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[h=2]Don't make these 10 Mistakes after a Bodybuilding Contest[/h] Today, 12:26 PM
Skip Hill Elite FTS
I started competing almost 30 years ago, and I have made a very good living doing contest prep all the way back to the message-board days — and not just the message-board days, but the message-board days before there were even any graphics or advertisements. I am not kidding when I say that I legitimately had an AOL dial-up connection. Yes, I’ve been around THAT long.
In that time, I have seen a lot of mistakes, and I’ve made my fair share of them as well. I have always felt that a big part of my writing for elitefts.com should be to save as many people as I can from making the mistakes I have made or witnessed others make in my 3.5 decades of bodybuilding.
Though there are many more mistakes that competitors make after a contest, I have narrowed my list to the 10 that I feel are the most important. If you have others that you want to add to the list, feel free to post them in the comments section after this article. I always appreciate an interactive dialogue with the people who read my articles versus the typical comments of how stupid I am, how I should have been fired years ago because my writing sucks, and how ugly I am. The latter may be true, but my mom says I’m still adorable.
The 10 mistakes listed below are not in any specific order. 1. Not Taking Enough Rest Time After a Contest
If you have a show on a Saturday, and you are back in the gym banging on Monday, you are asking for trouble. Obviously, if you have another contest in a week or two, you need to be back in the gym — no question. If you do not have another show, your immune system is in an incredibly vulnerable position in the last few weeks leading up to a contest. You are beaten down physically and mentally; you usually have nagging minor injuries; metabolically, you likely are over-dieted; and recovery is usually compromised substantially. In short, you need time to let your body recover, heal and catch up.
I typically recommend a full week out of the gym, but most people will not adhere to that plan, no matter how emphatic I am with them about it. If you simply cannot stay out of the gym for a full week, at least stay out for three to five days, and then when you do go back, enjoy some pump workouts where you go into the gym, get a pump, show off your condition, and laugh a little bit with your training partner or other members of the gym. Don’t go for big numbers on compound movements and certainly don’t attempt to set any PRs.
Aleksei Deviatov © 123rf.com
If you do not allow for enough rest time after the contest, it is quite common to end up sick. I have seen horrible cases of bronchitis, pneumonia, mono, strep, and I am the poster boy for shingles because I have managed to get it twice in the last 15 years. I had it so bad the first time (2003) that I still have the nerve damage that causes pain every 20 to 30 seconds of my life from 2003 until now. I will take it to my grave, unfortunately, and I don’t wish that upon even my worst enemy.
You will not lose all of your muscle in a week. Within a few days of working out again, you will blow up and look insane. If you are worried about your condition and don’t want to get fat, that leads me to the next topic. 2. Adding Too Many Calories Too Fast
Everyone together: “I want to grow like crazy and add a ton of muscle for the first few weeks after a contest.” Uh-huh. We all do, but that isn’t how it works.
What does happen is you fill out, get skin-splitting pumps, and look crazy big because of the added carbs and calories. The bulk of what you see in the mirror shortly after a show is not technically muscle growth.
Added calories are a must after a contest. They help you fill out, recover better, and can help feed your metabolism if the calories are added incrementally over time. However, if you add too many calories, you will look great for a couple of weeks, and then all of a sudden, you wake up one morning and realize you are fat. For some reason, competitors really struggle to see this coming down the pike until it’s too late.
My basic rule of thumb for clients and me is to add 30 percent of your dieting calories the first week after a contest and assess how you are responding. Some people will need to keep adding calories weekly (possibly in smaller percentages) while others may need to back off slightly, but the most important thing during this time is to honestly assess your condition and a lot of people struggle to do this.
If you err on the side of fewer calories, you can always add more. If you err on the side of adding too many calories and pulling back if you don’t like your condition, you are far more likely to turn into a fatty — and fast. 3. Training Too Heavy Too Fast
It is admittedly tempting to try to take advantage of the added fullness from the added calories and jump back into training hard and heavy right away. After all, we do want to build muscle, and after a contest, those weights can start to feel much lighter than they were during your contest-prep phase.
Anton Gvozdikov © 123rf.com
At the same time, remind yourself that jumping up too quickly in weight is going to put your body in a vulnerable position and open you up to an increased potential for injury. I am all for increasing strength and putting more weight on the bar, but this isn’t a race to see how much weight you can get on the bar in the shortest amount of time possible. Your strength will climb, so taking it slow is the best option for the long haul. 4. Thinking You Are Getting Huge When You Are Getting Fat
For this one, you need to be honest with yourself when assessing your condition or you need to have friends or a trainer you can trust to be honest with you. When you get honest feedback that you trust, LISTEN TO IT. Some body fat will, of course, need to be added to make solid gains in your off-season. However, there comes a point where added body fat provides no benefit to making solid gains in your off-season and only sets up another obstacle for you down the road when it is time to get lean again. Remember, the harder you have to diet, the less likely you will be able to hang on to the muscle that you worked so hard to build in your off-season. 5. Fighting To Stay Too Lean
This is equally as detrimental as gaining too much body fat. It is incredibly difficult to build muscle at an efficient rate if you are too lean and your calories are too restricted. I always appreciate when a client wants to stay in the best shape they can for their off-season and still build muscle tissue. However, as with anything else, it is a balancing act. Find that happy medium where you are building muscle tissue and making solid gains, but keeping body fat well under control.
Skip Hill Elite FTS
I started competing almost 30 years ago, and I have made a very good living doing contest prep all the way back to the message-board days — and not just the message-board days, but the message-board days before there were even any graphics or advertisements. I am not kidding when I say that I legitimately had an AOL dial-up connection. Yes, I’ve been around THAT long.
In that time, I have seen a lot of mistakes, and I’ve made my fair share of them as well. I have always felt that a big part of my writing for elitefts.com should be to save as many people as I can from making the mistakes I have made or witnessed others make in my 3.5 decades of bodybuilding.
Though there are many more mistakes that competitors make after a contest, I have narrowed my list to the 10 that I feel are the most important. If you have others that you want to add to the list, feel free to post them in the comments section after this article. I always appreciate an interactive dialogue with the people who read my articles versus the typical comments of how stupid I am, how I should have been fired years ago because my writing sucks, and how ugly I am. The latter may be true, but my mom says I’m still adorable.
The 10 mistakes listed below are not in any specific order. 1. Not Taking Enough Rest Time After a Contest
If you have a show on a Saturday, and you are back in the gym banging on Monday, you are asking for trouble. Obviously, if you have another contest in a week or two, you need to be back in the gym — no question. If you do not have another show, your immune system is in an incredibly vulnerable position in the last few weeks leading up to a contest. You are beaten down physically and mentally; you usually have nagging minor injuries; metabolically, you likely are over-dieted; and recovery is usually compromised substantially. In short, you need time to let your body recover, heal and catch up.
I typically recommend a full week out of the gym, but most people will not adhere to that plan, no matter how emphatic I am with them about it. If you simply cannot stay out of the gym for a full week, at least stay out for three to five days, and then when you do go back, enjoy some pump workouts where you go into the gym, get a pump, show off your condition, and laugh a little bit with your training partner or other members of the gym. Don’t go for big numbers on compound movements and certainly don’t attempt to set any PRs.
Aleksei Deviatov © 123rf.com
If you do not allow for enough rest time after the contest, it is quite common to end up sick. I have seen horrible cases of bronchitis, pneumonia, mono, strep, and I am the poster boy for shingles because I have managed to get it twice in the last 15 years. I had it so bad the first time (2003) that I still have the nerve damage that causes pain every 20 to 30 seconds of my life from 2003 until now. I will take it to my grave, unfortunately, and I don’t wish that upon even my worst enemy.
You will not lose all of your muscle in a week. Within a few days of working out again, you will blow up and look insane. If you are worried about your condition and don’t want to get fat, that leads me to the next topic. 2. Adding Too Many Calories Too Fast
Everyone together: “I want to grow like crazy and add a ton of muscle for the first few weeks after a contest.” Uh-huh. We all do, but that isn’t how it works.
What does happen is you fill out, get skin-splitting pumps, and look crazy big because of the added carbs and calories. The bulk of what you see in the mirror shortly after a show is not technically muscle growth.
Added calories are a must after a contest. They help you fill out, recover better, and can help feed your metabolism if the calories are added incrementally over time. However, if you add too many calories, you will look great for a couple of weeks, and then all of a sudden, you wake up one morning and realize you are fat. For some reason, competitors really struggle to see this coming down the pike until it’s too late.
My basic rule of thumb for clients and me is to add 30 percent of your dieting calories the first week after a contest and assess how you are responding. Some people will need to keep adding calories weekly (possibly in smaller percentages) while others may need to back off slightly, but the most important thing during this time is to honestly assess your condition and a lot of people struggle to do this.
If you err on the side of fewer calories, you can always add more. If you err on the side of adding too many calories and pulling back if you don’t like your condition, you are far more likely to turn into a fatty — and fast. 3. Training Too Heavy Too Fast
It is admittedly tempting to try to take advantage of the added fullness from the added calories and jump back into training hard and heavy right away. After all, we do want to build muscle, and after a contest, those weights can start to feel much lighter than they were during your contest-prep phase.
Anton Gvozdikov © 123rf.com
At the same time, remind yourself that jumping up too quickly in weight is going to put your body in a vulnerable position and open you up to an increased potential for injury. I am all for increasing strength and putting more weight on the bar, but this isn’t a race to see how much weight you can get on the bar in the shortest amount of time possible. Your strength will climb, so taking it slow is the best option for the long haul. 4. Thinking You Are Getting Huge When You Are Getting Fat
For this one, you need to be honest with yourself when assessing your condition or you need to have friends or a trainer you can trust to be honest with you. When you get honest feedback that you trust, LISTEN TO IT. Some body fat will, of course, need to be added to make solid gains in your off-season. However, there comes a point where added body fat provides no benefit to making solid gains in your off-season and only sets up another obstacle for you down the road when it is time to get lean again. Remember, the harder you have to diet, the less likely you will be able to hang on to the muscle that you worked so hard to build in your off-season. 5. Fighting To Stay Too Lean
This is equally as detrimental as gaining too much body fat. It is incredibly difficult to build muscle at an efficient rate if you are too lean and your calories are too restricted. I always appreciate when a client wants to stay in the best shape they can for their off-season and still build muscle tissue. However, as with anything else, it is a balancing act. Find that happy medium where you are building muscle tissue and making solid gains, but keeping body fat well under control.
