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Ed,
I am a novice myself so don't take anything I say too seriously. First, congratulations on having the guts to train hard, diet, and prepare yourself for the show. That is a huge achievement by itself.
Here's what I see:
Strengths
- Good Back and Traps
- Good Chest
- Good Arms and Shoulders
- I like your most muscular pose
Areas to Improve
- Legs - You need to put some mass on your legs. I've heard it said that legs and back are the areas most often ignored, and are the things that set you apart. Just about everyone will have a decent chest and good arms.
- Leaner - your body fat needs to come down more. Just glancing at you I'd say you are around 10-12% BF (your abs and obliques really come out nicely under 10%). Skip recommended having as DXA Scan done. It really really helped me. I estimated by BF% at 8% (using calipers) but my actual BF% was 11.2%! Knowing the truth helped me reset my goals and reassess my diet.
- More separation. Some of that comes from being leaner. Some of it comes from hard training and lots of posing practice. I'm a true believer that posing hard daily (from 6-8 weeks out) makes a huge difference.
- Poses - spend some time in front of a video camera practicing your poses. Not having a mirror really shows you what you will look like on stage. I find that when I'm in front of the mirror I make adjustments based on what I see. On stage you can't see anything (the video camera shows a good glimpse of what you will really look like and you can judge your entire physique). Posing has to be automatic. I noticed that some of your poses you weren't "on your legs." I have the same problem. One of my best attributes are my calves, but I didn't show them off during my show!
Keep at it man... great job!
Sparky
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