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How Victor Martinez Conquered the Night Of Champions.
by Chris Aceto
Around Mid February, I was sitting in Jay Cutler’s massive Las Vegas home discussing his strategy for the upcoming three shows including the Arnold Classic competition. We were discussing a lot of things and the conversation turned to ‘competition’. In particular, I stated with the retirement of Dorian, Flex and Shawn Ray, there were not many great bodybuilders around anymore. I also mentioned the upcoming crop of American amateurs were no where near the caliber of ten or twelve years ago when Wheeler, Cormier, Paul Dillet, and Mike Francois immediately stepped from the amateur stage to the Olympia stage. We concluded there wasn’t much competition out there for someone on the top of his game like Jay. Except one. Victor Martinez. Jay mentioned he had a good physique and if someone was helping him, he may be able to place a lot higher. Immediately, I recalled the 2002 Arnold Classic in which Victor placed out of the tope ten. I thought he could have placed a little higher and agreed with Jay. Victor has potential do some damage, to give some of the established pro’s some trouble and certainly could beat some of the second tier pros, those who qualify for the Olympia but fail to crack the top 10.
I flew back the following day to wintery Maine. In the midst of running around town doing some business, my cell phone rang. My caller ID showed a New York City number which is odd because I only give my cell number to my friends and family who live in Maine. Perhaps I’ve given it to 2 to 3 other people. In any case, I answered, “Hello?” The caller said in an accent I could not identify, “I’m looking for Chris Aceto.” I told the called he was not available. In return the caller said, “My name is Victor and I need his help.” I told the caller Chris no longer consults with bodybuilders and politely hung up the phone. A few minutes later the same phone number reappeared on my caller ID. I refused to answer which automatically sends the caller to my voice mail. When I got home, I listened to the message. “Hi this is Victor Martinez. and I was hoping Chris Aceto could call me. I’m looking to have him put together my diet for the Night Of Champions.” Well I was just amazed. I was just talking about this guy 2 days before in Las Vegas with Jay. We both agreed Victor had a ton of potential and here he was calling. I just thought it was divine intervention or one heck of a coincidence. Either way, it seemed strange. What are the chances – me and Jay never discuss other competitors – that we’d not only discuss in detail just one, but this same guy would call me in 2 days time. I immediately called the New York number Victor left and shared with him this story. I also added, “Victor, if you listen to me 100% and put in the work I know you’ll win this show. In fact, from that point on, I started telling him every time we spoke that he would win the Night Of Champions!
Big Victor 265 to 229
When I spoke to Victor over the phone in February, I learned he was eating 6 meals a day with 2-3 protein shakes. According to him, he was in good shape at 262 to 265 pounds. We agreed to meet at the Arnold Classic Weekend which was less than 10 days off. He would pose for me and I would be able to set a plan from there.
When we finally met and he revealed how he looked, I told him, he would win – for sure- if he came in ripped to the bone. Victor carries a lot of muscle and has very nice shape but he can not out muscle and overwhelm the big huge guys like Ronnie Coleman, Jay or Marcus Rhul. I knew very few people were very familiar with Victor – including the judges. To win, he’d have to be ‘on the money’. Otherwise, the judges might overlook him.
Weeks 16-12
Victor’s legs are big and in the off season they’re huge! Therefore, I knew he’d be able to perform a lot of cardio. The bodybuilder with smaller legs always runs the risk of losing size with a lot of cardio work while those with big legs can do a lot of cardio. If the extra cardio causes the legs to shrink – it’s ok - there’s muscle to spare. Therefore, the first thing Victor did to get lean was to start with cardio. Three times a week for 30 minutes. I also had victor drop the 2 to 3 protein shakes. That point was a little confusing for him. Many bodybuilders fear cutting out protein because they think it will cause a loss in muscle mass. I felt that Victor needed to reduce his calories in order to stimulate the loss of body fat and I also felt his protein intake was simply excessive. The option – to cut carbohydrates or dietary fat was not available. Victor’s carb intake was not excessive so I did not want to cut that and his fat intake was not too high either. I felt it was his protein that was too high. Therefore, by cutting out 2 or 3 shakes a day would reduce his protein intake into a better range – about 1 to 1 .5 grams per pound of bodyweight while reducing his calories by about 400 a day.
We decided to stay in touch mostly with e mail. I’d keep track of his bodyweight and the way he looked. He’d send me pictures over the web and I would make the necessary dietary changes each week.
Twelve weeks into the diet Victor had reached the high 240’s or about 248. The 30 minutes of cardio every-other day combined with just 400 fewer calories had dropped his weight by 10 to 12 pounds. At 248, he looked pretty good. His upper body was definitely harder though his legs were smooth with no cuts. Victor had told me on several occasions that his legs were his problem area. Getting them more defined and detailed had been an on going problem for him.
Weeks 12-9
During this period, Victor increased his cardio to 45 minutes 5 times a week. In addition, we set up a diet plan that was moderately lower in carbs. From weeks 16 to week 12, he ate either chicken, lean red meat and egg whites as a protein source at each meal. At each of his 6 meals he also ate 1 1/2 cups of rice or a large yam or a bagel. Since Victor did not want to get into a lot of fine details like weighing foods, we tried to keep the diet plan as simple as possible. Therefore, to cut carbohydrates and to reduce carbs further, we had him drop the carbs at 2 of the 6 meals. Therefore during the entire second part of the diet from weeks 12 to weeks 9, he had 6 meals a day with carbohydrates at only 4 of those meals. To keep from getting too hungry and to add some fiber, vitamins and minerals, he’d add a large portion of broccoli or salad greens at the two meals where he dropped the carbohydrates.
Weeks 8 to weeks 5
With 8 weeks remaining and 8 weeks of dieting behind him, Victor’s weight settled at 244 pounds. His physique looks great at 244. He’s hard in the upper body and very round. Even his back – a problem spot for most competitors – shows nice detail at this weight. The problem is the legs. Though one might not be able to see if from contest pictures, Victor has a difficult time getting his legs really cut. Even I was surprised how smooth his legs were with 8 weeks to go. While the diet and cardio plan was working to some degree – his upper body was looking good – his lower body was still pretty soft. In fact, his glutes and hamstrings didn’t even have separation, let alone deep cuts. With 8 weeks to go, we decided to really step it up. I would have victor eat carbohydrates at only 2 meals, the meal before and after training. And, I’d have him do what I have never suggested in the past. I had Victor perform 2 cardio sessions a day. Thirty minutes in the morning on an empty stomach and and another 30 minutes after training later in the day or in the early evening. At this point, his diet looked like this:
Cardio: 30 minutes
Meal 1 10 10 egg whites
2 packets oatmeal (about 45 grams of carbs)
Meal 2 10 ounces chicken breast
1-2 cups of veggies
Meal 3 10 ounces extra lean beef
1-2 cups veggies
Meal 4 10 ounces chicken breast
1 cup veggies
train and cardio
Meal 5 10 ounces chicken or extra lean beef
1 cup veggies
large yam
Meal 6 protein shake
With a month to go, Victor’s weight was at 240 which I thought was too high. At that weight, he still lacks the deep leg separation needed to make a huge impact and win the show.
Weeks 5 and counting to Show Day
From here, I was somewhat concerned Victor would not have the sharpness to win the show. So we went to the extreme. I would cut his carbs to just one carb meal a day, at breakfast. He continued to perform the two 30 minute cardio sessions each day. At the end of each day, I would have him e mail me pictures. This would give me a chance to see if he was leaning down and maintaining his size of if he was losing some size. If he looked like he was maintaining his size, I’d let him continue with the one- carb-meal-a- day the following day. If he looked like he was going flat, I’d tell him not to worry and to continue on the very low carb diet until it looked like he was actually losing size. A lot of times a very low carb diet like this can cause the muscles to temporarily shrink due to a lack of muscle glycogen stores. However, there is a visual difference between a lack of glycogen and an actual loss in size. If Victor was slightly smaller but leaner, he’d stay on low carbs. Usually, his body could last 4 days. By the fifth day, the pictures would show that he was starting to shrink and actually look worse. One way you can tell if you’re shrinking rather than just looking flat due to low glycogen – is you begin to look almost like your stating to gain fat. The loss in size makes the skin look loose and soft. That’s when I would have Victor change his diet and eat carbs at 4 meals. I’d let him eat 2 meals with complex carbs like potatoes or yams and 2 meals of simple carbs like fat free pop-tarts or fat free muffins. The reason: when your muscles are low in glycogen simple carbs are better at restoring them with new glycogen than complex carbs. Also simple carbs kick up insulin levels a bit higher and higher insulin levels are anti-catabolic. When you are following a very low carb diet for 4 to 5 days in a row and doing an hour of cardio daily, you need the simple carbs to help reverse muscle breakdown.
The other big change I made in the diet was to include only fish, protein powder and egg whites as protein sources in his meal plans. In other words, I wanted him to be following a very low calorie diet. With his carbs already low, he’d need to drop fat from his diet which again meant going to the extreme. No more chicken and beef. Just fish, powders and egg whites. Not very tasty, but it works.
At weeks 5 through ten days from the show, his diet looked like this:
Cardio: 30 minutes
Meal 1 10 10 egg whites
2 packets oatmeal (about 45 grams of carbs)
Meal 2 8-10 ounces fish
1-2 cups of veggies
Meal 3 8-10 ounces fish
1-2 cups veggies
Meal 4 protein shake
train and cardio
Meal 5 8-10 ounces fish
1 cup veggies
Meal 6 protein shake
On the day he would increase his carbs, his plan would look like this
Meal 1 10 10 egg whites
2 packets oatmeal (about 45 grams of carbs)
banana
Meal 2 8-10 ounces fish
2 cups rice
Meal 3 8-10 ounces fish
1-2 cups veggies
Meal 4 protein shake
1 large fat free blueberry muffin
train
Meal 5 8-10 ounces fish
1 yam with sugar on top or a bagel with jam
Meal 6 Protein shake with 40 grams of protein
The Final Week
Many bodybuilders carb deplete and load to hit a peak but I though depleting was out of the question because with the very low carb diet Victor had been using along with performing cardio twice daily, I knew he was already depleted. Instead, I had Victor carb up a little on Wednesday. He ate carbohydrates at four meals and he did not train which helped restore his glycogen levels. On Thursday, he ate carbs at all 6 meals eating either oatmeal or rice. He ate either a large bowl of oatmeal or 2 cups of rice at each meal along with a small amount of fish, usually about 8 ounces (225 grams) At meals #2 and #3 he had 3 cups of rice rather than 2. On Friday he did the same as Thursday. Because he was so depleted, you could actually see his condition improve a lot while he was carbing up. His muscles began to look tighter than ever filling up with muscle glycogen. The only other little adjustment we made was to cut his fluid intake in half on Thursday and Friday. Typically, I like to cut the fluid intake further but he looked good – like he could win – from Tuesday on, so I figured we shouldn’t push things too far. Sometimes when a bodybuilder tries to cut fluid too far, he flattens out.
The Future
Before the pre-judging of the Night Of Champions, Steve Blechman of Muscle Development saw me in the hall of the theatre and commented “I heard Victor looks good.” I said, “He’s the next IFBB superstar.” That’s how I feel about Victor. Although he skipped the Olympia, I believe in his first attempt at something like the Arnold or Olympia, he will make the top 6 with a good shot at the top 3 or 4
To learn more about cutting up, see Everything you Need To Know About Fat Loss.
by Chris Aceto
Around Mid February, I was sitting in Jay Cutler’s massive Las Vegas home discussing his strategy for the upcoming three shows including the Arnold Classic competition. We were discussing a lot of things and the conversation turned to ‘competition’. In particular, I stated with the retirement of Dorian, Flex and Shawn Ray, there were not many great bodybuilders around anymore. I also mentioned the upcoming crop of American amateurs were no where near the caliber of ten or twelve years ago when Wheeler, Cormier, Paul Dillet, and Mike Francois immediately stepped from the amateur stage to the Olympia stage. We concluded there wasn’t much competition out there for someone on the top of his game like Jay. Except one. Victor Martinez. Jay mentioned he had a good physique and if someone was helping him, he may be able to place a lot higher. Immediately, I recalled the 2002 Arnold Classic in which Victor placed out of the tope ten. I thought he could have placed a little higher and agreed with Jay. Victor has potential do some damage, to give some of the established pro’s some trouble and certainly could beat some of the second tier pros, those who qualify for the Olympia but fail to crack the top 10.
I flew back the following day to wintery Maine. In the midst of running around town doing some business, my cell phone rang. My caller ID showed a New York City number which is odd because I only give my cell number to my friends and family who live in Maine. Perhaps I’ve given it to 2 to 3 other people. In any case, I answered, “Hello?” The caller said in an accent I could not identify, “I’m looking for Chris Aceto.” I told the called he was not available. In return the caller said, “My name is Victor and I need his help.” I told the caller Chris no longer consults with bodybuilders and politely hung up the phone. A few minutes later the same phone number reappeared on my caller ID. I refused to answer which automatically sends the caller to my voice mail. When I got home, I listened to the message. “Hi this is Victor Martinez. and I was hoping Chris Aceto could call me. I’m looking to have him put together my diet for the Night Of Champions.” Well I was just amazed. I was just talking about this guy 2 days before in Las Vegas with Jay. We both agreed Victor had a ton of potential and here he was calling. I just thought it was divine intervention or one heck of a coincidence. Either way, it seemed strange. What are the chances – me and Jay never discuss other competitors – that we’d not only discuss in detail just one, but this same guy would call me in 2 days time. I immediately called the New York number Victor left and shared with him this story. I also added, “Victor, if you listen to me 100% and put in the work I know you’ll win this show. In fact, from that point on, I started telling him every time we spoke that he would win the Night Of Champions!
Big Victor 265 to 229
When I spoke to Victor over the phone in February, I learned he was eating 6 meals a day with 2-3 protein shakes. According to him, he was in good shape at 262 to 265 pounds. We agreed to meet at the Arnold Classic Weekend which was less than 10 days off. He would pose for me and I would be able to set a plan from there.
When we finally met and he revealed how he looked, I told him, he would win – for sure- if he came in ripped to the bone. Victor carries a lot of muscle and has very nice shape but he can not out muscle and overwhelm the big huge guys like Ronnie Coleman, Jay or Marcus Rhul. I knew very few people were very familiar with Victor – including the judges. To win, he’d have to be ‘on the money’. Otherwise, the judges might overlook him.
Weeks 16-12
Victor’s legs are big and in the off season they’re huge! Therefore, I knew he’d be able to perform a lot of cardio. The bodybuilder with smaller legs always runs the risk of losing size with a lot of cardio work while those with big legs can do a lot of cardio. If the extra cardio causes the legs to shrink – it’s ok - there’s muscle to spare. Therefore, the first thing Victor did to get lean was to start with cardio. Three times a week for 30 minutes. I also had victor drop the 2 to 3 protein shakes. That point was a little confusing for him. Many bodybuilders fear cutting out protein because they think it will cause a loss in muscle mass. I felt that Victor needed to reduce his calories in order to stimulate the loss of body fat and I also felt his protein intake was simply excessive. The option – to cut carbohydrates or dietary fat was not available. Victor’s carb intake was not excessive so I did not want to cut that and his fat intake was not too high either. I felt it was his protein that was too high. Therefore, by cutting out 2 or 3 shakes a day would reduce his protein intake into a better range – about 1 to 1 .5 grams per pound of bodyweight while reducing his calories by about 400 a day.
We decided to stay in touch mostly with e mail. I’d keep track of his bodyweight and the way he looked. He’d send me pictures over the web and I would make the necessary dietary changes each week.
Twelve weeks into the diet Victor had reached the high 240’s or about 248. The 30 minutes of cardio every-other day combined with just 400 fewer calories had dropped his weight by 10 to 12 pounds. At 248, he looked pretty good. His upper body was definitely harder though his legs were smooth with no cuts. Victor had told me on several occasions that his legs were his problem area. Getting them more defined and detailed had been an on going problem for him.
Weeks 12-9
During this period, Victor increased his cardio to 45 minutes 5 times a week. In addition, we set up a diet plan that was moderately lower in carbs. From weeks 16 to week 12, he ate either chicken, lean red meat and egg whites as a protein source at each meal. At each of his 6 meals he also ate 1 1/2 cups of rice or a large yam or a bagel. Since Victor did not want to get into a lot of fine details like weighing foods, we tried to keep the diet plan as simple as possible. Therefore, to cut carbohydrates and to reduce carbs further, we had him drop the carbs at 2 of the 6 meals. Therefore during the entire second part of the diet from weeks 12 to weeks 9, he had 6 meals a day with carbohydrates at only 4 of those meals. To keep from getting too hungry and to add some fiber, vitamins and minerals, he’d add a large portion of broccoli or salad greens at the two meals where he dropped the carbohydrates.
Weeks 8 to weeks 5
With 8 weeks remaining and 8 weeks of dieting behind him, Victor’s weight settled at 244 pounds. His physique looks great at 244. He’s hard in the upper body and very round. Even his back – a problem spot for most competitors – shows nice detail at this weight. The problem is the legs. Though one might not be able to see if from contest pictures, Victor has a difficult time getting his legs really cut. Even I was surprised how smooth his legs were with 8 weeks to go. While the diet and cardio plan was working to some degree – his upper body was looking good – his lower body was still pretty soft. In fact, his glutes and hamstrings didn’t even have separation, let alone deep cuts. With 8 weeks to go, we decided to really step it up. I would have victor eat carbohydrates at only 2 meals, the meal before and after training. And, I’d have him do what I have never suggested in the past. I had Victor perform 2 cardio sessions a day. Thirty minutes in the morning on an empty stomach and and another 30 minutes after training later in the day or in the early evening. At this point, his diet looked like this:
Cardio: 30 minutes
Meal 1 10 10 egg whites
2 packets oatmeal (about 45 grams of carbs)
Meal 2 10 ounces chicken breast
1-2 cups of veggies
Meal 3 10 ounces extra lean beef
1-2 cups veggies
Meal 4 10 ounces chicken breast
1 cup veggies
train and cardio
Meal 5 10 ounces chicken or extra lean beef
1 cup veggies
large yam
Meal 6 protein shake
With a month to go, Victor’s weight was at 240 which I thought was too high. At that weight, he still lacks the deep leg separation needed to make a huge impact and win the show.
Weeks 5 and counting to Show Day
From here, I was somewhat concerned Victor would not have the sharpness to win the show. So we went to the extreme. I would cut his carbs to just one carb meal a day, at breakfast. He continued to perform the two 30 minute cardio sessions each day. At the end of each day, I would have him e mail me pictures. This would give me a chance to see if he was leaning down and maintaining his size of if he was losing some size. If he looked like he was maintaining his size, I’d let him continue with the one- carb-meal-a- day the following day. If he looked like he was going flat, I’d tell him not to worry and to continue on the very low carb diet until it looked like he was actually losing size. A lot of times a very low carb diet like this can cause the muscles to temporarily shrink due to a lack of muscle glycogen stores. However, there is a visual difference between a lack of glycogen and an actual loss in size. If Victor was slightly smaller but leaner, he’d stay on low carbs. Usually, his body could last 4 days. By the fifth day, the pictures would show that he was starting to shrink and actually look worse. One way you can tell if you’re shrinking rather than just looking flat due to low glycogen – is you begin to look almost like your stating to gain fat. The loss in size makes the skin look loose and soft. That’s when I would have Victor change his diet and eat carbs at 4 meals. I’d let him eat 2 meals with complex carbs like potatoes or yams and 2 meals of simple carbs like fat free pop-tarts or fat free muffins. The reason: when your muscles are low in glycogen simple carbs are better at restoring them with new glycogen than complex carbs. Also simple carbs kick up insulin levels a bit higher and higher insulin levels are anti-catabolic. When you are following a very low carb diet for 4 to 5 days in a row and doing an hour of cardio daily, you need the simple carbs to help reverse muscle breakdown.
The other big change I made in the diet was to include only fish, protein powder and egg whites as protein sources in his meal plans. In other words, I wanted him to be following a very low calorie diet. With his carbs already low, he’d need to drop fat from his diet which again meant going to the extreme. No more chicken and beef. Just fish, powders and egg whites. Not very tasty, but it works.
At weeks 5 through ten days from the show, his diet looked like this:
Cardio: 30 minutes
Meal 1 10 10 egg whites
2 packets oatmeal (about 45 grams of carbs)
Meal 2 8-10 ounces fish
1-2 cups of veggies
Meal 3 8-10 ounces fish
1-2 cups veggies
Meal 4 protein shake
train and cardio
Meal 5 8-10 ounces fish
1 cup veggies
Meal 6 protein shake
On the day he would increase his carbs, his plan would look like this
Meal 1 10 10 egg whites
2 packets oatmeal (about 45 grams of carbs)
banana
Meal 2 8-10 ounces fish
2 cups rice
Meal 3 8-10 ounces fish
1-2 cups veggies
Meal 4 protein shake
1 large fat free blueberry muffin
train
Meal 5 8-10 ounces fish
1 yam with sugar on top or a bagel with jam
Meal 6 Protein shake with 40 grams of protein
The Final Week
Many bodybuilders carb deplete and load to hit a peak but I though depleting was out of the question because with the very low carb diet Victor had been using along with performing cardio twice daily, I knew he was already depleted. Instead, I had Victor carb up a little on Wednesday. He ate carbohydrates at four meals and he did not train which helped restore his glycogen levels. On Thursday, he ate carbs at all 6 meals eating either oatmeal or rice. He ate either a large bowl of oatmeal or 2 cups of rice at each meal along with a small amount of fish, usually about 8 ounces (225 grams) At meals #2 and #3 he had 3 cups of rice rather than 2. On Friday he did the same as Thursday. Because he was so depleted, you could actually see his condition improve a lot while he was carbing up. His muscles began to look tighter than ever filling up with muscle glycogen. The only other little adjustment we made was to cut his fluid intake in half on Thursday and Friday. Typically, I like to cut the fluid intake further but he looked good – like he could win – from Tuesday on, so I figured we shouldn’t push things too far. Sometimes when a bodybuilder tries to cut fluid too far, he flattens out.
The Future
Before the pre-judging of the Night Of Champions, Steve Blechman of Muscle Development saw me in the hall of the theatre and commented “I heard Victor looks good.” I said, “He’s the next IFBB superstar.” That’s how I feel about Victor. Although he skipped the Olympia, I believe in his first attempt at something like the Arnold or Olympia, he will make the top 6 with a good shot at the top 3 or 4
To learn more about cutting up, see Everything you Need To Know About Fat Loss.
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