Contest Countdown
Preparing for a competition usually propels many a gym-goer into the realm of HardCore training. After all, when you went to your first competition and sat in the audience, didn’t it make you want to jump up out of your seat and rush to the gym to replicate all that you saw on stage? Of course! That’s why seeing a physique in perfect condition is so motivating. You see that it’s actually possible to achieve what’s in your mind’s eye.However, as most people who train know, getting from that seat in the audience as a spectator and up onto the stage as a competitor requires a lot of footwork and planning in between time. Now, no one is suggesting that the first thing a newbie gym rat should do is to jump into the next competition on the NPC calendar. Actually, that’s a sure set- up for failure and has caused a great many people to quit doing something that could really enhance their life for year’s to come.However, one of the greatest motivating factors and best methods for getting the results you want, is to set goals and attach some form of a time frame to when you would like to achieve them. To some, that means carefully outlining goals that satisfy only them. To others, that means training for an actual competition.Regardless of whether or not you want to seriously endeavor bodybuilding as a sport, the fact is, it’s always a great way to push yourself into action. Action is half the battle. Whether you fall slightly short or come in right on the money, the point is that you actually took yourself from Point A and went to Point B in a methodical fashion. This can be just the ticket to teaching you how to get into shape.Remember those motivational speakers in the 80’s and 90’s who used to say, “The best way to achieve a goal is to write it down”? Well, that’s truer than you may imagine. Writing down what we eat on a daily basis, for instance, not only keeps us honest, it keeps us from deviating from our plan to reach our goals. This simple tool allows us to know exactly what is going on with our bodies and what is working or not working. We think to ourselves, ‘I don’t have to write it down because I lived it’, but then why can’t you remember how a particular meal affected you from 4 days prior? Or, why can’t you explain the fact that you’re not losing any body fat even though you’re “dieting”?Planning is virtually everything when it comes to bodybuilding success. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t alter your plans during a workout or diet meal, if it will suit you better for that day—you can! However, starting off without any kind of plan at all can be disastrous and lead to aimless training or dieting that amounts to very little by year’s end. Having a goal prevents this from happening. Just remember that goals are living, flexible things and can accommodate life in the process.When people gripe about not getting the results they want out of a weight training program, it’s usually for one of four reasons, or perhaps a combination: Either they aren’t working out hard enough, they’re overtraining and failing to get the rest they need, they aren’t supporting their workouts nutritionally, or they simply were never shown how to work out! But there’s an underlying reason that is a foundation for all of these reasons for failure: Not having a plan!Even if you were to choose to transform your body and diet using the principles explored in last issue’s article, “The Body-Type Training Regimen”, you need to understand what your particular body type holds in store for you, and what you need to do in order to work within that modality, otherwise, you would surely fail. It’s the same with setting a time-related goal for your physique. You need to be measured and planned about it, otherwise, why waste another moment in the gym? Why eat another chicken breast, if all you’re going to do is mindlessly chase it with a Hershey Bar?Will forging a plan ensure success? Not in and of itself. However, provided it’s a sound, realistic plan and you actually follow it, one day at a time, in a combination of days that total at least 12-14 weeks, yes it will!So let’s pretend you’re entering a bodybuilding competition. It’s 15 weeks until the big day and you have been training for a little over 2 years with some good results and some mediocre results or plateaus. Forget all that. We’re going to take you through the entire process; from planning, to execution, to success on the day of the show. Follow this, and you won’t have a problem seeing big changes in your physique using a frame of time and a few well outlined goals.Week 15: • Outline goals• Define what an effective diet is for you.• Rid your home of anything that will not support that.• Start ridding your diet of junk food (candy, fast food, sugars).• Enlist the aid of a workout partner who’ll be in it for the long haul.You aren’t going to begin your diet yet, but you are going to outline what a good diet consists of for you. Check in with a nutritionist, but somebody who has direct contest prep experience. You need to know what works best. Next, you’re going to actually decide what it is you want to look like. Do you even know what you look like beneath that layer of fat? Are you lean, but need to pack on some size between now and then? It’s beneficial to know your direction so that you can start walking! Oh yeah, and find a friend or training partner who will push you for the next 12 or 13 weeks in the gym.You’ll likely also want to rid your body of its taste for fast food and junk food. You’ll be thankful you took a few weeks to do this before actually beginning a diet.Week 14: • Buy all stored/ frozen food for diet.• Purchase supplements and protein powder.• Outline your training regimen for the entire 13 weeks.• Start building endurance by including cardio if you have been inactive aerobically.This is the week prior to starting your diet, so you need to be prepared on the morning it starts. Buy all the food you can that stores or freezes, so that on that Monday morning, you are prepared. Frozen chicken, cans of tuna, yams, oatmeal, protein powder, supplements (both for dieting and recovery) and anything else you may need apart from fresh fare.Remember, think ahead about the type of person you are... do you get hungry at night? What will you do when hunger strikes? Outfit your cupboards with small snacks that are almost calorie free so you can munch on things to tide you over into the next day. Cheating isn’t an option!The last thing is, you should start to do cardio work, maybe 2-3 times per week within this week prior to hitting it hard. You’ll be thankful you did. Start with the treadmill and up the ante each day you do cardio so you’re pushing yourself into aerobic fitness. Purchase one of those small lunch coolers so that you can pack all of your food for the day. If it’s there, it’s a no-brainer and you won’t need to tempt yourself going into a fast food restaurant or grocery store. Pack baggies of protein, or scoop protein into empty 12 oz water bottles, ready to fill.Week 13: • Cook the night before, pack the next morning.• Start writing down everything you eat.• Write down your workouts and details about them.• Get extra rest this week.This is your start week. On the day prior to this, (usually a Sunday night) you should have cooked a few chicken breasts, some yams, perhaps a little rice, etc. so that you aren’t rushing around trying to put it all together in time. A lot of people buy those Rubbermaid storage tubs, in various sizes, to accommodate salad lettuce and cabbage, cooked chicken breasts, and hard boiled eggs, in order to always have something prepared and on hand when hunger strikes. Keep replenishing these in the refrigerator so that it’s easy to just grab and put together your meals for the day. Once in the gym, make sure that you bring a small spiral notebook to record what you’ve done and basically, what your set and rep scheme was. Make comments about how it went once you arrive home so that you can assess what’s working and what isn’t.THE CYCLES OF CONTEST PREPLook at a contest prep cycle as a series of four 3 week periods of time. Within each three week cycle, there are certain things you need to do in order to push yourself into the next realm of fitness. We’ve been clear about how to begin to prepare, now we’ll get more into the fine points of actual tips for training and dieting that will point you in the right direction. It’s pretty methodical, and definitely isn’t rocket science. Just follow the plan and path that thousands before you have taken and you’ll end up successful. Weeks 10, 11
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