3 weeks 5 days....

I have abandoned squats now for the rest of my prep. There just isn't enough of me to get through those these days.

Last evening we played the pre-exhaustion game w/ curls and extensions, then hopped on the Nautilus Duo-Squat machine. I forgot how much I LOVE that machine. It allows you to get a super range of motion, and it works the entire front and back of the leg, and glutes very well too! It does save the area above the knee, so we were able to progress over to our much loved Sissy Squats. I didn't even miss squats last night...that was until I saw someone else squatting in the power rack... :(

Progress - I finally had those shoulder stripes (striations) that I've been looking for yesterday. I do fade as the day wear on, but they were there early iin the morning. I'm still a bit watery, but I do believe that that is my plague forevermore. I am not ALOT watery, just a bit. Water is, however, combatable.

I also wanted to point out that in addition to doing no cardio, no abs, drinking wine every day and eating red meat everyday, I also eat FRUIT (oh, the EVIL fruit!! ;) ) everyday, all the way through contest prep - AND peanut butter (I just now ate a TBSP)... and I don't practice any of that "no-carb low carb high carb" rotation that seems to be ever so prevalent in contest prep these days. Every bodybuilder I talk to or hear talk is always on a no-carb day...OY VEY!!! Carbs are what fuel your brain, why would I want to purposely cut my brain power down? Sorry, I'm starting to get on a roll here - no, I haven't placed very high YET in a BB contest, but you canNOT dispute the fact that my conditioning has always been among the best in the show. I was very much overlooked last year - and this year...HAH!!!! Let us not forget that I did my first national level show with only a year and a half ot training under my belt, and I held my own. This year is only 3 and a half years into training, so I still have lots of gains to make, both in bodybuilding and powerlifting!