Carbing up for the big show

[Praetorian]

Potassium controls cardiac output, taking potassium when you don't need it is asking for trouble. Potassium is not the problem in 99% of cases it is low sodium. Adding sodium back in the day of the show will do many wonderful things...increase blood pressure(which will be very low due to water and sodium loss) thus increasing vascularity. Vascularity comes form blood pressure not loading up on sugar. Unless you are running a loop diuretic like Lasix there is no need for potassium.

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[steve_d]

I like how this thread seems to pop up from time to time (around show time)... I know in my last minute self doubts during 'peak weak' this thread pops up in my frantic searches to see how I can better myself in those final few days. I should post this as a note to self for the next time I compete and come to the thread... Keep it simple stupid (stupid refering to myself in the future lol). So many people get caught up in the final week - myself included. Competing can play mind tricks on you and you second guess yourself. With nationals 1 day away, I am sure there are over 100 bodybuilders right now feeling small, flat, etc when really they are shredded and look as good as they should. Today being the day before the show, many of them are dropping water, sodium, and losing fullness by the second. In some cases, the drop in water is actually making them look leaner. However, the 2% improvement in leaness is not worth the 10-15% loss in fullness they will have by showtime.

I've contributed to this thread, and while its been a while, I may have changed my tune in carb up methods through my own experience. It's like this... get shredded first, then you don't need a trick the last week. If you're not shredded, then you need tricks to fix yourself. Some tricks work, but why get to the point where you need tricks to improve your physique. In most cases, those same tricks will destroy a good physique, but help a bad one. If you second guess yourself, you may think you need those last minutes fixes, when you actually didn't. The last couple days is the time where more physques are hurt than are improved. It's good to have someone in your corner that doesn't bullshit. Eating an extra 400g of carbs from the intial 4000g you already ate is not going to help you. Unless you like a bigger stomach on stage!

Moral of the story, get shredded first. Then a moderate carb up is all you really need. Depending on how your body responds, this might be a slow carb up all week, or a quick carb up the day or so before the show. Shredded first also means you don't need to mess around with crazy diuretics, and manipulating sodium, and other electrolytes.

[shredded_Tris]

Wow I haven't logged into this site for a few years now and when I hit today's posts I noticed this thread which I created FOREVER ago has just been posted in. I thought this was a mistake but it's cool that people are still getting something from it after all this time!

[Praetorian]

Yep I agree Steve..biggest mistake competitors make is not getting lean enough and thinking a diuretic will fix the situation. Carb up, sodium, and water manipulation are all minor tweaks to a perfected physique.



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[steve_d]

Yep I agree Steve..biggest mistake competitors make is not getting lean enough and thinking a diuretic will fix the situation. Carb up, sodium, and water manipulation are all minor tweaks to a perfected physique.

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2nd biggest mistake is getting lean enough but thinking the massive diuretic will make a freaky physique even freakier. All that work flushed down the toilet! (literally)