I am just wondering for those of us out there when we say that we are aiming for that show next year, where you use that full year to prep just for that one show?? How do we do this? Do you set up a plan?? I know ther are quite a few of us that plan the whole thing out like a map(Aram, Sully, Cytrainer, Alissa, and many of the top WNBF Pros) and usually the end result is a great presentation!! Are there certain points where you like your bodyfat to be at certain set points, number of weeks out, or even just a point to know where your skinfolds are at?? Do you set up your numbers nutrition wise(protein/carbs/fats), because these numbers will vary year to year as our bodies change just that little bit and through outside stimuli stresses?? Are there big variation in the foods you use or are one of those individuals that likes to stick to same monotonous meal regime?? I like variety!! As far as training goes, what training styles do you use in the offseason and does it change much when precontest time comes for you?? Also in terms of cardio(except for ARAM ), how do you change yours in terms of offseason training and when the precontest comes around?? How far off do you like to be from your contest weight(BIG ACH STYLE or within 10-15 lbs)!! Everyone has just tiny little things that he or she may do in order to get to the same result!! Just wondering on how we as competitors appraoch this aspect of the game??

Early prep is the key for me and should be many others as the end result makes those last few weeks easier to handle as you are already there and don't need to do that much except probably add more food back into your diet and slowly fill out while continuing to lose bodyfat, and with this process the body continues to fill out, not look so flat, and look hard all at the same time!! Don't make those last few weeks something you need to depend upon to lose more, use them to fill it back up and practice your posing with energy and get that last week as your primetime to lose that ast bit of subcutaneous water and look DRY, HARD, and FULL!!

I'm interested to learn more about this as well. Thank you for posting this.

Actually, I am a person who likes to have a plan, and would love to have my next year mapped out. This type of approach really makes sense to me. I like to know where I'm going, and how I'm going to get there. I like knowing what to expect, or at least what to be shooting for. Thanks Craig, once again, you have given me a great idea.

Interesting topic Criag. I become a slave to my plan on the nutrition side during the pre-contest phase starting about 9 weeks out. During the rest of the year I continue to eat "clean" and supplement with the basics (U40, Mass) but I don't measure many quantities or things like that. I have been "eating for a purpose" (BBing), as I call it, for so long now that it has become instinctual for me to eat 5 or six meals a day and to follow what my family says is a boring diet. I do allow for about 5% cheat meals and some variety but the macronutrient basics are always there it's just less stressful without a lot of concern for careful tracking, etc.

My training, since I gravitated to DC style training, has become very consistent and detailed. DC style training requires you to track progression, thus I use a log and carefully work towards adding more reps or more weight to the various exercises as I go from week to week. DC also allows for "cruise" weeks where training variety is encouraged so it does not get stale plus there is built in rotation of exercises for various muscle groups.

If I have a year round plan it is to: eat for a purpose, train to make progress and stay within 15 lbs of contest weight. Perhaps those are more goals than a plan - but action steps need to be in place to support any goal if you hope to realize it.

Personally, I don't think that I would enjoy this as much if I felt like I had to be as focused and meticulous about the nutrition side of things year round. I can do that for 9 weeks, or a few more if I do a second show, but I would not care to do that year round.

I think that once a person gravitates over to a BBing or fitness lifestyle - their new healthy habits replace their old unhealthier habits and thus a person simply starts to follow a new routine that keeps them on track for the most part. I could never be one of those folks who adds 40 or 50 lbs in the off-season. I would not want to go through losing it and secondly I like the fit look year round. I just add enough bf off season to keep a bit of insultaion on me. If I wouldn't I would be cold all the time and I'd have a harder time gaining lbm.

If it is a persons first time competing, or if they are moving towards a healthier lifestyle from an unhealthy one, then I think that it makes sense to have a plan and to have some guidance from a coach or mentor. After a few years you learn more about the sport and about your own body and thus can figure a lot of it out on your own.

You are absolutly right however, when you say that a plan is essential if your goal is to be among the best. The folks who win the first place and overall tropheys these days have their acts together and have carefully planned and executed their preparation. If you want to be competitive at that level you had better do the same.

For me preppin can be, to be ready for anything at anytime, I'm meaning competing. Preppin to me is more like peaking my body for that particular date of a contest. I don't like the idea of adding a lot of mass and then have to diet that bodyfat off, I can't handle that. My training does not change a whole lot, just shorter rest periods while still trying to give 100% of how I feel that day, constantly listening to my body at all times. Maybe a little cardio but monitoring my body to make sure I don't put it in a catabolic state. My biggest problem is peaking, but from every show I learn a little bit about how my body responds to certain little things.

I don't think there is one of us on this board who can say they don't need to work a full-time job to do what really pays the bills at home!! I know that myself, as I took a job for lower pay for the next 3 years as a teacher, becasue I knew in the long run the end result would be a better life for my family than being a trainer where I was working 50 hours a week and making real good money for 3 years in a row! But with teaching I would be more secure in my job and knew the stabilty would be there and on top of the teaching I train clients at my house for extra monety and do summer training and offseason strength training for high school athletes, which keeps me busy in the summer, yet still have the freedom to not be tied down all summer!!
This is the 1st real summer I have dieted real tight as I am not one to want to be that guy who wants to be super cut for the summer, but more for the reaosn that most of my shows I have done in the past were done by June and it was time to relax a bit!! I used to be one that would put on 25-30 lbs over my contest weight, but the muscle attained at that weight was never reatained and would not be regardless of how close my diet was as I have kept stats on all of this and the results and from others closer to my diet situation have said the leaner you are in the offseason the easier it is to retain all that muscle and even put some on as these conditions are ideal for proper release of GH, to help the body grow and this is not an unhealthy bodyfta to be at either which for the most part depending upon the person would be in that 6-10% range!!
I have kept meticulous records on how my weight has gone over the last 3 years and throwing in offseason workouts to stress bodyparts that need to come up to the others!! I map out my precontest on an excel sheet that I keep track of
the days weight(1st thing in the am), calories count for the day, Bodyfat when necessary(once a months within 12 weeks from a show), the workouts for the upcoming month or 2 in advance, the one measurement I do track is the waist which is done every other week as this is a great indicator of your progress, protein/carbs/fats for the day, my water for the day, and lastly the one thing i also track only during "peak week" is my sodium!! Its a nice way of tracking you prorgess and seeing it all laid out on one sheet to see as guide and to look back upon from years past as my sheet now has 3 years worth of numbers on it with some gaps but mostly good tracking!!
VA, just like you said as well dring the offseason the supps can really be brought down quite bit as it really comes down to some good Protein for shakes and in my oatmeal, as well the basics, like Ultra 40's and Mass Aminos!!
But when you get near that 12 weeks out time the supps can be a real valuable tool in reataining all of your hard work along with shedding those last few pounds of unwanted bodyfat!!
My cardio is something that should only be used as a alst ditch effort to help speed up the process of fat loss when the diet can not handle this on its own!! Cardio can be done for general health concerns, but when you use varying styles of training your cardio can almost come from this than directly from cardio itslef! cardio should be done as little as possible unless you fell far behind the eight ball and need to realy try and catch up in terms of fat loss, but along with this fat loss and excessive cardio that needs to be done, you also lose a lot of the hard work you have done to get there, you know that stuff, MUSCLE!! The body can also shut down to a point as well as the body's metabolism feels the shift going on in the inside and what does it do, fight you every step of the way by reataining your fat and slowing down your metabolism, the body wants to be in a balance or homeostasis, so when you try and hit the body with the same thing day after day after day, the body realizes this and will fight you every step of the way!! This is why when you are at the gym and all of us usually go at the same time for the most part and see those men, but more women on the same piece of cardio equipment day after day and you know what their body has not changed in the 3 years I have been at this gym!! Prime sample of doing excessive cardio along with eating the wrong amounts of food or lack of food!! So hit those weights and in time the body will begin to change and your metabolism will burn again, with just some cardio(HIIT) and your body will make the changes necessary for what you had hoped for along with a healthy diet!!