Tapering Off Weight Training and Cardio Before a Show
When Lou Ferrigno made his comeback to the Olympia stage in the mid-1990s, it was perhaps the story of the year. Lou was well over 300 pounds in contest shape, a feat unheard of at the time for anyone not named Greg Kovacs. He had never had a problem with mass. He was well over 6 feet tall and, had he not left the bodybuilding stage after Pumping Iron to pursue a career in acting, probably would have won a few Mr. Olympia titles in his day. Big Lou’s biggest issue when making his comeback was losing the body fat. He engaged in several months of crash dieting and massive cardio. He even reported to the muscle magazines at the time that he had been riding the stationary bike for two hours the night before the show, trying to lose more body fat.
The result was a dismal 12th place in a show where he outmassed his nearest competitors by almost forty pounds. Lou later admitted he looked worlds better a few days later, when his carbohydrate stores had finally filled out, and that his muscularity had improved greatly. What lesson can be learned here? The bodybuilder needs a period of rest following a rigorous pre-contest dieting, training, and cardio phase, in order to achieve maximum possible muscularity and conditioning.
Most bodybuilders will consume a wealth of Twinkies, cookies, potatoes, and other high-carbohydrate items in that last 24 to 48 hours before a show to ‘carb up’, or to return their body from the depleted state of the diet to a full physique, complete with bulging muscles and rounded muscle bellies. In the example above, Lou Ferrigno didn’t engage in any form of carbohydrate loading until after his show. He walked onstage with low glycogen stores. He looked stringy and small onstage, and much better later. He should have been at the dinner table eating rice and pasta instead of the treadmill – he would have most certainly made the top 10 as a result!
Muscle clarity is another factor which can be obscured with the use of cardiovascular exercise before a show. Look at your own legs following a cardio session. You don’t see veins popping out, no matter how much blood you forced to them. Rather, you see them clinging to your frame, with your vascularity obscured by the great amount of blood in the region. Cardio kills muscularity, which is why more guys don’t do it in the closing days. The ideal situation is one where the bodybuilder will cut out all cardio training about 10 days before the show. He will use a combination of posing and minimal weight training (light pumping with plenty of reps) to maintain his muscle while allowing his body to recuperate and prepare for the show at hand. Daily flexing for 30 to 45 minutes will help to keep the muscles hard and the vascularity present. If your body fat is too high 7 days out from a show, then you’re not ready to do that show. One week out, you should be sliced and ready to carb up, pose, and mentally prepare yourself over the course of the week.
This article is provided from GetAnabolics.com, the world’s leading bodybuilding supplements & steroid alternative site for today’s top bodybuilders. You can find more free information about Training, Supplements, Steroid Alternatives, Diet and Nutritional articles by visiting GetAnabolics.com - Media Central.
Post by: Dane_Fletcher