Peak Week Protocol First Bodybuilding Competition | Bodybuilding Blind #04

Depletion

In the beginning of the last week leading up to competition day also known as peak week is when depletion begins. The goal of depletion is to deplete the body of all glycogen stores. What I decided to do is a 4 day depletion, Sunday through Wednesday. My macronutrients for these 4 days are set at 100g of carbs, 170g of protein, 50g of fat. Bodybuilders try to manipulate the body and their muscles on the last week of competition prep in order to peak on the day of the show. During these 4 days I will be consuming all of my carbohydrates through complex carb sources. After Wednesday it then comes time to carb load back up.

The Carb Loading

After I have depleted my body of all glycogen stores the first 4 days of peak week then it is time to fill out and carb load back up. I am choosing to do a 2 day loading process. On Thursday I will increase my carbs up to 275g and leave my other macronutrients the same 170g of protein and 50g of fat. On Friday, the day before the competition I will increase my carbs up to 300g and lower my protein to 150g and leave my fat at 50g. The reason in lowering my protein is to keep my calories a little lower since my carbs are being raised. The extra protein is not necessary and is just extra calories I will not need. So this is what I will be setting my macros at during the 2 carb loading days.

How Much Water?

Since I am a natural bodybuilder I am not going to do much with my water. Remember that our body regulates everything closely and if one dehydrates there body to lower the water in the subcutaneous area they will also be dehydrating their muscles. If one does this they will look super flat on stage and it will make it extremely hard to pump up back stage. That being said I am going to drink 2 gallons of water from Sunday all the way through Thursday. On the day before the competition I will lower it to 1.5 gallons. That day I will drink normally all the way up till that evening then around 5 or so I will just sip on water like a normal human being does. From then through the competition I will just drink normally.

Sodium Manipulation

Sodium is a popular topic when talking about peak week. The reason being is that it can make some pretty apparent changes to someones physique. The thing to remember is to not over complicate things leading up to competition day because then again the human body regulates sodium to keep it pretty constant. So what I will be doing with sodium is keeping it normal leading up till competition day. On competition day I will have higher sodium foods the morning of the show. Then right before going on stage I will probably have a shot of water with table salt in it amounting to about 1.5g of sodium. The reason behind doing this is to draw water into the muscles as well to look veiny when on stage.

Training, Workouts, Cardio

My training and workouts on peak week will be different than normal. On Monday I will be doing a push day as well as calves. On Tuesday I will be training a pull day as well as forearms. On Wednesday I will workout lower body. On Thursday I will train core, calves, forearms. On Friday, the day before the competition I will do a full body workout with circuit style training. All of these workouts will be light, Monday through Thursday the intensity will be 50% of my normal training intensity. On Friday I will probably do one exercise per muscle group in a circuit just to get a nice pump and that is it. Cardio throughout the entire week will be constant. I will continue to do 30 minutes of cardio at a low to moderate intensity. Most likely I will do my cardio on the stair stepper and if not it will be on an elliptical. During my cardio I try to squeeze my glutes, calves, and lower body in general to try and improve muscle definition. So this is how my workouts and training as well as cardio will be through peak week.

Competition Day!

The day of the show I will wake up and put the second coat of my tan on and then head out to eat. What I will be eating is IHOP. I am going to have pancakes and sugary syrup for my first meal. The reason in doing this is to fill out the muscles and look as full as possible. After this meal in a couple hours right after the 830 athletes meeting I will have some salted rice cakes with honey drizzled on them. I will have this every half hour leading up to when I get on stage. Then 30 minutes before going on stage I will have the shot of salty water, some Reece’s peanut butter cups, and some pump igniter pills I got from the local nutrition shop. That is it for the morning of the competition. The finals and that evening will pretty much be a repeat of the morning. In between the morning and night show I will go and eat at a restaurant with family and friends just eating something normal. So that is it for the actual day of the competition.

Summary

This is going to be my plan and protocol for peak week for my first natural bodybuilding competition. I believe that depleting from Sunday till Wednesday will be the best for me. Then carb loading on Thursday and Friday to fill out and look bigger and leaner. So I think doing all of these things throughout peak week will help me bring the best physique on stage on the Saturday of that week. Of course this is what I came up with and I am coaching myself through my first competition. If you have any questions feel free to email or contact me however you would like. Let’s Get It! We will see how competition day goes! #KeepGettingStronger