NPC Battle on the Bluff 2009

Battle on the Bluff is an annual NPC bodybuilding, figure and bikini contest presented by Chris Caudy. It will be held at Sam's Town Hotel and Casino in Tunica, Mississippi on Saturday evening June 27, 2009 at 7pm. The bodybuilding divisions include novice, junior, teen, open, masters (men over 40), grandmasters (men over 50) and female bodybuilding. Women's figure will include a masters category as well. This will be Jimmy's (my husband) first competition for 2009 (4th total).

If you have never been to a bodybuilding competition, you should find one and go! While the pros are fantastic, I tend to like the flavor of the amateur shows. Most of these men and women will never go pro, but they put a tremendous amount of time and effort into training, nutrition and general preparation. I would have never thought to go to one until Jimmy was encouraged to enter his very first competition last year. Check out Living with a 59 Year Old Mesomorph for how all that got started! The amateur shows have strict rules and regs and are very well run but they offer a chance to mingle with the competitors and you get to meet many of the family members that have supported them through the process, which makes it feel a bit more personal.

Never mind that Jimmy was the actual competitor, by the time we got to our first show last year I was quite traumatized by the contest prep training schedule, macronutrient juggling act, ordering french-cut posing trunks, the posing practice sessions, selection of show music, last-7-day nutrition lockdown, teaching him to shave areas other than his face and the very scary tanning process. I still feel nauseated at the smell of a certain brand of tanning solution that I won't mention by name to protect the innocent. I had no idea what to expect and could literally write a dedicated blog post on each of those items. Needless to say I was quite the shy spouse at the first show weigh-in, but by the next day I was yelling out Jimmy's number during prejudging with a loud woo-hoo along with shouts to show more quad. That's what spouses do at these shows apparently.

Last year by competition time Jimmy was around 7% bodyfat. That was fantastic, but he wanted to add more muscle for this year if possible. He loosened up a little on his eating during the winter months to modestly increase his calories but basically continued to eat whole foods focused on a foundation of lean protein and fibrous veggies with fruit, healthy fats and whole grains thrown in. He wasn't afraid to cheat here and there. He topped out in the winter at 15 pounds heavier, but never even got to 9% bodyfat. Now that he's been leaning back out he's dropped fat but is maintaining the muscle nicely.

His priority areas the last several months were his lats, delts and pecs. He has really improved his front lat-spread pose. We've figured out we like his left delt and his right pec the best, go figure. His trainer won't even let him work his calves, they are so big. I wish I had a dollar for every pull-up he's done this winter. He's now also doing weighted dips and has abs like batman. His quads are a challenge area for him that he's continuing to work on, but his hams are looking nice. It's amazing the more you understand about how much work it takes to get specific muscle groups to stand out or get that shredded look. It's tough!

I will continue to post since we are officially 5 days out from the first weigh-in. This should be a fun summer!