One Week Out!

Kurt Weber is a Strength Coach at Cal Fullerton and private trainer, certified by NSCA-CSCS and USAW and is preparing for his first physique competition. You can read more of his posts here or find him at his website.

I’m currently in the last week (3 days out to be exact) in preparation for my physique show, and let me tell you, this is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.  It’s both mentally and physically draining.  The hardest part is knowing  exactly what will make you feel better (food) and knowing you can’t have any of it.  I also started a new job 4 weeks ago that has had me working many 10-14+ hour days, so the fatigue had really gotten to me; getting up an hour earlier for cardio, and staying up late cooking meals for the next day.  I’ve had to distance myself from social activities, friends, and weekend fun, but I know it was necessary for me to reach my goals.

For the most part, 7 weeks out was pretty easy, 3 weeks out was quite the test of will for me, but things really started to get rough around 10 days out, when I cut out the steel cut oats for breakfast.  Definitely noticed that whatever energy I had left for the weight room was quickly diminishing, and since then I’ve had to modify my workouts.  I did my last leg workout 9 days out and every workout since then has been a small circuit of 4 exercises per day, 5 sets each, a push/pull, and arms split.  I don’t have the energy to do the volume or the intensity, so total sets are down, and the weight is a little lighter.  Every day I wake up and feel like I’m just waking up from a prior leg day, jello!

Cardio has been at least once per day 30 minutes in the morning, and then most days I’ve put in a 1.5 mile jog in the evening.  I’m happy to say that this morning was my last day of cardio until the show, because frankly my legs can’t hold me up any longer, and I walk a lot in my new job.  As of this morning, I was 193.8 lbs, exactly where I wanted to be when I started cutting water.  Today I put down 3 gallons of distilled water, tomorrow will be around 2 gallons and 2 cups of dry steel cut oats, and the day before will just be about 16oz., and again with the steel cut oats, with only trace amounts of sodium intake from here on out.

I know the next 3 days are going to be exhausting, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m really excited to see the finished product and share my results with you!