Here’s How I Achieved My Best Condition Ever – At Age 48!
By Steve Weingarten
No Nonsense Newsletter Volume 12 #2
I started preparing for the 2006 NPC Kentucky shortly after placing 2nd in my class at the 2005 NPC Kentucky. The 2005 event marked the third time I was runner-up at that show, and it was my seventh NPC Kentucky appearance. The first time was in 1996; I placed 2nd in the middleweights at 161 pounds. I way overbulked the next year thinking “bigger is better” (up to 218 doughy pounds in the off season) and showed up at a soft 174, placing 5th. In 1998 I achieved my best condition to date, but finished 2nd again. I followed that with a 4th in 1999. 
Personal issues necessitated a competitive hiatus from 2000-2002. I returned in 2003 with the same conditioning as 1998 but considerably bigger, weighing right at the middleweight limit of 176 1/4. I thought for sure I’d take my class, but the competition had grown tougher during the three years I was away and I placed 4th out of 21 excellent middleweights. A triceps tear hampered my training in 2004 and I finished out of the top five for the first time.
I trained and dieted with a vengeance for the 2005 KY. The show included the new welterweight division, and I thought that dropping down to that class would raise my conditioning to a new level. I did more cardio than ever to slash my weight, building up to two one-hour treadmill sessions daily. I achieved the conditioning I sought, and barely made the welterweight limit of 165 1/4 pounds, but lost to a slightly less conditioned, but much rounder and fuller competitor.
Runner-up once again! Bah! Seven tries and I still hadn’t earned that elusive number-one spot. I decided to give it one more try – but win, lose or draw, at age 48, 2006 would be my final NPC Kentucky appearance.
The Off Season
My first goal was to maintain a decent degree of leanness in the off season; adding more muscle was secondary. Experience has taught me the same lesson that is stressed over and over in every issue of the No-Nonsense Newsletter: all-out bulking is a major error if you want to achieve top-level conditioning. I don’t lose fat easily (nor do I gain muscle easily) so getting too fat in the off season keeps me from competing in my best shape. As someone who loves chocolate, I sometimes struggle to keep my sweet tooth at bay. (I often satisfy that urge by mixing chocolate Ultra Size and a tablespoon of natural peanut butter into a thick pudding – it’s awesome!)
This was my winter off season eating plan as I prepared for my final appearance at the 2006 NPC Kentucky:
MEAL 1
1 cup cottage cheese
6 egg whites, 2 yolks
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup blueberries
MEAL 2
2 scoops Ultra Size
1 tbsp natural peanut butter
MEAL 3
8 oz 93% lean beef
2 c broccoli
MEAL 4
2 scoops Ultra Size
1 tbsp natural peanut butter
MEAL 5
8 oz 93% lean beef
2 c broccoli
MEAL 6
1 cup cottage cheese
1 apple
I took 4 Mass and 4 Ultra 40 with each meal, bringing my total calories on non-weight training days to 2635. On lifting days, I added 1/2 cup of oatmeal to one of the protein drinks (which I drank an hour before training) and downed a post-workout shake consisting of one scoop of Muscle Provider and one serving of Mass Maker. This raised my total calories on training days to 3000. During the off season, I ate whatever I wanted on Saturday nights, on special occasions, and occasionally during the week.
Yes, this was a pretty low-carb and low-calorie off season eating plan, but it fit my needs. I kept my bodyfat well under 10% (my ab caliper reading never exceeded 7mm) and looked good all year for a change. I didn’t gain much muscle, but that wasn’t my goal.
Training
My off season training was pretty generic. This was a typical week:
SUNDAY – Shoulders, Triceps
Seated Overhead Press 3 x 6-8
Dumbbell Lateral Raise 3 x 10-12
One-Arm Lying Rear Delt Raise 2 x 10-12
Close-Grip Bench Press 3 x 6-8
French Press 3 x 10-12
MONDAY
Treadmill – 20 minutes
TUESDAY – Quadriceps, Calves
Squats 4 x 10-12
Leg Press 3 x 15
Leg Extension 3 x 15
Standing Calf Machine 5 x 6-8
WEDNESDAY – Hamstrings
Lying Leg Curl 10 x 5 (This was 10 sets of 5 reps or less, resting
exactly 2 minutes between sets. When I could do all 10 sets for 5,
I upped the weight next time)
Glute-Ham Raise 3 x 8-10
THURSDAY – Chest, Biceps
Incline Press 3 x 6-8
Dips 3 x 10-12
Low-Incline Cable Flyes 3 x 12-15
Preacher Curls 3 x 6-8
Incline Hammer Curls 3 x 8-10
FRIDAY
Treadmill – 20 minutes
SATURDAY –Back, Calves
Pull-Ups 3 x 6-8
Partial Deadlifts 3 x 6-8
Dumbbell Rows 3 x 8-10
Standing Calf Machine 3 x 12-15
Peaking and Plateauing
As the weeks and months passed, I gradually added calories to my meal plan until I was consuming about 3500 on workout days. This gradual addition of food kept me reasonably lean even as my bodyweight inched up. By the time I started dieting in late spring, I was 190 pounds but leaner than I had ever been at that weight.
Now I reversed the process, gradually removing calories (alternating between deleting some carbs one week, then fats a few weeks later). Every few weeks, as my fat-loss progress slowed, I removed 100-200 calories by cutting portion sizes, but keeping the same foods in my diet. I alternated these cuts with weeks of intensifying cardio; one week I’d cut calories, the next I’d add another five minutes to my daily cardio, or raise the treadmill angle another degree. Progress was steady, with new lines and veins appearing every few days.
My training remained basically the same. I lose muscle quickly if I lower my weights and increase reps. The same heavy weights that build muscle in the off season are necessary to keep the muscle while dieting – at least that’s the case for me. Nor do I try to compress my rest periods between sets. Instead I just stick with heavy lifting, doing mostly compound exercises for moderate reps, and shed fat through diet and cardio. I do get somewhat weaker as a show approaches, but I lift as heavy as I can.
My cardio of choice is fasted, first-thing-in-the-morning walking. I have a treadmill in my basement, so it’s easy for me to get out of bed, down a few BCAAs, pop a favorite movie or TV show into the DVD player, and start sweating. While the debate rages on about the merit of steady-state cardio vs HIIT, I do neither. Instead, I start out at a comfortable pace (say, 3.0 MPH at an 8 degree incline) and raise both the speed and angle of the treadmill every five or ten minutes. HIIT seems to exhaust my legs almost as much as a heavy squat workout, and I find that it makes my legs shrink on a pre-contest diet.
One month out I was down to 2100 calories daily and up to an hour of cardio every morning, walking 3.7 mph with the incline at 12 degrees for the final 15 minutes. My bodyweight hovered at the middleweight class limit of 176 with an ab skin fold of 5mm and quad skin fold of 6mm. I was in good shape but not good enough – hard, but not ripped. And my body hadn’t shed any fat in several weeks. I was stuck.
What I Did to Get Unstuck
I knew from past experience that cutting calories further wasn’t the answer, because my metabolism stalls out when I approach 2000 calories a day. Adding more cardio wasn’t the answer either – while I need a substantial amount to get lean, going beyond an hour a session was likely to strip away muscle.
Based on my prior contest-training experience, I took the counterintuitive approach and raised my daily calories to 2500. I removed most of the saturated fats and replaced them with healthier fats, and substituted almond butter for peanut butter in my protein drinks. Plus I split cardio into two 30-minute sessions daily, one first thing in the morning and the other about 12 hours later. My metabolism roared back to life, and within a few days my body was hardening up again. In fact, I started losing weight too fast and added calories until I was up to 2800 daily. Here’s what my diet looked like during those final weeks:
MEAL 1
8 oz turkey breast
1 egg
3/4 cup oatmeal
1 tablespoon Udo’s Choice oil
MEAL 2
2 scoops Ultimate Muscle Protein
1 tablespoon almond butter
1/2 cup oatmeal
MEAL 3
8 oz turkey breast
1 egg
1-2 cups veggies
1 tablespoon Udo’s Choice oil
MEAL 4
2 scoops Ultimate Muscle Protein
1 tablespoon almond butter
1/2 cup oatmeal
MEAL 5
8 oz. turkey Breast
1 egg
1-2 cups veggies
1 tablespoon Udo’s Choice oil
MEAL 6
10 egg whites
veggies/tomatoes
Making Weight
On the Thursday before the NPC KY, following Roger’s advice, I dropped the oats from the protein drinks, and Friday I cut to 1/2 cup oats at breakfast. I woke up that morning weighing 171 and looking as hard as a rock. Still, I decided to push my luck and attempt to make welterweight at that evening’s weigh-in. Lucky for me I own a hot tub! About an hour before the weigh-in, I got in the tub, getting out every 15 minutes to jump on the scale. After an hour I was just below the welterweight limit of 165 1/4. That was the first time I ever “dried out” to make weight for a show.
I should mention that I did no sodium loading/depleting strategies that in the past have ruined my condition, nor did I cut back on water, I normally drink a gallon of water daily, and Friday was no exception. Saturday I drank water as needed.
Roger has seen me compete many times and he’s told me when I’ve looked good as well as when I haven’t looked so good. After seeing me at the weigh-in, he called me aside and said “you look fabulous,” confirming what I already knew – at 48, I had achieved my best-ever shape. My ab (3.5mm) and quad (4.5mm) skin folds hit all-time lows. I even had – for the first time -- glute striations!!
The Final 12 Hours
After the weigh-in I downed a couple glasses of water and ate a steak, 2 eggs and a sweet potato. I repeated that meal once again before bed. Saturday morning I awoke at 6 and again ate steak and eggs but substituted oatmeal for the sweet potato. I ate a tablespoon or two of the famous Beverly Goo (3/4 cup almond butter, 1 scoop Ultra Size, 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, candy pieces) every half hour prior to prejudging.
I ended up the unanimous winner of both the Master’s lightweight and the Open welterweight classes. Finally, I earned that elusive first place.
Tips For Bodybuilding Success
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1) Keep a training journal! This is essential for following tip #2:
View each workout as a contest with yourself – the goal is to set new personal records in each exercise as often as possible by lifting a little more weight or squeezing out another rep or two with the same weight as last time. Remember, the key to progress is progressive resistance.
- 3) Monitor yourself. Use the scale, tape measure, your eyes, the fit of your clothes, and, especially, calipers. In the off season, I use calipers to make sure my skin folds don’t exceed pre-set limits, such as 8 mm for abs. During contest training, regular caliper readings reassure me that I’m losing fat.
- 4) Variety in training is paramount. It’s easy to fall into a comfort zone with favorite exercises and training protocols, but there’s more than one way to promote muscular hypertrophy. Plateaus hit when you stick with the same thing for too long. Try different exercises, rep ranges, set volumes, training days per week per muscle, etc. One excellent way to train is to hit each muscle twice weekly, doing 2 exercises for 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps with fairly long rest periods on one day, then 3-4 days later using a different exercise for 10 sets of 3-5 reps, resting no more than 2 minutes between sets.
- 5) Learn how many calories you need to maintain your weight. (It’s often around 15 calories per pound of bodyweight) Subtract around 300 calories from that figure to begin a fat-loss diet, or add 300-500 calories to that number to start a muscle-building diet.
- 6) Prepare your food in advance and carry a cooler. I rarely leave my house without a cooler packed with meals and/or protein shakes.
- 7) Don’t neglect your pre/post-workout nutrition. Protein and carbs before, and protein (and maybe carbs, depending on your carb tolerance) immediately after. Research has proven the importance of this, although how many carbs (especially simple sugars) are optimal post-workout varies from person to person. I prefer oatmeal in my pre-workout shake and a scoop or two of Mass Maker with a scoop of Muscle Provider post-workout in a gaining phase.
- 8) There’s no such thing as “try.” You either do it, or you don’t.
Bodybuilding is a solo endeavor, but not a solitary one. Every successful bodybuilder needs a support team and I'd like to thank mine: My lovely wife Liz and my boys, for enduring my pre-contest-dieting blahs; my friends at the Fitness Factory, for their encouragement; and Roger and Sandy, for always responding to my questions and concerns.
Personal Profile: Steve Weingarten
Age: 49
Occupation / Education: B.A. University of Kentucky
Full-time self-employed personal trainer and freelance writer
Family: Wife: Liz (Professional Photographer who took the workout
photos in this article); Sons: Evan, 18 and Nathan, 14
Dog: Mango (six-month-old Shiba Inu)
Current Residence: Louisville, Ky
Where do you train: Fitness Factory
Height: 5'6"
Off Season Weight: 185-190
Contest Weight: 171
Favorite Cheat Food: A batch of super-rich chocolate-peanut butter brownies
paired with a massive bowl of coconut ice cream
Favorite Bodybuilding Meal: Breakfast: 1 cup Irish oatmeal topped with strawberries,
blueberries and raspberries; 8 oz lean beef; 1 whole egg plus 4 whites
Favorite Supplements:
Off season I use Ultra Size as my main protein powder (I love Ultra Size/almond
butter pudding!) and Muscle Provider/Mass Maker post-workout. I use Glutamine
Select during workouts, Muscle Synergy twice daily and Mass and Ultra 40 with meals.
Pre-contest: I use Ultimate Muscle Protein and Muscle Provider, as well as Muscle
Mass BCAAs. I take a double dose of Joint Care daily -- my joints feel amazingly
better since I started using it.
What would you recommend to someone who has never used Beverly supplements before?
Start with one of the protein powders, probably UMP which is a multipurpose blend.
Add whatever else you can depending on your goals and budget.
Most Inspiring Bodybuilder: Frank Zane-- then, now, and always. At his best
(and I was privileged to witness in person his Mr. Olympia wins in 1977-79) he
personified my ideal of the ultimate male physique. I also respect his intellect,
his ability (rare among bodybuilders) to maintain a happy long-term marriage, and his balanced approach to life.
In your CD player: Classic hard rock
Most Inspiring Book: Either Ralph Keyes' "The Courage To Write," a book of
inspiration for writers, or Carter and Sokol's "He's Scared, She's Scared,"
an insightful work about building happy relationships.
Other Interests: All types of writing (I've earned awards for article writing,
ad copy writing, and screenwriting), reading, watching movies, hanging out with my wife and boys,
Words to live by: “There is no 'try'. You either do it, or you don't."
Favorite Training Program: People say my back is my best bodypart. A typical back workout:
Reverse-Grip Chin-Ups 3 X 6-8 with 60-25 pounds (warm-up, then heaviest weight on first
set and lower weight for next two sets) I'll do forced reps or a drop set on the final set.
Rack Deadlifts, 4-5 sets of 6 starting light and working up to a max set of 6(430-440 pounds)
Dumbbell Rows 2-3 X 8-10 with 125 pounds (drop set on final set)
I'll do this for a few months and then switch to:
Wide Grip Chins
Regular Deadlift
T-bar Row (old-school style) or Seated Cable Row
