Cameron Thomas
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15th October – UPDATE
After a weekend spent spectating at the PCA British Finals, man am I excited to whole-heartedly commit to his rebound/off-season phase more than ever. Not that I haven’t been doing so already, but there’s some aspects of ‘flexibility’ nutrition-wise that I am now more than willing to let go of to capitalise on every extra % of progress I can take.
I’m yet to take any progress pictures this week or actually weigh myself since Friday, so I’ll hold back on updating from that perspective until I do… but I’ll use this post to cover where my thoughts are now at in terms of nutrition and the direction I’m going to be headed as of today.
Current macros:
255g protein
385g carbs
40g fats+ a protein bar of choice post workout
+ a ‘free’ 250 kcals with last mealThis was consistent across the week with the only difference on non TD’s being that I didn’t consume my intra shake which is 20g protein and 30g carbs.
I also was having a pretty BIG cheat meal every Saturday night.
New macros:
With my desire for ‘cheat food’ slowly diminishing, and in my opinion the scheduled cheat meals simply increasing my food focus to a point where my relationship with food come the weekend being very poor… I’ve decided to eliminate the ‘free food’ and scheduled cheats so that I am 100% structured throughout the entire week, which in my opinion is going to more advantageous from a recovery standpoint as it will now allow me to equate calories across the week surrounding the workouts that need them most.
(And of course, avoiding the shit-show of digestive health following the day after a cheat meal)
Upper body TD
265 protein
497 carbs
40 fat
3408 kcalsLower body TD
265 protein
597 carbs
40 fat
3808 kcalsNon TD
235 protein
306 carbs
50 fat
2614 kcalsThis will more than likely be a lower weekly caloric total than previously so may need adjusting once my body settles to the increased volume of food (with everything now being predominantly single ingredient food sources).
It’s also worth mentioning that I’m splitting these across 5 meals now compared to 4 previously.
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Looking amazing in the updates Cam. Can see this being an extremely productive phase for you.
Thanks buddy, few changes made going into this week which I’ll be updating soon!
Can’t lie and say I’m not a little nervous to take pictures this week after a bit of a relaxed weekend nutrition wise…
I can openly admit that this phase has been psychologically hard for me so far, which I think is another overlooked factor of a rebound phase. People will often speak about the psychological impact of getting fat in a week having been lean for so long, but what about the psychological implications of actually being scared of getting fat!?
I don’t see many talking about that!
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UPDATE – 8th October
3 weeks post-show, time is flying by quicker now than it was during prep! I ended last week at 210lbs on average, leaving me 8lbs above stage weight and today I woke up at 212.6lbs which is the highest during this rebound so far. Today is a rest day, so this will likely bump up a little tomorrow too which is why I prefer observing where things are moving on average week to week.
A slightly faster rate of increase at the moment than planned, with the aim being a 1.4lb weekly rate of gain… but markers aren’t suggesting it’s unproductive scale weight so I’m not too worried, I’m pretty sure the digestive issues I was suffering from this week may have led to increased inflammation/water retention which likely skewed my weigh-ins.
Had an awesome weekend of training which I captured some footage of, so I’ll be sure to link the video in here when I get around to putting it together! Muscleworks Orpington did not disappoint, great environment, great music & most importantly a great variety of kit. Certainly worth the visit.
Back to it tomorrow, I’ll be sure to update this tomorrow’s workout rotation as it’s one of my favourites.
No changes to nutrition, supplementation or cardio/expenditure going into this week… will let my body settle at this calorie intake and let performance dictate my next move.
Attached pics are from today sitting at 3 weeks post-contest.
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6th October – UPDATE
No weigh-in today as I’m back at my parent’s house for the weekend, but yesterday was 209.4lbs which puts me at 210lbs on average so far this week. My target bodyweight wise for the week is 207.3lbs so I’m happy that things are now moving in the right direction!
I’ve been suffering from some digestive issues this week, which has now settled to some degree. Last Saturday through until Wednesday I was suffering from distension, bloatedness, gas & loose stools which was very, very frustrating. I put it down to introducing so many different foods off the back of an extended period of time with such isolated food sources, combine this with the course of antibiotics I was taking during prep… let’s just say that it’s safe to say my gut more than likely is not very happy with me at present. My course of action moving forward is to start pulling things out, and essentially try to identify what’s causing the upset! But, the re-population of my gut is something that will take quite some time and I predict suffering from sub-optimal digestion and overall GI health for the foreseeable future.
Been a little inconsistent with the cardio this week and I’ve missed 2 30min LISS sessions, I think I may, in fact, look at pulling cardio at some point soon as opposed to using an increase in food as the only adjustment to the energy balance. I feel this may actually benefit me from a recovery standpoint also as I definitely do feel my knees being a little ‘niggley’ after those cardio sessions which could, of course, impact the productivity of leg training.
I’m currently on my way down to Orpington to train with my buddy Sam Corio, who is coached by JP.. we’ve got legs on the cards and whenever we get together it’s always an epic session so a BIG feed went down this morning to fuel up for the nastiness. Looking forward to using the Arsenal Strength equipment as I’m pretty sure Muscleworkes Orpington is the only current gym in the UK equipped with it which is cool.
Workout wise it’s my deadlift and squat day today, so we’ll more than likely keep deadlifts in to start off with and then have a play around on some new equipment for the rest of the workout!
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3rd October – UPDATE
Woke up at 208.2lbs today and finally seemed to have dropped off some of the excess weight I gained from Saturday (high day/weekly cheat) after hovering around 210-211.
Since that day it’s probably worth noting that I’ve been suffering from very poor digestion and GI distress, and all of this week up to so far I’ve been considerably distended, bloated, and have had gas left right and centre… Haven’t really pinpointed the issue yet as there’s now so many new variables with regards to food choices, supplements etc that could be causing issues. So my plan of action is to start pulling things out to try and root cause the issue. So far I’ve eliminated all diet drinks (these were getting smashed back end of prep into this post-show so far), and any products containing sucralose.
Today I must say, things are moving in the right direction which I’m happy about because it was leading to pretty bad water retention. But regardless if things do get back to normal, I still plan on cutting down on some of the food items I wouldn’t normally be having so regularly. I’m kind of an ‘all or nothing’ person when it comes to nutrition, and the hint of introducing a little more flexibility often see’s me getting too carried away and so if anything I’d rather know that my diet is solely consisting of single-ingredient, nutrient dense sources ASAP.
Today I trained lower body, with biceps & BFR triceps tagged on the end.
2 hour and 45 min of pretty brutal work, man it feels good to be close to firing on all cylinders again.
The workout was as follows:
4x Reverse band hack squat
4x Seated hamstring curl
(zig zagged)
4x Lying hack squat
4x V squat good morning
(zig zagged)
2x Banded machine upright leg press
2x Wide stance cable pullthrough
2x Leg extension
6×4 Lying leg curl
3x Sissy squat (cluster sets of 2 reps, 5 breaths, to hit 10)
super set with
3x Leg extension shortened range partials into lengthened range
4x Toe press
2x Elbow supported machine curl
2x Cable EZ bar curl
6×4 Rope Hammer
BFR triceps (occluded machine tricep ext, 30-15-15-15 with 30 seconds rest between)TOUGH workout, pretty settled on the exercise selection here. Volume may be adjusted especially as load starts to push higher and recovery demands increase but for now I think this is close to the sweet spot.
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Interesting read and props to you for all of this. In my humble opinion, I also think you should prioritise legs during your next off season, particularly your inner thigh/adductors. It will fill the gap in between your legs and make them look much bigger. You look great though man and loving this. Good luck
Thanks Louis!
It’s funny you say that, adductor training has DEFINITELY been a focus of mine with my programming for legs whilst I’ve been putting together my workout rotations. Completely agree there, my legs look quite stringy and with my long limbs I certainly have a lot of gaps to fill.
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1 week post-show – UPDATE
Right, in this post I’m going to give a run through of how my body responded during the first-week post-show after implementing the changes above…
Bearing in mind stage weight was 201.6lbs, and my average weight during peak week was 203.1lbs.
The increase in food saw me gain 0.8lbs on my baseline weight of 203.1lbs to round out the first week post-show and I’ve attached progress pictures to show you where I was at.
Energy levels / training / recovery
Quite clearly, despite the increase in calorie intake, I think the re-introduction of more intense training may have actually now placed me in more of a deficit than I was cruising into the shows… Or at least still definitely put me in a pretty severe deficit, especially if the way I felt during this first week was any indication.
This first-week post-show SUCKED. Not because I had an urge to over-eat or binge, because adherence for me is a choice, but because I felt considerably worse than I had during prep. Energy was low, general readiness to approach the day was non-existent, and sleep absolutely terrible.
My initial thoughts were that ceasing T3 supplementation may have been playing a part in this so I did have a full thyroid check at this point to collect some more data for reference.
Recovery was still very, very diminished which was to be expected and overall it was clear that there was definitely room to increase calorie intake from here.
Changes made going into my 2nd week post-show:
I actually made two food increases during the second week, because the initial increase brought about no real change in scale weight, nor did it lead to ANY improvements in the way I was feeling. So I’ve listed below the amount of food in total that was added in the second week.
An additional:
195g carbs
20g fat
+ 250kcal per day to allow for some flexibility with food choicesLeaving baseline intake during week 2 at:
255g protein
385g carbs
40g fatsCardio / Daily expenditure
Going into week two I cut cardio in half to 30 min LISS 5x per week and kept steps consistent at 10K a day.
I’m pretty sure this now puts this log up to date in terms of where I am at in this rebound phase, so the next post will be the start of my daily updates where I’ll begin to post my daily workout rotations, how my daily diet is looking & anything else relevant to how things are progressing on a daily basis!
Very excited for this phase.
Any questions from any of you guys who may be following the log I’m happy to answer, as it’ll more than likely prompt me on some topics I may be forgetting about!
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Rebound phase – Training
The next topic to update on is training… is my split changing during this rebound phase? training style/principles? how am I managing volume/intensity? what are the priority body part if any? etc etc
Well, from assessing my stage pictures it’s safe to say overall muscularity is, of course, going to be the primary aim… but with the physique I have in mind and the shape I want to emphasise that I believe will see me have the most success on stage in the future, there are always going to be certain body parts I feel need a little more attention than others. This also comes in conjunction with body parts I know respond positively to higher/lower volume, a certain training approach etc and therefore volume & frequency will more often than not be juggled around those factors.
So as I’ve said, whilst OVERALL tissue is the primary aim here… the frequency & volume of chest and arm training will form the foundation of my programming. Once this has been solidified, I’ll then slot in the remaining amount of recoverable volume equally across other body parts across the week, around those two priority body parts.
With that in mind, the split I’ve opted for and started immediately post-show is the following:
Monday – Rest
Tuesday – Chest, triceps, delts & BFR calves
Wednesday – Lower body & biceps
Thursday – Upper body & BFR calves
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Lower body (deadlift day) & biceps
Sunday – Upper body & BFR calvesI’m about 80% certain on the set-up of each of these workouts now, but I’m still feeling volume, exercise selection & order out as I go along before I’ll be completely set on my rotations. I think they’ll be a few of these rotations that I can run on a weekly basis, but some that I will rotate between two different rotations to ensure I’m able to progress performance but also to alternate the emphasis of the workout (e.g. quad emphasis lower body workout one week, hamstring the next).
I’ll be sure to post these rotations up as and when I run them.
In terms of how I’m approaching things from a training principle perspective, I’m going to be trying something a little different to normal which is to incorporate an element of monitoring my proximity to failure on certain sets. The idea being to accrue more total volume across the week, that isn’t as taxing neurologically, but is adequate enough of a stimulus from a muscular standpoint (when we consider how receptive muscle tissue is to the delivery of nutrients/anabolic hormones coming out the back end of a contest prep diet) to illicit hypertrophy…
For example, for my ‘bread and butter’ movements.. what in the past would have been set-up as a standard 2 working sets in the format of a top set to failure followed by a back-off set to failure, working across two rep ranges (what you guys will all be very familiar with from this site) will now be taken to 4 working sets, but not all of these will be taken to failure. They will be structured as follows:
Set 1 – TOP SET 4-8 reps keeping 1-2RIR
Set 2 – BACK OFF 10-15 reps to failure
Set 3 & 4 – VOLUME SETS 10-15 reps, keeping load consistent, matching reps, keeping 1-2RIR with 90 seconds in between.My thought process? Take a guy who can dumbbell press 200lbs for a single work set of 6 but fails to achieve another 2 reps with that same load on a second set and a guy who can dumbbell press 200lbs for 6 reps across four working sets… who has the bigger chest (all variables consistent)?
For argument’s sake, who knows! But in my opinion, there’s certainly an argument to be made for incorporating progressive overload through all-out force production across single working sets AND establishing a muscles ability to tolerate volume through improving its overall work capacity.
I’m excited to give this a try and as always guys, progressive overload (if you still think this only means adding weight to the bar, please do some further reading) will remain integral to my training philosophy.
Cardio / Expenditure
The first week following the show I kept in 60 mins of LISS cardio 5 days per week on the recumbent bike, and kept steps at 10,000 per day.
Next post will be giving you guys a general update on the first week post-show, where bodyweight moved as a result of these changes, training update etc and begin to introduce the changes I made going into the second week post-show as a result!
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Oh I bet! Sounds to me like you’ve got a big chunk of experience under your belt to make some serious progress during a rebound phase in that case.
Be keen to follow along 🙂
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Not sure how you’d physically be able to place more emphasis on a certain area of the posterior chain during a deadlift?
As Dan said, you’re better served alternating between variations that you know from a mechanics perspective will load the area more efficiently for muscle growth.
I.e. controlling the eccentric is going to place your erectors, traps, rhomboids and even lats through an increased isometric so that’s a variation to use if back musculature is the focus..
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@ali-fraser
All will become clear my man, slowly but surely catching up on here so that I can then start updating daily!
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What’s next?
So, as promised I’m working my way back slightly in updating this before I start updating you on exactly where I am at currently 2 weeks post-show.
To cut a long story short, whilst I qualified for the British Finals, I’ve made the decision to transition into a rebound phase immediately and sit-out the finals this year. Why? Because quite frankly, if I can’t win a qualifier convincingly then in my opinion I have no place on stage against those who have… and another 5 weeks of dieting is time that could be spent improving my physique to put me in a position where I can.
Which meant, the day after the Birmingham show – my rebound phase officially began.
I’ll use this post to update on the immediate nutrition & drug changes that were made, and tomorrow I will cover my thought process in this phase from a training perspective.
To give you some clarity into where I was at leading up into my final show:
220g protein
125g carbs
Trace fats200mg test e per week
200mg primobolan per week
30mg anavar per day
30mg winstrol per day
120mcg clenbuterol per day
37.5mcg T3 per day
12.5mg aromasin eod
20mg tamoxifen per dayThis was then immediately changed to the following the day after the show:
255g protein
190g carbs
20g fats275mg test e per week
75mg nandrolone per week
12.5mg aromasin every 3rd day
20mg tamoxifen per dayMy thought process here being to spend this first initial week ‘resetting’ my system as such and of course eliminating all liver toxic compounds, reducing AI dosage to allow liver enzymes to be restored and my lipid panel to somewhat improve.
From a nutrition perspective & body composition perspective, I wanted to allow my body to reach a balance in regards to water/hormones etc and then see where that left me bodyweight wise before making any more aggressive changes to caloric intake.
I’ll be sure to cover in more detail my exact goals of this rebound phase as I go along and as I continue to catch-up on updating the log 🙂
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Once bodyweight has normalised following the initial jump in water/nitrogen retention I would be shooting for a consistent 0.5-1lb per week.
BUT… let’s not forget that bodyweight is a SINGLE feedback marker.
If we’re shooting for bodyweight targets per week but the log-book is not moving in the right direction, body composition is worsening etc then it’s simply counterproductive to building muscle.
Use bodyweight as a TOOL alongside your other feedback markers.
In terms of nutrition manipulations, @Rotties has it bang on.
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Body stats, training history?
What is your past history of PED use?
What will accompany (if anything) the Anavar?
How is your training & nutrition currently set-up?
All questions that need to be answered before being able to really advise!
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I would say it depends on your ability to stay meticulous during the post-show phase…
You’re going to be VERY water retentive during this period if not, & likely to suffer with a ‘water rebound’ to a certain extent (depending on your final approach with regards to water/sodium/diuretics leading into the show)… combine this with high test and that’s a dangerous combo for a massive increase in water weight/bloat.
Just my thoughts, as always it depends entirely on how you respond to high test and how well you can control your rebound from a nutrition standpoint.
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