Mailman Muscle: Story of The Bodybuilding Powerlifter

[K.Diesel]

Folks, the last several weeks have been interesting. I’ll try to be succinct in summarizing it.

Overall, training has gone pretty well since my last post. I was able to maintain the every other day training frequency, using a torso/limbs split and doing 2 max effort sets on most lifts. However, it seemed that a lot outside of the gym started stressing me out, particularly the dieting. Even though I had a bit of a diet break after The Conquer, I was stressing over getting damned near stage ready before this trip. That stress was carrying over, or exacerbating stresses from other things, and I think that in spite of keeping the physical grind going, mentally I was done. I really wanted to abandon plans for this pro show in October, hit a few buffets, and stay out of gyms for a while.

Somewhere about a week or two before the trip to Florida, I decided to stop pressing to get myself down to a certain weight before we left. I decided to abort the diet until I returned to Baltimore, and go into maintenance mode several days before leaving for Florida. So I went into the RP Diet Coach App, ended my fat loss diet, and set up parameters for a 2-3 week maintenance diet that would end once we got home.

Then a few things happened that I didn’t expect. As soon as I went into maintenance, I felt as if I had just put a barbell loaded with 500 lbs back in the rack. I thought I would feel disappointed by aborting the diet plan. I felt relieved, and that relief allowed me to manage such that I lost a couple of pounds before we left. Then while we were gone, I didn’t deprive myself of things I wanted. I went to Disney breakfast buffets. I went to a cookie spot in Disney Springs that I’ve been wanting to go back to for a whole year (the ones I didn’t eat are in my freezer 😁 ). My wife and I kept a fairly new - 3 years old - anniversary tradition alive by going to what may be our favorite restaurant, where they only serve desserts. (Side note: If you have a Better Than Sex - A Dessert Restaurant located within a reasonable drive from you, go there with your significant other ASAP) I went all in. But I also ate salads and grilled chicken and other reasonable stuff on this trip, and I walked a lot - maybe more than I do at home. I also took my bathroom scale so I could make sure I wasn’t going too far off the rails. End results: I left Baltimore weighing 175.0, and yesterday morning (our first full day back), I weighed 175.8 lbs. For 10 days of being away from home, I’ll take a <1 lb gain in a heartbeat.

Now, I feel renewed and energized. Not only do I feel like I can run this race for another 6 1/2, more importantly, I want to. I set a series of goals in this bodybuilding endeavor for myself that I still want to meet, and they all require me to give my best effort at presenting my best possible physique on October 12. Barring catastrophe, that’s what I intend to do.

So we’re back to work in the labs: the physics lab (aka the gym), and the chemistry lab (aka the kitchen). On the latter, right now my daily macros look like 175 grams of protein, 45 grams of fat, and 150-175 grams of carbs. The carbs are assuming at least 7,000 steps per day, and the extra depends on whether or not I’m training that day. Once I go back to work on Saturday, I have chances to exceed 14,000 steps in a day. If I do, I’ll be allowed even more carbs. The training plan is still every other day, torso/limbs. But at this point, I don’t think building new muscle is as viable a goal as maintaining what I have. So starting yesterday (my first workout since returning home), I went from 2 max effort sets to 1 drop set on most exercises. The idea is to stay close to the number of reps I would do in 2 sets, use less time if possible, and reduce injury risk.

WEDNESDAY 8/28/24, Torso, Planet Fitness

Cable Pulldown - medium width, neutral grip
70/15
120/10
180/1
drop set: 180/13 + 140/9 - used Versa Gripps

Pec Deck
40/15
85/11
145/1
drop set: 145/11 + 110/9

Seated Cable Row - medium width, overhand grip
85/12
160/1
drop set: 160/14 + 120/9 - used Versa Gripps

Seriously, I wasn’t getting 9 reps after the drops on purpose. That’s all coincidental.

Rear Delt - I actually did the warm up sets before the seated rows, but didn’t want it to be confusing in the write up
40/15
85/12
drop set: 145/1 + 130/8 + 100/8 - That 1 rep wasn’t a primer or tester. I overestimated my working weight.

Arnold Press
30’s/12
drop set: 55’s/11 + 40’s/6

Upright Sit-Up/Crunch Machine
100/10
drop set: 130/10 + 100/5 + 70/10

Finally, I haven’t been posting nearly as many physique updates in the run up to this show. But here’s the most recent public documentation of what I look like. This is from our first day in Florida, August 18, which was also the actual anniversary date for me and my wife (married 23 years). I still have a ways to go, but I believe I can get there in the next 44 days.

Link to post: Kaisheem Muhammad | With 7 weeks and 6 days until the @ocbchesapeakeclassic I was goofing around on the beach. After I saw these photos that @strokeofwellness... | Instagram

Gentlemen (and any ladies here for that matter), thank you for reading this and catching up with me. I should be back in the mix more regularly here.

[K.Diesel]

My wife and I are back on mostly the same training schedule now, so our last trip to the gym was a “date night” of sorts. She has a more of an upper/lower split, while hitting glutes every training day. Mine is torso/limbs, so the biggest differences are that she doesn’t do direct arm stuff on her lower days, and I don’t do extra glute stuff on my torso days. But I do hit calves every training day. All that said, here’s how things went on Friday night. Some of this were inspired by what she was doing.

FRIDAY 8/30/24, Limbs, Gold’s Gym

Standing Calf Raise
100/15
160/10
drop set: 200/10 + 160/8 + 100/15 - 1-2 count stretch at the bottom of each rep

Horizontal/Upright Leg Press - I think this replaced the vertical leg press as my favorite
90 lbs + sled/20 - trying to figure out right seat/foot position
270+/11
work set 1: 410+/8
work set 2: 360+/11 - drop sets aren’t too practical on this machine, so I stuck with 2 sets here

Prone Leg Curl - different machine than the one I normally use for this exercise at Gold’s
70/10
110/5
drop set: 130/6 + 95/9 - more like 8 1/2 on that second round

Leg Extension - old school Nautilus machine w/chains
100/12
drop set: 150/15 + 120/8 + 2 partials

Standing Leg Curl - obviously doing one leg at a time
drop set: This is interesting - I got this on video, but never watched it to record the reps in my journal. I did 60 lbs left side, then right, then 50 lbs left and right.

Sissy Squat
work set: bodyweight/17

Gluteator - plate loaded machine; my wife loves this; my first time using it; sort of an exaggerated abductor; hits part of the glutes I don’t usually feel
work set: 90/23

Adductor machine
work set: 65/1 + 80/1 + 95/20 - wasn’t sure which weight I needed at the start

Standing Cable Curl - EZ bar handle
50/10
drop set: 80/12 + 60/6

Standing Cable Pressdown - EZ bar handle; back against pad to prevent cheating
50/6
drop set: 70/9 + 50/6

Plans for today are to train torso, plus go grocery shopping, which means I need to plan my meal prep for this week. I woke up weighing 171.2, easily the lightest I’ve been since either side of a week away from the show in May. I’m 2 lbs lighter than I was yesterday, so I’m sure much of that is water. It will probably go up tomorrow. That’s okay. I have 6 weeks to get things where I need to be.

[K.Diesel]

I woke up weighing 171.2, easily the lightest I’ve been since either side of a week away from the show in May. I’m 2 lbs lighter than I was yesterday, so I’m sure much of that is water. It will probably go up tomorrow.

This turned out to be quite an understatement. I have gained 5 pounds in the past 4 days.

So what happened?

One thing I had not mentioned in my last 2 entries is that I’ve been dealing with some respiratory problems since about 3-4 into the Florida trip. I started thinking I had an upper respiratory infection. I almost went to an urgent care place in Orlando, but ultimately decided to manage it with Mucinex and my inhaler. The Friday after we got home, I finally went to get checked out. I tested negative for strep and Covid, and they suspected it was asthma causing the trouble. So, I got a breathing treatment at the clinic, and I think my first 60 mg dose of prednisone. I’ve been on it ever since, at that dosage (60 mg per day), with today being my last dose. I have maintained my diet, steps, and training schedule. I find it hard to believe that I have gotten fatter. My hope/belief is that I’m still losing fat, and all of this weight gain is water retention caused by the prednisone.

This is only a problem because I’m 37 days away from a bodybuilding competition. But unless I have indeed managed to store pounds of fat in the last week, it should be a problem that resolves in time. It just sucks because the only thing that matters in this endeavor is how I look, and this extra water is affecting how I look. I hope it turns out that it’s hiding how I really look, and once this fluid comes off, I’ll see that I’m still on track for the stage on October 12. 🤞🏾

I have a few workouts to catch up, so I’m only listing work sets here.

MONDAY 9/2/24 - Torso #2, Gold’s Gym

Standing Calf Raise
add set: 5 reps each at 100, 120, 140, 160, 180 - 2 count stretch at the bottom of each rep; yes, this is a long and painful set 😥

Pullover - old school Nautilus machine
drop set: 140/10 + 110/11 - My eccentrics on these might be too slow. This drop set took 3 minutes.

Incline Chest Press Machine - back pad adjusts forward/backward, so I set it to make sure I had a stretch in the bottom
drop set: 210/8 + 160/5 + 140/3

T-Bar Row - close, neutral grip
drop set: 165/10 + 135/6 + 105/9 - used Versa Gripps

Seated Lateral Raise Machine - elbows bent, forearms against pads
drop set: 115/5 (partials) + 95/5 (less partial) + 75/6 (full ROM) + 55/10 (8 full ROM + 2 partials)

Pec Deck - old school kind with elbows bent, forearms against pads
drop set: 130/11 + 100/9

Our favorite abs machine is still broken, so we were winging it on some apparatus that we didn’t really like. We ended up doing abs the next day (TUESDAY 9/3/24) at the Planet Fitness by our house, after 20 minutes on the treadmill (I wanted to make sure I hit 14,000 steps for the day). I did 55 reps with varying weights on the Hammer Strength crunch machine (my favorite abs device at PF), and 50 total reps with 85 lbs on the torso rotation (25/side).

WEDNESDAY 9/4/24 - Planet Fitness, Limbs #2

Since I had a very light day at work, I took one of my breaks in the Planet Fitness that I’m the mailman for. It’s nice to have a gym on your route. 😁 I did the arms and calves part of my limbs workout in the afternoon, then the rest last night.

PART 1 - the Planet Fitness on my route

Seated Triceps Press Machine - basically a seated dip
drop set: 250/8 + 205/8 + 160/7

Cable Skullcrushers - laying on a flat bench, using rope attachment
drop set: 57.5/6 + 42.5/6 + 35/5

Standing Cable Curl - EZ Bar handle
drop set: 65/8 + 50/8

Calf Press - on horizontal, pin loaded leg press
drop set: 250/10 + 205/15

PART 2 - the Planet Fitness that isn’t quite as close to home as the one we went to on Tuesday, but it’s open 24/7

Smith Machine Good Morning
work set 1: 110+bar/12
work set 2: 160+bar/9

Smith Machine Squat - high bar
work set 1: 180+bar/10
work set 2: 205+bar/8

Seated Leg Curl
drop set: 165/13 + 130/8

Adductor Machine
work set: 115/25

Abductor Machine
work set: 145/20

[K.Diesel]

Things have felt like they’re on autopilot lately. I haven’t posted for two main reasons. One: days seem to be longer than normal, because I’m doing more for this competition than I did for the first one. For example, on days that I work, I have been making 14,000 steps my minimum. If I don’t get them on the clock, then I walk on the treadmill at our house, or my wife and I go to a gym so we can walk to nowhere together. On days that I don’t work, I don’t want to do less than 8,000. That’s regardless of whether I train that day or not. So if I don’t get them while running errands, then once again, I make up the difference on a treadmill. I don’t go faster than 3.0 or maybe 3.3 if I’m “pushing”, but it’s low intensity and doesn’t tire me out. It just takes time.

Second reason for not posting: I’m training even more frequently - typically 5 or 6 days per week now - and it’s just hard to keep up the log with these long days. There is a caveat to this increased frequency, and the caveat is that I didn’t add much volume, and some weeks, I’m not adding any volume. I just do something like abs and calves on a day of their own, rather than tacking them onto a limbs or torso day. Or perhaps I do something like adductors and abductors along with triceps on one day. Those “extra” workouts are only 15 minutes or so. My hope in doing them is that whatever helpful response the body has to resistance training is being stimulated more often, without creating a negative effect on recovery from the big stuff. My weights and reps have been pretty constant week to week, so I’m glad for that. That’s my proxy for whether or not I’ve been retaining or losing muscle.

I find myself wanting to binge on stuff at night, but by “stuff”, I don’t even mean junk food. I may want a bowl of cream of wheat or something, but I don’t have room for the carbs. I’m still using the RP Diet Coach app. My daily macronutrient allowances look something like this:

175 grams protein
45 grams fat
105-170 grams carbs, depending on daily activity

I say allowances rather than targets, because for fat and carbs, I’m trying to be under those numbers. I figure it’s better to err on the side of caution since all of these macro/calorie charts are estimates. If I go over the protein number, I’m not too worried.

Overall, I think the combination of everything is working. I had a virtual session with my posing coach yesterday - my first one since the last show. As soon as she saw me in my trunks, she said “oh, look at how lean you are!” I weighed 168.8 lbs yesterday morning, exactly one pound more than I did when I woke up on the morning of the first show. But I seem to have more lines this time, including some hints of the much sought after glute striations. 😁 Maybe I’ve been able to make a little progress since the first show, in that I might be weighing the same on stage this time, but having more definition. If so, I’ll take that as a win since I’ve only had five months.

I’m excited, but I’m ready for this to be over. Not because I’m in a bad frame of mind about the show. I’m excited for some of the road ahead of me after the show. Here’s what I hope to do at the show:

lowest level goal: place high enough to qualify for the 2025 Yorton Cup, which is the OCB’s biggest annual pro show (“World Championships”)

next highest goal: place 2nd or 3rd overall and win some prize money

highest goal: win the whole damned thing and take that belt home! 🙂 (plus the biggest cash prize)

If I qualify for the 2025 Yorton Cup (September 20/21), then God willing, that will be my next bodybuilding competition. I’ll have 49 weeks to eat, train, get swole, and hopefully look like I belong on their biggest pro stage next fall. As I typed that, I just noticed that I have a 49 week game plan, and in the middle that window, I’ll turn 49 years old. That might not mean anything, but it could make for a good theme for something. 🤔 I’ll figure that out later.

For now, I’m counting down the days. My biggest priority is to remain healthy so I can make it to the stage. According to the show promoter, the pro men’s bodybuilders will start the show, so once again, I’m on stage first. With a 10 a.m. start time, I can legit be done in time to hit a lunch buffet somewhere. And if I am indeed blessed to win this thing, then I am absolutely wearing the championship belt wherever we go to eat.

[Bill Anders]

Thanks for the update, Kaisheem. Stay the course and have a great meet!

[K.Diesel]

Thanks for the update, Kaisheem. Stay the course and have a great meet!

Thanks Bill! 🙏🏾

It’s the morning of the show. I’m the only person awake in here. Our 2 cats are still roaming around, but the dog, my wife, and our three children are still asleep. This is the most quiet moment I have had in my house in recent memory, and it’s a prime time for me to start getting into my own head with nervous thoughts about the next few hours. So I thought I would spend a few minutes updating my log and look back over the past several days.

In bodybuilding, “peak week” - the week of the show - is one of the most discussed topics. There are people who specialize in it, as in coaches who pride themselves on peaking athletes for shows in the most perfect manner possible. For my first show, I basically did nothing different the final week. This time around, I researched and did one thing different: I increased my daily carbs on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. More specifically, I went from a range of 100-130 grams of carbs per day the week before to 225, 295 and 325 carbs respectively over those 3 days. That’s nothing compared to what I see other people saying they carb load with (800+ grams). But I think it has been enough to get me where I want to be.

Training this week was normal for the first two sessions. Everything was done with 1-3 warm up sets, followed by 1 work set to failure (or very close). I didn’t do any set extenders or intensity techniques like rest-pause, drop sets, partial reps, or anything else.

* I did a tough torso day on Sunday: seated cable rows, seated lateral raise, Nautilus pullovers, Nautilus incline press, Nautilus seated shrugs.

Here’s the video I posted from this session. I also practiced in the Gold’s posing room afterwards, and that footage is around 14-15 minutes in if you want to get an idea of what I look like.



* On Tuesday, I did arms at the Planet Fitness on my route while at work - seated dip, cable press downs, cable curls. I did legs at another PF after work - 45 degree leg press, calf press on the leg press, seated leg curl, leg extensions, abductor and adductor.

* Thursday was my final workout, and that was different than what I normally do. I did 1 warm up set, followed by 1 work set to nowhere near failure for 15-20 reps on pec deck, rear delt (same machine facing backwards), cable pulldowns, seated dumbbell lateral raise, and an ab crunch machine.

I woke up this morning weighing 166.0 pounds. That’s 1.8 pounds less than I weighed the morning of the first show. But honestly, I look better. I look as big, and maybe bigger, but I’m showing more details that include some of the coveted glute striations. I don’t think I’m “peeled”. But this is the best physique I’ve ever had. My posing coach is excited. My wife would tell me if she thought I was hopeless. Remember Adrian telling Rocky “you can’t win!” in Rocky 4? My wife would tell me that if she believed it. But she seems to think I have a shot. I really, really want that belt. 😁 But this sport is subjective, and I can’t do anything to affect the outcome beyond presenting as well as I can. I hope my preparation has been enough to get me over the finish line ahead of the field. But we’ll see. I’ll report back after the show.

Meanwhile, for some visual context, here’s are the posts I shared on Instagram following my check in yesterday:


Kaisheem Muhammad | GAME TIME: 10 am. Once again, I will be in the first group on stage.

With less than 24 hours until my first time in an OCB Pro lineup at... | Instagram


Instagram

[Bill Anders]

Third overall?!?!?! Not quite what you were shooting for, but very, very impressive for your second meet ever! I look forward to reading your recap and thoughts, Kaisheem. Congratulations!!!!!