Cameron Thomas
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Now THAT was a top pro calibre showing James, outstanding.
Held your own against some of the best and carried yourself like a true professional throughout this entire process, which may I add has been amazing to follow.
Super excited for the content!
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Here’s how I was looking the morning of the Birmingham show at 201.6lbs for reference…
A VERY different look to the morning of Manchester (different location, lighting etc I know).
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PCA Birmingham – Show wrap-up
Right, so it wouldn’t be right to start updating my log with post-show plans until I’ve gone over a little what led me to coming in (in my opinion) a LOT flatter at the Birmingham show in comparison to Manchester.
The goal was, to jump straight back into a pretty harsh deficit the day after the Manchester show and to run this all the way up to the Friday night. So essentially what would normally be the ‘depletion’ portion of peak week, I simply spent this phase trying to dial in a few more %’s of body fat for Birmingham. Advisable? No.. and I knew the risk was there to dig a whole too deep to crawl out of – but as I’ve said, I like to learn from experience and I’d only know whether it was smart or not for future reference by doing it!
Carbohydrates were reduced by about 60g across the day, part of which was through pulling my intra-workout.
Clen was reintroduced (pulled this 3 days out) at 120mcg per day and I also increased T3 to 37.5mcg, I pulled the clen out again as of the Friday.
The result? By Saturday morning, the start of my load, I had hit a new low of 200lbs which saw me 5.6lbs down on my Manchester stage weight.
My load on the Saturday was very moderate as opposed to the week prior:
MEAL 1 – 35p 100c 10f
MEAL 2 – 35p 100c 10f
MEAL 3 – 35p 100c 10f
MEAL 4 – 35p 100c
MEAL 5 – 35p 100cWoke up on Friday and I knew I could have put away more without the risk of blowing out my mid-section, I woke at 201.6lbs and was pretty damn hungry… something that rarely happens for me.
Let’s also consider the fact here that water and sodium manipulation was the same as last week, but the taper down of water started a little later due to my load starting two days later.
Friday – 5 litres, 6 grinds per meal
Saturday – 3 litres, 4 grinds per meal, half a dyazide pre-bed & at 5am
Sunday – Replace fluidsWith me being on stage at midday it was going to be very difficult to try and pull things back at this point, but let’s just say I think I dug the whole too deep. I think I was off the mark in terms of water/sodium manipulation considering I stuck with the same protocol as the Manchester show that worked with a three day more aggressive load as opposed to a 1-day load that was a lot more moderate… Data, data, data!
I got a pump back-stage, but not to the extent where I felt as though I was bursting at the seams like at Manchester. Posing on stage I just felt pretty damn lifeless and I had an almost deflated feeling which I can only attribute to how being ‘flat’ feels!
So that’s a quick, or not so quick, an overview of Birmingham – STAGES PICTURES ATTACHED!
The big question is.. what’s next!?
Instagram - @cameron_thomas5
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29th September – UPDATE
That’s me done for the year!
The PCA Birmingham was yet another learning curve, I ran with the complete opposite approach to the final 7 days with the goal of pushing for more condition and essentially loading on a more conservative amount of food over only 1 and a half days as opposed to 3.
The result… a very, very flat physique in comparison. But, on a positive note as always, I took a lot of information away from the second peak and I also came away with a 3rd place finish in what I thought was a stronger line-up than at the Manchester show.
I’m a pretty happy dude coming out the end of this contest prep.
I recorded a video wrapping up both of my shows this season, where I cover my thoughts on placings, some key take-aways from coaching myself through this process, stage shot comparisons etc etc which I will link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zapt1Qptwg&t=1044s
Whilst I definitely got guilt of not updating this as regularly as planned when I entered those ‘everything is a f*cking effort’ stages of prep… I’m going to hold myself accountable now to making sure I’m updating this on a regular basis moving forward because I’m hoping it will be of interest to a few people at some point down the line.
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James, thank you mate!
For the Manchester show I kept water at 5 litres Monday – Thursday, 4 on Friday, 3 on Saturday and simply replaced fluids on the Saturday morning as I excreted them.
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Tyler, I hate to be a dick but I don’t even think that question deserves an answer… Read the log!
On a positive note – Happy Birthday Jordan!
This new phase you’ve embarked on has to be the FIRST of it’s kind, and it is so fucking cool to follow. How meticulous you have been during this rebound has helped me massively.
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Few more!
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PCA Manchester – UPDATE
So, guys, I’ve attached some of the stage pictures I got back from the first show at the PCA Manchester.
I uploaded a video outlining my final approach to peak week with regards to nutrition, fluids, sodium, diuretics etc which I’ve also linked below if anyone wants to check that out and then fire away any questions for me to answer in detail on here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14np7mw4Bc&t=20s
To quickly wrap things up about how I felt about this showing… I was happy and I learnt a LOT about how much food my physique can tolerate. My goal was of course to be the most conditioned on stage, and I’m confident I achieved that goal. I pushed for fullness pretty damn hard this go-around, and despite not being skinless I think the balance I achieved with fullness and dryness was a fairly good look, the approach I took to peak for this show had me VERY pumped whilst up on stage after a few rounds of posing and I think that certainly shows!
I hadn’t realised until a few days ago that the winner was, in fact, one of JP’s clients which was a nice surprise, Matt packs a solid amount of muscle on his frame and combine this with his shape there was no way you deny him the win in my opinion. It was a pleasure to share the stage with him, especially knowing I lost to a guy JP had prepped and the fact that I went at this one alone!
If you guys don’t follow me on IG, I competed again this weekend just gone… so I’m to update this again with an update on how that went! But for now I’ll leave you with the stage pictures from last weekend and open up the opportunity for any feedback which I’d love to hear.
Currently, 2 days post-show… writing my push workout coming up in the next 2 hours.
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Thanks Mark.
I’ll get some stage shots from the first show up here soon.
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Wow, this should be fun to follow!
Welcome to the forums Josh.
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So guys..
2nd place at the first show (PCA Manchester) and I was pretty damn happy with the look I brought to the stage! The progress pictures I took fasted upon waking on show day are probably my favourite pictures taken, EVER (see the attachments). So from that point onwards I really was just super excited to present the look I had managed to achieve so far.
Most importantly, I was very happy that the line-up in the Juniors was pretty damn competitive, which is exactly what I was hoping for. There were 5 competitors in total, which I suppose isn’t too bad for that class but I would have ideally liked to compete against 8+ to really see how I fared against a bigger class.
But all in all.. I’m satisfied so far with this contest prep.
I’ll save the details of how I approached ‘peak week’ for that first show in a later post and for now leave you with my progress pictures from the morning of the show as I’m yet to see any official stage shots.
Post-show Nandos and a maybe a few extra ‘treats’ Sunday evening and then straight back to it from Monday morning in preperation for the PCA Xplosive Ape show this weekend.
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UPDATE 3 days out
Well, it’s safe to say that escalated pretty quickly. 3 days out from the first rodeo!? Crazy how time flies sometimes.
The last time I updated the log was at 2 weeks out and in all honesty not a HUGE amount has changed since then, you guys recall I was still pushing for more condition at this point (as I have been up until today).
This wasn’t the initial plan as I would have ideally liked to have been ready at 2 weeks out, but needs must and clearly in future I now know to leave myself considerably longer than 12 weeks to get in the level of condition I know I can achieve.
So what looks different between 2 weeks out and today?
Clen – At the 2 weeks out mark I began tapering this up 20mcg every 5th day, this took me up until 5 days out where the max dose was 120mcg which I then tapered down to 80mcg yesterday, and ceased use as of today ahead of my front load.
Anavar – At the 2 weeks out mark I increased this to 30mg per day, a decision not originally planned but I made the judgement call considering how hard I was now pushing in regards to thermogenics.
Winstrol – At the 1 week out mark I also increased this to 30mg per day.
Trial load – Just prior to the 1 week out mark I ran a trial ‘carb load’ as such where I manipulated water, sodium & experimented with 1/2 a dyazide pre-bed to assess my response the following morning. I was pretty happy with the result which was most definitely my hardest and driest look yet, so the data collected from this I’ve used to determine my approach leading up into the final days of this first show.
Nutrition – This near enough remained consistent up until the 1 week out stage. As has been the recent trend, I spent another 4-5 days digging with low food before refeeding (the final refeed being the trial load).
At the 1 week out stage following the final refeed, I did want to push for a little extra detail which essentially landed in time with what would normally be the ‘depletion’ stage of peak week. Not intended, but at this sta,ge condition wise I felt it was needed. So a final pull in food, removing all intra-workout carbs and simply pulling a rice cake from every meal.
To give you guys a clearer picture in terms of where this left macronutrients (excluding vegetables), my daily totals were 220g protein and 115g carbs.
This saw me hit a low weight of prep of 201.4lbs yesterday after a full nights sleep, which I’m confident would have been even lower today if I had gotten a full nights sleep (early morning shift today).
That updates you guys up to the 3 day out mark!
I will save a full rundown of my approach to this first peak week more than likely at 1 day out when I have some time to kill.
For now, any feedback on my condition for the physique updates attached (taken at 1 week out) would be greatly appreciated!
I hope you guys are killing whatever phase you’re in right now.
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Unlike that weight will budge for awhile… it’s re-comp time!
Wouldn’t be surprised if you see that go up.
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Let’s do this buddy.
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UPDATE 2 weeks out
Admittedly I’m a little bit behind with updating this but I’m determined to document all of the changes that have occurred up to this point so it’s time to do just that.
As you can imagine, my body is FINALLY in that state where I certainly feel the everyday impacts of prep. It’s strange because it wasn’t a marginal increase in fatigue, it literally has hit me like a brick wall but… I’m embracing it!
Every time I feel extra suckish I remember Sas’ one week out videos… John Meadows sitting in a sauna a day out trying to drop 10lbs… I think of all of the guys who’ve truly suffered to get in ridiculous condition – because I’m suffering and I’m not even close to the levels of inside out-ness that these guys reach.
I truly do have a new found respect for what these guys at the top of the game do.
But… what’s been going on my end these past few weeks:
If you read back to the update at 4 weeks out you would have seen the main changes were a slight drop in food across the week, and also the addition of Primobolan at 200mg per week and the reduction of Testosterone to 200mg per week.
Changes made at 3 weeks out:
I then made another slight pull in food across most days of the week, coming from pulling intra-workout carbohydrates on my much lower output TD’s (arms, push etc) and a reduction in post-workout carbs on the days where they were still at the same amount as the start of prep (leg days, deadlift days).
Cardio & expenditure remained untouched asides from taking up the second rest day LISS session to 45 min on the recumbent bike.
Anabolics wise, I introduced 20mg Winstrol per day which I had delayed by a week as I didn’t feel as though my condition warranted it yet.
Training wise, this was the point at which I began eliminating any metabolic output (pump sets) from my programming, as I began to notice recovery slow down dramatically at this point.
I ran another calculated refeed during this week after dropping around 4-5lbs on my starting weight, this came unexpectedly, therefore, I made the decision to refeed on the day of my low weigh-in and ran the exact same macronutrient structure as previously but simply added an extra 25g carbs on top of each meal.
Last of all… Clen was increased to 60mcg per day and the introduction of 25mcg T3 was also made.
This took me up to 2 weeks out as of today!
This morning I’ve just hit another low of 203.4lbs, visibly I’m VERY flat after three days of pushing for more condition with food being at it’s lowest yet of 2,100-2,300 calories including all trace macronutrients.
So I anticipate another refeed tomorrow as today is deadlift day and I almost always drop 1-2lbs after what is the most demanding workout of the week, which will put me at another low weigh-in of 1-2lbs assuming I do drop weight.
I’ve been tapering up Clen every 5th day which has me at 80mcg per day currently, which I didn’t intend to do during this run, but given the timescale and the fact I DO have more fat to mobilise in some areas it was a decision I had to make.
It’s of course now a VERY fine balance of ensuring I can push for those extra %’s of condition in this final week leading up to peak week, without pushing too hard that I can’t pull myself out of the other end on show day.
Ideally I’d like to enter peak week at 200-201lbs because in my opinion to be in true condition there are a good few lbs of fat still to come off, but realistically I don’t think it’s achievable without sacrificing the little tissue I hold so I will do my absolute best to manage of these variables relative to what I think is realistic in terms of the condition I can achieve in the time-frame without turning into irreversibly flat.
In 3-4 weeks I think I could have REALLY taken it to some pretty cool depths of condition, but I think I’ll be satisfied considering this is my first rodeo and having taken a TREMENDOUS amount of experience and insights away from this prep!
So.. the plan is to keep things ticking over, continue checking in and posing on a daily basis to monitor changes.
No changes from a nutrition, cardio or supplementation standpoint going into this next week as I feel the deficit is already more than adequate to continue eliciting the desired effect.
It’s pretty simple now… I push for 2-3 days, assess look, assess bodyweight & fill up when I notice my look fading and then repeat.
Progress pictures attached taken on empty last Thursday with bodyweight at around 206lbs.
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