Date: Thu, 11 Apr 96 From: (Rick Silverman) Subject: Re: Pre-Contests Tips >Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 >From: Randy Simmons >I have been an active reader of weights for the last couple of years and >have found some of the information of great use in my training and diet. >After 14 long years of lifting weights I have decided to enter my first >(natural) amateur bodybuilding contest. I am 14 weeks out from the contest >at 5'9", 192 lbs, and about 11% body fat. I am starting my diet (and cardio) >now and aim to be contest-ready in 11 weeks (leaving 3 weeks to fine tune my >diet). The contest is NPC-sponsored (drug-free plolygraph-tested) and I will >most likely be in the middle-weight (below 176 lbs) class. >I know there is a lot of contest experience out there and would be interested >in any information on the following topics: >POSING: good posing references (written or video), tips, techniques, pre-contest pump routines/tips, best posing trunks, etc. There is a tape called "Perfect Posing" which some friends lent me. I thought it was very helpful, though I had already had some excellent coaching from a friend who competed in the past and has run and judged shows for several years. Also, Phil Robakewicz, who I met off the list and judges for the ANBC met with me once before my contest and helped me with my posing. Of course, everyone and his brother gave advice at the gym when I practiced. Bottom line--get help from people who have competed and who know good posing. Don't bounce, whatever you do--It's very distracting. Move into your poses slowly and deliberately--The movement brings out cuts and the judges are looking for that as well. Hit the poses precisely and hold them. Try your poses several different ways in front of knowledgeable critics and determine what looks best on YOU. Not everyone should hit the pose the same way. Our bodies are different. Your posing should bring out your strengths (and hide your weaknesses, if you have any). >DIET: pre-contest techniques for eliminating water, increasing muscle fullness, etc. Oh, jeez. The diet thing. Everyone is going to tell you boiled chicken and plain white rice. And on alternate days eat 1/2 potatoe, two ounces of.....You've been training for a long time, and by now you know what your body does with the calories and nutrients you put into it. What you must now do is diet down to a point where you maintain as much muscle and lose as much fat as possible to bring out the cuts. Since I posted last week, I am even more cut up--my quads are showing numerous cross-striations, my glutes are striated, my upper body is scary. I just keep riding that bike for at least 30 minutes every day, taking in 3200-3500 calories every day (as opposed to 3500-4000). No fat (I figure that way I'm getting around 10%, if I'm aiming for none), 60% carbs, 30% protein. This is a reasonable ration precontest, to my understanding. If you have a slower metabolism, eat fewer carbs, but maintain your 1 gm/lb protein intake. Avoid simple sugars, if you have a tendency to store--I don't, so I ate fruit through my entire diet phase, though a little bit less (mostly bananas and also raisins in my daily oatmeal). I have had 3 Oreo cookies (one chocolate covered the night after my contest), two bites of lemon cake, one bite of "chocolate decadence", one small taste of chocolate mousse, some fruit/pudding thing on Easter (two teaspoons), a couple of chocolate macaroons, and that's about it for the bad stuff. I confess, I have incredible will-power in this regard. As the contest week gets closer, I was advised to carb deplete on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning, which I did. Monday, I ate about 3/4 of my normal carbs (ballpark figure--I'm not very exact on any of my measurements), very few carbs Tuesday and Wednesday morning. My face, which had been pretty normal up to this point, suddenly became drawn and has remained so since that time. I look about 16 without any facial fat (not that I had much before...) I got a little dizzy Wednesday morning, but other than that, my workouts remained good on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday after I started to reload carbs, I felt great. I'm told that you will feel your muscles "fill back up" with glycogen. My muscles had gotten softer by Wednesday, but I confess, I didn't feel that I got "overfilled", which is sometimes what I guess people feel--really full. I did look much harder, though. In conjunction with re-carbing, I tried a little experiment. I started to reload Creatine on Wednesday, taking it either with my Muscle Maxx or in Grape juice. I drank very little other water. I think there is some sense to this--sugar takes water into the muscle cells, creatine takes water into muscle cells. Extra creatine is converted to creatinine and pulls water out through the kidneys. End result--no extra water in the body--everything either intracellular in the muscle or intravesicular--in otherwords in the bladder and peed out. I was very dry. I didn't drink any distilled water, take any "herbal diuretics" or drink coffee (which I don't ever drink anyway). These other options are okay, I just didn't use them. This week, I only carb depleted Tuesday--but intensely, and effectively. I also have a cold, so I have taken a little more water than I might have, but I'm cutting back today and tomorrow. I am again "reloading" my creatine, etc., same as last time (I had run out after the contest, so I just took a few days off anyway). If you have time before your contest, experiment with this stuff a few weeks out and see what your body does. That was my idea for the first contest--to experiement, knowing that I was doing a second one anyway. >GROOMING: good tanning products (I will have a good base tan prior to the contest), body hair removal tips, etc. I used Jan Tana agents, and I received many compliments on my color. More importantly to me, though, was that it was gone on Monday morning when I went back to work. As I said, though, I had excellent color--very dark. And it didn't run for me, though I have heard that complaint. Regarding hair removal, start shaving early to eliminate the rash problem. I found this to be the biggest problem under my weight belt. I shaved my chest and abdomen every other day, and when I started to shave my arms, I also did that every other day--mainly because the nubs looked weird at work. I have some hair on my shoulders which I always clip very short. Because my shoulders are sort of bony, shaving there is a pain. I actually had them waxed for my contest and again this past weekend for the next one. It doesn't really hurt that much, but it can cost anywhere from $10 to $20. My hair grows back pretty quickly, so I found it better to do it one week ahead. I only shave my legs once a week because it's time consuming and a pain in the ass. Unfortunately, as a result of that, I get a rash on my inner thighs... Oh, well...I look forward to the end of that. >TRAINING: any changes to training routine in prep for a contest, amount/lenghth of cardio training, etc. I merely added from 30 to 60 minutes of cardio every day--low level, bike riding. I went mountain biking and cross-country skiing a few times instead. This is again variable for each person. I didn't change my workout routine significantly. I lost little if any strength through my diet period, but I also only lost about 10 lbs. Again, I was fairly lean when I started. I was told by some people to switch to high reps, lower weights to bring out cuts. I overtrain to begin with, do lots of sets, heavy weights, but rarely less than 8 reps, and usually 10 - 12. I threw in an occasional "weird" workout day with lower weights, many reps and lots of concentration with some posing in between. Last week and this week I continued to lift fairly heavy--Just tired of fiddling around, I guess. >Any other general contest experiences are also greatly appreciated. >Rick Silverman's post on his contest experience was a great source of >information and inspiration (and entertainment). Since more and more readers >seem to be interested in competitive bodybuilding, maybe a FAQ on contest >preparation would be a good idea. FAQ would be a great idea. I also glanced at Arnold's "Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" because I had it from a talk I had put together. There's a list of carbs with glycemic indices which can be helpful. I'm sure there are more helpful books out there. The most helpful thing is to ask people that you trust and in whom you have confidence. I am fortunate to know people like this. You need to be aware of whether they use agents which you can't use in a drug-tested show, including clenbuterol and prescription diuretics--you'll be asked. If your advisor has used these things, you must interpret the advice and take any potential positive help from it, realizing that the drugs make the process of getting lean and hard somewhat different. If he or she is a friend, they will understand the difference and possibly explain that to you. You can learn from that, too. Rick Silverman ------------------------------