Okay I am into my first week of dieting and things are moving along smoothly. I gotta be honest it feels good to eat really clean. I didn't eat too much crap in the offseason but even just the little extras you add in here and there really effect your appetite. Now that I am eating diet clean I am starting to get hungry again which is really going to help keep me big!
I know it sounds confusing, I am dieting but trying to grow as well. Those of you who follow my career know I am not dieting for a show but for some appearances so I am not restricting cals in a big way but have just cut out all the crap. I have added in daily cardio and intend to eat as much as I can as long as its diet food. I want to see how hard I can get while still staying big and eating lots of usable food. Any of you who will be at my appearances, don't worry tho, I appreciate your support too much...I won't show up fat...lol.
This past week has been good. I realized that all the high volume training has been great for rounding out my muscle shape. Although in BBing its not good to just train one way all the time. I have decided to go back to hitting it heavy to really get the density in the muscle that everyone is always looking for. Being that I have been at this for almost 12 years (10 of them being heavy all the time) now and I have endured some aches and pains I will be treading carefully. Heavy for 4-6 weeks and then back to light for a couple. I think hitting it like that will allow me more longevity in the sport and less nagging injury.
So for my first week of going heavy I have also decided to put the belt away. I never relied on it too much, only on the heavier sets but that's still maybe too much. I put it away this week and actually had bigger and better lifts. I was doing hams the other day and after a couple exercises we hit stiff leg deads. Normally I stop at the four plate mark (405lbs) maybe doing 6 and that's with a belt. This week I decided to keep going, I went up to 475lbs for 8 clean reps, no belt! I am not the strongest BBer nor have I ever claimed to be but for me that was big, especially doing it with no belt.
Over the years I found that something has happened to me mentally in the gym. Doing rep after rep and set after set has given me confidence to make some of the biggest lifts. Although with those sets and reps came small injuries and setbacks and over the years my mind has become more focused on saving myself versus my old school mentality....lift first, think later.
This past week I went back to not worrying. I went back to not worrying about injury because if you worry you can't be going balls out. I went back to not worrying about how many reps and sets and how long I have been there, instead lifted heavy enough that my body told me when it was done. I went back to not worrying about how great my form looks to everyone one around me but instead made sure the feeling in the muscle was so full it felt like it was going to split. I just went back to not worrying....
Sacrifice Without Regret,
Fouad Abiad
