Rest

You need to rest in order to recover properly during contest prep. When you rest, you increase your body’s anabolism and allow it to restore glycogen to repair and recover from the stress of prepping. Resting is the most overlooked contest-prep factor. During contest prep many competitors increase their weight training. Some even do double splits daily. They also, as mentioned, do excessive cardio and risk muscle tissue breakdown. Resting helps reduce cortisol produced by this activity. More is not better when it comes to contest prepping. Make sure you get enough sleep and time between each body part trained.