Bodybuilding Classic Physique Division Offseason log

probably not 16-18%. I think Loco will guess 12-14% and I think 12-14% is accurate

This show is important to me. Not the placing, no. But I need to look very good. I don't mean very good by your standards, but even to where other high level bodybuilders are like "holy ****... that's exotically lean...." Maybe I even already reached that June last year (not sure what page the pics are on sorry, but I remember the days of the videos/pics being taken were June 7, 8, 9 for my absolute leanest and best look of all time)

I feel like I'm in a phase where I reallllyyy need to get to get coaching business going. You guys are encouraging, and i appreciate that, but you are not bodybuilding insiders. I also have a communication style, diction, and tone that I already know is not going to do well with mainstream bodybuilding audiences. (Rip also had this feature and was able to attract a much more intelligent than average niche following and still be enormously successful, but that's no guarantee I'll be able to do the same) To you, I look amazing. Do my pics at my peak or any of my current clients really justify somebody paying me to help get them exotically lean? I think so, but I may be wrong. Undertaking a social media youtube content creation campaign to attract eyeballs and market my services is a very psychologically intimidating task and I admit to an extreme fear of failure and even a mild fear of success. How will I feel if I spend over 100 hours producing 50+ videos and 100+ shorts to end up with 0 clients and less than 1000 subscribers on my page? I'll feel as though I've wasted my time and that I'm inferior and not good enough and boxed into teaching as a career in a country that doesn't exactly have the most stable geo-political situation where my alternative would be to uproot and go somewhere i don't particualrly want to but lack the British cred to be able to go where I do want to (Thailand) to continue teaching. So of course I feel very emotional and scared about even starting due to this fear. The cliche would be "bro if you just keep grinding you will definitely succeed, dont' be scared bro malcom gladwell bro just keep going bro" but empirically this is just not true.

But we're going to try anyway and hope for the best. I guess even in the worst case scenario with all that wasted time, it'll be something visually immortalized I can look back on in 30 years after I've hung up the posing trunks to consume the memories of the good old days when I was powerful, in good cardiovascular shape, strong, focused, and looked amazing and I suppose that'll be worth something...

Thremp will keep it real with me, but he's again not exactly a bodybuilding insider so it'll be hard for him to tell. None-the-less I'd probably value his feedback the most just because he never wears the kid gloves and is the antithesis of toxic positivity.

Why do you want to exclusively coach BBing insiders?

I was gonna ask the same thing. Surely the money is in a broader target audience.

With your knowledge and physique you could surely still find experienced/aware inter/advanced trainers who want to sharpen up and look their best so you’re not having to make money training fat, unmotivated beginners

Miscommunication. I don't want this as my demographic. My target demographic is basically the one I'm already working with: 1. "reformed powerlifters" who want to switch and haven't really figured out bbing eating/training. 2. "High level gym rat ready to go to the next level". Takes roids already or is about to start first cycle, has been training for several years, bought into the "just hit your protein goals for the day but then make sure you're in a surplus if you wanna gain or in a deficit if you wanna bulk bro" mantra but have never been close to actually single digit bodyfat, doesn't prep their meals and diet consists of pizza, subway sandwiches, occasional chicken and rice from a restaurant, and whey protein, probably doesn't own a food scale, and maybe benches 3 plates at 210lbs for a few reps. To me this is still "bodybuilding insider" but you might have misread me to mean "active competitors". First time or 2nd time competitors definitely in my target audience, but experienced high level guys no, not yet.

I think you guys who aren't bodybuilding insiders (or just dudes who spend a lot of time on instagram fitness/youtube fitness, and these dudes often don't actually compete but do take roids and don't meal prep... this is my target audience) can really see the difference in who's physique would be marketable or not.

In the west, the amount of people in that 2nd camp is just ****ing massive and although they don't look like bodybuilders, they have very keen eyes, probably follow a lot of the top guys, watch the olympia every year, are likely on higher doses than I am, and frankly might find me too unimpressive to listen to. I am not really sure, to be honest. Maybe I'm dead wrong and me and my client transformations thusfar actually would earn me sufficient credibility with that target audience, but I just need to optimize content and delivery to reach them.

So there are two people I know personally in the fitness space who have been pretty successful: Alan and Kyle.

Pretty sure both coached anyone who had money (and sometimes people who didn't). I'd just coach people who wanna look better and might be interested in doing BBing.

I think you're way to caught up in "looking the part" for a coach. You'll never have a physique on the level of Big Ron (there probably aren't many people who have ever walked the planet that have tbh), but I'd be shocked if he clocked in an IQ that resembles a warm Alabama summer day. Just run a basic social media strategy, and see where it takes you. You'll probably fail, most people do at these sort of things. I've failed a bunch of random things, it happens.

Thanks bruv, appreciate the feedback.

I've been scouring youtube for failed fitness channels and don't find many, but the ones I do find often it's more about communication style than their physique. Excessive long windedness and 45 minute training videos instead of getting to the point and keeping it short and digestible. Or they have a sort of mid/poor competitor physique but try to do cbum style gym vlogs not realizing that only works if you're a top guy already.

There was one success channel that took literally 4 years to really take off... The dude just kept ****ing grinding and eventually started getting a lot of traction: https://www.youtube.com/@pauloguga

(he looks nowhere even close to me but is targeting more of a "I just finished my first 18 months of lifting wtf do I do now?" audience)

I'm kind of setting this as my base expectation... I can probably get the eyeballs but it's going to be a verrrryyyy long tedious 2+ year grind.

Another way to look at this is that you're already coaching people so you're ipso facto a physique coach. And I think they pay you, which would mean you are a professional physique coach. Somehow I am credited game developer in narrative design, not because I consider myself one or because I spent any time. But I ended up getting paid money for doing narrative design in a video game that was published and my name was in the credits. One of those "it is what it is" moments.

So if we assume you are already professionally coaching, it really isn't a question of "being" a coach, but more of how to operate it like a business instead of a hobby. Most people actually make a decent income from content they produce in addition to finding clients. Is this what you want? Do you just want to do outreach for diet plans/lifting routine improvement? Given the prevalence of online fitness folks this seems atleast somewhat lucrative. And from what I've learned about life coaching (another aidsy thing I had to learn about for a work related thing), most people ask about diet/nutrition/fitness all the time. This more of a sales/marketing question than a "I need to become famous Chinese tiktoker". If you changed your expectations to a more tangible goal with reasonable milestones, (IE I want to get X clients and produce Y content over the next year) it would be much easier. I would step back from this overly daunting and somewhat meaningless review of what you perceive as "successful" fitness social media channels and focus more on what you want out of this experience and setting reasonable goals to get there. Kinda like what you want to do for your clients and their fitness goals.

To look at this another way, we can take the world of ethots, some are celebs/actresses/models, etc. We don't really have insight in their branding deals but they make a bunch of money. But there are plenty of hot, low morality skanks who have 3k+ followers who are vacationing in Dubai every other month and likely making 6 figs a year banging old dudes as hookers. Are they achieving their goals of getting to live a reasonably easy lifestyle as a whore? Probably yes. They are prob making more than surgeons if they are down for group scat play. We don't really know how they monetize their channels. If you produce high quality content and get a little stable of n00bs who pay you each month for diet plans, photo review, and to ask a few questions you likely don't need 100k followers to generate reasonable supplement revenue. One of the other aspects is that many of your clients will likely be people who you can use to generate content as well. "Hey can I use your photos in a case study video? I'll link your aidsy OF content where you bum yourself with fruit for $12 in exchange."

So I'd step back and reconsider your plan and who you wanna target, how you wanna reach them, and how you wanna monetize this. Sit down and make a reasonable business plan instead of fretting over "What if I fail?" and then go down that path. You already take an absurd amount of nearly naked photos that you can use for content. And worst case, start an OF and take more butt shots for throngs of gay men to yank it to. (Or bum yourself with fruit for extra money.)

Gold

1. No $ from content, no desire to attract sponsors but it sometimes happens to people on accident
2. Strictly content for reaching possible coaching clients, providing some of the free information i so sorely needed around 2018-2022 but not all of it.
3. Goal: 12+ active clients by this time next year (currently at 5 of which 3 are donating but I am not explicitly charging), and of those the next ones should not be on a donations basis.

Unusual subgoal of something I want to avoid: I had one client quit BB and enhanced lifestyle altogether. He was fat and wanted to prep for a show. I prepped him for the show in 15 weeks, it was a miserable experience even though he looked good and took 2nd out of 8 in his class. Rebound was intense. I failed as a coach because I did not tell him "hey buddy, let's just do a slow 24 week cut, recover for about 8 weeks but don't get fat, then start a real contest prep for a later show. You've just got too much fat to lose still" and my failure undoubtedly contributed to his choice to quit right after his first show. I'd like to avoid making people quit by putting anyone through a super extreme restrictive diet like that. Weird goal, I know. I'd rather lose a potential client by telling them "sorry we need to slow down" than lose one because I made the poor ****er eat 1800 calories per day for 8 weeks straight and get in 18k steps per day as a 210lb 6'2 man.

Dubai ethots story: scary, but honestly believable. Those guys are freaks with a lot of money to blow. Hoeflation. My surgeon ex visited dubai in medical school and was very sure to show me that it was a school trip with pictures with her professors and classmates, as she had exactly the type of appearance that would prompt an invite to dubai. I realized years later she wanted to make sure I knew she was not going to have hairy arabs do unspeakable things, but at the time innocent young 31 year old me didn't know anything about that.

Bolded: Alright item number one. Before even putting paper to pen I realize I need to make a website with payment processing before I do anything. "dm for coaching" screams of unprofessionalism, as does "email the address in the comments section for coaching inquiries". I like the way this guy's site is laid out: https://www.effercoaching.com/

so direct and puts the prices/what you get right up front. Some coaches bizarrely require you to fill out a bunch of paperwork on their site before answering these two important questions.

Alright time to get to work on a real business plan.

I like that site as well atleast from a "does this work" perspective. Websites are optimized for their clientele and when you look at dumb useless websites with 27 popups, you need to understand that this works to sell people whatever they're selling.

That Dubai stuff is pretty amusing. I know more than a handful of women who were either unemployed or taking home like 1200-1500 a month, but somehow were in Dubai every other month for weeks and had shoes/bags that I vaguely recognize as being very expensive. Most were late 20s/early 30s and I guess working on that last cash in before their looks fade. It is kinda sad all things considered when their life path could be so much better. I met a bro who is prob UHNW or right around that level who has a very normie looking wife doing very normie things. Surely this would be a better life than getting spit roasted by two Arab dudes with their Uncle's allowance money, but then again no shoes/bags. I consider myself extremely empathetic, but I can't really imagine the string of short term choices that lead someone who is objectively hot to focus on hookering for the remainder of their somewhat hot years instead of trying to lock down some rich dude. (Also, know some rich dudes who ended up wifing skanky women who were smarter.)

On the coaching side, I think that focusing on what is best for your clients is an obviously good goal especially since the alignment of them paying you and their longevity in the sport are directly aligned. But I would remain open to the idea of some 30-40smth housewife wanting to send semi-nudes (and you'll prob get actual nudes) to a guy she considers "hot" who gives her compliments on her improved glute definition or whatever nonsense she wants to pay you for. I suspect that will end up being a substantial portion of your clientele if you give even a half hearted effort. (As it is for literally any kinda jacked decent looking dude who is a PT.) You also have a wealth of content you can directly mine from this log. Simple stuff like "Oh hey look how much better this pose is compared to before when I learned ." Gives an easy excuse to post n00dles and also provides pertinent information. I'd suggest looking through those sort of things that you learned in little bites and how they could be transformed into IG/YT/whatever content, and then figure out how to optimize that content pipeline with clients. (IE using their photos showing you can teach people stuff)

I really like the layout/design of that website. I agree that the up front pricing and straightforward messaging is good. I don't like the actual messaging content (e.g. "srs" and "full throttle"). But that will reflect you ayway.

How did you end up with the people you have and are coaching? Over how long of a time period did you acquire them? I know you've mentioned here and there on this log about coaching but always pretty casually.

I don't have anywhere near the experience Thremp does in terms of doing a ton do things and being super successful or whatever. However, I do think "failure" or coming up short of your goals is a reasonable outcome. A lot of entrepreneurial pursuits have quite a bit of randomness (luck) that plays a hidden and significant role.

As for me posting. I still barely understand what Monte is actually trying to say about me. I guess it's that I'm bad at news. Which is 1000% correct (well or incorrect, depending on one's view). I basically try to avoid news as much as possible...but, I do come across things and they undoubtedly are **** takes. It requires quite a bit of effort to try and understand almost any topic...and it just doesn't seem worth it.

There was some sweet spot some number of years ago imo where it was much faster/easier to praise "mainstream media" takes and navigate things. Now it is extremely difficult. Maybe the smartest thing is to really heavily research some general source that you believe is most objective and aligns best with what you're interested in, and then just look at that content. But....that is pretty limiting too.

For fitness I would go to Barbell Medicine and now Renaissance Periodization. I feel pretty great about both sources when they do talk about a subject. I also have no trouble navigating the chess world since it is so small anyway. But for like "real world issues", I have no Fing clue. Although most of the people I know who think they have a clue...I'm not sure they really do after listening to them.

Yugo,

Even as a half-azn man with day to day experience coming up short, it is clear you're familiar with the subject.

But really. Instead of small peepee jokes, which I'm woefully inadequately prepared for. What if we turned this into a more positive fora? Why don't we point out things that we think would be interesting (mebbe) in a future channel. Surely you've read this for years as I have and can point out a handful of things.

Off the top:
1) CPAP nonsense with clen ussage (long form)
2) Posing nonsense (short form)
3) Every aidsy rant about dieting (long form)

Perhaps you could add what exactly you like about the channels you prefer? Instead of just inane bullshit (mostly what I provide so I feel you're infringing on my posting territory).

But seriously, I feel like the man has a reasonable goal and we should support him to the best our ability in lieu of just excessive neckbeard criticism. (Cynical. I know. Esp considering the source.) But I genuinely like Guy and have tried to give him advice through the years. So why don't we actually try that now.

As I have said before, I specialize in bodyfat analysis for natty physiques, especially skinnyfats and physiques up to EV who have reached 85% of available natty gains (upperbody, he don't lowerbody).

Evo certainly is exhibiting some bodybuilding anorexia nervosa spectrum disorder (bigorexia) if he thinks he is 16% EVgonnaEV bodyfat.

I am glad to have none of that. I mostly suffer from the opposite, some type of chihuahua syndrome where I think I am way more jacked than I really look. I wear a douchebag EVgonnaEV tanktop and i 'look" like a mass monster. Now that I think of it, EV suffers from the same disorder as me. We chihuahuas who see pitbulls in the mirror. It's a good happy life, that's fosho.

I can't even.

**** me.

There are times I look at my performance autistry (ht Monte), and look at others and think to myself "Why ****ing bother?"

This is that time.

Fedora tip. Well done.

When I switched from in person training to online training, this was what i struggled with. I was used to training everyone. Busy executives, athletes, kids, powerlifters, normal people looking to get in shape etc. But everything I read said you had to pick a niche when doing online training because it is so saturated. I was terrible at picking this an eventually settled on busy middle aged parents (because that is what I am) but it is not narrow enough and there are already many trainers out there targeting that audience.

You are correct, finding a communication style that works is more important than physique. And trying to put out content every day is exhausting. I was good about posting regularly at first and then stopped as i got busier. I think using AI can be helpful for regular content ideas and also with forming a business plan. In the end i only attracted a couple clients from posting online. My training business started with around 10 former clients and is still around that number. It is not a ton of money but it is also a couple hours of work a week. I did get hired by a fitness app that does the marketing and client acquisition for me and I now train over 60 people online (10 through my LLC and 50 through the app). But the clients on the app are bit more work and they take a % obviously.

guys sorry for the lack of replies, these have been some very good posts the past few days from everyone and I will get to them all. Work a bit busier than last week

Upper yesterday
ng chins: bwx20, 15, 12
cable flies: 3 sets failure 24, 14, 10
incline db press: 30kgx21, 15 okay point proven, need to move to lower rep range now.
machine chest supported row: 47kgx15, 12, 10
Machine high rows: 30kgx 12, 10, 10

Triset ez curl, db prone raises, db incline skullcrushers: 3 rounds

Posing for 12 minutes

3 days of very high steps clocking in at 17k, 20k, and 20k along with training and on the 17k day over an hour of posing.

Couldn't sleep last night probably because of caffeine+very high recovery load the past 3 days. I will take today's workout completely off and only go to the gym 3x/wk this week and probably next week as well.

Sometimes discipline means taking a step back and resting when you want to just bury yourself under workload to achieve your goal but can intellectualize that this would be counterproductive.

Clair Obscure 33, drop to only 11-12k steps, and maybe an extra meal of greek yogurt or 50g oats today.

lol if tomorrow I post "well I felt better at work so I went to the gym and set a huge pr then get up to 16k steps and posed for 40 minutes" and there's a non-zero chance of that happening.

Caffeine I may drop down to just 1 big cup of coffee (100mg) first thing in the morning because coffee+sugar free monster (250mg) is maybe too much and interfering with sleep.

Clen doesn't **** with my sleep as much as caffeine. Good idea for a video going over the science of why (adenosine receptors being blocked vs stimulating the adrenaline and cortisol receptors, peripheral vs central nervous system stimulation, stronger diuretic effect for nocturia related sleep disruption)

I totally think he should go for it. There's also a very non-zero chance he crushes it. If he didn't have an already solid career track I'd bet that he "succeeds" (in many ways he's already succeeded even if coaching isn't his main thing).

If inane bullshit is your thing then aren't most of us encroaching on your bread and butter?

As much as I enjoy CPAP and gear dosage reports, I'm actually pretty interested to hear about how coaching goes for Guy now that he is going to commit to growing it seriously. He also does seem to like teaching (as long as he's at the right school), so not sure which to root for.

hardly have time to read and understand all of what is being said.
The only think I can think of to say after the photos was

'Did not skip leg day!'

yeah my hams/glutes still need catching up. Way better than last year. Quads are still considered very good in bbing judging standards, but tend to lean out later than upper body. It's like either your abs look super lean all year round or your legs do, but never both. Differing fat storage patterns.

I managed to skip the gym yesterday lol. proud of myself. I need to go back to a weekends+2 weekdays schedule at least while I'm still working. When I have summer holiday and my "work" becomes content creation maybe I can do weekday only training again. Training relatively late in the day, particularly on Mondays, just messed with my sleep and nocturia too much along with caffeine being in there. I lowered caffeine to just a big cup of black coffee with stevia in the morning (60-200mg of caffeine, I don't even know). Yohimbine still 20 but half life way too short to interfere with sleep.

Lots of sleep optimization itt. Corticosteroid nasal sprays, technology use limitations, timing training, CPAP machines, humidifiers etc. It's annoying but one of the most overlooked and important general life hacks/performance hacks there is, particularly in the context of a bodybuilding contest prep.

So the plan is a lower body day today after work, then two more full days off, then saturday/sunday upper/lower and on to the new schedule.

Watched Nosferatu 2024 last night. First 1/2 A+, second 1/2 C-. Had a lot of potential. I love Robert Eggers movies. Northman among the goats because of how it violates so many annoying hero's journey and GYNOCENTRIC tropes, builds a great atmosphere, believable and relatable characters, and an elite soundtrack. Loved it. The Witch also extremely good.

Lower

Arm+delt triset
Bayesian curls: 11.75kgx23, 2 more sets forgot reps
DB skullcrushers incline: 10kgx25, 2 more sets
DB prone delt raises: 7.5kgx28, 2 more sets

Leg extensions: 48.75kgx27, 12, 14
Lying ham curls: 60kgx12, 46kgx12, 11
Paused RDL: 130kgx15 easy but probably because I was teaching somebody else how to SLDL so long ass rest between lying ham curls and rdls, also less overall stress on hamstrings because of much lower rep range
Bulgarian split squats: 15kgx12x3

Good.

I think you are selling yourself short here; and you have shown yourself very well endowed when it comes to peepee joke preparedness.

Lifetime I don't think I've thought about d size more than 2 hours. Any given Chris Bumstead posing video with millions of views and tens of thousands of comments will have 0 to 10 comments about d....

This is a thremp/dunyian thing.

because they have small ones?

Ok, I'll stop now. I promise.

As a person of azn descent I have thoroughly enjoyed the peepee jopkes. Ironically, it is all about expectations. Women are thrilled I don't actually have micropeen. If I was a jacked black dude anything short of being able to tap in on a BBC porn would be a let down.

Poor Guy. Expectations through the roof. Sends girl home limping when she'd expect to have to crawl. I just need to achieve any sort of insertion. I think N1 would call this "ASIAN BIG PLAYER" or something of the sort. WINNING!!11!