PRE-CONTEST TRAINING: SPECIAL ADVICE There are lots of sections and ideas on this page. Scroll down to view everything. Do not rush getting in shape or getting ripped. Allow months of extra time as a buffer for set backs and mistakes. Don't over do aerobics (cardio exercise such as biking or walking at a 70% pulse rate to lose fat for 30 to 40 minutes is our "definition" of fat burning cardio exercise). "Thin" types should avoid aerobics (or keep them very mild) and get ripped through diet alone. Endomorphs can do aerobics more frequently but again they must be careful not to over do it. You can get ripped through diet alone without aerobics. 30 minutes of aerobic activity (pulse at 65 to 70% of max) will burn 2 oz of fat. Aerobics can be done twice a day (with a meal in between), morning and evening sessions (with a nap in between) are a good split, Get in shape months before the show and work into your final condition. Be almost ripped 1 to 2 months before the show. Then during this final 8 weeks, Diet slowly taking off the last 5 lbs, to achieve the final "ripped" condition. Some athletes do aerobics to help lose all the body fat (over a several month period) and then stop doing aerobics altogether and train only with weights for 1 or 2 months before the show. Some stop aerobics just 2 weeks out from a show. Diet is used for this final time period to lose the last pounds of bodyfat or maintain a low dat condition. Most people stop aerobics when the dat is gone. Training only with weights-and no arobics- for several weeks or months, helps put back on the muscle the aerobics "burned off", along with the body fat. Train as heavy as possible in the months and weeks approaching the contest. Shoot for a good peak of strength 2 or 3 weeks before the show and try to carry as much mass into the show as possible. For some people: Training more frequently can be a serious pre-contest mistake. It can over train you, weaken you, and cause you to lose muscle. As I stated before there are several ways to approach training for a contest. I personally don't change my training. However, increasing frequency can help some people become more muscular (increased shape) or separated, some people just shrink from the over training. Figure out if you can benefit from more frequent training for about 6 to 8 weeks before a contest. Often just adding several short pumping workouts ( like doing shoulders twice in one day; one hard workout and one "quick" pumping session later in the day) added to the regular schedule can be enough to make a significant difference in how you look. Quick (10 minutes) frequent pumping sessions can be great to fill out a bodypart. A close friend does pushups twice a week, for several weeks before his contests, and his chest blows up. Another athlete I know exercises his delts 6 times a week (light) for several weeks before his contests. Shoulders, calves and arms are very responsive to this "frequent" pumping technique. Frequent ab training, helps chisel abdominals. Don't train abs with weight. Blast them non stop for 10 to 20 minute's for lots of reps as often as possible. Crunches, decline leg raises, ab blasters, and so on are all fantastic. Do stomach vacuums as often as you can. At least once a day followed by strenuous posing of the abs. 5 minutes a session is fine. Pose every day for 10 to 30 minutes starting 8 weeks out. Do the mandatory poses and your routine. Hit your abs 100 times a day, hard! Becareful, it's easy to pull a muscle posing. But be sure to pose every day as often as you can tolerate for the weeks preceding a contest. Posing daily will make you substantially harder and you will gain greater control of your physique. TANNING and Body Make-up Most modern bodybuilders don't even tan anymore. They basically dye themselves with a bronzing "instant tan" of some sort. Many people don't have the time to tan and for these athletes this is a realistic way to darken up before a show. It is NOT the best way however to prepare for a contest. Far from it. To Truly Peak...you must get a real tan. That include African Americans as well. A tan adds luster to the skin and removes water from under the skin. A real tan is the icing on the cake for a finished physique. Nothing can replace a real tan. Take about 2 months, 5 days a week for about 45 minutes each day, to obtain a decent tan. Don't rush it. Some people can barely find time to train let alone tan. For them skin dyes and coloring agents for the skin are a necessary evil. Some body make-up and dyes can blur definition. Some can turn you orange. Some make you look like an oil rigger, you look dirty rather than tan. Experiment with several products several months before you compete in order to conduct proper testing. Do one leg with one product and one with another product and compare results. The bottom line: tan for real if you can, it works. If not don't worry about it-- and use tanning booths, Dream Tan© and other quick tan products to be dark. Do not compete unless you can make yourself dark. A $20.00 jar of Dream Tan© is a wise investment. Don't go on stage without it! Going on stage white or barely tan is a big mistake and will cause you to place much lower than you would have otherwise. FACT. A light coating of dye, twice a day for 3 days before show, on top of a real tan-- can make you look very dark and not blur definition. This might be the best way of all to prepare your skin. Throw on the Dream Tan© as well. You will look amazing. Never become sunburned especially the week preceding the show. Do not become sunburned the day before your contest. Do not over tan the last three days before contest, you should already be tan by then. CONTINUED BELOW:

PRE-CONTEST SPECIAL ADVICE Training for Peak Muscularuty Looking hard. Looking separated. That is what it is all about. Here are some tips to make that happen. Try them all. Always be well warmed up before doing tensing exercises or you will tear something. Never pose or train hard---cold! Always warm up and be careful. 1. Pose. Several times a week for 30 minutes practice tensing and posing. Master control of your muscles. 2. Tension during reps. Do you reps slow...half reps and so forth to force the muscle to hold a tension or contraction. 3. Pose and stretch: After you work a muscle, stretch that muscle and pose (tense) that muscle. Stretching and tensing over and over a minute each. Do sets of 10 each muscle group. 4. Pose abs every day. Hold abs tensed for 30 seconds..do not hold your breath. Hang from a bar with your legs pulled up to your chest and hold it for 10 seconds a rep and do 20 reps. 5. Slightly over train a muscle group for a few weeks to build more detail. 6. Do static contractions (like one leg hamstring contractions on an exercise ball or leg curl machine) for reps. Stretch the muscle in between reps. Heavy weight is not needed. Just find a way to contract the muscle fully and hold it for a few seconds on each rep. Another example: Holding calves for 5 seconds on each rep and stretching for 5 seconds on each rep is a great method for training calves using this idea. TRAINING SECRET: TRAINING WITH EXERCISE BANDS for amazing muscularity: 7. Use exercise bands to perform intense contractions for all muscle groups. No matter what the movement: Pull and hold the tension for several seconds in the contracted position, then repeat the movement. Usually the best time to do band work is at the end of your weight Strength Bands are Perfect for creating PEAK MUSCULARITY: High tension training for that peaked look. "Looking for a great STRENGTH band set? Try Bodylastics the best for the convenience and quality." Lee Apperson. In the "old days" the trainers called this 'strand" pulling. Today we call it training with bands or elastic bands. Most people think band training is for women in aerobics classes but that is only because they market it to them and not to regular athletes. A good set of bands in the hands of any motivated person can yield an incredible workout. Training with bands allows the athlete to increase muscle tension during a set in a big way . It is easy to see why this is a secret weapon for many old time trainers. Bands offer unlimited angles and variations of exercises. Try band training-you will not be disappointed! Do sets of 20 reps, burning and pumping the muscle, cramping it. Exercise bands make it smooth and safe to do this and offer a unique and intense contraction. A couple of weeks of high tension training with bands and you will look harder with better detail. Fantastic for upper back and deltoids. This really works. I use it on every body part. Use heavier and heavier tubing as you progress so you increase resistance as you get stronger. Any kind of tubing works. Ironwoody makes super heavy duty bands for power lifters. Thera-band offers a good option, you make your own straps with their 25 or 100 foot coils of tubing. Or you can get a pre-made exercise band system like Ripcords™ or Bodylastics. I like Bodylastics the best for the convenience and quality. I have purchased and used Bodylastics and the product is first class. Any bands will work, but if you can afford them spend as little more and get the Bodylastics. Amazon sells most of these products in the sports equipment section. There are Samson Cables which offer super nice steel handles that last a lifetime and heavy duty cables for serious strand pullers. 8. Wind Sprints. Run 50 to 100 yards all out for sets of 5 to 10. For people healthy enough to do them, they can have an amazing effect on the legs. Just don't jump in on them. Build up over weeks to doing sprint work. It can really cut the legs. Running in deep sand or near waist deep water (all out running) has a similar effect. Very thin people should avoid running till they have put on mass. The Reasons I Train With Strength Bands Everybody has seen the old spring cable expanders from the '50's. Probably picked one up and played with one as a kid. Then you got into real serious strength training and decided, "Hmm, it's just another gimmick." Well I'm here to tell you that it isn't and the old spring style expander has come into the 21st century with rubber cables. COAUTHOR Dan Burke training with Bodylastics Strength Bands Some phenomenal athletes used the cable set for serious training in the pre-steroid era. It has some unique advantages. In the modern presentation of it as put out by Lifeline, it has some tremendous training applications for the serious athlete. Most people don't see it as a real power tool that someone who is truly strong and developed would use. But that's because they don't have first hand knowledge with it. Because even thought I can press 200-pound dumbbells there are exercises and cables of such strength that no other world class power athlete or I can completely stretch. This is a serious tool. This isn't your aerobic instructor's junk rubber band and serious trainers in the know use these as well. Dennis Rogers, World Strongest Man Pound for Pound and World Arm Wrestling champ uses them. Mike Mahler, one of the world's strongest vegetarians and Master Kettle bell trainer uses them. Matt Furey, who originally introduced me to strength band sets and is a World Champion Grappler and bodyweight exercise guru uses them. That's recommendations from three of the most serious and cutting edge trainers around. Here are the top reasons I train with this wonderful piece of equipment: They carve you up and make you look awesome. The muscles respond to the unique tension in the bands. Increased hardness and muscle separation. WIth tru progressive resistance and virtually 1000's of old school exercsies to choose from ---you can train anywhere and anytime with strength bands like Bodylastics. It is a classical challenge that was well respected by the pre-steroid strength athletes. They had good reasons, good enough they even had competitions for stretching the cables. Some strongmen even had challenge cable sets just like the old time challenge dumbbells. Almost anything that they respected that much deserves a shot. It develops a type of strength that is almost impossible to develop with any other tool. It is probably the most like grappling a live opponent, because the cables resist you out of their elasticity, not by being subject to gravity. Therefore the further you stretch them the harder it gets. This makes it a perfect training tool for martial artists, because to stretch the cables you have to accelerate all the way through to the end just like a well thrown strike. For grapplers, because it most simulates the resistance given my human muscle and arm wrestlers, because of the angles you can use it in and the expanding resistance. They're one of the safest forms of serious exercise you can do. There's no weight to drop on you yet you can still develop serious muscle. There is technique to the exercises, but they're simple to learn and even if you do it wrong you're not likely to seriously injure yourself. They develop stability. The ability to control strength and resistance within the muscles as well as stability in the tendons, ligaments and joints. They do this because they are literally pulling back against you and because you are leading the movement not gravity. If you watch most people begin with a set of hard exercises they shake all over the place, but then after doing it a while they're stability strength goes up and it gets much smoother. This then transfers over to the real world. You can exercise in ways and angles with cables that you can't duplicate with almost any other strength tool including weights and it's serious strength building exercise. By doing so you can hit muscles that give you strength in many applications and make you more injury resistant for sports and life in general. Intrinsic muscles that are hard to exercise any other way. They are an extremely flexible tool. No pun intended. What I mean is because of the modern technology of them you can do everything from ultra-high reps down to literally single-rep max strength exertions. You can work individual muscles, whole muscle groups, the whole body for strength or conditioning. They travel well. They weigh almost nothing, they will pack in any suitcase, you can work your whole body with them and I mean serious work, not mainstream junk training and they are inexpensive. They're great for rehab, prehab, and general training that makes your muscles feel better not beaten. Because of the offerings of different strength cables you can go light enough that literally children or extremely injured people can use the cables. They really help my biceps, shoulders, tendons and elbows feel good. They really work the kinks out not put them in. I don't think "pump" is an important concept in serious exercise. However these things give you a serious pump. They promote tremendous circulation and deep circulation not just in the muscles but in the joints. Because of the nature of their exercise they also promote flexibility. Many of your top power lifters now use a band setup along with weights in their training. They do this because of a theory called, "Accommodating Resistance." What this basically does, means that you literally have to push all the way through a rep instead of exploding at the bottom and riding it out through the top. Why? Because the resistance increases the further along the range of motion you get. Meaning you have to pull harder at the top than you did to start. Because of this you get a very thorough muscular effort all they way through the rep. Hence the tremendous pump and muscular gains from cables. The traditional cable set was limited to mostly upper bodywork with the occasional minor league low body exercise put in. The handles on the new sets (or ankle straps) (see Bodylastics) make it easy to hook around your feet to do exercises such as the clean and jerk that you couldn't have done with the old sets. The design of some of the new products, offers the ability to add resistance to bodyweight exercises while still maintaining the integrity of the bodyweight exercise. You can add resistance to bridges, squats, push-ups, abdominal work, running, jumping, agility, animal movements, isometrics, etc. So those of you who hate doing hundreds of reps of bodyweight exercises can still do them and get the same conditioning effect with less reps. For those of you who are super-studs who easily crank through hundreds or thousands of bodyweight exercises, this will easily take you to the next level. You can move very fast with the movements themselves, increasing your own speed and because of the accommodating resistance you work speed throughout the entire movement. They create a tremendous aerobic response especially when you work them hard yet allow you to move very fast from exercise to exercise getting a tremendous muscular and aerobic workout which is consistent with our Alternative Conditioning style and theory. They literally lend themselves to a multitude of exercises. Because of their style of resistance they literally build muscle. But in building that muscle because of the intense contraction throughout the entire range of motion they also build definition and they teach tension, an important skill for strength and safety in training. You can quickly change the cables for resistance level changes. The rubber doesn't pinch you like the old style springs did. They are very durable and easy to care for. They mix well with other exercise styles. Even though you get a tremendous workout from using cables alone, I think they mix great with other Alternative Conditioning styles such as bodyweight and kettle bell work for a superior endurance workout. As well as with heavy barbell work for a superior muscle building workout. These are the reasons why I use these tools. They've been extremely productive for me. Notice also that I gave you legitimate reasons. Not overblown, snake oil sales marketing reasons. I didn't tell you you'll suddenly be the strongest man walking the plant as well as the biggest and most shredded from the first workout with these cables. I'll tell you this like I said before; there's no magic exercise. There's no magic tool to exercise with, but there are some really good ones and there's intelligent use of great tools within your whole training plan and pointing toward your focused objectives. There's magic in belief and effort.

How Many Calories?
The number of calories you burn each day varies depending on body weight, body composition, metabolism and activity level.

More important than how many calories you consume is what you consume. You can't carry muscle and get ripped eating junk food. If you don't eat clean, for a long period of time (months) you won't lose the fat and become truly ripped.

Many people have no idea how many calories they require simply to maintain their weight and, as a result, they tend to cut calories too much when they attempt to lose body fat. There's a rule-of-thumb formula for estimating how many calories you burn at rest. For men: Add a zero to your weight and then add twice your weight. For women: Add a zero to your weight and then add your weight.

Using the formula if you weighed 175 pounds, your expected resting calories needs would be 2,100 a day. (To 175 add a zero, giving you 1,750, and to this figure add two times 175, or 350, for a total of 2,100.)

This is an estimate of the number of calories it would take to maintain your weight if you did nothing but vegetate. To determine total calorie needs, you have to add calories for general activity and exercise. With your desk job and workouts, you probably burn one-half again your resting needs, for a total of 3,150 calories (2,100 plus 1,050 equals 3,150). If you were engaged in a regular aerobic exercise program, you would require more calories. On the average, walking or jogging a mile consumes about 100 calories.

As general information, you'll be interested to know that, according to the National Research Council, the average woman (5'4", medium frame, not too thin, not too fat) who does not exercise needs 1,600-2,400 calories a day to maintain body weight. The average man requires 2,300-3000 calories a day to do the same.

Find your calorie level, and maintain an eating journal, counting your calories carefully. Start off with a slight calorie deficit (200 calories) and work with that as long as possible. Several months of daily aerobics, and a slight calorie deficit diet will take off the body fat.

PRE-CONTEST EATING
Plan to diet for 8 to 4 months
Eat 30 grams of protein every 3 hours, 5 times or more every day. 1 to 2 grams of protein for each pound you weigh. At the minimum 5 protein meals a day. Try to eat 3 times before noon every day. Consuming whey protein and other protein type shakes can help you achieve your daily protein intake level.Everything else you eat should be clean complex carbs. To name a few: brown rice, rice, corn, vegetables, whole wheat oatmeal, pasta and other items, and fruit.

Drink water all day long. It is the best fat burner I know. Drink, drink, drink.

Dairy products should be eliminated in the final months or weeks and replaced with other protein sources free of carbs and fats.

Carbs are kept between 2 and 4 servings of 100 gms each per day. That is between 200 and 400 total grams of carbs a day. Eat all your carbs before 3:00 every day. Eat the majority of carbs early in the day. Make breakfast #1 and breakfast #2 and lunch (to a lesser degree) the biggest carb meals of the day. Brown rice, vegetables, fruits and whole wheat oatmeal, ect are good sources of carbs.

I like to eat a lot. I like don't like being hungry. I would rather eat an extra 500 calories a day and do an aerobic session to burn it, than be hungry. Amazingly the more you eat (of clean food) the more body fat you will lose. The body does not hoard fat when you are eating a lot and being active.

How about fats? As low as you can go. There are fats in meats, nuts, and dairy products and many other foods, so you have to be aware of how much fat you are taking in. 50 to 100 grams a day or less in fats per day is recommended.

Always eat a protein and carb within 30 minutes after you train (even if it's at night).

Eat salad and fibrous carbs daily. They have almost no calories and help your body stay healthy. Salad (containing carrots, lettuce, spinach, cucumber, radish, tomato, celery) and other raw vegetables and even cooked green vegetables can be eaten in large quantities without any negative effects. Consider them zero calories.

Juice, bread, pasta and other simple sugars and carbs should be avoided. Fruit is okay with breakfast (like a banana or orange or melon) but might be eliminated completely during the last months or weeks and replaced with a more complex carb like oatmeal. If you eat breads and pastas try to quit them the last month (at least) before the show and switch to other carb sources.

During the last month or weeks eliminate "sauces" like ketchup mustard, dressings, fake butters, flavored rices, and so on.

During the last month or weeks eliminate protein shakes and replace them with solid protein foods like chicken or fish.

The Final Month: PEAKING
If you did it right you are in good shape by now. Abs should be in. Shoulders should be separated. You should need to lose less than 5 lbs now, if that, before you compete.You should be close to contest weight and in very hard condition. If not you are not all of these things---YOU ARE NOT ready to peak. (Go back and reset your peaking time table you need more time).

You should be posing every few days, as hard as possible for 10 to 30 minutes. Pose with someone coaching you, calling out the poses.

The final month you must eat as clean as possible. Don't eat anything that can make you fat. Drop ketchups, flavored rice, and so forth from your diet. Replace whey shakes with whole foods like fish or chicken. Drink water all day long. Drop carbs at night.

If you are too fat, do not go on a starvation diet. It's too late. If anything train more and do more gentle aerobics. If are fat--plan on competing in a different show. Do not compete fat either. Be patient. Stick with the plan and just keep getting more ripped over time. It may be 2 months it may be 8 months, but if you stick to the plan (eating clean with a slight calorie deficit, daily aerobics and weight training 2 x a week or more) you will become ripped. Sooner or later all the fat will come off.

Assuming you are at a low body fat level you can start thinking about getting ready to compete and dialing in the final weeks.
Now that the fat is nearly 98% gone, here are some tips for the final month. Some of the suggestions contradict each other. However all of them are valid techniques, you need to figure out which ones will work for you.

• Train each body part 2 or 3x a week with medium weights and lots of reps for the last 4 to 6 weeks. This really helps harden you up and helps burn calories. Beware! Do not over train and burn out. If you feel yourself getting frazzled, back off.
• Train as normal the last and try to lift heavier the last few weeks to keep or increase--your muscle mass. Avoid over training.
• Train legs and back every day for 3 days, rest a day and repeat this schedule for 2 or 3 weeks, then rest a complete 10 to 7 days before the show, doing only posing and abs. (Some people look better 10 days off of the weights. They get more separated and ripped about 2 weeks after training hard. By practice see if you respond like this. Monitor yourself carefully. Lee Apperson rests 10 days out from a show and by day 9 is MUCH more ripped than you can believe. For many people the rest really works.) Some people of course look worse after 2 weeks off from the gym. I would guess it's 50% either way.
• Train up till the Sunday before the show and then rest the entire week.
  
• Train up till the Wednesday before the show and then rest the rest of the week.
  
• Stop all aerobics, or do more aerobics. Some people respond to stopping aerobics by getting bigger, others not. Find out which one you are. Lee Apperson does no aerobics the last month. Other bodybuilders step up the aerobics and it helps them tighten up without effecting muscle size. Discover which type you are.
• Pose several times a week. Focus on muscle control. Do posing sessions just for your legs (posing them alone) and abs.
• No carbs at night.

Yes, you must practice peaking yourself. A great way to do this is either run experiments on yourself and check results yourself (practice dehydration ect..) or compete several weeks or months in a row and practice different peaking techniques at different times.

You will find the combination that works best for you. Each person will have a slightly different formula for success. A good example of this is dehydration schedules. For some people dehydration works and for some it just flattens them out. If it does work for you, it may take you 1 day to dry out, or even 2 days. You have to discover your optimum look and keep records so you create that condition, over and over again when you want to peak.

Some common peaking problems and questions:

QUESTION: I have been dieting for 14 weeks. I find I am shrinking and not losing any more body fat. What can I do?

ANSWER: You may need to add more calories in your diet. You may also be on a diet plateau. Also after months on a strict diet your body stops being responsive. The answer is often to eat more and increase activity. Your metabolism needs to be cooking--to burn fat and use energy.

Add a meal or two of red meat and whey protein each day for 2 weeks and see how you respond. You may need to up carbs as well. You may also need more vitamins and minerals in your diet on top of the additional calories. If you increase calories you may increase training or aerobics as well slightly to offset the calories. Try to eat a variety of foods including fruit to make sure your body is not depleted of many trace elements. 2 weeks of eating better and your body should fill out and you should start losing fat again.

QUESTION: I am in very good shape. My upper body and legs are cut and hard but I still have some fat on my lower back and buttocks. What can I do?

ANSWER: These are the last places the fat comes off on many people. Abs, and side thighs are difficult areas as well. These trouble spots take a long term effort to finally diet and train the fat off of. The plan is to eat well, maintain your muscle mass with hard weight training, eat very clean so no new fat is created, then train (aerobics and weights) for several more months or weeks, and it will come off. It takes time.

For the most part a long more gentle diet carried on for a month to a year or more--- after the initial first year, big weight loss diet, will fine tune these problem areas without shrinking your muscles. Don't starve yourself or use crash diets. You will just shrink your muscles. You have to get in top shape as part of a long term plan.

QUESTION: I have been dieting for months. I am in good shape but I just don't seem to get hard or cut enough. What can I do?

ANSWER: First: Pose every other day for several months. It helps harden the muscles.

Second: Diet longer and harder. I meet a great many athletes that think they are ripped but are still about 5 or 10 pounds of fat away from being really in shape. For whatever reason they don't see themselves in reality. These fellows are invariably quoting body fat levels and so on. To get cut you have to diet longer and harder than you think. Find a coach to help you face the facts. Anyone can do it. It just takes time. Commit now to taking it all off, no matter how long it takes. Forget "time tables" just stay on your program and the fat will burn off--sooner or later.
Ex-fat people have trouble getting hard, as do most women. You have to train more often, and diet longer and harder than most people to get results. Just stay with it. You will get harder. It will happen. The fat will come off.

After a long time on a diet the body grows tired of the diet and results slow down. As stated above an infusion of different foods and red meat often helps kick start the body again into being responsive to exercise and calorie restricted eating. Many people get more and more cut for a time on a diet..like 3 months or more then results stop. You have to figure out did results stop because you are eating too little? too much? too much the same (no variety)? Have you gone stale (too much training)? Or do you need to increase activity? You have to answer these questions and then take appropriate action.

99% of the time eating more good clean food, eating more food variety, adding more vitamins and minerals, and increasing aerobic activity, will cause a long term training and strict dieting person to continue to lose fat--again. You need to jump start your metabolism with an infusion of food and activity.

THIRD: You might have a " food leak"--that is sinking your ship. You are eating something that is making you fat. You are eating something that your body is using to keep making fat. It might be dairy products or fruit or pasta or cereal. You will have to find this food, and replace it with a food that your body does not easily make into fat.

Examples: Replace milk with a chicken breast. Replace eggs with fish. Replace bread with vegetables. You take a clean food like whole wheat pancakes and swap it out for a cleaner food like broccoli. You take red meat and swap it out for whey or fish. You take peanuts and swap them for egg whites, and so on. Often, one (incorrect for you) food consumed with regularity can stop you from losing fat.

QUESTION: What about low carb diets?

ANSWER: They work. But you can't live on them. A couple week's is tops on a diet like this for most athletes. You may feel tired, and even sick on a diet like this, it's hard to train and you can lose muscle along with the fat. However, done correctly, a diet like this can have dramatic results. If you are eating enough protein you will probably hold onto your muscles as the fat comes off. Frank Zane diets this way and does well with it. I have met several very experienced bodybuilders who look great and have been competing for years who use this to great success.

Modern bodybuilders, like myself (Lee Apperson) and Dexter Jackson, eat more of a balanced diet as part of a long term lean life style. Toward a show I reduce carbs like fruit and breads and switch to more fibrous carbs, but I still eat carbs at nearly every meal. The last month I cut out carbs at night and become much more cut.

Experiment with a low carb diet and see how it affects you. As a last month plan to take off the last few pounds of fat---it might be the way to go. Many serious and experienced bodybuilders swear by this method of stripping fat off the body.

Other bodybuilders use this method to jump start a diet. They begin their diet LOW CARB. They live on the diet for several months (having one high carb a day every 4 to 7 days) to take off the initial weight, then switch to more balanced eating (but calorie restricted diet) for the last several months to peak. No matter how you do it--be careful. This type of dieting can leave you exhausted and mentally confused. Others seem to be fine on a low carb diet. Find out how you tolerate this type of dieting carefully.

The Final Week: Here are two case studies:
STUDY ONE: Bodybuilder A
is 180lbs in ripped shape. He finds doing aerobics up until the last few days helps him peak. He eats red meat daily to keep his size and eats nearly 3400 calories a day. He eats 500 to 300 grams of carbs a day with the rest in protein. He sometimes does aerobics twice a day. He lifts 2 to 3 times a week doing each body part once a week. He trains abs daily starting 8 weeks out from his peak.

He eats the normal amounts of food till the Thursday before the show. Thursday and Friday he eats "lightly", focusing on carbs every 3 hours with small amount of protein. He over drinks water for 3 days and then cuts it off Thursday morning before the show (The show is on Saturday 2 days away). Except for small sips, he is off liquids till Saturday. He stops (almost) solid proteins as well, except for small servings of chicken with rice or some egg whites (high in sodium be careful). He eats as little sodium as possible Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. By Saturday morning he is very dry and much more cut. He now weighs around 172lbs. By Saturday night he is even more cut. On Saturday after the prejudging he eats a half a roasted chicken for lunch, along with some bread and one glass of water. He also poses that afternoon for an hour in the sun for photographs. He sweats a lot and again drinks 8 oz of water around 3:00.

Bodybuilder A gets a good haircut on Monday and also removes all the unwanted hair on his body with a hair remover cream. He is very tan from 2 months of daily tanning. On Wednesday night he paints himself with Pro-Tan. On Thursday he paints himself once again and tans again for an hour. On Friday he paints himself twice. On Saturday morning (competition day) he apply's a coat of Dream Tan before posing. He is the darkest man in the show.

Thursday and Friday should be rest days (except for posing). Stay off your feet. The exception is you must pose intensely for short periods both Thursday and Friday (and Monday or Tuesday earlier in the week) before the show. Really go for it, posing hard. The legs, abs and other parts really benefit from this pre contest posing. Don't over do it. You may go "stale" (lose touch with the muscles) from too much posing. Find out how much is too much and stay away from that amount. On Thursday and Friday Bodybuilder A poses for 10 minutes twice a day, and naps every afternoon resting as much as possible. He eats carbs, brown rice, potatoes, fruit with small amounts of boiled/grilled chicken (with no salt) or fried egg whites.

By Friday night Bodybuilder A is rested but depleted. No water and the low volume of food Thursday and Friday have left him hungry, dry, and his waist small.

If he is not flat he could go into the show the next morning as he is.
If he feels too depleted he could eat a meal with fat and carbs and some liquids. Some people respond well to a big feeding the night before the show (the next day they are fuller and more vascular) others spill over and smooth out. You must practice to figure out how YOU respond to different foods and timing. You must be ripped to even consider anything like this.
Bodybuilder A drinks a large banana milkshake, 2 eggs, an orange and has a glass of water around 9 that evening. The next morning he is still very dehydrated, waist is still small and body is ripped but his muscles look fuller. He also does not feel depleted but is actually energetic. For breakfast at 6:00 am Bodybuilder A has a small glass of water and a piece of toast and a small piece of fruit. An hour before he poses he has another small drink and a pop tart or piece of fruit.

NOTE: Dehydration is tricky and dangerous. It wail take 2 or 3 days to put all the fluid back in your body, so be sure to take it easy after the contest. You need several days to recover. Drink as much as possible after the show.

STUDY TWO: Bodybuilder B
is 210 lbs in (98%) ripped shape one month out. Being ripped though is harder for this fellow than others. Bodybuilder B has to do more aerobics and stay on a diet longer than some others to achieve a low body fat He eats fish 2x a day, egg whites 2x a day, and red meat only once or twice a week. he keeps his diet low fat. With each meal he has starchy carbs like broccoli, corn, peas, or brown rice. Bodybuilder B eats just slightly less calories than he needs and eats very clean. No carbs at night the last 4 weeks and this makes a big difference in muscularity.

Last year when he peaked he had to do 2 hours of aerobics a day for the final 2 months to lose all the fat. This year in contrast, Bodybuilder B got in shape earlier, and lost all the fat before the final weeks.
This year Bodybuilder B stops aerobics 3 to 4 weeks out and trains heavy 2x a week doing each body part 1x a week. For the last 4 weeks he trains each part 2x a week with daily abs. He poses every other day for 10 to 20 minutes. He keeps his calories below normal and continues to lose about 3/4 of a pound a week.

If he is not ripped enough, or to finish peaking (and losing that last pound of fat)..Bodybuilder B may continue daily aerobics for the 4 weeks preceding the show. Ideally though, most of the fat is gone by now. If possible, Bodybuilder B does not want to be burning his energy up with aerobics the last month, if he can help it.

Bodybuilder B does not want to battle with fat loss the last few weeks. The lesson is: get in shape early, then refocus on building muscles, posing and fine tuning your body the last month. Peaking is hard enough without trying to lose pounds of fat along with it. Don't act like an inexperienced beginner. Get off the fat early-- then peak.

The last week Bodybuilder B eats high protein for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. He switches over to carbs and light protein for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. If he looks good he eats more, if he looks smooth he eats less. He over drinks water all week then he cuts out water on Friday afternoon. He sits in the sun on Friday and sweats out some additional water. Sodium is cut out Thursday and Friday.

Bodybuilder B gets a good haircut on Monday and also removes all the unwanted hair on his body with a hair remover cream. On Wednesday night he paints himself with Pro-Tan. On Thursday he paints himself twice. On Friday he paints himself twice again. On Saturday morning (competition day) he apply's a coat of Dream Tan before posing.

Bodybuilder B poses Thursday and Friday for 10 to 20 minutes, the rest of the time he sits with his legs up resting.

Sunday, a week before the show he begins taking a prescription diuretic* that draws the water out of him slowly over a weeks time.

Saturday he drinks water lightly and eats a potato and small piece of steak every 2 or 3 hours.

He enters the show on Saturday about 195lbs ripped and dry.

*NOTE: Dehydration is tricky and dangerous. It can kill you. It wil take 2 or 3 days to put all the fluid back in your body, so be sure to take it easy after the contest. You need several days to recover. Drink as much as possible after the show.