2012 Provincials - My Wife and I - East Coast Edition!

Hi again everyone...many of you will remember our old sudbury / provincial log:

http://www.canadabodybuilding.com/sh...t=sudbury+ange

Well, here we are again, East Coast Edition. We are now 14 weeks out for what will be Ange's debut competing in the NSABBA provincials, and it will be my return after over 10 years away from competing in this province. Originally I had my goals set out on doing nationals this year, but after a little thought, I think it makes more sense to start over - requalify in my home province, and eventually make my nationals debut when the contest is a little closer to home. I also look back to our old log, and I really enjoyed the process of dialing in to a show at the same time as Ange. I honestly feel it is easier to do at the same time because you both get into the same mindset and its easier to keep on track.

We are still quite far away from the show right now, and the next month or two will really be all about transitioning into a diet / cardio / training schedule that resembles contest prep.

As for myself, I enjoyed plenty of food over the holidays, but I really didn't put on any weight. I am anywhere between 188-190 with an empty stomach in the morning. I am not as lean as the 7 week out pics from the beginning of last thread, but I am hoping by the time I hit 183 that I will be close. This will mean a 10 pound increase in 2 years which I will be ecstatic about! With that said, the goals I've set out for myself are:

1. Equal or better conditioning then my last showing.
2. 10 or more pounds heavier on stage
3. Win my second provincial show as senior in this higher weight class
4. Most importantly, enjoy the process once again with my awesomely supportive wife and vice versa (be an awesome supporter for her)

Armed with a new sponsor, we both are looking forward to doing this once again.

This log will probably start out slow, as it really hasn't set in that I am actually dieting again already...but I am sure those same feelings, emotions, struggles, successes, will start flooding in in no time. In addition to provincials, we will likely be doing the Atlantics, which has always been a tradition to follow a week after the NS provincials and be a battle between the atlantic provinces. I heard this year they may be trying to add even more spice to the contest by making it a province vs. province showdown with points awarded by placing. In any case, enjoy the log! Pics / vids to follow...

So here I go again...5 months post baby #2 and in a new city. I am prepping for the 2012 spring season.

Here's my last journal from 2010:

http://www.canadabodybuilding.com/sh...t=sudbury+ange


For anyone who doesn't already know my history...I had my first baby in 2008 and the second in August of this year. I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight and am tightening up nicely. The goal is to compete in Nova Scotia Provincials, Atlantics, and then World Qualifier in April. The shows are all one week apart from each other. I am now 14 weeks out from the first show.

I live with a form of arthritis, ankolosying spondilitis, that causes me anywhere from mild pain to major inflammation in my SI joints, knees, and back. The major flare ups are unpredictable so all I can do is hope it doesn't interfere with my contest prep. In spring 2010 while prepping for Ontario provincials my knee had swollen up to the point it needed to be drained and shot full of cortisol just for temp relief. I could not even walk on that leg let alone do cardio or train legs for weeks. I stuck out the contest diet and did minimal training and still competed. My leg was slightly atrophied but I still managed to win the regional show and come second at provincials. So flare ups don't stop me but they sure make things harder!

Armed with a new sponsor Cygen Laboratories, a new baby, and a new home I am looking forward to this challenge. I will post updates with stats and pic's as things get rolling. I tend to ease into a contest diet/prep, I find it easier that way, especially after all the Holiday madness! I look forward to your input, it's time for me to get my rip on (it fits me well, lol)!

Good luck to both of you! I'm looking forward to following this.

Good luck :) Great to be doing it together!

Awesome guys! i'll be following along for sure. It's good to know Steve that you'll always have that one bye to Nationals for winning the Ontarios that you can use whenever you want regardless of this outcome. but i'm sure you'll kill it. Watch out light-middle...Another Doucette is stepping up lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Delt King

Awesome guys! i'll be following along for sure. It's good to know Steve that you'll always have that one bye to Nationals for winning the Ontarios that you can use whenever you want regardless of this outcome. but i'm sure you'll kill it. Watch out light-middle...Another Doucette is stepping up lol.

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I think after competing in NS that bye will be up. I did a lot of contacting and found out from the president of the organizations that I could use that bye if I compete for Ontario. However, by returning to NS, I am now requalifying as a nova scotia athlete. I think that will effectively eliminate the ability to use that bye unless I move back to Ontario?! Too technical if you ask me! I understand the reasoning behind it, but just erases those last two shows in terms of moving up the ladder....No biggy - I would never have known I'd get the chance to move back East at the time!

I am not worried about that though. When I go to nationals, I want to be at the point where I am ready to WIN nationals (or lose to a freak of nature)...I want to be 176 and dry as a popcorn fart, so I still have a couple years before I hit that level. The rules are slightly different here in terms of byes since its a smaller province, but I am quite confident in being able to do a repeat performance in the middles here! (formerly known as light middle). The ultimate goal is to really improve the way I looked from last time. A win is icing on that cake (that I won't be eating until april) ....

As a fellow east coaster I will be definitely following along.

Any plans to do the Atlantics the following week in Moncton? I plan on attending and wouldn't mind the chance to see you compete.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Evolution31

As a fellow east coaster I will be definitely following along.

Any plans to do the Atlantics the following week in Moncton? I plan on attending and wouldn't mind the chance to see you compete.

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we'll both be there on stage!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by steve_d

we'll both be there on stage!

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I should have read the last line of your initial post and I would have got my answer. I heard this year's Atlantics is going to have a pretty intense line-up, I'm pretty excited to watch it.

I like the point vs. point system too, makes things a little more interesting, too bad New Brunswick won't have a chance since I won't be competing hahaha :P (clearly a joke).

Definitely will be following along. Loved the last log from you two and can't wait to see the outcome of this one!

Hasn't been more than a day, and I am already hitting my first set back!! I am typing away while lying down. I tweaked my lower back and I am pretty much useless right now! I am not sure if it was from the last heavy leg press day (2 days ago but pain only happened today), or if I simply bent over the wrong way this morning to pick up something. Either way, I had a very difficult day - even walking was a pain! Not the best way to start out my prep, but I am not concerned...I should bounce back in a day or two and back at it hard!

Dieting so far a breeze. Always is the first week or so, soon all glycogen stores will be pretty much depleted, and the real fun begins!

Good luck to the both of you! A couple that diets together...will probably want to kill eachother once or twice in the next 14 weeks LOL. But the fact that you don't let obstacles like injury, parenthood, and living in a new city affect your goals is an excellent inspiration to anyone who aspires to compete.

Lower back shows no signs of improvments. Basically no gym for me. It's been 5 days now. Going to the chiro in a few minutes. Quite sure a slipped disc / nerve compression injury here. Again, don't really know where this came from!! But this is the worst injury I've had to my lower back in basically ever. Sneezing is the thing I look least forward to. minutes to get out of bed, shoes on, etc....I was hoping things would have settled a bit by now but doesn't look good!

I am crossing my fingers to be able to do at least some light leg work soon. you know how people test flexibility by sitting down and reaching over to touch toes? I can't even do the sitting down part unless my knees are bent. Not the greatest start to a log - but I am still confident I will bounce back. It's funny, because 2 years ago, during my other prep I remember having a similar problem (but the pain was in the hip / glutes / hamstring). MRI ended up confirming a buldged disc. Just when that injury seemed to be 99% gone, I may have another repeat! BAH! Again...not concerned yet...This morning I was 184 and looking leaner than I have in a LONG time. I am thinking I should be able to easily compete above 170 on stage - perhaps even 175 if things go well from here on out!

Update:

Chiro said it was a ligament sprain in my back effecting my left side. I also have a nerve compression / slipped disc problem. He says best case scenario though, is that the ligament strain is causing so much inflammation that it created a false positive for nerve issues. Basically, lying flat on my back, he could bring my right leg perpendicular before even slight pain. The left leg, he could not bring my foot even more than a few inches up before I couldn't bear with the pain. anything below 45 degrees is a bad sign. I basically hit 5 degrees. Anyway...regardless of the cause, I am still optimistic. As Ange has proven to me in the past, these types of setbacks aren't ideal - but they aren't something that will prevent me from accomplishing my goals unless they continue for months not weeks.

If the sport was without injury or something else to work through , this board would be pretty dry ....lol , Wish you all the best in your recovery Steve !

damn , all the best Steve!

it's been 10 days since the back injury. The inflammation has gone down a fair bit...I actually got back in the gym for a chest workout on saturday. Felt good to train and I was able to train relatively hard. Wearing a belt to keep the back secure from little sudden movements that seem to cause pain still. But I think it is only pain at this point and the injury will slowly work its way out. I won't be messing around with anything that requires any stress on the low back (ie, squats, deads especially) or things like dumbell shoulder press where you really need a tight core to get the weight up to start the set...But I can do some exercises now. Leg extensions are still impossible as I can't lift my left leg up while sitting. But tremendous improvements since I saw the ART / chiro / electric / laser therapy.

I feel as though squats will be starting again in about 2 weeks with a little help of suit bottoms. Deadlifts maybe a couple weeks after that.

You're a BEAST Steve...most people would have thrown in the towel on competiting at this point. Keep working hard!

Yes props for the high moral!

Do you take anti-inflammatory ? Put ice regularly ?

I had 3 compressed disks in the past, the last one being in 06, I often experienced those episode of 'lock-up' and been stuck in the bed, probably 50+ times, from a few days up to 2 months being unable to walk.

Eric

ibuprofen has helped quite a bit, but didn't help the initial 2-3 days. THings just needed to settle. I've only had this happen about 3-4 times in my life. Each time is about 3-4 days to fully recovered. This time was about 7+lingering. Perhaps I am just getting old!

Ice has also helped as well. do it a couple times a day, but its been tricky getting the time at work.

Yikes! 2 months! I hope I don't ever get it that bad.

Aside from that, the diet continues to go well. Had my first little cheat meal on saturday. woke up 189 the next morning, but back to 185 today. I think I'll get some pics up this weekend. Just need to figure out my official photo taking 'spot' in our house to get the most consistent lighting, etc. I should be about 183 or so by then. Hoping to stay over 180 as long as possible.

If I may give an advice! This summer I locked-up 5 times (5-6 weeks lost total). But I keep going, since this fall I often put 10 min of ice after a training that involved my back, especially when I feel there is inflammation. I also touch my back after my training and sometime when I feel one side more inflated then the other, I take Advil (not often) and ice. So far I have not locked up, not even once since this summer!

Eric

thanks! will definitely try...I usually gym during work hours, so it should be easy enough for me to pick up a cooling pack, keep it in my fridge at work and after I work out, just throw it on while I sit and work. Can't hurt right? People still noticing my limp in the gym, lol...I honestly thought I was walking normal! I geuss after looking like a total cripple for 7 days, 'feeling' like my posture is back to normal doesn't mean it is!

Alright, lets get straight to the dirty family business LOL! Are you making a statement on CBB.com that you will beat your brother in the overall at Provincials? Anytime I talk to him he's not even mentioning Provincials, all he's talking about is winning at Nationals this year, he just assumes Provincials is a done deal...Haha and yes I love to stir the shit up!

As far as I know, Greg won't be doing nationals this year. I asked him 100 times before making my decision to do provincials this year. His focus seems to be on doing some powerlifting stuff which is near the nationals in terms of timing, and since the focus for him is powerlifting, he doesn't want it to interfere. Part of my decision to focus on provincials also had to do with this fact. I want to be on stage with him at nationals when he does it. If it happened where he won nationals, it would be a cool thing for me to be up on that stage with him when it happened.

I will be in the overall with him at provincials...I can make that statement! Beating him is another story. We have the same genetics, similar shape, and with 5 more years of training and maturity under his belt it's going to be hard to compete with that. My only plan is to come in beyond lean, making my sudbury version of me look fat. If greg even slips up a bit, and the judges are biased towards conditioned , striated glutes, then yes. He will go down in the overall....And 1 thing I can say for sure is that if he doesn't win the overall, the only one in NS that will take him down will be me :)

Here we go again, another Greg vs Steve discussion.
I think I can beat both of them!!! lol
Love this competitive talk!

This year there is gonna be a lot of good competition. A guy from the valley who is looking very good right now.

I'll be in the crowd at the Atlantics. Best of luck to you both

great job guys!! got another follower ;) have a great prep, can't wait for updates

We also have a wordpress for anyone interested. A few extra stuff we post there from time to time. Here are some recent pics from today (taken from video stills)

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Wow I dunno how tall you are, but you are massive for 185lbs! Congrats!

Eric

You guys are looking great!. i can't believe Ange had two babies at all let alone a newborn 5 mths ago. and Steve yes big resemblance to Greg...kudos on your offseason work.

Looking great you two! Great set of wheels Steve!

You've definitely been doing something right bud. Good overall mass improvment, especially the wheels. Ang rebounded real fast too!

Lookin' huge Steve! And Angela, I'm pretty sure you have better delt development than I do! Nice work, both of you!

Look its mini Greg. Yes showing some good good mass, legs are starting to pop out now. Just like me took till I was older for my legs to get strong. Injuries suck but as long as its not long term no big deal. I lost 5 months leg training from my knee injury last year so the legs are not overpowering right now but they are catching up Quikly. Im 205 lbs now so i suspect ill be 20 lbs bigger onstage. Its not improtant to worry about winning overall just looking ur best. If I were not in the show I think steve would steal the show without alot of hype going in just like I did in 2006.

Wow, nice work. Looking great guys. Will be following along for sure.

Back injury is slowly going away! I did squats with 3 plates a side today and did slow controlled reps, and easily could handle that load on my back. It hurt a bit, so I didn't want to push it, but I think if all goes well, I should be getting 4 plates again in no time. 5 is a stretch, even though I could handle 5 in october, I just don't see it happening during the diet and what not. Deadlifts will be next on my 'to tackle' list. Hoping I can work my way to doing some deadlifts, perhaps rack pulls to make it not so hard on the lower back.

Otherwise, things are going well. I was sick over the weekend, but plowed through my workout without too much trouble. went from the kids to us. I think Ange is feeling it quite a bit today. It'll be my turn to wake up in the night with the baby while she gets a good rest! Decimate has been my friend throughout these past couple weeks. I am still having good sleep every night, but I know that will change in a few weeks. Looking forward to starting the cardio believe it or not! Ange and I don't have much time to watch tv, but its out tv time...time to catch up on some shows! Wait till you see our setup - I'll be posting pictures soon...But it will involve a 110 inch screen :)

Are you or Ange able to give us a look at your contest diet Steve? I think i speak on behalf of everyone here when i say we'd all love to get a glimpse at the food that helps get you in such great condition

My contest diet is nothing ever set in stone. The unique thing about my diet is that it changes by the hour. For the most part, I listen to what my body (stomach) is telling me. I might eat 2500 calories one day, and 1500 the next. It really depends on how much activity I've done, how hard my workout is, etc. Plus, I believe by keeping your body in constant change you can never get used to anything. The foods I eat are typical of you're everyday bodybuilder - chicken, tuna, eggs, beef, steak, fish, protein powder, ground turkey.

Fats will come from the fats found in the above + cygen fish oil. I sometimes sneak some natural peanut butter, or almonds in the mix as well as olive oil in my salads later in the diet when I likely stop eating as much fats from things like beef, etc. As for carbs, I am quite low carb and centered around my workouts. I might have a protein bar before my workout as a 'tradition' or something to look forward to. But again, it really depends how I am feeling. I consume frozen veggies + salads throughout the day, especially the closer contest day comes.

Yesterday for example, I just needed a little extra during my workout, so I got another protein bar. I OFTEN sneak a little 'cheat' foods throughout my day too. Perhaps not the best thing to do, but it keeps me sane. For example, I might have a bite of my son's kinder egg. Or I might throw in 2-3 granola bars or I've often found myself opening up a package (or 2 or 3) of the sugary premade oatmeal packages and eating it dry on my way to the gym...

I think many people would actually be surprised by what I eat in a day. But again, I listen to how my body feels. I make sure I have great workouts for as long as possible because I think that is the most important part to keeping muscle fullness throughout the diet.

One more thing....Lots of salt, and lots of water...It helps keep you feeling WAY better. As soon as you start getting too dehydrated, that's when things get crazy.

Steve is the most relaxed dieter for a bodybuilder I have ever met. When we first met I was weighing and measuring food while following a diet written on a piece of paper. This type of diet restriction lead to cravings and an inability to handle the transition back to "normal" eating post contest. Steve showed me how to diet in a better way by listening to my belly and body. He is not lying when he says he cheats a little almost every day....I see him raid the pantry before the gym on the weekends, lol. But, the only time he does this is pre gym.

An example of our relaxed diet: last night we met around 11pm by the glowing light of the fridge (our idea of romance these days, hehe) devouring steak, turkey, and proti powder. We hadn't eaten much in the evening (kids and stuff) so instead of suffering all night and not being able to sleep we went down and ate. No biggy, I'll just eat a little less this morning.

Steve is also a mathematical genius so even though he is relaxed in what and when he eats I am pretty sure his freaky brain is calculating all the cal's and nutrients, lol.

My fav part about Steve's dieting is that he is never the douche opening a stinky tupperware container filled with 4 hour old chicken and broccolli. When we have an event/party to go to we plan to eat what is there and incorporate that into our week. Or, if not ripped enough we just don't eat.

This is how we can handle both competing at the same time with kids. If I am having a really frustrating kid day I might eat a little more just to have a little more patience. Just means I eat less the next day. This is what works for us and no one can argue it doesn't work for us.

Cardio for us will start post Superbowl. Steve is busy turning a room in our basement into a cardio theater room, with 3D projector and all. At least the first few cardio sessions will be fun...we do cardio together before bed while catching up on TV shows and movies after the kids are in bed. It' s like a date for us, sad I know but it's fun for us.