The beauty of this strategy is that you not only get bigger, but you'll stay within reasonable striking distance of your contest condition all year long.
I started my pre-contest diet 9 weeks out, then continued to drop calories very slowly
Pre-contest phase: I used 24 Muscle Mass (BCAA) in place of 24 Mass Aminos during training, added Muscle Synergy twice/day, and one Energy Reserve before each meal at about 4 weeks out. I also switched from Ultra Size to mostly Muscle Provider 3 weeks out.
I followed this gaining/hardening cycle for about 10 months before switching to my pre-contest diet plan. Some of you might be thinking to yourselves, "Ten months! No way I could do that!" But I can tell you that it really was not a big deal. If you set out a strategy like this and decide that you are going to stick with it over a longer period of time you can also afford to cheat a little. I found that a free or cheat meal, or even a free or cheat day once a week is not a problem and did not negatively impact my results. In fact it keeps me sane and helps me stay on track over the long haul, which is the secret to success.
I "pretend" the prd-judging was this
morning. Extra water, and very low
carbs on Saturday and Sundays, then
very little water and heavy carbs
Sunday night and at meal one this
(Monday) morning.
I realized my all time best ever results from this training and nutritional strategy. I added eight pounds of LBM (drug-free) kept my body fat levels low all year long, probably in the 7-8 % range, before dropping to around 5% for the contest. I have always been a hard/slow gainer, so for me this was very good progress.
The beauty of this strategy is that you not only get bigger, but you'll stay within reasonable striking distance of your contest condition all year long. I didn't start my actual pre-contest diet until nine weeks out. Even then I dropped calories very slowly. This allowed me to hang on to my newly gained LBM and to stay strong during my workouts as the contest approached. It was only the final week of workouts where any of my weights or reps dropped below what my off-season poundages had been, so that was another thing I was happy about.
As I mentioned earlier, I look at Beverly's staff and customers as part of my family. I have now embarked on a slightly different plan. After reading Greg Daniel's plateau buster strategy and exchanging several emails with him I have come up with a plan that is based on what worked for him, but - can you guess? - modified it to what I think will work best for me. Greg gained ten pounds of LBM in six weeks. I would be thrilled with that result, but my plan is laid out in a way that I think it might take a little longer than six weeks for me to see the gains. If it works for me as I hope it will, perhaps Sandy will invite me back to write another article so that I can share it with you.
In closing I want to say that my body building accomplishments this past year meant an awful lot more to me than they might have in any other year. In other areas my world seemed to be spinning in an uncontrolled fashion after I had the bad fortune of falling victim to a corporate downsizing and finding myself looking for a new career. There were many weeks where bodybuilding seemed to be the only thing I could control. It was also a huge stress reliever for me. While hopefully none of you will be in this same situation, I do think that many of you can relate to the value and benefits of being dedicated to the bodybuilding lifestyle and the personal satisfaction of realizing goals. It can be a stabilizing factor in your life.
Don't be afraid to raise your goals to the next level. Mark and Greg did so with great success while in their 20's. There are others like me who have done it later in life. I'm hoping that my results for next year will be even better! Give it a shot and share YOUR success stories with the other members of the Beverly family. (I am happy to provide more details or to answer questions by email: mmilas@nesbeonline.com)