WEIGHT: 216.5
To this point, I am very satisfied with my training and progress. I am still staying as heavy as I can on all of my lifts and avoiding the 13+ rep ranges, unless it is a burnout. My waist has really started to shrink and I am seeing the benefits of avoiding direct oblique training this off-season. I have a pretty thick waist from all the olympic style lifting I did during college football, so I really have to be careful when I hit a lot of powerlifting moves in the off season. Heavy squats and deadlifts give me plenty of core work; so hitting my obliques directly would really push them out. I think I may have actually managed to shrink my waist size all together! Pair that with wider lats and thicker leg development and we may have a nice thing going here!
My diet and training will continue as usual for at least the next 3-4 weeks; I am on a perfect pace and want to keep it that way. By the way…. I still have not yet had to incorporate that damn treadmill or any other piece of cardio equipment into my training. Gotta love that!
Large, defined obliques should be a plus and make the difference between a champion and a runner up, if all else was equal. Bodybuilding is about building up the body and not training it down or avoiding certain exercises that make you smaller. One of the criteria for the judges is size and another definition. I do not see how having small obliques meets the symmetry standard when the goal is to build up all muscles equally. Since large obliques seem to grow naturally on you with the Olympic lifts and the power lifts, then the best course of action would be to use this to your advantage and to win your upcoming contest by also adding other exercises to bring out definition as well as your posing to bring out definition and to work on how best to show your superiority over other competitors in this area through your presentation of your obliques. Why are you detraining your obliques for your upcoming event?
Steve, my obliques were actually over developed and created a “boxy” look when they were at their largest. Generally speaking, even though my obliques are slightly smaller; they are certainly very well developed! Also, bodybuilding is not strictly about building up the body; this mentality is the competitive death of many competitors. It is about symmetry and proportion before it is about size. Yes, size is great and should be pursued (my lean mass is up about 7 pounds since World Championships), but symmetry should be goal number 1, then followed by equal and consistent mass gain.