2016 Contest Prep Week 1
Last week I started contest prep for the 2016 bodybuilding season. The funny thing was, yesterday I had a powerlifting competition. And what's more is that when I started contest prep last week, I was 206lbs, but I compete at 198lbs in powerlifting. Needless to say, it made for an interesting week.
It would seem like at this point, powerlifting and bodybuilding were at odd with each other. And they were. On one hand, I wanted to stick with my boydbuilding contest prep, which meant slow and steady fat loss, consistent training, and hydration. On the other hand, I had 8lbs to lose in less than a week for powerlifting.
Water Loading
The solution was water loading. I knew there was no way I could drop 8lbs of body mass in week (safely). However, I might be able to drop 8lbs of water. Combine that with me not wanting to derail my contest prep by starving myself or by dehydrating myself for any significant period time. And I was left with water loading.
What is water loading? In a nutshell, water loading is super-hydrating (consuming more water) for a period of time to make your body adapt to flushing more water. Then you scale back water intake while you are still flushing to briefly drop excess water weight. Does it work? Well, there are a number of athletes that swear by it. Some have even reported losing up to 10% of their body weight for a brief period of time. But when all you need is a weigh-in then a brief period of time will do it.
So, on Monday of last week I doubled my daily water intake from 1gal to 2gal. On Thursday, I dropped my intake down to 1gal. And on Friday, I consumed only 0.5gal of water. I also reduced my sodium intake slightly on Friday. The net result, I lost 7lbs by Satruday morning without any additional cardio and without deviating from my calories or the macros in my pre-contest diet.
I'm sure I could have dropped more if I had kept carbs lower than what I targeted for my pre-contest bodybuilding diet or if I had injected more cardio. But either of those things would have hurt my contest prep. And that wasn't something I was going to risk.
Contest Prep
OK, back to contest prep. I ended my bulk consuming 375g carbs, 95g fat and 225g protein. I had been consuming that for a while and at the end of my bulk (last week) I was maintaining weight with that intake and very little cardio (1-2days/week for 25min). That means my maintenance was about 3255kcal/day. I didn't use a formula. I didn't need to. That's what I ate every day and my weight didn't change = it must be my maintenance.
I was planning 26 weeks of contest prep, where I will likely end somewhere in the mid/high 170's. How do I know? Well, 2 years ago I competed at 175lbs. And I obviously have some more muscle now, but I want to be leaner for competition. So, let's say I come in at 176lbs but more shredded than 2years ago. That means I would need to lose 30lbs in 26weeks, which means an average of 1.15lbs/week (absolutely do-able). That translates to about 4000kcal/week caloric deficit.
Now, because my calories weren't quite as high as I would have liked at the end of my bulk, I wanted to start off pretty conservative. So, I start my target at a 3500kcal/week deficit, knowing that with the extra cardio I'm going to add and that weight loss up front is typically a little easier, I may likely lose a couple of lbs in the first week.
Refeed Days
Because I am being pretty conservative (slow and steady wins the race, after all), I am going to have two refeed days (see Carb Cycling for Fat Loss) which will bring my carbs back up to 375g/day. On those days, I am also going to reduce my protein intake and my fat intake to account for the additional carbohydrates I am consuming. Finally, I am going to space out refeed days by at least a couple of days and I am only going to do refeed days on lifting days.
Lifting
My lifting won't really change much from my bulk to my contest prep. I will do less bench pressing due to some nagging shoulder pain. And I won't go to my max lifts with any frequency. But by in large, my lifting doesn't change. I just keep doing it, consistently. And after some time when I notice volume dropping due to fatigue, I will inject some additional volume in the form of more sets.
Cardio
Prior to contest prep, I was doing very little cardio. That changed somewhat with contest prep. Some people can get away with almost no cardio for contest prep. I envy those people. Because for me, fat loss has always been hard fought. And as a consequence, cardio has to be part of the equation.
But cardio is a double edged sword. Much like calorie consumption, our bodies adapt to cardio. Too much cardio too early on, and you run out of tools for turning up the volume down the line. So, I only do what I have to and what I can build from.
When I did do cardio during my bulk it was HIIT: 6 intervals; 30sec high intensity; 150sec low intensity with a warm-up and a cool down. I started contest prep doing cardio 2x/week (on my 2 non-lifting days per week). I still did HIIT. But now it was 8 intervals; 20sec high intensity; 100sec low intensity with a warm-up and cool down. And in case anybody is wondering, I do my HIIT on a stationary spinning bike.
Putting the Diet Together
Refeed days are about getting back to normal (before contest prep), so on those days my carbs were 375g/day and my protein was 225g/day. Fat is the number I play with, because I want it lower than a normal day, but not much lower. So, I put fat at 65g on my refeed days.
On normal days, I elevated my protein to take advantage of TEF (see How Much Protein). So, my protein goes up to 250g/day. My fat was put just higher than refeed days at 70g/day. And I drop my carbs to 240g/day in order to make up the remainder of the caloric deficit. When you add up 2x refeed days + 5x normal days, it comes out to 18920, which is a 3865kcal/week deficit compared to where I left off at the end of my bulk or just over my target of 3500kcal/week with cardio not factored in.
Supplements
I don't take a ton of supplements. But there are a few that I think can help, and those are the ones I currently take. Here they are.
- 5g Creatine Monohydrate per day
- 1 serving Scivation Xtend before and after training
- 3g Beta-Alanine before and after training
- 3g CLA spread throughout the day
- 2g Fish Oil
- 200mg Caffeine first thing in the morning
- Multi-vitamin (Orange Triad)
This is where I am starting. Check back next week for more updates. It's going to be a long road. But that's how it's supposed to be.
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