You’ve got to go back and build up lean body mass to some extent between contests. This
also means you’ll gain a bit of fat. You’ll still be bulking up and cutting down, but it won’t be
like on the other diet where you bulk up so much that you gain so much bodyfat that by the
time you lose it, you’re no better off than when you started.
Again, the goal here is to make you bigger, stronger, and more cut from contest to contest
and year to year. That’s what the Anabolic Diet is all about.
1–2 WEEKS OUT
You should stop training 1–2 weeks out from the contest (you should always discontinue leg
training two weeks out). That’s pretty standard wherever you go. This will give your muscles
maximum time to recuperate and achieve maximum growth. Don’t worry about maintaining
muscle mass and tone. The posing you’ll be doing will take care of that, and also give you some
aerobic activity. Posing should, of course, be continued throughout this entire period.
But though you’ll shut down training right before a contest, this is the only time you should
back off. Some people think that just because they’re on the Anabolic Diet, they don’t have to
work as hard. That’s simply not true. All you’re going to do by cutting back in training is limit
the effectiveness of the diet and your ultimate growth.
The two, diet and training, work hand in hand. Exercise actually complements the high fat
diet. Hormonal changes caused by exercise result in an increase in the activity of the enzyme
liprotein lipase (LPL) in the muscle.^13 This in turn causes increased use of free fatty acids and
decreases fat buildup.
We’ll talk some more about what kind of exercise is best in concert with the Anabolic Diet
later. For now, suffice it to say that both training and lifestyle work hand in hand with the
Anabolic Diet in maximizing its benefits.
COUNTDOWN TO CONTEST
Above we talked about the importance of experimenting with carb loading duration and foods
to learn when and how your body looks its best. That’s basically the trick in perfecting that
critical contest diet.
During the weekend carb loading part of the diet, you note how many hours into it that you
look your very best. You refine that time by experimenting with the types of food you eat to
precisely dial in that time when you’re at your best, so you can use this information when the
contest arrives.
What you’ll eventually find is that there’s a day in the week when you’ll look your very best.
All the water you’ve gained during your carb load will be drained out, and you’ll have just the
right balance between glycogen in the muscle and water to look your best. You’ll feel great, too.
Some people will look their best on Monday. Some on Tuesday. Some on Wednesday.
Everybody’s system works differently, and you’ll find wide differences here. The goal is to find
the right day FOR YOU, that day when you are at your best consistently, each week.
THE ANABOLIC DIET — HOW AND WHY IT WORKS 45