Skilled bodybuilders usually meticulously plan their pre-contest coaching routine in the course of the low season. They make use of methods reminiscent of cut up system exercises, fastidiously calibrated units and reps, and a various array of focused workout routines to maximise muscle progress and power. Their main goal throughout this part is to put the groundwork for peaking when it comes to lifting heavier weights and growing exercise depth as they method contest time. Usually, within the last 12 weeks main as much as a contest, they implement a specialised contest weight-reduction plan. This weight-reduction plan focuses on shedding physique fats whereas aiming for a lean, outlined, and ripped physique that showcases their hard-earned muscle mass.
The truth that at this time’s champions look so good is a testomony to how efficient these methods will be. Nevertheless, by means of years of commentary, I’ve discerned an space inside pre-contest coaching that always bears room for enchancment. Particularly, this issues the follow of abstaining from heavy weight within the week main as much as the precise contest. Whereas this technique is often employed, its potential impression on sustaining peak power and muscle activation in the course of the competitors is a side worthy of deeper consideration.
Bodybuilders should prepare heavy to construct large muscle tissue. How heavy is determined by issues like genetics, particular person power, and the physique half being labored. However the basic method is for bodybuilders to go rather a lot lighter the week or so earlier than competing. For instance, no extra heavy reps beginning Tuesday or Wednesday earlier than a Saturday occasion. Typically, beginning even earlier. The issue is a muscle made large and arduous by intense coaching will begin to get smaller and softer when it’s not topic to that type of resistance. Every week and even just some days may not end in a major distinction. Nonetheless, there might be some minimal diploma of atrophy current.
Because the competitors approaches, it’s inevitable to expertise systemic fatigue—a cumulative results of intense coaching and the demanding pre-contest weight-reduction plan. This twin onslaught usually interprets to diminished power and diminished endurance, making a state of affairs the place your bodily capabilities may not match your standard peak efficiency. The definition of “heavy” when it comes to lifting weights shifts inside this context; what as soon as constituted a manageable load would possibly now pose a major problem.
The exercises that propelled you to the competitors, which have been efficient and essential in your preparation part, would possibly show extreme or overly taxing within the days main as much as the occasion. This disparity between your accustomed coaching routine and your current situation elevates the danger of sustaining accidents. Your physique, fatigued and probably weakened by the stringent pre-contest coaching, turns into extra vulnerable to strains and accidents beneath the pressure of high-intensity exercises. Therefore, a vital adjustment in exercise depth turns into crucial to mitigate the elevated vulnerability to accidents earlier than the competitors.
However to finest maintain your muscle tissue large, full, and arduous, my suggestion is a compromise: Hold doing comparatively heavy reps, however fewer of them. Simply do a restricted variety of heavy bench presses or squats, or different two-joint, “energy” actions, however not many units, and focus on the proper type to keep away from any probability of wounding your self. Doing just some heavy reps “reminds” the muscle as to what it took to stimulate its growth and retains it from dissolving throughout that final brief interval earlier than the Saturday competitors.
As the height of competitors looms, the fragile stability between preserving muscle mass and avoiding fatigue-related setbacks turns into paramount. Whereas conventional knowledge suggests a cessation of heavy lifting within the last week, another method emerges as a strategic compromise. It entails sustaining a reference to heavy weights however with calculated restraint. Limiting heavy, compound actions to a couple important units, making certain impeccable type, serves as a reminder to the muscle tissue of their progress stimuli with out inviting undue pressure or fatigue.
This compromise safeguards towards potential muscle softening or measurement discount in the course of the essential pre-competition part. Complementing these temporary heavy units with lighter, sculpting workout routines and rigorous posing retains the coveted muscular definition with out sacrificing hard-earned positive aspects. Putting this stability permits for muscle preservation whereas mitigating damage threat, thereby optimizing the physique for that pivotal Saturday showcase.
