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"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

Super Bowl or Super Feast?

02.01.2012 13:24:30

The rapper-turned-actor, Ice Cube, once said in one of his songs from back in the day, “Y’betta check yo’self before y’wreck yo’self…”. That’s my advice to many of you this coming Sunday – Super Bowl Sunday. For the majority of the world, Super Bowl Sunday is a day of eating, relaxation, trash-talking, eating, watching the game, entertaining, eating, yelling at the guys, yelling at the refs, yelling at (and gettin’ your head knocked off later) your wife…and let’s not forget the most important thing…eating!

Ahhh yes…Super Bowl Sunday…having the guys come over, throwing some steaks or burgers on the grill, opening up the bags of Lays Chips, Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos, and all the other O’s, along with nuts, dips, beer, coolers, wine, alcohol, and anything else your ethnicity adds in. For many, it’s the life – the day that’s bigger than Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Mom’s Day, and all the others combined. But for the competitor…nada…

Well…lemme rephrase…for the SERIOUS competitor – for the competitor who understands the task at hand and knows what he or she needs to do – for the competitor who has committed to achieving his or her all-time best look – for the competitor who understands sacrifice – for the competitor who has said over and over and over again, “This is MY show…”…nada - Super Bowl Sunday is just another day.

Personally, I’m gonna watch the game, but I’ll watch it at home all alone. I don’t mind. It doesn’t bother me. I haven’t watched a Super Bowl game with family or company in several years for a couple reasons. One, I like to WATCH AND LISTEN to the game. Do you guys know how hard that is with a room full of black people milling about? We are LOUD! Especially when we’re in a social environment! Don’t believe me? Just ask Elaine Craig or Tony Ruggiero what they thought the first time they came to one of The Dr’s house parties…they were like, “WTH…these people are CRAZY!” That’s how we roll. We have fun. And we’re loud. And because of that, I don’t want ‘em in my house when I wanna watch the game. I love my peoples but I like peace and quiet when watching the Super Bowl so I can hear everything, especially the commercials. I remember one year I had a bunch of people over. The noise level was so intense I went into my bedroom, closed the door, hooked the headphones up to the TV, and watched the rest of the game in there. That’s just me. I don’t need the social interaction to enjoy myself. If you can be kinda quiet and be into the game, you can come over. If you wanna talk the whole game, I’m not the guy for you.

Two, the Super Bowl is a complete and total food fest. Every time I either held a party or went to a Super Bowl party, it seemed to be more about the food than the game. With 11 weeks to go this Saturday, there’ll be some of you who definitely need to stay home! You know who you are. Don’t think you can go over to your partner’s/girlfriend’s house and not eat or drink anything and just watch the game like a good little boy or girl…yea…right…

You know you’ll be in that dip faster than a pig in space. It’s been my own personal experience and from talking with so many competitors that days like the Super Bowl are ‘traumatic’ to say the least, for many. I know I want to eat. I know I’m GOING to eat. That’s why it’s easier for me to stay home. Even when I took my own food I cheated. To me it was like Thanksgiving…there’s absolutely no way I was gonna be around all of that food and not touch one single bite. And once I started, I gave in to my Thanksgiving mantra, “I’m gonna eat ‘till I get sick…”. Now there’s a select few of you that can tolerate the food and not give in. Not me. And if you know you’re in that category as well, then my recommendation would be to stay home. It’s not worth it. Once you go into the pool you’re gonna end up in the deep end real quick!

All joking aside, Super Bowl Sunday is a great day for friendship, camaraderie, and peace of mind. We gather, we enjoy each other’s company, and we party. Nothing wrong with that. But know who you are. And know what you will and will not do. If your mental discipline is not that strong, my recommendation is to forego the fellowship and enjoy the game in the privacy of your own home. I’d hate to see someone ‘blow it’ this Sunday by pigging out thinking they’ve got enough time to dial in when they were sitting on the cusp to begin with. Don’t make your work any harder than it has to be. But if you do choose to party like a rock star and eat like Oprah Winfrey, then be ready for one of two things…harder work or a butt-kicking at the 30^th Anniversary Emerald Cup! You’ve been warned…peace…

The Dr.

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"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

If It Ain't On The LIst, Don't Eat It!

02.01.2012 00:10:03

Last blog I promised to write on nutrition, so here we go. Even though I’ve written dozens of blogs and probably hundreds of articles on nutrition over the years, and written quite a few on this site over the past 3 years, there’s always a new competitor who doesn’t know this game. And I also know that one person’s way of saying something just might make sense to a reader over another person’s writing style. What I’m saying is not new, not revolutionary, and definitely not the gospel on nutrition, but if it can help someone, then I’ve done my job. So lemme see if I can help that one person…and perhaps remind others of where they should be and what they should be doing in their own nutrition.

This past weekend we were 12-weeks out from the 30^th Anniversary Emerald Cup. At this point, unless you’re roughly 12 lbs. or less out from your show, you should be 100% on task. What does that entail? Well…before I get into that, let me say that the number of ways to diet down are as many as the styles of Martial Arts…everyone has their own style, and they all think their style is the best. I’m not gonna argue with anyone on what the ‘best’ way to diet down is. I’ve said this many times, “All diets work, and all diets fail…”. What I WILL say is, find out what ‘plan’ works best for you and stick to it. Quit jumping from one competition diet to another. That’s why you shouldn’t get fat in the first place – so you’ll have enough time to experiment with different plans until you find the one that works best for you. Secondly, know your body type. That will typically tell you what plan(s) fall in your diet-sphere. Finally, if you need help, find someone who’s knowledgeable in ALL the ways of dieting down – not just the one way in which he/she dieted down. That way, if/when you get stuck, your competition coach will know how to take the appropriate action to get you coming down again.

I’ve seen it too many times before…a trainer who does decent in a show decides to become a ‘competition coach’ and toss his/her hat into the ring. I don’t have a problem with that as long as the trainer possesses enough knowledge and information to help ALL his/her clients – not just the ones built like him or her. Otherwise the competitor client ends up on a cookie-cutter routine or an exact replica of what the trainer does. Not smart. Not good for the competitor. Just last year I picked up 3 people whose trainers, although nationally qualified, didn’t have a clue on how to dial their people down. Sometimes the most dangerous trainer is the brand new one. As my professor, Dr. Hacker, used to constantly tell us, “A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous…”. I’ve helped many a competition coach through the dieting down stages of their clients because they (the coaches) were lost. The client stalled and the trainer didn’t know which way to go with him/her. Heck, even I still get mystified over a client every now and then. But this blog isn’t about trainers, so back on point…

We learned last blog that with 12 weeks to go, one could easily drop 10-12 lbs. of bodyfat on 1 to 1-1/2 hours of cardio and clean foods. 13 to about 20 lbs. would take around 1-1/2 to 2 hours with clean foods, while 21 or more lbs. probably would take at least 2 hours a day. Now I know some of you are wondering or questioning this info…well…I’m a cardio person, so that’s what I do and teach. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know the other ways. If you’re not a cardio person, then you’d better be ready to drop those total calories, and especially those carb calories to lean out. And if you’re a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) person and you’re pushing hard enough (and your calories are dropped enough) you can get by on one session of 30 minutes...but you’d better be ready to bust your butt, and I mean bust it HARD for that to happen. So are we clear on the cardio/no cardio/long cardio thing? I know em all, so if you need any explanation on whether you should use this or that method, holla.

Realizing that everyone is different, and this is just general information, I can’t categorically say where you’re at on the continuum and what you need to do unless I see and comp you. So I’ll use me as an example and everyone can adjust accordingly. I just cut my oatmeal to 25 gm wt with a slice of Dave’s Killer Bread as my starch for breakfast. My protein is either egg whites with some turkey breast (that amount’s classified…) or chicken. I eat what THIS body needs, realizing that I’m not a mass monster, and I know how my body works, and I know my timeline. Since my cardio is still only 45 minutes in the morning, I’m s-l-o-w-l-y dropping my starchy carbs and replacing it with Parrillo Performance’s CapTri – a medium chain triglyceride that’s called the ‘fatless fat’. It processes and acts like a carb in the system, making dieting slightly more tolerable. I only take my starchy carbs so low up to 8 weeks out and then I up my cardio to one 60-minute session. Then I’ll see how the body is responding and stair-step the carbs/cardio cuts until I achieve the look I want. All of this is assuming this ole’ body will hold up to the rigors of contest dieting…

The rest of my meals are simple – protein, veggies, carbs, in that order. I adjust as I need to based upon my timeline. What you have to understand is how to manipulate your macros, meaning we’re all eating protein, veggies, and carbs…the question is, how much do YOU get to eat, and what’s your ratio compared to mine compared to Joe’s, Sally’s, Bertha’s and all the other competitors. Another question you have to ask is HOW MUCH do I get to eat in relation to everyone else? If Big Bradd gets to eat 750 cal/meal and I try to eat what he eats, I’ll blow up faster than your kid’s summer beach ball. Now do you see why I don’t like and don’t do cookie-cutter diets? If no two people are exactly the same, how is it possible for those same two people to be on exactly the same food plan…especially if one is a 5’4”, 135 lb. female and the other is a 5’10” 195 lb. male? It’ll never work. Either one will dial in beautifully and the other will look like crap, or they’ll both be off their macros and neither will dial in to their best look.

Every person I work with, I get as much detailed info on their life and what they’ve done in the past to give me clues into what ‘plan’ will work best for that individual. Some are similar, no doubt, but some are totally way out there. For example, last year I had Gerry Bernabe, the bantamweight overall winner at the Wash. Ironman pretty much doing what he wanted until the final 3 weeks or so. His body was a genetic marvel so the best thing I could do for him was to get out of his way until the last few days and then dial him in. Barb O’Dell, on the other hand, (the Most Inspirational Award at the Ironman for having lost 180 lbs. on her way to the stage WITHOUT surgery or drugs…) had to start doing double cardio sessions 18 weeks out as her body was stubborn in releasing fat. I was wracking my brains trying to figure out how to keep her from stalling as her normally obese body was fighting her every step of the way once she got below 200 lbs. It may seem easy, but it’s not. When you’re dialing in a dozen plus competitors, let’s just say that good note-taking is highly recommended. There’s no way I can remember everyone’s individualized food plans, and when I don’t keep track, it shows!

IN GENERAL, I can tell you that many of you will fall into the 3-8 oz. of protein/meal based upon size, muscularity, sex, lifestyle, etc. Being off an ounce or two over the course of your diet doesn’t seem like it’s a big deal, but it can be the difference between 1^st and 3^rd come contest day. That’s why it’s important to know your body and understand your macronutrient ratios and amounts. Your veggies are easy – unlimited amounts for the majority of you. If you need an amount, then go with 7-10 oz. (that’s 150-200 gm wt for you metric people). The starchy carbs are the lil’ tricky creatures. Some of you might do well with large amounts, some with literally none, and some dispersed in small amounts throughout the day. Again, it would be unwise of me tell an entire readership what to do and expect it to work for everyone. But I can tell you that once you find that magic number of carbs that YOUR body needs, you’ll know it within a week – guaranteed! And once you find your numbers, then follow it! Don’t be haphazardly changing things up thinking you know better than your coach or you read this or that saying this is what you should do. FOLLOW THE PLAN!!! If you’re doing your own diet, you HAVE to give it about a week to 10 days to see the effects of it. You’ll know in that period of time if it’s working. If not, make subtle changes. If you’ve hired a coach, do what the coach says! That’s the only way your coach can determine what’s working for you and what isn’t.

Well, that’s about it for this blog. I’ve got just some chicken to eat for my last meal. I might have half of a Parrillo Protein bar right before bed…don’t’cha just hate those people who can still eat literally right up to bed and still diet down…peace…

The Dr.

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"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

Time to kick it up a notch...

01.26.2012 06:26:16

12 weeks this Saturday. That’s it. That’s all the time we have. It’s an eternity – 3 months – but it’ll fly by faster than the F-18’s that scrambled out of Portland last summer when President Obama was in Seattle and some idiot invaded restricted airspace…airborne and over Seattle in less than 6 minutes I heard. That’s how fast these 12 weeks will seem to disappear.

If you’ve been on task then you have nothing to worry about. If you knew your timeline and adhered to it, you’re in good shape. But if you’ve been naughty…well…you’ve got some work to do. Let’s take a look at where you should be on the continuum timeline…

If we’re looking at how much fat we have to lose, the formula is simple – we can safely and realistically shed 1.5 to 2 lbs. of bodyfat a week. That should translate into .75 to 1% change in body composition. It’s extremely difficult to drop more than 1% of fat/week unless you’re on the dark side. That’s a blog for another day. But rest assured that a 1% change is quite a bit to change in 7 days…and to do that you’ll have to be literally perfect. The formula is simple – lose 2 lbs. of fat a week with 12 weeks to go – 24 lbs. of fat loss with minimal lean mass loss. If you have more than 24 lbs. to lose, well…you’d better plan on more cardio or even less calories or more drugs to get that fat off!

Even though losing the 24 lbs. is simple, it’s not easy. You’ll have to be perfect – beyond excellent – to make it happen. Losing 2 lbs. a week in my book means doing 2 hours of cardio a day (or expending the equivalent in HIIT cardio in a 30-45 minute period, which is DAMN HARD…) and probably dropping most of your starchy carbs out except for the oatmeal at breakfast. Not fun. Expect to suffer. Expect to suffer hard! As far as I’m concerned, cheat meals are a thing of the past. I know many individuals and trainers will disagree with me, but time and time again, I’ve seen people who ‘cheated’ through their contest diet and people who held their diet, and in just about every instance, the person who held looked significantly better. There’s a great short video out by Dave Palumbo and Kevin Levrone that says it all, in case you think I’m just stupid and don’t know what I’m talking about. Start at about 3:40 and run to the end…it’ll open your eyes if you haven’t already seen it…and it’ll re-awaken you if you have. I know it did and continues to do so for me every time I watch it. It doesn’t ‘motivate’ me, but rather it gets my head on straight on what I have to do to accomplish what I said I wanted to do – come in looking my absolute best for my last show.

I’m not saying that when the time is necessary, you plug in some starchy carbs, such as yams, potatoes, rice, beans, etc. But I am saying that the free-for-all food fest on a Friday/Saturday/or Sunday evening needs to fall by the wayside. Just humor me for a sec, will ya…if you have say, 30 lbs. of fat to drop in the next 12 weeks, why in the world are you taking in unnecessary fat every weekend? I understand the Anabolic diet, the Paleo/Caveman diet, and all the other so-called ‘best-way-to-diet-down-for-your-show’ diets. If you or your trainer wants to do that, and it WORKS for you, then you can click out and be about your merry business. But if you’ve done that in the past and went in your show fat, and you’re wanting to do that again this time, that sounds like the definition of insanity to me…doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome.

There will ALWAYS be a small percentage of the population for which ANY crazy diet will work – heck, it worked for the individual who ‘invented’ it…or did it? How many times have you seen a current picture of the person who SWEARS by this or that diet and they’re in great shape because they’ve been following it for years? Unless it’s lifestyle-oriented, I’d be willing to bet very few if any. Diets in which you have to severely restrict calories or do really dumb, stupid things to diet down are setting you up for a tremendous rebound effect post-contest. You’ve worked hard to get in the best shape of your life, and then two weeks after the show you look like a bloated beach whale about to deliver…doesn’t make sense to me. But I digress…back on point…

The goal is to be at a point to where you only need to lose 1 to 1.5 lbs. of fat/week. That makes the ‘suffering’ bearable. If you’re at a point to where you only need to lose about a pound a week, then you’re sittin’ pretty. At this point you still only need one cardio session a day. It could be the 30-minute HIIT (and please understand that a true HIIT will leave you exhausted and dripping water on the floor…) or a 45-60 minute HISS (High Intensity Steady State – you’re working in a range of 80-90% of your VO2 max as opposed to going into your anaerobic zone on the HIIT – if you don’t understand, hit me up and I’ll explain in more detail). Your foods are in order with no cheat meals added in. The goal is to be at your contest look a couple of weeks out and just coast into the show doing the water, carb, and sodium (if you do that) manipulation thing. In other words, you wanna make life easy for yourself. I absolutely HATE to put people on more than 2 hours of cardio a day…all that means is they were behind the power curve by waiting too long to get serious about their contest diet or their foods are waaaay off which usually means they’re cheating. Either way, they just increased their own misery and run the risk of either dropping out of the show or never doing another show again.

Personally, I prefer to stay within 10 lbs. of contest weight. Part of the reason is because I’m old. I don’t want to stretch out my skin any more than absolutely necessary. Heck, in a few more years I’ll be saggin’, baggin’, and draggin’ due to Father Time gettin’ in bed with me…I don’t wanna have him visit any sooner that when he’s supposed to. The other is because I’ve learned. I learned 20+ years ago that as a drug-free competitor, my contest weight, regardless of what I do, is around 160-162 lbs. As I’m aging it’s dropping a bit. But at 57 years old, I don’t expect to ‘bulk up’ in the ‘off-season’ and miraculously gain an additional 10-15-20 lbs. of muscle. C’mon…seriously? If that were going to happen, don’t you think it would’ve already happened?

I’m at 5-6 lbs. to lose to make contest weight/look. That’s assuming I haven’t lost any more lean mass due to aging. Life is good right now. Next blog I’ll go into a bit more detail on what foods you should be eating. As I say to all of my people who are dialing down, “If it ain’t on the list, don’t eat it…” Peace…

The Dr.

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"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

Pavlov's Dog Theory applied...

01.18.2012 14:49:57

Yesterday afternoon one of the independent trainers who leases the use of my facility had one of his clients in. The trainer’s client was nice. Talkative but nice. I was in the middle of my workout and I guess he didn’t quite understand gym etiquette rules – the number one rule being “You don’t talk to a person in the middle of a set, especially when he’s in full contest prep mode for the Emerald Cup”! Newbies…gotta love em, huh? N-E-Whooo…after about the 4^th time of me ignoring him (I’m never rude or mean…I just continue to ignore people during the set, and when I’m done I casually look over and ask, “Did you say something?” By the 3^rd or 4^th time they usually ‘get it’…) he left me alone until the end of the workout. Then came the flood of questions. Now mind you, this is not my client. I, for the most part, deliberately stay out of the gym when other trainers are in there to avoid awkward situations such as this. But sometimes life gets in the way and I’ve gotta get my workout in when I can get it in, and yesterday was one of those days. The conversation first started off in the form of a statement…

Him: “You’ve got a great gym here, Dave!”

Me: “Thank you…appreciate it…”

Him: “Really nice – love the layout, pictures, sayings, and especially the privacy! I hated going to that other gym we used to train at.”

Me: “Thanks…”

Him: “Hey, can I ask you something?” (This coming while his trainer is standing right there…the trainer looks at his client, then me).

Me: “Yea…what?”, I cautiously reply. I’ve always been of the mindset that I don’t ‘steal’ clients from other trainers, and because of that philosophy, I shy away from answering questions from new lifters who have trainers. No, I’m not egotistical – far from it! But I do have a Master’s Degree in this field and over 37 years’ experience as a trainer, competition coach, and competitor, going up against an early 20-something, 2-day certified trainer in my own gym – game over if I want it to be.

Him: “What’s your take on cardio? I mean, how much do you do and what do you think I should do?” His trainer now has that deer-in-the-headlights stare as he looks at me…

Me: “Personally, I do 45 minutes every day – been doing that for years…but for you I recommend you ask your trainer. He can answer that for you”. The trainer kinda breathes a sigh of relief…

Him: “Yea, but we’re in the same age group (we’re both in our 50’s) so I was wondering if I need to do something different because of my age…”

Me: “[Your trainer] can answer…that’s an easy question…”.

I tried to get out of the gym but the client kept asking questions. I kept referring him back to his trainer, but this dude was really pushing for answers. I even tried to defer the conversation to the trainer but he was in over his head. Finally the client started talking more than asking questions, so I just listened. He got on the topic of foods (doesn’t everybody?) and said, “I gotta tell ya, Dave, one of the best meals to have for dinner is…” and then goes off on this in-depth explanation of food preparation with wild hand gestures, wide-eyed looks, excitement, animation, and all the other adjectives. I listened for a few minutes as he described how to make an Italian dish with yada, yada, yada…finally I stopped him.

Me: “You’re a food addict.”

Him: “Huh?”

Me: “You’re a food addict…you’re addicted to food! Listen to you – you’re getting more and more excited as you talk about and describe how to make the meal.” He looked at me with this incredulous look. “You’re Pavlov’s Dog.” Laughter…

“I’m serious – you’re Pavlov’s Dog theory in human form. You’re literally salivating as you describe the food dishes. You’re so excited it’s crazy!”

Him: He pauses for a second as he’s thinking…”Wow! I never looked at it that way! Yea…I guess you could say I’ve got a love affair with food…”

We continued the conversation for a few more minutes and then I bugged out. After I came in the house I realized that at the seminar I held this past weekend 3 of the participants got up to share their story and they all said the same thing – “I’m addicted to food!” Now this is no revelation to me. I mean, I deal with people and their foods on a daily basis. But with everyone dialing down for the EC and Vancouver, I thought it might be a good thing to see if you too have a ‘Pavlov’s Dog’ mindset.

Do you constantly think about your next meal? Are you literally foaming at the mouth as you count down the minutes to ‘chow time’? If so, you might be Pavlov’s Dog! Do you post to FB every time you get ready to eat, while you eat, and finish eating? If so, then you just might be a Pavlov Dog. Are you on a weekly cheat meal (a better question is why in the world would you need a cheat meal this far out?) and all you can do is talk about your cheat meal all week long leading up to your cheat meal like it’s your last meal on Death Row? Yea…you know it…you’re probably a Pavlov Dog. Are you looking at every McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, and every other fast food sign you drive by with unabashed wanton lust in your eyes and mouth watering? You just crossed over into the Pavlov’s Dog Zone. Do you get a ‘contact high’ every time you pass candy, chips, or donuts? Bow-Wow…

C’mon people, it’s just food! While I can appreciate a good meal, especially a good home-cooked meal, the thought of food is not all-encompassing and literally orgasmic to me. Food is fuel, pure and simple. It’s energy to allow me to replenish what I just expended or get ready for what I’m about to do. I don’t have a love affair with food. Now I know this isn’t gonna sit right with a lot of you, but you’ve gotta understand the task at hand here and how the mind works.

If all you do is think and talk about food during your contest diet, you’re gonna have one hell of a hard diet! Yes, we’re gonna talk about it, yes, we’re gonna get sick of the foods we eat, and yes, we’ll be so glad when the contest is over. I’m not gonna sit here and lie to you and say that the commercials won’t become more appealing as I get closer, and that pizza contest night will be oh so good, but as long as I’m on task, they’re bearable. But the one thing I’ve learned NOT to do is continually talk about food to every single person I meet during the day. I don’t blast out on FB to all who’ll listen (and to those that don’t really care as well) every morsel that goes in my mouth. If all you do is think about food, talk about food, and write about food, then food will be a major issue for you. Self-fulfilling prophecy will kick in for many – they’ll sabotage themselves because they’ve got food on the brain. You’ll start justifying a small piece of this, a little bite of that, a slice or taste of this…and the next thing you know it’s showtime and you’re still 5-7-10 lbs. away from stage look, all because of your Pavlovian ‘addiction’ to food.

Your thoughts instead should shift to how you’ll look contest day. See yourself as you want to see yourself onstage that morning, and I promise you the foods and meals will be more bearable and tolerable. Talk about anything BUT foods. Learn to control your foods and your thoughts about foods rather than let foods control you. It’s hard. For many it’ll be a learned behavior. It’s sorta like learning how to speak positively and upbeat instead of negatively and gossipy. It CAN be done. It’ll take work, but once you learn to change your thoughts and focus by changing your behavior the food issues will fade…and your onstage look will improve!

If you find yourself breaking out into a sweat, getting anxious, excited, all shakey, almost panting and turning in circles over the anticipation of your next meal…I got a bone for ya…I’m just sayin…peace.

The Dr.

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"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

Dreamer or Doer?

01.14.2012 14:25:08

“Most people are dreamers. The ones that don’t act on their dream are not doers, their dream becomes just a daydream. The ones that act on their dream and work every day toward their goal and purpose of the dream are successful people and they make their dream come true! You’ve dreamed of this, you’re working for this, YOU have a plan in action! You are a champion!” Elaine Wright Craig – Promoter of the Emerald Cup and Washington Ironman Championships

This is a quote that was tagged on the end of the newest competitor’s newsletter that Elaine put out. She nailed it! I couldn’t have said it better myself. We dream, we want, we think, but do we ACT? There’s a saying in my gym – “Thoughts determine what you want, ACTION determines what you get!” You can’t just think about competing, you’ve got to act on it. And once you start acting on it, you’ve got to “Find out what is necessary, and do the necessary well!”

We’re 14 weeks out from the EC and 11 weeks out from the Vancouver. For all of you first-time competitors, you’re getting ready to enter the lion’s den, the gladiator’s arena, the Octagon! It’s going to be like getting in a fight with Mike Tyson in his prime. It’ll be like Tina Turner’s line in “Beyond Thunderdome” – ‘Two men enter, one man leaves’. At some point during this journey you’ll literally feel like you’re fighting for your life (or sanity…). If you’re doing everything correctly you’ll feel like death warmed over hot coals. But like Elaine said, your success comes when you step onstage in front of 1500-3000 people looking better than you’ve ever looked in your entire life! You ARE Dorothy in The Wizard of OZ. You ARE Rudy. You’ve accomplished what few have. For that you should give yourselves a pat on the back.

For those of you who’ve competed previously and not done well, step up your game! You have no control over the outcome but you DO have control over your work ethic, your cardio, and your nutrition. You CAN push yourself harder. You CAN eat cleaner. YOU CAN! Don’t talk about it, don’t think about it, don’t over-analyze it – DO IT! Let your actions in the gym and your look onstage be your talk.

If you competed before, did you take last or have you ever taken last in a show? I did. It sucked. I didn’t care what family, friends, co-workers, and others said, it sucked, with a capital S-U-C-K-E-D! That was the one and only time I ever took last. It will suck for you too. No one can make you feel better when you come in dead last, especially when you have the opportunity NOW to do something about it. I had the opportunity to do something but I had the ‘That’s good enough’ mentality back then. Guess what? I was wrong. It wasn’t enough. I could have done more. More cardio, more intensity on the weights, better nutrition, but I ‘settled’ for ‘that’s good enough’. I’ve never settled for that since, and I’m imploring you to not settle for it now.

For those of you who’ve never competed, the same applies to you. Don’t think that ‘good enough’ is good enough. I promise you it isn’t. Push until there’s nothing left. Push until the tank is empty. Trust me, you’ll know when that is. Push until you’ve accomplished what you set out to accomplish before the workout started. How so? Easy. You walk into the gym with a plan-of-action. You know what you have to do - how many exercises, sets, reps, cardio minutes, etc. that you want…no…NEED to do in advance. The old days of haphazard training is gone. Structure and organization is the new wave. I promise that if you’re a ‘hit-n-miss’ trainee in the gym, you’ll be a ‘close-to-last-place-if-not-last-place competitor.

This is YOUR journey. Make it happen. Peace…

The Dr.

253-576-4859 - Mobile

"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

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Talent, Skill, and Hard Work

01.10.2012 14:14:31

Go into any inner-city neighborhood and swing by the basketball courts. There you’ll find dozens of talented basketball players with names like “Half-man Half-Amazing”, “The Goat” (because he’ll eat you up), “SkyWalker”, “The Air Up There”, “Helicopter”, “Loopey” (because that’s how he’ll leave you on the court), “The Dizzler” (because he’ll spin you around so many times you’ll be dizzy) and many others. They’re talented – that God-given gift of jumping, quickness, speed, instinctiveness…things you can’t teach. You’re born with talent. You can’t create talent. You can’t teach talent. But they never got out of the ‘hood’. Why? Only they can truly answer but we can surmise that for a few they weren’t willing to learn the fundamentals – the skill component of basketball to propel them to the next level. Talent will take you only so far, my friends. The world is full of talented people whom you’ve never heard of and who never achieved their full potential due to lack of hard work and skill development.

My older brother has a talent – a gift – for playing the piano. He was playing before he could read. God’s gift to him. My older sister on the other hand doesn’t have that talent – that gift. Oh, she can play, and she can play beautifully, but she reads music whereas my brother can just ‘hear’ a song and play it better than the person playing. My sister took piano lessons for years to learn her ‘skill’ whereas my brother was born with his ‘talent’.

Now here’s the interesting thing…if my brother would have practiced enough to learn how to truly read and compose music, he could have been another Prince or Billy Preston. On the other hand, if my sister would have had ‘the gift’ and talent, along with her dedication to years of practicing in developing her skill, she could have been another Aretha Franklin. Put the both of them together and you have one super musician. But separately, they’re both…well…they’re both very good for where they are locally, but not good enough to take them to the next level. They’re great local musicians who are just average on a bigger scale.

My great-nephew, on the other hand, discovered he had an ‘ear’ for music at an early age – his talent/gift. He had my brother work with him and help him hone that part. Then he had my sister teach him how to read music. The combination was magical for him. He now possessed the talent/gift and the skill. Add to that the work ethic he incorporated in college and post-graduate studies and now he’s one of the leading African-American musicians on the East Coast, having played and conducted at Carnegie Hall and in front of President Obama among other engagements.

Then there’s me. Sad, really. I used to watch my brother play and how he ran the keyboards and so wanted to be like him. I watched my sister read sheets of music, playing and singing, and I so wanted to be like her. I even went as far as to sit on the piano and just plunk away, waiting for the day when it would ‘hit’ me and I’d be the pianist and organist my older siblings were. I wasted two-plus years of my life taking piano lessons, paying for them myself with my paperboy money. Alas, it was to no avail – I did not possess the talent. Nor did I possess the skill. I had the work ethic but the other two components just weren’t there.

So where am I going with this? Well, fast forward 20 years or so…I’d been involved in bodybuilding for years. I trained hard, I ‘bulked up’, I rested…I did everything I was supposed to do. Why didn’t I grow? Why didn’t I look like Arnold or Lee Haney or even Frank Zane? I mean, I did everything they did, including taking steroids for a couple of years! Followed their routines to the letter including one day doing 50+ sets of squats (which probably was one of the dumbest things I could have ever done considering I had a bad case of scoliosis). But the one thing I didn’t possess, just like piano playing, was that ‘talent’ component – that gift of building quality muscle in all the right places literally regardless of what I did. I remember training with Kim Farrison, Joe Dawson, Mike “Baby Hulk” Harris, and others, and watching them get bigger, stronger, build huge quads, massive chests and arms, and go to the National level in competitiveness. Heck, Joe Dawson even won the Lightweight class at the Nationals and got his pro card. But Dave??? Even though I got up to 220 lbs. (and believe me, it wasn’t a pretty 220…) I was simply fat and unbalanced. There’s an old saying, “Take a small dumb bodybuilder and put him on steroids and all you’ve got is a big dumb bodybuilder”. Well, I was a small imbalanced bodybuilder, and all I became was a big imbalanced bodybuilder.

My point is, you’ve gotta play with the hand you’re dealt with. It took me a long time to realize that genetically I wasn’t ‘gifted’ and ‘talented’ enough to do anything truly serious with this physique and in this sport. I tried, Lord knows I tried, but it just didn’t work out for me. I learned that in school but didn’t want to admit it to myself initially. I learned about lever length, fiber type, fast-twitch vs. slow-switch, origin and insertion of muscle tendons, bone type, body type, and lots of other things. I learned the science of nutrition including macro and micro-nutrients, timing of foods, and eating for various sports and activities. I learned all of the different diets out there – The Zone (40-30-30), The Paleo Diet, Eat Right For Your Blood Type, Pritikin, and so many others, and I learned how to manipulate foods to achieve my best look. I consider myself expert in the psychological component of sports having taken upper division Sports Psychology. Yet with everything I knew and did, I didn’t grow.

I’m not Joe DeRousie. I’m not Todd Jewell. I’m not Roger Baker or any other big guy. I’m Dave Patterson, a 5’11” 158-160 lb. competitor when I step onstage. And y’know what? I’m cool with that! I’m not trying to be anything more than MY best. There is no dream of going pro, no dream of going to the national level. I could care less. The potential of me building muscle is akin to hanging in a stretch rack thinking I’ll eventually become 6’6” – it ain’t gonna happen!

I spent my early youth trying to be like my older brother and sister. I spent my young adulthood chasing a dream to be like all the ‘big guys’ and pro bodybuilders. Those days are gone. I now do this simply because I love doing it, I love being onstage, and I’m having a lot of fun. Now I’m not saying don’t chase your dreams – by all means, go after them. But realize if what you’re chasing is a tangible attainable goal or a ghostly aberration and fantasy. If you’ve got the potential to go far you’ll realize it fairly quickly. But if you’re still chasing a local Overall win after 5-8 years, then maybe it’s time you re-evaluate your priorities. I’m just sayin.

There’s less than 15 weeks until the E-Cup…less than 12 weeks until the Vancouver Natural. My plan is to do them both. I’ll be my usual size and shape. The goal is to see if this ole body can hold up one more season so I can work a bit harder and come in better condition. I guarantee I’ll take somewhere between 1^st and dead last…peace…

The Dr.

253-576-4859 - Mobile

"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

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No More Talkin...It's Time To Work!

01.01.2012 06:47:13

My blogs are seldom about me. I lead a boring life – don’t do much of anything. I get up, do cardio, eat, rest a bit, train, and then pretty much chill the remainder of the day unless I have clients or projects. Repeat next day. But I have a lot to say about stuff. Stuff that I’ve seen, heard, and experienced usually with my clients. Over 30 years as a Fitness Professional and Competition Coach lends itself to tons of stories. Some are applicable on my personal website, some are just simple articles that teach and educate, and some are blogs that work great in the bodybuilding community. The ones that work well here are usually ‘real-world’ blogs – things that happen in my gym or during a consultation. Sometimes it’s a conversation I have with someone. Other times it could be during a workout or posing session. Some are humorous – even I’m laughing during our session or consult. Others leave me frustrated almost to the point of being angry at the individual. Most are insightful. How so you ask?

Well, I realized a long time ago that the mistakes and mishaps of one person can be a learning experience for another. I deal with a lot of first-time and ‘didn’t place well’ competitors. They usually find me by word-of-mouth or see me at a show. I share many stories with them to help them avoid the pitfalls their counterparts made. The one thing I’ve found to be a common denominator in literally all of these individuals is mental discipline. The mental toughness that’s needed to see this game we call competitive bodybuilding through to the end. That’s why I write so much on it. I want to – no - I NEED to get in your heads about the toughness that’s needed to achieve your best potential. This is such a blog.

Back in the day before written contracts became the norm, your word was your bond. If you said something you stood by it. If you said you were gonna do something for someone, you did it. Help someone? No problem. Go somewhere? When and where? Do something? Done. No argument, no disappointment. It was a done deal. Many people still live by that code. I’m one of em. If I say I’m gonna do something, I do it. I set the challenge within myself to follow through with what I said I was gonna do in the timeframe I said I was gonna do it in.

Frustration sets in for me when someone says they’re gonna do something and then doesn’t follow through. I’m not angry or mad…just frustrated. Frustrated because that person didn’t do. Frustrated because I can’t make or get that person to do something he or she chooses not to do or decides they can’t do. For example, one of my clients who’s been wanting to and talking about doing a bodybuilding competition for over 12 years once again set the goal to compete next year. You guys know me by now…action speaks louder than words. Stop talkin’ ‘bout what you’re gonna do and do it. Well…she talked all fall about 2012 being her year. I listened…nodded…didn’t say much…then she asked, “What David? You don’t believe I’m going to do it do you?

“Your track record speaks otherwise…”

“You watch, David. This is my year (meaning 2012). I’m doing it this year.”

“Okay…”

“What do I need to work on most?”

“Legs…”

“Okay. Let’s set an appointment so you can run me through a leg workout.”

“How hard have you been training legs on your own?”

“Hard. You’ll be pleased and surprised, David. I’m ready for ya…”

“Okay…pick a day and time…” We set a time. She comes in. I decide that we’re (she actually, but saying ‘we’ makes the clients feel like I’m in this with ‘em) gonna do a quad set – leg ext. followed by hack squats followed by leg curls followed by leg press – rest one minute – repeat until I’m tired…and remember, I’m not working out. The first rotation through is pretty easy – we’re just warming up – 15 reps on everything in less than a minute thirty and then rest one minute. Second quad set and the facial expressions start coming out. I comment on the hacks, “Don’t tell me this is burning…we’re still warming up.” On the third rotation she stops on the first exercise grimacing and hitting her thighs.

“C’mon Girl, get it. Keep going. Don’t stop. I guarantee your competition is pushing hard”.

“It burns…”

“You don’t think I know it burns? I thought you’d been pushin’ on legs? Don’t talk to me about burning. Do NOT stop again…”. She finishes that set and takes her time walking over to the hack squat. I’m over there waiting for her.

“Oh, HELL no! Look, if you’re gonna do legs, then we do legs! Get over here and get this set done. You’re wasting time. You don’t think I know a rest when I see it?” She slowly gets in the machine taking her time, hitches up her pants, takes a big breath…all the stall tactics that I’ve used and seen countless others use over the years. “MOVE GIRL”! She starts the set and every couple of reps pauses, turns her head, and makes faces like it’s really hurting. Suddenly I get so mad (I know…I said earlier I don’t get mad, just frustrated…I lied!) that I turn into Robert DiNero’s character when he’s yelling at Cuba Gooding’s character, ‘Cookie’, in the movie “Men Of Honor” at the end when Cookie has to walk the 12 steps to be reinstated in the Navy.

5^th rep – “You say you want to be a bodybuilder? You want to compete? THIS is what makes a bodybuilder – NOT stepping onstage! THIS is your competition – NOT those girls you’ll be competing against. A bodybuilder is made in the gym, NOT onstage!”

6^th rep – There are two types of fatigue in your body – physiological and psychological. This battle is between your mind and your muscles. Who will win? Who will survive? Your competition just did another rep…do NOT let her beat you!”

7^th rep – Bodybuilders do NOT stop at mental failure. That’s when the set begins! Bodybuilders only stop when they cannot push the weight anymore! Gimme another…”

8^th rep – You think this is hard? You think I’m pushing you hard now? This is just warmup to how hard you’ll be pushing in the next few weeks on LESS calories!”

9^th rep – Why are you stopping? Why are you crying? There’s no crying in bodybuilding!! You ASKED for this, remember? YOU said you wanted to compete – now make it happen!”

10^th rep – Does it hurt? You don’t like the pain? You feel like quittin’? You can quit whenever you want. Just rack it. Walk away. I’m not making you do this but if you stay you’re gonna work harder these next few weeks than you’ve ever worked in your entire life…”

11^th rep – “…and if you’re gonna stay, you’re damn sure gonna give it all you’ve got! You will NOT step onstage at anything less than your best!”

12^th rep – “You will NOT fail on yourself again. If you stay here I won’t let you. You need to understand that you’re not doing this for me, your husband, your kids, friends, family, or anyone else – you’re doing this 100% for YOU! You’ll have to leave and never come back to fail!”

There wasn’t a lot of yelling as that isn’t something I do. I’m not a shouter. Personally, shouting distracts me, so I don’t shout at my people. But I WILL get up close and personal and ‘talk’ to you – get in your head! I challenged her mentally – to see if she could take the psychological as well as the physical torture. It was a cathartic moment – a breakthrough moment - for her. Yes, she broke down and cried during and after the set. Yes, she sobbed, whimpered, and boo-hooed during the rest of the workout and even after. BUT SHE DID IT! SHE FINISHED!! She worked harder than she’d ever worked in her life and walked out alive. Her definition of legs had been redefined. I’m sure she hates me - I can live with that. She’ll love the end result though – the way she’ll look onstage. I’m her competition coach. My job is to get her to do what she can’t do on her own – to push her to that point of momentary muscular failure. Let her husband be the person she complains to. Let her best friends comfort her and feel sorry for her. I don’t. My job is to create something out of ‘nothing’ – to sculpt a physique by adding muscle in all the right places. It’s a painful process – just ask any champion. Ask Joe DeRousie. Ask Roger Baker or Todd Scott or Todd Jewell. But if you’ve got that inner drive – that push – that will allow you to work past your pain threshold then you’ll love the end result also.

If you’re looking for a competition coach, someone that will teach you as well as push you, then gimme a call. Be it Bikini, Figure, Women’s Physique, Men’s Physique, or Bodybuilding, I can help. But be ready to work…peace…

The Dr.

253-576-4859 - Mobile

"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

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12.22.2011 10:28:54

Injuries – we all get them, right? I mean, they’re part of the cycle of training, correct? No? What’s that, you say? If you train smart enough you will never suffer injury or mishap? Well, I hate to disagree with you, but IF YOU TRAIN HARD ENOUGH AND LONG ENOUGH you’ll suffer an injury! Blasphemous? Self-fulfilling prophecy? Nope. It’s just a simple fact of life and physiology.

We are a mechanical creature – we have joints. Like a car, drive it long enough, hard enough, or a combination of the two, and even though you take care of it, eventually a joint will break down and give out. I don’t care how expensive the car – ALL mechanical joints eventually break down. The human body is no different. When you put tremendous stress on your muscles, which are continuous with the tendons, which connect to the bones, and literally every bone in the body butts up to another bone which creates these joints, then said joints (and muscles, tendons, and ligaments, which connect bone to bone) are subject to injury.

If you train long enough, hard enough, heavy enough, and often enough, you’ll eventually suffer an injury of some sort. Even the biggest and best suffer them. The more elite the sport or athletic endeavor, the more likely the risk of injury. This is known as the ‘risk/reward’ factor. The greater the reward the greater the risk. You see it in all of the pro sports. Look at any elite football, basketball, baseball, soccer, or hockey team. At any point in time one, if not several of the athletes, are on the injured reserve. Does this mean they don’t know what they’re doing – that they’re not competent? Of course not! They’re pushing hard during practice and games day in and day out, and eventually someone WILL suffer an injury! Think of any sport in which there’s high reward and you’ll see great risk, from mountain climbing to drag racing to extreme sports.

If the daily grind doesn’t get to them, then Father Time will. Michael Jordon, who hardly missed any games in the prime of his career, had more injuries the last two years of his career than he did during his entire first eleven years. My workout partner, Jeff ‘BrahmaBull’ Kahrs, is, in my opinion, one of the most indestructible lifters I know. Under chiropractic care literally his entire life AND a chiropractor by profession, not to mention that great genetics run in his family, Jeff has, in the first 19 years that I’ve known him NEVER taken a day off due to injury. But this past year, at 56/57 years old, even the BrahmaBull has had to miss several days sporadically due to back pain resulting from disk issues. Time is the great equalizer of us all…

The harder you train, the more you run the risk of injury. Once again, I bring my good buddy, Joe DeRousie, into this blog. Joe is a physical specimen – a marvel to behold. He’s big…no…he’s huge! He’s strong – he can lift buildings with a single hand…okay…he can bench press 500 lbs. and squat 725 – close enough! His form is impeccable, technique without flaw, as are many competitors. Yet Big Joe suffered a pec tear recently at a powerlifting meet. Now we all know that Joe didn’t go into that meet thinking, “Hmmm…lemme see how much weight I can lift before I rip muscle from my bones…!” Even with the years of training, the safety precautions he used, and the spotters available, the injury occurred.

I have a couple of female clients who aren’t training for competition but who both suffer from shoulder problems. Both conditions were present before they started with me. Chronic issues. I knew about them, exercised caution when training them, taught them proper form and technique, explained what could happen and how we were going to proceed, yet they both had shoulder flare-ups. One dropped out. The other is contemplating what to do. I can’t give her the answer as it’s her decision and life. But I will say this…since injuries are a part of ANY sport in which you challenge yourself to achieve your best potential, one has to decide whether one wants to continue to participate or quit! It’s that simple. You either rest and heal and start back up again or you quit. Quitting is easy. Give up. Stay home. Feel sorry for yourself. In my opinion it’s a mindset. And the mindset of quitting is not in my vocabulary. I guarantee you it’s not in Jeff’s vocabulary and definitely not in Big Joe’s! I know Joe’s gonna rest up, get a bit of rehab in, and then start the pushing all over again to exceed what he’s already accomplished. It’s a mindset people. Some people run from pain – run from injuries. Others look at it as a bump in the road and either drive over it or around it. You get hurt – big deal! So what? Get back on the horse and start riding again. But before you jump back on that tricycle there’s a few things you should know and do…

The first thing you should ALWAYS do if an injury occurs is to go see your doctor and get a diagnosis. Don’t take the word of your friend, co-worker, training partner, or ‘personal trainer’, not even if it’s me! I know a lot, but my job is to suggest, evaluate, and recommend. ONLY YOUR DOCTOR can diagnose your condition. Don’t EVER let another unqualified individual tell you, “Oh I know what it is…” I promise you, they don’t! And for you trainers out there, stop dispensing medical advice – you’ll get yourself in big trouble one day!

If the injury is severe, then you rest. Ice, heat, or whatever the doctor/therapist recommends is crucial to recovery. Rehab follows rest, then a slow steady return to activity. If it’s not serious, you’ve gotta make the call as to whether you can train through the injury (realizing that training through it can sometimes delay the healing process as you continue to mildly aggravate it each workout). Training around the injury requires you to modify your training – eliminate the exercises that caused the injury in the first place, possibly reduce weight, make sure your form is impeccable, reduce sets and reps…in other words, work at sub-maximal exertion. Always listen to your body – pain is an indication that something is wrong.

As we get closer and closer to the Vancouver Natural, Emerald Cup, and Empire Classic, it’s possible –no…it highly probable – that someone will suffer an injury as he or she pushes harder and harder on the weights, increases their cardio, and reduce calories for the purpose of fat loss. That’s the perfect storm. It might not happen to you, but it WILL happen to someone! We might not be a pro competitor but we ARE elite at this level. To be the best, you ALWAYS run the risk of injury.

You don’t have to be afraid to train and push hard when an injury occurs. You just have to be smart. Get the right diagnosis, right help, right therapy and recovery, and right training. You’ll be back in the gym pushing harder than ever soon enough. Peace…

The Dr.

253-576-4859 - Mobile

"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

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Seriously???

12.20.2011 13:12:17

Several days ago I was at a function in which my partner, Turk Fickling, was the guest of honor as he was leaving and moving to Portland. It was a ton of fun watching all those bodybuilders eat more food in one meal than I could eat in a year. Too bad Big Joe DeRousie and Bigger Todd Jewell wasn’t there – the place probably would have had to shut down! N-E-Whooo…at one point, Turk, who was in the middle of a conversation with a group of bodybuilding friends, called me over by shouting across the table, “Dave…DAVE!!!”

“What?”

“Man, cm’here!”

“What man? What’cha want?”

“Dude, just get over here…” I walk over…”WHAT?”

“Man, you ever hear of a contest diet in which you can eat pecan pie – like a big piece of pecan pie – 4 times a week?”

I look at him. “What?”

He repeated the question. “Have you ever heard of a contest diet in which you can eat pecan pie – like a ¼ piece of a whole pie – 4 times a week starting 4 weeks out from a show?”

I was so blown away by the question I just continued to look at him. I didn’t know if it was a joke, a trick question, or what.

“Are you serious?”

“Yea – have you?”

I thought about it for a quick sec and then said, “Well, I’ve never heard of anything like that in which a person could lean out to competition look. The first question I’d have to ask is, how did the person look? I mean, my thought is he’d be smooth at best…”

Turk mused, “He looked like s%&t…he was fat as h@%l.”

“Was he doing any cardio?”

“Like 30-45 minutes a day.”

“Only one session? 30-45 minutes? Eating a fourth of a pie 4 days a week? On top of all his other foods? How in the world did he expect to drop that fat?” Then I asked Turk, “Who was this…anyone I know?”

Turk pointed across the table – now ya’ll know I ain’t gonna say who it was, don’t you…?”

I smiled, “I bet you had a ton of energy dieting down, huh? Felt like you could go all day! Probably continued to get some incredible pumps and stuff like that…”

He smiled, “Yea, I was feeling good dieting down. I was like, ‘This is all there is to it? Shoot, I could do this all day!”

And I said, “Yea, and I bet you never got in a ‘discussion’ with your wife either, you still helped out around the house, everything was cool at work, life was good for you…dude, you didn’t suffer!”

We were all laughing and joking around the table, but both Turk and I agreed that a diet like this made no sense. The high-fat/high-sugar diet has never been shown to be effective, yet it still seems to work its way around the bodybuilding community every few years. And you guys already know my take on ‘cheat meals and cheat days’. But just in case you don’t, no worries…I’ll revisit it again soon!

As we were winding down that conversation thread, I said, “Look, if you wanna truly dial in to your best look, ask Joe DeRousie, ask Roger Baker, ask Todd Jewell what it takes to dial in to that ultimate condition. Heck, you’re working with Turk now! I promise you won’t be eating pie or anything else like that dieting down. And you better get used to the fact that you’re gonna feel like death warmed over too.”

The guy replied, “Yea, I kinda heard about how you and Turk diet people down…”

People, get used to the fact that to dial in to that shredded look, you have to SUFFER! No suffering – no super-leanness (unless you’re genetically gifted…). I see it show after show with too many competitors. Guys and girls show up onstage looking like they’re still 2-8 weeks out, and they’re talking backstage on how they dieted down. Every single one of em didn’t suffer. On the flipside, those that looked their best did work…and did it well! They didn’t cheat…and they suffered.

When you suffer you hurt. You literally hate life that last 2-4-6 weeks of your contest diet. It’s not fun. It’s not easy. You don’t feel great – you SHOULDN’T feel great! How can you? You’re working to achieve your absolute leanest look by working your absolute hardest on weights and cardio while reducing calories and starchy carbs to minimal levels to facilitate this look. About the only time you feel ‘good’ is when you’re training – that’s when your endorphins are high and you have a sense of euphoria. You’ll also feel good right after you eat a meal, but in less than an hour, once the clean foods start to process through the system, you’re back to your old self.

What is that old self? Well…if you’ve been on task, you’re tired, you’re hungry, you’re irritable, you’re grouchy, you don’t want to be around dumb people (…of which just about everyone who doesn’t understand what you’re doing is one of those ‘dumb people’…), you’re sleepy, you’re flat, you’re small in clothes…you’re suffering! You can’t wait for the contest day to arrive. You’re tired of the diet, tired of the double cardio sessions, tired of the training – you’re suffering!

If you feel great going into the last few days and weeks, if you have a ton of energy, if you still get incredible pumps while training, if your cardio sessions still fly by instead of a minute feeling like an hour, then you’re not suffering. And that lack of suffering will more than likely lead to a look that reflects the lack of suffering – smooth and soft.

Put down the pecan pie, cheesecake, double-burgers and fries. Get off the cheat meals and cheat days. Stop believing that bigger is better (unless you can get hard) – it isn’t. HARDER is better. All things being equal, a harder competitor will take out a bigger competitor who’s not hard. While size is important, if you can’t see the muscle definition underneath, then you’ll probably get your butt kicked. Do work, people. I will…and I know that Turk’s guy will also! Peace…

The Dr.

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"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

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The Purpose of Education

12.02.2011 07:38:03

A couple of weeks ago I visited my alma mater, Pacific Lutheran University, upon the request of one of my favorite instructors, Dr. Tony Evans. Every year Tony asks me to come speak to the senior Exercise Science class to let them know that there are other options post-graduation other than teaching in the K-12 school system and to impart my supposed ‘wisdom’ on them. After the introduction, the first question I asked was, “What is the purpose of education”? I got quizzical looks, a couple of ‘uhhs’, ‘ummms’, and several students looking around and down. Finally one student in the back mumbled…

“To learn…?”

“To learn what”? More silence…

“Ummm…to learn about what we need to do to be better teachers…?”

“Nope!” Now they’re looking around to Dr. Evans…finally I say,

“The purpose of education is to learn how to learn! You don’t just learn what you need to learn to be better at what you do, but you learn how to learn. Once you master that you have complete and total control over your life. You learn how to overcome adversity. You learn how to challenge yourself. You learn how to not settle for anything less than your best. You learn that the more you learn the more there is to learn. You learn that the only thing that can stop you from achieving your goals (within limits of course) is you. You learn that this degree is NOT the end but in reality the beginning to the rest of your life! That’s what the purpose of education is.”

For the next hour and a half I challenged those ‘kids’ with my experiences in school, post- graduation, opening and closing my facilities, corporate fitness, hip replacement, re-branding myself and starting ‘The Dr. Buff Experience’…in essence I shared with them the challenges with being an entrepreneur and how I overcame obstacles and roadblocks. We also talked about life in general, and how literally everything we do revolves around one simple sentence – “Find out what is necessary…and do the necessary well”!

It doesn’t matter what you choose to do in life. You’ve gotta find out what is necessary to accomplish it, and then go out and do it to the best of your ability. Two questions you should always be asking are “Have I done everything I SHOULD have done?” and “Have I done everything I COULD have done?” Sometimes the answer (and subsequent results) will be the same. Sometimes they won’t. For example, prior to my hip going out I did everything I should and could have done each workout to achieve my definition of my best look. Allowing for genetic limitations I accomplished those goals for many years. But once the hip started going out the ‘should’ became less of an issue and the ‘could’ started dominating more and more.

Now I do what I ‘can’ do. Some days and workouts are better than others but never a day goes by without at least attempting SOMETHING! Squats are out of the question now. Double cardio sessions leave me writhing in pain. So I’ve modified things for this coming season. I’m staying even closer to contest weight so that I’ll have to work super hard a shorter period of time. I’m on more of a contest-type diet year-round now. This is what I have to do – I’m not telling anyone else to do this although if you’re a long-time reader of my blogs you know that I’m not a big advocate of ‘bulking up’ simply for the sake of bulking up off-season – especially when one continually ends up stepping onstage at the same weight and look. Okay…back to the issue at hand…

The purpose of education is to learn how to learn! Over the years I’ve learned that what works one time might not work another time. You have to recognize when something isn’t working and then figure out an appropriate new course of action. When I had my big facility there were several times in which I could have closed the doors, but each time I overcame adversity by ‘learning’ what I needed to morph into to stay successful. As a competitor I’ve had to morph my training many times to continue to do what I do.

One of the students asked, “How do you define success?” I answered, “By not accepting failure as an option. I don’t have to be THE best, but I can’t settle for being less than MY best! I won’t quit on me.” I’m realistic in my appraisal of myself and what I can accomplish. I don’t have visions of grandeur. I have no dreams of going to Nationals – that doesn’t interest me. But I DO make a promise to myself that each and every time I step onstage I promise to bring the best package I can given these stupid physical limitations.

I’m a teacher. I dabble in the sport of bodybuilding. I love the stage and being able to bring different characters and routines to life onstage. That’s fun to me. But it doesn’t define me. My legacy must be something more than simply being a competitor in the Northwest. I teach. I teach bodybuilding. I teach nutrition. I teach mental discipline. I teach!

Another student asked, “What made you decide to go after your Master’s Degree”?

“That’s easy…with less than a month to go to complete my bachelors, I realized that I didn’t know everything I needed to know to do what I wanted to do. I needed to learn more. More importantly, I needed to continue to challenge myself – I had this fire in me that was driving me to achieve something greater than where I was currently at. I didn’t realize it then although another professor, Dr. Sara Officer, had said to me earlier, “David, you have something in you greater than you know about. It’s there. My job is to help pull it out of you. I won’t settle for anything less than your best”. To this day I live by those words when I work with someone – “I won’t settle for less than your best”!

I’m holding a big nutrition and training workshop this weekend (Dec 3^rd starting at 10 am until 2 pm or later) to cover literally anything and everything you would want to know about this game. Now here’s the interesting thing…some will think they already know everything there is to know. I find that amusing because after the PLU seminar to the students, I was out in the hall talking with Dr. Evans. At that point the teacher (me) once again became the student! A Master’s Degree, 37 years’ experience, and STILL Dr. Evans blew my mind with scientific stuff! Don’t EVER think you know it all…I promise you, you don’t!

As we approach 20 weeks to the MacDaddy of Northwest events, the 30^th anniversary of the Emerald Cup, I challenge each of you to NOT settle for anything less than your absolute best! Also, if you’re truly interested in not only learning what to do to get in your best shape possible but WHY you should be doing it – in other words – learning the science of this game and not just blindly following the words of someone else, then give me a call. I will teach you…peace…

The Dr.

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David "Dr. Buff" Patterson, MPE, CSCS, CSTS

"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

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The Fog Has Lifted!

09.24.2011 13:48:07

Wow! I can think again. I can function again. I’m ALIVE once again!! As I’m sitting here at 9:30 Friday evening eating a Sweet Potato Pie to carb up (Huh??? What’d you say? How come HE gets to eat a Sweet Potato Pie and all I get is stupid rice cakes or chicken-n-broccoli or nothing? Don’t hate the playa – hate the game!), I’m reflecting on the past three months and what I’ve put this body through. The mental discipline is still there strong as ever. The physical capabilities??? That’s another story.

The fake hip is not acting right. Turk Fickling called me this afternoon as I was driving to check-in.

He asked, “How y’lookin’?

“Ehhh…could be better…”

“Then why AREN’T you better? You know what you gotta do…”

“Dude, this hip is shot. It’s acting up. I can’t push on it.”

“What’cha mean you can’t push on it? I thought everything was okay…”

“It was up until a month ago. Was in the middle of a good leg workout when it popped on me. After that I banged out one more set and that was it. Couldn’t do anything else.”

“So you let it rest and then what…?”

“What do you mean “and then what?” Nothing! I haven’t been able to do legs for a month! Couldn’t do double cardio. Couldn’t do anything! Every night it would settle down a bit as I slept but as soon as I finished that first cardio session it would inflame right back up. It literally felt like it did a couple of months post-surgery – how yours feels right now.”

“Right…right…so what’cha gonna do?”

“Gonna see if I can suck it up and step onstage tomorrow…over-medicate on Excedrin to knock the pain out, stay off left leg posing, hide the deficiencies…you know the drill…downplay the weaknesses and play up the strengths, of which I ain’t got too many left…”.

“No…I mean, what’cha gonna do after this show? You callin’ it quits?”

“Probably after the EC next year. I’ma see if I can hang on until the 30^th Anniversary and then hang it up. I just can’t do this anymore…not at the level I need to be competitive. Besides, the other hip is getting’ worse. I’m tired of hurtin’. Time to get all this crap fixed…”

“Yea…I know what you mean. I’m finding that I can’t do what I want to do physically even though my mind says I can.” (For those of you who don’t know, Turk has had both his hips replaced and has one artificial knee…and I thought I had it bad…)

So there ya have it…I thought I could make it until I was 60…doesn’t look like it…oh well…

N-E-Whoo…This blog also could have been titled, “Let’s Get Ready To Rumble!”. Tony Ruggiero and I are ready to do battle tomorrow! I’ve got a great routine and I’m sure he’s got a great one as well. It’ll be interesting…it’ll be fun! So here’s the deal – if Tony wins the Best Poser award I have to come out onstage the following week at the Night of Champions, of which I’m the MC, with Tony’s TinMan funnel hat on my head. I don’t have to wear it but a minute, but I have to explain why I’m wearing it to the audience and call Tony up onstage. If I win the Best Poser, Tony has to come out at the Night of Champions wearing pasties and sing MY one-stanza version of Queen’s “We Are The Champions” – I call it “DAVE Is The Champion!” After that we’re calling it quits on this nonsense…unless the people scream for more! J

So what else is going on…? Well…we’ve got a good number of TeamBuffedBods members going in. We might even be in the running for the team award – that’d be sweet! We don’t have a ton of people but those that are competing all look good and I’m expecting top 5 places out of everyone. That would be quite an accomplishment!

Whew…I’m startin’ to get a sugar rush from the pie – only got half of it down too! I’ll save the rest for tomorrow morning. In the meantime and in-between time, I think I’ll sign off for this evening and practice the routine a few times…I have a title to reclaim and Tony has a title to defend! Who will be the Peoples Champion? Tune in tomorrow to find out…same bat time, same bat channel…(okay – only the over 45 crowd got that…). Better yet – show up and see it LIVE! Peace…

The Dr

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"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

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Get Outta My World - Revisited...

09.22.2011 04:41:13

I had an interesting conversation with a fellow competitor this morning concerning drug use in the natural and drug-free shows, especially drug use among Master’s and Figure competitors who aren’t asked to strip down at prejudging. He asked what my thoughts were on it. I shared them with him and then said I’d written a blog about it several months ago after the Spokane show in which I found out that several of my fellow Master’s competitors were on doctor-prescribed doses of steroids and GH. I decided to re-blog that blog what with the Washington Ironman Naturally being this Saturday. So sit back, grab a bowl of chicken breast and veggies, and enjoy…

Get Outta My World! 4-26-2011

Lil’ Weedhoppahs, I’m warning you right now – this blog is a vent blog! There are some things happening in the sport that I’m calling people out on, and I realize that this might be controversial. But I’m here to tell you, these are my thoughts, my opinions, and my beliefs. You can save the comments and replies on this one…this has kinda been stewing for a while and over the past three shows, some things have come to light which necessitated this blog.

So what am I talking about? Anabolic steroids and other growth-enhancing drugs in the natural and drug-free shows, such as the Vancouver Natural and Washington Ironman. Specifically, drugs in the Master’s classes under the guise of ‘Doctor-prescribed medically safe’ doses. I personally know of 3 competitors now who have competed in the Master’s classes at natural/drug-free shows while on LT (low testosterone) doses and low doses of GH (Growth Hormone). There may be more – I don’t know. So why is this such a big deal you ask? I mean, all these guys are doing is returning their test and GH levels to that of when they were 30-40 years old. They’re not taking the 10—100 X’s the doses the big boys are taking. They’re not gettin’ ‘hella-huge’! On a sidebar, let me say that I don’t care who does what as far as the non-tested shows are concerned. Heck, I compete in those shows all the time and you’ve never heard me utter a negative word. I’m in their world – I play by their rules. But when you’re in my world, you’ve gotta play by my rules. My rules say no growth-enhancing, size-producing, androgenic, anabolic substances OF ANY KIND are allowed, medically prescribed or otherwise. Some of you will agree. Some of you won’t. Either way, I’m gonna spit.

Returning levels to when you were in your mid-30’s is huge, people! You might think there’s no advantage but I’ve seen it first-hand. Guys that normally are sittin’ at 155-165 are now at 165-175. They’re telling me how strong they are once again and how they’re building muscle and have increased energy, recovery, stamina…all the signs of a younger person. Who are these guys? That’s not important. I’m not here to bust anyone out. I know of one 50+ person who was benching 185-205 last year for a few reps. He’s now benching 275 for reps. His leg and knee pain is all but gone which means he’s able to squat again, push harder, recover faster, and rebuild muscle previously lost due to the aging process. One of my fellow Masters competitors came to my house and I literally stopped in my tracks as I let him in. The bodyweight he was at now was a hard, muscular, and vascular look, whereas last year he was soft, smooth, and barely had veins showing at the same weight. His neck was bigger, arms were bigger, legs were bigger…heck, he was just bigger! Another competitor who took me out disclosed that he’d gone on LT doctor-prescribed doses last September/October. He was noticeably bigger, harder, and more vascular and told me he’d gained about 10 lbs of muscle since going on doctor-prescribed doses of Testosterone and GH. He competed in the Vancouver Natural. Seriously??? I can’t compete with that.

Am I whining? No. I’m simply saying that if someone goes on something that now provides an unfair advantage then the playing field is no longer equal. One guy said, “Hey, I’m training hard, eating clean…I’ve figured things out and now things are just working for me.” My response was, “So you’re saying that I don’t train hard or eat clean? I don’t know what I’m doing and you’ve suddenly figured everything out? How come I haven’t gained 10 lbs of muscle in the past 6 months? What are you doing differently in your nutrition and training that’s suddenly allowed your body to pack on lean mass that I don’t know about? How are you and others able to grow when I can’t and I’ve written more articles on training, nutrition, and cardio than you can shake a stick at? What’s the one variable that’s different between us?” He couldn’t quite answer that (or didn’t want to). To another competitor I simply said, “You know YOU didn’t take me out, but rather the DRUGS in you took me out.”

Is that anger? A pissy statement by a guy who’s upset he got beat in a natural show? No. It’s a truthful statement by a bodybuilder who takes pride in doing everything he can to be at his drug-free best to compete against his drug-free peers in a drug-free show. Mano-a-mano! Let the best man win! As I said earlier, when I compete in the non-tested shows, I could care less about who does what, when, and why. But c’mon doctor-prescribed guys…how can you honestly say that the ONLY reason you’re taking the drugs is because you want to improve the quality of life, feel better, hurt less, wake up more alert, have a better sex life, yada, yada, yada…yea…right! You KNOW you’re gonna see an increase in size, strength, muscularity, hardness, density, thickness, and leanness. You KNOW you’re gonna present a better package onstage. How is that fair? How can you say the playing field is equal and level? It isn’t.

For the record I checked into HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) for men several years ago. All of my levels are low – testosterone, GH, IGF-1...everything! I could have gone on HRT back in 2006-2007. But I called Brad Craig, the Regional NPC Chairperson, and spoke with him about it. He said that going on HRT would disqualify me from competing in the Ironman and other natural shows. After the Empire Classic this past weekend I again asked him the same question about HRT. His response was still the same – taking anything other than OTC (Over-The-Counter) which doesn’t give you that drug effect (if it did, everyone would be growing like weeds, right? They’re not!) whether it be black market or doctor-prescribed will disqualify me from natural shows. He said that he’s gotten several calls from Master’s competitors asking the same question. Yet it appears there are a few individuals who either don’t want to know the real truth, which means they probably suspect that the drugs, although legal, would disqualify them from certain shows, or believe that since they’re not on the black-market doses and their levels are still in the normal range everything is good. As one Master’s guy told me, “I didn’t think it was illegal since I’m taking natural testosterone from my doctor.” For those that don’t know, the only testosterone naturally produced is that which is already in your body. Anything you put in, whether it is by a pill, injection, patch, cream, rectally, or any other method, is synthetic.

I’ve had people approach me over the years and suggest that I just get a doctor’s prescription and keep competing. Since my levels would still be in the normal testosterone/epi-testosterone range for a man, their rationalization was that I’d still be considered ‘clean’ and could compete in natural shows. Even I started to believe that maybe it’d be okay prior to checking with Brad. But deep down inside I really did know better. I really did know that I now would have an unfair advantage over my true drug-free competitors. I would feel like I was living a lie every time I stepped onstage. I didn’t want that feeling. I don’t want it now either. I guess what it comes down to is a moral and ethical decision on the part of the competitor. You’re legal in what you’re taking but morally and ethically you’re on drugs, which make you ineligible for natural shows. How will you live with that?

Will I ever go on HRT? Probably. It’s becoming more and more common among men. The latest news I heard was that by 2015 most insurances will be paying for it just like they do for women’s birth control pills and estrogen replacement. If and when I go on, will I attempt to compete in drug-free shows? Absolutely not! Drug-free means drug-free…how much clearer can I make it to you. I will NOT be a hypocrite and yell ‘foul’ now and preach for it later! If and when I go on, either my competitive days will be over or I’ll simply do non-tested shows.

Now here’s another scenario though. We were driving over to Spokane and I was telling Guy Overby about this topic and me blogging on it and he asked, “Well, what about other substances, such as insulin, which Janet Guenther is taking?” I didn’t really have a comeback just then and couldn’t quite defend her use of it and the fact that she competes in the natural shows. But that night the answer hit me. On the way home I asked, “Hey, remember the question you asked on Janet? Got an answer now.” “What,” he returned? “Janet has to take insulin to keep her alive. The only time that pump is NOT on her is for the minute or so she’s onstage and I personally know that she takes it off literally 30 seconds prior to walking out and puts it back on immediately upon exiting. I’ve never seen her without it at practice or anywhere else. She sleeps with it on.”

Janet needs her insulin pump to keep her alive. She just happens to have gotten into bodybuilding to where it benefitted her. I’ve been at shows and we’ve been practicing and I’ve seen her levels drop into the 40’s to where if she doesn’t get some sugar in her system she’s a goner. Guys going on HRT don’t need the drugs to stay alive. If I go on it’ll truly be for anti-aging reasons – not for competitive benefits.

My thought is, new testing procedures need to be implemented at drug-free shows. How? Easy…all class winners, and maybe even the top 2-3 placers, are subject to being tested. Master’s Men in all age groups need to be subject to testing. Figure women, and maybe even Bikini need to be subject to testing. It needs to be made perfectly clear that drug use in ANY class is not allowed and that ALL classes are subject to testing. Master’s Men don’t strip down to have their look assessed at check-in to determine if they have a ‘harder and bigger than normal’ look. Figure and Bikini simply use a height measurement and don’t strip down either. The people being tested right now are random based upon who the check-in people see and call out. If the physique isn’t seen, how can a call be made on whether they need to be tested? It can’t. These people have slid through the system. Having everyone strip down will help.

Even better is to potentially test class winners. They will still be random as no one knows who will win each class. You win your class (randomness…) you are subject to being tested! If a competitor is on and knows that he now might be tested and run the risk of being caught (and what drug user wants to be caught sneaking into a natural show – how lame is that?), he’s far less likely to enter. That’s my thought on policing and cleaning up the natural shows. If you have a better suggestion, please present it.

I like my reputation as being a drug-free bodybuilder. I like what I’ve accomplished as a drug-free bodybuilder. I will continue to compete as a drug-free bodybuilder until this body cannot perform up to my standards and expectations. I just ask that all other bodybuilders who compete in drug-free shows have the same mindset. Peace…

Don't pee on my head and tell me it’s raining!

The Dr.

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"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

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Don't Leave Home Without It!

09.21.2011 13:01:05

Yesterday started my 3 days of water loading to set up what’s called ‘super-elimination’ – taking in copious amounts of fluid for a few days will force the body to attempt to eliminate it as it’s more than the body needs until it ‘re-regulates’ itself. This process usually takes 3-4 days for full effect. That’s why competitors start drinking large amounts of water usually Sat, Sun, or Monday before the weekend show. They’ll cut their water intake to about ¼ or so of what they were maximally drinking, but the body is still in its super-elimination mode, which means that when you drink 8 oz. of water, you pee out 16-24 oz. Do this all day Thursday and Friday and…wallah…you ‘dry’ out! Pretty simple, huh? I typically start my high-water intake on Mondays…seems to work well for me. The problem is once you start the super-water load, your urge to go to the bathroom increases significantly.

N-E-Whooo…yesterday I drank about 2¼ gallons – up double from my normal gallon or so per day. You can imagine what happened…I started peeing like the proverbial racehorse! Every 20-30 minutes it seemed like I was running to the bathroom. Not a problem since I didn’t leave home. In fact, I didn’t even think about it. The urge to pee would hit me like a guy’s wife catching him eyeing another chick in the mall – instantaneously and hard! No biggie…I’d just jump up, walk the 10 feet to the bathroom, do the do, and then back to the couch – my second home when I’m not in bed or training. All was good in my world…until this morning…

I got up at my usual time of 7 am, took all my thermic agents, other supps, and protein shake and crawled back in bed until the thermics hit me. Hey – don’t hate the playa…hate the game! Can I help it if I work out of my home and my ‘job’ is literally 15 feet out my back door…and I don’t schedule my first clients until 10 am cause I’m lazy like that? J But I digress…I jumped on cardio at 8:15 after putzing around the house for 30+ minutes. Knocked out a hard hour of high-intensity, fast-paced cardio on the elliptical while the stereo bumped out ole skool jams. Here’s where the problem ‘started’. I always drink at least 32 oz. of water during my cardio sessions, but the last week I at least double it. This morning I drank 72 oz. during the hour. Within 1 minute of getting off I had to pee. Had a protein cookie, jumped in the shower, and by the time I was done, I had to pee again. Got dressed, had my oatmeal and egg whites, drank 24 more oz., peed one more time, and I was out the door to my chiropractor and workout partner, Jeff “Brahma Bull” Kahrs. Got to his office (5 minutes away) and before I checked in I had to use the bathroom. Got through my appt. fairly quickly and thought, “Hmmm…I need to run over to Harbor Freight Tools to buy a drill bit for a project I’m working on…”

Well, I knew I’d been peeing quite a bit so far but figured I’d be ‘safe’ if I used the bathroom one last time, jetted over there, and headed back home. I mean, how long would it take me – 30 minutes??? So I hit the can one more time (sorry ladies, that’s guy talk…) and off I went! Here’s where it gets fun. I got to Harbor Freight in less than 10 minutes. As I got out of the truck I could feel that ole familiar feeling stirring…”No…not THAT fast…I just peed a few minutes ago…”. I ran into Harbor Freight – found what I was looking for and got in line to checkout.

“What the…dude, who GIVES a rip about the fact that the grinder you bought last week didn’t work? Shut up, pay for your crap, and get out so I can get out”!

“Are you kiddin’ me?? I KNOW you didn’t just call for a front counter cashier so you could go on break!!! Lady, I gotta pee…and I gotta pee BAD!!!”

Now picture this lil Weedhoppahs…I’m standing in line shifting from leg to leg and foot to foot like the little boy standing in line with his mama at the grocery store. I’m hurtin’. I mean, the urge to go is literally killing me. Ladies, just in case you DIDN’T know, guys DO NOT have bladders as strong as you! Now you know. So in the future, when we say we gotta go, we gotta go! Let us go! Or we WILL go…on ourselves! But I digress once again…

I throw my money on the counter at the new cashier as I lean on my elbows to try and ‘relieve the pressure’. She hands me the change and asks, “Would you like the receipt in your bag”? “Keep it,” I said as I was halfway out the door. Now I’m sure many of you are wondering, “Why didn’t the idiot just use their bathroom”? Duuuhhh…don’t you think I thought of that? No public restrooms, and I wasn’t gonna waste precious time pleading my case. I’m in my truck now bent over double – the agony, the pain, the urge to pee! I’m thinking I’d have to drive across the busy street to K-Mart and run in there. Then I saw the Goodwill sign on the other side of the parking lot…”THEY HAVE TO HAVE A PUBLIC RESTROOM IN THERE!!!”

I beat feet over there (in my truck of course), and in my best Tim Conway bent over little ole man walk, hobbled into Goodwill. I stood there…”Where the he$% is the bathroom”? I spot the sign – waaaaaaaaaay over in the far right back corner – who the he#* puts a bathroom waaaay back in the corner? I’m half-walking, half-running, half-lurching (yea, yea…I know…you can’t have three halves – this is creative prose at its best!) to the bathroom. Luckily there was a hallway leading to the men’s room. I hit that hallway and my left hand hit the string holding my sweats up – no wasted time and motion here folks! Without getting too graphic (hey, we’re all adults here, right?) by the time I entered the bathroom I was ‘Good To Go’. For all my ole skool readers, remember that old Alka-Seltzer commercial…”Plop plop fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is…” – that’s how I felt!

To borrow a line from Kool Moe Dee’s song, “How Ya Like Me Now?”… “I could continue, there’s more on the menu, but I’ll relax ‘cause I’m so far in you…” (get’cha minds outta the gutter…it’s not what you think!), I think you understand my sensational relief! But…let it be known that by the time I got home I had to use the bathroom AGAIN! You guys can relate, right?

So what did I mean when the title said, “Don’t leave home without it?” Simple…guys can’t hold it like women. Guys in contest mode can’t hold it like kids. Guys in contest mode drinking 2+ gallons can’t hold it at all! I will now carry an empty gallon water jug for ‘emergency use only’…I will not leave home without it! I’mJustSayin…peace…

The Dr.

David "Dr. Buff" Patterson, MPE, CSCS, CSTS

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"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

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Every Day I'm Shuffling...

09.20.2011 13:35:39

I’m tired. I’m tired and I’m hungry. I’m tired, I’m hungry, and I’m irritable. I’m tired, hungry, irritable and…okay…you guys get the idea! I’m sure all of you can relate at this point. All I can say is…if you’re feeling really REALLY good right about now I wonder how you look. Big Joe DeRousie said it best in a BelieveMedia vid…to truly get to that ripped-to-shreds look you’ve GOTTA suffer to a significant degree. I’m nowhere NEAR Joe’s condition (or size or muscularity or anything else for that matter…) but I’m busting my butt gettin’ ready for this.

So what am I doing? Well…for starters, I finally went to two cardio sessions a day starting today. I shied away from it this prep as my hip has been giving me problems. I worked my way up to a decent weight on the squats and leg press and one day a couple of weeks ago the hip said, “No more”! Went out on me. Today was the first day I was able to do legs and that was only leg extensions and leg curls. I’m still walking with a limp but here’s hoping everything will be fine by Saturday. If not, I’ll over-medicate with Excedrin. Joe can be my paramedic if I need him…

Normally I’m 90 minutes to 2 hours a day of cardio with high-volume food starting 3-4 weeks out. This time I had to significantly cut my total calories and meals to offset the loss of the second cardio session. I’m not happy about that. I’d rather eat and do extra cardio than not eat. Two things happen…1) I get really irritable when I don’t eat, and when I don’t eat, it’s better for me to not be around people because I’m not a happy camper and I’m not responsible for whatever comes out of my mouth! 2) I lose muscle and size very quickly when I don’t volumize with food. You guys know that I’m not a big guy to begin with, and cutting calories for my frame AND age is not the best thing I could do. Hopefully, doing 3-4 days of leg ext/leg curls will do something…who am I kiddin’…

So the title of the blog is ‘Every day I’m shuffling’…and I am. I’ve been planning on writing a blog for the last two weeks but nothing happened. I hit the proverbial wall. I bonked. I crashed and burned. When I dropped the starchies, I couldn’t move – literally! I’d get through morning cardio and then just crash on the couch. Several times the TV got pissed and turned itself off because if I wasn’t eating or training I was sleeping in front of it. Last week one of my clients came in for her session. She asked, “So how are you doing”? I looked at her and said, “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but you could leave right now and I wouldn’t care”! She laughed. I didn’t. My sister called to check on me this morning. She does that when she doesn’t hear from me. I wouldn’t say I get anti-social when I get 2-3 weeks out, but I’ve learned that it’s just easier on me if I keep to myself. If someone calls I’ll chat, but I find that I want to get off the phone quickly. And I don’t make calls unless it’s to another competitor or team member. Personally, for me competition is more of an isolation thing. It’s my choice and it works for me. I’m sure there are lots of you guys that can still be social and hang out with family and friends during your contest diet…I’m not that type of person. I know that, I accept that, and I tell everyone that’s how I am and they leave me alone.

Everything is on point. I’m on task. The fridge is empty except for chicken and salads. Canned green beans in the cupboard. Parrillo Protein cookies and brownies make for a great snack between meals. Just bumped up my sodium slightly and water is now at 2+ gallons a day. Increased my glutamine to 4-5 tsp/day and will add in the potassium when I cut sodium a bit.

Yesterday at the competitor practice I dialed everyone in for this last week. Each person got something a little bit different when it came to foods. It makes no sense to me how trainers can put all of their people on exactly the same plan. They’re all unique individuals thereby requiring what will work for their own body. Granted, a cookie-cutter plan will work for some, but only for a select few who fit in the population of that plan. Everyone else is on the outs. It just amazes me (and my people) as to the variances in each person’s nutrition as we all started this journey months and weeks ago. One of my guys is still over 300 gms of carbs whereas I ‘m down to 100 or less. One female hasn’t had a starchy carb outside of her oatmeal for over 6 weeks whereas I finally pulled the carbs out of another female’s final 2 meals last week. Those are just a couple of examples…everyone is different but they’re all making great progress. Each day this week they’ll check in and I’ll adjust based upon what they tell me or what I see if they come by…and yes…the human body CAN change that fast - did you not watch the Mr. Olympia and see the differences in the guys’ looks from Friday to Saturday? Same thing here. The foods, cardio, and training will definitely have an effect on how they look each morning and night.

I’m a firm believer in doing a total body depletion for 3-4 days to allow for an adequate carb-up (if allowed). Today was the first day. Not too difficult but I already know that by Wednesday I’ll pretty much be hating life. There’s a lot of different ways to approach the final week. Mine looks like this. I pick one exercise each bodypart and run through it 3-4 times Monday, 3 times Tuesday, and 2-3 times Wednesday. Then I’m done with the training. The rep ranges are 25-15-8-(& 8 if I go through a 4^th time). Sometimes on Wednesday I’m so depleted that going through twice is all I can manage. I remember when me and Kim Farrison did this kind of training back in the day. Kim was a tuna and water kind of guy dieting down the last week so his strength plummeted! Normally a 450 lb. bencher, by Wednesday before a show sometimes he’d be lucky to bench 135 for a few reps. That’s the effects of zero carbs for several days – no glycogen in the muscles, which translates to no contractile strength. But man did he lean out! I can’t do what Kim did because I don’t have that size and can’t afford to lose any lean so I eat a bit more.

Well…I was gonna write more, but I can’t hold a thought, I’m hungry, and I don’t feel like typing anymore! I PROMISE to blog every day this week to keep you guys up to speed on what I and my team members are doing. You’ll be surprised at the differences. I’m out…peace…

The Dr.

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Putting It All Together!

09.09.2011 22:11:00

Last week I shared with you Ivan Ribic’s blog series on competitor standards and judging criteria. This last blog is a good one – putting it all together! Since I’m tired, hungry, and sick of the same ole food, I’ll skip any commentary and jump right into his blog. Enjoy…

PUTTING IT ALL ON PAPER!

The question, in regards to judging is which of these three [symmetry, muscularity, & conditioning] is the most important? If you ask a dozen people this question you’re likely to get a dozen different answers. The truth is that all 3 aspects are equally important. The difficulty for judges is that every person in each class will have a varied combination of these three components so we’re rarely comparing apples to apples. If a class of 10 competitors stepped on stage and every one of them had identical conditioning, it would be very easy to assess their symmetry and muscularity and place them accordingly. Or if the entire class had the same symmetry and muscularity then we’d simply be placing them based on conditioning. However, it’s never that simple.

Homework time - I’m going to give a few tips here that will guide you through the judging process if you’ve never done it before. A lot of people who attend shows spend the whole time looking at their friend on stage. They tend to ignore the rest of the class because they’re fixated on one or two competitors. When placings are announced at night they suddenly become a critic and start throwing tomatoes at the judges. Well guess what? I like tomatoes and they’re FULL of antioxidants. Next time you go to a show, take a note pad and a pencil and try actually placing the entire class. I don’t mean just figuring out how you think your friend did, I mean placing 1st through 3rd or 4th or 10th or 12th or however many people are in that class. If you’ve already done that, you know how difficult it is. Here are a few things to keep in mind next time that will make the process a little less difficult:

Every class is different but when you’re looking at a lineup, particularly during quarter turns, there are typically one or two physiques that will catch your eye instantly as being top of the class. This is not to say you’ll instantly know who’s first but it won’t take too long to figure it out. On the other end of the spectrum, you’ll have one or two physiques that are quite the opposite of those top couple competitors. For the most part, what will noticeably separate the two ends of the spectrum is conditioning. This is not to say that conditioning is THE most important aspect but it is quickly apparent who is dialed in for competition and who is not. Someone with very poor conditioning is usually going to place low in their class despite their size. Remember that neither symmetry nor muscularity will be well displayed if you’re poorly conditioned (think sumo wrestler!).

In a class with a large variance in conditioning, the top few competitors and the bottom few competitors will tend to create a curve for that class. Once you’ve established who is first and who is last you can works backwards to place the rest of the class. Who is the closest to the guy or gal who was first? Who is closest to the guy or gal who was last? In larger classes, placing the top few and bottom few tend to be quite easy. Where it starts getting tough is placing the middle. As you get closer to the middle of the pack, the physiques will be more similar to each other. Now you get down to deciding what’s the most important to you in terms of symmetry vs. muscularity vs. conditioning. This is subjective!

Personally, in bodybuilding classes, I tend to favor a little bit larger and more symmetrical physique over a smaller but slightly leaner physique. It is, after all, bodybuilding . . . not body shredding. Some judges prefer quite the opposite but it’s really just a matter of preference. While that might sound haphazard, the scoring process tends to even the playing field as we’ll get into in just a bit. To an extent, this also varies by class. If you’re looking at a Super-Heavyweight class on stage, you expect that they’re going to be huge. If it’s a Bantam Weight class and the heaviest guy on stage is 143lbs, they ought to be shredded.

One of the most ridiculous sounding, yet useful tips I ever received on judging came from Elaine Craig during a judging clinic in Bellevue quite a few years ago. I still revert to this in classes where two competitors are very similar and the decision is a tough one:

“If an alien came to Earth and asked ‘What does a bodybuilder look like?’ what would you show them?”

When I heard this I laughed. Then I thought about it for a while and it actually made sense. If you had to show someone who had never seen a bodybuilder or bikini competitor etc. what one was supposed to look like, which competitor would be the best example? When I’m having a hard time deciding, I often revert to this statement to pick which competitor best represents that particular division.

That being said, I have to add this: Sometimes a competitor will win or place high in a class that they don’t look cut out for, such as a super ripped bikini competitor or a HUGE men’s physique competitor or a very muscular figure competitor. Although this person may not be the ideal vision that we hold for a particular class, if they’re the best representative of the group on stage they are still the winner. Bikini competitors should not be super lean, but if a ripped gal is against a lineup of competitors who are way out of shape I would still place her 1st. Likewise for all other divisions. Could a 400 lb. woman win 1st place in bikini? Sure. If she’s the only competitor in her class she is automatically the winner OR if her competition is a 600 lb. woman of the same height. The winner of any class will be the best option out of that particular lineup on that particular day.

Other factors

There are a handful of other factors that can play a role in placing. Bodybuilding is pretty cut and dry. Judges are looking for the best physique, period. Skin tone (tan), oil, presentation, etc. are components that can help show off a physique better but this isn’t something a bodybuilder will be judged on.

For all other divisions, the NPC rules specifically state that judges WILL take these factors into account. This is still a physique competition before anything else but keep in mind that if two competitors have similar physiques, the other factors can play a big role in where they will place. I was recently at a show where two bikini competitors looked almost identical but one kept falling off her heels. Presentation is an essential part of that division! The following is taken straight from the NPC website rule page:

Judges will be scoring competitors using the following criteria:

FIGURE

• Small degree of muscularity with separation, no visible striation

• Overall muscle tone with shapely lines, overall firmness and not excessively lean.

• Full general assessment

• Healthy Appearance

• Make-up

• Skin Tone

BIKINI

• Balance and shape

• Overall Physical Appearance including: Complexion, Skin Tone, Poise, Overall Presentation

MEN’S PHYSIQUE

• Judges will be looking for fit contestants who display proper shape and symmetry combined with muscularity and overall condition.

• Judges are looking for the contestant with the best stage presence and poise who can successfully convey his personality to the audience.

The Scoring Process

So how do you take a subjective judging process and make it as fair as possible? We use a panel of qualified judges and combine their scores to determine placing. The panel will consist of an odd number of judges. Typically there are seven judges on a panel though smaller shows will sometimes use five judges and in other parts of the country some panels will consist of nine judges.

A judge will score each class by assigning a placing to each competitor from the lineup. So if a class has ten competitors, a judge will write in a place next to each competitor number, 1st -10th. When the scoring is complete and the class is dismissed from the stage, judges hand their score cards down to the tabulator. The tabulator transfers each score card onto the final scoring sheet and marks off the high and low scores for each competitor, adding up the remaining numbers to determine how many points each person has. The elimination of high and low scores prevents any single judge from being able to affect a class outcome based on personal bias, etc. In a seven judge panel, only five scores count toward the total score and in a five judge panel only three scores will count.

Backwards to most other sports, what a competitor wants is the lowest total score of the group. If you have a seven judge panel, the lowest possible score you can achieve is 5. That would indicate that you had all 1st place scores after the high and low score were removed (x5 judges). Final results are awarded from the lowest total score being first to the highest total score being last.

The larger the classes become, the more varied the scores will typically be but this system tends to produce very consistent results. Sometimes the large classes will have a handful of scores that seem way out of line. Once they’re marked off, the remaining scores will typically be within one or two places of each other.

Occasionally, competitors will be tied for the final score. When this happens, those two competitor’s scores are compared directly to each other rather than to the rest of the class to determine the tie breaker. The full panel of scores is used in a tie breaker (all 7 scores for a seven judge panel) and they are tallied on a win/lose basis, i.e. 4 to 3 or 5 to 2, etc. The larger and more competitive the class becomes, the more likely it is that you will see a tie.

A Perfect System?

Perfect? Not by a long shot. The judging process is subjective and variable. Judges can’t always see all competitors as well as they’d like to even with the class being moved around on stage. We all have personal preferences in terms of what we like to see in physiques and although everyone judges based on the same guidelines, we all see things a little differently. But the system that we use does tend to produce the most consistent and reliable results that we are able to offer.

That being said, I think it’s important for competitors to keep in mind that their placing is merely the averaged opinion of a qualified judging panel, nothing more. Where you place is not necessarily indicative of the time and effort that you put into stepping on stage. From the front row we cannot analyze the journey that you took to get where you are. We don’t know the countless hours of training, cardio, diet and sacrifice that you invested to get where you are. All we can tell you is how you stack up against whoever might be standing next to you on that day. Your motivation is to improve yourself each time you compete. Your reward for all the hard work is the ability to step on stage and be proud of what you’ve accomplished. Never let your placing define your success!

David “Dr. Buff” Patterson

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Three Aspects of Physique Competition

09.03.2011 11:51:34

A couple of days ago I posted a blog written by Ivan Ribic on what the judges look for in a competitor. We’ll continue that series today with Ivan’s take on the three aspects of a physique. A couple of years ago I wrote a similar blog on what the judges use as criteria. I had five – size, shape, symmetry, muscularity, and hardness. Ivan has condensed it into three. It’s a good read – be sure to share it so that others can learn. Enjoy…

THREE ASPECTS OF PHYSIQUE COMPETITION – By Ivan Ribic

A while ago I wrote a little bit about what judges are looking for in competition. Today we'll discuss the three main factors that are used to assess a physique in competition: symmetry, muscularity and conditioning.

Tomorrow we'll look at how these aspects play a role in the judging process

Symmetry

I pirated the following two definitions from Mr Webster as it really sums up the whole thing pretty nicely:

The proper or due proportion of the parts of a body or whole to one another with regard to size and form; excellence of proportion.

Beauty based on or characterized by such excellence of proportion.

When we talk about symmetry in physique sports we’re referring to a balance, not just from left to right but from top to bottom. This is what is commonly referred to as the “hour glass” shape or, as I prefer to call it, the “X” shape. This shape is what tends to catch the human eye as most natural. Because we view it as natural it’s easily taken for granted. We don’t always realize that what we’re seeing is perfect because there’s nothing wrong with it. But have you ever looked at something that just doesn’t seem right, but you can’t put your finger on why? Our brains know when something isn’t balanced even if we can’t quite identify why. If we could break physiques down to straight lines instead of curves, perfect symmetry or a lack thereof would become more apparent even if it was only slightly off.

What does this mean for competitors? The cross of the “X” is the waist line. For bodybuilding, figure and fitness competitors a well balanced physique should be small at the waist and flare out at the quads and lats. The width of the quads should be similar to the width at the center of the delts.

If the quads are small, a competitor will look top heavy and out of balance. Likewise, big quads with poor upper body development will ruin symmetry as well. Unfortunately, very few of us have perfect proportions but it’s important to keep in mind that judges are placing you based on what they can see. As mentioned in a previous blog, posing can make or break you. If you’re practiced when it comes to presentation, you can hide a great many flaws and create an illusion of perfect symmetry even if you don't have it. Conversely, a perfect physique can look terribly out of proportion if not presented properly.

Symmetry is not just limited to front and back views. A physique should ideally have the same symmetrical proportions when viewed from the side: Small at the waist and flaring out at the chest and legs. Hamstring development becomes critical here. I’ve seen quite a few competitors who looked great from the front and back but when they turned to the side their legs disappear. It can be a make or break deal for a lot of competitors.

Quarter-Turns are essentially a symmetry round for bodybuilding. Many times an entire lineup can be judged solely off the quarter turns, depending on the size of the class and competitiveness. The top 5 will almost certainly be called based on the quarter turns. I cannot stress enough how important it is to make sure your ‘posing’ in the relaxed position and in the quarter turns is polished and dialed in.

Men’s Physique is judged in board shorts which cuts our “X” in half. What are we left with? “V-taper”. It’s the same basic principle but I really feel this makes the waist line way more important. A bodybuilder with a wider waist can work on a good quad sweep and wide shoulders to create the illusion of a small(ish) waist. Men’s Physique competitors should not have extreme size like bodybuilding, so keeping a small, trim waist is essential to a great contest package. Compliment that with good delts and lats and you will create an excellent V-taper.

Bikini may be a different set of rules but really is looking for the same basic shape. Instead of looking for a big quad sweep to match the big delts, a competitor should looking for the same “X” proportions in the hips and bust with a tight waist. Come on, do we really want to argue with Sir-Mix-A-Lot? “36-24-36? Ha! Only if she’s five three.”

Muscularity

Though this term applies primarily to bodybuilding, it’s important to understand what it conveys for the other divisions as well. Figure is also judged based on muscularity, though to a lesser degree. The bikini classes are NOT looking for muscularity but rather an athletic, in-shape build with good tone and proportions. The Men’s Physique division is looking for muscularity but not to an extreme degree in terms of size.

Muscularity is really a combination of both size and shape. Simply being big does not qualify. Sumo wrestlers are huge and have a great amount of muscle but have virtually no muscle shape and posing suits that look like diapers. A certain degree of leanness must be achieved to display proper muscularity but leanness in itself is not enough. On the opposite end of the spectrum from the sumo wrestler we could take marathon runners as an example . . . extremely lean but not at all muscular.

A bodybuilder wants to be both as large AND as lean as possible to display the most muscularity they possibly can. This means full muscle bellies, exceptional muscle separation and, hopefully, muscle striation. The separation and striations give the muscle a hard, crisp look. While this has a lot to do with conditioning, the muscle detail is also a product of the intensity of training over time. Without intensity, a muscle will still grow but it will never achieve the “holy crap that’s the nastiest freakiest craziest thing I’ve ever seen and where can I get one?” look. Yeah . . . you know what I’m talking about.

Figure competitors should have muscularity but to a much lesser degree than bodybuilders in terms of both size and muscle detail. Muscle separation is good but judges are not looking for striation or ‘extreme’ size. Bikini competitors will take it down another notch, training for muscle shape and proportion but not for size or muscle separation.

Men’s physique: This division is still growing and will evolve as we get more competitors and judges involved with it. The NPC specifically states: “This is not a bodybuilding contest so extreme muscularity should be marked down.” Based on contests and results I’ve seen, if you would do well in bodybuilding, you most likely are too big for physique. The division is ideal for guys with good muscle shape and low body fat, but not for BIG guys.

Conditioning

We don’t need to spend too much time on this topic as a lot of it is covered above as part of muscularity. But really, this is going to be the essential component to getting ready to step on stage. Losing the fat . . . this is the part that separates the 90% who plan to do a physique competition from the 10% who are dedicated enough to push on through to the end. Looking conditioned is awesome. Getting conditioned sucks. It’s a combination of strict diet and cardio, peeling away the winter (or summer) coat and dialing your body in for contest day. Conditioning is closely related to muscularity because it’s what makes the muscle visible to the judges. The challenge is to become well conditioned without sacrificing hard earned muscle. It’s also important to take into account the symmetry of conditioning. Yeah, I’m all about the mix & match. Keeping body composition even is sometimes very difficult. A competitor with a hard, lean upper body and a softer lower body is not symmetrically conditioned, or vice versa. Some people will have shredded abs and a soft back, etc. Are you looking at your physique from ALL angles as you progress toward competition? The judges are.

A well conditioned bodybuilder will display great muscle detail, hardness and separation. Figure, as discussed earlier, requires excellent conditioning but to a lesser degree than bodybuilding. Bikini competitors should not be extremely lean, so their challenge is to achieve a balanced composition in the upper and lower body. This can be quite difficult as many women hold more fat in their lower body than their upper body. Sometimes attempting to get the legs toned up can leave the torso looking super lean and/or stringy. Men’s Physique classes seem to be trending toward VERY well conditioned competitors with a moderate amount of muscle. Regardless of which division you compete in, you want to be as conditioned as possible for what’s appropriate to that class.

Vascularity

As a side note - A lot of people are concerned about being vascular when they're on stage so I figured I'd address this quickly: These are physique competitions, not cardiologist conventions. Vascularity is like hair. If you've got it, good for you. Competitors are not judged on whether or not veins are visible. I have actually seen competitors who were so vascular that it was difficult to make out muscle detail. While vascularity may be indicative of leanness it means nothing about the overall physique of the competitor.

More to come tomorrow . . .

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What Are The Judges Looking For? Part I

09.02.2011 03:03:24

HUGE shoutout to my boi, Ivan Ribic, the promoter of the Empire Classic in April following the Emerald Cup and the Night of Champions in September. Ivan has been writing a series of blogs on contest preparation, and I must say, I’m impressed! His style is light yet engaging, easy to read yet informative, and most importantly, he talks in a language we understand. How many times have you started reading an article or blog and felt like you had to pull out your dictionary to fully understand it? Oh…one more important point…I didn’t catch ANY typos or grammatical/syntax errors – that’s ALWAYS a plus for me. Nothing is worse than to be reading a blog that’s full of improper sentencing, poor grammar, wrong word(s), out of context words, etc. I applaud Ivan for taking the time to proof his writings…and more importantly, know how to correct ‘em. It’s okay to use slang – heck I use it all the time! But it’s gotta flow within the context (and personality) of the writer. Ivan does an excellent job of doing that! When I read his blogs, I feel like I literally talking with him. That’s the sign of a great writer. I can honestly say that I couldn’t have written a better series of blogs – different perhaps, but not better. Respect, Ivan!

On to his blog…this is the first in a series of three blogs that he wrote on judging. I recently posted one he did on Competition Coaches vs. Personal Trainers (July 20^th). Scroll down a bit to read that if you haven’t already done so. This first blog, “What Are The Judges Looking For?” takes a look at judges in general, their criteria, and the ‘political’ myth at the local level. Enjoy…

WHAT ARE THE JUDGES LOOKING FOR? By Ivan Ribic

In the world of physique competition, there seems to be a great amount of mystique about judges. Competitors often talk about judges as though they’re part of some top secret underground club . . . the kind of group who dresses in robes and attends rendezvous at secret locations in the middle of the night to sacrifice baby kittens and protein powder to appease the ancient gods of muscle. Ridiculous. We quit doing that when the economy tanked and the price of protein powder went up.

The reality is that a lot of people don’t understand the judging process because they haven’t taken the time to do their research and really learn the ins and outs of judging. Unfortunately, this often results in competitors who are disgruntled and will attribute their placing to ‘politics’ or a number of other factors. The only one who always agrees with the judges is the first place winner. This blog, along with next week’s, will hopefully answer a few of the questions that competitors often have about the judging process.

Judges

First things first: Who are the judges? Judges are people who have an exceptional love for the sport and have been trained to assess physiques in a competition setting. By virtue of this, most judges are competitors or have competed in the past, though this is not a requirement to be a judge. Before you say “How can you possibly judge if you don’t compete?” I’d like to mention that when I watch American Idol I can tell you who sounds incredible and I can tell you who needs to go home even though I don’t ever sing (even to myself . . . even in the shower). I’ve seen people who have no desire to compete who have a phenomenal talent for judging and I’ve seen amazing competitors who can’t judge a lineup to save their life.

To become a judge, a person must attend an NPC judging clinic. In the Northwest, these are held a couple times throughout the year and are free to anyone who is a current NPC member. This means that the information and criteria that judges use is available to all NPC members. There are no secrets when it comes to judging!

The next step toward becoming a qualified judge is to test judge a number of shows to display competency. Test judge scores are compared to the final class results. Test judges must score a minimum of 85% accuracy on a consistent basis to qualify to become a judge. This ensures that the judge understands the criteria and has a good eye to assess it, keeping the panel consistent.

Judging is essentially a volunteer job. A judge’s stipend is equal to the current cost of the NPC card. As of right now, that’s $100 . . . not really a lot of money for a full day’s work, especially when you factor in travel costs, etc. This is not something that people do to get rich. As mentioned earlier, judging is done out of love for the sport.

“What are the judges looking for?”

Okay, time for me to rant a little bit: When someone’s placing isn’t what they think it should be they tend to ask a common question: “What are the judges looking for?” There are several variations of this question I’ve encountered including “Do the judges even know what they’re looking for?” but the common denominator is that all versions subtly (or sometimes not so subtly) imply that the judges don’t really know what they are doing and can’t make up their mind about what they want to see on stage. I’m going share a little secret about judging that not too many people know. Are you ready?

EVERY JUDGE IS LOOKING FOR THE EXACT SAME THING IN EVERY CLASS AT EVERY SHOW!

Yeah, I just “e-yelled” because I want to make sure everyone heard it. Judges aren’t looking for something different at every show. A judge is always looking for the physique which is, in their opinion, the best of the group on stage. That never changes, no matter what the show or class.

Competitors are often confused by or unhappy with their score sheet because not all of the judges on the panel scored them the same. This is because even though we have guidelines for judges, the scoring process is still based on personal opinion. The final score is the averaged opinion of a qualified judging panel. There will almost always be variances in the scores. If that wasn’t the case, we could save everyone a lot of time, money and work by just having 1 judge who decides where everyone places. Make sense?

Let’s add some perspective to the judging process: Judges do not place someone based on how they look. Placings are based on how someone looks in relation to the other competitors in their class at the moment that they’re on stage. This seems like a no brainer but a lot of times people forget this. I frequently hear complaints about poor judging because “so and so won their class last week at another show but only got 4^th this week”. How someone placed at a previous show is in no way indicative of how they will place in future shows. This week will bring a new lineup of competitors to be compared to. Changes in conditioning can occur within a matter of minutes at this stage of the game.

A judge can only assess what they are looking at on stage at a particular moment. Who you are or where you placed in the past makes no difference. All a judge is looking for is the best physique standing on stage in front of them at that particular time. I’ve seen seasoned competitors step on stage at their very best and still place last and I’ve seen some take the stage at their worst and still win. In the end, it all depends on how you look compared to who you’re standing with.

Politics

Okay, time for a quick, brutally blunt blurb about “politics”. This is a topic I hear mentioned at every show I’ve ever attended, judged, promoted or competed at so I figured I’d touch on this subject briefly. I’m not going to spend too much time talking about politics in the sport because so far as physique competition in the Northwest goes, it’s non-existent. I know people sometimes like to believe that the only reason “so and so” won a class was due to politics and the reason someone else placed low in their class was much the same. I’ve got news for you: We’re not that organized.

Judges do not sit around conspiring to hand someone a first place trophy that they didn’t deserve. We don’t meet up before shows to discuss who is on the roster. We do not discuss placings while we’re judging. We do not make changes to placings or scores after a class is complete. We do not let a judge who has close personal ties to a competitor on stage judge that class (we’ll discuss alternate judges more next week). If a judge did happen to let personal bias sway their scoring either against or in favor of a competitor it would be irrelevant to the final score anyway as the high and low score are both discarded.

We take great pride in providing a professional and fair environment for all competitors. Nothing discredits someone’s hard work faster than assuming the only reason they got where they are was due to “politics”. Every person on stage worked hard to be there but in the end, there can only be one winner. Don’t take that moment away from them by attributing their achievement to politics. Sometimes, success is just the result of a lot of hard work. ;-)

Check back next week when we discuss some of the basics of the judging criteria along with the actual scoring process.

I’ll post Ivan’s next blog, titled “Three Aspects of Physique Competition” soon. You’ll find it most interesting! Peace…

The Dr.

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"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

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Oh...it's ON!

08.27.2011 05:09:45

That’s right, it’s ON! The ‘Battle in Seattle’ (…well…actually Snoqualmie Casino…) for Washington’s Best Poser (or so we’d like to believe…) between Tony “LatMan”, aka “TinMan” Ruggiero, and me, Dave “Dr. Buff”, aka “Dr. Bluff” Patterson. Tony took it last year with an updated version of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ in which he portrayed a lean, mean, muscular, and painted silver from head-to-toe Tin Man, complete with upside-down funnel as his hat and a toy ax. I should’a known something was up when, about a month out, he said he was gonna ‘chop me down to size’. Then, in an interview with Mark Mason, Tony said he’ll ‘show the world that he really has a heart!” Looking back in retrospect I can see that he was droppin’ dimes…I just didn’t pick up on em.

I came out as a Jabbawockee wannabee, complete with white mask, hat, gloves, and white knee-length socks. Even though the routine rocked, alas, it was not enough, and The TinMan was crowned 2010’s “King of Posing”! But not to worry little ones. The Dr.’s got only one line for The TinMan…”When it’s all said and done, you’re gonna ‘like’ me, son! You guys will have to attend the show to see what I’m talkin’ about, but I promise you this…we’re both gonna bring our “A” games. I’ve been in contact with T and he promises to bring something over the top once again, and me…well…let’s just say The Dr. is like The Rock – “The Most ELECTRIFYING MAN IN SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT TODAY”! Okay…quit laughing…or rollin’ y’eyes…I’m just playin’ wit’cha…J.

Speaking of routines, if you’re not my FB friend, or haven’t ‘liked’ my fanpage (both links are below…hint, hint…), then you’re not aware of what I believe will soon be the biggest guest-posing routine of all-time! Last year at Gordon Myco’s Halloween-themed IronMountain Championships in Wenatchee, I came out in skeleton gear (a mask, hat, gloves, and socks). Actually, I was WHEELED out in a coffin by my friend and fellow competitor John, “Igor” Shephard. The lighting and stage crew did an outstanding job of creating this spooky feel and effect, complete with haunted castle in the background. The routine rocked! Gordon called me after and said, “Dave – you GOTTA come back next year and do it up even BIGGER and BETTER”! Well, I’m always up for a challenge (unless it entails goin’ head-to-head with Big Joe DeRousie, who, rumor has it, is gonna have his own great guest-posing appearance…), so I replied, “Gordo, it’s ON, buddy…lemme see what I can do for ya”!

Now when you think Halloween, what’s the first thought that pops in your mind? If you’re like most people, you think monsters, ghouls, ghosts, goblins, witches, the undead, etc. You might think of the old song, “The Monster Mash”, or the TV series, “The Munster’s” or “The Adam’s Family”. Eventually you’ll get around to…wait for it…”Thriller” by Michael Jackson. That’s right, lil Weedhoppahs, The Dr. is gonna do Thriller bodybuilding-style! I can’t tell you too much otherwise it’ll lessen the effect – who wants to see a movie after seeing all the good previews and hearing all about it from everyone who already saw it? But I will say this…if I can pull this off the way I envision; it’ll be off-the-proverbial-HOOK!

But I need your help guys and girls. I’m looking for a stage full of competitors to truly make this spectacular. We’ll have to practice, practice, and practice! You can be a bodybuilder, fitness, figure, or bikini competitor – doesn’t matter to me. This is not about size, muscularity, hardness, etc. This is strictly entertainment! All I’m looking for is a stage full of good-looking bodies. I’ll take care of the rest. I’m learning the choreography right now and will teach it to everyone. I’ll put my time in. I’m asking you to commit as well. All the info is on my website at http://thedrbuffexperience.com/wordpress/?p=254. People are signing up and I only need another 20 people before I meet stage quota. Trust me, you don’t wanna be sitting out in the audience watching this thinking, “…Man, I sure wish I would’ve done that…”. Hindsight is always better than foresight – for once let’s reverse it! Check out the blog on my site, call me, and get involved! Let’s make this go viral on YouTube – how cool would that be? Holla at’cha boi…peace!

The Dr.

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"Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"

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Perfect Practice Makes Perfect Posing!

08.21.2011 05:54:59

I was fortunate to have several outstanding instructors at Pacific Lutheran University during my undergraduate and graduate education. One of them, Dr. Colleen Hacker, the head Sports Psychologist for the US Women’s Olympic Soccer team back in the 90’s, and the most prolific and winning Women’s Soccer Coach during the 90’s era was one of my three favorite instructors. You’ll meet the other two in future blogs. Dr. Hacker, or ‘Cole’, as we called her, was a no-nonsense instructor. She was firm, hard, and a disciplinarian and task-master. But she also had a soft, caring, and compassionate side as well. Do well, and you saw the good side. Do bad and…well…cover your ears because you were about to get an earful! Not cursing, swearing, or yelling to berate you, but that hard, firm, “You are not giving YOURSELF your best effort!” I learned that from her and take that with me today as I teach. Cole expected excellence. So do I. She used to say, “When my team is on the soccer field, it’s immaterial to me whether we win or lose, but I will not settle for mediocrity. Mediocrity smacks of indifference, and if you’re indifferent about your education, then how can I get excited? How can I help you achieve your best potential if you don’t even care? For me to do my job, YOU must do YOUR job! My job is to teach…your job is to learn”!

To this day, I have that same philosophy. My job is to map out, construct, and demonstrate. Your job is to follow through, practice, and do. Anyone who knows me knows I’m passionate about what I do – probably to a fault. I want to help every single competitor achieve his or her best potential. But you’ve gotta do your part. You’ve gotta do the work and follow the plan I laid out so I can see the effects of my work. That’s when I get excited – when I see change in my people. I wear my emotions on my face and you can hear it in my voice. Week by week I assess my people. I go over each individual’s diet, cardio, and training. I do my absolute best to dial each person in to their best look to date. But frustration sets in every now and then, usually with nutrition, but every now and then with practicing of posing. I can’t hide it – when I see great change I get excited. I light up like a Christmas tree! I’m effusive, effervescent, and bubbly. But when I know that the individual hasn’t been on task and didn’t follow the posing protocol I laid out, I’m demur at best, typically stoic in appearance and mellow with voice. How can I give big props to someone who hasn’t put in the work? I can’t.

Cole’s favorite saying was “Practice doesn’t make perfect, PERFECT practice makes perfect! Practice can make imperfect, and if you practice imperfectly, you will perform imperfectly”! I see it all the time onstage – individuals who either practiced imperfectly or didn’t practice at all. It’s so obvious it stinks! I truly don’t understand how someone could put that much work into preparing his or her body for competition and then present a bad package onstage. I had a conversation with my buddy, Turk Fickling, a few weeks ago. We were talking about posing, routines, practicing, etc. Turk bemoaned, “Why would you go through all of that work to NOT present well onstage – to NOT look good for the judges and the audience?” He was referring to not only pre-judging where the show is won or lost and an individual can drop 2-3 places simply by not presenting himself properly, but also to the nightshow – the awards and entertainment value of the competition. Turk was in agreement with my statement, “Nobody remembers what place you took but everybody remembers a great posing routine”! He said, “There’s no way I’m going to prepare my body to that degree and end up not being remembered at the night show because I didn’t practice enough or I waited until the last minute to put together a crappy posing routine”. How can I say this? Ask anyone who’s been in this game for awhile, “What was, in your opinion, one of the best posing routines you’ve ever seen?”, and just about all of them will say, “Turk Fickling’s 1998 Emerald Cup routine”. I concur. If I remember correctly, Turk spent over 4 months perfecting that routine! I’ve spent 8-12 weeks perfecting routines in the past. Overkill? Some of you may think so but I’d like to believe that over 25 Best Poser awards would speak otherwise.

Every Sunday at 11 am I’ll be holding posing and nutrition workshops at MY Fitness in Renton. We only have 5 weeks until contest. If you haven’t started practicing your posing, I STRONGLY recommend you do so. Elaine referred a new young male competitor to me this past week. He thought he’d only need a couple of sessions to ‘learn how to pose and throw together a routine’. Within 5 minutes of our one-on-one session he said, “I think I’m gonna need to see you two or three times a week to learn this, huh”? I just smiled. Posing is harder than most people think. You have to be in control of literally every single muscle on your body and know how to not only make them ‘pop’ when need be, but also hold them without them ‘fading’, meaning going soft and losing their look. You hear this all the time at shows…a coach or friend is out in the audience yelling at his or her friend onstage, “legs…Legs…LEGS”!!! Just about every single time this problem could have been solved with adequate practice and conditioning. Remember, just because you’re in competition shape DOES NOT mean you’re in posing shape!

The Sunday practice sessions, which can run up to 3 hours or longer, consists of RePose (Relaxed Posing), in which you’re doing anything but being ‘relaxed’ onstage, ¼-turns, mandatory poses for men and women, and Figure presentations. Yes…I teach Figure as well. Just like a woman can teach a man how to cook, a man can teach a woman how to present properly. If you’re bodybuilding and need a choreographed routine, the first session or two will be one-on-one to build your routine. I don’t like to build routines during group practice – too many people are standing around for too long doing nothing. Once we finish with all the mandatory stuff, then we get into the backstage aspects – lining up, walking out, smiling, personality, etc. Remember, you’re in essence ‘selling’ yourself to the judges – and as many of you already know, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression! Finally we run each person through scenarios including morning time, night time, routines, presentations…anything and everything that goes into being onstage is covered. Now THAT’S what makes for a good competitor onstage.

So if you need help, or know of anyone who can use professional guidance in achieving his or her best stage presentation, show up each Sunday at 11 am at MY Fitness in Renton. You can also call me for one-on-one sessions during the week. Victory comes to the prepared…peace…

The Dr.

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