What Every Competitor Needs to Do 10 Days Out - 10 Key Prepartion Tips
( Get the Best Pre-Contest Advice for Winning Results! - Learn, Share and Discover!) ..
Preparing for a bodybuilding competition requires time, hard work and knowledge about how to get into peak shape. Any competitor
who wants to win knows the importance of hard work. All bodybuilders work hard - after all it takes a considerable amount effort
to gain 20 or more pounds of muscle while losing enough fat to appear cut. Experienced competitors know it takes 10 weeks, minimum,
to get into great shape. Those preparing for a small show or competing for the first time might be able to prepare in two months,
but to achieve peak conditioning - to lose all the fat required to look ripped onstage and hold onto hard-earned muscle - 16 weeks
of careful planning is a must.
During the contest-preparation phase, the goal is to shed fat slowly without losing muscle. Losing fat along with precious muscle
is a dead-end street culminating in a lean but flat-looking physique. To appear really hard and superfull, a competitor must hold
onto all of his muscle. Tons of muscle coupled with a low level of bodyfat is what makes a competitor look frighteningly hard. If
you find yourself getting leaner but also losing muscle fullness during your precontest preparation, cut back on your cardiovascular
work, add more calories to your diet, or both.
Many bodybuilders can get themselves into very good shape, but a large percentage of them lack the ability to "polish off" their
physiques during the critical 10-day period preceding a contest. There are three possible avenues to follow during these final 10
days: a competitor can panic, and his physique can deteriorate; he can make no improvements, and his physique can stay the same; or
he can improve his physique.
The 10 days preceding a contest can be the most important period to a high-level bodybuilder. I don't know how many times I've heard
that so-and-so looked absolutely phenomenal at a photo shoot a couple of weeks out from a contest, only to end up looking worse onstage.
A few years ago, one of the guys competing in the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic asked me to take a look at him on the Wednesday before
the show, which was scheduled for Saturday. I was shocked: I had never seen him in person before, and the guy looked much better than
I expected him to look. Soon after the bodybuilder had left my room, Chris Cormier called me to his room to check out his physique.
Chris looked real good, too - but not as good as the first guy did. By Saturday, however, the first competitor looked much smoother
and softer onstage, while Chris appeared shredded and even fuller than he had on Wednesday. I'm not exactly sure what each competitor
did to change his appearance, but the point is the final three to 10 days can be crucial!
If I'm helping someone prepare for a contest, I like to have them come to Maine for the 10 days preceding the show for observation so
I can make sure his or her physique gets better, not worse. Here are the 10 variables I manipulate during that 10-day span.
Cardiovascular Work
I'm not a big believer in cardio work. Those intellectuals who jammed the high-carb diet down bodybuilders' throats were the same ones
who enlightened bodybuilders to the benefits of cardio work for burning fat. Aerobics are a great fat burner for sedentary individuals,
but for bodybuilders who train hard and already burn plenty of calories during their weightlifting sessions, the best way to burn fat is
to possess plenty of muscle. Lots of muscle bums up lots of calories. Adding a moderate amount of cardio work to your precontest regimen
will enhance the fat-burning effects that have been set in motion with a good calorie-reduced diet, but excessive aerobics will only burn
muscles.
I don't think any bodybuilder should perform aerobics during the 10 days preceding a contest. During this stretch, he should be getting as
lean as possible. If he feels he still needs cardio work, then either he did not diet hard or long enough or he thought he was as huge as
Dorian Yates is in the offseason, only to discover that parading around at 300 pounds was just a bit too heavy. Cutting back on cardio work
at this point allows your body to rest and recover and permits your muscles to fill out. In contrast, constant cardio work makes your muscles
look flat. Performing cardio work right up until two or three days before a show interferes with the body's ability to store carbohydrates in
muscles. Eliminate all aerobic exercise 10 days out from a show.
Training
Your training 10 days out from a show - in fact, three weeks out from a show - should be heavy, with sets taken to positive failure with
no forced reps. Also, the number of sets performed should not be excessive. As your bodyfat levels drop, your body's ability to recuperate
from workout to workout can suffer. Anyone on a precontest diet three weeks out from a show should try to push heavy weights, but the goal
should be muscle maintenance, not muscle breakdown. Couple a reduction in calories with some aerobic work and the cumulative stress of
weeks of dieting can make your body susceptible to Overtraining. If you're training like a madman toward the end of your contest-prep program,
you could end up losing mass. When you lose mass, your fat-to- muscle ratio increases, which means you're moving backward! Train hard
during the final three weeks, but don't go overboard.
On the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday preceding a contest, I like to have a competitor train all of his muscle groups each day using light weights.
The goal is to accelerate the depletion process and prime the muscles for carbohydrate loading. I'll have the competitor perform one exercise -
two maximum - per bodypart, with reps in the 12-to-15 range. This light-weight pumping action will burn up some muscle glycogen, and when
glycogen levels are low, the enzymes responsible for storing carbohydrates go sky-high.
This high-rep/light-weight work also increases the muscle's receptor affinity for carbohydrates. When carbs are reintroduced into the body, they
are stored in the muscle. Since stores are very low and the enzymes that store carbs are working overtime, more glycogen can be stored, giving
the appearance of fuller and tighter muscles.
Deplete and Load
When following this regimen of three days of high-rep training, you should lower your carb intake over the same three-day span. Reducing carbs
accomplishes the same thing as high-rep training with light weights, and the two work synergistically when used together, yielding greater results
than if either were used alone.
Besides adding to the illusion of muscle fullness, earb depleting and loading definitely adds to muscle separation by "directing" water.
Lowering carbs suppresses levels of aldosterone, a hormone that controls sodium in the body. Cutting back on carbohydrate intake for three days
allows the body to lose water by losing sodium due to suppressed aldosterone and by decreasing glycogen stores. Glycogen attracts water in the
muscle, and when glycogen stores are low, water retention in and around the muscle suffers. However, when carbs are reintroduced to the diet,
severely glycogen-starved muscles attract the carbohydrates and water surrounding the muscle. The net result is glycogen-filled muscle holding
less water under the skin, since aldosterone levels are low and the carbs reintroduced to the body pull water from surrounding areas into the
muscles.
Carb depleting means cutting your carbohydrate intake to half of your normal level. If you're dieting on 300 grams of carbs a day, reduce them to
150 grams for three days. At the same time, use the high-rep, full-body training method suggested above. Carb depletion does not mean "muscle
destruction." I've seen many bodybuilders reduce carbohydrate levels to zero over this three-day span and lose two or three pounds of hard-earned
muscle. These individuals mistakenly expect to fill out by reintroducing carbohydrates into their diets during the three days preceding a show.
Once they realize that they look even smaller after one day of carbing up, they panic and eat 35 yams, 10 bags of rice cakes and 10 potatoes. Not
surprisingly, they end up looking soft and watered-out.
The Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before the show are the three days set aside to carb up. As a rule, I like a competitor to carb up on the foods
that he ate during his full 12-to-16-week contest diet. I've seen competitors attempt to carb up on something else and wind up looking worse. I like
the 30-20-10 method. Wednesday, when muscle-glycogen stores are at their lowest, the muscle's capacity to store carbs without any "spillover' is at
its peak. Therefore, try to consume 30% more carbs than normal. If you are dieting on 300 grams of carbs, for example, you would raise that amount
to 390. On Thursday, eat 20% more carbs (360) than normal. On Friday, as glycogen stores begin to saturate, reduce your carb consumption to 330
grams.
Water Intake
During the final 10 days before a contest, you should double your water intake. A high fluid intake acts as a natural diuretic. On the Wednesday
preceding the show, when you begin carbing up, reduce your water intake back to normal, which your body will perceive as slight dehydration. On
Thursday, reduce your intake further, to half of your normal consumption. And on Friday, half of that amount, or one-forth your normal intake.
These guidelines are not written in stone, however. Some bodybuilders will look better if on the Wednesday before a show they reduce their water
consumption to half the normal intake, and on Thursday and Friday they reduce it further to one-fourth of the normal amount. The reality is that a
dehydrated physique does look sharper than a hydrated one, even though many sports nutritionists will argue that hydrated muscles are fuller and
sharper. They are wrong: Muscles perform better when they are fully hydrated, but they look better cosmetically when they are somewhat dehydrated.
Alter Sodium Intake
This is tricky. I like to eliminate sodium from a bodybuilder's diet - besides what is found in typical bodybuilding food - the Tuesday before the
show. Eliminating sodium reduces water retention, but curtailing the intake of this element can make it difficult to carb up, because sodium is
required to transport carbs into muscles. Inve seen competitors who looked kind of soft at a contest look outrageous the following morning after
dining on salty pizza the preceding night.
These individuals usually believe they hadn't carbed up sufficiently, and that the carbs in the pizza were enough to fill out the muscle. In reality,
the key was the sodium in the pizza, which sensitizes muscles to the effects of the insulin released as a result of a higher carbohydrate intake.
The lesson is that if you're carbing up but not looking better, don't be afraid to add some sodium to your diet on the Friday before the show. Five
hundred milligrams more than you take in on Thursday should be sufficient.
Avoid Stimulants
Many bodybuilders use ephedrine or mahuang as an energy booster while dieting. These compounds exploit your "fight or flight" response by causing
your body to release more of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine (NE). NE is a stress hormone that makes the body feel alert. It also acts as a
catalyst for breaking down bodyfat so that it can be used more efficiently as fuel. Unfortunately, NE can also desensitize muscles to the effects
of insulin, and muscle cells that are less sensitive to insulin make carbing up more difficult.
What's more, when you carb up on the three weekdays preceding the show, your body responds by producing insulin, which can dull your muscles. Your
pancreas can then react by producing even more insulin to force the carbs into your muscles, overriding cells that are slightly resistant to the
insulin. The problem is that higher insulin levels stimulate higher aldosterone levels, which cause the body to retain sodium and water.
Finally, many bodybuilders use stimulants before going onstage to provide energy. Samir Bannout swears he lost the 1984 Mr. Olympia contest because
he drank a double espresso before going onstage, which caused his physique to flatten out. Since all stress hormones cause slight elevations in
aldosterone levels, it's best to forgo stimulants beginning 10 days out from a contest.
Replace Lean Protein Sources with Less-Lean Ones
I reject high-fat diets. I still prefer fish, chicken breast, turkey breast and lean cuts of red meat as protein sources when dieting for contests.
The high-fat advocates suggest that fat slows the digestion of carbohydrates, which in turn can modify insulin release. This allows fat cells to give
up fat for fuel. All this is true, but I prefer to modify insulin release by systematically reducing total carbohydrate intake.
The high-fat advocates are right in certain respects. I agree that you should consume a bit more fat during the three days before a contest, as this
can keep both insulin release and water retention lower. Try switching from chicken breast to sirloin steak, avoiding crazy alternatives like peanut
butter, flax-seed oil and olive oil. The body can handle slight changes well, but not drastic ones.
Use Creatine
Most bodybuilders know that supplemental creatine monohydrate can increase creatine stores and ATP levels in muscles, making them appear fuller. I
like to have competitors go without creatine for the 10 days preceding the five days before the contest. Then, I'll have them load 20 grams of
creatine a day from Monday through Friday. This can really enhance their fullness without them having to consume too many additional carbs, which
always poses the threat of unwelcome water retention.
Eat Small Meals
The bodybuilders I help eat five times a day. Except for right before a contest, I think any more than that becomes ridiculous, even counterproductive.
Consuming small meals promotes a controlled and modified release of insulin. Although insulin is released when carbs are eaten and is required for
carbing up, too much insulin can promote water retention. If your body is used to five small meals a day and you increase that number to six by
consuming 30% more carbs on the Wednesday before the show, you'll store more carbohydrates with less chance of holding water.
Pose!
Practice the mandatory poses a half hour each day during the 10 days leading up to the show. Posing helps the body look harder by eliminating excess
water from under the skin in the form of sweat. It also helps your body store as glycogen the carbs eaten during the final three days.
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