 I overslept this morning. I missed an appointment that I was gonna go to this morning regarding some help on unemployment, but it looks like I'm gonna have to push that to tomorrow. And now I'm going to get ready to drive to Riverside. It's gonna be about, looks like an hour and 20 minute drive where my coach is and then he's gonna help me with my posing and I really need to start practicing my posing multiple times a day until the competition because that's such a huge factor. I feel flat. I feel like just smaller than I should right now. I haven't been able to weight train in at least a couple of days, which is annoying. And so on my body, my muscles just all seem kind of flat. And obviously I've been dieting and I haven't been cheating at all. Usually I will do like a refeed or cheat meal once a week or once every two weeks. And I just, since I was so behind, I'm like I'm not gonna be doing that at all. But as a consequence, my body has kind of like shriveled up in a way. And it doesn't get that nice little pump from my refeeds and also from working out. So I'm just hoping that some trips to the gym will rectify that and nothing I can do about it right now. I just gotta keep doing what I'm doing, push full speed ahead. Are they gonna tackle the format? No. So they're gonna do a one-show format. So basically you guys are gonna go on for judging. Then you're gonna step off, the next class is gonna be judged. While that class is being judged, we have someone tallying up the scores. When we're done with that judging that class, we're gonna bring you guys right back on for awards. Oh wow, okay. So there's not gonna be like a pre-judging and a finals. It's just one type. Cause we're dealing with lighting issues and everything, it's outside. It's at Muscle Beach, right outside that cage. You ever been there? Yeah, I went quiet. Yeah, it's right there. So they hold a lot of shows out there. Oh, you know. Use like Veterans Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, they always have a show. It's a pretty popular place. It's gonna have a lot of exposure. You got Iron Man Magazine out there. You got photographers out there, media outlets. So basically you don't need a ticket cause people are just gonna be there. So that's gonna be your guys' pump up room too. So you gotta have like a whole gym out there. Cool, so have you, you remember the routine? Have you practiced it? I don't remember. I would say most of it, but like the details, the transitions, maybe that one. Okay, so what if you think simple, right? And you gotta be practicing every day. Dedicate time to practice, okay? My daily post-workout, so you know how you look pumped and everything and exhausted. Post-workout, yeah. Keep the abs tight, blow out all that air, smile the entire time, shallow breath through your teeth. Hold each, so another thing, can I get any of these poses, like a side chest? You're gonna just slowly rotate towards each judge. So you should be making eye contact with every judge because you've got judges on this side that need to see that side chest. They don't wanna see the back of your shoulder, okay? So make eye contact with every judge, make sure they see you, and then back down. It should be like three second count, one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, then get out of there, okay? Okay, I'll call you out, nice big smile and wave. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome competitor 64. Okay, so let's, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome competitor 64. Nice big wave, he did up there. So before I move, before you move, recent, yep, go and reset. Okay, so you did that side pose, actually. You did something that got me off, so just do it like that. So I can do this, or you just wanna do this and then go, yeah, the punch, punch out. I think I didn't do that, okay. And then here, you want me to turn around? You're gonna do it, you're gonna swing yourself around, and that, so basically, when you take that step up, boom. So simultaneously, boom, bring this arm up, and then you swing it up. So I'm gonna do it like this, yep, swing it up, look at that tricep, cool. Then you don't have to open back up, just go in and grab and go right to the side chest. Okay, now open back up into the side pose. Good, just hold it for a second and then you walk. Okay, yep, you're gonna do that to reset before you move. Good, and then we're gonna just swing it back, side tricep. Remember, you got Jersey over here, then you see him. Good, punch back out, open back up to the side pose. There you go, bring it down, up, nice and high, pull it down, and then open up, good. Pull this forward, good, bring those wrists back, awesome. Three second count, okay, open back up. Let's turn around. Yep, just turn it around. And then if you wanna do front double bicep, so you can do that to them, or you're just creating that X, you don't have to switch your feet or anything, just create that X, scoop underneath your pecs. Good, come up, nice, good smile. And then what I'd like you to do is when you're doing that, just go in, sit straight up with it. Straight up with it. Some balance on both? Yep, balance on both. And then right there, if you want, you can swing and hit it out, pose. Walk, walk, walk. And then swing back out into a stage dance, and wave off. And when you say no, or... I'm sorry. Dive coke, or what is it, soda? Dive soda is energy drinks. And also, you don't want any of the like, artificial sweeteners? Stevia's okay. Stevia's fine. Stevia's fine. Just check the stevia that you're using, cause a lot of them like to mix not to dextrin and dextrose with it. Okay. Erythritol? Erythritol. So it's a sugar alcohol. But the stevia's fine. What is that, what is that subduing that you're doing? If you're used to it? If you're used to it, if you're used to drinking diastodis and energy drinks like that, artificial sweeteners, your body's used to it, okay? So really it's not going to do much of anything. I'm just trying to eliminate as many unknown variables as possible. Cause it may or may not cause inflammation, water retention, so we're just trying to do that. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome competitor 64. Always look this way. Yep. Use your peripherals. Good. So just one more thing I'd like you to tweak. Just for more about dramatic, okay? So when you go down to your chest, actually look down at your hand and I want you to follow one hand up. There you go. Just make it dramatic. You don't have to smile or do that. Just make it look creepy. Just make yourself look serious. Look down at your hand. And then when you pull down, then you can look and smile. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome competitor 64. Take your time. Can you look away real quick? That's fine. Good. So now that we've just got to practice, practice, practice. Okay. You got the routine now? Yeah. Okay. We'll come back to it at the end, but now we're going to work on the mandatorys. Okay. All right. So after everyone's gone and done their T-Walk, presented themselves, they can line you up across center stage and then we're going to first do quarter turns. So no posing. We're just going to go to state stance, state stance, go all the way around. And then we'll call the poses. So go in front center, swing out that leg a little bit more, open you up. This one? Yep. A little bit wider base. Quarter turn to the right. Quarter turn to the right. Boom. Chest up nice and high, arms that lower back. Good. Again, rear delts nice and tight. Perfect. Just like that. That's it. Quarter turn to the right. And face front. We got one more time. Quarter turn to the right. Quarter turn to the right. Quarter turn to the right. And face front. All right, gentlemen. Front double biceps. Better balance. So I'm going to call that pose one more time. Front double bicep. Front double bicep. Chest back. Relax. Quarter turn to the right. Side chest. Relax. Side tricep. Face to the rear of the stage. Rear double biceps. Relax. Quarter turn to the right. Side chest. Look at that shoulder back. Side tricep. Face to the front. All right, gentlemen. Show us your abs. Relax. Keep tight. Now we'll rest. Left side intercostals. So you're just going to slide that front foot forward a little bit more and crunch down. Yeah, we're showing off those obliques. The charades. Left side intercostals. Let's do that. I like that. Okay. Feeling good? A lot of work. Yeah, we're good adults. Okay. So I call it relax. You're right back in your stage stance. I'm going to call it opposite side. Right side intercostals. Relax. Your favorite pose. Side chest. Try to turn yourself back in front. Thanks, gentlemen. We'll see you tonight for finals. We'll see you in a few minutes. Yes, sir. Okay, that's that call. Well, yeah. So it should be a relatively quick show. It's a big show. There's a lot of competitors, but it should be pretty quick for the competitors. So you'll be judged. Then we'll bring the next class on. And then you guys shouldn't be going anywhere too far. Because as soon as that class is done, you guys should come right back up to get your awards. So literally every class that they judge, they have one go and then go right back to it and do the awards. Yep. So you just alternate and come right back. It's good. You can practice posing in between sets. Okay. Positioning down. Flex, hold, and control the breathing. Okay? So you gotta control that breathing. What's the word, man? Keep the smile. All right? Breathe shallowly through your teeth. Okay? That's it. Okay? No belly breaths. All right? Breathe into your chest. Okay? Let's start. Stop it. You're looking great though, dude. Yeah? Yeah. But yeah, just stay the course. Stay on the plan. Keep pounding water. We're actually gonna increase your water intake Saturday through Thursday. Okay? And then we'll cook you back just slightly on Friday. And salt's still, keep salt the same. Okay? Actually, if anything, when we start your depletion phase, Monday through Wednesday, add a little bit extra salt to everything. Okay? Okay. So that was my posing coaching session that I did. Just drove out to Riverside, took me about an hour and a half to get there and went over the whole routine. As you saw, that's what I'm gonna have to be working on every day. The goal is multiple times a day until the competition because they're really gonna get it down really, really solid so that when you're on stage and you have people staring at you and you're like nervous and you're competing and you're completely depleted, that you're not gonna like forget the routine or stumble or seem anything but completely positively confident and sure of yourself, making that eye contact like he was saying with the judges the entire time and not hesitating at all. Everything has to be very well rehearsed and just super clean, confident and kind of sexy too. That's the goal. So, I hope that was, for those of you who have never seen anything like that or didn't even know what posing was as far as men's physique goes, maybe that enlightened you a little bit into the bodybuilding world. Yeah, and it sounds like there's gonna be a lot of people that are in this outside and there's no ticket cost and lots of exposure and Iron Man Magazine will be there covering it. Iron Man Magazine has recently switched over from just doing just the bodybuilding industry in general to focusing primarily on natural bodybuilders which I think is really cool and a very necessary change in the bodybuilding industry if people want bodybuilding to be legitimized and accepted by the general population and this federation specifically INVA, PNVA which I compete for and I love this federation, they want to be able to bring bodybuilding into the Olympic world as an Olympic sport. So, part of that process is by making rigorous testing and to ensure that it's natural WADA which is World Anti-Doping Agency Standards of Testing which is the same standards and regulations in place for Olympic athletes. So, basically they're treating their athletes with the same expectations that an Olympic athlete would in hopes that eventually the Olympic committee will see that and say, well, you guys are already on par with what we're doing so it'll be an easy change over to bring you guys into the Olympic world as an official Olympic sport. How cool would that be? Can get more into that in another time, that's a whole another can of worms to get into. All right, what time is it? It's almost five, I just took a little nap, I did some laundry, Duke peed on the bed. So, I mean, it wasn't a lot, like he didn't fall on pee. He just, you know, just a little bit because of his trauma and stuff. There will be times when he thinks he's in trouble even though he's not and when I try to talk to him he'll think he's in trouble and it's really, those moments are really hard because there's almost nothing I can do to ease him and if I, even if I'm talking sweetly and I come over and pet him he'll just start like peeing himself a little bit because he thinks he's in trouble or he's gonna get punished or something. So, that's hard because that makes me wanna freak out because he's peeing on my bed on the sheets and it's gonna soak into the mattress and I need to get him off the bed ASAP so I can remove the sheets and clean it up before it like soaks into everything and that makes it very tricky because I wanna treat him kindly but at the same time I can't spare a quarter of a second because I need to handle this now. So, sometimes that's tough but anyway. So I was doing laundry, I was washing the sheets, I had to do the clothes still later and I'm gonna go work out, I'm gonna do chest, I'm gonna do a little posing practice after my workout in the locker room and then I'll come back. Then I need to eat, I need to eat. I've only had my breakfast today so I need to make lunch, eat that. I got some editing to do today, I'll post my daily vlog. I'm sure there's more stuff to do but I don't really know what I think about it right now so I'm just gonna drink my pre-workout, go to the gym. Okay, cheers.