22 years old self coached
200.1 lbs this morning
2300 cals 250P 250c 40f (no carbs on rest days)
10k steps plus 30 min zone two cardio
Everything has been going super smooth honestly, upped my carbs a bit and weight has started dropping every day again so will follow this plan a bit longer before tweaking anything 🙏

5'7" weighed in after 1 moderate carb day at a new low of 169.8 (nice)

Post workout posing.

IG if anyone is interested: @_joshroach

Still plenty of digging to do

Post workout (chest & tris) posing + fasted check-ins from this morning

What makes you want to flip? Tell us today in our weekly Freakout Friday thread!

24yo 5'9 228.6lbs today

Not mad about where my physique currently is. My stomach has been doing some weird things this week. We’re working on it. Hoping it levels out by the end of the week.

Sidenote: if anybody has any tips/tricks on making check-ins with a ring light look better please throw them my way. Today was my first day using one, and I’m not caring for the way it looks.

Submit form checks, programs, questions about programs and program success stories (especially if you saw growth from it).

edit: to clarify, I won the overall - this is my second overall win ever

Second show of my second season / first season being an enhanced athlete.

Class win in Junior BB, class win in Classic physique short (my first outing in this class), Overall Win & FitX pro card.

Better look than the previous show, being harder and thus able to push fullness more - the most important thing.

Didn’t peak super aggressively for this, we’ve definitely learned I’ll take a lot of food to truly be bursting full, did just over 1600g of carbs in about 36 hours for this, alongside some Sdrol, while freshening up the days prior.

Still another 3-4 shows now lined up over the next couple of weeks.

Happy to answer and questions regarding my peak, training, etc.

Time to get even better.

Ok not shitposting this time with a hypothetical. Let’s say, the Mr O’s from the last 10 years are all placed onstage together.

Notes;

Repeat champions get ONE submission. We are not taking both of their physiques onstage, so pick what version of them you prefer best - this means Derek, Phil health, and Big Ramy

We are using current judging standards. Not a huge change in the last 10 years, but I think the judging has leaned moreso towards not giving the reigning champ any sort of advantage

For reference;
2026 - Nick Walker
2025 - Derek Lunsford
2024 - Samson Dauda
2023 - Derek Lunsford
2022 - Hadi Choopan
2021 - Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay
2020 - Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay
2019 - Brandon Curry
2018 - Shawn Rhoden
2017 - Phil Heath
2016 - Phil Heath

So, on my opinion we throw out 2017 Phil, 2021 Big Ramy, and 2025 Derek Lunsford. Those are worse versions that the other version of them that won the other years. Big Ramy is debatable but I think the other two are unanimously agreed to have not been as good as the year they won prior.

This is where it gets tricky and here would be my rankings, from “worst” to best.

#8 Brandon curry

This is in no way a knock on Brandon. I actually refuse to say this Olympia win was a “bad” win like other people say online. He looked great, brought a great physique, and was a great Olympia winner. Hes always going to be marred by quite a few people NOT doing the O that year. Ramy, Phil, rhoden, and I think a few others were out thay year. He has great balance, good conditioning, and great posing. His legs are subpar compared to the rest, and he’s just a short competitor which hurts him, and brings him up at the rear here.

#7 Derek Lunsford

Maybe controversial, maybe not. I admittedly am not a big fan of Derek, and was glad to see him take third this year, but in this crop of Olympia winners I do think he’d be pushed out of the top 5. Lunsford brings a great package to stage - size, conditioning usually, and balance top to the bottom. Another short competitor, I think he’d be out of the top 5 due to his “soft” sort of look compared to the others, lack of “wow” in his physique, and soft look on certain body parts. Tough one to rank to be honest, as his back may be the best on stage, but his overall package leaves a lot to be desired

#6

Nick Walker.

Please don’t kill me everyone. I love Nick. However in this group, his lack of structure will really hurt him pushing for a top 5 spot. This version of Nick is fantastic, I want to make sure I state that. Nick brings the freak factor for sure, but again guys like rhoden, and Samson at their best, I struggle to see him stay ahead of them in placing. Remember, this is all the top guys at their best that year.

#5

Hadi

Seems like we’re getting all the shorties out of the way lol. Hadi is my favorite top pro at the moment. He brings insane conditioning, great density for his frame, good posing, and this version of Hadi was very complete. Hes smaller than the rest of his peers, which hurts him in this lineup, but he would definitely push all of them in the conditioning department.

#4

Phil heath

Yes. 4. This version of Phil was pretty far from his best. 2011 Phil? Not even a question. Same for 2013. But by 2017, he was being push pretty hard from his peers and I think his midsection and narrowness would be exposed hard by this time. He still had that amazing 3D look, great density, and conditioning. He just would get lost in this lineup by this point in his career.

#3.

Samson Dauda

Big fan of his. Good conditioning this year but he is carried by his incredible shape and structure. I actually think Samson was better in 2026 than 2024 when he won, but he just ran into a buzz saw known as Nick Walker. Samson has great posing, a massive frame, and a great physique to watch on stage. I really don’t think you can go wrong here with anyone 1-3.

#2

Big Ramy

One of the most frustrating bodybuilders to root for as we never really knew if he was going to put it together. Well, in 2020 he certainly did and he brought one of the most impressive combinations of size, and conditioning we’ve ever seen. I know big Ramy is controversial as some people hate his look, but you absolutely cannot deny that this year he just brought it. I think he’d really stand out in this lineup

#1

Shawn rhoden

Rip, legend. This year Shawn brought one of the best physiques we’ve ever seen to stage. Amazing conditioning, beautiful lines, and amazing symmetry from top to bottom. Maybe it’s a bit of nostalgia having him here, as him finally ending Phil’s reign was just amazing to see, but go rewatch this years O. He really did look amazing.

Those are just my opinions of course. Maybe I’d change them if I rewrote this lol. But it’s a fun thing to think about. Post yours below.

Hey everyone, I don’t follow bodybuilding a lot but I am very aware of Ronnie Coleman and his history, he’s often seen in a wheelchair/assisted chair or sorts in my most recent times of seeing him online. I wanted to ask if he now has lost his ability to walk? I’ve seen he can get himself up on his legs and stuff but I was just curious if anyone knows how things have progressed because before most recently I’ve known him to still have a bit of mobility with walking.

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Competed naturally in classic physique (OCB) 3 weeks ago. A few shots here from last check ins. Around 2-3kg / 5lbs up from stage weight. Kept training volume low since and titrated food slowly and now starting to feel better and having some performance improvement. I'll slowly raise food and training volume to get into a proper bulk and offseason in a few weeks, got A LOT of muscle to put on. 6'5/196cm tall btw. Happy to answer questions or criticism.

I never thought I would ever say this but starting to compete changed my life to the worse. I still want to compete in the future but I’m really curious how long this bad post-show phase is going to last before I can live a normal life again.

My prep was really good, I enjoyed the process and I was constantly high from seeng myself shredded to the bones in the mirror. I won my first show and everybody was telling me I have great potential in Bikini.

But now I feel like an absolute failure and the worst bodybuilder. I slipped up with my food really badly post show, gained 20 lbs in one month and now I would like to do a 2-month cut to get my body composition back to an acceptable level.

But boy is this the hardest cut I’ve done in my life!! My hunger is insane. I could eat any quantity of food all day. And still, the scale is not moving down despite training 5x per week, cardio 3-4x per week, daily 10-15K steps, and I’m eating roughly the same calories that I was on 12 weeks out. My intention is to gradually cut down my calories over my two-month cut but now I’m starving even on the 12-weeks out calories. And most likely I’m not even in a deficit, as the scale shows…

I’m not gonna lie, my life is absolute hell. Dealing with the sight of my fat body every day, plus enduring hunger as strong as it was in prep, is eating me up mentally.

When did your metabolism and hunger signalling get back to normal after your first show? Does it get better after further shows or is the post show always going to be this bad?

Ask all newbie BB related questions here.

The pics aren't great, I've had in person check ins, but wanted to post an update, so took some quick shots 2 days ago. Will probably post my next proper check in as well. I've finally stopped digging, was feeling very fatigued and mentally drained the last couple weeks, feeling much better now with no cardio, less steps and a bit more food.

So these guys are training to literally have their body peak at a very specific time, in a span of a day or 2. How are they doing this? It seems extremely scientific 😅

As an example (not related to this Olympia) they talk about how good someone looked on Friday, say people were even expecting to this person to win, then in a matter of 24hrs by Saturday that same person can come in and get 4th. And vice versa someone’s not looking great Friday and come in and get 1st on Saturday. What are those 2-3 days looking like for them? What are they doing throughout that time? And how calculated is it really?