All too often we hear people say, "He looked incredible the week before
the show, but awful on stage". That's what happens to a lot of
bodybuilders who mistime their peak; only to look better a week before
the competition or a week after the competition! Getting ready for a
show primarily requires that a person systematically strip away as much
body fat as possible without shedding valuable muscle mass. When you
are
extremely lean, you can do a lot of things that final week and actually
see changes. That is, you can manipulate your water and carbohydrate
intake to produce a fuller or harder look.
Just like dieting,
there is no one size fits all approach to the final of contest prep. To
illustrate this point, I will draw from personal experience. I have
prepped several pro bodybuilders for several competitions; taking a
different approach each time. Here are my experiences that prove my
point:
1) The 2001 Mr Olympia: Jay Cutler depleted extremely hard
and loaded heavily. The result; arguably his best ever. Though, for his
2003 Ironman and Arnold wins, he did not deplete and load.
2)
2003 Night of Champions and 2004 GNC: Victor Martinez's wins at both
shows were due to how he depleted hard and loaded mildly.
3) 2005
Ironman: Troy Alves did not deplete or load at all for this show where
he was in great condition and I did not have him, nor Eduardo Correa, do
much loading for the 2009 season where they were both pretty much in
spectacular shape.
The take home message: Every time you approach
a show, things are a little different. The body is different and
responds differently over time therefore, you have to take these factors
into consideration. A lot of knowing what to do or what not to do boils
down to experience. However, I will outline the guidelines I use with
bodybuilders. Hopefully, you can learn from my experiences and mistakes
and apply them to your own body.
1) FullnessI
worked with Chris Cook for just a couple shows. The first time out, he
nailed it at the Nationals and won the overall. I went out to his house
more than a week before the show to try to figure things out. When he
posed, he looked soft with no real hardcore cuts. However, he looked
real big and when you touched his muscles they felt like rocks. That
rock hard feel and full-looking muscles responds incredibly well to
hardcore depletion of carbohydrates. I had him cut his carbohydrates to
zero for four days. We went to the gym every one of those four days and
did endless sets of light weight/higher rep training for all the body
parts. Our goal was to suck every last ounce of stored muscle glycogen
from the muscles. After four days he looked tighter. When he added the
carbohydrates back (and I believe he went up to 600 grams a day) in the
final three days, his body changed every 12 hours and he became as hard
as nails.
When a bodybuilder looks full and his muscles feel hard to
the touch, never be afraid to deplete the hell out of the body. I know
Chris thought I was crazy; no carbs and lots and lots of sets – but I
knew it would work. I used the same method with Jay for the 2001 Mr.
Olympia. His muscles felt like cement a couple weeks out and I knew that
his muscles could withstand severe depletion. When the muscles do not
feel that way, cement- like, often the bodybuilder flattens out (the
muscles shrink) with depletion. That was the scenario with Troy Alves
the first time I worked with him for the 2005 Ironman. His muscles
looked full and hard, but when you touched them, they didn't have that
super hard feeling. I knew if he depleted too hard, his muscles would
flatten out and he'd only look worse from depleting, not better.
Therefore, he only mildly restricted his carbohydrates a week out and
mildly loaded the final two days.
2) FatigueWarning:
If you are extremely tired from dieting and go into the final week
excessively beat up, then you're setting yourself up for failure if you
choose to deplete and load. The final week is an extremely stressful
event on the body. If you are already extremely fatigued, then depleting
will end up flattening the muscles down too far to the point where the
depletion process will only make you look smaller. In addition, many
times when you load a fatigued body up on carbs; either the muscles do
not readily load up so you end up looking flat or the result is
excessive water retention. From my experience, it seems the bodybuilder
who carbs up in a severe state of fatigue usually ends up retaining
water – which interferes with his condition and definition. That's why I
recommend the bodybuilder start his contest prep far enough out from
the show so he can take the two weeks prior to the final week and rest
more, stop or cut back on cardio, and decrease the intensity of his
training. This, somewhat of a "rest phase", makes a big difference in
the way the body responds to the depletion and loading process. When the
body is fresh and not suffering from excess fatigue, the depletion and
loading process is far more effective.
3) Water IntakeI
always have bodybuilders drink more from 14 days out from the show to 3
days out. At around the 12-14 day mark, I'll have them double up on
their water intake only to sharply reduce it to as little as 6-8 cups a
day the final 3 days going onto the show. The reason for this is that a
higher intake tricks the body to become more rapidly dehydrated when
there is a reduction in fluid intake. For example, if a bodybuilder was
drinking one gallon of water a day and reduced that to 6 cups, his body
would fall into a dehydration state because switching from a full gallon
to 6 cups is a pretty stiff drop off. However, if a bodybuilder goes
from two gallons to 6 cups, the dehydration process is not only quicker
but greater in scope. And, here is a secret to loading up on
carbohydrates, when you increase your carbohydrate consumption during
the final 2 or 3 days, you should reduce your water intake. This
dehydration creates a tighter look. While many will disagree with that,
as on paper from a physiology point of view the formation of muscle
glycogen requires water, in the real world, restricting water causes a
visual effect that results in greater definition. This is affirmed by
the use and misuse of diuretics. Diuretics cause the body to lose water
resulting in better definition. However, you can create an incredibly
defined look simply by cutting back on water intake.
4) Carb StatusHow
many carbohydrates to eat those final 2-3 days will vary from
bodybuilder to bodybuilder. Eating 90g a day while dieting? Guess what;
700g will make you watery as a broken dam. Eating 400g while dieting?
Loading on 400g, 500g, or 600g will leave you flat. As a rule, the fewer
carbohydrates you ate while dieting, the fewer your carbohydrate needs
while loading. Likewise, if you eat a lot of carbohydrates while
dieting, you'll need plenty to bring you back. I advise most bodybuilder
to eat 3 to 4 times the amount of carbohydrates they ate while dieting
during the carbing up phase, the final 3 days. For example, if a
bodybuilder dieted on 100g of carbohydrates, he can load on 300g to
400g. If, for the most part he dieted on 300g carbohydrates, then he
would need up to 900g a day the final 3 days. Keep in mind; you should
not be training the final 2 or 3 days so you do not need massive amounts
of carbohydrates to fill the muscles out with glycogen. Simply by not
training, the body will fill out and bounce back from having gone
through a depletion phase.
5) It Does Not Stop ThereBecause
the final week is so variable and often confusing, I will stick around
this thread and answer for a couple weeks any ongoing questions Rx
members may have.
Great tips from Chris Aceto. Hopefully, many bodybuilders read this to take approach to their last week of their prep to the stage.
said
he felt he needed that super full look in order to get the maximum out
of his body. Jay told me his contest prep kind of crashed and burned
both in 2010 and 2011, and as the show approached he wanted to correct
those big mistakes. He started emailing me and things started rolling
from there. When the he brought up the possibility of working with me I
felt I might have my hands too full working with so many other guys in
the Mr Olympia. I thought about it for a day or so, then asked Dave Palumbo
what he thought. Dave confirmed my initial gut feeling which was to to
jump in and work with Jay again. I picked up the phone, called Jay and
told him I was ready."