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Last 8 Weeks of Prep (Observations)

Necrias

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Jun 29, 2010
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I'm currently 6 weeks out from my first show (MN North Star), and the last few weeks I have noticed some things that are drastically different from the first half of prep; maybe this will help other first timers or those thinking to compete, and it would be awesome for vets to chime in with their experiences! Here we go...

1) This is the biggest/ most important one... the margin of error for diet/training/cardio is really, REALLY low. Getting down to 10-12% was pretty easy (considering I'm a natural fat guy), I just had to be consistent with my diet/cardio 5-6 days per week and I could have 1-2 full on cheat days and still make decent progress week to week. At this point it is a completely different story, a single cheat meal will easily set me back 2-3 days; Sunday morning I was 201 and lean/dry, I went to a Thai restaurant after training with some friends and had 2 big curry entrees and woke up Monday at 209, bloated and swollen so bad I could barely get my shoes on. Not fun.

2) This goes hand in hand with #1... this is not the time to develop good habits, those should already be in place. At this point, dieting should not be that mentally difficult, you shouldn't have to force yourself to do cardio, and you should have your daily routine down to a T. I know a guy that is also prepping for his first show, has great genetics and is naturally lean, but has no self-discipline. He is 2 weeks out and looks no different than he did at 12. He constantly bitches about diet and cardio and makes excuses in order to justify his fuck-ups. I have been doing cardio almost daily for 6 months now (started at 10-15 minutes per day) and have only missed 2 sessions in the last 6 weeks. Yes, diet and cardio sucks, but at some point you just have to accept it as something you just "do".

3) Unless you have a crappy appetite, at some point you will have to cut out shakes. I am blessed to have an "average" metabolism, but cursed to have an enormous appetite. Starting 8 weeks out, my training volume was at 30-120 minutes of lifting and 60 minutes of cardio daily, and cals are down to around 2.8-3k. When I drop below 3k cals I feel like I'm starving to death, and the 1-2 meals I was replacing with shakes simply wasn't cutting it. The cravings were insane... not for junk, just for MORE FOOD. Since switching to all solid food and slightly upping my fats, my appetite is sated a little better. This makes food prep more time consuming, but it is worth it. Also, my poops are now enormous!! :p

4) Posing is actually a lot harder than it looks. I used to make fun of it when I was just doing PL, but there are a lot of subtleties that make a huge difference. It has taken a lot of work to simply "not suck" at posing, I'm still a long ways from good.

5) You better have a helluva support system around you and/or a lot of discipline... if your GF/wife/friends/family don't support you in your prep or get pissed because you can't do something (dinner/drinking/travelling/whatever) it will make your prep very difficult. My GF is being very supportive, but I can tell she is agitated at me when I am in the gym 2-3x per day and I have to spend less time with her. I try to make up for it by going for long walks with her and counting it as part of my cardio and occasionally she will come to the gym and do cardio with me.

There are lots more things I can't think of right now, let me know your experiences!
 
Hey man, Your in my area. Good luck at you first show I was actually going to do it but tore meniscus in my right knee in june. I will be there to watch cause a friend is competing. What class you going to be in?
As for your perceptions on the last 8 or even 10 weeks yes they are all thing i have notice for the most part. Especially when it comes to diet and cardio. Also as people who I know that compete also have found out don't slack off at the beginning of your prep phase cause time will catch up to you and then you will find yourself playing catch up. By doing 3 hours or more of cardio a day. Also when you think you look good go farther, meaning get leaner even.
 
Great Info Necrias, and great to see this!! That same show will be my first as well:headband: Will be good to meet you.
 
lots of good tips in there... I will throw in some that have helped me over the years:

1- buy as much food in bulk as you can, buy food for a WEEK, not for a day

2- PREPARE as much food as you can at one time... you should only need to cook food once every day or every other day. cook several pounds of meat and vegatables at once... if you have to cook every meal from scratch it makes cheating or substituting for something easier to make that much easier

3- dont take pictures of yourself, unless you are sending them to someone for an unbiased review... it will just mess with your head

4- eat lots and lots and lots of vegetables, and I personally think its important to keep some fruits in as well for fiber, vitamins, antioxidants etc most fruits are quite low in carbs and cals but are very filling and packed with nutrients that will keep you healthy
 
I have found that these two are actually the most important for me. If you can`t show what you have to the fullest and work around your weaker areas you are doomed right from the get go. Remember it is all won and lost in pre-judging and it goes by VERY fast !
My wife competes as well and knows EXACTLY what I am going through and is an amazing help to me... without her I would fail and she keeps me grounded as well as my biggest critic to keep pushing me to be my best.



4) Posing is actually a lot harder than it looks. I used to make fun of it when I was just doing PL, but there are a lot of subtleties that make a huge difference. It has taken a lot of work to simply "not suck" at posing, I'm still a long ways from good.

5) You better have a helluva support system around you and/or a lot of discipline... if your GF/wife/friends/family don't support you in your prep or get pissed because you can't do something (dinner/drinking/travelling/whatever) it will make your prep very difficult. My GF is being very supportive, but I can tell she is agitated at me when I am in the gym 2-3x per day and I have to spend less time with her. I try to make up for it by going for long walks with her and counting it as part of my cardio and occasionally she will come to the gym and do cardio with me.

There are lots more things I can't think of right now, let me know your experiences![/QUOTE]
 
Okay, I have a question about contest prep hope you guys dont mind. I'm 12 weeks and 3 days out :headbang:

Everything is going great but I caught a cold really bad. When do you guys start training again when you get sick during prep?
 
Okay, I have a question about contest prep hope you guys dont mind. I'm 12 weeks and 3 days out :headbang:

Everything is going great but I caught a cold really bad. When do you guys start training again when you get sick during prep?

Personally I wait until my body feels 80-90%. I don't mind training with a sniffle but if my body feels rough, training usually sets me back 3-4 days and I get more sick. Honestly I feel its better to be on the cautious side, for me at least. My immune system sucks
 
7) If you are not starving, and suffering, do not feel at least several times during the day your next step might be the last, that you have to physically tell yourself to get off the toilet, if you don't wake up in the morning one day and look in the mirror and say who the hell is that Auschwitz survivor, then you are being to easy on yourself.
 
lots of good tips in there... I will throw in some that have helped me over the years:

1- buy as much food in bulk as you can, buy food for a WEEK, not for a day

2- PREPARE as much food as you can at one time... you should only need to cook food once every day or every other day. cook several pounds of meat and vegatables at once... if you have to cook every meal from scratch it makes cheating or substituting for something easier to make that much easier

3- dont take pictures of yourself, unless you are sending them to someone for an unbiased review... it will just mess with your head

4- eat lots and lots and lots of vegetables, and I personally think its important to keep some fruits in as well for fiber, vitamins, antioxidants etc most fruits are quite low in carbs and cals but are very filling and packed with nutrients that will keep you healthy
I just bought a 5 lb bag of chicken, and it lasted one day. I eat so much in contest prep, that I go to the store every other day. Between salad, salad dressing, chicken, hot sauce, diet dr peppers, and crystal light, I'm always running out of something.
 
7) If you are not starving, and suffering, do not feel at least several times during the day your next step might be the last, that you have to physically tell yourself to get off the toilet, if you don't wake up in the morning one day and look in the mirror and say who the hell is that Auschwitz survivor, then you are being to easy on yourself.

Trying to get up and go to work that last two weeks is a serious bitch.
 
I was under the impression that the cheat meals were supposed to be reserved for when you were already damn lean, like 7-8%, as having them when you're 10+ will just slow things down?

Any truth to this?
 
7) If you are not starving, and suffering, do not feel at least several times during the day your next step might be the last, that you have to physically tell yourself to get off the toilet, if you don't wake up in the morning one day and look in the mirror and say who the hell is that Auschwitz survivor, then you are being to easy on yourself.

Lol.. I like this mentality.
 
I was under the impression that the cheat meals were supposed to be reserved for when you were already damn lean, like 7-8%, as having them when you're 10+ will just slow things down?

Any truth to this?

I wouldn't dare have a cheat til I was sub 7%
 
Trying to get up and go to work that last two weeks is a serious bitch.

Tell me about it, I have a physical job where I work in close contact with people. I feel like I am going to collapse on them, kill them with bad breath or gas, or hurt myself.

I wouldn't dare have a cheat til I was sub 7%

Same, way to paranoid, even then my last prep guy never allowed cheats.
 
Tell me about it, I have a physical job where I work in close contact with people. I feel like I am going to collapse on them, kill them with bad breath or gas, or hurt myself.



Same, way to paranoid, even then my last prep guy never allowed cheats.

I can't understand how a cheat would help, unless you are already very lean, and need to shake up your metabolism. I understand a reefed day, but I also only use those when I'm sub 7% bodyfat and am pretty close to being stage ready. What suck is stimulants don't help when your tired, unless you use something like phentermine.
 
Iv just started dieting and I am also a BIG EATER. I can eat clean all day long, But the amount is pretty carzy. You try these GG Scadanvain crackers. The are pretty much cardboard lol but with meat on them and or flavor cottage cheese they do wonder for feeling full. They are extreamly low carb andngive you that crunch you mostly dont get when cutting out carbs.
 
The whole cheat meal thing cracks me up. People want to justify needing a cheat meal every week(bullshit). Im not saying there's never a place for a refeed or cheat, but 95% of the time, it will make you worse, not better.
GET BEYOND RIPPED, AND THEN KEEP GETTING SHREDDED. CONDITIONING WINS SHOWS. YOU MIGHT LOVE THE WAY YOU LOOK, BUT IF YOU WANT TO PLACE AS HIGH AS YOU CAN, KEEP GETTING BEYOND PEELED!!!!!
 
I'm currently 6 weeks out from my first show (MN North Star), and the last few weeks I have noticed some things that are drastically different from the first half of prep; maybe this will help other first timers or those thinking to compete, and it would be awesome for vets to chime in with their experiences! Here we go...

1) This is the biggest/ most important one... the margin of error for diet/training/cardio is really, REALLY low. Getting down to 10-12% was pretty easy (considering I'm a natural fat guy), I just had to be consistent with my diet/cardio 5-6 days per week and I could have 1-2 full on cheat days and still make decent progress week to week. At this point it is a completely different story, a single cheat meal will easily set me back 2-3 days; Sunday morning I was 201 and lean/dry, I went to a Thai restaurant after training with some friends and had 2 big curry entrees and woke up Monday at 209, bloated and swollen so bad I could barely get my shoes on. Not fun.
this is the number one thing guys come to me for help with. they seem to think its a mystery or impossible to get truly LEAN. after about one or 2 emails I find that they love part tarts or are binge drinkers on weekends blah blah blah... you find out very quickly so many guys want to have their cake and eat it too. you must be strict if you want to get peeled
2) This goes hand in hand with #1... this is not the time to develop good habits, those should already be in place. At this point, dieting should not be that mentally difficult, you shouldn't have to force yourself to do cardio, and you should have your daily routine down to a T. I know a guy that is also prepping for his first show, has great genetics and is naturally lean, but has no self-discipline. He is 2 weeks out and looks no different than he did at 12. He constantly bitches about diet and cardio and makes excuses in order to justify his fuck-ups. I have been doing cardio almost daily for 6 months now (started at 10-15 minutes per day) and have only missed 2 sessions in the last 6 weeks. Yes, diet and cardio sucks, but at some point you just have to accept it as something you just "do".

3) Unless you have a crappy appetite, at some point you will have to cut out shakes. I am blessed to have an "average" metabolism, but cursed to have an enormous appetite. Starting 8 weeks out, my training volume was at 30-120 minutes of lifting and 60 minutes of cardio daily, and cals are down to around 2.8-3k. When I drop below 3k cals I feel like I'm starving to death, and the 1-2 meals I was replacing with shakes simply wasn't cutting it. The cravings were insane... not for junk, just for MORE FOOD. Since switching to all solid food and slightly upping my fats, my appetite is sated a little better. This makes food prep more time consuming, but it is worth it. Also, my poops are now enormous!! :p
disagree with this one. by alternating liquid and solid meals and eating when hungry I am able to get in FAR more protein with shakes than if I cut them out. when dieting a shake will make me full for maybe 30-45 minutes then its time to eat solid food. If i only ate solid food every 2-3 hours then at end of the day I would not have as much protein in and there would be more carbs in my diet with the solid food.... I think shakes are a staple. use science to your advantage.
4) Posing is actually a lot harder than it looks. I used to make fun of it when I was just doing PL, but there are a lot of subtleties that make a huge difference. It has taken a lot of work to simply "not suck" at posing, I'm still a long ways from good.
TRUTH
5) You better have a helluva support system around you and/or a lot of discipline... if your GF/wife/friends/family don't support you in your prep or get pissed because you can't do something (dinner/drinking/travelling/whatever) it will make your prep very difficult. My GF is being very supportive, but I can tell she is agitated at me when I am in the gym 2-3x per day and I have to spend less time with her. I try to make up for it by going for long walks with her and counting it as part of my cardio and occasionally she will come to the gym and do cardio with me.
I don't want everyone to think you have to miss out on life. I did pretty well and never trained for more than 1 hour in the gym 6 days a week.
There are lots more things I can't think of right now, let me know your experiences!

that's my 2 cents on all that:)
very good thread.
-JS
 
I'm currently 6 weeks out from my first show (MN North Star), and the last few weeks I have noticed some things that are drastically different from the first half of prep; maybe this will help other first timers or those thinking to compete, and it would be awesome for vets to chime in with their experiences! Here we go...

1) This is the biggest/ most important one... the margin of error for diet/training/cardio is really, REALLY low. Getting down to 10-12% was pretty easy (considering I'm a natural fat guy), I just had to be consistent with my diet/cardio 5-6 days per week and I could have 1-2 full on cheat days and still make decent progress week to week. At this point it is a completely different story, a single cheat meal will easily set me back 2-3 days; Sunday morning I was 201 and lean/dry, I went to a Thai restaurant after training with some friends and had 2 big curry entrees and woke up Monday at 209, bloated and swollen so bad I could barely get my shoes on. Not fun.

2) This goes hand in hand with #1... this is not the time to develop good habits, those should already be in place. At this point, dieting should not be that mentally difficult, you shouldn't have to force yourself to do cardio, and you should have your daily routine down to a T. I know a guy that is also prepping for his first show, has great genetics and is naturally lean, but has no self-discipline. He is 2 weeks out and looks no different than he did at 12. He constantly bitches about diet and cardio and makes excuses in order to justify his fuck-ups. I have been doing cardio almost daily for 6 months now (started at 10-15 minutes per day) and have only missed 2 sessions in the last 6 weeks. Yes, diet and cardio sucks, but at some point you just have to accept it as something you just "do".

3) Unless you have a crappy appetite, at some point you will have to cut out shakes. I am blessed to have an "average" metabolism, but cursed to have an enormous appetite. Starting 8 weeks out, my training volume was at 30-120 minutes of lifting and 60 minutes of cardio daily, and cals are down to around 2.8-3k. When I drop below 3k cals I feel like I'm starving to death, and the 1-2 meals I was replacing with shakes simply wasn't cutting it. The cravings were insane... not for junk, just for MORE FOOD. Since switching to all solid food and slightly upping my fats, my appetite is sated a little better. This makes food prep more time consuming, but it is worth it. Also, my poops are now enormous!! :p

4) Posing is actually a lot harder than it looks. I used to make fun of it when I was just doing PL, but there are a lot of subtleties that make a huge difference. It has taken a lot of work to simply "not suck" at posing, I'm still a long ways from good.

5) You better have a helluva support system around you and/or a lot of discipline... if your GF/wife/friends/family don't support you in your prep or get pissed because you can't do something (dinner/drinking/travelling/whatever) it will make your prep very difficult. My GF is being very supportive, but I can tell she is agitated at me when I am in the gym 2-3x per day and I have to spend less time with her. I try to make up for it by going for long walks with her and counting it as part of my cardio and occasionally she will come to the gym and do cardio with me.

There are lots more things I can't think of right now, let me know your experiences!

good info man i wanna do my first show next yr and just need to get into a routine hopefully my suppport system will be there but my family/gf doesnt support me so much cuz they know bbing and roids go hand n hand and they dont understand theres a right way and wrong way to take AAS but hopefully things fall into place...
 

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