Contest Prep Week 27

The Contest Prep Rolls On

Another week has flown by and I have made some good progress. I am now just over 6 weeks away from my main show. In fact I just sent my entry form in today. So things are getting official.

The Diet

I've been trying to keep things fairly consistent, hitting my macros dead on as usual, not changing food choices around too much, opting for lower calorie options and volume for the most part. Of course I still keep my daily dessert in. I think I'm a little food focused as there is a lot of different foods I simply can't have (or it would be stupid to try to have at this point). However I'm really not that fixated on it. Certainly not to the extent I was last time where I was planning my itinerary post show based around food nearly exclusively, looking up restaurant menus and such. It's more like I drive past pizza hut and I'm like "oh I wouldn't mind having a pizza" and I know in time I will be able to. After I eventually have it I know I will think to myself that it wasn't a big deal after all. So I like to think each prep I do I try to grow and mature further and become aware of myself more behaviorally. I think so far I can say this season (whilst not without it's obstacles) is a success in terms of how I'm managing it.

The Training

Coming off the end of the deload last week I'm feeling great. For the most part my strength has maintained and in some cases for exercises I feel like my performance is actually up. I have become accustomed to my pre workout coffee and I'm actually really enjoying my coffee now. I've been converted. That along with prioritising my pre workout meal to being a bigger meal really helps me in terms of satiety and especially in terms of energy/performance in the gym. So things on that front are all good.

I actually purchased a tricep bar this week for the purpose of close grip bench press. It arrived promptly the next day which was great and the bar is high quality. However it turned out to just be impractical for two reasons: 1. it's just too short/narrow so unless I use small plates (which limits the weight then the plates collide with my biceps reducing the range of motion, 2. since the bar is short there is really no way to rack it in a bench press and using the kind of weight I'm using for close grip bench press there is no way I can go from a seated position to a lying position with this bar. Even having a friend pass me the bar is extremely difficult. So instead I'm going to use this bar occasionally for hammer curls and lying/seated tricep extension variants. I'd love to get a longer version of this bar but (a) they are expensive, (b) I don't have space in my car to transport it and (c) I don't like leaving my equipment at the gym.

Pictured: New Tricep Bar

Progress

Last week we made no further changes to our approach and I'm pretty happy because I've continued to use the variable of "time" to just let things develop visually. I can see the changes happening almost daily now. My legs are getting leaner, my glutes and hammies are coming in more and my upper body is getting even more vascular. I'm quite confident with my progress at this point. I know you'd like to see more progress shots but I'm going to keep things under wraps and stay covered up just for now just in case there are spies reading this :p .

My Tips for Deloading

I forgot to add this in last week when I actually deloaded so i figure I'll do it now. I think firstly we need to understand the difference between a taper and a deload. A taper means a reduction in training volume whilst maintaining intensity at a normal level and usually keeping training frequency constant. A deload is a reduction in training intensity whilst keeping training volume up and again usually maintaining training frequency. Both are recovery tools which are usually done consecutively ie taper first, then deload. But they can also be used simultaneously if desired (theoretically your training adaptations might be more at risk if you reduce multiple training variables simultaneously but considering it's for a short period it probably won't make a huge difference - in practice it certainly doesn't appear to).

Tips:

- during a taper volume is typically reduced by up to 50%

- during a deload intensity is typically 60 - 90% of normal, usually erring on the lower end

- do not go to failure during a deload

- whilst deloading take the opportunity to: practice correct form, work on power/explosiveness, focus on contracting the correct muscles.

That's it for another week. Remember you can contact me at Muscle Academy for coaching (contest preparation, off season, general weight loss, nutrition, training):

Email - evansmuscleacademy@gmail.com
Website - www.muscleacademy.com.au
Facebook - www.facebook.com/MuscleAcademy
Instagram and Twitter - @evansoooon

Thanks for all the support!

- Evan