When to start contest prep
Where You Should Be Before Prep Starts
in today's video we discuss where you
should be before you start a contest
prep hey guys what's going on this is
power Bella from pro physique comm and
I'm here with one of my top prep coaches
of pro physique Steve beau Grande the
master of exercise science these science
with Steve guy but today we're going to
talk about something a little bit
different Steven yeah that's that time
of the year where we start thinking
about contest breath
oh man that's such a heavy thing to
think about well I'm excited because
we've got some amazing competitors we've
been you know getting experience and
really working with some amazing people
over the last well for me a decade but
for many of us it's been several years
now even focusing on competitors like
Steven here and so what I want to talk
about is where you should be as a person
as a competitor before you start the
process of dieting down for contest prep
and I love Steve's experience in this
because he brings kind of two facets
he's got both the science and he's got
the experience of coaching competitors
so I brought him in we're gonna talk
about it and the first thing we want to
talk about how long it's been since your
last show so when you thoughts on that
very important so we want to make sure
that we're taking as long outside of the
diet as we are putting in inside of the
diet in terms of our contest
preparations we all know that event
through contest prep it's very very
intense it's time-consuming its life
consuming we're accounting everything we
eat everything we drink every step every
exercise every rep it's a lot of work so
not only is it can it be super
beneficial to get us Rhian spired and
psychologically to take just as much
time off and out of season right but
it's definitely a huge benefit in terms
of physiological response as well
remember our metabolisms are adapting to
being lower on calories to being higher
on energy expenditure over time so if we
don't allow the body to have time away
from that diet we can find that it can
be very difficult to get that loss in
body fat as we perceive forward through
that next dieting phase you know I think
it's very common for those of us that
compete for the first time to get so
excited by the process that we kind of
forget about how difficult
it is on our bodies and minds going
through the process so our basic rule of
thumb and this is something I share with
all my pro physique coaches is that you
should be out of prep at least as long
as you were in prep and preferably quite
a bit longer if you need to put on more
muscle which we'll get to in a second
all right coach Steve what do you think
is a good place to be for cardio before
you start a prep right so what I tell
all of my clients is my preference is
about an hour or less of cardio Grenn a
day a week a week yes I last with us a
real concern that is it is a real
concern I have had clients come to me
that have been doing 18 hours of cardio
per week and maintaining weight so it's
something we want to keep in mind now
there's definitely some wiggle room
there depending on your circumstances
but if we're doing 3 4 or 5 hours of
cardio a week and we're doing that
specifically for weight maintenance /
weight loss we're probably not going to
be in the best spot to have a lot of
tools in the toolbox to utilize in terms
of energy expenditure to facilitate that
we keep losing body fat to get to that
stage lean composition yes so there is a
balance here some of us are busy our
lifestyles our jobs are careers demand
that we move a lot so if your calories
are offsetting that movement then you're
fine but if you're having to do lots of
cardio with low calories just to
maintain where you're at and during a
contest prep is most likely going to be
very difficult
speaking of calories Steve where would
you like the calories of a client to be
before we start restricting them to
start a pro absolutely nice easy
recommendation here if you pay attention
to pounds like us here in the States
you're going to be looking at 13 to 15
times your body weight in calorie intake
per day anything over 15 is gravy
absolutely phenomenal so that way we
know again tools in the toolbox right we
want to make sure that we have calories
to cut from in order to facilitate that
deficit in order to facilitate that
we're getting Fred Z's bra so we just
want to make sure that we're setting
ourselves up for success and part of
that is having
calorie intake where we're maintaining
weight pack this calorie intake there's
going to be at least 13 to 15 times your
body weight yeah and if we're talking
about kilograms we get this all the time
so that's somewhere between 26 and 32 I
believe yes 26 32 33 ish yeah so those
are the numbers that we're looking at
for again these are just baseline
numbers but just like cardio let's say
you're super sedentary and you're only
on 13 times your body weight in calories
well we might be able to just make you
move more to get some weight loss going
so again these are just staples things
that we look for that are indicators
that hey you know what this is gonna be
a successful contest prep number four is
probably the thing that I really never
paid attention to when I first started
coaching okay we would look at the raw
data the numbers of how many calories
how much cardio how much working out are
you doing but the thing that I think is
probably the biggest change in coaching
that I've done over the last couple
years is looking at life stress so let's
talk about some of the life stress that
we probably want to avoid during a
contest prep yeah absolutely so the ones
you would really think of so making sure
that we're financially secure right yes
obviously that's gonna be important
since prep is a very expensive process
for the vast majority of us I think it's
expensive for dudes like multiply that
for the ladies out there it's much more
expensive for you so making sure that
we're financially sound and stable and
in a good place there is going to be
really important some things to maybe
avoid if we can't moving right new jobs
that can be a big life stressor now
making sure that you know hey are we
getting married right that's another big
one a lot of stress I hate good news
you're safe
[Applause]
[Music]
but making sure that we're planning
ahead and we say hey what is going
what's our life going to look like
throughout us prep what do we have
planned or that we can first see
obviously there's always going to be
unforeseen circumstances so it's always
gonna be things they're gonna pop up
like oh hey guess what stress and we
have to do our best to manage those but
making sure that we're going to be in a
good place to minimize stress throughout
the process is going to help us to have
again better results yeah don't don't
add to the stress of prep by being in a
stressful situation avoid if you can
things like planning a prep around a
wedding you know sometimes we can't
avoid changing jobs or moving or
financial stress that's just a part of
life but try to put yourself in a
position to compete at a time that works
well for you maybe you're just avoiding
family stress maybe you have a family
trip maybe your kids have some events
going on maybe you don't want to plan to
be competing or deep into prep around
those times yep and we'll finish this
off with another very common question I
get from beginners and that is how much
muscle should I have before I start a
contest prep and there are many ways to
look at this but I think Steve and I
have discussed what I feel is the best
approach so why don't we talk about us
Steven yeah you'll never have enough
muscle we're all still small
end of story just kidding so I think
we're on the same page in terms of like
you probably shouldn't put off competing
forever at some point you have to pull
the trigger and maybe our beliefs on why
that is or why we justify that might
differ a little bit but generally
speaking if we're super were concerned
with how much muscle we're going to have
at some point it is worth it to go in
and get the experience there isn't a lot
of benefit to be had by spending years
and years of your life investing into
something that you don't know if you
truly love or even like you can be fit
you can be healthy you can get stronger
and do all those things without ever
competing so definitely I encourage
people like no have realistic
expectations yes get on that stage know
that we might not have as much muscle as
they're looking forward to fill out to
be highly competitive but that does not
mean that there is not a lot to be
gained from the process of competing
while you may not have
muscle is necessary for what you see in
pictures and videos understand that when
you go to a competition they often have
a first timers division people that have
never competed the novice division if
you're a masters they have age divisions
for 40 50 60 so all of this allows us to
get on stage and enjoy the process
knowing we're going to fit into a
category now what you learn and prep
things like time management goal-setting
how to set and achieve goals throughout
this process I promise you if you love
the process and the sport the most
progress you are ever going to make is
after your first contest one of my kind
of regrets in life is that I waited
until I was 32 to compete yes I had
plenty of muscle I had been working out
for 14 years but the year after I
competed was my best year ever for
training for nutrition for consistency
why I had learned so much learned about
nutrition learned about how to train
properly and I was super motivated why
because I had this goal now of getting
back on stage being a better version of
myself so yes you need to have some
muscle but don't feel like you need to
look like someone that's ready to win
and overall at a big show right away
enjoy the process enjoy the climb
alright guys well listen if you're
interested in learning more about
contest prep hit that subscribe button
because Steve and I are going to be
doing videos all year my man Steve has a
fantastic channel I'll link that below
and I'll put my our instagrams on here
so you can follow us both and I hope you
guys have an awesome day
