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As I am writing this, I am only about a week away from going to New York City to support my training partner, Joe Silzer, as he goes after the NPC Team Universe title on August 9th-10th. Although I am not competing, I am extremely psyched up and excited to be attending this contest because I really feel Joe has a great shot at winning his class in this very prestigious national competition.
I began training with Joe at USA Gym in April of this year and he has been a great source of inspiration to me. After a very disappointing finish at last year's TU, Joe came home and went right back to work to improve his physique. He trained hard and heavy all year long and added 10 quality pounds of muscle to his frame. The results of all that hard work are now very evident on his physique. Joe did everything right in training for this competition. Many bodybuilders compete too often or don't have a clear plan of what they want to achieve when they decide to compete. Joe knew exactly what he wanted and he worked specifically with that goal in mind. I've always said that in order to do well at a competition, a bodybuilder must have a good off-season. If your off-season is productive, you will show major improvements when it's time to get onstage again. When Joe started his diet for the Team Universe last year, he weighed 198 pounds and dieted down to 165 pounds to make weight for the welterweight class. In contrast, this year Joe started his diet at 210 pounds and, get this, his waist measured the same as it did when he was 198 the previous year. That's called progress! A twelve pound weight increase with a similar waist measurement means that Joe added at least 10 solid pounds of muscle to his frame in exactly one year. On July 20th of this year, Joe entered a local natural competition as a warm-up for the Team Universe three weeks later. The ABA Natural North America was held in Orland Park, Illinois and Joe easily dominated the competition winning the overall title. Granted, this was not a big national-level event like the Team Universe but it did serve as a good warm-up. Joe was able to get onstage and practice his routine as well as going through all the pre-contest rituals such as cutting his water, carbing up and applying his color.
The promoters of the Natural North America asked me to hand out trophies at the night show since I won this same title ten years ago in San Francisco, California. This was three weeks before I won my first Natural Mr. Universe title in 1992. It was great to hand the overall trophy to Joe as I know first hand how hard he worked all year to improve his physique. Now it's off to New York City for the big one! Joe will probably weigh in at the top of the middleweight class for the Team Universe. As long as he's hard and full, it really doesn't matter what he weighs onstage. At the Natural North America, Joe's thickness and mass made him look like he weighed 200 pounds so he doesn't need to be too concerned with numbers. I just found out that the NPC is now allowing previous class winners of the Team Universe to compete in this year's event. We had believed all year that there would be a new rule this year prohibiting any previous class winners from competing in the Team Universe although they would be allowed to posedown against the new winners of this year's classes. Now, however, that has all changed. It should be an interesting competition, that's for sure! As for my training, I am finally getting back to some hard and heavy training after nearly two months of interruptions due to injuries. I strained my left rotator cuff over 2 months ago and I am still trying to work around it when I train chest and shoulders. I am getting treatment for it from my chiropractor, Dr. Tim Radcliffe and my osteopath, Dr. Steven Lubera. I feel pretty confident that it will come back 100% and I will be able to train as heavy and as hard as ever before. Around the same time I strained my rotator cuff, I also incurred another injury to my lower back while deadlifting. At first, I thought I just strained the lower back muscles but after the injury didn't go away for weeks, I discovered that I actually strained the ligaments. Needless to say, this injury drastically affected my leg and back workouts. Thankfully, my lower back is also better now after 6 weeks of rehabbing it. I have approximately 10 weeks to go until I shoot my video with Wayne Gallasch of GMV Productions. He will be shooting a video of me at the Mandalay Bay pool in Las Vegas on October 20th and I intend to be in top competition shape on that day. Three weeks later, I will be entering my first competition of the year, the NPC Natural Mid-States in Rockford, Illinois. I took a disappointing second place in the heavyweight division last year and I hope to have a much better result this year. One week after the Mid-States Natural is the Natural Mr. Universe in Hollywood, California. Check out my Appearances page elsewhere on this website for the exact dates and locations of my competitions. Overall, I am on a 3 year plan to surpass my best condition ever. I did suffer a physical setback when I tore my bicep tendon two years ago and had to take an extended layoff following the surgery. However, any physical regression that occured at that time only served to make me mentally hungrier than I've ever been. I am extremely psyched up and ready to work harder than I ever have before to look my absolute best by 2004. Every time I step onstage, I will be one step closer to achieving my lifetime physical best. I can already see it clearly in my mind, it's just a matter of making it a reality! Finally, I want to mention something very exciting that is happening to my website. I am in the process of setting up an exclusive Members Only section of NaturalOlympia.com. There will be a TON of information, photos, interviews, contest reports, video reviews, etc, etc available each month in the Members Only section. I am extremely excited about it because now I will have the chance to really run my website the way I always dreamed of running it. I will also be offering each member the opportunity to have 3 email questions answered by me each month. Since I normally charge $50 for this service as part of my consultation fee, you can see how becoming a Member of NaturalOlympia.com is more than worth it. What is the cost of becoming a member, you may ask? Only a mere $7.99 per month!! If you have read any of my articles or Naturally Huge columns in IRONMAN Magazine over the last three years or if you have read any of the material I have available on my website, you know that I am very honest and go out of my way to share my knowledge and extensive experience with the rest of the bodybuilding world. I have 25 years of training under my belt and most of those years training have also been spent in competition so the wealth of information that I have to share is pretty large.
You will get the truth and nothing but the truth from me on my website. I pride myself on being one of the few bodybuilders who will honestly tell it like it is. If you read the magazines or view some of the bodybuilding websites that are available, you will know how rare upfront honesty really is in this sport. When you become a Member of NaturalOlympia.com, you will get more than your money's worth and will save literally years of experimentation and wasted workouts by learning from me. The
Members Only access site should be up and running right around September
1st so keep checking back to these pages for more information. In the
meantime, be sure to email me at John@naturalolympia.com
with any suggestions you have concerning this special Members Only site.
I'll be sure to take them all into consideration as I prepare for the
launching of this exclusive access site. Trust me, becoming a Member
of NaturalOlympia.com will be one of the best moves you could ever make
as a natural bodybuilder! |
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