FlaredupFitness

Saturday, June 13th 2015, was the day I had been working towards for the past 11 weeks. Everything went by really fast and it was a little overwhelming . I haven’t had time until now for it to all soak in and realize it’s finally over. I am a little disappointed I did not place in the top 5 in my class to advance to provincials. I am very happy with how I looked and am still extremely happy with making second callout and being in the top 10 in my class of over 30 competitors. Men’s Physique goes by height and I was in the tallest class with guys over 5 11”. As of right now I do not know my exact placing so I could be 6th to 10th but I will not know until a later date. I have a few photos to hold everyone over until I get the stage photos I ordered, so stay tuned for those.

I don’t think I’ve ever worked this hard for something before. I pushed myself harder than ever and that made it so much more rewarding being able to showcase my body as a work of art. I was the artist and I sculpted my body how I wanted it to look. I wasn’t there to impress the judges, I was there to impress myself and bring the absolute best physique I could bring. I was competing against myself rather than everyone else, and am extremely proud and happy with what I brought to the stage. I came in at 195 pounds and about 5% body fat. I did everything myself without any help from a coach or trainer. Although The Southern Alberta Bodybuilding Championship is an untested show, I was 100% natural and did not take any form of banned substances or supplements. Not to take away from any other athletes who made the choice to take steroids or performance and physique enhancing supplements,( as that is just part of this sport), but it really makes me feel good knowing I was completely natural on top of having Crohn’s disease. Being Competitive against guys who were on performance enhancing supplements, has made it more rewarding than anything else. I can also guarantee I was the only guy there who had Crohn’s Disease which I think is pretty awesome. From everyone I talked to, I seemed to be the only competitor there who did not have a coach. No one believed me when I said I did everything myself. I had the nutritional and training aspect dialed in as I counted and entered everything I ate for 11 weeks, right down to the last calorie. I knew pretty well exactly what I was doing but I should have practiced posing more; that is where a coach would have been really helpful.

I don’t like making excuses as I am the only one to blame for not doing as well as I had hoped. I definitely did not work on posing as much as I should have. I had only really practiced posing a handful of times. Not knowing exactly what to do, I tried to figure out how to pose by watching videos on YouTube, but it was difficult. When you first walk out once your name is called, you are allowed 3 poses. I had rehearsed and practiced that the most, but when my name was called the music stopped playing as the song changed and it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop (except for my good friend Cody cheering me on, a huge thanks to Cody for making the trip with me for emotional support and being my only fan there!). The 3 seconds between song changes felt like an eternity and it made me really nervous which I wasn’t expecting to happen so I ended up forgetting to smile and rushed my 3 poses way too quickly. So that was my first big mistake.
My second big mistake was when we all lined up in a row, I wasn’t sure exactly how to pose so I was constantly looking at the other guys hoping they knew what they were doing. I felt awkward and was definitely was not as polished as most of the other guys.

My third big mistake just came from inexperience. When the judges asked everyone to turn around to do the back pose, I was leaning way to far backwards towards the judges. The lights were directly above me and this cast a shadow on my whole back so the judges could not get a good look at my back. It was not until I looked up at the video projector where I could see my back was not highlighted and I had to lean forward more for the light to highlight it. It was too late by the time I realized my mistake and leaned forward.

The last thing that I believe hurt my chances was just unlucky placement on stage. When we were lined up I was in the middle of two guys. The guy to my left was the biggest or second biggest guy competing in Men’s Physique. He looked awesome but I believe he was too big for the physique class. He was so big he did not pump up backstage knowing he was probably too big and would be penalized for it. The guy to my right was much taller than me and he also looked really good and he ended up winning 1st overall in my division. So this put me in a very tough spot to be in between the biggest guy on stage to my left, and the guy who won first overall to my right. This did not make me look as impressive as if someone smaller were beside me. Just unlucky placement, so not a lot I could have done there.
In my mind I felt I could have made top 5 if I had of displayed my physique to its full potential. I felt I had what the judges were looking for I just made some rookie mistakes that were completely my fault. Not to take away from any of the guys up there but a few guys in the top 5 looked good but they also knew exactly how to pose and were very polished. If I decide to compete again I will know what to expect and what I need to work on. I am sure I could do really well in a future competition!

Overall, I am not sure if I will compete again but I will seriously consider it. Despite looking like I should work at Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, as a result of the spray tan. I found it to be a very rewarding and valuable experience. I learned more about my body and how certain foods affect it. I found out more about what works and what doesn’t in 11 weeks, than I have in 23 years! A huge thanks to all my friends and family. I may have not been the nicest person to be around but thank you for putting up with me! It was truly an experience of a lifetime!