Okay, it’s that time of year again! Time to get inside-and-out shredded that is!
Last Saturday I initiated my plan to get back into contest condition. I may or may not compete (in bodybuilding) depending on how things go. I don’t doubt that I’ll get completely peeled, but I have several big things coming up that might make doing a competition more complicated. These things are:
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Preparing my upcoming wedding (which will be on August 9th).
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Starting an Olympic lifting team in Tahiti. After 2 years of discussion with them, it’s now official. So I’ll have to go there for a month in April and May to scout the potential, train the team and especially train coaches. Lots of potential there as those big Maories are simply huge and freaky strong. I’ll have to go again in September for their final prep.
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Giving a series of international seminars. So far France and Mexico are pretty much sure things, we are also in discussion with Lebanon and Saudi Arabia/Dubai.
Anyway, I’ll still eat and train like I would if I were to do a contest (which would be in 24 weeks). So here it goes!
At my biggest I was 231lbs this year. That was a month ago. I was still pretty lean at that weight since I had full abs showing.
I did a pre-diet to get myself used to following a stricter regimen and dropped down to 220lbs in 3 weeks. Most of which was water weight. That’s where I started my official “preparation.”
My diet plan will be/is pretty repetitive. I do well on eating the same thing over and over, always have. I’m not a gourmet or food lover so I can tolerate bland food without a problem.
I will not do any cardio until my fat loss stalls. I don’t have much to lose anyway since I currently stand at 8% body fat. The president of the Quebec bodybuilding federation told me that in my condition I could be stage ready in 6 weeks. BUT I prefer to lean out a bit more slowly and stay lean for a longer period of time. I find that it tightens my skin more and gives me a better overall look.
However I will be careful about overdieting. Last time I dieted down for a competition I was 205lbs with striated glutes 6 weeks out of the show, but stepped on stage at 192 with much less definition because I lost too much muscle. This time, if I ever start to flatten out or lose strength I will add calories (mainly in the form of good fats) to my diet.
My “basic” diet plan will be as follow:
MEAL 1
3 whole omega 3 eggs,
1 scoop Grow! whey,
4 Flameout caps
MEAL 2 (post-workout)
2 scoops whey isolate,
10 caps Biotest BCAA’s
20g glutamine
10-20g glycine
10g creatine
MEAL 3
200g turkey,
1 tablespoon fish oil
MEAL 4
2 scoops Low-Carb Metabolic Drive,
1 tablespoon natural peanut butter
MEAL 5
200g turkey,
1 tablespoon macademia nut oil
MEAL 6 (before bed)
3 whole omega 3 eggs*
1 scoop Low-Carb Metabolic Drive
1 tablespoon all natural peanut butter
- The eggs are mixed raw in the shake
My supplements (besides those included in the post-workout meal) will be:
- BETA-7 - 3 caps taken 3 times per day
- Primal greens by Poliquin, once serving per day
- Ultra HCL 3.0 by Poliquin with every solid protein meals
- BEFORE BED: ZMA 1 serving, GABA 5g, Glycine 10g, 5-HTP 200mg, inositol 500mg, vitamin B3 15mg
The “before bed” stack is to promote relaxation, sleep and neural regeneration. When I’m on a low-carb diet I have a really hard time sleeping. And as we know, sleep is necessary for growth and lowering cortisol.
I think that we all know by now the benefits of ZMA on the quality of sleep and recovery, especially in individual deficient in zinc and magnesium; well I’m a sweaty pig so I lose a ton of these minerals every day.
GABA and glycine are inhibitor of the nervous system in that they promote relaxation and have a calming effect. They have also been shown to reduce anxiety and stress. For this reason both products promote restful sleep. GABA has also been shown to promote the release of growth hormone and glycine helps lower cortisol.
5-HTP can help increase the level of serotonin and thus can help fight insomnia, depression and narcolepsy. In other words it will help you relax. As an added benefit it seems to reduce carbohydrates cravings (you get carb cravings when serotonin levels are low since carbs raise serotonin) which is a nice benefit when on a low-carb diet.
Inositol and B3 facilitate the action of GABA via different pathways and thus make the stack a bit more effective.
I’m not taking HOT-ROX Extreme yet. It is a very powerful product and I prefer to keep it in my arsenal for when my fat loss will stall.
At the start of the diet/preparation my program will be fairly high in volume since my work capacity is still high. As the diet progresses it is likely that I will have to lower the training volume to accommodate a loss of energy (especially when cardio is introduced).
During this first phase I will focus my strength work on staying as strong as possible in the 6-8 reps range (striving to increase strength if possible) and I will add some metabolic work between sets.
Hence the importance of the “sleep stack.”
