The Bodybuilding Trainer asked:


Many people who are big into body building get interested in entering body building contests to show off their physiques. These are great places to build confidence and motivate you to continue with your body building program. When you decide to start competing in body building contests, there are some things you should know first.

To begin with, attend a few contests before you enter one. Watch how the participants put together their program and what the winners do that the others don’t. See how they carry themselves and what poses they use to accent their muscles. Take notes and, if you get the chance, ask questions from those in the know.

You’ll need to plan well ahead of time before competing yourself, so start early – as much as six months to a year! There’s a lot to consider and a lot of work to do before you go on stage.

Take a look at your body and find the muscles that aren’t as toned as you’d like them to be. A body building contest is all about perfect bodies – or at least as perfect as you can get them. Just because you’ve lost a bunch of weight doesn’t mean you should be competing. You need strong muscles with well-defined tone in order to win.

Pick some music that will get the crowd excited. Your routine will be your calling card and will determine whether or not you have a strong performance. Your music should contribute to how you pose and what you focus on when in front of the judges.

Your attire is important as well. The purpose of body building contests is to show off well-toned muscles, so you should show as much skin as possible, but do so in a tasteful way. Swim suits are the best choice – Speedos for men and bikinis for women. You’ll want a comfortable fit so that you can move about easily and show all of your hard work.

When you have put together a posing routine, have someone video tape it for you and then watch it with a critical eye. Have someone else watch it as well and point out the things you are doing right as well as the things you are doing wrong. You can then work on the areas that need to be strengthened prior to the contest.

You need to pay special attention to your diet and workout routine. It is very important that you maintain the pace that got you here in the first place. Before entering body building contests is no time to slack off. You’ll need to be diligent, but the effort will pay off.

There are many, many body building contests that you can enter when you’ve reached the point where you want to start competing. Local as well as national competitions can be very grueling, so know what you are up for. Body building contests are great places to show off what you’ve worked hard for – a ripped, toned body. Good luck!

Lee Hayward asked:


It’s no secret that competitive bodybuilders are among the most successful dieters in the world at losing pure bodyfat and getting “ripped”. Bodybuilders do things differently than the 95% of dieters who fail. And in this article I will outline the basics of a good bodybuilding pre-contest diet plan. This information will really help you if you are planning on competing in the future. And even if you are not really interested in getting on stage as competitive bodybuilder, but you would like to look like one, then the info covered here will help you get that lean “beach body” look.

I’ve been competing in bodybuilding competitions since 1995 so I’ve picked up a few tricks over the years and I’m going to share them with you here…

I personally start dieting for a contest at least 6 months in advance. I want to have plenty of time to prepare myself. For the first month I simply cut out all junk foods and eat nothing but clean foods. Such as beef, chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, milk, protein shakes, rice, potatoes, pasta, fruit, vegetables, etc. I eat about 5-6 small meals each day. I drink plenty of water at least 1 gallon a day. I will also do about 30 minutes of cardio exercise 4-6 times each week, before breakfast. I will continue my regular weight training workout.

The second month of preparation is very similar to the first. I will still eat the same as mentioned above. But I will increase my cardio exercise to at least 45 minutes, 5-7 times per week, before breakfast. The whole idea of doing cardio before breakfast is to help burn up more stored bodyfat. At this time there is no food in your system to be used as fuel so you’ll burn more bodyfat from your cardio. It also helps to jump start your metabolism for the day. After exercise your metabolism is elevated and remains so for several hours.

The third month I get stricter with my diet. I will begin to cut back on my portions of starchy carbohydrates while keeping my protein intake high (between 250-300 grams of protein per day). I also eat more vegetables. My diet is now mainly foods such as very lean meat, poultry, fish, protein supplements, vegetables, rice, potatoes, oatmeal, etc. I will increase my cardio to about 60 minutes each morning before breakfast.

I’ll also start taking a fat burner. For my last show I used “Palo Alto Labs Leviathan”. I found that it worked great, I would take 2 caps twice per day on an empty stomach. Once before cardio and again before my weight training workouts because it helps give me an energy boost, curb my appetite, and raise my metabolism enabling me to burn more bodyfat.

The fourth month is pretty much like the third month with dieting and doing cardio each morning before breakfast. I will also start practicing my mandatory poses 3-4 days per week. At this stage I am getting lean and can start to see the definition showing in my abs, legs, back, chest, etc…

The fifth month before the contest I get stricter with my diet. I will eat approx. 1 gram of carbohydrate and 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight each day. I don’t normally count fat grams, but they are kept as low as possible. But I will include essential fats through flaxseeds, fish oil, etc.

A typical day will go like this:

Cardio

- take fat burner and black coffee

- 1 hour of cardio

Meal 1

- bowl of oatmeal mixed with protein powder

- egg whites

Meal 2

- chicken breast

- garden salad

Meal 3

- can of tuna

- garden salad

Workout

- take fat burner and black coffee

- weight training workout

- practice posing

- protein drink

Meal 4

- steak

- steamed veggies

- sweet potatoes

Meal 5

- protein drink

I also salt my food and even add a couple shakes of salt to my protein drinks. This may seem off the wall to most people. But I find that if I don’t add salt to my diet I get bad muscle cramps when training. Don’t worry you will not retain water, your body will adjust to a higher salt intake within a few days and as long as you are drinking lots of fluids your body will flush out any excess water. I’ll keep doing this until 2 days out from the show.

I strive to be in shape one month out before the contest and then just keep with the diet, cardio, training, etc. to let my conditioning just harden up. I won’t lose a whole lot more bodyweight, but my skin will get tighter and thinner.

I don’t try and lift too heavy in the gym at this stage because I know that I will not gain any new muscle during the last month before a contest, I am just trying to maintain my muscle mass and get leaner. I basically have my posing routine down pat. I just want keep plugging away consistently. The temptation to cheat on my diet is very strong now. It is very important not too cheat. I keep my eye on the finish line and know that the dieting will be all over soon.

Carb Loading & Water Intake…

I do not carb deplete or carb load during the last week. I have tried all kinds of crazy stuff like this in the past and I found that it is best to just diet right up to the day of the show. Carb depleting and carb loading is too “hit and miss” you risk screwing up your conditioning, it may make you look a little better, or it could make you look a lot worse. You are better off playing it safe by sticking to your diet and then just slightly increase your carb intake slightly for a couple days before the show (i.e. instead of eating 1 potatoe at a meal, eat 2 potatoes, etc.).

During the last week I will increase my water intake to about 2 gallons per day. I will stop all weight training and cardio a couple days before the contest to let my body rest and recover.

Friday night before the contest I will cut back on my water intake and just have a small glass of water with each meal. I also take herbal diuretic capsules on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to help get rid of the excess water under my skin. I do not cut my water intake entirely, just cut back. Cutting out water entirely can leave you flat and smooth. You need some water in your system in order to pump up and pose properly.

Tanning…

I’ll go to the tanning salon about 4 times per week during the last 6 weeks prior to the contest. This will give me a base tan. Then on Friday before the show I’ll put on about 3-4 coats of ProTan. This is a spray tan that you paint on with a sponge brush. Saturday morning before the show I’ll also put on a coat of Dream Tan. This is a dark tanning cream that you rub on your skin. I’ll put a coat of this on Saturday morning, another coat before pre-judging, and again before the evening show. Dream Tan works great and it has oil in the tan so you do not need to use much if any additional posing oils.

Back Stage…

When I go to the contest I take a MP3 player with my posing music. I try to find a place by myself back stage so I can practice my posing routine. By doing this, my routine is fresh in my mind before going on stage in front of the audience and judges.

When pumping up before going on stage I will do some light, high rep, upper body exercises such as push ups, bent over rows, bicep curls, etc. with a rubber fitness band. Never pump up the legs or the abs, these muscles always look and flex better when they are not pumped. Do not pump up too much because it will make you shake when you pose. Just warm up and get the blood flowing to the muscles.

And the last thing that I recommend is to go out there and have a good time. Be confident and proud of your accomplishments and put on a good show for the crowd. At this point you have done all you can do, now it is up to the judges to decide the rest.

Primoz Borovnik asked:


Here’s a case in point: One of my newsletter subscribers recently sent me this question:

Tom, on your website, you wrote:

‘Who better to model than bodybuilders and fitness competitors? No athletes in the world get as lean as quickly as bodybuilders and fitness competitors. The transformations they undergo in 12 weeks prior to competition would boggle your mind! Only ultra-endurance athletes come close in terms of low body fat levels, but endurance athletes like triathaletes and marathoners often get lean at the expense of chewing up all their muscle. Some of them are nothing but skin and bone.’

“There seems to be a contradiction unless I’m missing something. Why do bodybuilders and fitness competitors have to go through a 12 week ‘transformation’ prior to every event instead of staying ‘lean and mean’ all the time? If they practice the secrets exposed in your book, they should be staying in shape all the time instead of having to work at losing fat prior to every competitive event, correct?”

There is a logical explanation for why bodybuilders and other physique athletes (fitness and figure competitors), don’t remain completely ripped all year round, and it’s the very reason they are able to get so ripped on the day of a contest…

You can’t hold a peak forever or it’s not a “peak”, right? What is the definition of a peak? It’s a high point surrounded by two lower points isn’t it?

Therefore, any shape you can stay in all year round is NOT your “peak” condition.

The intelligent approach to nutrition and training (which almost all bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors use), is to train and diet in a seasonal or cyclical fashion and build up to a peak, then ease off to a maintenance or growth phase.

I am NOT talking about bulking up and getting fat and out of shape every year, then dieting it all off every year. What I’m talking about is going from good shape to great (peak) shape, then easing back off to good shape…. but never getting “out of shape.” Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Here’s an example: I have no intentions whatsoever of walking around 365 days a year at 4% body fat like I appear in the photo on my website. Off-season, when I’m not competing, my body fat is usually between 8 – 10%. Mind you, that’s very lean and still single digit body fat.

I don’t stray too far from competition shape, but I don’t maintain contest shape all the time. It takes me 12-14 weeks or so to gradually drop from 9.5% to 3.5%-4.0% body fat to “peak” for competition with NO loss of lean body mass…using the same techniques I reveal in my e-book.

It would be almost impossible to maintain 4% body fat, and even if I could, why would I want to? For the few weeks prior to competition I’m so depleted, ripped, and even “drawn” in the face, that complete strangers walk up and offer to feed me.

Okay, so I’m just kidding about that, but let’s just say being “being ripped to shreds” isn’t a desirable condition to maintain because it takes such a monumental effort to stay there. It’s probably not even healthy to try forcing yourself to hold extreme low body fat. Unless you’re a natural “ectomorph” (skinny, fast metabolism body type), your body will fight you. Not only that, anabolic hormones may drop and sometimes your immune system is affected as well. It’s just not “normal” to walk around all the time with literally no subcutaneous body fat.

Instead of attempting to hold the peak, I cycle back into a less demanding off-season program and avoid creeping beyond 9.9% body fat. Some years I’ve stayed leaner – like 6-7%, (which takes effort), especially when I knew I would be photographed, but I don’t let my body fat go over 10%.

This practice isn’t just restricted to bodybuilders. Athletes in all sports use periodization to build themselves up to their best shape for competition. Is a pro football player in the same condition in March-April as he is in August-September? Not a chance. Many show up fat and out of shape (relatively speaking) for training camp, others just need fine tuning, but none are in peak form… that’s why they have training camp!!!

There’s another reason you wouldn’t want to maintain a “ripped to shreds” physique all year round – you’d have to be dieting (calorie restricted) all the time. And this is one of the reasons that 95% of people can’t lose weight and keep it off –they are CHRONIC dieters… always on some type of diet. Know anyone like that?

You can’t stay on restricted low calories indefinitely. Sooner or later your metabolism slows down and you plateau as your body adapts to the chronically lowered food intake. But if you diet for fat loss and push incredibly hard for 3 months, then ease off for a while and eat a little more (healthy food, not “pigging out”), your metabolic rate is re-stimulated. In a few weeks or months, you can return to another fat loss phase and reach an even lower body fat level, until you finally reach the point that’s your happy maintenance level for life – a level that is healthy and realistic – as well as visually appealing.

Bodybuilders have discovered a methodology for losing fat that’s so effective, it puts them in complete control of their body composition. They’ve mastered this area of their lives and will never have to worry about it again. If they ever “slip” and fall off the wagon like all humans do at times … no problem! They know how to get back into shape fast.

Bodybuilders have the tools and knowledge to hold a low body fat all year round (such as 9% for men, or about 15% for women), and then at a whim, to reach a temporary “peak” of extremely low body fat for the purpose of competition. Maybe most important of all, they have the power and control to slowly ease back from peak shape into maintenance, and not balloon up and yo-yo like most conventional dieters!

What if you had the power to stay lean all year round, and then get super lean when summer rolled around, or when you took your vacation to the Caribbean, or when your wedding date was coming up? Wouldn’t you like to be in control of your body like that? Isn’t that the same thing that bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors do, only on a more practical, real-world level?

So even if you have no competitive aspirations whatsoever, don’t you agree that there’s something of value everyone could learn from physique athletes? Don’t model yourself after the huge crowd of losers who gobble diet pills, buy exercise gimmicks and suffer through starvation diets like automatons, only to gain back everything they lost! Instead, learn from the leanest athletes on Earth – natural bodybuilders and fitness competitors…

These physique athletes get as ripped as they want to be, exactly when they want to, simply by manipulating their diets in a cyclical fashion between pre-contest “cutting” programs and off season “maintenance” or “muscle growth” programs. Even if you have no desire to ever compete, try this seasonal “peaking” approach yourself and you’ll see that it can work as well for you as it does for elite bodybuilders.

If you’re interested in learning even more secrets of bodybuilders and fitness models, visit the Burn The Fat website at:Learn here