Results from IFPA Pro International
September 28, 2011 by Ryan Irwin · Leave a Comment
Last weekend was the climax of 18 weeks of dieting and year round training as I hit the stage for the IFPA Pro International in Kansas City. I knew going in that this would be one of the toughest contests I have been in and it didn’t disappoint.
There were 12 of us in the lightweight men class from all over the US and Canada. I weighed in at 151.5, which was 10lbs heavier than my last contest (July ’10) but I was still one of the lightest onstage. I was very pleased with this increase in mass (mainly in legs/back) which I attribute to my powerlifting training. However, my conditioning wasn’t as razor sharp as it needs to be to place at this level. There were a couple factors that attributed to this, which I recognize and will improve for next time (color being one of them).
I am now reverse dieting, slowing bringing my nutrient intake up to allow for my metabolism to increase without gaining a bunch of bodyfat. This actually requires more discipline than the regular diet in my opinion as the contest it will affect is a year away. However, champions are made in the off season (in fact one would say there is no “off season”).
A big thank you to my amazing wife, Mandee who I could do none of this without her love and support. Also to my training partners, Cody Nour and Mike Beiter, who push me past my limits and was there through all the workouts. Cindy McGuire at Hands On Sports Massage and Dr. Tyler Molstre at True Life Chiropractic, which both helped my recovery tremendously and kept me injury free. Finally, Scivation for all their support and supplementation on my journey.
My next goal is back to powerlifting. I am again going to be competing at the Raw Challenge at the Arnold Sport Festival in March of 2012, and will be doing the USAPL meet in Freemont, NE as a warm up in December. By staying strong through my contest prep, I am looking to smash my previous personal records (PRs) this year. You can follow my training blog here.
Below are some pictures of prejudging and finals, along with my posing routine.
Side intercostal
Front double bicep
Rear double bicep
Side chest
For questions on training, precontest coaching or meal planning, email ryan at: ryan@nutrisportfpt.com
Nutri-Sport and Full Potential Training
9992 Swanson Blvd
Clive, IA 50325
www.nutrisportfpt.com
515.331.2141
Nutri-Sport East
4400 East University, Suite B (in the Lakeside Fitness building)
Pleasant Hill, IA 50327
515.266.2225
(soon to be at 1003 8th St SW, STE K in Altoona)
Peak week for IFPA Pro International Bodybuilding Championships
September 14, 2011 by Ryan Irwin · 1 Comment
This week marks the final week of my 18 week precontest diet that began on May 16th. In a few more days I will take the stage in Overland Park Kansas with some of the top IFPA professional natural bodybuilders in the world. I am feeling ready for it, my conditioning is there and I am going to come on stage with an additional 5-7lbs of muscle which I am very pleased with. The contest is the IFPA Pro International at Johnston County Community College.
The final week is really like most sports, a taper to hit the contest fresh and fully charged. I back down on my training, both lifting and cardio, to allow my muscles to fully heal and fill out. Additionally, I increase the amount of carbs to help my glycogen levels increase to create full muscle bellies and look pumped and vascular when I flex onstage. At this point all the fat loss that is going to happen has occurred and the final week out is not the time to be killing one’s self with last minute cardio. It is also not the time to try some new exercise that you saw someone do in the gym. You don’t want to injure or tear down a bunch of muscle fiber this week, stick with the training you know. I maintain my training blog here.
Additionally, no last minute extreme diet tactics are needed either. Common practices included severe carb depletion then loading, sodium loading then depletion, potassium loading, water manipulation and dehydration, etc.. These are all extreme diet measures that not only don’t have good scientific basis behind them but also can cause extreme reactions and it is a roll of the dice if they are going to improve one’s appearance.
Instead, letting your body be at it’s normal state, after all, if you look good 1 week out from the contest, why mess with it? Dehydrating one’s self is probably the biggest mistake, especially for natural competitors who don’t have to worry about water retention from steroids. Muscle is 70% water, so why on earth would someone want to drop their water intake and flatten out? As long as you maintain the normal environment, drinking water up to the contest won’t cause water retention under the skin, but rather just make you full and hard.
My current supplement stack:
Scivation Whey, Novem (preworkout), Xtend
Global Formulas Bio Heat, Bio Burn, 7 keto, green tea, forskolin, GPLC
NOW Foods multi, omegas, antioxidants, MCT oil, liquid egg whites & casein (before bed)
Creatine, beta alanine, L-carnitine, HMB, D-Aspartic acid/Estracourt, ZMA, Arginine/Ornithine
A huge thank you to Hands on Sports Massage and True Life Wellness for their services in helping me prepare for this contest. Massage therapy and chiropractic care has kept me healthy, recovering and being able to bring 100% to my workouts everyday. Would highly recommend both of these service providers.
Looking forward to bringing it to the stage! Pictures will be coming and will post here on the blog. Goals set for after the contest: reverse diet for lean gains, compete in powerlifting in Dec in Freemont, NE, then the Arnold in March in OH, then switch gears back to bodybuilding and bring an improved package to the stage in 2012.
For questions on training, precontest coaching or meal planning, email ryan at: ryan@nutrisportfpt.com
Nutri-Sport and Full Potential Training
9992 Swanson Blvd
Clive, IA 50325
www.nutrisportfpt.com
515.331.2141
Nutri-Sport East
4400 East University, Suite B (in the Lakeside Fitness building)
Pleasant Hill, IA 50327
515.266.2225
(soon to be at 1003 8th St SW, STE K in Altoona)
Monthly newsletter, new products, tips and specials!
September 4, 2011 by Ryan Irwin · 1 Comment
Subject: New location, new products, new programs!
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Nutri-Sport | 9992 Swanson Blvd | Clive | IA | 50325 |
Powerlifting Nationals meet recap by Nutri-Sport Trainer Mike Beiter
September 2, 2011 by Ryan Irwin · Leave a Comment
At Nutri-Sport, we’re proud to not only be Trainers and Nutrition Consultants, but also competitive athletes, which is why I asked Nutri-Sport Trainer Mike Beiter to outline his awesome performance in his latest competition. -Ryan Irwin
NASA Grand Nationals 2011 meet and training cycle recap
After the chalk had settled and the weights were racked, I walked away (sluggishly) from the Des Moines Strength Institute with my head held high after having my best performance to date in a powerlifting meet. Now I remain modest in my approach to writing a meet recap in which I didn’t break any world or American records, wasn’t named best lifter and didn’t total over 2000 lbs. But after conversing with training partner and colleague Ryan Irwin, I figured what the heck, so here goes nothing.
In April 2011 I competed in my first full powerlifting meet. A small but easily attainable goal I set for myself sometime late last year. Up until that day I had only competed in push/pull or bench only events. Now having not only been bit, but full on attacked by the “powerlifting bug” I can say that it’s a fantastic sport that can consume you if you’re not careful. That being said after this meet I was happy to have reached my goal, but knew that I had not performed at my full potential. Final numbers for that day were a 241 lb bench, 364 lb squat, and 405 lb deadlift at a bodweight of 182.2.
Moving forward I had set a new fire inside and was focused and ready to improve. I started hitting the forums, blogs, and what not in my spare time and picked out a few things that I adapted in my next training cycle that I believe were CRITICAL for my success. Now it’s easy to get sucked into the hype behind a certain program or methodology, and given the fact that I am still a “newbie” to this powerlifting game I took much of what I read with a grain of salt. A good chunk of it didn’t have any application for me anyways since I am a raw lifter and do not use Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). I also had to take into context the goals of my training partners and the time that we had to work with. I ended up scrapping my previous warm up routine in favor of some time spent with a foam roller for some good old myofascial release, along with some mobility work. Now I could talk for days about the benefits of having flexible, unrestricted muscles. But I will keep it short by saying that I believe adding this supplemental work to my routine was without a doubt what kept me healthy and moving forward the entire 10 week cycle. The other major change I made to my meet prep was the emphasis I placed on proper nutrition, which is one thing you don’t hear about much in the powerlifting world. Why this is the case is a topic for another conversation I dialed in my numbers for protein, carbohydrate, and fat consumption and instantly started blowing my previous numbers out of the water in the gym. I still have room to improve in this aspect but by far this change was the one that did it for me!
The first week of July was the last big training week before deloading and meet day. I approached this week knowing that the strength was there and all I had to do was execute. And that I did, doubling my previous squat PR and hitting a smooth and comfortable 10 lb jump on bench and 30 lb jump on deadlifts. This was a HUGE confidence boost going into my final deload week. The last hurdle I had to make it past was that the weekend before the meet was a long holliday weekend and after that the next time I would touch a weight would be the day of the competition. Now most people wouldn’t be affected by this, but I am human. I knew social obligations and celebrating meant my sleep wake cycle and food intake would suffer, but I believe taking a mental break every now and then is essential to staying motivated, a cheat weekend if you will for our Independence Day. I managed to keep my hydration levels up and got right back to it Tuesday before the meet. A few days out of the week I went through my warm up routine but other than that I didn’t train at all.
Saturday it was go time. I checked in early and weighed in at 190.6. Immediately after stepping off the scale I started slugging down the fluids. I didn’t cut any weight so I wasn’t dehydrated but I’ve seen firsthand what can happen if you are and attempt to lift maximal weights, I didn’t want to take that chance. After the lifter’s meeting concluded I took down my pre workout shake and was ready to get things rolling. The power curl was up first and this was my first meet competing in this lift. Now in hindsight I should have went in with a better idea of what I wanted to hit, but I just threw a number out there and went at it. Luckily it worked in my favor as I went 3 for 3 and my last attempt was right where it should have been at 126.5. Squats were up next and were the lift I felt I had most improved upon. After nailing a 5 lb PR on my 2nd attempt at 370 I was confident and decided to move up to 385 for my 3rd. This ended up being the lift of the day for me and I have to credit the spotters for not taking the bar when I stalled out.
I must say, I’ve never felt quite the feeling I had after walking away from the rack after that lift. Nausea, dizziness, and a sick sense of enjoyment reminded me what this sport is all about.
A 20 lb personal record already in the books and it was on to bench which has always been a weaker lift for me. Here I opened strong at 226 and hit nearly a 10 lb jump from last meet on my second attempt at 248. Approaching the 3rd I was confident but missed 264. Right around this time is when I really began to tighten up. My last squat and hitting an aggressive arch on my bench caused my back to tighten up and I felt my hip flexors really starting to lose mobility. To combat this I applied Biofreeze from nearly head to toe and spent some time on the foam roller between warm up sets for the deadlift. Here is where I could really tell my training paid off. Working on mobility and flexibility allowed for me to feel much more comfortable dropping my hips low and approaching the bar and as a result I was able to confidently pull 451 for a 45 lb jump from the meet 10 weeks prior.
Finishing the day I was exhausted but exhilarated. Going 11 for 12 in a full power meet is no easy task. Now many will instantly jump in and say I didn’t have heavy enough 3rd attempts but as of now I feel I respond much better after completing lifts and building up my confidence to carry me through the meet. I believe missing 3rd attempts isn’t a habit any lifter should become accustomed to. That is purely my opinion, so take it as nothing else. In closing I must thank my training partners Ryan Irwin and Cody Nour for the constant push to better myself and for making each training session fun and exciting. Without them I surely wouldn’t have made the progress that I did. Looking forward from here I plan to continue to pursue the elusive 1200 lb total coming from a 500 lb pull, 400 lb squat, and 300 lb bench. As of now the USAPL meet held in Nebraska is the next meet on my agenda. Training has already begun and 20 weeks of a new program will hopefully yield similar results that I had at this meet.
As always train hard, train smart, and eat well.
Mike
To contact Mike for personal training, email him at: mike@nutrisportfpt.com
Nutri-Sport and Full Potential Training
9992 Swanson Blvd
Clive, IA 50325
www.nutrisportfpt.com
515.331.2141
Nutri-Sport East
4400 East University, Suite B (in the Lakeside Fitness building)
Pleasant Hill, IA 50327
515.266.2225
(soon to be at 1003 8th St SW, STE K in Altoona)
