My Full Competition Prep Routine (4 & 7 Weeks Out)

What's going on, guys? Welcome back to the series. So we are just under 8 weeks out now, and this is when we're going to have to dig. This is when things get tough. This is when we got to show some true discipline. Also, a few little updates on the villa. Every morning I've just been coming out here, usually have a coffee, and like, it just gives me so much motivation. Like, just having this place, something physical, kind of sums up the work I've put in in the last couple of years. It's just so hard to believe. Like, if you go back to the first ever videos, the background is definitely different. Nice and quiet out here as well. So the next step of the villa that's actually being done today, it kind of begins, is so that part, that ground is really, really ugly. We're getting that color changed so it's similar kind of space gray, similar as the inside and the outside. So when we've done that, then we will do a proper villa tour on everything, but I just want to wait till it's perfect. We also got the gate fixed, so matte black just like everything else in the villa. We're going to round it, paint it white. So yeah, decent pile of bricks, but we just need to sort out this floor. All right guys, what's going on? So this is probably the first time we've sat down on the couch and just had a little chat, podcast style, of what the plan of attack is for the competition. How far out are we? What shows are we doing? Everything. So let's sit down, relax, and just talk things through. So first of all, what show am I doing now? The original plan was to do Muscle Contest Ireland on May 13th. I looked into it and apparently there's strictly no recording, and so that would not make for a great YouTube finale for this series, which is one of the main reasons that I'm doing this. I looked around, I said, I need a show that is around that time, some good timing. On May 14th in Londonderry, there is the PCA show, and I'm pretty sure they're quite YouTube friendly. It seems to be a well-run organization, well-run competition. It's on just a day after, so it doesn't make a difference to my prep, so We're gonna do the PCA Ireland, Londonderry. Comment down below if there's anyone who's doing that show as well, or if you want to go to it and see me compete again. I think it'd be good fun. And then when I looked into that— now here's a bit of announcement— when I looked into that, I saw there was a PCA show in Benalmádena, which is about 30-40 minutes drive for me, in 30 days. So I said, look, I'm gonna do it as a warm-up show. Why the hell not? The focus will still be the Ireland show, but I'm looking pretty shredded. I think if I really floor it for the next 30 days. I can be like, you know, show ready. Not sure if I will be winning condition, but I think it'd be great as a warm-up show. And while I'm doing this, you might as well do more than one show, just, you know, get your bang for your buck. So 30 days out, everyone, and that's going to be sick. Again, that's the PCA Costa del Sol. That's the plan of attack in terms of what shows I'm doing. The main reason behind these is it's not more so the organization, it's just the timing's perfect. It gives me exactly 12 weeks to prep in total, and it's just right before summer. And something that I felt last year was a lot of guilt and shame during summer. Like, I didn't feel like I put in the work hard enough during the year, and like, I was kind of like sitting on the beach with a nice whiskey sour, and Linda was like, what's wrong? And I'm like, I haven't earned this. If that's something that you struggle with like me, you're just always trying to be like super productive, and if you're like going out partying, traveling, I think you gotta earn it personally. Like it's a lot more enjoyable that way. So last year I was building the house, that's where my focus was. This year it's YouTube, business, and competing. So I really want to feel like I gave it my everything and then just really enjoy my summer. So the timing of that is perfect. So, so if any of my friends are watching this, do not invite me to anything until May 14th, then afterwards I'm all yours. Mix up the whiskey, Sarah, let's go baby. Also, on the note of Whiskey sours. I haven't been drinking the last couple of weeks at all. And even before that, I kind of just drank once every 2 weeks or even once a month in October and feel so much better, you know, feel absolutely amazing productivity-wise, mental health, training, diet obviously improves. Like there's so many people that could just get shredded if they just cut out drinking because they would save like thousands of calories every week. It's like they wouldn't even have to change their diet. They could actually eat maybe a little bit more because they're saving so much calories. From alcohol. More on that later, but feel amazing. Current routine is the classic legs push-pull that is available in description box. It's just my most tried and tested program, it's my favorite program. But I'm thinking for the last 6 weeks I might change, just literally for motivation reasons, just to stop things from getting repetitive. I might do— so it's a similar split, it's 6/8: chest and back, legs, and arms and shoulders. So you're still hitting everything twice per week. I've never ran this split consistently, and how you split up your routine. It's not as important as some people think. It's more so just kind of for, you know, frequency and organization purposes. Like, for example, if you do push-pull-legs or legs-push-pull, it's all the same really. You know, you're just hitting the same body parts twice per week. The reason I do legs-push-pull is because I like to get leg day over and done with, as I find it the hardest, most difficult day, and I'm all about doing the hard thing first. So that's the reason I do that. But you can even do push-legs-pull It doesn't really matter, just as long as you're splitting up your training so you're hitting everything twice per week. And even like people say, oh, there's some carryover from leg day, and you know, then on pull day you've got deadlifts. I really wouldn't worry about that too much. Like, people do 4 and 5-day full body programs and absolutely killed on that. You know, people overestimate. They're like, it's kind of a bro way of thinking, be like, oh, I hit chest now, I better not do any pushing movements for a week. You know, there's always going to be some overlap. So don't worry about that. But that's my current split anyways, and I might be switching to that new one soon. Current struggles— what am I finding difficult? So the first couple of weeks of prep were amazing. You know, it always feels nice to get on a structured training and nutrition program, to cut out shitty food and cut out drinking. And this is about the stage where I would stop. Like, I think I look great right now. Like, I'm really satisfied in my physique. No need to get leaner. My calories aren't even that low. They're on about 2,200, 2,300. This is the point where stop. And this is the point where I'd recommend most other people stop. But competition prep, it's pushing it to that extreme, and that's one thing why I don't recommend everyone doing it. It's like the way I, I'm sure a lot of people who do running don't recommend people to do an ultra marathon or an Ironman, as it gets obsessive and it gets extreme. Anything when you push to the extreme gets kind of bad for you. For example, strength training is amazing but competing in powerlifting at the highest level, there's so much injuries. The bar can kill you. It's a lot more dangerous. So pushing anything to the extreme, be it dieting or a certain type of training, is not recommended. But I'm doing this because I'm built different, gone in the head, want to challenge myself. So this is the stage where I really need to push myself and dig deep, and I'm going to be dropping my calories down to 2,000. My macros will be around 200 grams of protein, I hate to say this, but like 40 grams of fat, which is just crazy low. Don't recommend that at all. I recommend getting 20% of your calories from fat or even higher. And my carb intake will be around 200 grams. It'll probably dip down to 180 grams at some stage, but plans to do that, see how I get on. And I can always add in refeed days. Now, with dieting, especially competition prep, it's easy to add the calories back in, it's hard to take them out. So that's the main thing, like, that's not the issue. The issue that the majority of the population struggle with is losing weight. It's not being able to eat it back. So that's the plan, really. Keep digging, keep digging. And if I need to— probably won't even need to— I can just add in a refeed day or just up my calories. So that's the easy part. And that's the plan with the calories. Cardio at the moment is 3 30-minute sessions per week. Gonna move that up to 4 this week and then 5 the following week. So 5 30-minute sessions. I'm just going to do them all post-workout. Best time to perform your cardio is post-workout because it doesn't take away from your weight training sessions. But if you're really struggling to get it done, then I would recommend splitting it up and doing a little bit before your workout. It's not going to affect you too badly, but you know, as long as you're not doing a full intense HIIT session before leg day. So that's how I'm gonna do my cardio, and I'm gonna look at it as kind of my calories and macros the way I do with them. I split it up throughout the whole week. So if you want to do 20 minutes one day, 40 minutes the other day, that's fine, but just as long as your weekly totals are on point. Little side tip that I've learned in my fitness journey is weekly totals are everything. People get obsessed with day. Look at your whole week. Look at your whole month even. Post-show plan. This is more important than the plan itself, and it is what you do afterwards. And this is why with my clients, or with you guys, I don't recommend competing, because you're literally giving yourself an end date to say, fuck it, I'm done, time to go wild. Okay, and that's not healthy. If you want long-term results, this has got to be a lifestyle change. It's going to be a lasting thing. Look at my videos. The last 8 years, I eat the same. I don't follow any crazy diets. I don't cut out any food groups. My training and nutrition is the same because I can sustain it. It's how I like to do things. And that's one of the big reasons I'm able to stay in shape year round. You see a lot of guys and they bulk up to ridiculous amounts, they cut down like for like a month and they can't sustain it. And it's because they're not following a plan they can really adhere to. My post-show plan, if you guys have been watching these videos for a while, the first time I ever competed, I binged and rebounded so badly and it was so depressing. It was such a hard time in my life. I gave myself an eating disorder and the only way I could describe the eating disorder that I had, it was binge eating disorder and I had it for about 6 to 8 weeks. And just for those 6 to 8 weeks post-show, I could not control myself. I felt like I was hypnotized or under a spell. If there was food on the counter lying around, I would just shove it in my mouth. I could not control myself and I was like, I don't want to eat this, and I'd be full. I'd just be shoving it down my mouth. So that's something I never want to experience again. The second time I competed, I learned a lot from that, and I was very wary of this, and I had no rebound whatsoever. I just— this is also an important one, okay? Celebrate, but don't celebrate too hard. So when I competed the second time, I just went out for a really nice meal, relaxed on Sunday, and then it was back to training on Monday, and I slowly increased my calories that week. So that's what I recommend doing, is not going too hard. Go for your meal out, of course, you know, have a little cheat meal— hate that phrase— but have a little untracked meal or just a meal where you really enjoy yourself, and then get back in your plan for the following week and slowly ease off and taper back into your normal routine. I was tempted to like book a trip straight away after the show, but I'm actually just gonna, you know, train for the week and then maybe go travel somewhere a week or two after that. So that's the plan for post-show. And again, it's something that is so important for anyone competing, is to have a post-show plan in place and have a post-show mindset in place. Like, think, how am I going to think after the show, and what's the best way to approach things? So other things that's been going on in my life— the Fuel Cakes launch is so close. Like, there's just some last-minute things. For example, the packaging got sent to me, and for example— okay, little, little teaser— they're resealable packages now, thank God. The other cardboard ones People rip them open, you couldn't reseal them, they get destroyed in transit when they're getting delivered to the destination. So I visualized this just being a huge company where people buy it that don't know anything about me. And so that is the goal. It's just gonna be such a cool brand. It's gonna be resealable pouches. And for example, the pouches got printed to me, sent for approval, and it said in small writing underneath the massive title font, buttermilk flavor, on all the other flavors, even though the other flavors like salted caramel and chocolate hazelnut. Again, I'm doing so many teasers in this video, but yeah, it's about time I start talking about it a little bit more. It said buttermilk in tiny writing underneath, so just those little things that you got to be exact on before going off to print and sending off the product. But making a physical product like this, it is just a different game to a service business like personal training or coaching or a digital product like ebooks or a guide or an app. So I am becoming the best entrepreneur I can be and becoming a more well-rounded entrepreneur. And after this, I feel I can do anything. Another project I'm working on is I'm going to do a huge business event in Marbella on the weekend of June 3rd. So peak summer, going to be amazing. Got some really cool speakers at it, and I'm just signing off on everything this week. So that was kind of the focus last 2 weeks is getting that ready. I've also been recording a lot of long-form content. For a new project I'll be doing, but I'll just wait to release that as well. That's one thing I like doing instead of hyping things up too much. Just release it, just throw it out, you know, and never also ask, should I launch this product? Should I do this? The people that are going to kill it, they just do it anyways because they want to do it. So that is the game plan for the coming weeks. Time to switch on, time to focus, time to execute on every single thing. So I'm excited. I'm in the right place, the right time. Everything's perfect, so let's do it. Let's pull it off. All right, bit of news. I told you there's a lot going on. So we're at a venue now. It is absolutely amazing. It's just in the old town beside Playa Padre. Like, there's a sea view there. I'm not sure if you can see it, but I'm putting on a huge business event in Marbella. It is about damn time I started doing events again. I'm on the ball right now. This place is called Amalur Alabarradero. Alabarradero. But so we're just about to walk in and check out the venue, but it looks fantastic. Love that, my villa. I love those black gates. Oh my God, guys, imagine a venue here. This is just absolutely insane. Imagine loads of speakers here, stage setup, AV system, drinks. We're gonna have a chat with the owners now, and yeah, but I think this is the one. You can't get better than this. This is unbelievable. All right, so we're back from looking at the venue. We did a quick little stop off in Mercadona, Mercadona. And so you'll see from my choices every week, it's getting a bit less fun, it's getting a bit less flexible. There's no dark chocolate, there's no cereal, there's a lot of vegetables, a lot of protein. These things I'm still in keeping in my diet. They are just 389 calories. It really gives me something to look forward to at the end of the day. A lot of yogurts, Greek yogurt, salads, so much veggies, so much protein. We have prawns and chicken breast mainly, egg whites, the protein milk, more veggies. You know what's up, it's the calabaza, it's the squash, and then some fruit, corn, coffee, and that's it. Scars times. But we're on that final last hurdle. 475 calories, 33 grams of carbs, 5 fat, and 65 protein. Okay, it is literally just prawns and veggies, green beans, tomatoes, some mushrooms. I don't think anyone's gonna ask me for this recipe. All right, so Big massive salad bowl, lots of protein, just crazy amount of veggies and fiber. This is gonna be my lunch. This is grind time. This is a proper shredding meal. Oh my God, I feel myself getting shred just looking at this thing. This is my first dip in the pool when it's good weather, and since we've got it all done, so you can see like the jets work properly now, it just looks a lot more fresh. All the tiles are done. Got a pool. I've got a working pool, so I can't believe it. And I've gone for a swim before, but you know, it was always kind of leaky. It didn't feel right. It wasn't as clean. So this is my first time in a long time. So let's share the moment. That's the first time we got stairs as well. I can't believe this.

I can't believe it.

Oh my God, that's colder than the ice bath. Oh my God, I'm in a pool! Zeke's looking as well.

So we're looking. All right, it's food time.