Defining “Eclipse”

How would we define “eclipse” for this project? I think it would be only fair to mention “up front” how I am defining this word and by extention this “Mission” as I approach my 12th day into this experiment.
Borrowing from the World English Dictionary I have landed on a definition that I think is descriptive of my goal. It is the seventh entry:
to overshadow or surpass.

But what does that mean? To me it means “to look or be better”. That doesn’t necessarily mean to be bigger. As an International Physique Judge I have seen first hand that the bigger athlete is not always the better athlete. This is what confused Arnold Schwarzenegger early in his bodybuilding career.

Fat To Lean vs. Height To Weight
Excerpt from:
“Preparing Naturally For Physique Competition”
By Carlos DeJesus © 1985

To judge a bodybuilder’s condition based solely on their body weight does not give any specifics about body composition.
The best example I can think of is that of an experience of one of my student’s. One evening I received a phone call from a young man (I’ll call him Therman) who had read an article about me in a local newspaper. I had just won a contest and I had received coverage about it in the paper. Along with the article was a photograph of me in contest shape.

Therman was thinking about entering a contest and he wanted to talk to me about natural contest preparation. I told him that I would be out at my gym the next day; I told him what time I would be there and gave him directions on how to get there so that we could meet and talk.

Therman Had An Opinion

When Therman arrived at the gym I was already working out- and when he saw me (in my deceptive dark navy blue workout clothes) I could see that he looked a little disappointed. It wasn’t until later that I learned why— you see he had been working out for 5 years and at about 6 feet in height he “weighed” 205 pounds and when he saw me at a body weight of less than 200 pounds, well he was thinking “this guy is not really very big”.

In the months to come his supervised new quality training along with proper diet would serve as a valuable learning experience for Therman when he realized that he would have to lose nearly 40 pounds of fat before his physique would display a muscular appearance of separation and definition that would be contest worthy!

This was the standard for the contest he was entering. It is so important to know what the standards are because many (spectators and competitors alike) have been dissappointed at the outcome of a contest because:

1.They were not really clear on this aspect of a competition (what are the judges looking for?)

2. They do not have trained judge’s eyes

Arnold Schwarzenegger Had An Opinion

Arnold: The Education Of A Bodybuilder Pg.196
The following is a quote from his book

“I had been beaten before by Chet Yorton in 1966. But then I felt there was nothing wrong, because he’d been bigger. With Frank Zane it was more disturbing. I came over having won Mr. Universe twice and he had never won anything except Mr. America. He weighed 185, which was 60 pounds less than I weighed. I couldn’t figure out why he had won. My first thought was that if a big guy lost to a little guy the contest was fixed. But I kept thinking about it – what does Zane have that I don’t have? I studied photographs of him and came to the conclusion that his muscles were better developed; he had more detail, more quality, more separation and more muscularity than I did… I realized that the biggest guy doesn’t always win. I had to stop struggling with huge poundage’s to build mass. What I needed were more repetitions, full repetitions. The more attention I paid to strict form, the closer I brought myself to the perfect body I wanted”

How does a big guy lose to a “little guy” 60 pounds lighter and 4 inches shorter? Although Arnold was a top competitor, he had won Mr Universe twice- he knew very little about judging- but he still had an opinion.

He had to have his “came to the conclusion” moment before he understood the standards that were used.

For his first contest Therman weighed about 168 lbs. and he could have still lost five more pounds of fat to bring out even sharper muscularity.

Therman’s experience clearly illustrates that body weight as a number that registers on a scale means very little to a competing bodybuilder unless we have some understanding of what the “Fat to Lean” ratio is, as opposed to the “Height to Weight” is.

When Therman first saw me he had about 19 percent body fat in contrast to my (I’m guessing) 8%. And although at one time he “weighed” 10 pounds more than me, he also was carrying more than 35 pounds more fat. In the final analysis Therman’s weight in competition condition was about 165 while my competition weight was about 190. At about the same height I carry about 25 pounds more muscle than Therman.

Like Arnold, Therman had to have his “came to the conclusion” realization moment.

Therman is now a believer in the Fat to Lean vs. Height to Weight measurement.

Fat- regardless of how well shaped it is offers no advantage in bodybuilding competition no matter how “big” it makes you look. Fat and water actually cloud the muscularity and “cover up” the cuts and definition. Although Therman eventually lost 40 pounds of bodyweight he lost very little muscle, and as a result he looked much “better”.

Mission Eclipse-The Perimeters

So Old It’s New

My plan for this experiment is to go “Old School” and just do it like I did it back in the day. That day was from the middle seventies to the middle eighties, after thirty-six contests, and winning the Natural For Life Pro World Bodybuilding Championships in 1985, there was nothing else for me to win.

I had already seen what the ego could do and what can happen when an athlete doesn’t know when to retire! Most great athletes were forced into retirement by another great athlete- and very few would ever retire undefeated like I did (in drug free competitions). The opportunity was there so retiring at the top of my sport was an easy choice for me.

Old School means that I will be training on the same type of equipment as back then. With the pre-contest training that we were doing, my training partner, Rodney and I would tie up at least two pieces of equipment at a time, which of course wasn’t fair to the other members, even though they were more than willing to be accomidating.

This sent me into brainstorming my options.
First, I thought we should have our own gym so that we wouldn’t have to be limited to the hours of the fitness center we attended, and then I considered the materials for building the equipment.

Metal was the standard but wood looked a lot more attractive- it was inexpensive and much more forgiving during the prototype stages and much easier for me to work with. So I began to take measurements and experiment with drawings and from there I used popsickle sticks to test my theories by building miniature models of the wooden gym equipment.

My first project was the wooden bench; after having cut all the pieces we assembled that one together on my living room floor! One by one we built the pieces of equipment we needed and before long I had designed an entire gym! We had eight pieces of equipment- everything we needed to train year round and for competition. The equipment for this “Mission” will essentially be the same- The Wooden Gym.

Old School also means that the type of training will also be the same. During the late 1980’s I had a team of athletes I called The H.I.T. Squad, they were men and women who picked me as their coach and each one was a competitor and each one was a trophy winner- either winning or placing high in their competitions.

At the request of friends I recently published this program which I now call Turbo. The same Training format I used 30 years ago and that the H.I.T. Squad used over 20 years ago, and more recently The Fantastic Four (more about them later) will be what I will follow for the next 3 to 6 months on this Mission Eclipse.

I will be following the Old School nutrition plan that I followed back then, my meals will be identical to what they were 30 years ago. So what I have done and what I am about to do is not new. At this writing I am now 4 days into the Mission. I am aiming for my first peak to be July 10. I am also planning to take and publish pictures during this Mission and at each peak for comparisons.

Mission Eclipse Phase 2

This was the guy I was chasing

The idea began on the Not Just Another Day Dream NJADD site Hosted by Elaine Morales.

http://www.thetransformersclub.com/
Counting Down
Published by: Carlos on 18th Feb 2011

I began a count down with Elaine as she was preparing for her Figure Competition in New Jersey.

Then I had an idea of catching the image and wrote a blog entitled:

Chasing The Black & White
Published by: Carlos on 10th Mar 2011

My first undertaking is to catch the image on the black & white photo and close the gap of 32 years- (call me a dreamer).

Now if I do this- then I will shift to the passing lane and attempt to overtake and pass the Black & White.
On the cover of Journey To The Universe (my Journal)
If you will dream, and work to achieve your dream, you will achieve more than you ever dreamed of.
-Emil Roberts

Then I began to ponder out loud:

Mission: Eclipse?

Published by: Carlos on 25th Mar 2011
Monday March 21st I matched the weights and sets I used in 1980-81 in preparation for the Virginia State Championships and the Natural United States Bodybuilding Championships for legs. I told Elaine I wasn’t going to call it a real match unless I could do it again this week.
Because this would signal to me that I have recovered enough to repeat Monday’s workout. Today I did it again and so now I feel like I have completed Phase 1 in this project.

Phase 1 was to get the conditioning back into the muscles- the plan was to get the muscular endurance first- (if that was possible) then move to the next phase. It wasn’t easy, but I was still surprised at how quickly it returned. It seems like things change when we make our minds up to go forward and looking back is not an option.

In 1980 the AAU Virginia State Bodybuilding Championships was held in Winchester Virginia in the month of November but I’m not sure of the date, so my final target date will be the second Saturday in November or the 19th.

The next phase is to start shaving away the calories to remove as much fat and water as possible while keeping the training up so as to spare the muscle tissue. Granted I have been training for a few years- but what has happened this week has me wondering if I should take a leap and train for and expect the eclipse.

e-clipse (2) to make seem less brilliant, famous, etc.; overshadow; outshine; surpass.

Jumping

So it’s been over a year since my last blog. And I think I have covered all the vital points of recognizing and resolving Unfinished Business. I believe that this is a most important part of any Authentic Transformation because we almost always know the “what’s” but hardly ever come to know the “why’s” of our issues.

That said, I just realized that in November I will have reached the 30 year mark of having won the State Bodybuilding Championships here in Virginia.

I have been tinkering with the idea of getting in contest shape for several months now. I have been wanting to see if I could match or exceed my condition of 1980 when I won the Virginia State Championships at the age of 32.

I have never seen this done before because as Sue once told me “most bodybuilders of your era were not interested in health and strength- they just wanted to win competitions and they were willing to do steroids and other illegal sports enhancing chemicals and drugs to do it”.

I have never done them.

And I was wondering if at the age of 62- thirty years later, could I do it?
As I began to think about what I am undertaking and I realized that it was not about what I wasn’t going to do.

It was all about what I was going to do- that is my focus.

1. I am going to do the tested model of pre-contest training- Turbo (http://www.rtp-turbo.com/)
2. I am going to consume a predetermined number of calories based on what I want my lean mass to be.
3. I am going to train in the Wooden Gym- very basic gym equipment

More on all of this later.

But for now I am launching “Mission Eclipse”.