FROM FLABS TO ABS: Finding my summer abs

TOP: BEACH PICTURE CIRCA '99
BOTTOM: BEACH PICTURE CIRCA '10


It was about ten days out i think (or less) when i confirmed our day at the beach. Problem was i was still pudgy around the middle=) When your naturally dark skinned or tan everything is so much easier. You look leaner for sure even with a good amount of body fat.

Ever wonder why all these figure competitors are super tan? Cause your definition is about ten times better. But when your white,yellow or pale you have to work abot 10 times harder or you should really be below 10% bodyfat. I worked out like hell until beach day, alternating with real fast fatloss program, alwyn cosgroves fatloss 3 giant set (which i also call the motherfucking bitch) and my own superset bodyweight combo of density training and meltdown training. I like doing different kinds of workouts to keep the body guessing and not to get completely bored! I was feeling the overtraining bug biting me in the ass!!!!

But in the words of coach dos remedios he doesnt believe in all that straining the cns shit. Bottomline i think you got to find that very thin line between pushing your body to do a little bit more even if you feel rundown, and to rest when you really need to rest. Supplements like creatine and glutamine really come in handy and postworkout carbs are a Godsend=)

I tried tanning outside my house, bought my tanning spray. Placed some on me and sat at the sunniest part of the house. Let me tell you, tanning without the beach in front of you isn't any fun=). And no, it was not effective for me haha.

So with the hard workouts and diet dialed in, i knew i had to take it to the next level and that's where water manipulation came in. I have never water manipulated before so i was anxious. If i go to extreme like down only 10 ounces the day before beach day, i would suffer dehydration and risk destroying my beach day or if i did it wrong and drink too much i would look like a puffy marshmallow man and just be content with head shots all day long=)

So 5 days out i drank 2 gallons a day. Damn that first day was not fun at all. Also took a herbal diuretic by solgar. Truth be told i couldnt tell the difference. I was already pissing a lot anyway cause of my lowcarb state and i do usually drink a lot of water(not 2 gallons though). A day before my carbup i had a crisis. I dint know wether to follow the 10 0unces only advice, or to drink 2 gallons and stop at 4pm. Thoughts of going to the hospital filled my mind and stories of bodybuilders fainting on the stage cause of dehydration ate me up. To make my long story short i decided to go with 1 gallon that day and stop dringking at 6pm. Afterall you got to find what works best for you and since i dont think im under 10 percent i did not know if it would work at all.

BEACH DAY!

I woke up around 4am the next day,went straight to the bathroom checked out how i looked in front of the mirror. My first thoughts were, "well is this what flat looks like? well i'm kind of lean, but was i really? Was all that effort not worth it?" I tried to be positive and ate a piece of chicken and a spoon of ice cream.

About 5 hours later we got to the beach,proceeded to the room to do a variety of push- ups and sit- ups to get some kind of pump, put some tanning oil for definition and then me and my girl went off to the beach for our pre- pig- out pictorial. Snap snap snap several shots later, you could still hardly see my abs. Too much light. Let's try a different angle, snap snap snap still not the men's health shot i was dreaming of. In my head i was saying my God this is not happening. All the effort, water gallons and supplement money i poured on to this very day seem to be failing me. Then finally for something like 20 seconds it felt like God intervened clouds covered the sun and i was like "take a shot hurry there's no sun" SNAP!!!! The sun came back! Perfect shot! It was a funny kodak moment. A perfect moment. 2 hours later we ate like hungry cannibals in the buffet table. We took head shots after that=)