POSING!!!

 

 Attention all Mutants, Shredderz, Titans and Future Deity's today we would like to talk about one of our favorite topics, Posing.

There is so much more to stage posing than most people realize before they step under those bright lights with nowhere to hide. If we were to talk about every individual subject matter we would be here all night so we are just going to share with you our three main mantra's when it comes to posing;

1 - What the Judges cant see they cant Judge
2 - Movement is Essential
3 - HAVE FUN DOUCHE BAGS

So lets start with topic 1, now every true lifter is there own worst enemy, you should know exactly where your strengths and weaknesses lie in excruciating detail the next step is then making sure you pose effectively enough to ensure the judges can only see those breathtaking perculating pectoids and keep their eyes away from those mosquito bites you call biceps.
Round 2, Not so long ago Aaron and James decided to take a trip up north to watch the UKBFF British finals there they witnessed a bikini competitor who refused to stay still every 2 seconds she was swinging hips and flicking hair, as far as we were concerned she was the only person on that stage, if you can convince the judges of that also then there will be nobody else to beat you!
Round 3, People you have worked your asses off for weeks, months, years to get on that stage and you've got 15 minutes max to show the world the fruits of said labour so why I ask you WHY does your face/ stage presence tell me your mum threatened to take your xbox away if your didn't show the nice audience your back double biceps...have a good time peeps make it worth the trouble!

Before we forget the last bonus round has got to touch on personality and style, its all well and good having awesome technique and lines when it comes to posing but you've got to remember you have no voice up there just those moves so make sure you perfect your own style and I promise you the judges, the audience and even the other competitors will remember you. We both have our own unique styles but they were derived from a base point, Aaron for example like to interpret the posing of the great Men's Physique guys of today (Your Johnny Sebastian's & Mark Anthony's) whilst James prefers to recreate the posing of the classic gods of yesteryear (Your Frank Zane's and Lee Labrada's) either way just QUIT BEING A LIL BISH and win some goddamn titles Jheez! 

Thanks again for your time and we would like to introduce you to a few of our posing inspirations from both the immortal classic Era and the great physiques of today...

Mohamed Makkawy

Lee Labrada

Johnny Sebastian

Jeremy Buendia

The Fortai Fitness Instagram page

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Twitter pages

Twitter.com/JamesTreezy

Twitter.com/A_DaleyFitness

Our Clothing sponsors Gymtees!

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The Results!

Greetings FitFam!

As you all know we competed at the UKBFF Summer showdown in Bedford on June 29th. Aaron came 1st in the U173cm Men's physique & unfortunately James didn't place in the U178cm. However, much was learnt from the amazing experience for us both and we've set our objectives of what happens next. On the day, we weren't surprised to hear there were so many Men's physique competitors, 40 including ourselves turned up all hoping to qualify for the finals on October 11th. It was during the athletes meeting before the show began that they had announced the Men's Physique would be split into four height categories: Under 173cm, Under 178cm, Under 182cm and Over 182cm. We knew it was too good to be true that we'd actually end up competing against each other, Aaron coming in at 170cm, James at 175cm.

Aaron taking 1st place and being invited to
the British finals, October 11th

The plan for us both now is to tactically back carb by 20g per week so we don't completely screw our metabolisms up! We've had 4/5 days of enjoying all the foods we missed oh so much during the 14 week diet. However, the line must be drawn somewhere... but just to reflect on some of the goodies...

First stop, post show meal was a traditional trip to TGI Fridays!
7oz burger topped with BBQ pulled pork, monterrey jack cheese,
red onions with a brioche bun with a side of Jack Daniels chili cheese fries
& Jack Daniels sesame seed chicken strips!

James's Oreo cheesecake made by Vanessa Filmer

Aaron's Oreo cheesecake made by Debbie De Freitas

James's Oreo cheesecake cookie dough bars made by Vanessa Filmer

 As for the rest of the goodies/meals: Macaroni cheese, enchiladas, cookies & cream pop tarts, hot fudge sundae pop tarts, Hersheys milk chocolate bars, chocolate caramel milk duds, cookies and cream bites, Aunt Jemima's syrup, Lucky charms, Fruit loops, Hobnobs, chocolate hobnobs, chocolate digestives, Jammie dodgers, popcorn, Pringles, Fox's biscuits and many more!

As mentioned earlier, the line must be drawn somewhere and the "Reverse diet" must begin. Reverse dieting is exactly what it sounds like. During the weeks leading up to the competition we reduced carbohydrate intake by 20g per week, finishing on 70g carbs per day. Now we reduce fats slightly to allow the initial jump up from 70g carbs per day to begin the reverse diet on 120g per day, and increase intake by 20g per week from there on.

James’s Carb intake

06/30

07/07

07/14

07/21

07/28

08/04

08/11

08/18

08/25

09/01

09/08

09/15

09/22

09/29

10/06

120g

140g

160g

180g

200g

220g

240g

260g

280g

300g

320g

340g

360g

380g

400g

Aaron’s Carb intake

06/30

07/07

07/14

07/21

07/28

08/04

08/11

08/18

08/25

09/01

09/08

09/15

09/22

09/29

10/06

120g

140g

160g

180g

200g

220g

240g

220g

200g

180g

160g

140g

120g

100g

80g

James's main priority now is to go off season, get those carbs in and gain as much lean muscle mass as he possibly can! Address all weak areas to bring a bigger and better physique to the stage in 2015.

Aaron having being invited to compete at the UKBFF finals in October will also increase carbs as the table above shows, however in the week beginning 08/18 he'll have to taper his carb intake back down to get back into on stage condition. 

Numbers, numbers, numbers, it's all a numbers game! It can be a lot to take on at the beginning but when you want something so bad, you'll do whatever it takes to get to where you want. Thanks for all the support! From the Fortai Fitness team, until next time, enjoy a mint chocolate cornetto for breakfast, or three...and stay shredded.

But First...Let me take a selfie!

The Fortai Fitness Instagram page

Instagram.com/Fortai_fitness

Twitter pages

Twitter.com/JamesTreezy

Twitter.com/A_DaleyFitness

Our Clothing sponsors Gymtees!

Gymtees.co.uk/

Peak Week!

We are well into peak week now with just 3 days until show time! So, what are we eating now? What changes have we made? Are we carb depleting? Are we water loading? Are we cutting water? Are we sodium loading? Are we cutting sodium? Are we manipulating potassium? Are we boring you yet? Thought so. Peak week has so much broscience surrounding it, it's almost comical. Here's our theory, quite straight forward and easy to comprehend.

If it aint broke, don't fix it.

Simple as that. We've both followed your typical dieting protocols i.e; Steadily dropping carbs, implementing cardio, gradually increasing time spent doing cardio also sessions completed, had carb refeeds every 5-7 days when intake dropped below approx 120g per day, or simply when we needed a miracle (In this case, yes...carbohydrates) to survive a grueling legs session at the gym. We've taken each day at a time to carefully assess carb intake. Only when you go below 100g do you find out what kind of person you really are. James took ONE bite of his Moms garlic bread last week, blacked out, turned into the Hulk and woke up covered in crumbs; true story. The sensitivity from the gradual depletion is no joke! Our plan from here on is to moderately carb load on Friday & Saturday so that by Sunday our muscles will have a more full/harder appearance whilst on stage. On the day of the competition our diet will be as follows (If we're on stage at 5pm like we've been informed from a reliable source):

6am - 100g Oats
9am - Steak & 3 fried eggs
11am - 100g Sweet Potato
1pm -100g Oats
3pm - FlapJacks
4.30pm - Dark chocolate

Complex carbs spread throughout the day, then simple carbs towards stage time! Water will remain what it has been for the past months, 6 litres per day. Nothing is being randomly put in or taken out, we've achieved the condition we're in by what we've done up to this point, so why do something else? According to many Pro's, a perfect peak week can only make you look approx 5% better than you did leading up to it anyway. We both agree that competing at 95% is far better than trying to achieve 100% during peak week, messing it up and stepping on stage at anything below. Until next time, bathe in nutella, dip your fries in your strawberry milkshakes...and stay shredded.

The Fortai Fitness Instagram page

Instagram.com/Fortai_fitness

Twitter pages

Twitter.com/JamesTreezy
Twitter.com/A_DaleyFitness

Our clothing sponsor GymTees

Gymtees.co.uk

Road to the UKBFF!!

Greetings fellow Fit fam, long time! Apologies from Fortai Fitness, we hope you haven't dropped off from your fitness goals and targets! Even though we haven't posted for a while, that doesn't mean we decided to scrap fitness, watch 24 from the very beginning again whilst occasionally racing to see who can eat the most Krispy Kremes in 60 seconds. As much as we hate to admit that such activities are relatively appealing, they don't particularly coincide with our number one goal... To be in the most sickening condition we can when we as training partners go head to head on stage at the UKBFF Men's Physique qualifier at the MuscleTalk show in Bedford on June 29th!!

"Caloric breakdown, 1g Carbohydrates: 4 calories, 1g Protein: 4 calories, 1g Fat: 9 calories" (Clark, 2013)

We both began our 12 week diet back on April 1st. Macro nutrients were as follows: 300g Carbs, 200g Protein, 60g Fat, 2540kcals in total. Over the course of the past 11 weeks we've steadily dropped 20g Carbs per week and increased Protein by 20g every 2 weeks, whilst leaving Fats the same. It's important we mention that this is only our second year competing seriously and so it was still impossible for us to know exactly what our diet plan should have looked like from the very beginning this time round and so had to go from the knowledge we gained from last year and literally take one day at a time, be patient and not do anything drastic.

It's all a numbers game. 300g Carbs, 200g Protein, 60g Fat = 2540kcals during week 1 of dieting meant that over the course of 12 weeks of minor changes, we would end up around; 60g Carbs, 320g Protein, 60g Fat = 2060kcals. We haven't yet discussed the one thing we all truly hate with a passion, cardio! Do we do high intensity? Low intensity? How long for? We do what works for us, and the only way to find what works for you is to try it yourself. Everything fitness related; diet, weight training, cardio whether it be high intensity or low intensity, is dependent upon the individual. One size does not fit all. (No pun intended) Cardio began for us both around 6 weeks into the diet, and as time continued more cardio was implemented. Right now, we're both doing approximately 5 cardio sessions per week. Whilst Aaron favours fasted HIIT cardio upon waking and LISS post weight training, James prefers to do fasted LISS upon waking and HIIT cardio post weight training. Be sure to know we hate both just as much, It's just what we've been doing.

Training splits are as follows:

Monday - Chest
Tuesday - Back
Wednesday - Quads & Hamstrings
Thursday - Day Off
Friday - Shoulders & Calves
Saturday - Biceps & Triceps
Sunday - Day Off

We decided to get a little stage practice in at the BodyPower Expo this year! Our competition of choice being the World Fitness Championships on May 18th. Competing 6 weeks out from peak condition, expectations were most certainly low. However, Aaron managed 5th place, James unfortunately didn't make the finals. Nevertheless, we both gained what we wanted and that was the practice and on stage experience.

With 8 days left until the next competition, the UKBFF qualifier, peak week begins tomorrow and there's little left for us to do! If there were it's too late now anyway! We're either in competing condition by now or we're not. If you're wondering if we are, we've both had a couple of practice carb ups so that should give you an idea ;) Also so should the pics below.

James's 11 week transformation

Aaron's 11 week transformation

We promise to write more posts and keep you updated with progress! Also write up about any common reoccurring questions we're asked about our diet and training. If you do want to contact us with any questions, you'll find our social media links below. Until next time, eat peanut butter and stay shredded!

The Fortai Fitness Instagram page

Instagram.com/Fortai_fitness

Twitter pages

Twitter.com/JamesTreezy

Twitter.com/A_DaleyFitness

References

Clark, N. (2013). Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook. Human Kinetics

Fortai Fitness Instagram!

Hello Fitfam!

For all those IG addicts out there, we've decided to make an Instagram page for you to check out pics and short video clips of our training sessions you can check out whilst on the go! For inspirational and motivational material, be sure to follow:

Instagram 

http://instagram.com/Fortai_fitness

Until next time, eat cake get diced.

Fortai Fitness

Fortai Fitness 2014!

Aaron Daley & James Duncan come together to bring you Fortai's Fitness blog! This is where you'll be able to find our diet plans and training programs as we plan to compete in Men's physique competitions throughout 2014 and beyond! Apologies for the long break between posts fitfam! We're back up and running and this time with two of us!

Follow our journey to aesthetic perfection!

Twitter - 

https://twitter.com/JamesTreezy

https://twitter.com/a_daleyfitness

Instagram - 

http://instagram.com/james_fortai_fitness

http://instagram.com/aaron_fortai_fitness