Cameron Thomas
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Awesome Ben thank you!
If there’s any topics / areas you’d like me to go into more detail on just drop a note on here.
Instagram - @cameron_thomas5
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WEEK 1.
So the day is finally here, after what was surprisingly a quick & easy 6 days off of training… prep begins!
As promised, in this post I’ll be breaking down my entire approach to week 1 of prep. Understandably, with the nature of competition prep, things are always subject to change and never set in stone, but this will form the basis of my thought process for the next week.
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Training:
I’ll be sticking with the same training split I spent all of my maintenance phase on, which is an 8-day split. Three of the workouts have 2 rotations but the rest are repeated each week. Why not a PPL? A few reasons:
1. I have sh*t arms. I spent all of this year trying to bring them up, and I don’t want to lose them during this diet. I find this split allows for more frequency without taking away from the quality & intensity of arm training that a PPL split does (imo).
2. I love deadlifts, and I love hard sh*t, mixing those two up in one session normally doesn’t really fit on any of the regular ‘PPL’ days. So I fit in a deadlift day, and pile whatever brutal movements I feel like on top.Push (Chest, side delts, biceps)
Pull A&B (Lats, upper back, rear delts, triceps)
Legs A &B (quad focus, extra hamstring work, calves)
Rest
Upper body (chest, lats, side delts, BFR arms)
Deadlift day A&B (deadlifts, posterior chain focus + quads & calves)
Arms & side delts
Rest–
Training philosophy:
As I’ve mentioned above, I’ve been an advocate of and like many took the biggest steps forward in my physique when I adopted the progressive overload / logbook approach to training. I haven’t looked back since and this will ALWAYS play a fundamental role in my programming.
The only way I would say my training has evolved is from a volume, exercise selection and execution standpoint. I’m a huge advocate of quality over quantity in respect of all three of those areas – my workouts are therefore created on the basis of:
What is the least amount of work I can do to make progress…
What exercises do I ‘feel’, challenge the muscle through the desired portion of the strength profile & has a resistance profile that matches it…
Do my biomechanics ‘fit’ the exercise…
Once I’ve ticked those boxes, it’s a case of managing my execution/intensity/volume to ensure I’m able to take steps forward in performance over the long term.
Simple!
I’ll be posting the workout rotations and the progressions I’m able to take as I progress through this prep & also give an insight into my thought process behind certain exercises etc as I go.
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Cardio / NEAT:
I’m arguably hitting the ground running pretty hard with my expenditure from NEAT and cardio, but I’m the type of guy who would prefer being ready early than having to make up time in the last few weeks… and in my opinion, there are plenty of variables to play with going forward to ensure I can continue to illicit fat loss as we reach those later stages.
Over the 8 day split I’m going to be hitting 10K steps on 5 of the days and 15K on three. Rest days and arm days being the higher.
Cardio will consist of a HIIT session on the upright cycle (post workout) on leg and deadlift days. 5 rounds of 10 seconds work and 30 seconds rest.
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Nutrition:
Again, I’m arguably going in fairly low from a calorie perspective. But relative to the intake I reached during my off-season and the intake that kept my bodyweight stable during my week off, I’d say it’s justifiable to a certain degree. I’m confident I should be able to ride these calories / macro’s out for the first few weeks considering where my NEAT levels will be.
I’m following more of a diet plan rather than tracking macros, but I have an estimate that I structured the plan from. Those being:
*** I do not count trace macronutrients and I whilst I won’t be adding direct dietary fat sources, my bases will be covered from the protein sources I have opted for.
Upper body days:
220 Protein
0 Fat
325 CarbsLeg days:
220 Protein
0 Fat
350 CarbsDeadlift days:
210 Protein
60 Fat
400 Carbs(Burger and fries post workout)
Rest days:
220 Protein
0 Fat
250 Carbs–
Food sources:
Food sources will remain consistent across the week, excluding the high day where I’ll have a burger & fries post workout, and I’ll also rotate veg sources each week to get a wider variety of micronutrients.
Protein will come from lean poultry (chicken or turkey breast), 5% beef mince, flank steak and whey protein.
Carbohydrate sources are ground rice, berries, sweet potato, jasmine rice and oats.
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Supplement regime:
Deliberately placing these last because quite frankly without all of the above, we all know these are completely useless and in the grand scheme of things make up a very small percentage of building a physique.
I’ve attached a screenshot of my current regime as it’s in a pretty easy format to follow rather than typing them all manually on here. Refer to the image attached where all brands, timings & dosages are included.
The only exclusion being Yohimbine HCL which I am dosing at 5mg ED pre-workout, 100mg Test E per week, 2iu GH ED & 6.25mg Aromasin E4D. The AI dosage is subject to change depending on where my oestrogen currently is, as I didn’t run an AI during my maintenance phase.
I am still on a maintenance/cruise dose for the first three weeks of prep, and I’m currently awaiting my full blood panel that was taken during my week off which I’ll post when it arrives.
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STARTING POINT:
This morning I weighed in at 220.8lbs after a fairly large meal & dessert Friday night (it’s only tradition right..) so I suspect a good few lbs to come off over the next couple of days.
You can find my 12 weeks out progress shots attached to this post, I feel like I’m in an acceptable condition body composition wise considering this is after a week out of the gym.
Very interested in hearing peoples thoughts!
I think I’ve just about covered everything, so fire away any questions & thoughts you guys have on the approach I’m taking to the first week ☺
I’m amped to start seeing some changes in the mirror that’s for sure.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend guys.
Instagram - @cameron_thomas5
Follow along with my 2018 Contest Prep & Off-Season
>> Member Training Journals "Starting from Scratch" -
Thanks Kody.
That was an absolutely awesome run with Jordan and I’m so thankful for that time with him as it literally paved the way in a lot of the knowledge I now hold in respect to a lot of bodybuilding related topics!
Training wise I’m sure you already have a good idea of his approach in that respect, progressive overload & high frequency training being at the forefront. The sessions were long, brutal but f*cking rewarding.. and that kind of training philosophy is something I’ll always carry because it’s just so damn right fun.
We ran an upper/lower split for the most part, regulating frequency on an ongoing basis depending on where my recovery was at.
Food was pushed VERY high, I got up to 7k kcals at one point!
I’ll let you spot the differences in the approach I took this year & continue to take when I update the log with details on week 1 of prep 🙂
What training style are you currently adopting? I see you have a powerlifting past judging by your strong lifts on IG?
Instagram - @cameron_thomas5
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Yes Ali!
That’s a good question to be fair, long term I couldn’t put my finger on it..but if I had to name a few physiques who I currently idolise it would have to be Chris Bumstead, Terrence Ruffin & Regan!
Can’t say I don’t love some of the Open BB physiques too though, I just don’t foresee myself pushing it to that level for that to ever be achievable (& my genetics most likely wouldn’t allow even if I tried).
How about you?
Instagram - @cameron_thomas5
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Thank you very much Raol – wanted to try and give some good insight into my starting point.
I’m grateful to have somebody following along already & I’ll make sure this is as detailed and as engaging as possible!
Instagram - @cameron_thomas5
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Here are the last four images (9-12), which again are all referenced back to the first post. 🙂
Next update will be on Saturday which will mark the first day of prep, and will include details on how I am approaching week 1.
Instagram - @cameron_thomas5
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It will only allow me to upload 4 images at a time so here are images 5-9 that are referenced in the first post!
Instagram - @cameron_thomas5
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Jordan, when you have bad shots like these – do you train through them or avoid stimulating the area at all?
Instagram - @cameron_thomas5
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@jdh – that’s cool!
The main thing is ensuring there’s some element of progression within your training so it looks like you have your bases covered regardless!
I agree with you in that the approach of progressing your ‘compounds’ and throwing in some metabolic work is a great option!
Glad to hear your training is going well bud ????????
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@jdh – What is your gauge of ‘works well’? In my opinion it’d be pretty difficult to progress this from a mechanical tension standpoint because the mechanics are just not in your favour.
But if your thoughts are from the perspective of just producing a hell of a lot of lactate to make up a more ‘metabolic’ or pump-style portion of the workout I’d be in agreement!
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Bands for any form of lateral raises doesn’t really make any sense if we consider the function & strength profile of the side delt.
We are weaker the further we raise our arm away from our body, which is also the point the dumbbell places the most force on the shoulder joint.
The idea of bands are to manipulate the resistance profile to make exercises HARDER when they get EASIER, in this case it would simply make it harder where it is already hard.
As @Rotties said – lying cable laterals make a LOT of sense. The resistance profile matches the strength profile of the side delt perfectly which puts us in a much better position to progress loading.
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I’d be tempted to say reduce the volume per workout to 2 sets.
Pour everything you have into ensuring these sets are 10/10 execution wise & use this as a foundation to make sure you are fighting to hold strength transitioning from a surplus into a dieting phase.
Of course it may be too little too late to re-gain any of the lost tissue at this stage but something to think about moving forward.
Glycogen levels are going to affect visual fullness yes, but a drop in performance over a sustained period would indicate muscle loss.
If your diet is sensible, whilst glycogen levels may not be fully replenished around the clock, it is still very achievable to maintain performance / strength!
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As you say, squeezing is going to limit the amount of load we can use…
What does the literature say contributes to muscle hypertrophy? Mechanical tension (load).
So if we’re minimising our ability to move heavy loads because we are spending too much time ‘squeezing’ and too little time trying to progress strength, we could be losing out on potential muscle growth.
Another consideration is where you describe the squeeze being at ‘the top of the movement’, this is where the muscles are close to their shortest contracted position (relative to the exercise) which is also where we are WEAKEST and can generate the LEAST amount of force.
The ability to produce less force output in this range, paired with the theory that hypertrophy is predominantly governed by the force we can create, suggests we probably shouldn’t be spending a huge amount of our time here if maximise muscle growth is the primary goal!
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What is your frequency like?
And most importantly your execution? How does each set ‘feel’?
Are you maintaining intensity (i.e. the loads you are using) & is does the drop in size/density correlate with a loss in strength?
I find arm training is certainly a ‘quality over quantity’ body part for most people, so it’s very difficult to be objective without observing your training – but answers to the above could potentially help in giving you some tips based on my thought process.
Instagram - @cameron_thomas5
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A leg extension is isolating knee extension whereas a lunge/split squat is challenging both hip & knee extension (as Dan mentioned, you can bias one or the other) but you can’t have either or and as such, the glutes will always play a role – which is why you’d choose a leg extension if your aim is to train the function of the quads in isolation.
Instagram - @cameron_thomas5
Follow along with my 2018 Contest Prep & Off-Season
>> Member Training Journals "Starting from Scratch"