T Nation

Competition Conditioning

Christian Thibaudeau Coaching
#1

Hello there CT.
I am looking to compete in an amateur bodybuilding competition one day. I find gaining muscle reasonably easy and can maintain a reasonable body fat (11-13%) but can never get it below 11%, irregardless of how hard i try.

I was wondering what combination of diet, weights and cardio (if you use cardio) you recommend to get your bodybuilders to competition-ready body fat percentage?

Different techniques I have identified and a few I have trialled to limited success:

Diet: Keto/carb cycle. Also, eat big and clean or small and clean?
Weights: Lifting heavy low rep to maintain mass / lifting moderate weights and reps for more caloric burning
Cardio: None / HIIT / steady state / mixed?

I usually use a Poliquin keto diet and have tried adding in HIIT (2x 30min sessions w/ BCAA’s). The scales went down but the BF was the same

Any advice would be appreciated

(( 6"4 240 pounds 12%))

#2

Hey dude,

What does your current intake look like in terms of amounts of fats and protein percentages?

GJ

#3

[quote]Intermezzo wrote:
Hello there CT.
I am looking to compete in an amateur bodybuilding competition one day. I find gaining muscle reasonably easy and can maintain a reasonable body fat (11-13%) but can never get it below 11%, irregardless of how hard i try.

I was wondering what combination of diet, weights and cardio (if you use cardio) you recommend to get your bodybuilders to competition-ready body fat percentage?

Different techniques I have identified and a few I have trialled to limited success:

Diet: Keto/carb cycle. Also, eat big and clean or small and clean?
Weights: Lifting heavy low rep to maintain mass / lifting moderate weights and reps for more caloric burning
Cardio: None / HIIT / steady state / mixed?

I usually use a Poliquin keto diet and have tried adding in HIIT (2x 30min sessions w/ BCAA’s). The scales went down but the BF was the same

Any advice would be appreciated

(( 6"4 240 pounds 12%))
[/quote]

You are kidding right? I’ve never used the exact same diet and energy system strategy with two competitive bodybuilders. I had bodybuilders train twice a day or 3 times a week; do low intensity cardio, intervals or none at all; I’ve had some diet on less than 50g of carbs and others at 400g. I do not have one approach… the strategy used will depend on the individual.

#4

Right. My apologies

#5

Intermezzo, with all due respect I’m going to guess your problem is lies somewhere in your diet/nutrition plan. It should not be too difficult to get below 11%, unless you don’t have a good grasp on your daily macro intake. Not that training methods are not important, but the best training program coupled with a poorly designed diet will kill progress from my experience.