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OK, I admit it. I may have bitten off a little more than I could chew when I made my bold predictions in the last edition of "Latest News" (April, 2002). At the time I wrote that column, I was extremely psyched up after my disappointing comeback last fall from my bicep tendon rupture. I was at an all-time high bodyweight of 245 pounds and I was really looking forward to getting back onstage and making some waves in the Team Universe competition in August as well as the Natural Olympia and MuscleMania events in November. After beginning my pre-contest diet for the TU in mid-March, however, I realized that I had made a serious mistake. I had bulked up much too much during the winter months and it would take a seriously concerted effort to get it all together in time for the Team Universe in August. I certainly did not want a repeat of last year's competitive disaster in which I killed myself in order to be ripped in time for the contest only to flatten out at the end and completely miss my peak before finishing out of the money. After thinking about it for several days, I finally decided to abandon the idea of entering the NPC Team Universe this year in New York. I am well aware that this competition is one of the biggest drug-tested events in the country and you really have to be ON in order to win or place in the money. I really feel that I am still in the process of re-building some of the size that I lost from the downtime I incurred after my bicep tendon injury. The last thing I want to do at this re-building stage of the game is to risk losing some of that newly regained size from the extreme dieting it would take to get ripped in time for August 10th.
Since
I began my diet in mid-March for the Team Universe, I have decided to
continue the diet albeit at a much slower pace. My bodyweight is currently
down to 227 pounds and I will continue to diet until I am relatively
lean. Then I will perhaps increase the calories a little bit and build
up for a peak in October-November. After the video shoot is completed, I will gear up for a couple competitions in November. I will be re-entering the NPC Natural Mid-States on November 9th. This is the competition where I placed a disappointing second in the heavyweight division last year. I was retaining lots of water and was actually competing sick that day. My condition this year should be MUCH, MUCH improved!! The Natural Olympia competition is one week later in Phoenix, Arizona so I am considering stepping onstage at this competition also. As I said before, it would be a great comeback to compete in peak condition after the extremely poor showing I displayed a year ago. If veteran natural bodybuilders Keith Bullock and Ron Williams return for the contest, it should be a great event. I have recently switched gyms and training partners. After being so disgusted with the lack of hard-core facilities available in my area, I decided to drive an extra 30 minutes to train at USA Gym in Bridgeview, Illinois. USA Gym is a great, hardcore gym that is owned by Chuck Sanow, the NPC Illinois District Chairman and a great bodybuilding competitior in his own right. Chuck has placed right near the top in the NPC USA, Nationals and North America for years. In fact, I thought he should have been chosen as the overall winner at the 1998 North America in Detroit, Michigan over Dexter Jackson. Dexter went on to win his pro card that year by the slimmest of margins due to his superior shape but Chuck was the bigger AND harder competitor that night.
I have also teamed up with a new training partner at USA Gym, Joe Silzer. Joe is an upcoming natural bodybuilder who competed in the Team Universe last year but, unfortunately, missed his peak and placed out of the money in the welterweight class. That won't happen this year. Joe is a full 10 pounds heavier than he was last year and I predict that he will do some SERIOUS damage in the middleweight class at this year's Team Universe. In fact, there is a new rule in effect for the Team Universe this year that prevents any previous TU class winner from entering the competition. This means that all those class winners (Marvin Ward, Derik Farnsworth, Tito Raymond, Greg Rando, Jeff Willet and Skip LaCour) who have previously won their class will not be allowed to compete although they will be eligible to pose down with this year's class winner at a special posedown during the Saturday night finals. Joe is extremely thick for a middleweight competitor. In fact, when I began training with Joe, I had a hard time figuring out how I outweighed him by over 20 pounds since we are the same height and he had arms and legs that were as big or bigger than mine. His triceps are out of this world and I guarantee that no one in the middleweight class will have legs as big as him. He has learned from his mistake of last year and he should be right on the money for this year's competition which is bad news for all the other middleweights. By training with Joe and our other partner, Rob, I am using heavier poundages than ever and I am having some great workouts. In fact, it looks like my right arm is finally equal to my left arm. It was a good half inch smaller due to the injury during all of last year. It's funny to think how I naively believed that it would only take me 6 months to come back from my injury. It has now been a year and a half and I still don't think I have all of my previous size back yet. However, I am making good progress and should be back to my normal winning ways this year again. I haven't taken first place in a competition since I won the first Natural Olympia competition in 1998 so it's going to feel GREAT to win again this year!! |
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