Jose Raymond shares insight into his comeback training claiming it’s the first offseason he’s ever had in his life.
In our previous interview segment, Jose Raymond confirmed that he’s planning on making a comeback to Men’s 212 bodybuilding. Or at least, he’s training to compete again to see how his body reacts. If he’s happy with the results, he will pick a show to compete in and re-ignite his journey. But after many years away from tried and true contest prep, what is Jose’s tactic to get back on the saddle? In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Jose Raymond breaks down his bodybuilding comeback training routine.
Jose Raymond had a series of unfortunate situations that prevented him from competing over the past few years. But after full recovering from surgery, he’s ready to jump back into action and return to a competitive level of training. During our recent video conversation, we asked him to share what that comeback training looks like and how it differs from his past tactics.
“This is the most different I’ve ever been in my life”
Right off the bat, Jose Raymond makes a point to say that this training process is different than he’s ever experienced before. More specifically, he claims it is the first true off season he’s ever had in his life. Throughout his career, he’s always competed in so many shows – that he never had time for a real off season. He always had to stay in a contest prep level of conditioning due to a competition right around the corner.
So perhaps for the first time since he originally started bodybuilding, he is going into a true offseason bulk phase. Meaning that he can focus purely on building size without worrying about strict conditioning.
In terms of diet, Jose Raymond is currently eating 100 grams of carbs per day. He’s not the kind of bodybuilder to eat sloppy – but he’s also using this opportunity to really focus on building size and worrying less about conditioning at this moment. That means allowing for more heavy foods and carbs in his diet.
Check out our latest GI Exclusive with Jose Raymond above!
Lower weight with high volume… with a few exceptions
Jose Raymond also dives into his training regimen. He’s doing very little cardio. This is again because he’s focusing on building mass at the moment. He does about 30 minutes of cardio, very light, on a treadmill or stepmill.
Being a bit older and wanting to prevent injury, Jose Raymond is focusing less on heavy weight and more on high volume. In a traditional set he aims for approximately 12, 15, or 18 reps. Though he admits sometimes he will feel energized and try and go all out with some truly heavy weight.
He also does, in a sense, drop sets. Thought perhaps not as strict as a traditional drop set would be. After he gets to a point with his high volume sets where he can only do six to eight reps. He will do one extra set. He lowers the weight and tries to do as many reps as possible. Sometimes reaching up to 20 or 22 reps. This is to make sure that he’s truly exhausted the muscle.
Wrap Up
Ultimately, Jose Raymond is excited to be able to focus on building as much size as possible. He’ll see how his body reacts. And then will evaluate his options and decide what show he wants to compete in. Once he decides that, of course, real contest prep begins. He’ll go back to what he knew for most of his career – focusing on conditioning. We can’t wait to see what show he’ll appear in and how he’ll compare to the new era of competitors.
You can watch Jose Raymond go into even more detail about his bodybuilding comeback training regimen in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above!
