Today, we are 46 days out from the 2017 Olympia. My goodness its coming quick. I have not competed since last year’s Olympia, where I was awarded second place!! (still in shock over that one). This offseason I learned a lot about myself. Not so much physically, as I would have predicted, but more so, mentally. I learned a lot about myself as a competitor, role model, who I have been, and most importantly the person I want to be. I’ll tell you that what I have realized about the difference between first and second is simple. It’s far from easy… but it’s simple. My off-season lessons had a lot to do with me dissecting this idea “it is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us”. I won’t get too deep into it but a simple question I have learned to ask myself constantly is, “to be, or not to be”, and in my case, I finish it with, Ms. Olympia. I guess the take home lesson is that, every moment we have a decision to make, and it can go one of two ways. Either in alignment getting us closer to our goal, or out of alignment bringing us further away from our goal. Its inescapable, and can be your best friend if you just do the next right thing. So out of a dark offseason came a lot of light and lessons. The acquisition of new mental tools and insight about myself, my intentions, and my purpose for bodybuilding. And so here we go 46 days out from the biggest show of my life. No Pressure or anything, I am Redcon.
Diet: The diet is really going smoothly this go around, my body changes daily, and it feels as if my cells are conspiring to make something amazing happen. I think it’s because I am truly sticking to it 111%. Its funny what happens when you don’t cut corners, or add in nibbles, and do the right thing. I find that the time I had off from the structure was a great reset for my body and mind. I am excited to prep again, and I am responding quickly to changes. The other day I was given a huge refeed with tons of carbs coming from white rice and cream of rice mostly, and then at the end of the day I got to eat a huge burger, fries and halo top ice cream!! It sounds amazing, and was for the most part. I ate so much that I was in literal pain. And my digestion still isn’t one hundred percent back to normal. So yes cheat meals are great, and helpful if necessary but they do come with a price (water retention, messed up belly). To be completely honest, sometimes cheat meals are not as worth it as our brain leads us to believe. My advice about diets and cheats would be…. Diet for conditioning. That should come first and foremost, and then you will get cheats and refeeds because of your awesome conditioning and progress. If you find yourself dieting so you can have the next cheat meal or refeed (instead of new level of progress), it would be a good idea to double check your motives and intentions behind contest prep… we can make this so much easier on ourselves if we just switch our focus off peanut butter and onto progress. See doesn’t that feel better already?
Training: My training has been great! I feel like I have a better connection with my muscles than I ever have. Strength is never really a huge factor for me. So when I get a little bit weaker as contest prep progresses it doesn’t bother me at all. In fact I prefer volume training over strength training. Something new that I have been doing is Yoga. I absolutely love it, and wish I could fit it in more. And do you want to know I think that my increased mind muscle connection is due to yoga. Whats cool is that you can take any approach that you would like. You can make it more of a stretching practice or a strength practice. I kind of do both, sometimes I want a challenge and sometimes I just want to move better at the end of the class… Either way my conclusion with yoga is that its awesome and has been helping me… if I can lengthen and move my muscles better I can contract my muscles better, thus making me better at what I do. Also energetically, I find it’s a nice balance to the constant aggressive nature of training intensely in the gym all the time.
Supplements: Being a new athlete for Redcon1 has opened up a whole world of supplements. Some of the supplements I have been taking daily are RPG, the glucose disposal agent, as well as both fat burners, double tap and silencer. I like them both, I notice good energy, and I like a little stimulant here and there. Before writing this, I actually took mental trigger.. and I think its safe to say, its effective. ? Pre workouts I took a break from a while ago, however, now I am back in action with them… I forgot after not using them for so long that they really do help your workout… I have just started using total war, big noise and breach. So far so good, flavors off the chain!! Pumped and focused!!
Exciting and Positive News: The most recent piece of news I have is becoming a sponsored athlete with Redcon1!! Super excited and grateful for this opportunity. Thank you all very much!! I am guest posing in South Florida August 12th at the Florida Muscle Classic!! And omg, pretty much minutes ago as I am typing this, our offer was accepted on the house we wanted!!!! It’s a lateral move financially and spaciously… but the back yard for the dog is just magical. If you guys don’t already know, one more exciting life thing, just around the corner in November my fiancé Ian and I are getting married!!! 11-11-17. So woa, yes we have a big exciting year ahead of us and it coming quick. Need to be on my A game for this. Thanks for your time and energy if you made it down this far ?
Until Next time… Good Vibes, Hoodie up, Bel1eve
Dani
]]>Today is the first major day of the Olympia Weekend! We started off the day following breakfast with a light flush workout of back and chest just as means to aid in shuttling nutrients not for the sake of muscle breakdown.
Following training we made another grocery run to grab some extra cream of rice, eggs, bananas, just a few of the basics we will continue to use through the loading process.
Dallas has the press conference at 12 pm today as well as the athletes meet and greet tonight at 7pm for those of you who are here we look forward to seeing you!
@dallasmccarver and @mattjansen8
Today’s training
Back and chest
All sets done in the 12-15 rep range short of failure
3 sets each movement
Again goal here is to prime for load and aid in moving nutrients not breakdown
1) hammer wide grip pulldown
2) hammer neutral grip seated row
3) v grip pulldown into cambered bar pull over
***back stretch
1) flat plate loaded chest press
2) seated cable fly high and low
***Chest stretch
Posing
]]>Chest Training. Dallas Trains Chest 4 Days Out to the Olympia.
]]>Notes From Matt
Busy first day in Vegas. Dallas and I while still used to east coast time got up at 5am and headed over to city athletic for a very light cardio session and posing since it was not light yet. After we made our first grocery store run to gather foods for the day. I am going to be doing a full blog on Dallas peak but for now we a literally taking things a few hours at a time so I cannot lay out a full plan as of yet.
Today we trained arms and this as well as our morning shopping a food prep was all filmed and will be on redcon1.com
@dallasmccarver and @mattjansen8
Today’s training
Arms – supersets
**SS = Superset
3 working sets of 12-15 on each
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SS – 1 SS – 2 |
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Quad Set – 3 SS – 4 |
Notes From Matt
Yesterday was our last day in boca. We spent the morning getting haircuts, training and packing for our early evening flight to vegas. The biggest keys to a successful travel day for a bodybuilding event is to arrive early, wear tight fighting clothes or compression type apparel under your clothes and continue to keep water going through the flight. These will help minimize stress and keep water flushing which is a concern this close to a show.
We trained shoulders at Project Flex yesterday, the entire workout was filmed so be sure to check that out on redcon1.com!
@dallasmccarver and @mattjansen8
Diet from Sept 13
8-9 liters of water
Sea salting all meals / seasons fine
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Meal 1 – Pre Training Meal Meal 2 – Post training Meal 3 |
Meal 4 Meal 5 Meal 6 |
Cardio
3 Hard posing rounds
Training – Shoulders
Workout was very fast paced. This took a total of 35 min
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Exercise 1 – Straight sets Lateral raise aiming for 15-20 reps per set. Challenging sets 3 sets Additional set added – quad drop set aiming for 8 reps per drop, 4 drops total. Exercise 2 – Straight sets Barbell upright row 4×15 (partner only rest) Exercise 3 – Straight sets Seated front delt emphasis overhead fly. 3×15 |
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Exercise 4 – Superset Cable high to low rest delt fly Into Seated machine lateral raise 3 sets of 10-12 + 10 partials on each. Exercise 5 – Bottom Half Machine press Stretch partial emphasis 3 sets to failure at stack |
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The focus of this week for us is all about fine tuning, mental preparation, muscle stimulation and rest.
Today and tomorrow we will train here in Boca and then fly out tomorrow evening to set up Camp in Vegas tomorrow night.
Yesterday we had a very good workout, assertive and it was fast paced. The volume was quite high with what we got accomplished in a short amount of time. We were in and out within an hour.
@dallasmccarver and @mattjansen8
Diet from Sept 11
8-9 liters of water
Sea salting all meals / seasons fine
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Meal 1 – Pre Training Meal Meal 2 – Post training Meal 3 |
Meal 4 Meal 5 Meal 6 |
Cardio
3 Hard posing rounds
Training – Back Workout
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Exercise 1 – Straight sets (speed emphasis) Cable Camber Bar Pullover – Exaggerated motion using a bit of body english staying up and leaning over as the weight moves to hit the back top to bottom 3 x 15 Exercise 2 – Straight sets Single Arm Dorian Low Row stabilizing body away from machine with opposite arm and same leg as you are doing the rowing with 3 x 10-12 Exercise 3 – Superset Hammer Neutral Grip High Row Seated using the standard Hammer Row INTO Hammer High Row using a neutral grip keeping legs back almost as if you are doing an incline pulldown with Chest staying fixed into pad. 3 Rounds x 12 – 10 on each |
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Exercise 1 – Straight sets (speed emphasis) Cable Camber Bar Pullover – Exaggerated motion using a bit of body english staying up and leaning over as the weight moves to hit the back top to bottom 3 x 15 Exercise 2 – Straight sets Single Arm Dorian Low Row stabilizing body away from machine with opposite arm and same leg as you are doing the rowing with 3 x 10-12 Exercise 3 – Superset Hammer Neutral Grip High Row Seated using the standard Hammer Row INTO Hammer High Row using a neutral grip keeping legs back almost as if you are doing an incline pulldown with Chest staying fixed into pad. 3 Rounds x 12 – 10 on each |
Dallas hit a new low today, food has continued to slowly go up on a daily basis and everything is continuing to improve.
Today we trained arms at Project Flex, we are very thankful to have the opportunity to train in that facility. Its been a great place to train with an atmosphere of people who understand what its like to compete on this level and are very encouraging and supportive of what we are doing!
Be sure to following along today on IG and Snapchat as we document the training day!
@dallasmccarver and @mattjansen8
Diet
8-9 liters of water
Sea salting all meals / seasons fine
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Meal 1 Meal 2 Meal 3 |
Meal 4 Meal 5 Meal 6
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Cardio
Hard posing rounds
Training – Arms / Forearms / Calves
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Exercise 1 – Straight sets Standing Alternating DB Curl Working up to 3 hard sets at the same weight within the 10-15 rep range Exercise 2 – straight sets Incline Supinated Bicep Curl We used a slight incline here with the goal of really keeping shoulders pinned back against the pad. On these reps we cut out all momentum and did both full ROM reps as well as partials out of the stretched position. 3 working sets in the 10-12 rep range plus 3-5 partials. Exercise 3 – Straight sets Machine Single Arm Machine Working full stretch through peak contraction on each rep + 3 forced partials on each side. 3 working sets in the 10-12 rep range plus 3 forced reps. Exercise 4 – Straight sets DB Single Arm Curl on Standing Preacher Machine Again here we are trying to fully lengthen the bicep so an easy way to do this is to contract your tricep in the fully extended position. 2 sets of 15 on each arm |
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Triceps Exercise 1 – Straight sets Incline Skull Crusher Pyramid up in weight, all sets performed to failure around the ranges listed. 30/25/20/15 Exercise 2 – straight sets Single Arm Alternating DB Overhead Ext Going through a full stretch / Pause / Drive into 3/4 through range of motion. 3 working sets in the 10-12 rep range plus 3-5 partials. Exercise 3 – Rope Tri-Sets Bending over at 45 Degree – Rope Extension starting with rope at forehead, splitting rope ends at bottom. No body movement here INTO Traditional Standing Rope Extension splitting rope at full extension while keeping arms into sides throughout INTO Standing High Pulley overhead Extension with back towards stack. Keep rope ends together here. All three movements done to failure of FULL REPS only at same weight 3 Rounds Exercise 4 – Straight sets Cable Single Arm Reverse Extension 2 sets of 15 on each arm Forearms Circuit Reverse Cambered Barbell Curl x 15 Barbell Behind The Back Forearm curl x 15 Hammer DB Curl with hands slightly pronated x 15 3 Rounds |
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Notes From Matt
The plan for the next 6 days or so is to allow Dallas to naturally keep coming down in weight and making minor adjustments to the diet daily as needed. I am trying to avoid massive drops as well as spikes in weight via high refeeds and just keep his body in a place where everything is as consistent as possible. We are doing posing in the morning and posing following training after his post training meal digests. This allows me two opportunities
@dallasmccarver and @mattjansen8
Diet
8-9 liters of water
Sea salting all meals / seasons fine
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Meal 1 Meal 2 Meal 3 |
Meal 4 Meal 5 Meal 6 |
Cardio
Hard posing rounds
Training – Hamstrings
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Exercise 1 – Straight sets Standing Hamstring Curl Working up to 3 hard sets at the same weight within the 12-15 rep range Last set will be an alternated rest pause set completing 3 attempts at the same weight for both legs – left / right / left / right / left / right Exercise 2 – Tri Set Adduction INTO Long Stride walking lunges sets of 15 – 20 on each going through a full range of motion and emphasizing pauses in the stretched position and peak contractions on the machine sets. 3 Rounds |
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Exercise 3 – Straight sets DB RDL Working up to 3 hard sets in the 15 – 20 rep range. The emphasis here was training from a stretched position with knees slightly bent throughout. Exercise 4 – Straight sets Lying Hamstring Curl Rest Pause sets in the higher rep range. Aiming for 25-30 total reps through three attempts at the same weight. Traditional DC style approach here. Exercise 5 – Straight sets Abs – 3 sets of lower ab and 3 sets of upper ab movement each. Here we are working on peak contractions to simulate what is done on stage through an ab n thigh movement. |
Notes From Matt
We ended up calling an audible yesterday and training shoulders and saving back for today. Back was still a bit sore from last week so we wanted to give it an extra day to rest. So what you are seeing below is the shoulder workout that we did yesterday. The back workout posted yesterday is what we will be doing today. Today we will also be training with Massive Joe who is a guest of Redcon1 today coming from Australia!
@dallasmccarver and @mattjansen8
Diet
8-9 liters of water
Sea salting all meals / seasons fine
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Meal 1 Meal 2 Meal 3 |
Meal 4 Meal 5 Meal 6
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Cardio
20 min AM
Training – Shoulders
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Exercise 1 – Superset Standing Lateral Raises INTO Standing Wide grip Upright row This is a great superset for the medial delts Going as heavy as possible within the realm that it is a superset. 12 reps on each 3 rounds Exercise 2 – Superset Incline Camber Bar Supinated Front Raise using a close grip INTO Incline Camber Bar Pronated Front raise with a wide grip 12 reps on each and then doing top half partials to failure keeping tension primarily on the working muscle being primarily the front deltoid. Exercise 3 – Straight sets Seated Belt driven Shoulder press. Here we did as many full reps as possible followed by as many bottom half partials as we can do as long as we could get half way through the ROM. 3 working sets around 15-25 reps per set with full reps as well as added partials |
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Exercise 4 – Straight sets Seated Reverse Pec Deck Holding peak contraction on each rep. 3×12-15 + stretch partials on each rep Exercise 5 – Straight sets Pronated Lateral Raises Here you are going to keep your palms facing back throughout. This done correctly is a shorter range of motion, Start with the DB’s ends on your glutes and drive laterally from that position. You will realistically only be able to get about halfway up before other muscles take over. Exercise 6 – Superset Bi lateral Hammer Shrugs x 15 INTO Seated Low Row pulling high for mid trap emphasis rope rows x 15 Finished up with 6 sets of ab work we are alternating ab and calves training every day. |
Notes From Matt
Dallas and I had a call this morning mapping out training from now through his final workouts. It’s that time to be thinking about all of the “finals” of prep. He will be training chest today, arms tomorrow and then legs on Sunday together.
Cardio is still on a as needed basis right now and will continue in this manner through the olympia. Its a fine line at this point of tissue retention and fat loss and we are trying to walk it daily. Its not so much his mental aspect that I am concerned with as Dallas will always due what is needed but he has a lot of new tissue on his lower half that our goal is go bring into the show not diet off prior to.
@dallasmccarver and @mattjansen8
Diet
8-9 liters of water
Sea salting all meals / seasons fine
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Meal 1 Meal 2 Meal 3
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Meal 4 Meal 5 Meal 6
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Cardio
20 min AM
Training – Back
Doing a lot of vertical movements today and training the lats from a stretched position with arms overhead
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Exercise 1 Vertical Close Grip Pulldown (3 Phase Movement) Exercise 2 Hammer High Row Using the arm lever and not handle with legs fully extended behind and chest on pad, the set up for this is much like an incline row yet you are pulling with your arms from overhead. 4 sets with full stretch and contraction on each set Working up to a max set of 12 and maintaining weight for all sets 3. Exercise 3 – Superset Lying DB pullover INTO Rope Standing pullover emphasizing full stretch with DB and peak contraction with the rope. 3 supersets of 10 reps on each |
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Exercise 4 Seated Cable row leaning fully back into stack with upper body again to get lats into stretched position. Full stretch into full contraction 3×12-15 Exercise 5 Assisted Pull ups at moderate weight to failure. Total of 3 sets here |