UK-Muscle.co.uk Forum banner

James Llewellin's off season phase - The road to the Olympia 202 showdown!!

19K views 100 replies 42 participants last post by  Sureno 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
So the dust has settled but the violent wind hasn't!! It's been a mad week since the show and taken a good few days to fully sink in what I have accomplished.

My dream ever since turning pro was to stand on the Olympia stage and I'll be honest with you, with standards rising fast and competition becoming fierce, I never thought I would realise it!

I knew the BGP was probably my best shot; no travelling, no time differences, a home crowd and a relaxed and more importantly focused, happy state of mind.

I have realised just how important your psychological wellbeing is when preparing for a show, none more so than the last 9 weeks.

A happy body is a responsive body and this prep was the easiest and most enjoyable of my 7 years of competing by a country mile.

Most of the improvements I made were in the last 6 weeks of my prep, after hooking up with BIG H and Mike and Leica Gelsei. They gave me the belief back again and the hunger and spirit that had been lost since 2008 on that fateful evening in Nottingham.

It enabled me to eat more food, train harder than ever before and feel energised throughout the whole 9 week diet, something that I have never felt when prepping previously. It also meant that my cardio never really went above 45 minutes 5 days a week!

I was that close to throwing the towel in last year with everything that was going on but I'm no quitter and that thought was quickly quashed once the prep got underway.

Add to this that in the middle of my prep I sold my house and moved my life down to Wales, not a particularly restful time at the best of times but I took it in my stride, sticking to the diet and training schedule even though I made multiple trip backwards and forward from Kent to Wales, travelling thousands of miles in the process!

So with all that said its now that the serious work starts. I have no goals for the Olympia except to stand on stage improved from the BGP and I KNOW that I will be, without question.

By the sunday evening show I was down to around 189-190lbs which means I still have nearly a stone (14lbs) of growth left in this class. Now on a frame of 5'5" thats a lot of muscle!!

Not only is myself and my team incredibly excited about this off season and what we can accomplish, the lure of Vegas and the Olympia in itself is the hugest motivator for me.

So when did my prep start? Well it started pretty much on tuesday!! I had one day of eating what I wanted and by the evening I had had enough. I didn't really have any cravings because of the volume I had been eating during my prep. Add to that I had three cheat meals in the last 3 weeks which pretty much satisfied any cravings I did have. Add to that my keeness to make improvements and no time was wasted.

I sat down with Mike and Leica and we set upon divising a training split to really prioritorise my weaker areas, chest and back.

The training split we have devised is over a 7 days period with 5 days training and 2 off days.

Monday CHEST/FRONT DELTS

Tuesday QUADS

Wednesday OFF

Thursday BACK/REAR DELTS

Friday HAMSTRINGS/CALVES

Saturday ARMS/SIDE DELTS

Sunday OFF

I will be performing NO CARDIO in my off season unless I feel it is necessary. I am fortunate that I can stay lean on a lot of food. The only benefit would be cardiovascular fitness (which admittedly is a BIG reason to do some) and also to keep my metabolism and appetite high (which fortunately I have anyway). So this maybe reassessed depending on how my conditioning slips etc. I am also mindful of guest spots that I am booked to do and although being lean for them is something I always do, I dont want them impacting on my growth phase, so you may see me a little rounder at guest spots this year :whistling:

My diet I have devised and is as follows. It is based around my pre contest diet (because I love the food) but obviously there is more of it. It will consist of at least 2 cheat meals a week and between 7-8 meals daily. Calories will sit at around 4300-4500 daily.

Meal 1 60g oats, 40g granola, 20g raisins, 30g cashews, 3 scoops pro pep, 125g yogurt, 1 banana

Meal 2 (snack) 1 pro flapjack, 1 scoop pro peptide

TRAIN

Meal 3 2 scoops pro recover, 1 scoop pro peptide.

Meal 4 200g chicken, 50g rice, veg, 10-15g olive oil, 20g nuts

Meal 5 same as above plus a pro flapjack

Meal 6 250g lean mince, 50g rice

Meal 7 6 whole eggs, 3 slices wholewheat bread

Meal 8 50g oats, 40g granola, 20g raisins, 20g cashews, 3 scoops pro peptide (all mixed together and made with WHOLE milk)

In night at 2-3am 1 scoop pro peptide.

ALL SUPPLEMENTS USED ARE CNP PROFESSIONAL

So that in a nutshell is what I will be eating pretty much day in day out but eggs maybe swapped for salmon, rice maybe swapped for pasta, morning oats maybe swapped for wholewheat bread, mince maybe swapped for ribeye steak and so on but the framework will be pretty much adhered to every day.

Today I sit at a hard and full 206lbs.

Any questions please ask away.

J
 
See less See more
#8 ·
Thanks guys, I hope to keep the thread updated as much as possible each week.

In answer to a couple of questions, the Olympia is on the 16th and 17th September this year which is a week earlier than normal.

As far as how much I spend on food a week, it depends but for myself and Kelly around £70 to £80, so not as much as many people would imagine. I am obviously very fortunate not have to buy my supplements which would be quite an additional cost every week.

J
 
#10 · (Edited by Moderator)
Steven Scoular said:
Well done on your placing. You must be very proud.

I'm one inch shorter than you (5'4"), would love to compete in the 202lbs class one day. Although I fear it is a wild dream, yet it's something to shoot for.

I will follow this log intently as I feel I will gain a degree of wisdom & more importantly you serve as an inspiration. Wishing you a prosperous journey to the 202 Olympia.

Could you tell me which date it is? October?
Well I entered my first show at the ripe old age of 30, so I am sure you have plenty of time to realise your goals. Set yourself little attainable goals like winning a local qualifier, taking the overall and then placing at the UK Champs and so on. To have a BIG end goal is fine, as long as you can visualise the steps to get there and attain them. Taking too big a steps can leave you a little disappointed, so keep everything realistic and know your limitations, thats the best bit of advice I can give you right now.

J
 
#12 ·
kieren1234 said:
Looking forward to this mate!! Great post and thanks for sharing the diet I might try this for a while, looks more tolerable than what im doing now. Best of luck James.
The diet is very varied and thats what I like about it. It gives me everything I need to grow and leads me into my diet phase very well indeed.

J
 
#14 ·
Steven Scoular said:
Thank you - that's very motivating. The steps you have laid out are indeed something I have envisiged.

I wanted to know how many hours of sleep to you try to get per night?

Do you set times on going to sleep and rising each day? What times are these?
Hahaha me and sleep dont really see eye to eye. When I diet I sleep for a max of around 4-5 hours a night and now around 6 hours is plenty. I can function well on little sleep as long as I can rest. Today for instance I had around 90 mins sleep this afternoon. We hit back hard today and it wiped me out!!

J
 
#15 ·
supercell said:
I train at the Powerhouse on Aberaman Ind est but also train at Mike Gelsei's gym in Llantrisant. Tomorrow morning infact I am going to Aleks Gym in Caerphilly to train chest!!

J
A few of my mates train there. It's a proper gym with the front doors open to the main road with all the traffic fumes. Puts hair on your chest!
 
#19 ·
James you looked amazing at the BGP and now you have your dream of doing MrO, will look forward to what changes you will bring in this time period, in fact I am excited by how you and Flex will look on the day.

How does it feel to hit your goal of qualifying for the Mr O but be so surreal, anyways good luck James and hope you smash it :)
 
#21 ·
danny187 said:
James you looked amazing at the BGP and now you have your dream of doing MrO, will look forward to what changes you will bring in this time period, in fact I am excited by how you and Flex will look on the day.

How does it feel to hit your goal of qualifying for the Mr O but be so surreal, anyways good luck James and hope you smash it :)
I am over the moon mate as it has always been my goal and ultimate dream to stand on that stage just once!!

J
 
#23 ·
glanzav said:
how you finding wales mate a fresh start yourself

all the best down at aleks today very hard trainer

i hope to use him to get me ready for the nabba next year
I love it here to be honest, the pace of life is perfect for me and the people are friendly and i'm always laughing, so thats good!! Best of luck with your prep too!

J
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top