Carbing up for the big show

[shredded_Tris]

I agree with this. Many people say its hard to peak 2 weeks in a row, but it's not physically hard, just mentally. I basically consumed 10000 calories between friday and saturday on the first show. Sunday it was back to eating very low calories, right through till the following week. Water was definitely blurring me out all week, but by friday morning it was gone. Although, it did take more cardio than normal, and less food. If anything, I looked better the 2nd week, so I suppose you could do a "mock contest" 1 week out and get away with it no problem. I wouldn't do it though - that's alot of suffering to go through just to see...Personally friday and saturday of a show is when I feel the least like competing. Cramping up like mad, dehydrated, not able to sleep etc...not something you want to do unless you have to!

I have had problems with that in the past too Steve. What do you do to stop cramping. I don't get it cause you are mostly still drinking water until Friday night. Is there anything you can do/take?

[steve_d]

Well, my cramping started really bad friday morning (9am - 4 hours after waking), I didn't cut water till friday night, and I didn't cut sodium until basically friday morning. Funny how cutting sodium lead this to happen within hours of cutting it. (Well, I technically cut it thursday night at bedtime). However, it wasn't just cutting the sodium that caused it. sitting in car, or laying around would cause it to happen. If I was standing or walking it wouldn't...So the advice is to try not to sit still when you start cramping. Sleeping is a different story, its hard to sleep standing up!

I heard quinine helps, but I don't think it helped me - at all. Sodium helps for sure. so don't drop it too low ever - especially when drinking tuns since it will flush out regardless.

Another thing is that for me carbing up makes me cramp. On my weekly cheat meals, I would always cramp up (not as bad as show day, but quite a bit compared to normal). Again, I am sure this has to do with electrolytes, but you'll rarely find a reallllly dry competitor that doesn't complain of cramping. Happens to everyone! (well almost)

[Andre Gregoire]

Steve you are right, when I do a trial run everything is not exactly like it will be on show day but I try to get everything as close as possible.

For a real show I will do my last heavy leg day about 7-10 days out and cut cardio around the same time if I am lean enough. For a trial run I keep cardio in and do my leg workout a few days before peaking.

I still do a depletion training for the trial run but its only a one day thing instead of a 2 day depletion workout for the real show.

I like to do the trial run around 3-4 weeks out when I have about 2lbs left to lose so I am not holding my condition into the show but I am close.

Trial runs aren't needed and they are not for everyone but I like them, I also enjoy trying different stuff so for me they allow me to test stuff.

Another aspect of it is that I find they are a confidence booster, I take pictures and look at them. When you are close to the end of a diet and you feel like crap, you think you look like crap, you feel small and flat... It's nice to see yourself look good, dry and ful, it helps me mentally and makes me feel confidant in what I will be able to present in a few weeks.

Just another way of doing things.

[Praetorian]

As Andree says you can run a trial run at 3-4 weeks out without issue if you do it correctly. That means not dropping water until Friday evening, limiting diuretic usage and not using loop diuretics or aldosterone blockers. You aren't going to gain an ounce of fat doing this because it shouldn't last longer than two days. A slong as you start drinking plenty of water saturday morning after judging your condition...you'll be back to normal in a day or two.
Again as Andre says its better to error on the conservative side...too many guys blow 16 weeks of dieting because they overload carbs thinking they are not full enough and loo watery and bloated....then you end up overdoing diuretics and you are in a push pull battle with the body...not good.
Quinine sulfate is used to stop cramping...it was more prevalent when loop diuretics were used such as lasix. You can use sugar free tonic water as an alternative as it is a natural form of quinine.
P

[ironwill]

Good post!!!

Steve you are right, when I do a trial run everything is not exactly like it will be on show day but I try to get everything as close as possible.

For a real show I will do my last heavy leg day about 7-10 days out and cut cardio around the same time if I am lean enough. For a trial run I keep cardio in and do my leg workout a few days before peaking.

I still do a depletion training for the trial run but its only a one day thing instead of a 2 day depletion workout for the real show.

I like to do the trial run around 3-4 weeks out when I have about 2lbs left to lose so I am not holding my condition into the show but I am close.

Trial runs aren't needed and they are not for everyone but I like them, I also enjoy trying different stuff so for me they allow me to test stuff.

Another aspect of it is that I find they are a confidence booster, I take pictures and look at them. When you are close to the end of a diet and you feel like crap, you think you look like crap, you feel small and flat... It's nice to see yourself look good, dry and ful, it helps me mentally and makes me feel confidant in what I will be able to present in a few weeks.

Just another way of doing things.

[steve_d]

As long as you start drinking plenty of water saturday morning after judging your condition...you'll be back to normal in a day or two.

I forgot about the fact that if you did this mock thing, you wouldn't be dehydrated as long as a real show (ie. saturday night potentially after an overall posedown)...So yeah, it would take way less time to get back to normal.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with all the points made as to why to do it...I just never would, but that is just me. Personally I tend to feel good near the end of my diet mentally - but then again, the lighting at my gym was awesome when I tried, so it was hard to feel flat and not looking good! I truly think there isn't much to carbing up...a simple method is actually the best method. Overdoing things usually happens when your not ready regardless. If your ripped, and I mean really ripped, then the trial run isn't totally necessary, since it is hard to go wrong at that point. When you're really ripped you look freaky no matter what you eat the day before.

Also, I think many people respond in much the same way as each other. I think alot of people conclude that they respond better 1 way over another (after trying both) for the reason that they were actually leaner when they tried one way, therefore conclude they looked better using THAT method.

[Prisoner#22]

Most will disagree with me, but yes, I kinda do think it could mess you up. I am not talking about a weekly cheat, because leading up to my last show, I was eating between 5000 and even up to 7000 calories on my cheat day...I stopped doing that about 3-4 weeks out and no problems. But what will mess you up is going through the exact motions you would the day of the show.

Carbing up is a totally different story when you start messing with sodium and dropping water. My point though I should say is its not the carbing up that you should worry about, its the rebound you get from being dehydrated for so long. So I definitely wouldn't do a "mock carb up" in that sense.

Which leads me to my point about my lack of understanding of why people do a "trial run" a few weeks out. You're never going to know if it works because no one truly does a trial run...ie going through all the motions of the last week before a show - plus, most people are not nearly as lean as they will be 4 weeks out, so another reason why you can't truly guage the effects.

Don't get me wrong, you CAN get a general idea of how your body might react to certain carbs, but I guess I just never understood the term "trial run" since all conditions will change.

The WBBF show was my trial run... Thats the best and only way to do it. Plan your load the best you think and then do a food log and log everything you put in your mouth and when. Then record your observations along the way. It turned out for my WBFF show I looked my best the morning after the show.. but I looked pretty decent and full for the night show. I continued to log all the way to the morning after though. So now I have that Info... turns out I actually underestimated the amount of time and food it took to fill me out. Now the plan for nationals is to back up the food schedual by about 32 hours.

[Prisoner#22]

Also keep in mind bros that hydrochlorothiazide is also a loop diuretic as are many herbal supplements.

For myself, I don't like to mess with my electrolytes too much the last week prior to a show. I don't believe in water loading, because that flushes away too much electrolytes...and really your body NEEDs sodium, potasium, magnesium, Chloride, Calcium etc. to function. What I do do is avoid eating excess sodium, so that means plain non processed chicken and rice for me mostly the last week of the prep.

I believe in using herbal diuretics a little heading into the last few days, and a little diuretic as well to lower the set points. I will also use pressure stockings to help manually suck excess water out of the legs (yah I just gave up one of my trade secrets lol) however you can actually diuress this way too much as well so you gotta be carefull.

When the time comes to load, I do a clean load for the first few days and then dirty it up as time goes on... adding in high glycemics the last day of the load.

If I use diuretics, I also supplement with potasium... and then there is the sodium load as well to top things off. I won't give away details as I am actually starting to prep people, and want to earn some cash doing it (I'm sure all can appreciate that)

However the one very important thing that I know that most lay people arent aware of, is that insulin shuttles blood potassium intracellularly. If you are diuressing at the same time you... especially if using loop diuretics or herbals even, you will be excreting blood potassium out of your kidneys, and loosing blood potasium a;so as it is shuttled intramuscularly.
If you are not replacing it.. that can represent a problem, and is more likely the cause of your cramps.

Its funny how the methods you learn while treating patients who are in severe diabetic ketoacidosis can be applicable to loading for a show lol.

[Delt King]

Dude pretty sure hydrochlorothiazide is not a loop diuretic as its in the thiazide family of drugs rather than the loop family like...
* Furosemide (lasix)
* Bumetanide
* Ethacrynic acid
* Torsemide

examples of thiazides...
Hydrochlorothiazide • Bendroflumethiazide • Hydroflumethiazide • Chlorothiazide • Polythiazide • Trichlormethiazide • Cyclopenthiazide • Methyclothiazide • Cyclothiazide • Mebutizide


Anyway, if someone isn't careful they can certainly wreck 4 months of dieting in one day.

[Delt King]

P22 Also you need sodium to load carbs effeciently...that is one reason you looked better the day after. As i'm sure you reintroduced sodium sat morning and you mentioned you looked better in the evening show...That fact leads me to this conclusion. But if your plan is set in stone don't listen to me.