Being a student of politics and having the benefit of Monday morning quarterbacking, I have a post-presidential election bodybuilding analogy for you.  I know it’s a stretch, but hang with me.  Without forcing any political persuasion, let me give you one of the many reasons why President Bush won re-election and his original election for that matter.  During the summer of the 2000 election season, even when he was behind Vice President Gore in the polls, I predicted he would win because he had a solid game plan and he stuck with it daily.  As Gore was busy reinventing himself every week with every shift of the wind, Bush had a three-point campaign platform and he stuck with it through thick and thin.  He confidently gave passionate speeches for a year but they never changed in message even when different points of content were emphasized.  Not learning from Gore’s mistakes, Senator Kerry, also tried to be all things to all people, campaigning and sometimes voting on both sides of many issues.  This is just one point in a blistering and polarizing election, but President Bush had a plan and even when in doubt, even when behind, he stuck with the entirety of his plan.  The critical issue is that the well-devised plan with much input from experts and advisors, was created and then followed.

            As a bodybuilder getting ready for a contest, you too have to plan and confidently execute.  The most successful bodybuilders don’t get a day beyond their contest before they’re analyzing what will work best for their offseason, how much weight they want to gain, how they’ll cycle their training, when they’ll begin their precontest phase, and what they want their starting point to be.  And that’s just to get to the front door.  Then, the precontest is planned with goals to meet all along the way.  But, Joe, doesn’t all this work take the fun out of training?  Winning puts the fun back into it.  For those of us who are obsessively organized, “Type-A” personalities, we couldn’t function any other way.  Those who don’t typically think beyond the next workout will likely find themselves behind the pack and underachieving their potential.  Like President Bush and his advisors, you have to develop a plan that aims big, but one that you hold yourself to and keeps you on course for the win that you envision.

            The next habit of the best bodybuilders is one of determination.  I have clients who would never cheat on their diet, never miss a workout, and wouldn’t think of being without the best nutrition and training support possible.  I rarely find bodybuilders who train to their absolute capacity.  The elite few I come in contact with train with such intensity that the rest would immediately see why these animals win.  When they put the same focus and commitment into their nutrition, they dominate.  Just this weekend, I had several first place winners and one pro card winning client and these two foundational factors are what they built upon.  They have planned these wins for over a year in some cases and they executed their plans with 100% focus and diligence.

            The next three habits are the nuts and bolts of nutrition.  Protein is where to start.  We all know protein is the key to nutrition.  But, it’s a varying factor dependent on your goals and your body type.  The use of protein is to cover holes in potential catabolism, but you don’t have to be excessive.  As you get further away from your last meal, your body is busy using the amino acids for millions of chemical reactions and for muscle repair.  If you don’t keep protein coming in, you can end up pulling amino acids from muscle tissue for those needs.  You don’t have to eat 600 grams a day, you just need to be consistent meal-to-meal and always plan to be a little over “just to be sure.”  Despite the ravings of some bodybuilders, too much can be hard on your kidneys, and when you’re eating more carbs, such as in the offseason, your need for protein is actually less.  Carbs are more muscle sparing than protein once your primary protein needs are met.  (The subject of this article isn’t to go into detail of every aspect of nutrition, I have several articles on all areas of nutrition available in back issues of Natural Bodybuilding & Fitness and on my website, www.joesrevolution.com.)

            The next component of nutrition should be carbohydrates.  Protein levels really need to be set with carbohydrates so that together, you have a plan that cuts body fat without muscle (precontest) or is sufficient for muscle growth but in the boundaries of desired fat gain.  My goal for carbs is to have as much as you can get away with and still meet your goal.  If you’re in the precontest, obviously carbs won’t be excessive, but will be a big variable per your goals.  Even when dieting, though, the goal should be to have carbs as high as possible and still be on track to lose the body fat necessary to stay on pace.  Why not just drop them as low as you can go?  As I mentioned, they are what will buffer you against muscle loss more than anything else.   They will also keep your metabolism as high as possible.  As we diet and as our body fat levels get lower, your metabolic rate will slip downward, but if you manage your nutrition well, you can minimize it.  It is often best to do some form of cycling of carbs but the exact pattern works differently for different body types and is very dependent on whether you’re on track to be ready early or if you’re hustling just to be lean enough on time.  Mr.-I-have-50-pounds-to-lose-in-12-weeks won’t be enjoying too many carb sources.  The benefits of being ready early are a critical factor in how much fullness you have as you can taper food back up and how crisp you are as your body can eliminate the final subcutaneous stores in the last weeks.  The greatest benefit of keeping body fat in check in the offseason is that you can eat more carbs when dieting which will always, always, always bring you in bigger than if you gained a ton of fat and muscle and have to diet too aggressively.  Offseason carb intake thus becomes a big issue, as you should be able to consume as much as possible to create growth but without gaining more fat than you want.  The better you handle this tight rope, the better your precontest will be by far.

            No element of nutrition is independent of the rest.  Just as protein and carbs have to be considered together to meet your goals, fat is the element that rounds out the plan.  I recommend fat being as high as 30% but you can keep it as low as 20-25% of your calorie intake to make room for more carbs in the offseason.   At the higher calorie rates of an offseason, getting 20-25% of your calories from fat is still a significant amount of fat.  It will limit the amount of times you say yes to the question, “Would you like fries with that?” but the clean carbs will do more for your muscle-building agenda.  When dieting, I often start with 15-20% of calories from fat and will go as low as 10% as contest day approaches, again, to make room for muscle-sparing, energy producing carbs. 

            In the sixth slot of the seven nutritional habits of highly dominating bodybuilders is supplementation.  Protein supplements aren’t necessary to build muscle or to get lean, but the convenience makes them a very good way to meet your protein requirements.  Most meal replacements and protein blends available now accomplish the same thing: longer lasting amino acid uptake which is great for between whole food meals.  When using a powder before, during, or after a workout, you’re best served by a lower-molecular weight, undenatured powder, the best of which are either enzyme hydrolyzed or cross flow micro filtered whey isolates.  Like a high-glycemic carb, it gets to your muscle faster.  I’m not as big a fan of bars due to the lower quality protein and excessive sugar and fat, but if not over-relied upon, they can be a good treat.  But you’re trading in better food sources for something no better than a candy bar with low-quality protein added. 

            The real supplements of value are ones that have legitimate nutritional value for recovery.  In the last five years virtually everyone has begun taking glutamine and branch-chain amino acids have enjoyed a well-deserved rise in popularity.  There are other supplements that have true nutritional, well-studied value, but there are also a million ways to spend money needlessly.  Do your homework and take supplements that have solid science, an equal reputation, and aren’t gimmicky, but have recovery properties.  You can fill in a lot of gaps with well-timed, liberal use of the right supplements especially when dieting.

            The final piece of the puzzle takes us full circle back to planning, but this time specifically to peaking.  Who hasn’t tried every “trick” in the book to try to get that magical, elusive perfect peak?  The common thread of my articles on peaking is using real science combined with the necessary adjustments for your body type and your actual current dieting style.  All three of these are critical points.  First, using science is the hardest because any of us without a PhD in biochemistry is a slave to what we read or to the loudest, most persuasive mouth in the gym.  A glowing example from an email I received this morning:  “Dr. Joe, I just read one of your articles and you made the statement that you need more sodium than potassium in your body to be full and hard on contest day.  Why then, do you read the opposite in every other article?”  Good question.  Answer:  So much disinformation is entrenched in the sport due to opinion leaders in our history who had theories that may have worked for a couple people under certain circumstances or are just based on faulty understanding, but the bottom line is there is a right way and a wrong way to handle virtually every tiny variable in peaking.  Know your source of information, make them prove it, and look at their track record.  You can’t let your months of preparation hinge on guessing or trusting the wrong advice when it comes to peaking.  You’ll lose every time. 

            Even with the right science behind you, there is a great art that comes with the experience in knowing how to apply it.  Everyone has a different body type and each of us ends up never repeating a precontest phase exactly the same.  We’re either ahead or behind schedule, eating more or eating less, doing more or less cardio, etc.  Knowing how to guide progress so the least amount of muscle and fullness is lost, making sure the deepest striations are visible through effective dieting, and finishing with an absolute perfect, crisp peak are the elements that winners master.  From planning the first day of your offseason, through the process of building the best nutritional and training combination, to finishing with a perfect precontest season, all done with precision and intensity, the champions of the INBF and WNBF have these habits in common.  Learn from them and you’ll soon be one of them.

 

1)      Create a comprehensive game plan complete with goals and stick to it.

2)      Focus all your energy on executing that plan with commitment and intensity.

3)      Use the right amount of protein in context with your plan to support growth.

4)      Target carbs to gain the most muscle and lose the most fat.

5)      Round out your nutritional plan with the right amount of dietary fat.

6)      Supplement intelligently and liberally to grow and recover.

7)      Peak perfectly.  Don’t trust all of your work to a guess.