Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail
Typically I will have a blended breakfast of protein powder, raw oats, banana. 5 blended meals consisting of chicken, rice and greens. And finally a sit down evening meal of fish and veg. 
We had a posing workshop at Forest gym this Sunday just gone to give the Forest Gym athletes who are competing at the Ukbff South Coast show an opportunity to practice the mandatory competition poses. It was fantastic to see the response which shows that the bodybuilding spirit at Forest Gym is alive and strong. "Big H" put the boys through an intense 40 min posing workout!
This weekend gone was my last weekend of relaxing :-)
My coach, Big H assured me that he would be watching my every move now and that my training is going to be intensified to a whole new level. He said this with a big smile on his face!
Very exciting weeks ahead!
I was asked what does prep time mean to me....
Well, this is the point where I baton down the hatches and socialising doesn't exist other than to banter with the other gym goers up until after my show.
I won't go grocery shopping now - only ordering on line in order to avoid any unnecessary temptations whilst walking down the aisles. Or I will sit in the car and send a friend into the shop with a shopping list :-)
No birthday or celebration invites being accepted.
I don't even look at the news feed on twitter or Facebook once diet prep starts as I don't like my attention to shift.
I set my alarm so that I eat bang on time and through the night.
I keep to definite sleep patterns.
On rare occasions when I sit in front of the television it will only be for movies as I won't watch tv ads (most ads are food related so not a good idea).
I make a deliberate point of not following the progress of any other fbb's - I only focus on my own path. I won't read or listen to anything about any other female competitors.
Even though this is the end of my bulk season/start of my diet season I was pleased to see the vascularity in my arms while I was doing my hair this morning.
Iv put on some quality muscle while keeping a very good shape with a lower fat perecentage. I don't think you need to lose condition off season - it only means you have more work to do when you're dieting down.
The Arnold Classic Show, Columbus Ohio - Muscle everywhere!
What an amazing weekend. At my hotel I saw big names like the man himself - Arnie, Kai Greene, Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman, Lou Ferrigno (the Incredible Hulk) just to name a few. The Expo which went on for the whole weekend was impressive - maybe a bit too crowded though.
British Champion Daz Ball won 1st place in the amateur heavyweight class. He looked phenomenal! Well done!
Unfortunately I didn't get pics of all the big ladies. I didn't see as many as I thought I would. I must've kept missing them? I'm told they were there as I was interviewed 3 times and saw some footage.
I did meet loads of athletes over the weekend and I was also humbled by the amount of bodybuilding fans who came up to me to say hi and called me by name. Wow, that's pretty cool :-)
I was also impressed by the menu at the Hilton hotel which catered especially for bodybuilders which meant that if you were a competitor or an athlete in diet mode you could easily get food prepped.
Life goes back to normal now - eat, train, sleep and grow some more!
Its blog time again. I have to be honest - I've not been feeling too enthusiastic about writing my blogs as of late since I discovered that certain people from my past (who I prefer not to associated with) have been using my blog as a way of prying into life. I don't understand this at all. Speaking for myself - I want nothing to do with the past and certainly wouldn't pry into someone else's life, so I would expect the same in return?
Also, I've heard a few conversations in bodybuilding circles of late (and experienced it first hand) that there are some false people out there who pretend to be all lovely to your face but then criticise you behind your back. If you don't like someone, why waste your precious time preoccupying yourself with their business?
Anyways despite this undesirable blip - I've decided to continue the weekly blogs. I've been inspired by someone I met recently to do a short video blog each week showing my week to week progress through my 12 week diet up until the show that I'm going to compete in. I'm quite excited about this! So watch out for this from beginning of March.
This week will be different and interesting for me. Monday I've been asked to appear in a music video for a fantastic artist. Once it's been released middle of next week I can spill the beans. It will be a really beautiful cinematic video - going out on music channels, music blogs and going over to the states. I have include a pic from the shoot, but the quality isnt too great, but I think you get the idea :-)
Then I leave for Columbus mid week to watch the Arnold Classic and see the expo for the first time. I'm only interested in seeing the big girls on stage though. It's all about the heavyweight fbb class for me. I read an article by the amazing IFBB Pro Wendy McCready in the latest Beef magazine pretty much about just this. Female bodybuilding is about BIG, muscular, yet feminine women. I agree!
I will make sure I get some great pics for my gallery of the big ladies :-)
Have a great week. I will!
New York... Bright lights, big city, great people and fantastic steaks! What an amazing experience.
Being away from home means my routine is disrupted. That is no excuse not to train and to eat the food that is part of my structured diet plan.
It means that in my luggage I have to pack a set of scales, a blender, bags of protein powder, protein shakers and of course my gym kit. Oh, and not forgetting my cafetiere and special ground coffee. By the time iv packed this, there is not too much space left for much else and it also makes for an interesting time through customs control at the airport!
I had the pleasure of training at some amazing gyms - so well kitted out. I felt like a child in a candy store - so many different and exciting pieces of equipment available - I wanted to try out everything!
Preparing food each day is a bit of a challenge when you're doing it from a hotel room but after a while you get used to improvising. I've even been known to take a travel kettle and a small hotplate with me when I'm dieting for a show.
I visited an amazing steak restaurant which is renown for being a "meat eaters paradise". I feasted on first class cuts of lean protein of all sources. Fantastic.
Check out my trip to NY in pics..
My blog is later than usual - sorry! - I've been very busy with my preparations to visit New York City. I've never been there before so it will be a new experience that I'm going to enjoy.
Training always takes priority and even though I've had a full schedule I always find the time to get down to the gym. This week I had to weigh in and check my progress which I'm pleased with. My favourite top no longer fits as my biceps are growing - sad about the top, but very happy with the bigger guns :-)
I'm very excited to say that MBE Films has started to film me for a documentary which will show my progress from now in my offseason/bulking stage through to my participation in my first pro show in the states later on this year. Imagine something similar to the Pumping Iron documentaries made a number of years ago but a more updated, female version showing real life "behind the scenes" lifestyle habits of a female bodybuilder in the lead up to a show.
It will show things that would be typical for a bodybuilder - such as eating weighed out meals every three hours, the difficulty faced when buying clothes to fit a muscular physique, the intense training, the social life or should I say "the non existent social life" lol, candid camera reactions of the public when out and about doing things such as grocery shopping, having a coffee in a cafe, eating in a restaurant and such like. It will also show the final countdown to the competition: the changes in bodyfat over the months, posing and routine practice, how the diet changes, water loading, tanning up and of course show day.
If there are any ideas out there for the documentary - let me know!
A sponsorship page has been added to my website. I'm proud to say that I am supported and sponsored by Forest Gym - IFBB Pro Harold Marillier, MuscleXcess and X2X clothing . Please visit my sponsor's page.
http://www.renecampbell.net/sponsors.html
I didn't get to try out my golf skills this past week as planned due to the beautiful blanket of white snow that has fallen over the UK. It looks so magical and brings the child out in most people. Instead, I've had a lot of fun sledging and trekking about in the snow. My car has been snowed in so I've been walking instead. Good thing I'm so close to the gym :-) Check out my snow angel!
The scales have gone up!
I'm loving my offseason. Since the beginning of January my diet has tightened up. I am in my bulking phase but eating clean and much bigger quantities. Stength has gone up and my training has changed accordningly. I am training some muscle groups twice a week, sometimes up tp three times depending on my muscle recovery. There is also tweaking of certain muscle groups through specific excercises to help shape areas of my physique that I am looking at improving.
Its great feeling stronger. It means training twice a day is achievable. My physique is fuller, harder and tighter. Because I am offseason, I took the opportunity to try a water aerobics class that I was invited to. That was so much fun. I didn't feel that it was a workout, but enjoyed the entertainment value. There were alot of high reps and giant sets involved - but with only a choice of 1kg, 2kg, 3kg and 4kg dumbells to use. The instructor took one look at me, disappeared and returned poolside with some 10kg dumbells. Much better!
Messing about after the workout gave me a chance to practice some shoulder presses on some of the ladies in the class. Being in the pool means you can launch your victim into the water after the lift without having to worry about them getting hurt. The ladies were initially shocked at my size in comparison to their small phsiques - they looked so tiny next to me - but we had a good laugh. Little did they know that about 4 years ago, I was probably their size if not smaller :-)
I doubt I will be doing another water aerobics class anytime soon - I am going to try a bit of golf next week. I am offseaon which means I can play about for a bit :-)
I have got 2 months of bulking before I start my dieting down for my debut pro show.
I received a few emails asking what kind of shape I am in right now seeing that I am bulking and in offseaon training. So the pics above were taken a few days ago :-)
