As the darkness seeps in…

The body returns to former glory.

Week 5 of the cut is over and I’ll be darned if I am not feeling amazing on top of seeing some great results thus far.

My macros for this week didn’t change from last week and  my body is already starting to look comp ready.

With week 6 upon me I will add 3 differences this week.

1. This bad boy http://instagram.com/p/WYdahkiAuj/ .

Yeah, this year I am adding cardio in. Something I didn’t even touch last year prepping for comps. This year I am going to see what I get out of it, if anything. I will be using the spin bike in the morning and during Netflix sessions. I will be using the stairmill for 30 minute sessions after workouts 3 different days a week. I will also be including short cardio body part finishers, just for a little “fun.” Jump rope for shoulders, battle rope for chest, C2 rower for back, and prowler sled or tire flips for legs.

2. I will be starting my EC stack this week. I will be starting with around 24mg/250mg for this week and then upping it as I see fit. Normally don’t need to go that hard with these fat burners, but I figured I would let you know I’m on this stack. If you have any questions around this, feel free to ask.

3. I will be reducing my carbs by 20g this week. This is how I prefer to get my carbs out.

That is the plan for this week when it comes to training and at the end of this post I will have a request from all of you.

Thought in the Dark

This week was the Arnold Classic and saw one of my favorites, Dexter Jackson, take home the gold this weekend. I want to congratulate him on the win. He and every single one of those guys pour every ounce of their being into being the best. My hat is off to them.

The Blade

Talking to Blackjack this weekend we have come to the point that I need to get my name out on more of a local level here in Arkansas. We are thinking of doing some sort of charity event and relate it to fitness. I have no clue what this will be or how we will get it done, but I wanted to let all you all know so that if you have any legit ideas you could send them my way. Legit ideas only, please no fun run 5ks. Kthxs.

::READER PARTICIPATION TIME::

Finally, I said above I would need everyone’s input on something I will be adding into my program this week. I will be calling it “Shot in the Dark.” Shot in the Dark is a set of 4  exercises that I will finishes each of my days with. I will only do one set with the 4 moves (that you all will pick)for 20 reps. This can be any exercise you can come up with that will hit the following muscle groups. I have all the basics in and have great accessory lifts already, but now I want to know what you guys can come up with for me to finish off the muscles.

What I would like from you on is the following:

One exercise for each of my days and please make them odd. The top requested moves will be added to my routine as my weight finisher

1. Chest move

2. Back move

3. Shoulder move

4. Leg move

5. Arm move

Please leave these request on my Fitocracy page here : https://www.fitocracy.com/profile/BlackoutTrainer/

Everyone who leaves this on my page will get a shout out on the next episode of the Jack-N-Out Connection with special guest, Jon Goodman.

Thanks everyone in advance. Also, I know there is no cutting video this week, but I will have a posing video that I will put out later today and will add it to the blog later.

WARNING: I look extremely white in the spot lights

Shameless Plugs:

If you are in need of a coach feel free to email me at coachingwithbt@gmail.com. I have sessions starting at single skype session for $20.

If you haven’t already, check out my facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/BlackoutTraining

Darkness returns and calorie count rant

*the rock voice* Finally,  the Blackout Trainer has come back to the Darkness.

It’s cutting time people and I am on a new level of hype. Ate the hell out of some nasty food this past week to get my weight snuggling up to 180 pounds. This is crazy considering that on the day of my last competition in August , I weighed in at 149.

I will be using IF (intermittent fasting) as my timing method. I will be fasting for 18 hours and feeding for 6. During this cut I will be tracking macros only, NOT CALORIES. This is very important because if I were to only count my calories, I would eat only Nutrageous until I met my calorie limit.

Yummy, yummy, yummy I got love in my tummy!

But really, diet plans like weight watcher and others are nothing more than calorie counters for dummies and reward you for making dumb choices. For example, a regular snickers bar on Weight Watchers in 7 points, when a Clif builder bar nets you 5 points for roughly the same size bar. With them being that close you would figure their nutritional make up would be similar. *Insert Stone Cold Steve Austin voice* EH EH. Both bars have 270 calorie, wonderful for all those calorie counter out there. The snickers has 14 grams of fat, 35 grams of carbs, and a measly 4 grams of protein. While the builder bar has 8 grams of fat, 30 grams of carbs and 20 grams of protein. A clear difference in the two bars, but yet weight watchers or a simple calorie counting diet would not differentiate the two. Pretty dumb set up if you ask me.

Anyho, that’s my feeling on the subject and why I will be sticking to counting my macros. I will be putting out a video next week about what my macros look like and how my workouts went. You can check out all my workouts on fitocracy. The big change in my workouts is that I increase my tempo and increase my set count. The exercise stay consistent and my weight stays heavy.

For everyone that has submitted for coaching over the last 3 weeks, I haven’t forgotten about you. I will be putting together some new packages and will begin taking names for the May Blackout Squad soon.

If you all have any questions leave them below. If you or anyone else would like to know more about coaching, fill out the info on the coaching tab and I will be sure to send you the coaching package.

Lastly a quick shout out to my friend, Jon Dao. If any of you are in positions, whether it be for work or for school, where you need some help on public speaking, interview skills or just putting a speech together, he is your man. Hit him up here at http://commdao.com/speech-coaching/ 

Hope everyone has a great week and I look forward to sharing this cutting journey with you all.