My transformation - One Year and 60lb of Muscle Later!

[Absman420]

Congrats, bro! I just broke 230 myself this year, so I feel you! It's great when people who haven't seen you in a while stare open-mouthed, isn't it? Keep growing -- see you onstage!

[DaBigGuy1]

Originally Posted by achilles

Hey :-)

Yeah, I have gone a bit off the radar as I cut. The competition training is so intense, I'm going twice a day now. No more free time for me!

I plan on doing a pictoral and / or video update not this coming weekend but the weekend after, when I'm two weeks out from the contest.

Hey I figure, the longer I leave it, the more impact it will have as people see how much I've changed :-)

From what I have seen in your photos, you are doing GREAT@!

Yes, do concentrate on the training and dieting as it can be really intense!

And then, knock 'em dead! In my opinion, you're a winner just surviving the dieting and making it onto the stage. And yes, take that win!

And DEFINITELY let us know how it goes!

Ron IIII----IIII

[achilles]

Thanks Ron :-)

Well, I've still chickened out doing a video (for now), but I took some new pics yestereday. Had my penultimate fat-check at the gym yesterday. Down to 9% now. Thank god - I may just make my target of 7% (or preferably less) yet! If I can get off another 3% this week, I'll be happy as larry going into the comp. I do feel like I've accomplished something already; looking at my progress sheet at the gym, I was actually more like 20% bodyfat when I started cutting. To come down 10% in such a short time does feel like an accomplishment. I'd guess most competitors wouldn't let themselves get so high in the off-season, but I was chasing mass quite heavily! (And I will do so again as SOON as this comp is over... oh yes...)

And yeah, no video... basically its a case of... I'm not really 'big' like I used to be... nor totally ripped yet. Just somewhere in between, which feels kinda ordinary and unfilmworthy. But there will be a video I promise on the day / a few days around the contest itself. :-)

Anyway, those new PICS:
http://pics.livejournal.com/ccmuscle/pic/0003be02
http://pics.livejournal.com/ccmuscle/pic/0003a2zd

Thanks for the support guys!

[CreatineBoy]

Aloha Achilles,
By the look of those pictures, you're looking pretty SOLID and not the "doughboy" look in the off season. I can't wait to see you cut and vascular!! You'll be AWESOME on contest day!

Keep on going...but you know, we're still waiting for the vid.

Paul

[1bigwoof]

Your progress looks amazing, Charles! We're very excited about the upcoming contest and know you'll do just fine. Keep up the hard work...7% is right within your grasp now.

As for post-contest, know you also will have support when you resume BULKING! You had no complaints here when you were at 20%. As my tagline says, "MASS matters!"

Good luck in your continued preparations and in the contest~

[Corwin]

You are not ordinary. Man, your arms look amazing. Can't wait to see you in the posers ;-)

[Mdlftr]

Charles,

Your posts are the best "real time" descriptions I have seen of a "regular" person getting big, then cutting up for a show! Thank you for posting this for the rest of us. Since you are not heavily "supplemented", your progress gives a much more realistic picture of what a person can look like as they lift, bulk and then cut.

Congratulations on all your hard work! Good luck in these last few weeks as you get closer to your show! You're already a winner!

Mdlftr

[not2bright]

I wish I could come up with something besides "wow."

But... W O W !

[ottomun6]

Good luck man!

[achilles]

Last photo before the comp!

http://pics.livejournal.com/ccmuscle/pic/0003cks8

Just confirmed with my trainer that my bodyfat percentage is down to 6.9%. Whoo, I made my target. Full stats will be posted on my blog tommorrow morning.

24 hours to go until I'm onstage. I'm so excited.

And... I was on the front page of the local newspaper today. Heh. Take a look:
http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdis...times&cid=1746

[Kymuscleboy]

Good luck with your first competition. You should be so proud of your accomplishments!

[1bigwoof]

Originally Posted by achilles

Last photo before the comp!

http://pics.livejournal.com/ccmuscle/pic/0003cks8

Just confirmed with my trainer that my bodyfat percentage is down to 6.9%. Whoo, I made my target. Full stats will be posted on my blog tommorrow morning.

24 hours to go until I'm onstage. I'm so excited.

And... I was on the front page of the local newspaper today. Heh. Take a look:
http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdis...times&cid=1746

You look GREAT! Congrats on reaching your target. Local newspaper today, national newspaper on Sunday???

I look forward to seeing the rest of your stats later today on your blog. Hopefully, you'll have more time for posting on the forum once the contest is done. Back to bulking!

Best of luck in the competition!!

[GunMetalGrey88]

looking great achillies we all wish you luck and hope for your return win or lose your my hero

[Eager Muscle]

Bravo! Chisled! Ripped! BIG! Go get 'em, champ!

[CreatineBoy]

Wishing Best of Luck all the way from Hawai'i. You have accomplished so much to reach your goal...that makes you a WINNER!

Paul (aka CreatineBoy)

[mlbjock]

Way to go man! You look awesome, and I agree a bit inhuman.

[Corwin]

Hey... Saw the blog and you looked great. Can't wait to see more pics. Congratulations. Now, think of the future as you keep growing. You have amazing potential and I'm sure you'll live up to it. Thanks for sharing your journey with us.

[Corwin]

http://www.youtube.com/v/NMgm9Mr_RbE&hl=en&fs=1

http://www.youtube.com/v/YvmMYy0xCLI&hl=en&fs=1

[Eager Muscle]

Charles, let me be among the first of many to say congratulations! Not sure how you placed but I think you were amongst the best in your class. Amazing how much size you retained (i.e. gained) after cutting, very impressive. Nothing girly about your posing...choreography's great, but it's clear you were there to show off the beef and you did not disappoint! For those of us who are also considering competing in the future, can you share what the entire competition experience was like for you, physically, intellectually and emotionally, titillating or otherwise? After you binge and get a couple of good night's rest of course!


[COLOR="Red"]"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

"Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses."
- Dorothy Parker

"Faces fall, but a bicep's forever."
- Eager Muscle

"A personal trainer is someone who works for your lunch money."
- Eager Muscle [/COLOR]

[achilles]

Well look at that, Corwin beat me to it! Yup, I came, I saw, I competed! The experience was extraordinary! Wouldn't trade it for the world, even though I didn't win anything. And being my first comp, I never expected to! But yeah, there's the two videos of my performance up on my YouTube channel (see below), and you can read my full report of the experience and see more pics by visiting my blog:

http://ccmuscle.livejournal.com/45521.html

Thanks to all the support you guys have shown me here. It's been an honor to have shared this with you. And I look forward to the future - my next target is to get up to 270lb before I cut to compete again, in 2010!

Originally Posted by Corwin

http://www.youtube.com/v/NMgm9Mr_RbE&hl=en&fs=1

http://www.youtube.com/v/YvmMYy0xCLI&hl=en&fs=1

[hulkoutlvr]

It has been a pleasure to share your journey with you Charles. You'll make 270. I can't wait to see what kind of wardrobe damage you do on your way there. You're a hottie!

[arpeejay]

Great job, Charles! You did something 99% of the members of this forum have never done (but have thought about it many times...) How much did you weigh on stage?

We're all looking forward to Charles @ 270 (and beyond!) :-)

Much affection from all of us...

Richard

[massingUP]

Congratulations Charles... great work. And glad to hear that you found the experience so gratifying. We'll be looking forward to the next round of bulking!

- J.

[Eager Muscle]

Charles, I enjoyed reading your blog of the experience - the analogy you made between competition day and a wedding day was inspired, and I'm sure you had half of us Yanks googling "Nutella." You're too clever to be waiting tables but I suppose you know that.

As a potential future competitor, thanks (I think!) for desexualizing the competition experience. I once spoke to another gay competitive bodybuilder who told me more or less the same, that sexual orientation or overtones never came up because there was a pervasive mutual athletic respect. Now I'm honestly not sure at this juncture whether that's motivational for me, but time will tell...

This brings up another question for me - how sexualized is the audience's experience? Have any of your or your co-competitor's fans admitted to a bodybuilding competition being for them not just another athletic event?

Also re you being referred to as "Indian" by your bf and having the "biggest calves" by your competition, I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere but I'll leave it to someone funnier to make it!


[COLOR="Red"]
"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

"Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses."
- Dorothy Parker

"Faces fall, but a bicep's forever."
- Eager Muscle

"A personal trainer is someone who works for your lunch money."
- Eager Muscle [/COLOR]

[Lost108]

congratulations on the taking the plunge into competitions. you looked amazing , ur arms where crazy. truly inspirational.
cant wait to watch you inflate again.
the way you can change your body and the speed at which you can do it is almost super human.

thanks for sharing it with us!

[musclebaz]

Congratulations on competing. There are so many bodybuilders who have yet to pluck up the courage to compete. Your routine was great for a first attempt. You learn so much by competing and by doing so have made a giant step forward. I first competed about 2 years ago when I was 59 and am competing again in about 7 weeks time in the Novice Mr. Britain. Well done and good luck on your future competitions

[UKBeefy]

well I can only add to the indecently long line up to congratulate you on giving it your all...

It is truely impressive. I say that as someone who has been to a load of contests and where you suddenly realise quite how gruelling the whole thing is - doing a posing routine after dieting so would have most of us fainting and calling an ambulance.

What I think is doubly impressive Charles is how rounded this whole experience sounds to have been. I think for many of us our lifting and interest in bodybuilding is a pretty solitary thing - perhaps something that we talk to with people "in the know" who get the whole muscle thing and also obviously to really in my case only a gay audience who get it too. What you've shown is that competing actually really does bring it centre stage (excuse the pun) in your life and engage everyone. I'd always thought that if I was ever in the position to compete it would still be a bit undercover...nobody of straight friends/colleagues/straight gym friends would know. you've shown just how massively supportive your circle of friends are and how "out" you are with your bodybuilding in your normal life. I for one am very impressed and take my hat off to you for your strength of mind and body.

PS one thing that is slightly depressing is the thought that if I dieted to 6.9% bodyfat if anything would be left to show. You obviously had more under ur physique than I feel i have.

[achilles]

Thank you guys, thank you so much for the support :-) It's like, fantastic to be able to share what I'm going through with an appreciative audience; I feel so comfortable here, cuz other places I try to talk about the experience or share the progress, and people think I'm weird... or an egotist. But your posts are all quite touching. Especially yours UKBeefy!:

Originally Posted by UKBeefy

What I think is doubly impressive Charles is how rounded this whole experience sounds to have been. I think for many of us our lifting and interest in bodybuilding is a pretty solitary thing - perhaps something that we talk to with people "in the know" who get the whole muscle thing and also obviously to really in my case only a gay audience who get it too. What you've shown is that competing actually really does bring it centre stage (excuse the pun) in your life and engage everyone. I'd always thought that if I was ever in the position to compete it would still be a bit undercover...nobody of straight friends/colleagues/straight gym friends would know. you've shown just how massively supportive your circle of friends are and how "out" you are with your bodybuilding in your normal life. I for one am very impressed and take my hat off to you for your strength of mind and body.

That for me was one of the biggest things I learned by competing, and one of the biggest joys too - that I can make my... 'obsession' with muscle part of my normal life too, something that people I know of all stripes can and will come together to help cheer me on... I too have spent so long 'embarassed' for being a bodybuilder, making only the slightest reference to it in my normal life. But ya know, competing, there was no way to hide it... and once people found out, almost without exception it was "You're competing? I'll be there!" Heck, even my boss' parents came down. I was floored.

So if you have the itch to compete, do it I say - and you might be surprised how people react. Chances are, they'll be cheering you on as much as anyone.

[achilles]

So - since the competition I took a week out, then went back to training heavy. Can you imagine my surprise when in two weeks I re-gained 20lb? At first I was worried about having to struggle uphill to get back the mass I'd fought for the first time... turns out I needn't have worried. I know part of it is just having more fluids in my system, but still - I competed at 196lb and I'm already back to over 220lb! (Between 222 and 223 currently). As you can see in this new pic:

http://pics.livejournal.com/ccroft/pic/000ex48x

News to come very shortly about the new goals for 2008 and 2009, and my big plans for October! :-)

[omelissokomos]

300lbs. here we come!

[1bigwoof]

I'm loving the returned size already.....something tells me that we're REALLY gonna like the plans for October. Pics and videos are requried though. Congratulations on your tremendous physique of today.....I'm looking forward to even greater peaks (especially on those ice cream cone biceps)!

[Mdlftr]

Hey Achilles,

Congratulations on going all the way and competing. As I've said before, your posts are unique in that you shared, pictorally and verbally, what it was like to progress from month to month. Thank you for that.

Your appearance during the competition was very impressive. It was also very helpful to me, because it gave a realisitic picture of what someone who is 6'3" can look like, at a low bodyfat, at 196#. You looked very slim, very cut and defined, and you had proportionately big arms, shoulders and legs. Compared to some of the other competitors, you are not as naturally broad across the shoulders, nor are you as deep in the chest, but you are much taller. Your appearance certainly proved that tall guys can get muscular and impressively proportioned.

A word about proportion: One thing that the bodybuilding magazines lead people to believe is that everyone can develop a thick, stocky build if they lift weights. That is not strictly true. People can develop to the limit of their natural proportions and become much more muscular, but they won't necessarily become stocky (unless they use steroids), which is not to say that they won't become very impressively and pleasingly muscular. For instance, Frank Zane, 2-time Mr. Olympia, stood around 5'9" and weighed, on a good day, with a full stomach (ha ha), barely 200#. Victor Martinez, currently placing high in the Arnold and Olympia qualifiers, is also around 5'9". He weighs upwards of 240-260# at times--generally 50 pounds more than Zane. They are the same height, but they have different frames.

Back to Achilles. You are 6'3" and have gotten up to 240#, at age 24, with hard work. That's terrific! Still, you are no where near as naturally stocky as another athlete, say, an American football high school lineman who could stand 6'3" and weigh 260#, at the age of 18, while still in high school! This is in no way to denigrate your accomplishment--just to put it in perspective. You've worked hard, and gotten to 240# during your first run up to competition. You may very well get up to 270# or more, in shape, in your life. You've shown that the muscular mass you've developed on your frame is very pleasingly proportioned and very aesthetic, regardless of placing in the show, or whether or not you "look like a beast". You looked very well in your first competition at 196# at a height of 6'3" and a bodyfat below 7%. Did you look like an NFL lineman? No. Does an NFL lineman look as proportionate and cut as you did? No. You looked like a bodybuilder, with balance, cuts and muscle separation. Anything you add from here on out is sure to just add to an already impressive package.

Good luck in your future progress!

Good job!

Mdlftr

[achilles]

Thanks for all your inspirational words Mdlftr! I guess the trouble is, no matter how balanced - I think I'd rather look like "a beast" in the end! Alas!

Anyway, a quick shout out that I've started a new project called the October 'Grow-a-Thon' in the 'Watch Me Grow' section. Time for some action!:

http://musclegrowth.org/forum/showth...ewpost&t=12029

Deleted post

[achilles]

I'm still getting bigger! I took this photo yesterday and I can't believe the result

http://pics.livejournal.com/ccmuscle/pic/0004xdc9


The plan is to add another inch to my arms in 2009. What do you say?

[MuscleMage]

God I just want to see you blow up into a glorious genetic freak.

[bbgonnabe]

Man, your gun looks 22" and your forearm looks 18"! What's the actual measurements? How's your pecs doing now? Have you resumed doing flyes with 125lb dbells?

[peachiekeen]

damn... looks like you have your fist on the end of a leg, but in a good way, lol. Very impressive. ::golf clap::

[1bigwoof]

Originally Posted by bbgonnabe

Man, your gun looks 22" and your forearm looks 18"! What's the actual measurements? How's your pecs doing now? Have you resumed doing flyes with 125lb dbells?

Rumor has it that his biceps are now 19.25" and the forearms are almost 16" . We'll have to wait for Achilles to respond to the pecs/flyes questions.

[bbgonnabe]

Where's Charles been?