Tag: competition

Fitness

The Prep Diary: At Journey’s End – Part 1

Chris Kenny July 31, 2018

Welcome everyone to the final edition of The Prep Diary!

Yes, it’s true, the big day came and went and now it’s time to reflect, analyse and plan for the future. There’s so much to discuss and talk about that it’s actually difficult to pinpoint a reasonable place to begin, so I’ll recap what brought me to the stage in this, the first of three parts.

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May 2016 – The hard work was about to begin.

2016. It began as a difficult year for me personally, which is perhaps a topic for another day. As many of us do after a devastating turn of events, we delve into a new hobby, passion or whatever it may be in order to distance ourselves from the pain and reclaim our own identity. That was especially true for me and not for the first or last time, the weights were my salvation. I’d been “lifting” for roughly four years at that point and was beginning to take an interest in the competitive side of the sport, spurred on by seeing friends and others blaze their own path by winning trophies and putting their bodies on display for all to see. I didn’t realise at the time, but I’d been badly missing a competitive facet in my life, as I no longer took part in gaming seriously, football was all but given up and those were my two main competitive outlets for years.

Bodybuilding opened up a new opportunity for me. To preface, I don’t consider myself a “bodybuilder” as to me, that phrase is reserved for those in the same conversation as the Arnold Schwarzenegger’s, Franco Columbo, Frank Zane and so on.

Legends.

Back to the point, I looked at what I had at my disposal; my body, my gym, my friends, those I trained with and my mindset. Two years. That’s the deadline I gave myself to transform my physique from average to show ready. Within those two years, a lot changed and my life moved on as it does, but my goal never shifted. I had no doubt that I would step on stage in 2018. Originally, I was thinking about competing in April of 2018, but that would have been far too soon for where I was. At that point, I had put the relevant mass on, but my condition was nowhere near ready.

During the peak of my bulk where I got to around 84kg. Picture was taken in November 2017.

Witnessing several of my friends compete at Pure Elite, Margate in April 2018 gave me a real mixture of emotions. I was excited to think that in just three months, it would be me in their place, but then I was also hit with a brief moment of trepidation as I realised my goal, which was set all those years ago, was finally approaching reality and it would be my day of reckoning. Yes, that may sound wonderfully over the top, but that was honestly how I felt. I would either be proud of myself on stage or think “I could have done better.” Margate was a true turning point for me and made an already focussed prep turn up a notch into an unwavering, unfaltering grind to the finish line, where, unfortunately, sacrifices had to be made.

The focus for the last year or so has been to bring my shoulders up – here I am doing cable lateral raises.

Sacrifices come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Whether it’s your diet and all of the “fun” things you like to eat, your relationships, both personal with friends or a partner and with your work. Being in a calorific deficit, yet expending more energy than you ever have before, with intense training, cardio exercise and a day job, things have to take priority and this is where the aforementioned pieces of your life can suffer, and did for me. You have to turn down social invitations, family dinners, time spent with loved ones and in general, just completely immerse yourself. It’s not for everyone, and not everybody will understand or support you. It’s a selfish sport and lifestyle, there’s simply no getting away from that. There’s no team, nobody else to hold accountable, just you.

The truth.

That being said, motivation and encouragement can be found in abundance from the right people and those who are also on the same journey as you. I’m very fortunate to train in two gyms (GoGym and Kings Gym) that offer an environment filled with like-minded individuals who spur me on with kind words, impressive physiques and just general camaraderie. It’s a handshake and a genuine, positive comment from someone that helps push me through a workout and keeps me focused on the goal. Suddenly, I didn’t feel isolated and I was able to shift all of the focus from myself outward; I didn’t want to let anybody down who had supported and encouraged me. That may seem like I’m putting myself upon a pedestal, but that’s not what I mean; I allowed myself to get out of my own head and become part of a team, where I had a part to play. Yes, of course, the reality is, that it’s my show, my body and after a few weeks when the dust has settled, the hysteria will die down and all results, good or bad, will likely be forgotten. But for the run-up to the show, every advantage, particularly mentally, was snatched with both hands.

Kings Gym – A perfect environment for training.

That concludes Part 1 of Journey’s End, hopefully, this helps put things a little more in perspective for you all. Part 2 will explore the events leading up to the day, the Friday before the show and of course the show itself. See you all next time!

The Prep Diary: Peak Week

Chris Kenny July 14, 2018

It’s felt like an eternity, yet at the same time, it’s come around all of a sudden, out of nowhere. The final week before my show which is termed “peak week” has arrived. The goal during this week isn’t to drastically wipe out all of my food or go the opposite way and carb load so I end up on the stage as a watery, overblown mess, the key is striking the balance and getting my body into a position where it’s the best it has ever been; the peak.

To clarify my opening statement; I feel like I’ve been in prep for a long time, which, is true. I’ve had some form of restricted diet since around January, however, as you’ll recall I didn’t get truly going until around about the end of April, where I enlisted the aid of the Chase Perfection team. Since then, my physique has transformed in a huge way, check out the picture below;

My calories were actually increased from what I was previously doing, yet it was more nutritionally dense and overall just far better for my body, which responded accordingly.

Yet all this time in prep and the last seven weeks have truly flown by for me. I feel like I’ve cruised into the show, helped by the fact that I’ve been ludicrously busy in my personal life, which has actually made prep become a sideline in many ways, I’ve simply stuck to the plan and got my head down.

That will be the key for this final week as well. I know what I’m like; if I start thinking too deeply about the intricacies of every single meal, or making sure every rep is executed with perfect form, I’ll lose it. For me, I have to just keep the grind going and make sure I don’t derail in any way and stay focused on the task at hand.

Focus. But also make time for a selfie when appropriate 😉

I can’t wait for the day to arrive now, partly because I’m excited to see how I fare on the day, but also because I can’t wait to gorge myself on a post-competition cheat meal (and likely stay on that binge for a day or two!) I can’t go too crazy though; I have a photoshoot on the 10th of August, so I need to keep myself in somewhat decent shape for that! For me, it’s important to have a target to strive for, otherwise, I am prone to boredom and therefore, not maximising my time in the gym, or otherwise.

A likely post-show meal!

Before I had the desire to compete, I wasn’t really doing much in the gym apart from spinning my wheels. I had the occasional holiday to “get in shape” for and I enjoyed the activity on the whole, but it wasn’t goal orientated and therefore, nothing to truly measure my progress against, or put pressure on myself for. I thrive under a deadline and need some competitive edge to what I do. This accompanied me in my football playing days, my time as a semi-professional gamer and in my work life. I relish the chance to prove myself and get better, so this is why I was so attracted to competing in the first place.

Approaching the shape of my life

It’s crazy that as I’m writing this, a moment of reflection and self-praise has arrived. I’ve taken something that was a pipe dream in 2016 and converted it into a reality. I said back then “I will compete in 2018.” That was the goal and here I am, a week away from taking my first steps into the competing world. It shows the power of keeping a goal and a dream going, no matter what. If you work hard enough to achieve something, you really can and I firmly believe that. So if you’re reading this and wondering if you could compete, or change your body, or make any goal work; you can. Just set the bar, don’t deviate from the path and you’ll do it. Be determined, be fearless and don’t worry if you stumble or slip on the way, it’s inevitable. Keep going forward, keep staying positive and relish the challenges as they come, it’s what makes us grow and become better.

Fitness

The Prep Diary: 2 Weeks Out

Chris Kenny July 9, 2018

Well, it’s been a minute, hasn’t it? Suffice to say, I’ve been completely swamped lately with work, personal life engagements and of course, prep life.

But it’s high time I gave you guys another entry to sink your teeth into and now we’ve traveled forwards to a mere two weeks out from my competition, so let’s dissect what’s been happening in the run-up to the present day.

I’ll begin with this photo;

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This depicts me in the best shape of my life (at that point) and in a condition that I dreamt about for years.

Fast forward a few weeks to the current week and we have this;

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Again, further improvement. The simple fact is this; I’ve pushed my body further than it’s ever gone before and the results are incredible. Transformation has been steady, slow and at times, rough. Diet, training and sleep are all variables that get affected by prep and it’s been a roller coaster at times, with temptation at every turn.

There have been times, especially recently, where I’ve faltered and almost completely caved in. Eyeing up packets of biscuits, knowing full well I could demolish them in a second. Being one click away from an enormous order from a Chinese takeaway, or simply buying a few “share” packets of Doritos and ploughing through them. It’s taken huge amounts of willpower to pull myself away. There have been times where I’ve been in the kitchen staring at my oats and thinking “I don’t want this.”

But then reality kicks in and I realise, I do want this. I do want to present myself in the best possible way on stage, with a body and presence that I can look back on in years to come and feel proud of my achievements. It’s a constant battle to keep myself on the right track however and there have been more difficult days than not. But it’s dawned on me, particularly recently, that it’s not you against the world.

For those competing, we are all in the same position. I’m fortunate to be surrounded by competitors who have been there and done this before and friends that are also joining me on stage in a few short weeks. It’s here where you can lean on people and simply get things off your chest. The carrot dangling is not simply the day and the possibility of placing, but the aftermath; celebrating the hard work with a glorious cheat meal and a bit of a blow out! That’s what keeps me going for now.

There are plenty of people who don’t fully grasp what it’s like to push yourself in this way and can become irritated at your lack of responses, or mood, or simply not being yourself. So to put things simply, what is happening right now is that I am expending the maximum amount of energy with a minimum amount of intake. My calories are as low as they’ve been and yet my work (inside and out of the gym) is beyond anything I’ve done before.

I’m training 5 or 6 times a week, with cardio. I’m working full time and trying to juggle other priorities in my life and stay current with friends and the like. Put simply, it’s hard. I’m constantly fatigued, yet there’s no giving up. There’s no chance of taking a breather for more than a day or two, because otherwise, for me, it’s easy to step off the gas and throw the towel in. Not everyone will be like this, but I personally need to stay in the right frame of mind in order to maximise my results. If I take my eye off the ball for a moment, I’ll be in trouble. It’ll be all too easy for me to stay in bed and miss the 5:30am training session, skip the cardio and stick on some trash TV.

It’s my dream to place in at least one of my categories, but lately, I’ve taken stock and realised that no matter what happens, I’ll be damn proud of myself and it’s been one hell of a journey. More importantly for me, I can say that I achieved what I set out to; from a declaration in 2016 that competing in 2018 was my goal, to actually following through with it and making it happen with a plan of action. It proves that if you set your mind to a task, you can and you will, make a stride forward.

Now it’s time to knuckle down and make these last few days count. Work isn’t over.

Fitness

The Prep Diary: 6 Weeks Out

Chris Kenny June 3, 2018

Welcome back to my journey to the stage! It’s now the third of June and it’s a critical time in my path to July; under six weeks out.

Typically, most people begin their competition prep from twelve weeks out so this would be considered the halfway point. However, as you know, I’ve been prepping for a while; alone and with the help of the team at Chase Perfection, so for me, six weeks feels ridiculously close!

So let’s start with a visual update on my current physique;

The biggest change for me is vascularity; the obvious difference being the left shoulder coming through from out of nowhere. However, there’s also the beginnings of veins appearing down near my lower abs, which is pleasing to see. All this can be attributed to the usual suspects; training, nutrition and rest. My waist size has also decreased as has my weight, so everything is certainly getting tighter and leaner. Let’s get a breakdown of the core facets and

Training

Remember when I said, “training was the easy part”? It turns out, that this has suddenly not been the case so much. Strength has, predictably, started to tail off somewhat and the training sessions themselves are taking it out of me more than before. Rather than having the energy to push through the last set and finish with aplomb, occasionally I’ll drift out rather meekly and find I’m unable to get that extra rep I was claiming just a few short weeks ago. This is to be expected though and it doesn’t worry me, it just means the weight will be dropped to allow for crisper repetitions and full completion of the set. I’ve always maintained that the number written on the weight doesn’t matter, as long as it’s a challenge for you.

In addition to the usual weight sessions, my step count per day has been upped to fifteen thousand. This suits me as my jobs are desk-based for the majority of my time and with the weather being as great as it is, it’s helping me get the steps in with relative ease. Cardio is, of course, an important aspect of my regime, with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) now playing a vital role in my prep, not only getting me fitter but providing another outlet for calories to be burned.

Nutrition

My diet hasn’t changed a bit since working with Chase Perfection, which for me is a good thing. I much prefer having a standardised routine that I can stick to without deviation, as I’ll likely end up forgetting what I should be having and when! My diet has a lot of variety, so my macronutrients (macros) come from all different sources. For protein, I’m employing fish, chicken, beef and protein powder (added to my oats). Carbs come in the form of basmati rice, white pitta bread and the aforementioned oats. Green vegetables are, of course, also throw in the mix, so I tend to make sure most meals have this excellent source of nutrition. When I was prepping myself, my fats were far too low, which has also been addressed with the addition of olive oil, pesto and sauces for particular meals.

I’d certainly advise maintaining a healthy mix of different food sources, as it can soon become monotonous eating chicken and broccoli every other meal; trust me I know, I’ve been there.

Rest

With a busy work life (I know it may seem hard to believe, but it’s true I swear) that involves a regular day job as a head of a department that is supplemented by my freelance work online, rest is something I crave in abundance yet hardly achieve. Why is that? For me, it comes down to distraction. I love consuming media in all forms; books, television, online forums, whatever it may be, I simply love soaking up more knowledge and interesting ideas from others and of course, kicking back and watching some entertaining stuff – you’ll be familiar with my love of wrestling if you move around this website! Back to the point though; rest is something I desperately need to address. Some days I’ll be running on about four hours sleep which is just not good enough and long-term impacts my muscle repair.

What’s Next?

I’m entering Phase 2 of my plan with Chase Perfection, which has updated training regimes. Posing is now becoming a bigger area of importance for me and I try and get in a solid fifteen minutes per night in some capacity.

I’m relatively happy with how I’m progressing – at the end of the day I’ve never looked better in my life. That’s obviously something to be proud of, but I simply want more; I want to achieve and excel.

Watch this space.

Fitness

The Prep Diary : 10 Weeks

Chris Kenny May 14, 2018

Greetings everybody and welcome back to the Prep Diary! As of writing, I am 10 weeks out from my competition debut with Pure Elite and since the last entry, there’s been some updates, challenges, highs, and lows so let’s explore how things have been going.

As you recall from last time, I have now been working with the team at Chase Perfection in order to bring my nutrition and training up to the required standard for the show and so far, things have been going really well. The diet is far more densely packed with nutrients than I had previously and whilst the calories remain almost the same as what I was dealing with before, the meals are spaced out a lot nicer and the balance is great. That’s not to say however that I don’t get cravings and feel hungry, because of course, I do. Anybody who’s been on a diet knows this will always be the case, but what I’m finding now is that these urges are easily managed as the next meal comes at the right time, thus quelling the anger brewing in my stomach. Nutrition is such an important factor with any successful prep, not only in terms of what you eat but keeping your sanity. So far, this has been the most important change in approach, as I’m happy with my food and the relationship is healthy.

One “challenge” I faced – trying to get a decent tan!

We all have challenges during prep, whether it’s late night working hours, financial issues, illness or any combination of those. My personal plight was being abroad for a week. Thankfully I am very familiar with Varna, Bulgaria, so finding good gyms to train at is easy as I’ve done that plenty of times, but sticking to my nutrition; that’s a whole new ball game. Typically, my intentions whilst away from home are good however I often descend into random eating habits with minimal training. This time though, I was fortunate enough to be joined by my very close friend, who actually encouraged me to join a gym five years ago and I haven’t looked back since. Training, therefore, was easy to manage as he was very keen to join me on my sessions and this allowed me to continue pushing myself to my limit.

Snapshot from the Chest and Arms session

As an aside, I can’t stress how crucial it is for me to have a training partner. I’ve previously trained alone for months at a time, and while the solitude is peaceful and I can simply get on with the task at hand, it’s just too easy to back out of going all in and getting that extra rep. With a like-minded partner, however, those extra reps become three or four more, that set you didn’t want to do becomes your best one and overall, the session is a far more productive one. So my point is this; if you find training to be a chore or boring, get together with someone. Training is the fun part, the easy part. It needs to be done right though, as it’s a component of the machine that steers towards success.

Back to the week just gone by overseas and let’s focus in on nutrition. I mentioned above that my desire is always to try and stick to some sort of mental guideline, but typically I’ll get derailed by the plethora of wonderful restaurants available to me. This time, however, I was armed with my meal plan, a suitcase filled with supplements, my electronic weighing scales, and a specific intention to buy only what food I needed to and do my meal preparation in the apartment. Having a direct plan of action this time made things a lot easier; yes I did eat meals out but I controlled my urges and kept as close to my plan as possible, with the odd question fired at my coach to make sure I wasn’t stepping out of line anywhere. The result? Progress in my quest to reduce body fat and also seeing more weight drop off without limiting my lifestyle.

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Latest progress picture; taken post Leg workout.

I’m seeing the weeks tumble away into the past now as the big day draws ever closer. There’s excitement, nerves, and optimism; this has been a dream of mine for just over two years now so I’m determined to make sure I’m bringing the very best version of myself to the stage. To all my fellow competitors; let’s go there and tear the house down.

Fitness

The Prep Diary: 12 Weeks Out

Chris Kenny April 30, 2018

With just under twelve weeks to go until I make my debut on stage in Manchester, there’s been a call to action and a change in direction in order for me to bring about the best possible physique I can on the day.

Enter Chase Perfection. You’ll recall from earlier posts that I’ve already attended posing camps run by this team, however now I have fully immersed myself in their services, enlisting their aid to prep me for this contest. That includes a personalised meal plan, training split and regular check-ins and contact. For me, this is the step I needed to take, as it was becoming clear that managing this alone was not the way to go; I simply don’t have the experience. Therefore, I’m now equipping myself with all of the tools necessary to get the job done. I make no secret of my ambition; I want to do well and place in my categories and now I’m confident that I’m giving myself the very best chance I have of achieving my dream.

So what changes have been made? Apart from the increase in cardio (as you’ll see if you follow my Instagram stories) the biggest and most beneficial adjustment has been the nutritional side of things. As mentioned above, I’ve had my meal plan completely revamped for the better, and so far, things seem to be moving forward at a good pace. Body fat is reducing, weight has again dropped and I feel better. The meals are enjoyable too which is always very helpful when dieting as it means that I’m not lured to the pull of the ever-tempting “cheat meal”.

Training has stayed largely the same, intensity and work rate are still high but the focus and aim is to ensure each body part is being hit twice a week, to maximise the amount of growth possible within these coming weeks. Speaking of, next week I’ll be back to Bulgaria, so this is where the revised training plan will really come into its own in order to keep me on track. I’ve usually struggled with my nutrition when abroad, so with my meal plan I can now stay firmly committed to what I need to eat in order to stay the course.

Getting back to the competition side of things, this weekend just gone was the first Pure Elite show of the calendar year and I had many friends competing, who all did extremely well, placing in their categories and some even taking first place wins and pro cards! I made sure to attend, not only to give my support but also get a real feel for the competition, as I’ve never been to one before. Needless to say, it was really beneficial to see what goes into the entire day, the downtime between categories, the atmosphere when up on stage, how everyone looks on the day, it was very eye-opening. It made me more motivated than ever to keep working hard, as I know I’ll be up against some like-minded individuals who also want to succeed. Above all else though, it’s important to take stock and realise that ultimately, it’s about how far I’ve come over the years and put myself in this position where I am able to walk onto the stage and proudly display my body, knowing I’ve given it my all.

Fitness

The Prep Diary: Week 7

Chris Kenny April 16, 2018

Welcome back to the Prep Diary!

With many of my friends edging closer to kicking off the competition with an end of April show, it’s starting to feel a bit more real now and the work that I still need to do is sinking in. I’ve been very happy with my training as of late, which I detailed in last week’s post. To continue, I’ve still been hitting the early morning sessions and feeling better than ever. The tweak this week has been the introduction of cardio, both in terms of regular walks after work to get my “steps” in for the day (and also try and catch some of the rare British sunshine) and also with some HIIT, which is always a struggle to get through, but a good feeling once it’s over (probably relief!)

As far as my conditioning, my weight seems to have stagnated, in that I am not losing any pounds, nor gaining. This is obviously not ideal, so that was why I took the decision to enlist a prep coach to get me through until the show date.

Current condition

What this entails for me is revising my meal plan, which I discovered was drastically low in fats as well as changing how many meals I’m eating per day and also reconfiguring all of my macronutrients. Today (Monday 16/4/18) is the first day of engagement with this plan, so in next week’s Diary, I can share my thoughts and progress, which I’m certain will be beneficial! In addition, areas of my physique to work on were highlighted and thus, training can be prioritized effectively in order to bring the lacking areas up to the desired standard. Obviously, there’s not a lot of room for growth in these coming weeks, but post-competition, the groundwork will have been set and the off-season growth can be benefitted by a revised training scheme.

I also managed to get some posing done at the gym this week, practicing my T-walk and trying to establish the routine in my head, which I’ll be tweaking and improving on as the days and weeks roll by. As I mentioned before, this is the area that causes me the most concern, posing doesn’t come very naturally to me, but with the right guidance and confidence, I’m positive it will all come together on the day.

So with that, this relatively short entry is all there is to say; sadly no trips abroad to report on, just simple honest hard work and determination!

Thanks, as always, for reading. Make sure to keep in touch using the comments below or hit me up on my social media pages (click the icons in the top right).