My advisor, Steven, mentioned the following when he reviewed my pics: "You are on track (this far out), but you do need to get much harder."

And I've often read in the Newsletters of "hardening" phases.

What does it mean to get harder? I assume we're talking about muscle hardness, but don't know what that looks or feels like, nor what changes in diet or training cause you to get harder.

Please enlighten me!

Hardness
JeremiahF from beverly guided me into my last contest and he mentioned "hardness" quite often. He constantly suggested that I spend time holding and practicing my mandatory poses, he said that it increased hardness and stage presence. During the last week before my competition he suggested diet changes and cardio changes that also made me look harder. I dont know exactly what "hardness" means but I recommend you listen to the Beverly advisors because I did and I look back at my pics from the contest and I look like I was cut out of rock.

lifter

Thanks for the reply!

quote:

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I look back at my pics from the contest and I look like I was cut out of rock.

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That's exactly what I want to see happen to me, so I'm eager to learn much more about "hardening". While I will definitely trust Beverly and do exactly as told, I'd like to know more about what affects hardening so I can make sure my focus is in the right place!

When I think of "hard" I think of the level of leanness, having a low bodyfat. You want to create the illusion of pure muscle, as mecca said you want to be rock hard - the opposite of soft or smooth. Think of the muscle as being sharp, "chiseled" from stone. Flexing the muscle and holding it is one way to help with that - in addition to helping you get ready for the show!!

Also, they will probably have you eat lean beef the day before and day of the show, they always mentioned to me that it helps keep the muscles hard.

I'm not sure if there's one "true" definition, but I think in general people are thinking it's referring to getting lean.

Thanks my take on it.

Dwayne

The hardening phase of a nutritional plan is when you are getting leaner while also retaining or building more lbm (lean body mass = muscle). The opposite, if we were to use the term would be getting softer, i.e. adding body fat, less muscle tone, holding water, etc.

What some call hardening, or being hard, others might refer to as top contest conditioning, or simply being in condition, ripped or shreaded. Conditioning is often what wins a contest. Ideally a competitor has very low body fat so as to best reveal the muscle that they carry. Secondly they need to have the "full" or "hard" look, which comes from the muscles being filled with glycogen, the effect that final day(s) carb loading will cause. The opposite of being "full" would be being "flat" where you can't seem to get a good pump. Thirdly you have to control and/or manipulate your water and sodium so that your body moves the water within you into the muscles and away from the skin. "Holding water" would make a person appear smooth or soft, almost as if they had excess body fat. Being "dry" means that you have managed to avoid subqutaneous (under the skin) water retention. The goal, as with being very lean, is to show off the muscle shape, definiton, symetry, etc. So if you are very lean, control your water and sodium and carb up correctly your muscles will appear "hard" and "full". It is all an illusion really, muscle is in place for many people but it does not show if it is covered with body fat or if the person is holding a lot of water. Competitive BBing is the process of revealing and displaying the muscle that you have in the way that makes you look your best. For anyone who has competed they know that it is not unusual to lose 5, 10 or even 15 lbs of body weight in the last week. That is mostly from water/sodium and carbohydrate manipulation and all done for effect. So a lean, hard and full BBer will look much bigger but in reality weight less than they did two weeks out from a show.

Things like posing and stretching will also help the appearance of your muscles when you get into contest condition. The final weeks prep-plan will help you manipulate carbs, water and sodium. Your eforts the weeks and months before a contest help you build muscle and keep body fat to a reasonable level setting the stage for the final prep phase. Hope that helps.

VA MadDog

Outstanding. Thanks for clarifying other commonly used terms as well. That's pretty much what I thought it meant. But it seemed like an obvious statement for Steven to make - that I need to get harder. I was thinking, "Well of course I do - I'm 8 weeks out and no where near contest-ready." So then I was wondering if he was just making a point that I look soft and that's what we'll work on with this next dieting phase, or if I didn't understand what he really meant and there was a lot more to it.

Thanks for clearing it up. I'm ready to get shredded and hard as a rock!

During the last week of my precontest prep I doubled my intake of lean out and energy reserve. Thursday -Saturday I switched my protein to turkey breast and lean steak. I also doubled my ultra 40 consumption. This made my physique look alot harder compared to the week before.

lifter