Contest Blueprint: Learning from Mistakes with Vince Delmonte (Part 2 of 3)

After competing in his first fitness model shows in 2005 Vince took 3 years off from competing to improving his physique. During his first shows in 2005 his primary goal was getting lean, however his muscle mass suffered. This time around building and maintaining muscle was the primary focus.

His training philosophy changed and evolved from a whole body routine to a more advanced routine with more volume, shorter rest periods and element of overall conditioning built into the weight training workouts themselves. And the results speak for themselves, he definitely got bigger as you can see here.

Much bigger in 2008, but not lean enough and the judged punished him for it.

After winging it for his first contest diet he also decided to follow a structured contest diet given to him by a coach and record all of it. Keeping track of what you’re doing is a major key to improving as you can look back and see what worked and what didn’t. This is a critical step to constantly improving your physique.

The 2008 competition arrived and Vince was one of the biggest guys on stage, which was his goal, but he wasn’t lean enough and placed worse than he expected. This time around he sacrificed too much definition to be bigger and the judges punished him for it. Another tough lesson learned.

In part two of our three part series Vince describes what changes he made to both his training and diet to build more muscle, and the mistakes he made along the way that lead to his placing in the 2008 show.

We’ll also set the stage for what he learned from this experience and how it changed his view of competing and transforming his physique.

John

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