Why I Am Competing Again | 12 Weeks Out

Episode 1. Of the first prep series in many, many years since 2016.

The world has officially healed.

We are about to go in, hit a pull session, and then I'm going to talk to you guys why in the hell I am competing again.

I'm going to go over all the reasons, the benefits of why I'm doing this. But I'm so excited, I'm nervous in a good way, I'm pumped. I'm in Marbella, I'm surrounded by the best gyms, the best people, This is going to be an unbelievable series, so make sure you hit subscribe and you're following along this crazy 12-week journey.

Let's get it.

Welcome to the first pull workout of the entire 12-week prep. I will be doing a full breakdown of my training split for the first 6 weeks and the reasoning behind it in the coming videos. But for now, let's go through today's workout. We start off with a chest supported row, but this particular machine in Elements Gym is called the Extreme Row. It has 3 different pins that you can position the plates plates on depending on where you want to make the movement most difficult. So for example, you can make the bottom of the rep the hardest or the top, or space it out evenly. Super cool machine that I'll be getting familiar with over the coming weeks. Next up, we have the plate-loaded machine lat pulldown. Now check out my thumb positioning on this. I find this narrow grip gives me such control over the movement and allows me to pull more weight. Then we went on to classic barbell rows. Now this is a movement I've neglected in recent months, and in terms of overall mass builders, one of the best exercises you can incorporate to your routine. Not only does it hit your back but also your traps, arms, core, everything. A truly classic bodybuilding movement. We then went on some rear delt flies, and these are something I'm going to be doing on both push and pull days. The rear delts, when developed properly, are one of the most visually aesthetic body parts that people often miss out on. If I was to add muscle to any part of my shoulder front, medial, or rear. It's going to be rear delts every time. Now with this movement here, it is kind of hard to tell from this angle, but I'm leaning back a lot on purpose to place more emphasis on the upper back and turn into an almost horizontal row. Give this one a shot towards the end of your workout and go hard. At this stage, even my arms are fried, so these curls were a bit of a struggle, but we got it done. EZ bar curls, hammer curls, and pronated cable curls. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is pull workout number 1 of the 12-week prep done.

This is day 2. Day 2 out of 90, okay? So this is the starting point. Got in a really nice place in terms of leanness and body composition about a month ago when I was in the Maldives. I knew, kind of knew, I was going into a prep this year, so I said I'm gonna take this month to increase calories, do a complete diet break, enjoy myself, and kind of be in a position where I have a good bit of mass to cut down from. So here we are, and keep in mind, a lot of people will see like, they'll see stomach definition. It's It's just not even close to how lean you need to be for a show. So please keep that in mind. So, alright, let's go. So this is how we're looking. So you can see some very slight stomach definition. My chest looks very small because this is actually a place where I carry a lot of body fat. So when I get super lean, shoulders of course pop out, my chest becomes very dominant as well. And of course the sides are somewhere that a lot of men hold body fat as well. So here is where I'm looking to see some big changes around here. And of course the abs as well. But this is the starting point. Let's see what we get down to. But this is the starting point. 90 days to go.

Let's kill it. Alright, so finished up an epic pull day. Super high volume. The pump is great. I can't wait to just like reveal what I've got underneath here. And we'll be doing a physique update like what I did just there every week. Just when the series is at the end, it'll just be so so cool to look back on. Like, something that I talk about, it was in my 30 Life Lessons video, document everything. And that's something that I always regret not doing enough, is just recording the whole process. So like, if you've got like a photo shoot, a holiday coming up, a competition, document it. Take pictures, take videos, even better, start a YouTube series. All right, so why do I want to compete again? So on that note of what I said, I want to make an amazing series. I want something cool to look back on. I remember looking back at some of my oldest videos, especially my old prep videos that we're going to add into this one too, and I just have fond memories of it. And it's just amazing to be able to document the process. So that is the first reason, just want to make a cool series. YouTube is like my favorite community out of everything that I have. I just love the YouTube comments and everyone that comes up to me when I meet them in the gym or at an event They all say, hey Rob, love your YouTube videos. No one really says, hey Rob, love that Instagram picture you posted. You know, YouTube videos are just the best for building a community, and I just love engaging with everyone here. So that's reason number 1. Number 2, I need to challenge myself. I've been feeling like I've been kind of going through the motions, and life has kind of been easy in a way. The villa sorted, I've got a great business, I work with amazing brands, you know, great girlfriend, everything's great. I'm like, I need to punish myself.

I need a challenge.

I need to do something really difficult. Getting down to extremely lean levels of body fat, training so hard, living like a monk for 12 weeks is one of the most difficult things you can do. The percentage of competitors when you look at the general population is so low. It takes a different kind of human to do it. Well up there with the people that run like Ironman marathons and all that crazy stuff. It's like an extreme sport. So I just wanted to challenge myself with something absolutely crazy like this and just give it my all and go into monk mode. I'm gonna actually do a full video later this week on monk mode.

On—

it's kind of trending at the moment, a lot of YouTubers talking about it. I'm gonna actually talk about how bodybuilding is the ultimate form of monk mode there is. So more on that later. But that's reason number 2. I just want to challenge myself and punish myself for a while. Number 3 is training with a goal. Again, I am great in the gym. My routine is awesome. I get— I've gotten great results. Nothing Nothing beats having a set date to peak for, a set day to work towards. It's like an athlete, it has like a World Cup qualifier or the World Cup final, or an MMA fighter has fight day. There's nothing like it where they have to peak as well. They have to do a weight cut, they have to condition their training around and everything. There's nothing like it to motivate you. So that is one huge reason that I'm doing it for as well. And it's only day 2.

The last 2 days I've had the best training sessions ever.

You know, it's like a placebo, like all of a sudden I give myself a date and my training sessions are amazing.

But that's just how it is.

So there's another reason: having something to work towards. So timing is absolutely perfect. The last time when I did the Back to Basics series that didn't get finished because the world literally shut down, all competitions are over, that was 2019. I didn't get finished that. 2020, lockdown still happening. 2021, still kind of locked down. There was like competitors on stage wearing masks and there was no crowd. Still kind of weird. 2022, I was building a villa. I didn't even have a kitchen to prep in. This year, I'm all out of excuses.

I got none left.

So we gotta do it.

Like, I, I would feel weird leaving that 2019 prep on the table.

And with me, I will never give up on something. Like, I will, I will start it and there will be ups and downs, but I can't. This is actually a reason I think I've got OCD. Got diagnosed with very young. I, I It will, it will itch at me in my head if I leave it unfinished. So I can't leave it unfinished, and the timing is absolutely perfect. And to even go in more on the timing, it's literally right before summer. February, March, April— nothing goes on in that month, right? Today's actually Valentine's Day. Linda's getting a turkey breast for dinner, that's about it. But for February, March, and April, they're just amazing months to grind and put the head down. And then you've got summer afterwards, and you can just go have fun. You can travel, you can enjoy European summer, and we've even got some Alphaland and Alphalete events on. So the timing is just absolutely perfect. Gonna look shredded as fuck for summer now as well. So we got the timing, we got the motivation, we got unfinished business, we got no more excuses, we got a sick series, we got the best location to prep for, we've got the best gyms in Europe, the best food, the best videographers, the best everything. So let's have an amazing series, let's compete again, and let's get in the best shape possible. And as well, if you want to join my coaching group, hit the first link in the bio and we can all get absolutely peeled for summer and become our best selves. Let's get into it. Episode 1 done. Let's go.