Competitor's Corner - Precontest Top 10 (Part II: Diet & Cardio) - by PRAETORIAN

The pre-contest phase of bodybuilding is something that must be experienced to be believed. The transformation that the body goes through is something just short of fantasy. From big and bulky to big, lean and vascular is what most can look forward to if done correctly. That's right I said "big", not small and lean, that just won't do! The idea of sweating blood and guts in the off season doing heavy deadlifts and high rep heavy squats, just to waste away to skin and bones pre-contest never really made much sense to me. If done correctly pre-contest dieting will actually put more lean mass on your frame at the same time as removing as much body fat as possible. Remember, pre-contest dieting is all about fat loss…not weight loss!

There are a few crucial points to remember here and are intertwined in this leaning out phase.

1. Never make drastic changes to diet or cardio as this will lead to problems. Ease into the diet and cardio, always keeping a spade in your back pocket…more on this later.
2. Keep your training the same as it was in off season. Why? Because changing to lighter weights and higher reps will equal muscle loss and disaster, while keeping strength levels high means muscle preservation. The old adage, 'use it or lose it' definitely applies here!
3. Keep the stress to a minimum by being organized and having a complete rest day each week.
4. Enlist the aid of someone who has been there before…experience and an impartial judge can be your best allies.

Diet is THE most important part of pre-contest prep. If you plan on coming in somewhat competitive you must diet correctly. A calorie is NOT a calorie, as old school dieters used to think. Proper macronutrient ratios and totals will amount to a vastly different physique come contest time. Carbohydrates must be used sparingly and with proper timing. Starchy carbs such as rice, yams, oats etc should be used specifically for fuel to power through your workouts and limited after that. Carb sensitivity is an individual thing and some people can get lean eating starches while others cannot. I try to keep things as logical and simple as possible: use only limited amounts of starches (I prefer to use yams exclusively) as fuel for training sessions. Carbs eaten at any other time would be fibrous vegetables. A simple formula to use is to figure out your Active Metabolic Rate and reduce this by 500 calories per day. This would equate to one pound of fat loss per week. I keep protein in the 1.5 g per lb range and fat in the .5 g per lb range. Thus carb intake would make up the difference. This has worked for many clients and can work for anyone…but just like any diet you have to find a baseline and build on that to find what works for you. The ability to perfect your diet - down to a science - will come with time and experience.

Cardio is required if you are looking for that ultra shredded look. It is a prerequisite but it can also hinder more than help. Cardio will aid in fat loss and metabolic mobilization but too much can be catabolic and hinder muscle retention. It is a good idea to ease into a cardio program while precontest dieting and allow the body to adjust. A trick I like to use is to start cardio prior to precontest dieting and increase calories to maintain your current weight. Thus the body will adapt to this stimulus and when you start to reduce calories it will not be necessary to drop drastically. Also, cardio is best done in the morning on an empty stomach and/or after a tough workout…both times when glycogen stores are low and fat burning will be greatest. I prefer moderate intensity one day and high intensity cardio the next. Alternating this will help recovery periods and will be less stressful on the body and mind. Also remember to have a least one day a week (usually on your carb-up day) where no cardio or only morning cardio is done prior to carbing up. The day should be used for rejuvenation, stress relief, and to replenish the muscles for the following week.

Stay tuned!

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