Tom Blackman
Amateur Bodybuilder.

Off season weight: 90kg
Contest weight: 85kg

Contest History

Sept 2002	WFBB West Wales	1st Timers	1st
April 2003	NABBA West Novice	1st
April 2004	EFBB South Coast	U90kg	2nd
April 2004	NABBA West	Class 4	2nd
Oct 2004	EFBB British	No place
April 2005	EFBB South Coast	U80	1st and Overall
Oct 2005	EFBB British	U80	3rd

Worcester born but Bristol based Tom, turned to bodybuilding at the age of 19 after a number of years competing at Jiu Jitsu (2nd place in the Midlands qualifiers at 17).

Tom started competing at 22, his short term goal for the next 2 years is to win the British Championship.

Training philosophy
Tom keeps training sessions short and never runs over an hour training with weights.
To train heavy at the start of the workout and utilise mainly compound exercises for the first 2 exercises, following this Tom generally moves on to more isolation exercise as the muscles can be stimulated in a different way once they are fatigued from the heavy lifting. His training differs slightly off season to pre-contest.
Off season - One major body part per session split over an 8 day rotation e.g.
Day 1 - Chest and Triceps
Day 2 - Back and Biceps
Day 3 - Rest
Day 4 - Quads
Day 5 - Delts and Traps
Day 6 - Rest
Day 7 - Rest
Day 8 - Hamstrings and calves.
Day 9 - Chest and Triceps
Day 10 - Rest
Etc etc

Allowing for maximum rest of body parts. Generally trains 2 days on, 1 off, having the weekend off to fit into his personal life.
Day 1 would be Monday.
Pre Contest

Day	AM	PM
Monday	Cardio	Hamstrings and Calves
Tuesday	Cardio	Chest and Delts	Cardio
Wednesday	Cardio	Abs and Cardio
Thursday	Cardio	Quads	Cardio
Friday	Cardio	Back and Traps	Cardio
Saturday	Arms
Sunday	Abs and Cardio

This would be the split Tom follows all the way up to a show.
All the AM workouts are done on an empty stomach before breakfast

Diet philosophy
Off season Tom likes to keep his diet clean allowing for a greater gain in muscle.
Tom believes that the more muscle:fat ratio you have the greater the degree of muscle can be gained. This is due to insulin sensitivity in the body. Greater muscle mass determines a greater sensitivity of the muscles to receive nutrients via Insulin transportation.
More fat in the body means that there is a greater disposition for the body to store nutrients as fat.
A good analogy is the 'doorways' description. More muscle means more doorways for nutrients to travel through and vice versa for fat. Tom believes the old bodybuilding adage of 'bulking up' (getting fat) in order to gain muscle is an outdated concept, having tried both ways of gaining (getting fat and lean Mass diets) Tom gained more muscle by eating clean and only raising his calories slightly above maintenance. You can see a diary of Toms Off season diet plan and bulking strategy by following this link: Off season Diary
The addition of the shakes in between meals, prevents the bloating and big stomach look often associated with off season bodybuilders who eat too much food. The above day normally yields about 350-400g of protein & about 500g of carbs depending on size of potatoes etc.

You can also see a current diet strategy for Toms show prep by following this link: Diet Diary
Tom also supplements with Fish Oils and a 3,6,and 9 Oil Blend in order to make sure he gets an adequate supply of good fats. Toms advice to new trainers looking to increase muscle size is simple PROTEIN BUILDS MUSCLE NOT CARBS; CARBS ARE FOR ENERGY NOTHING ELSE

Diet Diary

More details here soon...