• Those using PED’ s( Performance Enhancing Drugs) that are causing them to retain more water than usual
Chances are that most won’ t need to use the above, and just still have body fat to lose! 3) Completely changing training I’ ve seen it where competitors have either completely stopped training a week out, or gone on the opposite way and hugely increased their rep ranges on exercises. Remember what we mentioned in one of the paragraphs above – the body likes balance? The key in peak week is to keep as many variables the same as possible.
By completely stopping training a week out from the show, the first thing you’ ve just done is completely changed your energy balance. Your body has gotten used to expending‘ x’ number of calories per week on your weights sessions, so not only are you about to carb / calorie load, but you’ re also going to pull back on one side of the energy balance equation and completely skew things.
( Please note: A gradual taper in cardio in this final week to allow the legs to recover is fine for most.)
Also, most of you may know about a process known as‘ glut-4 translocation’. Put simply, it means that muscle contraction aids in shuttling glucose into our muscles cells. By training as usual while carb loading, we’ re aiding the process by giving our muscles a reason to store and hold onto glycogen, thus remaining‘ full’.
On the other hand, going from training in( for example) the 6-12 rep range throughout the entire prep and then suddenly jumping to 20-30 reps probably isn’ t the wisest thing to do either.
What happens when you start a new training program, or introduce a new stimulus? You get sore, right? Well, this soreness is often accompanied by a pooling of fluid( inflammation) around that area to aid in recovery. We’ re usually too fat to see this. But, in that final 5-7 days leading into the show, it will definitely be noticeable! Or at least should be, if you’ re lean enough.
In that last week, the aim should be to keep training pretty much the same. The only two things we’ d alter is: Stopping 1-2 reps shy of failure( same inflammatory response above) and to shift legs to slightly earlier in the week. Still train them, but not so close to the contest. Perhaps move them to the Wednesday before a Sunday show, for example.
BONUS Tip: Another Absolute …
Be contest ready at least 7-10 days out from your show! Going into peak week looking half-baked and hoping it will‘ fix’ you is only going to end in disappointment. Don’ t kid yourself. The goal of the peak week is to touch up and refine your physique, perhaps tightening it by 2-3 %.
If at a week out you’ re sporting love handles and your ass still jiggles – that’ s body fat. No matter how your friends word it, it’ s not water. Pick a different show and work harder.
Now that we’ ve covered what you shouldn’ t do, we’ re going to dive into three example peak weeks with( what we think) you should / could do:
MARCH 2018 | FLEX 123