Any guides or books on contest prep

[kbunyan]

Cant find much information on contest prep. Any books or resources that could help ? Just curious as to what goes into it.

Thanks

[charger69]

Cant find much information on contest prep. Any books or resources that could help ? Just curious as to what goes into it.

Thanks

There is no cookie cutter prep. Everyone is different.
Talk to people on here. That is your best bet. I will give you my prep when I have time to write.


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[GearHeaded]

contest prep is not like engineering or math. their are NO fixed principles. its more like an art form and very person dependent . most the top level gurus will NEVER write a book on contest prep protocols cause its their own 'art and science' and they keep things locked up like secrets and only reveal certain things to paying clients. thats just the way it is.
same reason I have clients send me pictures multiple times per day during peak week going into a show. we change things and protocols hour by hour as need on the fly.

shoot me a PM and I will refer you to one book/source that will help you with general principles of contest prep

[Livinlean]

As the above have said, contest prep is very tricky. There won't be any one size fits all sort of manual. The best bet for things like this is to log everything you do in your off season and even when you diet and maybe after a few trials you may perfect it but it really is a trial and error game.

I've read a few books related to bodybuilding but I will mention I never read any of them with the intent to learn solely about contest prep but rather to fuel my passion for body building. I would put Chris Aceto's Championship bodybuilding at the top of the list as a must read for someone learning dieting principles. The book also covers training and pre-content dieting. But as GH stated above, don't expect any of their secrets to be in a book (last second water manipulation, filling out a flat frame quickly etc).

Also, I should mention, personally what taught me the most about contest prep was hiring different coaches and learning their practices first hand. Al though this isn't a cheap method by any means, you quickly learn that coaches seem to do things quite differently.

[HoldMyBeer]

"Be Your Own Bodybuilding Coach: A Reference Guide For Year-Round Bodybuilding Success" by Scott Stevenson
I haven't read it, but it seems to be well regarded

[kbunyan]

I figured it might be an individual secret as GH and livinlean said.

@gh will pm you. Might as well pay and become a client rather than reinvent the wheel.

[kelkel]

Your progress can be significantly amplified with a good coach and save a lot of years of trial and error.
Good decision on your part.

[charger69]

I figured it might be an individual secret as GH and livinlean said.

@gh will pm you. Might as well pay and become a client rather than reinvent the wheel.

I am not sure about being secrets as much as being dependent on the individual. Some people hold more water than others, some react differently to different compounds which makes this all an individual thing. As competition comes nearer, they will ask for daily photos to adopt to your reactions.
A good coach knows how to adjust.

“It’s a process”- GearHead Proverb. LOL

You made a great choice.


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[GearHeaded]

I am not sure about being secrets as much as being dependent on the individual. Some people hold more water than others, some react differently to different compounds which makes this all an individual thing. As competition comes nearer, they will ask for daily photos to adopt to your reactions.
A good coach knows how to adjust.

“It’s a process”- GearHead Proverb. LOL

yep , you gotta TRUST the process.
the biggest mistake people make in contest prep is thinking they need to be contest ready and 'dry' and look lean and hard NOW, rather then on the day of the show. they are working hard and dieting hard and think they deserve to look amazing 8 weeks out for instagram . BUT this is a bad idea. if your competing you need to peak on show day. if your training your ass off, doing your cardio, and dieting hard, then you will likely look like shit right now (flat and depleted). just wear your hoodie and cover up. and whatever you do , do not start lowering your sodium, and taking diuretics or hardening compounds or anti estrogens in an attempt to get "dry". you should be plenty 'wet' during the whole process and dry out at the very end and peak for the show.
this is the biggest mistake guys make when coaching themselves, imo. trying to look good too early. ramping up drugs and dosages of things too early. then they don't peak for the show and they burn themselves out.

so yes its a process and you have to trust it to work out on the day that it actually matters. show day.

[GearHeaded]

another big mistake people make going into a show.. dieting into the show and restricting calories a week out. IF your not already lean enough 2 weeks before your show, then your screwed. you can not continue to diet up until show day. your body will not carb load, Harden up, get full and round, if your restricting calories. you have to go into a surplus in order to glycogen load the muscles.
which is why you have to be lean enough ahead of time

another mistake, way too much fat burners, stims, thyroid, and anti estrogens going into a show. if your taking too much stims and T3 going into a show, your body will not properly store glycogen and fill out . if your taking too much anti estrogens and crashing your estrogen going into a show, your body will not fill out (estrogen plays a role in glucose metabolism).

also, diuretics. if you have not properly shed water with the proper nutrition and peaking strategies going into the show and you think you can just get by depending on diuretics, your mistaken. you will totally flatten out and lose all your muscle fullness and hardness with too much diuretics. then you'll try to eat a ton of carbs to fill back out, and all that will happen is you'll blow your stomach out and still look small and flat. you have to be very conservative and careful with diuretic usage.

sodium.. too many people weeks out from the show begin stripping away their sodium. over time their body becomes sodium deprived and begins up regulating the hormone aldosterone, which will make you hold more water then sodium ever would.
instead, I generally have people sodium load during their depletion phase (yes, take an excess of salt and electrolytes) and then only strip away sodium at the very end (like 2-3 days out) so your body does not have enough time to up regulate aldosterone. sodium will also be on stand by depending on various factors of how the physique is looking or what diuretics may or may not be utilized.


de-hydration or hyperaklemia. happens all the time to people that don't know what their doing with their 'drug' and diuretic protools. people die every year at shows cause of this.
if for example, your taking a bunch of potassium sparing diuretics going into a show, your blood levels of potassium are already very high. then you begin to carb load on potassium rich foods, and all the sudden you have toxic levels of potassium in your blood and you end up in cardiac arrest (potassium is whats used in lethal injection to put animals and people to death).
or god forbid your totally dehydrated and need medical help, and they see your symptoms of dehydration and give you an IV bag that contains potassium in it . that becomes a death sentence.
unless on the other hand , you took a loop diuretic or non potassium sparing diuretic like lassix. now things are just the opposite. your body may end up losing potassium and electrolytes. in which case if you get very ill from this you will need to consume salt and potassium. but with other diuretics, as mentioned, this could make things worse.
you need to know these little nuances and details before you going fucking around with yourself and these possibly dangerous drugs.

I could go on and on about small little details . just bringing some basic things up to clarify how small details can really matter in contest prep

[JaneDoe]

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