On July 30th I will be competing in my second bodybuilding contest – the North American Natural Bodybuilding Federation (NANBF) Washington State Championship in Seattle Washington! That’s 4 weeks from now! After my first encounter with competing last month I’ve been as focused and hungry as ever on working hard so that I can improve and show everyone that a plant based diet can build a winning physique! As an exciting bonus, the contest I’ve chosen to compete in this time will have another vegan athlete – Ed Bauer! Ed is a friend I’ve met through veganbodybuilding.com with a fantastic physique, so hopefully between the two of us there will be a vegan named winner at this event!

After my last contest I realized I had several areas to improve upon in order to bring a champion physique and presentation. The most fundamental one was posing. Most people don’t realize it, and I certainly didn’t when I started weight training, but bodybuilding is a sport almost on the order of a performing art. All you are doing is posing on stage. The judges will never ask you how much you can lift, or be overly impressed by one great muscle group. You have to have the whole package head to toe, and you have to be able to show it to its best advantage the entire time you are being judged. This is an area I struggled in for my first contest. In reviewing the videos I often made small mistakes like forgetting what my legs were supposed to be doing while I flexed my arms, or relaxing too much in between poses. These little things add up, and ended up costing me at least one placing according to the judges I spoke to afterwards. Needless to say, I will be keeping that in mind when I’m on stage this time!

I also was following a weight gain diet up until the very last second last time because I was just getting back to training after my injury. This made me a lot smoother on stage than I intend to be the next time around, and I am addressing this by:

1. Following a more strict diet that is lower in fat and calories (4500 vs the 6-7k I had been eating). I will bring this down to 3500-ish in the following weeks. Marcella is making this a breeze with some of the new recipes she’s been finding!
2. Increasing my cardiovascular training to every morning before breakfast and an additional afternoon session of ‘rest’ days to burn more calories
3. Focusing more on intensity (heavy weight/pushing the limit) a lot more during my training to give my muscles a much harder appearance. Check out my current training journal on veganbodybuilding.com here. Check out the improvements I’ve made in the last 2 months since I’ve returned to training!

A detailed outline of my program is here. While trying to maximize the weight I’m using, I am also being very careful not to re-injure myself, so I’ve separated the most core intensive muscle groups (back, quadriceps and hamstrings) to different workouts on different days with one day between each. This has worked wonders and I highly recommend it to anyone struggling to train around a  nagging injury!

I’m getting really excited about this contest and I’m going to love spending some time in Seattle! Anyone in the neighborhood should come by and enjoy the show!

P.S. If you haven’t seen them already, check out the New Articles Marcella and I have posted on Vegan Bodybuilding!