As many of you may already know I competed in what seemed like my gazillionth bodybuilding competition this past weekend. However what many more of you may not know is that I only took 3 weeks to get ready for this show. In a sport where most competitors take anywhere from 3-4 months to get in shape for the stage, I decided to take just 21 days.

Crazy? Perhaps.
Ludicrous? Probably.
Insane? Definitely.

Yet, even though I spent less then a quarter of the amount of time that most people take to get their body in contest shape form, I ended up placing 2nd in a highly competitive and deep class of elite competitors. And listed below is how I did it…….

Diet

According to Bro Science, abs are made in the kitchen. And I’ve also heard the famous saying that the secret to a successful weight loss transformation is 80% diet and 20% exercise. Well as usual, I call bullshit on the generic dribble drabble that I’m exposed to on a regular basis. I strongly believe that diet and exercise go hand and hand with one another. No, you can’t out train a bad diet, but you sure as hell can’t expect significant results either if your diet is clean but your training lacks intensity and consistency. Therefore when it comes to my own diet, I made some changes but none of them were overly drastic.

The first thing I did was lower my carbohydrate intake. As someone who consumes up to 1000 grams of carbs a day on a regular basis, this was actually quite difficult for my body to adjust to at first. However to help make the process a bit easier, I made sure to increase my overall fibrous carbohydrates by adding a total of 6-8 cups of spinach into my daily meals. I also made sure to increase my overall protein consumption as well to ensure that I preserved as much muscle as I could while exercising in a caloric deficit.

The second thing I did was I drank more water. And lots of it! I went from consuming 8 litres of water a day to up to 20 litres easily. This was not that difficult to do as once my carbs were reduced the water would flow through my body quite quickly making it difficult to retain much if any water throughout the entire 3 weeks. In fact, as I tell most of our clients, the best way to get rid of water weight is to actually drink more water! Also the increase intake of H2O helped suppress my appetite which helped control most of my hunger pangs that I experienced throughout my so-called contest prep diet.

The third and final thing that I did was that I strategized as to where to implement each meal throughout my day. As any of my clients who work with me on their nutritional plans will tell you, I don’t believe in following a typical Meal 1 to Meal 6 format with my diets. I also don’t believe it’s that important to space your meals out every 3 hours and reduce your carbs as the day goes on. In fact, I always tell my clients that all of their meals on their plans are interchangeable. This makes the dieting process much easier on them as it essentially means if they want to have Meal 3, 4 or 5 for breakfast and Meal 1 or 2 for dinner, then they can do just that. My philosophy is and always has been to just make sure that they get all of their meals that are on their plan within a 24 hour period. What time and where they place them in their day is irrelevant to me, as long as it works for them. Therefore I made sure to apply the same principles to my own diet. On the days I trained with weights in the morning, I would make sure to have a high carb meal for breakfast and higher fat and protein meals towards the end of the day when I was less active. If I trained in the evening or late afternoon, then I would just reverse this strategy and have my higher carbs meals towards the end of the day for when my body required them.

Training

I know, I know – If you want to get lean, toned and ripped then it’s important to do LOTS of cardio and keep your weights light and reps high. YAWN…BORING!!!! And not to mention – FALSE!!!! I hate to say it, but my training in the gym remained the exact same throughout this entire 3 week process. I kept my weights as heavy as possible and never felt the urge to purposely decrease the pounds I was lifting and increase my reps just so that I could “tone” my muscles. This is more bro science bullshit at it’s best. The only thing that I did change was the amount of cardiovascular activity that I was doing after my workouts. Normally in the “Offseason” I perform 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise after my resistance training workouts. But because I only had 3 weeks to prepare for this show, I increased this amount to 60 minutes each day. 40 minutes of which were done in a fasted state and 20 minutes of which were done during my post-workouts. If I had given myself more time to prepare, this amount would most likely have been reduced to a total of 45 minutes a day at max.

Supplementation

Alright! It’s time for the juicy stuff! This is what everyone wants to know. What secret drugs, stimulants and fat burners was I taking to go from a solid 223lbs to a ripped 188lbs in a manner of 3 weeks? Get ready. Here it comes……..NOTHING!!!

Liar! There’s no way that a person can naturally lose over 30lbs in 3 weeks! Well send me for a drug test and I’ll come out clean. When it comes to supplementation, I kept in everything that I normally use throughout the year: Vitamin-C, Vitamin-D, Omega-3’s and my pre-workout powders, protein powders and BCAA powders. In fact I ended up running out of my BCAA powders during my last week, so I didn’t even have those to rely on for the last few days leading up to my show.

I’m not against steroid usage, I just don’t feel that I need it to compete at an amateur level. The majority of shows that I compete in are not tested and therefore steroids are actually allowed. I just like to see how far I can push my body naturally and how well I can compete against the chemically enhanced athletes on stage. It’s a personal choice and just like politics and religion, not one that I force on others. I work with many athletes that do use performance enhancing drugs and see nothing wrong with this, as long as it’s done in a safe and controlled manner. They’re just not for me right now at this point in my life.

I Don’t Do Offseason

Finally, the biggest reason that I believe I was able to bring one of my best looks to the stage this year was due to the fact that I don’t believe in an “Offseason”. My contest prep diet is really not much different then my regular everyday diet, except for all that extra nasty ass spinach and few extra cans of tuna that I was consuming on a daily basis. The only thing that really changed were that my portion sizes were reduced and my cardiovascular exercise was increased. Not once did I have fish for breakfast, nor did I ever take carbs completely out of my diet. I listened to my body for direction. If my brain felt fuzzy, then I increased my fats. If my strength decreased in the gym, then I increased my carbs. If my muscles appeared flat or were beginning to look stringy, then I rotated my protein. I’ve always believe that it’s important to stay in shape year round. This is why I advise clients to set goals, but to not settle once they achieve these goals. It’s important to keep setting new goals along the way. This is how you progress in life. Ofcourse it’s important to reward yourself as well for achieving your health and fitness goals, however I don’t recommend using food as reward as this just creates a vicious cycle and risks the possibility of developing a dangerous eating disorder in the long run.

Contest Prep 101

I would not suggest that anyone ever attempt do a 3 week contest preparation or implement a crash diet strategy to get ready for an upcoming event such as a wedding or vacation. This is not a healthy way to train and/or diet and a sure fire way to cause possible long term side effects with your thyroid and metabolism. With that said, if you maintain a relatively clean diet and are consistent with your workouts year round, then it really should not be that difficult for you to get into excellent condition in a very short period of time. As long as you understand the science behind following a proper nutritional plan and some basic concepts to implement when it comes to exercise physiology and most importantly, USE THEM, then you will always be within striking distance of achieving your optimal physique.

“Champions have no off-season.”
Dan Bailey

Yours in Good Health,

Nick Cosgrove
Forever Fit Performance