Pro Tips for Pre-Contest
Bodybuilding is how individuals carry out continuous workouts to enhance entirely developed muscles, muscularity, and, most probably, beauty. A person who involves themselves in such exercises is called a bodybuilder. Bodybuilding requires a lot of preparation, determination, and hard work. Find Pro Tips for Pre-Contest; It takes physical and mental practice for anyone to get involved in bodybuilding contests. It is not a must you walk into the gym to be ready for bodybuilding shows, but you should be prepared to adjust your everyday living as follows;
- Adjusting your meals for quite some time.
- Prepare to exercise every day as you have never done before.
- Be ready to lose some either at the workplace or those you usually interact with now and then.
- You ought to be fully prepared and focused without looking back on the bodybuilding show.
Maybe you have been practicing regularly to build your body for contests, but you have never gotten the required characteristics for anyone to win. You can work extremely hard to make your muscles without dieting. Still, it is essential to note that dieting and managing your calories by increasing them. It is the most crucial thing in bodybuilding. Specific steps will help you attain the requirements of winning in a bodybuilding contest.
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Prepare for a Long Time
We all know the saying that states practice makes perfect. You could utilize the phrase in this step, and you will be pleased with the results. But in case you do not give yourself enough time, the following takes place;
- Get physical and mental pressure.
- Get involved in too much aerobic exercise.
- You will exceedingly decrease calories.
To avoid the above actions, which will negatively impact bodybuilding. It is simple to give yourself more time. Some people think that these three actions will help them get the required characteristics in winning in a bodybuilding show by lowering fat amounts, but it is not the case. But they will reduce your body weight and increase hormone levels that manage stress in your body called cortisol. And higher levels of cortisol will cause damage in your body rather than helping you. Of course, you can’t spend your whole life building your body, but you are just required to make proper arrangements on how long you should prepare.
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Steps can guide you;
- Exercise competition weight. You can do so by observing the required weight from the previous competitions. Most competitors usually have a fixed competition weight, but this will eventually change with time. For instance, if you have never competed, check your lowest weight and decrease it by 5%.
- Exercise appropriate rate of weight loss. The aim here is to obtain many muscles so you can’t drop your weight abruptly. The recommended rate of weight loss is 0.5% to 1.5% of your body weight weekly. The percentage is higher at that is 1%, but it drops to 0.5% as you approach the show.
- The time required for exercising. It can be estimated using the current weight and the expected with on the show day. You are supposed to calculate using your actual weight. For example, if you have 180lbs and your desired weight during the show day is 150lbs, figure how long it will take to lose 30lbs.
Your weight can relatively go up or down, but this can adjust by proper dieting. Within five weeks of observing all the necessary conditions, you are good to go for a contest and assure of winning.
Understand All Your Measurements
It is vital to understand how your body measures, especially if you are preparing for a competition. These measurements include your nutrition, calories, macros, sets, and body weight. To know your requirements here, you need to measure the following;
- Your body weights daily and takes an average every week.
- How your performance in training is progressing? Is it decreasing or increasing?
- Determine your nutrition measurements in terms of fats, proteins, fiber, and carbohydrates.
All these must be measured routinely without failing, thus resulting in the required conditions of winning. Whatever nutrients you take vary from one person to another, but you will undoubtedly attain the requirements if you have a proper follow-up. For a regular data collection, weigh your weight in clothes, without clothes, before and after eating. Generally, you can manage to succeed and maintain your muscle only if you measure your numbers regularly.
Moderate Your Training
Avoid training excessively, and your aim should be training muscles to retain the performance of muscles. You are now keeping an eye on your measurement, but your account is going down. To curb this quickly and efficiently, you are required to lower a set; for instance, if you can’t sustain your six settings from 7 to 9, then drop them to 6 sets. Focus on increasing your performance at all times.
You usually are breaking down your tissues while dieting. However, weight training behaves the other way round. When you train excessively, more calories burn, more fat is lost as well. Also, muscle breakdown inhibits so the increase in your capacity to burn more fats.
Aerobic exercises increase your appetite, so it is good to eat more and, at the same time, lose more fats. Nevertheless, lowering your aerobic exercises comes with improvements such as fat metabolic passage keeps active, division of nutrients, and increased workability. To result in minimal weight loss, decrease your aerobic exercises, and lower your calories.
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Establish a Bold Connection with Other People
You are required to relate closely to people who know your focus: people who won’t pull you down but those in full support of you when you are weak. When you are out there in the gym doing your aerobic exercises as you prepare for the contest, a mere text or a call from friends or family members will motivate you to work harder. You can use social media to enhance a robust social network to get encouragement and support from those who believe in you. To establish a full social network, you can;
- Open a YouTube channel, Instagram account, or a Blog where you can post your progress and communicate with your followers.
- Regularly inform the people you get in the gym, and they will gladly assess your daily performance.
- Inform your family and folks concerning your focus and that you want them to hold you back.
- Look for a person with experience to guide and train you.
- Link to Facebook groups that will be beneficial to your goal.
When times are hard, asking yourself what you are doing, and you feel like giving up, these people will offer you a shoulder to lean. So you are encouraged to move on until to attain your objective.
Break for a While in Between the Entire Activity
You might be determined to win and get the required weight, but you need to take a break. By pausing, you will maintain more muscle, and you will find the process more pleasing. How do you take a break to produce better results? It is by taking some breaks to take your meals and refeeds that will boost your metabolism. Refeeds are the time in which you eat measurable calories, especially fats and proteins.
The break can last for approximately one week, but you must always observe your diet and other requirements. Reasons for taking a diet break is because you are not eating much food, so the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) decreases, you lose weight; hence Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) also decreases. As a result, you will have little energy, so your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) and Non-Exercise Physical Activity (NEPA) drops; hence your body will always be cold, leading to fewer calories than burn. Additionally, you will still be hungry because your hormones will try to fight the fat loss. Also, you will continually feel stressed because Cortisol fastens while Catecholamine and Serotonin decreases. Furthermore, testosterone goes down, and so you will use less energy.
Diet
By eating more, your body will balance, and the problems that come with dieting will lower. You will continually lose fat, maintain a healthy body, and finally reach your required conditions. As you take more carbohydrates, it is good to determine how your body will approach the last week of preparation. At the moment, you can choose the best food for you, that is, the food that makes better or worse.
At first, you will experience haste in losing weight, and then gradually, you can withstand the loss of muscles and get used to metabolism. So when you feel that you have adapted, you are fit to take a break in your dieting. Afterward, focus on a decreased weight loss because you are physically fit and take fewer calories because you at a higher risk of muscle loss and getting used to metabolism.
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Therefore, you might need another diet break, but it depends on you, and you can now consider yourself ready for the contest. To enhance your appearance and good bodyweight, you can opt to eat all your diet but with your trainer’s advice.
Avoid Messing Up during the Final Week
The last one week could ruin the entire preparation process, which is very disappointing. However, the previous might also help you succeed in the contest. Be extremely careful on the last week as you approach the bodybuilding show. Some people give wrong advice that you should work extremely hard during this week, and it might harm you other than improving your winning conditions. Follow all the steps mentioned earlier carefully, and definitely, you will get the winning prize.
Pro Tip: Alcohol Pre Contest
Is it a good idea to take an alcoholic drink a night just before the bodybuilding shows? The reason behind that awkward idea is that the drink flushes out all the water in your body such that your body will seem to be physically fit. The glass also improves your vascularity, and your nerves calm down due to anxiety. A drink will also give you confidence, make you courageous, and eliminates any doubts in you. An alcoholic beverage also makes your veins clear on the surface of your skin, creating a bodybuilder look as if they have what it takes to take part in a bodybuilding competition. They also make your body to be dehydrated. You can add alcohol to your diet, and it will result in fewer potential adverse effects.
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Crucial Points That You Must Understand First
As for an alcoholic drink, muscle growth and loss of fat, you are supposed to know the following;
Alcohol Consists of Calories
Alcohol does not make you fat. It holds roughly 5.7 calories per gram; hence it has a favorable higher thermic effect. However, it is essential to consider calories present in an alcohol drink just like you check present in the food and other drink you take. If you do not take charge of the calories present in your drinks, and precisely if they are in higher amounts, you will likely get adverse outcomes.
The Difference Between Direct and Indirect Impact of Alcohol on Muscle Growth or Fat Loss
If you are consuming a lot of alcohol, then be assured of inhibition in your regular training and nutrition strategy. It might result in inconsistency being affected though you can easily control this.
Also, if you take much alcohol and you find yourself failing to attend regular workouts or destroys the entire preparation, you are supposed to rethink and opt to abstain or moderate the amount of your alcohol intake. Nevertheless, do not go ahead and judge alcohol for this direct impact because it is your behavior, and you can easily control it.
However, for alcohol and bodybuilding to go inline such that you can reach your expectations, you are required to;
- Consume alcohol just like a normal macronutrient that contains calories that are useful in your bodybuilding.
- Ensure that alcohol consumption does not intrude your regular workouts, training, and diet to achieve your goal.
Generally, if you consider all the steps involved in obtaining all the conditions necessary for a bodybuilding competition, add moderate alcohol, and be assured of emerging a winner.
Ways to Take Alcohol without Interfering With Your Progress
Take Drinks with Reduced Calories
Liquids with meager calories should incorporate with dry wines and spirits. Avoid sugary and healthy drinks because they contain a lot of calories that aren’t fit for you. But it is not that you can’t enjoy drinks with higher calories; know there are better options that will not negatively affect your body.
Prolong the Time Between your Training and Alcohol Intake
You usually will skip training if you spent the whole night taking alcohol. So your immediate regular exercise will be affected, but you can proceed with your workout after you have regained your strength. But to avoid the affected activity, make sure you compensate it for consistency in training.
When Drinking Maintain Reduced Fat Intake
The toxic element of alcohol interferes with the standard fat burning in your body once you take alcohol. Because when you drink, fat absorbs faster into the blood. If you take half of the amount of fat that you usually take, it will not ruin your body’s normal functioning.
Consume a Lot of Water to Keep you Dehydrated
When you are on a night out, ensure that you take much water and before going to sleep. Alcohol is an excellent dehydrating agent, so this will lower any hangovers that may be resulted from consuming a lot of the drink. Water will help you recover quickly from your previous night’s drinking.
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Economize some Calories for a Later Night Out
If you are used to eating a lot after consuming alcohol, ensure that your calorie intake is reduced in the morning to economize some for later use. Your strength at that night might be relatively down due to the day’s workout, so a higher intake of calories will help you regain your strength.
Final Say
The fact that you are building your muscles and focusing on losing fat does not hinder you from enjoying your favorite drink. But consume alcohol with moderation. Be wise and answerable to lower negative impacts on your bodybuilding training sessions. Just think critically; if you are consistent in training, you keenly observe your diet, you maintain the required body weight. Carry out your workouts as instructed; you are careful with what you do during the peak week. And you drink responsibly; you will achieve your hard-worked goal, which is winning the bodybuilding competition such that your precious time and hard work will not go in vain.