Mr. America
My notes on my prep for the 2004 WBFA Mr. America:
I tested my bodyfat the morning of the Mr. America show at 1.8% bodyfat with my trusty calipers. I actually believe I've looked better at 3.3%. Getting below 2 percent make it very difficult for me to carb up and get/keep my muscles full. Still it worked out pretty well as I'd dieted for 8 total months that year (did some spring shows) and I did win here. One thing I did decide to try for future shows was to use simple carbs for my immediate post-workout meal to keep good insulin response and minimize post workout catabolism. I would normally avoid all simple carbs until I got below 5 percent. For this show I got a bit of the crazies and didn't follow my own rules. So I didn't use any simple carbs for the whole 16 week cutting phase. I did get my bodyfat down, but it did result in my muscles looking a little flat.
Lessons learned
Get someone to oversee your diet, even if you think you are smart enough to do it on your own. You need an impartial eye to program your nutrition logically. Had I followed the same advice I'd have given to a client, I could have weighed in about 10 pounds heavier, looked harder and bigger at the same time.
Mr. America's Training Partner
Chris Cormier at the 2004 Arnold Classic
This was the year I trained with Chris Cormier. We trained together for the spring shows, when he got second behind Jay Cutler at the 2004 Arnold Classic. Judging by the photos I saw, and what I saw in the gym, was that Chris should have won that show - and that's not just me. A lot of people were saying it. Though Chris was recovering from a back injury, he was incredibly strong. Just as strong as Mike O' Hearn, my training partner from the previous year. Chris was actually stronger than Mike on some stuff. Chris did incline dumbbell presses one day with the 170's. That was the day that I decided that the 160s were enough for me and I'm not going for more on that one.
Anyhow, the Mr. America was being held in the fall and I didn't have any training partners for that show. I usually bounce nutrition ideas off my training partners, so not having one probably kept me from getting that objective opinion on how stuff was going. I was still trying to get leaner two weeks before the show when I should have been filling out for the last 6 weeks. Ah what the hell... Still won!
Mr. America 2004
