Ok, I'm 3 weeks out as of Saturady from my first competition. The bad news is that I did a lot of the dieting on my own and had never really contest cut so i'm a little behind @ 3 weeks out. I wish I had a skin fold to share but I don't.

I'm know that you shouldn't do too much cardio, but i'm wondering when you should kick in the "panic mode" ?

When I practice posing in my room, which is light that casts shadows very similar to those on stage, I can see abs no problem. And I'm starting to pick up Stirrations in my chest and delts. So many people tell me that I shouldn't panic b/c you can 'get pretty lean in 3 weeks' but i'm starting to panic.

I currently do 5 total sessions a week. 3 afternoon HIIT sessions and 2 low/medium intensity (30 - 45 minutes @ no more than 65% MHR) in the morning. I"m thinking about switching 2 of those around and doing the low intensity for 45 - 60 minutes at night, just to try and hit more fat storage. I have read about many people getting upto 7 days a week of cardio, but I don't think I want to do that quite yet.

Any general comments or suggestions?

Thanks!

Kryptic.x - Can't tell if you are a male or female from your post. For the most part it seems that our female members need to do more cardio to lose that last stubborn bf pre-contest. Some of the male members do little or no cardio, others do 5 or more sessions a week. To me that is a lot of cardio and you risk burning up muscle right along with the bf. We are each somewhat unique when it comes to the need for and benefit seen from cardio. You will have to be your own judge based on your personal experience. Diet, of course, will play a much bigger role than will cardio. You will see some significant changes/improvements during the last three weeks, so my advice would be that if you continue to see progress and seem to be on track - don't overdue the cardio.

I have a feeling i'm not far enough along to not do cardio and I think I may have to up it after this saturday. I'm going to be visiting a friend whom has done NUMEROUS competitions and he is going to evaluate me. He also said he would help bring me in the last week with carb and water cutting/loading.

I would love to know enough about diet after this is over to maintain under 10% bf during my bulk but I don't know if I would sacrifice gains to stay that low...but thats another story.

I do know that the cuts in my legs are slow to show right now. I guess i'll just wait and see...

Kudos to the guys who do little or no cardio! Drop me a line and give me some secrets :-)

Thanks VA,

Mike