Year of the dragon or the monster?

So we are about to enter the Chinese "Year of the Dragon" but for the people that I'm coaching for competition this year it will instead be the year of the monster. Because whilst others are already talking about dieting, me and my team at Golds have decided that there will be no early qualifying shows this year and that bulking up will continue well into March at least. The only possible exception will be Del from Wales, and we will make that decision in a few weeks time. This means that for now it's all about heavy compound training, although Danny & I did a holistic guns workout on Saturday just for muscle confusion purposes, it seemed to work quite well as you can see!  

Off season - sensibly!

So now we are well into the new year and like most of us I am using this time to bulk up as much as possible, even though I am not planning to compete again, although I must admit that due to certain recent events I'm already tempted to reverse that decision so watch this space. I'm not a fan of off season cardio for a couple of reasons but I have had to start doing it as I quickly went back up to 19 stone and that weight is uncomfortably heavy. A sensible off season is training hard, lifting heavy and eating well but keeping the diet clean and doing a bit of cardio, that way any weight increase or new bulk will be mainly muscle, which will show when it's time for the hard dieting. The other thing to do is enjoy life outside the gym, that's what I do, usually with these three, they become more amazing every day!



A fresh start

So how was Christmas for you then? Mine was great, I spent lots of time with people that I love and now I'm looking forward to a new year. I'll take from this year the lessons that I have learned, the main one being that sometimes you can be betrayed by the person that you would least expect to do that to you, and then I'll draw a line under the year and consign it to history. "Just one single tear in each passing year" to quote the song. Life is all about moving forward, I already know that 2012 is going to be brilliant for me and for those that I care about and that we will always be on the winning side!

One more sleep!

Is it that time of the year again already?  Well I've spent about a zillion quid on pressies over the last couple of weeks so I hope so! It's a great time of year for all sorts of different reasons to different people so all I will say is that whatever else you do make sure that you let those you love the most know that you care, today, tomorrow and every day, let that be the Christmas message that you carry into the New Year. So with that, I will say a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all of my many dear friends  and leave you with my idea of a "humorous" festive card!

The most wonderful time of the year

As Christmas approaches it is a very busy time for me both in and out of the gym. I now have several people bulking up for competition next year and they are all doing really well, it's great to see.  Needless to say a lot of it is to do with the fact that they are all on a high protein, high carbs and high fats diet, there's nothing like food to make you train well! In the New Year, when plans are made and we see who is really going to go the whole way I will name names, then there is no going back for those people!  Outside of the gym Grandpa is very popular as there is a lot of babysitting to be done at this time of year, I love every minute of that of course and the kids all have a brilliant time when we are together.  Here's Lily making cakes, she is growing up far too quickly and she just gets more beautiful every day.

The fight of their lives

Ever since the documentary about Nigel Benn v Gerald McClellan on ITV on Monday night I have been asked the same question by several people; do I think that Nigel Benn was on steroids?  I would say emphatically no. Nigel worked incredibly hard to keep his weight down to the super middleweight limit; steroids make your body heavier for a variety of reasons so it would have been counter productive for him to use them.  It’s a shame that this issue has become one of the major talking points from the programme as there were far more important things and many imponderable questions that came to light.  Being a boxing fan I found the whole thing very upsetting and to see Gerald McClellan like that was just so sad. If you were as moved as I was and want to help go to http://www.geraldmcclellan.com/trust.html


Back in the old routine

So with my holiday now just a memory and in many cases a blur (yes I do have a decent drink when I'm on holiday) and with recovery from the shoulder op progressing at a record rate I returned to Golds today for my first proper workout for almost 3 weeks. Obviously I can only do legs at the moment but tomorrow I will stretch the top half and see how long it will be before I can resume training to that. As you can see from the photo, which was at the NAC show on November 6th, this years constant dieting took it's toll.  I'm pleased to say that I look much better now but I will keep this picture and refer to it every time someone tells me to compete again next year.  I'm enjoying eating normally and I don't see that changing I have to say!