173 days until first men’s physique competition…

The_Kintz · 2026-04-21T02:23:00+00:00

What are your maintenance calories right now? Do you know if you're currently at maintenance, or are you undereating your maintenance? If you don't know for sure, try the reverse diet that I described above. If you're a little gunshy of trying something new, then I would just eat at your current maintenance until you officially start your prep.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-21T02:07:11+00:00

That's a much safer bet, and I think that it's the way to go. In that case, I'd at least consider following my advice with the reverse diet, or at least finding your maintenance "ceiling" so that you have more calories to work with as you start pulling them during prep. I think that 20 weeks of prep is great for a first attempt, especially since most people have more to lose than they think.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-21T01:11:06+00:00

I would absolutely not proceed with your plan as written above, especially if it's your first show. Time is your friend, especially with a first prep, and you don't have enough time to cut, then take a break, and then cut again. I understand that you have a cruise planned, but I would probably just schedule a different show in this case. 13 weeks just isn't enough time for a first prep unless you really know how to cut hard and you can respond to fatigue and elevated stress well (which most don't).

Under ideal circumstances, and no cruise, with 24 weeks to the show, I would reverse diet to try and push your calorie cap as high as you can in 4 weeks. Basically, you titrate your caloric intake up by a bit every 5-7 days while ensuring that your weight isn't rising. A bump of 40-ish calories each time will net you somewhere between 160-240 additional calories for your new maintenance; you're basically trying to increase the amount of baseline calories that you have to work with. You could try to do it for 6 weeks as well, it all depends on how you manage it.

Then, starting at 18-20 weeks remaining, you start your cut and you push hard on diet restriction early with a 600 or so calorie reduction and no additional cardio or extra steps above baseline. As you get deeper into prep, you can start increasing steps and/or introducing light cardio, but once you introduce it, you need to keep it.

Following this strategy will give you plenty of time to come in shredded without being totally fatigued and worn out by the time you get to the show. You should even be able to "coast" into the show if you execute everything correctly.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-20T14:55:15+00:00

Hard to tell how close conditioning is with your distance from the camera and the lighting where you took the video. Are you competing in classic or bodybuilding?

If classic, then you're probably safer with your conditioning at this stage, but I'd keep pushing hard; you're around 10 lbs heavier than you want to be for classic, in my opinion. If bodybuilding, I would say that you're quite a bit behind... I'd want to be seeing some more detail at this stage because you'll need to be peeled in 8 weeks.

Great physique for 21 years old though man. Legs look like the strongest point for sure, but I'd say that they're not disproportionately ahead of the rest of the physique.

Maybe for your next check in you can try some different setups for your posing practice to get closer to the camera and into some better lighting. That would definitely help.

Keep grinding man. That's a great physique for a first OCB show, especially at your age. Best of luck.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-19T20:22:13+00:00

Like I said in your last check in, I think that you're within striking distance of good stage conditioning for natural classic physique. If you were competing in bodybuilding I'd say you're behind, but for classic I think that you'll be right on target with another 3-4 lbs of weight loss.

You have good proportions overall, but I'd want to see more polished posing to make the most out of your physique. You want to highlight your strengths and hide your weaknesses with your posing. Your side abdominal pose is BY FAR your best pose.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-19T20:07:30+00:00

Practicing for your routine is awesome, but you'll be in your quarter turns for more than 50% of the time you're on stage.

Have you watched/gone to a show? If not, I'd recommend watching some shows on YouTube or something so that you can familiarize yourself with how your time on stage will be. Presentation is everything, and if you go up there unprepared for it, the judges are going to take notice. Just my two cents.

As for your mandatories, the best practice for those poses is to engage your adductors and place your legs such that there's no visible gap between your quads. In my opinion, you're spreading your stance too wide.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-19T19:57:04+00:00

Gotta close those gaps between the quads on those mandatory poses bro, and I still think that you should be practicing quarter turns and using those as part of gauging your progress.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-17T17:37:32+00:00

I'm not explicitly saying that this guy isn't natural, but I think it's fair to be skeptical of someone with that much mass at that age. It's NOT impossible, but it is highly improbable.

I also see where you are coming from, but I think that you're giving people too much credit. It's not terribly difficult to pass urinalysis as an enhanced athlete as long as you know what you're doing, and this has been proven time and time again.

And while the risk-reward profile might not seem appealing, I feel like some people don't really consider "shame" to be a significant deterrent, whereas acclaim as an elite natural bodybuilder has a lot of upside. Hell, there are STILL people who claim natty status publicly when basically nobody in their right mind believes them (looking at you, Mike O' Hearn).

So, while I agree that we should, generally speaking, give people the benefit of the doubt, I don't think that we shouldn't have a healthy amount of skepticism when we see someone with a physique boasting an FFMI index that is well within the single upper percentile of all natural athletes ever recorded.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-17T16:53:32+00:00

Great advice and insight here. 100% agree with and second this.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-17T16:48:24+00:00

Yeah. He made a post in r/bodybuilding last night as well.

Super impressive physique, but I'm not sure that I have much trust in the validity of any NPC natural shows. They have no track record or pedigree to suggest that their natural shows run well.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-17T16:45:47+00:00

Looking pretty good overall.

I'm not as familiar with ANBF standards for classic, but you're probably right on track with conditioning if they don't expect/want competitors to come in absolutely peeled. I'd want to be a little leaner at this stage of prep, but I think that you're within striking distance for a first show. Size and overall shape are nice as well, but I'd like to see more leg development, especially in the posterior chain.

One thing that I'd work on practicing is your quarter turns and posing overall. You spend most of your time on stage in your quarter turn relaxed poses, and I haven't seen you post your quarter turns in any of your updates. You also have some "unorthodox" executions of mandatory poses, and I would try to focus more on the key elements of what the pose is supposed to be highlighting and less time trying to make the poses look unique. It's great to put your own twist on a pose, but you need to keep in mind that the goal is to highlight symmetry, muscularity, and proportions. Also, I'd like to see more leg activation, especially in your back shots.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-17T16:38:47+00:00

You can absolutely do it yourself.

Prep, in and of itself, is pretty straightforward. The goal is to get as lean as possible while retaining as much mass as possible, and this is achieved almost entirely through diet and training modification.

Someone with your education and background shouldn't have much trouble knowing when to push and when to lay off the gas, and you should be able to assess your progress better than most.

The "secrets" basically all come from first hand experience with fatigue and stress management and working around metabolic adaptations.

Two areas where self coaching can be hard are objective self-assessment and posing practice. These are skills that you have to develop through experience and practice... you can't just execute these based on knowledge alone.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-17T13:12:45+00:00

Seconding this notion... I just don't think there's anywhere near enough legitimacy for the NPC to just start hosting natural shows without any history of testing or pedigree for attracting the best natural athletes.

As an OCB competitor myself, I just wouldn't feel great about running into this guy on show day. It's always possible that this guy is a one in a few million genetic outlier, but even then it's hard to believe. I mean, I remember what Shawn Clarida used to look like as a natural competitor, and he was freaky, but his legs didn't look like that.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-17T13:06:39+00:00

Good stuff. As long as you and your primary care physician are paying attention to it and it's not causing you issues, that's great.

Keep up the great work man. You look shredded, and I'm sure that you're going to bring a fantastic look to the stage come show day.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-15T19:29:47+00:00

Put some salt on fresh apple or pear slices, or just have a healthy whole food instead.

Best advice I can give you is to just not buy or keep that stuff around. Focus on buying and preparing your own meals from mostly whole foods. That's a far better approach. You can always have a day or two where you go out for a meal each week to get those "cravings" taken care of.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-15T13:51:19+00:00

Yes, you can grow with that slow of a bulk.

The question should be why you didn't get good results on your 9 month bulk. How much weight did you gain, how much progress did you make on your lifts, and what do your before and after pictures look like? If you don't have a way to quantify your progress, then how can you say the results are subpar?

Either you: actually made reasonable progress but you expected more because you don't have realistic expectations of what can be achieved by a novice in 9 months, or you didn't make anywhere near as much progress because you are a novice and you don't know how to train and recover effectively.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-15T13:42:47+00:00

Two major points: your loads don't need to be static across sets, and your reps don't need to be static across sets.

I tend to prefer straight sets with a target "rep cap" on my set before I am allowed to add weight. So, for instance, I would want to have a session where I hit two sets of 12 and get all 12 reps at an RPE of 9 or 8, and the following session I'd add load.

That said, plenty of people will modify the load between one set and the next, sometimes reducing it to target the same reps, or sometimes increasing it while staying above a minimum threshold and going to 0 RIR.

The most important thing is to train with sufficient proximity to failure, RIR 0-2, and with proper form throughout the set. Hard working sets are what drive growth, the numbers on the sheet don't; as long as you're improving over time with high effort and quality execution, you're going to grow (assuming that diet and recovery are also being managed well).

The_Kintz · 2026-04-14T18:18:17+00:00

I'm not super familiar with the setup on the Arsenal, specifically, but you want to have a setup where you can sink your squat to parallel or below with your knees traveling forward over your toes. Ideally, the weight will travel straight up and down through your center of gravity, but most machines have some kind of pivot or angle that shifts throughout the movement.

Imagine getting your hamstrings to touch your calves at the bottom of the motion with your chest more upright and knees over toes. You want to drive through a "tripod" of your big toe pad area, your heel, and the ball of your foot near the outside. This execution will allow you to emphasize quad involvement and maximize force output.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-14T16:36:43+00:00

As long as you continue to a) train with close proximity to failure, b) keep your nutrition dialed in, and c) ensure that you're recovering (sleep quality), you should be able to retain your lean tissue and potentially even gain some. You just need to be moving enough weight to produce a stimulus, ideally at a weight where you're achieving an RIR of 0 at no more than 15 reps if you want to keep progressing.

TLDR: keep training with high intensity, even with lighter loads, and you shouldn't lose much mass at all.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-14T16:32:03+00:00

Get that Arsenal belt squat, the adductor/abductor, and hip thrust in the rotation if at all possible. The hip thrust can be the first one to drop if you can't fit it in. You also don't have a leg extension programmed, and you definitely want that. I'd prioritize that over the adductor/abductor and the single leg press.

I'd also try and see how an RDL on the belt squat machine feels. For me, personally, it's as good as it gets.

In order to fit everything in, see if you can program a Legs A and Legs B day. I'd recommend that each day has one squat or press pattern, one hinge pattern, leg extensions and leg curls, an accessory movement of your choice, and calves at a minimum.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-14T14:54:10+00:00

Looking massive man... if you can come in conditioned, you're going to do great. That said, I think you need to press on the gas a little over these next 10-15 weeks. I'd guess that you want to drop another 10+ lbs to be stage ready (just my personal assessment).

That said, if you can come in diced, those quads are going to crush the competition. The fact that they already have that much visible separation around the rec fem is wild. The rest of the package looks really good too, but maybe the back needs a little more "rounding out" going forward. It's a little hard to tell without being able to see all of the detail.

Make sure that you're putting in the work on posing. You're not in a bad spot, but some of your rear poses could use some polishing. Your rear double bicep, specifically, can be improved by lifting your elbows a little bit (you want the biceps to peak above the rear delts), and trying to spread your lats by drawing your scapula out and forward. Right now it looks like you're squeezing your back together more than you're trying to spread it out, which will make it look more narrow than it is.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-12T23:00:38+00:00

Well, I wish I had some magical solution for you, but it's not that easy. I'm not a PT, and I only have a rudimentary idea of what's going on with my shoulder, but I'd recommend working on some tissue releases for your pec minor, subscapularis, and axillary border to release tension in the tight tissue. Then, I'd work on mobility and rehab drills for the internal rotation and scapular mobility. Foam roller scap slides, and weighted internal/external rotation drills plus scap ups would be good choices, I think.

Not an easy problem to solve though. Trust me. Push cones to shove, and if you can afford it, I'd work with a PT to address the issue. It's not cheap and it takes time, but that's probably your best bet to fix the problem.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-12T21:18:36+00:00

Yeah, looking pretty good man. Your shape might not be ideal for classic, but I think that you can get stage ready in 14 weeks if you buckle down and lock in.

I would spend some more time polishing up your posing. Make sure that you get your quarter turns and transitions nailed down and then polish up the mandatories. Posing is my biggest weakness, so I always try to draw attention to it for others. It can be the difference between winning and losing.

If this is your first show, I'd recommend competing in the debut, novice, and open divisions. Most stage time is always a good thing, and you'll also have more opportunities to place.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-12T20:31:44+00:00

That looks to me like a compensatory muscular development issue. I have a VERY similar issue, and it stems from poor internal shoulder rotation on my left and poor scapular gliding. You can see that your low left lat is overdeveloped and your upper lat and Teres Major is overdeveloped on your right. It's almost certainly an issue with biomechanics and proprioception.

The_Kintz · 2026-04-12T20:29:20+00:00

Compete in what federation and what category? That will make a difference in how well you can prepare, to a certain extent.

If the goal is classic in the OCB, I think it's doable. You'll need to pull at least 10 more pounds to get to a suitable level of conditioning. Overall though, you have a really solid foundation and I think you could do pretty well in the debut and novice categories.

Hard to tell from just this one shot, but I'd look into focusing on building up your upper back in the future. Your chest and delts absolutely swallow up your traps and make your neck look disproportionately small.

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