If you can believe it, 2014 is just about done and dusted. If I’ m honest I am not very happy with the way things have gone for me this year. As I get deeper into my career and my biological clock continues to tick on I’ m finding that my body no longer responds the same way to things that have worked for me in the past. But, just like so much else in life, and in the sport of bodybuilding, this is just one more challenge we need to overcome.

With that in mind, I have been working on strategies to keep a positive mindset and maintain focus for the 2015 season. This has meant reevaluating my approach to the sport, with my longevity in mind. What has become clear to me is that the longer one aims to compete as a bodybuilder, and stay at the top of the game, the harder one has to eat. It doesn’ t get any easier the more experience you gain, like many sports. In fact, you need the mental strength and willpower to train harder than you ever did, eat even cleaner than you already were, and focus even harder on your approach as you age.

It’ s a tall order for anyone approaching the mid-point of his life. But once you adopt the mindset of a champion you’ re able to accept this and get down to doing what you need to do to continue tasting success on stage.

I have also come to realise that what they say is true; becoming a champion is the easy part, it is staying at the top of your game that requires the

“ IF YOU’ RE A 30-SOMETHING ATHLETE THEN KNOW THAT THE HARDEST TRAINING SESSION YOU’ VE EVER HAD TO DATE IS JUST THE STARTING POINT.”

really hard work, dedication and commitment.

You need to push yourself harder every year and have a strong, durable mindset to constantly grow bigger and better every year! And that’ s not an easy task, believe me. Nothing comes cheap or easy in this sport, particularly when time and your biological clock are working against you. If you think you’ ll never work harder than you do in your twenties and thirties, then think again.

If you want to be the champion, and continue experiencing the thrill of that overall title, you need to accept and make peace with the fact that you’ ve had it easy up until now. If you’ re a 30-something athlete then know that the hardest training session you’ ve ever had to date is just the starting point. It won’ t get any easier from this point on. But if you can accept that, and the will to succeed still burns within you then you’ ve got what it takes to go long in this sport.

What that means for me is that as most head off into their off-season, where they slack off on their eating and training slightly, I will continue training and eating with the same focus and dedication I had during my contest prep. I know what I want to achieve, and won’ t stop working to be the best!

So, my advice to you this offseason is to stay focused, train hard and eat clean. If you do all this, and don’ t compromise your health, then you have a winning formula to a long, prosperous career as a bodybuilder.

JOHN LESLIE

STRIVING FOR FULL, DENSE MUSCLES

Bodybuilding is about building the best possible physique. This involves far more than just striving for mass and size. We also strive to achieve that muscle density and full muscle bellies. But what does this mean for our training?

I am a massive believer in basing my training around free weights, both barbells and dumbbells, in order to achieve dense muscle and achieve full muscle bellies. And as such, most of my workouts on all training days revolve around these free-weight exercises.

Let’ s set the record straight. Rome was not built in a day and bodybuilding is no different. Muscle density and thickness is built over years of proper training and technique. You cannot, and will not, develop proper, thick musculature from grunting and throwing weights around, doing half reps or partial movements. I believe in doing a full range of motion on all your exercises. This form was developed because it takes your muscle through a range of motion that is best to develop the muscles in question. I strongly believe in doing full range of motion in order to develop a balanced physique with deep separations and dense, thick muscle.

There are techniques that I would advise to enhance your density and thickness, and these include drop sets, forced reps, negatives and giant sets etc.

In my experience, training with heavy free weights results in the most dense muscle development as you have to work so much harder with just balancing the weights( barbells or dumbbells) and therefore you are involving so much more muscle fibre compared to training with a machine. However, do not interpret this as me saying machines or cables have no place in your workout – of course they do: I will still do one cable or machine exercise per muscle group in all my workouts.

We have dealt with training, and how proper training affects the development of full muscle bellies, however you cannot forget about nutrition. Quality nutrition, and specifically quality carbs, in your diet will really fill the muscle, making it look full, giving that pumped look everyone is after.

Muscle Evolution Muscle_Evolution_-_December_2014 | Page 129

Bodybuilding is about building the best possible physique. This involves far more than just striving for mass and size. We also strive to achieve that muscle density and full muscle bellies. But what does this mean for our training?