meal 1, with little to no carbs. This primes body to accept carbs better but research showed that it helps with losing fat OR in studies comparing offseason athletes who were eating carbs at meal 1 vs no carbs the no carb at meal 1 athletes stayed leaner without the fat gain the others experienced.
- Training frequency is related to volume. This is something I have known and practiced for years now, but I wanted to pass along again because it’s a good reminder. Training bodyparts 1x a week isnt ideal, and if you are going to train bodyparts 2-3x a week to maximize growth you need to match that frequency with the right volume. An example is Chest- most will hit 16 sets per bodypart once a week. If you do it twice a week, simply do 8-10 sets twice a week is a good Way to split that up. Less volume, more frequency.
After the conference Leslie and I enjoyed some time Sunday at Clearwater Beach. We basically got there about 3 pm, walked the beach, the pier, then the strips to shop and get some coffee. It was very relaxing, and one of the better days for me there. To be honest, Tampa and the surrounding area really left an impression on me, Josh and Leslie. I know I can def see TG moving there once Gavin is out of school.
Ok, since we have been back from Tampa things have been absolutely insane with comp season about to start, and us also getting close to shows. We started a new TEAM GORMAN Contest Prep Video Series that you can check out here. We are going to shoot video each week leading up to our shows. The first 3 are up as of 4/3/14 and include training with bands, blood flow restriction training, shopping trip for refeed and flexible dieting foods, putting meals together, all kinds of stuff. Enjoy! If there is anything you would like to see just holler at us and we will see about getting it up.
Here is a current pic of me at 188 (taken in mirror sorry, hit a new low and Les wasnt around to take a pic for me). I am going to be doing both Men’s Physique and bodybuilding, but as I get leaner it’s becoming apparent that while I will be vastly improved for bodybuilding, I have the shape and build of a physique guy. My plan is to start the year off with physique, and when I am bbing lean, I will do bbing as well in masters and open. Show plans for now that are definite- Muscle Mayhem on June 7 in KC, and the Mo State Championships in Springfield Mo July 12. I will prolly be doing other shows too, and one thing I have decided on is that if I look good in physique, I will go to Masters Nationals and try for an IFBB Pro Card with all the other “old farts” 🙂 I looked at the winners from the height and age category from last year and I think I can hang with those guys, so that’s driving me something fierce right now.
I also wanted to show a pic of me at 160 lbs in 2010 for my last show, and now at 190 lbs. 4 years of offseason growth and I am finally starting to see the benefits of that long offseason. It was def time well spent I think, and I am glad I took the 4 years off.
Right now I am making a hard hard push. I changed to a carb cycle approach where my macros are:
High: 210 pro/280 carb/45 fat
Med: 210 pro/ 240 carb/50 fat
Low: 210 pro/200 carb/55 fat
Refeeds will be “as needed” and I will take them on the spot. If I drop too fast I will have anywhere from 350-500 carbs depending, just to start any fast loss that might occur.
My schedule now looks like this:
Sunday: Fullbody High Rep Workout, HIIT- High
Monday: Push- Low
Tuesday: Pull, HIIT- Med
Wednes: Legs, HIIT- High
Thursday: Push- Low
Friday: Pull, HIIT- Medium
Saturday: Legs- Low