Contest Prep Questions asked and Answered: Narkissos

[Narkissos]

I'm starting this thread in response to PMs i get on various sites regarding contest prep.

The questions used here are being used with the permission of those that PMed me.

All responses are written by me

You may append your own questions and experiences

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The last week

by Narkissos

Originally Posted by **********

I am going to do the light heavy weight class. The cut off is 198lbs. In the morning I am weighing in at 200 to 201lbs. I would like to come in as heavy as possible while staying in the 5 to 6 percent BF range. If I aim to come in at 195 or so should I keep my protein at that level the next couple weeks? right now I would say I have been taking inn more around the 250 mark. Carbs are low ofcourse I had 95 grams today and man is that kicking my ass.....no energy. How many days before the show do you carb up? and when you do how many grams do you take in and what is your major source? Brown rice, Yams..?? Dieurectics...? or do you just sodium overload? How many days out do you stop lifting? How much water do you find yourself shedding the last week on average? Lol I could go on forever... What foods do you eat Fri and sat and at what times? I truly am a newb and for that I am sorry man. I dont have a whole lot of help at the moment I can only go by what I have read and there are so many different opinions out there so it is hard to pick one route. Through the experience of six years what would you say the winners were coming in at fat % wise? Is it more important to maintain size or to drop down as low as possible? allright thats all I can think of for now.Thanks for taking the time to look this over. Talk to you later Corey.

~****

I'll try to go tru your questions one by one.

Being a noob is no prob bro...one's body changes from year to year so techincally everyone's a noob lol.

Firstly...don't obsess with bodyweight. Because you come in at the high end of the scale does NOT mean that you'll look bigger/better than if you were 5 pounds lighter. Weight is just another number. So go ahead and drop your protein intake to 200 ASAP!

Is the show drugs tested? I anticipate that it isn't since you're asking about diuretics. Get back to me in regards to the type show it is ASAP. Diuretics...i've only used the herbal kind(s) because 1. the pharmaceutical kinds can be dangerous/overkill 2. i've found them unnecessary. One week before the show i start to incorporate herbal diuretic teas into my water intake. One week before the i also bump (double) my water intake to facilitate 'flushing'. I may up my sodium at this point also.

If the show is Saturday...my last training day is wednesday. If my last training day is wednesday, i cut my sodium from wednesday evening prior to the training session. This is due to that being the last time my muscles'd need sodium (long story..dealing with recovery). I start to cut my water intake from Thursday morning. Thursday, if usually i'd been drinking 2 litres, i'd drop it to 1.5 litres. Friday i'll ingest 1 litre. And Saturday, the day of the show, .5 litres is supposed to last tru-out the day.Usually tho, on the day of the show i don't ingest ANY water. Maybe a sip with my meals to aide digestion and swallow a couple b-complex pills...but otherwise...my water on the day comes from foods ingested...namely english potatoes.

WOW you're carbs are low. I myself don't do low-carb...i lose too much muscle. Don't change if it's working for you tho. Where's your fat intake at?

On the carbing up issue..that depends on the day the weigh-in falls. It's usually the thursday b4 the show here. On the day of the weigh-in i really don't eat persay. I go to the health shop... purchase some 'kamut' (that's sodium free puffed rice) or i get sodium free rice cakes and i eat them and a handful of aminos tru-out the day when i get hungry. This way i easily make the weight i need at the weigh-in in the evening. I start to carb up (and put back in some protein that i couldn't earlier due to trying to make the weight) after the weigh-in.

The carb-up starts post-weigh-in as i said before and the main carb source is english potatoes. I'll get in 2 or 3 (protein/carb) meals after the weigh in...The carb-up continues on friday... The difference being that the emphasis is on carb consumption as opposed to protein comsumption. Too much protein on those last days will cause you to hold water. Each meal on friday should be 2-3 english potatoes and 15 gram of protein (from a freshwater fish source..as these are low-sodium)....This'll continue till you fall asleep. With each meal take a sip of water and ingest a b-complex capsule. With the 1st, 3rd and 6th meal, ingest a chromium capsule. These two substances will inable you to utilise your carbs better. Your water intake shoudl be tapered. English potatoes are prefered over rice at this point because overall they're lower in calories, AND, more importantly, high in potassium and water.

How you eat on saturday is determined by how you look when you get up in the morning.

Sidenote: On saturday your activity level should be at it's lowest...as you're trying not to further dehydrate yourself.

On saturday...if you get up and are at your desired level of fullness, don't eat much else...have a small pro/carb meal and go back to sleep.

If you get thirsty...have a mouthful of water...better yet...i usually suck on a block of ice.

If you get up again look at yourself again...if you're still full have another small meal(1 potato...&15 grams of protein) ...if you've started to flatten out...have a larger pro/carb meal (15 grams of protein... 2-3 potatoes..chromium and b-complex...potassium) and go back to sleep.

Cut water intake completely 6 hours before the show.

Continue to eat according to appearance...

You last meal being at least 2 hours before the show so your lower abdomen isn't distended

After the prejudging... ingest a 1/4 litre of water and a pro/carb meal...and go home and sleep.

Repeat saturday's eating plan for sunday's nite show...the only difference being when you cut your water intake(around 12 p.m).... dont' ingest ANY water with your next meal. 1 hour before you step on stage...ingest 1/2 a bottle of honey. If you get thirsty...drink honey. lol...you'll be dry enough that you won't spill over or bloat.

When you're pumping up...drink honey...you be more vascular. The sugar will pull water from under the skin...as there's very little water anywhere else...

Holla back...this is all i got off the top of my head.

~Corey

[Narkissos]

Originally Posted by **********

Wow, 1st off thankyou for investing all the time you took to respond. You answered everything in great detail. Yeah use whatever you want for your article it is the least I can do given how you have helped me so far. Ok as far as all you stated things are a little different here. Weigh inns are friday night at 6pm. Prejugding is at 11am sat and the night show is saturday night at 8pm. I am not sure how that will affect what you told me so far but I thought I would throw that out there in case it changes things up a bit. The show is an NPC national qualifier. As far as I know they dont test the competitors, but I will double check. I havent heard of english potatoes how do they varry from a regular potatoe or a yam?

When you sodium overload the last week how much do you take in? What day should I carb deplete with this schedule? Also with my carbs so low right now do you think lowering my protein could be cost me even more energy and mass? What fresh water fish do you like to eat? It would be easy for me to get trout and waleye here I am assuming those would work? Thanks again Corey.

~****

Um...going tru them one by one.

If the weigh-in is friday as opposed to thursday...you still cut your sodium on the day of your last training session.

Cut training Wednesday... if your muscles are tired on saturday, flattening out is a definate possibility...and you want to avoid that at ALL costs.

Train legs first in the week. They'll require more rest.

**Sidenote** Train legs last in the week only if they're your weakest bodypart. If you train them last, they won't be as separated...and they'll have a film of water over them, but they'll look fuller. That'll make them look almost on par with the rest of your bodyparts.

You need to find out if the show is drug-tested early bro. It's not something you can fix at the last minute.

Jeez, the shows are both on saturday, that's gonna change the carb-up quite a bit. I'm tempted to tell you to start carbing up from friday still but...that'd only work if you're well under the cut-off weight on friday.

Hmm.

Run the week like i said eatingwise... cept, on thursday, repeat wednesday's eating regime...and on friday, have a small meal in the a.m. Then at regular intervals tru-out the day (namely when you get hungry) ingest the amino acid tabs and snack on a rice cake till the weigh-in. Prior to the weigh-in, arrange a bowel movement. You should be set.

Right after you step of the scale, start your carb up..don't go over board. Try to eat when hungry. Try to eat at regular intervals (i.e. 7pm, 9pm, 11pm).

English potatoes are the regular 'white' potatoes. I'm from the caribbean...and having so much variety everything is explicit.

So your carb-up'll be 2-4 english potatoes and 15-20 grams of protein per meal.

Don't worry about protein ingestion over these last few days. The important factor is trying to get 'full'. The lowered protein intake will not result in a loss of muscle...so don't worry about it. Worrying is couterproductive anyway, as it causes one to hold water.

On the protein issue.

Your carbs ARE low... I do however think it's essential to have your macronutrients exact if you plan to meet weight-classes.

However, if you're currently near where you want to be with your current protein intake....don't change it unless you reach a sticking point.

On sodium loading, i don't actively record how much my increase is. A friend of mine uses an extended load of about 3 grams...but i personally think that's dangerous. A pro advised he do this...but i'm yet to try it personally, so i don't advise it. Personally i just double what i currently ingest...adding table salt to each meal etc.

My protein intake over the last couple days is from, as i stated before, fresh water fish... it doesn't matter what kind per say...just make sure it is low/non-fat freshwater fish. Avoid saltwater fish and egg-whites as they are high in sodium. If freshwater fish isn't available..stick to chicken breasts...Can't go wrong with chicken.

Holla back if you've anymore questions

~Corey

[Narkissos]

I recently received a PM from a cool bro over at **...thought my reply'd make a good article. For privacy reasons, i'm not including his screen name in the article.

Originally Posted by ********

Hey,
Since you guys compete, I need some advice. During my individual posing routine, is it better to stand predominatly in one place and make small transitions from pose to pose, or to move around alot on stage and walk back and forth?? Also, could you share a sequence of poses you do for your individual routines, any help is appreciated
Thanks

No Prob Bro.

Depends on a myriad of conditions.

Is it your first contest?

Do you feel at home (i.e. comfortable) onstage?

Do you have many physique flaws?

How comfortable are you with the mandatory poses?

Do you practise posing regularly?

Do you make good 'contact' with your muscles?


There're actually a number of other external factors that too influence your choice of choreography.

One such thing would be: choice of music (this is both: chosing music suiting your personality... and physique.)

On your question about whether to stand in one place or walk about...

That depends on how 'light' you are on your feet. For me... i personally (after finding my onstage centre of balance) will only move within a 1 foot radius of where i begin my routine.

Transition from pose to pose should be smooth. Really, IMO the only 'rough' part of a routine (irregardless of the music chosen) should be the muscle contraction (which should coincide with beats of the song chosen....building upon the song's crescendo).

As you execute transitional poses, hand and feet movements should coincide..to draw the audiences attention. i.e. the point of transitions is to distract the audience enough so as to allow you to comfortably set-up and execute your next pose... This leads me to my point: Walking around stage will distract too much from the routine at hand... breaking the spell that you're attemtpting to weave over the audience.

Sequence of poses:

Generally... the trick is to hit the audience hard with your best pose. Force it into their subconscious... Rule of thumb, is to also end your routine with a variation of your best pose so as to solidify your exit.

If you look best from the Front...start with a front shot that shows plenty of muscle... your routine should show your strengths..not your weaknesses. i.e. you should continue to hit only your strong shots... For this reason you should get someone to veiw your routine beforehand..as you yourself will be unable to play the role of your audience objectively.

Toss in the compulsaries in there and you're good to go.

Hope this helps Bro... i was just brainstorming.

i'll append to this in time

[Narkissos]

I recently received another PM from a cool bro over at **...thought my reply'd make a good article. For privacy reasons, i'm not including his screen name in the article.

Originally Posted by *********

I am not on a set scheduel now. What do you recommend. I usually pose after back day, chest day, shoulder day and sometimes on arms day. I do not pose on leg day, as I can't contract the quads, hehe. I probably run through the mandatories 2-3 times and hold each for about 15 seconds. So I only practice 3-5 miutes tops about 3-4 times per week. I am going to step it up over these next 8 weeks, but if you have a routine, hit me up

To start... i think you should do two 1/2 hour sessions for the 1st 2 weeks (post-workout)... adding a session every week till you're doing 7 sessions a week on the last week before the show.

The 1/2 hour sessions should 6+ rounds of compulsories..at the end you should hit some muscle shots ('most musculars' etc.) because these shots causes one to actively contract every voluntary muscle in the body.

Initially as you start you should hold the shots for 10-15 seconds... In later rounds...get the person working with you to clap every couple of seconds...everytime the person claps you'll go to the next pose...it'll be a smooth..tiring..perpetual posing session

Lastly... pose on your leg day...seeing it's harder to make contact with your quad muscles after your leg day..it'll be good practice.It'll emulate being on stage... Onstage you'll get tired..your quads'll get fatigue..but you can't give up... now it you want to win. So you see it makes sense to paractice squeezing em when they're pre-fatigued.

Hope it helps
~Corey

[Narkissos]

I'm adding to this thread as i get PMed...

Originally Posted by *******

Holy shit!
I had no idea that it required that amount of time. So glad I talked to you. Yeah, I bet you do get fatigued onstage, especially being in depleted and all. Well, I am going to start those sessions tonight, at least try to make it 30 minutes. Basically, you are saying to run through my 7 mandatory poses 6 times each, holding 15-20 seconds?
Thanks

Basically... go tru the 7 poses...1 after the other..call this a 'round' (like boxing)...the points are:

1.to make contact with your muscle...

tru this process to:

2. attain better control of them

3.to squeeze out subcutaneous water

4. burn some more calories

Six rounds is a good place to start...Increasing in number as your condition improves. The first couple of sessions, you'll find that you end up breathing heavily. This is because (although you may be cardiovascularly fit) the process of rythmic muscle contraction is an unaccustomed stimuli..requiring a different degree of cardiovascular fitness. You're realise the guys that don't pose a lot...on stage they're huffing and puffing after a couple rounds of mandatories...those guys fade fast...and usually don't place well.

While on the breathing note...i think you should also practice breathing as part of your posing. Your gut should not hang out at any point while onstage.

Poses like the double biceps for example...you should pull your stomach as far in as possible...keeping the abdominal muscle contracted internally...and concentrate breathing to the upper diaphram.

~Corey

[Narkissos]

bump

[HELLA SWOLE]

Wow, thanks a lot for taking the time to do this nark!! THis is great info for newbie competitors. I know I will be referring back to this when I do my first comp. hopefully within the next two years or so. Hell im gonna print this out. THanks again bro!

[Narkissos]

Thanks man...i'll bump this again...maybe it can get moved someplace where it won't get lost.

BUMP!

[HELLA SWOLE]

Originally Posted by Narkissos

Thanks man...i'll bump this again...maybe it can get moved someplace where it won't get lost.

BUMP!

Yes this NEEDS TO BE A STICKY IMHO

[Narkissos]

bump!