I have received a lot of feedback about my website old Body Builder which is great.  Thank you to everyone who has provided comments, questions and support to me in my quest.  The number of people of all ages and persuasions who are interested in improving their health and wellbeing through body building constantly surprises me.

An issue that has arisen either directly or indirectly from a number of comments is the question of natural body building versus body building through artificial means such as steroids.  I would like to clear up some facts on this subject before I go any further:

I do not take or condone taking steroids so don’t ask me for steroid advice.  I am a Natural Body Builder so there is no point comparing me or other natural body builders with the superb sometimes extraordinary physiques you see in body building magazines.  I admire the intensity, commitment and strength these fine athletes put into their workouts to reach their goals.  Which brings me back to the motto – there are no shortcuts if you want to get your desired results.

Now that I have cleared that up I will update you in on what is happening with my preparations for my six competitions with the first one a bit more than a week away.  As most readers will know I am competing in six competitions over a period of nine weeks with the first event on 19 September 2010 with the last competition on 13 November 2010 in Reno in the United States.

My goal in entering this series of body building competitions was to put on some muscle and shed 12 kilograms or 27 pounds.  Whilst I never intended to peak for my first competition I still wanted to present myself in the best possible condition and, hopefully, improve each week.

I weighed 74kg last Sunday morning and need to shed 2 more kilos before the19th September.  With water loading next week I hope to hit the scales on competition day morning at the magical 72kg.  Wow! That means that I will have reached my initial goal for the first competition.  My aim is to get a little bit better each week culminating with the final goal weight for the Olympia and Universe of 68kg.

Maintaining my body in competition mode or peak condition for 9 weeks is new to me and I imagine that my capacity to achieve this will depend to some extent on trial and error.  One thing I know for sure – I will learn from the experience.  I will be much the wiser and happy to share what I have learned through this process with you.

I will post my results and pictures on Sunday 19th September.

Neil Rech

The Old Body Builder

8 September 2010