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February 2018 - Four-for-Feb - John McCarter


John McCarter

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Before I begin talking about the contest, I would first like to take you all back to after SJ4 was over. After coming back in July and going back into work, it became only a matter of time before my body broke down on me; I just didn't invest in building my body up and maintaining a proper training routine. My back had gone out, happened plenty of times before but not like this time around. I felt as though it truly was the beginning of the end but the only thing that stopped me from giving up was my mind. I could not accept that this may be the future. I had to become better and that's why I took small steps to get better. It took nearly 3 months to be given a full go a head to start lifting again. Since then I've set some goals that I've been putting an effort towards achieving those set goals. One of the biggest factors that changed during that time period was having to cancel my grip contest for a later time for 2018. After I started lifting again, I only started training for my contest, that's when Nate announced 4-for-Feb, I wasn't planning to attend, really wanted to go but there was so many factors working against me that it seems like a far off dream. Something changed, I can't say when or how, but I wanted to do this contest as my comeback to physical well-being.

My training for this contest was broken up into 2 phases (a building up and powerlifting inspired theme; doing it in the style of Westside Barbell). I trained 4 times a week were I lifted twice a week on barbell movements and 2 for grip. I really had to kick my butt as I didn't want to just go and lift, I wanted to dominate these lifts. That was the plan, the hard part was simply doing everything that I had set out form myself. I wrote down the whole of my training cycle to reflect every set, rep, percentages. The main thing I also did was write down a few rules that were meant to be followed no matter what (1: No excesses; 2: Misses are not allowed; 3: Make it happen; 4: save your energy for the contest and train first)

My diet changed and I basically up my calorie intake between 5-10,000 everyday (I really hated the sight of food at times). As the training cycle went on I fractured my left wrist working on hand grippers and machines. This seriously could have screwed me up as I planned to lift the Little Big Horn with my left; fractured or not, I had no excuse to give myself and decided to train if it meant I broke my body. Putting on a lot of bodyweight has also caused me to develop sleep apnea.

This training cycle was by far the most intense I have ever gone mentally and physically. There was times I just didn't have it in me to train but I forced myself to get under the barbell, lift when I didn't want too, eat at times I hated. I demanded so much out of myself that I truly knew that no matter the cost I was paying, it would pay off in the end for the contest.

Leaving and On the Road

Originally, I planned to travel by Greyhound to Nate's but the day I was to leave out the bus just left me and other's stranded at our stop. I had to book a last minute flight (I have a fear of anything high from the ground and the thought of flying scared me to no end, but I couldn't let that be the reason I didn't fly, no excuse, make it happen); at least I would have a day to rest before the contest started. This was my first time flying and I learned a lot real fast. I should note that flying to Nate's I had been up for well over 24 hours. I had 2-3 stops before I made it to Philadelphia. Finally getting there, I met up with Nate, Aaron, Delmar. Going back to Nate's we joked around, checked out the gym then went to an awesome restaurant called Adelphia.  When we got back to Nate's, we just started kicking it and I finally had time to examine this home gym. After some time sleep was calling my name but only turned out to be a power nap, did some more hanging but Chez had shown up now. I want to say it was 1 or 2am before I went to bed.

Contest

I weighted in at 112kg and felt really good. I knew almost without having to think of the numbers what I planned to lift at already.

I'm going to make this short as this is already long enough.

Grippers: 155 good, 176, good, 185 miss, 183 miss

Hub: I should mention that I did not know the weights had been miscalculated, my goal was to hit 47kg and then attempt 50kg. But hitting 43.80kg is something I will settle for now

Pinch Block: 49kg (I don't remember the numbers I went for)

Little Big Horn: 93kg, there was another person I thought was attempting to punk me out, come to find out he just wanted to do over 200lbs. After this I did attempt 98kg and was able to get it half way up before it shot out of my hand.

After the contest was over, I was surprised that I not only won my weight class, this is expected of myself to win with no questions asked but I won the whole contest. That was not something I planned to do.

Juliet was someone that really stuck out to me, her effort and little time spent in grip stood out to me big time. 

There's just too many names and things to recall at the moment. It was fun watching everyone lift, good or bad, I cheered for everyone the same. This was my favorite contest to date, not because I won but it had so many different people that really made it shine.

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Big time numbers John, congrats on the WR and a well rounded performance. Inspiring, considering how bad your injury was.

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29 minutes ago, jvance said:

Big time numbers John, congrats on the WR and a well rounded performance. Inspiring, considering how bad your injury was.

Thanks.

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Congrats in the first place and the WR. Really awesome display of allround grip strength. Great to see you have the WR on the hub officially now.

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Congrats John! Very strong! 5000 - 10000 kcal a day!? Wow! Back in my Bodybuilding and Powerlifting days i ate a lot too. But around 6000  ( about 20% fat ) was all i could eat on a regular basis. I was about 130 KG back then. You must be eating Mc Donalds all day long.😄

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You know you're on the verge of breakdown when you hate looking at your meal. This is an awe-inspiring story John, I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like for you to endure the diet [much less the physical labor], did you take any food supplements during this period or did you just eat regularly? 

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Great work and discipline leading up to the comp - it paid off!

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3 hours ago, Fist of Fury said:

Congrats in the first place and the WR. Really awesome display of allround grip strength. Great to see you have the WR on the hub officially now.

Thanks

3 hours ago, Jörg Keilbach said:

Congrats John! Very strong! 5000 - 10000 kcal a day!? Wow! Back in my Bodybuilding and Powerlifting days i ate a lot too. But around 6000  ( about 20% fat ) was all i could eat on a regular basis. I was about 130 KG back then. You must be eating Mc Donalds all day long.😄

Thanks. I attempted to eat real food as much as I could but if I did eat out it was all you can eat places; maybe fastfood if it was when I was out. McDonalds was the last place I would want to go to.

2 hours ago, Joseph Sullivan said:

Awesome write up!

Thanks

2 hours ago, TheVictoryGrip! said:

You know you're on the verge of breakdown when you hate looking at your meal. This is an awe-inspiring story John, I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like for you to endure the diet [much less the physical labor], did you take any food supplements during this period or did you just eat regularly? 

Most of my diet consisted of real food, all you can eat places, some fastfood.  I chose to stay away from supplements. Just eating was the hard part, you get to a point where you hate the sight of food but you have to eat no matter what.

28 minutes ago, Anton.Torrella said:

Great work and discipline leading up to the comp - it paid off!

Thanks, and yes it paid off.

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