Life of a bodybuilder - part 3

After my first year competing I felt fantastic. I didn`t feel that great in many years. I found something I really love. I always knew that my place was in the gym but never thought about competing until now.

I don`t remember taking any time off from training. I was back in the gym right after my British finals with big plans for next year. I knew that if I decide to compete next year I have to challenge more experienced and much better guys. No more Novice class but weight classes. Another thing was my body weight. I felt and looked great around 80kg but my weight was 72kg in my last competition... I knew that I didn`t want to compete under 70kg as I would not feel good. So next class was under 78kg.

In 2009 I contacted Andrew Merrifield called Mezza. He was UIBBN World Champion in Natural Bodybuilding and one of bodybuilders I admired and felt I could "reach the top with him". He was one of the nicest man I met and down to earth. We agreed on cooperation for next four months during my contest prep. This was the first time I prepared for contest with help. Everything he told me I did. I didn`t care if I had to wake up at 4 am or doing cardio twice a day. I was determined to do well among the men on stage. There we things I didn`t like but I never told Mezza I will not do it. I did everything he asked me to do and I feel it was not enough I did more. I had all these crazy nicknames at work like "Petrominator", "Rambo", Rocky", "LeanMeanFightingMachine" etc.
I told myself that I will do only one show and was hoping to qualify for the British finals. My qualifier was in September and I had four months to prepare. It was one of the hardest contest prep for me but I was happy with the result. I felt very confident I will do well in competition. I decided to enter NPA South East qualifier on 13th September. This was one first show from previous year where I won my first place trophy as a Novice competitor.

What a surprise it was for me when I realized that there was only one guy in my class! Me and Tsala Kabala, black guy with amazing physique, abs so deep that you could see them from back seats and his tiny waist and wide back muscles gave him incredible shape. Very well defined and balanced physique. When I saw him I already knew I can`t win. I felt weird. I was preparing for that one show only and then only one guy showed up and I even can`t beat him? What a disaster... I thought. After all compulsory poses we had our free posing routine. I remember my music. It was from the Terminator movie. Shortly after that they announced the results. Second place goes to....Martin Petro! Second place. I know, I should be happy with that and I`ve got my ticket to British finals. But somewhere inside of me I was sad and disappointing. I congratulated Tsala for fantastic first place win and left the building. I am not sure if I talked to judges, I normally do after every show but not on that day. I remember going back home, texting Mezza and telling him that I`ve got second place and British invite. He was so excited and happy for me. But I told him that I am not competing and that I am done with competitions. My roommate and my best friend Taavi ordered the biggest pizza you can imagine. But I didn`t eat one single slice. I just was not in the mood. I had an appointment for the next day with one of my friend from work. He agreed to take some photos on the beach if the weather was nice. But just to remind you...It was 14th of September 2009. I am sure I was the only one guy on that day in posing trunks on that beach! We took lot of great pictures. I was studying The Encyclopedia of modern bodybuilding from Arnold Schwarzenegger the night before and learned all poses suitable for my physique. That was my only satisfaction this year. Thank you Simon for these great pictures and memories.
Mezza sent me his amazing photos signed saying "See you at the top" and his DVD. I loved it. We became great friends ever since.

Life of a bodybuilder - part 2

After my return back from Spain back to England I went back to work and "normal" life. I didn`t feel very good because I was almost 15kg overweight but I started with my regular weight training and also some cardio. People in the gym were making funny jokes about me, that this cannot be me, must be my twin brother and very spicy comments like "fatty" or "fat bodybuilder". All what I was thinking was "just wait and you`ll see...." I was in shape all my life, never dieted before. I always trained for life and ate for life so I looked good. I remember my holiday in Bulgaria back in 2005 where I was eating pizza almost every day because I couldn`t speak english and there was only one place I found where to eat - pizza restaurant... After 11 days of holiday and no training at all I still had a six pack and didn`t lose any of my strength. So I never had to be worry about "being fat".

After a month or so after my return from Spain I was attending "Semi show" in London where I met Bruce Lee widow and his daughter and other well known people but most importantly I met there one guy at "Bnbf stand" and he gave me leaflet. There was a calendar of competitions for this year and it`s said Natural Bodybuilding. So I asked him what does this mean and he explained to me that they have policy of seven years drug free. I took the leaflet and the same day contacted Pete Bullard and told him about that. He said that he knows Bnbf and that he competed with them in the past. So again with his encouragement I decided to try it one more time. This time with Natural Bodybuilding organization called Bnbf. Pete told me that I must do it, that it`s gonna be different and I am sure will love it. Basically I did the same thing, diet, cardio, workouts four times a week.... Same work 12 hours shifts at night...I was determined to do it again, stand on the stage and be the best I can be. The show was in August and I was little bit behind due to the fact that I gained so much fat during my holiday in Spain... So I had to do more cardio and diet was little bit more strict. But I loved it. Every bit of it. This time I was preparing I think 12 weeks compared to my first show where I did prepare for less than 8 weeks.

Life of a bodybuilder - part 1

I am going to write about my beginnings. Many people ask me why and how I started with bodybuilding...

I didn`t start just once. I started lifting weights when I was about 14 years old in my home made gym ( built by my father ). Simple old school weights and home made/built machines.

Fit for life.

I will write today about training for life. Not just regular "training". Not just "bodybuilding training", cross-fit training" etc. What I see every day in the gym is people even don`t know why they train. They don`t know how to train. They are not enjoying it. Who the hell on this planet Earth would train and don`t know why or how to train correctly?

Past five years I am enjoying my workouts so much that I feel like kid again. I normally weight train 3 to 4 times a week and do my drills/conditioning workouts 2 to 3 times a week. I train in the gym for strength and power. All my drill are done outside, whenever possible in the fresh air and sun. But even in the winter, I train when there is snow or rain or very cold freezing weather. I enjoy my power walks in the nature. It makes me feel more alive.

I made my best gains and my best progress so far. I feel strong, fit and agile. I can run fast, I can run long, I can jump high and far, I am pretty much flexible ( doing stretching regularly and sometimes yoga ). I feel great not just physically but also mentally.

I try to stick with basics. For example, for the chest I will do rack bench press, incline dumbbell press, dumbbell fly, dips; For back I will do rack dead lift or trap bar dead lift, rows, pull ups or pull downs; For legs I will do squat or rack squat, hack squat, leg press, stiff leg dead lift, lunges, you`ve got my point.

At my body weight of 205lbs at the moment I made fantastic progress with this "old school Conan program".

One thing more important than muscles...

Everyone is talking about getting big, getting jacked up, doing more pull ups, getting a bigger deadlift, benchpress… In the world we live in, there is plenty of great looking people, ripped up and looking like carved statues. 

But one thing that is more important is not how you look...  It is how you live. How hard you work. The dedication you put into the things you do. The discipline that you don`t post on instagram or facebook. 

After so many years of being a personal trainer I have worked with some shady people. People who don't care for ethics and people who don't care for excellence. What if those people could  deadlift 800lbs and were ripped up like a model?  Those physical features don't make up for the bad features.

I know that judging is not good. The point here is to look within yourself. How can you be better starting  from the inside, not just the outside? I do this myself daily. 

I know I will never be perfect but I must get better. This all starts on the inside.

www.udoschoice.cz

www.florahealth.com

Old School Bodybuilding #5

Drills were on the menu yesterday - I do them outside whenever possible, one or twice a week or if I feel I`ll do them after weight training session.

Drills

Combo:

Skipping rope 3 rounds 100
Hill sprints 3 rounds 3 sprints ( 3x sprints = 1 round )

Combo:

TRX pull up straps 3x 15reps
Two-arm kettlebell ( 2x45lbs KB ) push press 3x12 reps
TRX press up straps 3x15 reps

TIRE flips 3 rounds x 3 ( big heavy tire, I guess around 300-400lbs )

Old School Bodybuilding #4

Trained legs yesterday. Friday is a leg day for me for the past few years because my legs were always very strong and even on friday I can train them very hard.

Here is the workout:

Front machine squats 10r bar ( not sure how heavy is bar on this one ) 10r 90lbs + bar, 10r 180lbs + bar, 5r 230lbs + bar, 3r 270lbs +bar, 2x1r 320lbs + bar *using belt & chalk

Stiff leg deadlift 8r 315lbs/143kg, 8r 365lbs/165kg *using belt & wrist straps

Leg press 2x10r 675lbs/306kg

Step up on box with DB 2x10r each leg with 50lbs DB

Leg extensions 10,8r 220lbs/100kg ( all stack )

Lying leg curls 12,8r pin 10 ( all stack )

ABS: Hanging leg raises ( toes over top ) 15,12 r BW

*Stretching & foam rolling at the end.

Drills today - outside - fresh air - on the sun - can`t wait for fitness - agility movements!

Old School Bodybuilding for Strong - Healthy - Fit LIFE.

www.udoschoice.cz

www.florahealth.com