ASSISTED MALE BODYBUILDER – HOLDING WATER DUE TO USING PED’ S.
ASSISTED MALE BODYBUILDER – HOLDING WATER DUE TO USING PED’ S.
• At 2-4 weeks out, consider increasing your aromatase inhibitor / anti-estrogen dosage.
• Stop any compounds that you think you think may be causing you to retain water at 7-14 days out( e. g. testosterone, growth hormone etc). This isn’ t black & white though, for some, this may ruin their look. Judgement call!
• From day one of peak week, increase your habitual water intake by 1-2 litres. For example, if you’ re averaging 5 litres per day, you’ d shoot for 7 litres.
• Each day that goes by, increase water by 1 litre per day. We’ d typically cap this at 10-12 litres depending on the size of the competitor.
• Keep sodium consistent throughout the week as you have done on prep. Approx. 1 / 8 – 1 / 4 tsp sea salt with each meal plus condiments would be about right for most.
• Train with your normal exercises and rep ranges. In the second half of the week, back off the loading by 10-20 % and reduce volume by 20-30 % to allow recovery.
• Schedule your last legs session to maybe 3-4 days out from the show.
• Drop HIIT at 7-10 days out( if applicable).
• Taper SSCV through the week( if applicable).
• 6 days out, run a‘ carb depletion’ for three days – reducing carbohydrate to between zero-100g carbs per day.
• 5 days out, drop Yohimbine HCL( if applicable).
• 4 days out, start a herbal diuretic such as H20 Remoove, twice per day.
• 3 days out, aim for an aggressive carb load of approx. 3-5x your bodyweight in lbs. E. g. 200lb bodybuilder would have between 600-1000g carbs.
• 2 days out, either repeat or ramp the amount up / down depending on response.
• 1 day out, evaluate‘ look’. If spilled, err on the side of lower carbs, if borderline, consider doing 3 meals with carbs and 3 meals without and increase fats instead.
• 1 day out, drop water from the previous approx. 12 litres down to 4-4.5 litres.
• 1 day out, consider seasoning‘ every other meal’ or pulling sodium completely to assist in diuresis.
• 1 day out, increase H20 Remoove from 2 dosages to 3. Add additional caffeine if tolerant.
• Show day, have a decent sized breakfast with a good hit of carbs, fat and sodium( eggs on toast with ketchup, sushi, smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel, McMuffin etc).
• Switch over to easily digested meals every 2-4 hours( chicken, white rice and almond butter) throughout the day.
• 60-45min before stage time, 1 serving of a pump product.
• 30-45min before stage time, ½ to 1 tsp sea salt with 25g HBCD( Highly Branched Cyclic Dextrin).
This peak gets a little more complicated due to the fact that 1) These competitors are likely carrying more lean tissue and even leaner than the previous classes, thus can handle a more aggressive carb up 2) Their goal is to get that‘ full, dry and vascular’ look we mentioned back in the opening paragraphs 3) Due to the PED’ s being used, there’ s a chance they’ ll be retaining water – even after cessation of use at 1-2 weeks out.
As we approach that final month of prep, it’ s not uncommon to increase AI / anti-e usage. The goal during prep is to control not crush estrogen( although most
MARCH 2018 | FLEX 125