Post Contest Goals

*Disclaimer: I am by no means a scientist, nutritionist, or doctor. I am a competitor that is continuously learning and researching. This post is my opinion, based on some very intelligent people’s research.

One month after competition (left). Two months after competition (right).

Have you ever met someone that competes in bodybuilding competitions? You see them work their hiney off for 10+ weeks, get some surreal results, and rock it on stage. It all seems so glamorous, but there is a darker side that is typically not talked about.

After dieting intensely for weeks and doing lots of cardio, competitors will often gain all the weight back, plus some, within a month- sometimes even a weekend.

3 “Improvement Season” Goals

I’m starting to figure out the importance of “off seasons” and what they should really be for. Off Season (aka “Improvement Season”) goals should be:

• SLOWLY increase calories
• SLOWLY ease off on your cardio
• Keep weight gain to a minimum

What do the three goals above help you with? Increasing your metabolic capacity. Increasing your metabolic capacity allows for more flexibility in your food choices and also helps you stay lean year round. The goal is to get your calories as high as you possibly can without spilling over.

How do you do this?

It’s freaking hard to go slowly on your improvement season. You are ready to have some cheat meals, relax on your cardio, and you are mentally drained. But do not stop. Keep doing your cardio, keep on your same strict diet, and slowly, decrease the amount of cardio you are doing, while slowly increasing your calories.

Give Me an Example

Let’s play with an example. Pretend this is your situation below. Keep in mind the end goal is to get your calories as high as you possibly can with as little cardio as possible.

End of Contest Prep:

• 1500 calories (120 g. carbs, 124 g. protein, 52 g. fat)

• Four sessions of 30 min. High Intensity Cardio

Improvement Season Prep:

• Week 1 Nutrition: Add in 10 g. of carbs
• Week 1 Training: Decrease cardio by 10 minutes
• Monitor results after Week 1 (same thing for Week 2 if no weight is gained)

I will not lie, it is a pain, but dealing with an unhealthy metabolism is worse. Take your time, put together a plan, be very strategic and your Improvement Season will help you kick butt on stage later without starving yourself and doing lots of cardio.

Have you liked my Facebook page? Go do that by clicking on the Facebook icon. I look forward to interacting with you there. 🙂

Track Workout

Yesterday I did a track workout and a lower body workout.  Today, I can barely move and feel like I got ran over by a truck.

If you want to feel like you got ran over by a truck, try this track workout and then go to the gym and do some heavy squats and lots of dropsets. 😉

Okay, enough whining…..it was actually an awesome workout! My sisters (McKenzie and Morgan) and brother (Shayne) joined. We had a lot of fun while working our cans off.

6 x 400 m. runs (6 laps with a 1 min. rest in between laps)

4 x 100 m. sprints (1/4 of a lap- all out sprints- full recovery in between)

2 running long jumps (for fun)

30 tire flips (as fast as you can)

100 foot tire carry

5-10 minute cool down (light walking, jogging, etc.)

Try it out and let me know what you think. I can safely say my hiney and quads were on fire.

Enjoy your Monday and make it a great day by getting a good workout in!

Competition Prep 2013

I’ve decided to share my current competition prep.  I worked very, very hard the past year getting my overall calories up, so that I have more “working room.”  The picture below are my favorite supplements for the moment. I don’t always take a pre-workout (N.O. Explode) unless I feel like I’ve been dragging butt and need the energy boost.

The table below is an example of a moderate carb day*.

*I carb cycle, so I have moderate, high and low carb days depending on what workout day it is. For example, low carb days will fall on my cardio or rest days. High carb days fall on my weight days, typically lower body. Check out bodybuilding.com for examples of how you can carb cycle to help you achieve your peak conditioning.

My favorite supplements!

Keep in mind this is my mid-way through competition diet. My overall calories and macros will be dropping slowly until the big day! But, for those who are curious what a competition diet could look like, here goes.

The total calories for this day is 1650.

Macro breakdown:

Fat- 56 g.

Carbs- 146 g.

Protein- 134 g.

Meal 1	Meal 2	Meal 3	Meal 4	Meal 5
1/3 c. egg whites	¾ c. lowfat cottage cheese	4 oz. Chicken tenderloins	¾ c. lowfat cottage cheese	4 oz. chicken tenderloins
2 whole eggs	1 Plain lightly salted rice cake	136 g. sweet potato	1 cutie (mandarin orange)	136 g. sweet potato
½ c. Oatmeal	1 ½ tbsp. peanut butter		Coffee with 2 tbsp. creamer
½ oz. walnuts
2 tsp. brown sugar and 1tsp. Splenda
2 pieces of turkey bacon
Coffee with 2 tbsp. creamer