My Road to the Olympia Week Four

by: John Hansen - July 26th, 2007

My Road to the Olympia

My First Contest This Week!

Monday, July 23rd
This is going to be one crazy week! I am promoting my first natural bodybuilding competition this weekend on Saturday, July 28th. I have to take care of all the last minute details which is going to occupy a lot of my time and attention.

The contest promotion is going great. I am up to 45 competitors and I was getting ticket orders all day today on my website, www.naturalolympia.com. It’s going to be very hectic this week but I want to continue to stay on my diet and start to get rid of some of this stubborn bodyfat.

I was supposed to train chest, triceps and calves today but my training partner, Matt, was gone for the whole weekend at a tennis tournament and he was not back yet. I was going to go to the gym by myself at night but I thought I would just wait for him to get back tomorrow and train then. Plus, I really needed the extra time to attend to the various details associated with this contest. I was calling and emailing all the competitors today about taking their drug test. We have the polygraph test scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week so I had to reach the half dozen or so competitors that had not scheduled their drug test yet.

I did stay on my diet again today. My bodyweight was 212.5 pounds this morning with the waist still holding steady at 36 fat inches. I was good on the diet again today except for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread. Here is exactly what I ate today:

Meal 1 – 1 egg, 9 egg whites, 1 cup of oatmeal, ½ cup blueberries.
Meal 2 – Protein Drink consisting of 1 scoop of Pro Complex, 1 scoop of Casein protein and 1 T. flaxseed oil.
Meal 3 – 4.13 oz. ground turkey, 112 grams sweet potato, 3 oz. broccoli
Meal 4 – Protein Drink consisting of 1 scoop Pro Complex, 1 scoop Casein protein
Meal 5 – Whey Force Shake from ABB
Meal 6 – 3.81 oz. sirloin steak, ½ cup green peas
Meal 7 - Protein Drink consisting of 2 scoops Casein protein and 1 T. flaxseed oil, 1 t. peanut butter and 1 t. jelly on 2 slices of whole wheat bread.

This came out to 2663 calories with 288 grams of protein, 180 grams of carbs and 75 grams of fat. This came out to 43% protein, 27% carbs and 25% fat. Back to the gym tomorrow!

Tuesday, July 24th
Today was another busy day. I was getting pretty frustrated because several of the people who said they would be there this weekend to help me out with my contest told me that they had other plans and would not make it. I understand that this is summer and there are so many parties, graduations, weddings, etc, going on but I was sort of counting on these individuals to help me out this weekend because they said they would be there.

I should still be ok because I will have my Dad and my brother Don there to help me along with several of my friends. Plus, I am flying in Lorenzo Gaspar who is the Vice President of the ABA/INBA organization. Lorenzo has helped in the promotion of probably hundreds of competitions so he will be a big help plus he will be the MC for the evening. I have Andre Creighton coming in from Indiana to be the head judge and Cara Kocenes, the reigning Ms. Fitness USA, will also be coming in from Ohio to help judge. To round out the judges, I will have my good friend Dennis be a judge along with last year’s Natural Mr. North America champion, Joe Silzer.

I was driving around all day trying to get the loose ends tied up before this weekend and training several of my clients. I made a trip out to Optimum Nutrition headquarters in Aurora, Illinois to pick up several hand-outs for the “goodie bags” for all the competitors competing in the show. This included the awesome ABB Whey Force Shakes, samples of Whey Gold Standard protein powder and free issues of Optimum Lifestyle magazine.

After all my running around today and training my clients, I didn’t get to the gym until after 7:30pm. I had to train chest, triceps and calves by myself because Matt was still out of town. I didn’t push myself to go super heavy or heavier than last time because my mind wasn’t really into the workout today. This is what I did today at the gym:

DB Bench Press 45x15, 75x12, 100x10, 120x7, 120x7
Incline Press 225x8, 255x6, 255x5
Incline Flyes 80x10, 85x7, 85x7
Close-Grip Bench (Smith Machine) 185x12, 225x10, 245x8
Lying Tricep Ext. 80x12, 100x10, 120x8
Bench Dips BWx15, 80x12, 80x10
Standing Calf Raises 320x15, 420x12, 520x10
Seated Calf Raises 100x15, 150x12, 200x8

My chest workout was about the same the last time I did this workout but I was actually slightly stronger on triceps and calves. I got a good pump and felt good after the workout so that’s what counts.

Here is what I ate today:

Meal 1 – 1 egg, 9 egg whites, 1 cup of oatmeal, ½ cup blueberries
Meal 2 – Protein Drink with 1 scoop of Pro Complex, 1 scoop of Casein protein, 1 T. flaxseed oil.
Meal 3 – 4.23 oz. turkey, 132 grams of sweet potato
Meal 4 – Protein Drink with 1 scoop of Pro Complex and 1 scoop of Casein protein
Meal 5 - Pre-workout Drink with ABB Whey Force Shake and 1 serving creatine
Meal 6 – 1 serving of ON’s BCAA and Creatine with 1 serving of Vassive-NO (I sipped this drink DURING my workout)
Meal 7 – Post workout drink consisting of 3 scoops of After Max with 1 serving creatine
Meal 8 – 6 oz. marinated salmon, 1 cup green beans
Meal 9 – Protein Drink consisting of 2 scoops of Casein protein and 1 T. flaxseed oil and 1 t. peanut butter and 1 t. jelly on 2 slices of whole wheat bread.

This was a lot of food today but I am trying something new now by consuming a small shake of Vassive NO and the BCAA and Creatine during my workout. I was also very hungry late at night so I added a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat, which was probably not the smartest thing to do. However, my weight was down today to 210 pounds and the waist did go down slightly to 35 ¾”

Today’s diet came out to 3156 calories with 337 grams of protein, 256 grams of carbs and 79 grams of fat. This breaks down to 43% protein, 32% carbs and 23% fat.

Wednesday, July 25th
I woke up today with my bodyweight at 210.5 pounds and the waist still at 35 ¾”. I’m glad that peanut butter and jelly sandwich didn’t do any permanent damage. LOL

Today was pretty hectic again. Lots of running around, lots of phone calls and lots of emails. I don’t think my cell phone has been ringing this much in the last two months as it has the last two weeks. But, it’s all good stuff. More contestants, more of an audience and more fun!

Because of my busy schedule, I didn’t get to the gym until almost 9pm tonight. That was really late for me and I was tempted to just blow off the workout but I knew that would not be the best move. If I skipped today, I would end up missing something by the end of the week because I can not train on the weekend and I already missed Monday’s workout.

I did back and biceps by myself again today because Matt was still out of town. I’m always unsure of how my leg and back workouts will be because of my lower back. Today it was surprisingly pretty good. I got through the barbell rows and deadlifts ok which was great. Here is what I did today at the gym:

Close-Grip Pulldowns 130x15, 180x10
Barbell Rows 185x12, 225x10, 265x6, 275x5
Seated Cable Rows 250x10, 260x8, 260x7
Deadlifts 225x12, 315x9, 355x6
Incline Curls 40x12, 50x8, 50x8
Barbell Curls 95x10, 115x8
Hammer Curls 50x8, 50x7

My back felt really pumped and strong after the deadlifts. I didn’t go super heavy because I couldn’t even do them last time but it felt great to do them again. I went a little heavier on barbell rows, seated cable rows as well as deadlifts and I got more reps on incline curls for the biceps.

My calories were pretty high again today. I ate almost exactly the same thing I did yesterday except I substituted 3.5 oz. of sirloin steak for the salmon. I’m going to cut back a little more on my carbs for the rest of the week because I have a feeling that Saturday is going to be sort of screwed up due to all I will have going on that day with the contest.

I ate 3171 calories today with 341 grams of protein, 263 grams of carbs and 71 grams of fat. This comes out to 43% protein, 33% carbs and 20% fat.

Thursday, July 26th
Another busy day today. I had to run a lot of errands to take care of all the last minute stuff for the contest. I was trying to get a couple loads of laundry finished in the morning before I left the house. My back was pretty tight after the heavy back workout last night. It was not strained at all but it felt very tight from the heavy deadlifts and barbell rows. When I bent over to pick up the laundry basket to bring it to the washing machine, my back just went into a complete spasm and went out.

I knew what I had done the second I did it. I have hurt my back so much over the years that, when it happens, I know it immediately. The strain was on both sides of my lower back and I knew I was in trouble. The first thing I thought of was how it was going to affect me this weekend. I had been planning this contest for almost a year and now I was going to have to go through this very long day with a strained lower back.

The first few hours of the morning, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I was hoping that the strain was only real mild and I would not be in too much pain. However, when I sat down at my computer in the afternoon to get some work done, my back was killing me when I got back up. I knew the strain would probably be there for a good 5-7 days.

It seemed like the more I moved around, the better my back felt. I was actually considering going to the gym in the evening to train delts and calves. I thought if I did the 1 ½ reps on the dumbbell presses, it wouldn’t be too bad on my lower back.

However, by the time the evening came around, it seemed like the strain was even worse. I decided to just take the rest of the week off from the gym. I was too damn busy trying to make sure I had everything in order for the contest. I now had just under 50 competitors and I was a little nervous on how the show was going to go off. I know that so many things can go wrong in the production of a live show and I was nervously hoping to pull it off with no big problems.

I did stay on my diet all day today. I wasn’t going to go off it at all, especially if I was not able to train and burn any calories. This is what I ate today:

Meal 1 – 1 egg, 9 egg whites, 1 cup of oatmeal, ½ cup blueberries
Meal 2 – Protein Drink with 1 scoop of Pro Complex and 1 scoop of Egg Protein with 1 T. flaxseed oil.
Meal 3 – Protein Drink with 1 scoop of Pro Complex and 1 scoop of Egg Protein
Meal 4 – 3.67 oz ground turkey, 108 grams of sweet potato, 3 oz. broccoli.
Meal 5 – 6 oz. marinated salmon, 1 cup green beans
Meal 6 – Protein Drink with 1 scoop of Pro Complex, 1 scoop Egg Protein and 1 T. flaxseed oil. 2 slices of whole wheat bread, 1 t. peanut butter, 1 t. jelly.
Meal 7 – Whey Force Shake

This came out to 2540 calories with 288 grams of protein, 172 grams of carbs and 73 grams of fat. I ran out of my Casein protein today so I had to substitute Egg Protein for it instead. I was so ticked off because I was just at Optimum Nutrition yesterday and Bob Corbett asked me if I needed anything while I was there. I’ve been so preoccupied with everything else, I didn’t even notice that I was running out of the Casein protein. Guess I’ll just have to hang in there until next week when I get my monthly order of supplements from Optimum.

Friday, July 27th
I woke up this morning and my back was in a lot of pain! Anyone who has strained their lower back knows how bad it feels in the morning when you first get up. It gets so damn stiff during the night, it feels terrible when you first roll out of bed.

It was even worse because I had so many things to take care of today for my contest tomorrow. Damn, I can’t believe it’s almost here! It’s just like when you prepare to compete and you start the contest prep a good six months in advance. It seems like it's so far away and then, all of a sudden, it’s here!

By the early afternoon, my back was feeling much better because I was moving around so much. I was thankful for this because I would never be able to get through the day tomorrow if my back felt as bad as it did this morning.

One good thing this morning was my waist was down a little. My weight was at 209.5 pounds and the waist was down to 35 ½” . I’m finally starting to make a little headway by staying on the diet all week.

It was a really hectic day today. First, I had to pick up the tickets for the contest. Then, I had to pick up the contest t-shirts for the competitors. I made a stop at Home Depot to pick up some duct tape to tape down the towels in the pump-up room. I also had to go to Office Depot to pick up some office supplies that we would use at the registration booth. I’m quickly learning that promoting a contest is all about the details. There are so many small details to take care of and you have to really be organized to remember all of them.

At 7:00 pm, I had to go to the airport to pick up Lorenzo Gaspar who was going to help me with the promotion of the show. Lorenzo was also going to emcee the event. Lorenzo has been with the ABA/INBA since it’s inception and he is an exceptional emcee. He was present at all the ABA contests that I entered in my career. I remember when I competed in my first ABA show back in 1992 (which was, incidentally, the same contest that I am now promoting, the Natural North America) and Lorenzo asked me onstage what my arms measured. I told the audience they were 23” with a slight grin on my face. I’m sure the audience knew I was joking.

Lorenzo and I went out to dinner and talked about the contest. We discussed the order that the judges were going to judge the contest at the pre-judging. We also talked about how the line-up was going to go at the evening show.

Since I was a little short on trophies, Lorenzo brought them with him on the flight. By the time I dropped him off at his hotel and got back home, it was a little after 11pm. I spent the rest of my night putting together the trophies and typing out the line-up for the pre-judging and evening show line-ups for tomorrow.

By the time I went to bed, it was after 2am. I was so jacked up at the thought of promoting my first contest, I couldn’t even sleep. I think I finally got to sleep around 3am which was not good because I had to get up early the next day. I had a feeling I would probably get through the day with pure adrenalin.


Saturday, July 28th
Today was the big day! I got up at 6am to get ready so I could pick up Lorenzo at 8am and go to the school so we could start setting up for the registration and the pre-judging. After I took a shower and ate breakfast, I had to start packing up my car with the rest of the trophies and all the other supplies I had. Optimum Nutrition provided “goodie bags” for all the competitors. This consisted of those giant John Cena bags that contained samples of Pro Complex protein, a Whey Force Shake and a copy of the Optimum LifeStyles magazine. Over 50 of these bags took up a lot of space in the car!

I got to the hotel a little after 8am and picked up Lorenzo. By the time we got to Romeoville High School, the parking lot was full of cars. At first, I thought they were all there for the contest but then I realized that the school was conducting band practice on Saturday morning.

The guys from Fitness Factory Outlet were waiting for me to set up the fitness equipment for the pump-up room. I had to coordinate where we should put the equipment, as this was my first time checking out the backstage area. We finally decided to set up the pump-up room in the hallway directly outside the backstage area as there was not enough room backstage to put all the equipment.

Lorenzo began the check-in for all the competitors out in the lobby and I supervised the hanging of the banners onstage along with cleaning up the backstage area. We had to transport all the trophies and swords from my car to the stage and we brought all the Optimum goodie bags and the contest t-shirts backstage for the competitors.

From the time I arrived at the school, I didn’t stop moving. I was running here, there and everywhere trying to coordinate and supervise everything. As this was my first contest that I ever promoted, I was really “winging it”. Thank God I had some really good help. My friend Paul Reed was going to be my backstage expediter along with Ray McGury, who is also the chief of police for one of the nearby towns. In addition to Paul and Ray, my friend Kevin and his wife, Cassandra, were invaluable in their help. Cassandra helped Lorenzo with the checking in of the competitors and Kevin took over the ticket table. My brother Don and my Dad were also there to help hang the banners onstage.

Check-in took about an hour longer than anticipated but we were finally ready to begin pre-judging a little after noon. Once the crowd was in their seats and the pre-judging got underway, things calmed down a little. I just had to make sure all the vendors were set up and doing ok and I kept going backstage to make sure everything was going ok with the expediters, the competitors and the judges. It was so crazy but it was also very fun and exciting!

The pre-judging finally ended a little after 2:30pm. We had planned on having a Champions Seminar at 3pm but we ended up canceling it because all the competitors and their friends and family were out getting something to eat. I was disappointed in this because I was looking forward to having the seminar with myself, Joe Silzer (2006 Natural Mr. North America), Murrell Hall, Masters Champion and Jenifer GiDiovanni, Figure Champion. Oh well, we will definitely have it next year when things are a little more better organized.

I ran out to a local restaurant to grab some food for the judges and for myself. I was running on empty at this point because I had not had anything to eat since 6:30 in the morning (about 8 hours ago). This is pretty unusual for me as I am used to eating every 2 ½ hours but it was an unusual day!

When I brought the food back, I dropped it off at the judges table and then made the decision to cancel the seminar because not enough of a crowd showed up. After dealing with this and a few other issues, I went up front to grab my sandwich. Unfortunately, I found out that some of the hungry judges ate my chicken sandwich so I was out of luck!

I took off and went to the local hotel where I could change clothes and get ready for the night show. On the way back to the school, I stopped by the same restaurant and picked up another chicken sandwich for myself this time. LOL

When I got to the school, there was a huge crowd in the lobby and people were already lined up for tickets. Most of the competitors were waiting for me in the auditorium because I told all the competitors that we would have a meeting at 5:30pm and it was now closer to 6pm. My chicken sandwich would have to wait a while longer!

Lorenzo finally came back from the hotel and we got things started. After the competitors meeting, we let the crowd into the auditorium for the night show. I was excited to see about half the auditorium filled up. This was a big success for my very first contest promotion!

The show got started a little after 6:30pm so we were running a little late again. However, the crowd was really into it and they were very loud and appreciative of the fitness routines, which started off the contest. I ran out to the lobby to devour my chicken sandwich and then headed backstage to make sure everything was going smoothly.

One smart move I made on Friday was to purchase 4 small walkie-talkies so we could communicate with each other. The high school girls who were assigned the task of running the music would have been lost without the radio communication. Ray really came to the rescue here as he pretty much walked the girls through each person’s music and told them exactly what to do. While he was doing that, Paul was coordinating the expediting duties and Cassandra was helping Lorenzo with the line-up. Lorenzo is an experienced and professional emcee and he did an outstanding job!

By 11pm, the show was finally winding down. It went a little long and about half of the audience went home around 10pm. Again, these are things to work on for the next show. I knew it wasn’t going to be perfect the first time out but I got a lot of compliments about smooth the contest went. I also got a lot of compliments from many of the competitors who said they were very happy with the show and they really enjoyed themselves. This alone made my night because my goal was to promote a show that both the competitors and the audience would enjoy.

We finally got out of the school after midnight. All of the judges, Lorenzo and a few other people headed over to the On the Rockz Restaurant for the After Party. We had a great buffet waiting for us including T-bone steaks, double baked potatoes, chicken tacos and, of course, pizza. It was great and a welcome relief after one long, exciting day!

I was exhausted after only 3 hours of sleep last night and non-stop running all day today. After dropping off Lorenzo at the hotel, I headed home to collapse but I had to get up early again the next day to take Lorenzo to the airport. I finally got back home and hit the bed at 3am. Wow, what a day!!!

Sunday, July 29th
After only 3 hours of sleep, I had to get up again so I could pick up Lorenzo and take him to the airport. I took a shower and ate breakfast and headed out to Romeoville again. After packing all of Lorenzo’s luggage into the car, we headed off to a restaurant so he could get something to eat.

We talked about what a success the contest was. I told him I wanted to make the show bigger and better each year. I think I could even add a professional natural division to the contest in two more years. I told Lorenzo we could start with at least $5000 in prize money.

After dropping Lorenzo off at the airport, I headed back home. I was so tired after these last two days, I collapsed into bed and fell back asleep. I slept for a good four hours before getting back up. I think I could have slept several more hours but I probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep that night if I stayed in bed that long.

Of course, my diet was way off track today because I slept most of the day away. When I got up, I headed out to a restaurant to eat instead of eating at home. I didn’t go crazy, only a chicken sandwich and some soup, but it wasn’t my strict diet either. I knew I would get back on track tomorrow now that the show was finally over.

I came back home and didn’t eat for the rest of the day except for my last meal, which was a protein drink and a small bag of Orville Redenbacher popcorn. What a crazy week! I’ll be glad to get back to normal starting tomorrow!

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