How/why do the pros get in and then out of contest shape so quickly?

[youandme]

Yep takes 12 weeks to look you best and a few days to look your worst.

[Prime]

Yep takes 12 weeks to look you best and a few days to look your worst.

Agreed
I'm amazed at how much you managed to put away!
I diddnt plan ahead and at the venue there was only one place selling food.  By the time i got there almost everything was gone.  It was like a cloud of locusts!

I looked pregnant after i ate.  My stomach swelled up with gas.  It was incredibly uncomfortable.

[HowieW]

Agreed
I'm amazed at how much you managed to put away!
I diddnt plan ahead and at the venue there was only one place selling food.  By the time i got there almost everything was gone.  It was like a cloud of locusts!

I looked pregnant after i ate.  My stomach swelled up with gas.  It was incredibly uncomfortable.

LOL good one. Perhaps this is why I never won a major title , only state/rehional ones and guys beat him by looking better on contest days...who knows.
To me bodybuilding is an overall lifestyle, not just contest wins/placements.
However, SUCCESS is judged by how one does in contests.
With my method andideas I never won a major show but did win 7 1st's at smaller shows in the summer of 1986, hmmm, not bad , plus I never would have won a national show anyway.

[Prime]

LOL good one. Perhaps this is why I never won a major title , only state/rehional ones and guys beat him by looking better on contest days...who knows.
To me bodybuilding is an overall lifestyle, not just contest wins/placements.
However, SUCCESS is judged by how one does in contests.
With my method andideas I never won a major show but did win 7 1st's at smaller shows in the summer of 1986, hmmm, not bad , plus I never would have won a national show anyway.

I'm just starting out mate.  This will be my 2nd show.

[Bronx]

This is a funny thread. The instant I read it I knew everyone would be talking about gear. Well, for the inexperienced person in here...90% of you, let's look strictly at all natural competitors who don't juice. You diet for weeks, sometimes months, your body get deprived and you only consume certain things. After your show, when you can eat what you want, even for a week, your body will suck up every single drop of what you eat, and its not uncommon to see even natural competitors put on like 30 pounds in a short period of time. I have seen women compete at 130 and within a month after their show weigh in the neighborhood of 165 - 170. This is extreme but it happens.

[dawakaman]

I havent't read all the other posts (laziness) but there are several factors that are responsible:

*for every gram of glycogen to be stored in the muscles, your body needs 2,7 gram of water, so for gor every gram of glycogen stored, you will gain 3.7 grams of weight. If you have lots of muscle mass, you can stores lots of glycogen, ergo big weight increases.
*besides the glycogen theory, some BB drugs make you bloat like there's no tomorrow because of test/estrogen ratio shifts (experts can explain this better than me, so feel free to do so)
*water is easily lost on a low carb diet (for reason see #1 again) and fat can be lost if you doing your cardio for 2 hours everyday (pros have plenty of time to do so, since most do not have 'normal' jobs)
*those substances they use are crazy (thyroid hormones, clen etc.) and not your ECA stack form the gas station
*good genetics, which most of us do not have

These point are some from the top of my head...there are more

Peace
D

[littleguns]

Clen, Cytomel and T-3 are very potent fat burners....take these or any combo and watch your BF drop in no time....

Lets face it...how long can you really go without Pizza, Ice Cream Hot Dogs and Hamburgers?

I would love to see a mandate in IFBB contracts that says something like,

"You will stay within 15-20lbs of your compeition weight"....

I think alot of BBers still have the mentality of......more fat on the body allows more weight to be thrown around which in turn will build more muscle....

[HowieW]

Clen, Cytomel and T-3 are very potent fat burners....take these or any combo and watch your BF drop in no time....

Lets face it...how long can you really go without Pizza, Ice Cream Hot Dogs and Hamburgers?

I would love to see a mandate in IFBB contracts that says something like,

"You will stay within 15-20lbs of your compeition weight"....

I think alot of BBers still have the mentality of......more fat on the body allows more weight to be thrown around which in turn will build more muscle....

The only practical mandate I see is to change the whole contest schedule format and have the pros compete in one show per month for like 4 mos in a row. Most under the present system of extreme prep measures would find this insane , BUT it would change the sport as we know it.

[ToxicAvenger]

While I don't care to see a pro guest pose, in horrible "off season" ie FAT shape, it amazes me how they can get so ripped come show time, aprox 16 weeks later. Plus, they seem to fade fairly quickly as well.
I have been in/around the sport for years and did lots of shows over the years. Granted, I am no pro but it takes me a lot longer to get ripped if I let myself go then what I see most pros need. On the other side, once I am in top shape, I can stay close to it for weeks, as long as my diet stays good.
How do they change so damn fast???
Howard

you know the answer..damn howard  you be a physics dood...


anyhow

why??\


cause contest shape = all drugs....otherwise it'd take longer than 3 months (eh.... Lee.... eh!)


* Sohail....remember the name?.if ya actually contradict me here Lee

[Dan-O]

The old school pros like Robby, Boyer, et al didn't blow up by 30 or 40 pounds in the offseason.  They stayed in fairly good shape year round, not extreme contest shape, but neither did they pork out like pigs.  In fact as has been mentioned before, they often "grew into" their contest condition instead of the other way around.

I'm no contest guru but I can guarantee you those dramatic weight gains and losses are murder on the body (especially when they happen once or more per year) and they will take their toll over time!

[Mr. Intenseone]

REBOUND!

[littleguns]

The only practical mandate I see is to change the whole contest schedule format and have the pros compete in one show per month for like 4 mos in a row. Most under the present system of extreme prep measures would find this insane , BUT it would change the sport as we know it.

I think you and I are pretty much on the same page except...

Most Pros are getting smarter where they are not using gear all year long, rather 3-6 months prior to a show.

If you forced them to compete more often then they would have to stay on AAS longer thus possibly causing more damage to their bodies then need be.

Heck if a Pro is able to qualify for the Olympia at the Ironman in Feb and not have to compete again till Oct/Nov I am all for it but again, keep yourself in manageable shape.

Personally I would rather see an in shape Darrem Charles than an out of shape Ronnie or Jay guest posing at a local show. That's just me tho-

[canesfan]

I will agree with others on here the amount of mass you have and chemical assistance greatly affects how much you can eat and still remain relatively lean. I have a "friend" who for a 12 week period experimented with 1gram of test a week, 50 mg of anadrol a day, 150 mg of winstrol of week and 400 mg of deca a week. In addition, this "friend" used Xyendrene 2 days on, 1 day off (this was the original formula not the watered down one). This "friend" followed your normal 50-30-20 diet and then threw in 2 additional junk meals everyother day to assist with more calories. The results: 20 lbs increase in bodyweight, 5lbs drop in bodyfat, 15 rep sets with 500 in the squat, 150 lb shoulder press for 6 reps, 405 incline barbell for 4 reps. These kind of results will never happen for a natural but, I think you could get maybe 10% of this results. In order to eat the amount of calories to gain mass naturally you either have to be ok with getting a little chunky or you must add some cardio to help with the metabolism. Use lots of desicated liver tabs as well.

[gh15]

you need to get up in weight/size as high as you can get! that can only be done if you eat everything in site and make sure it is  high in protien too. if you go and play the sodium game,,if you go and play the zero sugar game,,,if you go and play any game when you try to grow you WILL NOT GROW. yes your physiqe will always get compliements of how great it is and how nice it is but growing? um no.

with out hormones you will be stuck at 5'7 ~ 160lb of lean mean meat
with hormones you will be stuck at 5'7 ~ 190 lb of buffed up lean/bloated muscle.

eating clean is not going to make you grow and i dont care who you are. as i said before you need to EAT inorder to grow. you need to eat everything and make sure that with the poundage added also comes muscle growth (200lb~18 inch arms,,220lb~19-20incharms,,etc etc) if muscle growth dont come then you do something wrong! most likley training!

if you have 250+ lb on you of muscle that was gained with hard work in the gym (hard correct work!), with enough calories eaten (basically all you can eat to a point kinda diet) , and with the use of bulking hormones doing cycles...if you have those 250lb it will feel and also look like a piece of cake dieting while applying the right cutting hormones! why? because you have enough lean muscle mass! because your 50lb loss down to 200lb wont make you the thin little boney thing you used to be...but will transform you to the 200lb ripped muscle machine under those 250lb of muscle/water/fat combo.

it is very fun to diet down knowing you are huge! you just add in the hormones, cardio and get the crappy food out of your way and make it clean for 14-16 weeks and this is where it HAS TO BE CLEAN!

the problem comes when a pro uses meth at his  size  in order to get even more dry and even more cut and even more ripped inaddition to all of the drugs taken. see problem start when the rec drugs are being used for bodybuilding purposes and they are used in quite few cases now days that i wont talk about here. it is OK to use CLENBUTEROL-CYTOMEL,, DNP but IT IS NOT OK TO USE METH! in the last case,,those pros fuck their physiqe and never win a show but this is an example of taking the in and out contest shape to a new stupid level.

[sarcasm]

you need to get up in weight/size as high as you can get! that can only be done if you eat everything in site and make sure it is  high in protien too. if you go and play the sodium game,,if you go and play the zero sugar game,,,if you go and play any game when you try to grow you WILL NOT GROW. yes your physiqe will always get compliements of how great it is and how nice it is but growing? um no.

with out hormones you will be stuck at 5'7 ~ 160lb of lean mean meat
with hormones you will be stuck at 5'7 ~ 190 lb of buffed up lean/bloated muscle.

eating clean is not going to make you grow and i dont care who you are. as i said before you need to EAT inorder to grow. you need to eat everything and make sure that with the poundage added also comes muscle growth (200lb~18 inch arms,,220lb~19-20incharms,,etc etc) if muscle growth dont come then you do something wrong! most likley training!

if you have 250+ lb on you of muscle that was gained with hard work in the gym (hard correct work!), with enough calories eaten (basically all you can eat to a point kinda diet) , and with the use of bulking hormones doing cycles...if you have those 250lb it will feel and also look like a piece of cake dieting while applying the right cutting hormones! why? because you have enough lean muscle mass! because your 50lb loss down to 200lb wont make you the thin little boney thing you used to be...but will transform you to the 200lb ripped muscle machine under those 250lb of muscle/water/fat combo.

it is very fun to diet down knowing you are huge! you just add in the hormones, cardio and get the crappy food out of your way and make it clean for 14-16 weeks and this is where it HAS TO BE CLEAN!

the problem comes when a pro uses meth at his  size  in order to get even more dry and even more cut and even more ripped inaddition to all of the drugs taken. see problem start when the rec drugs are being used for bodybuilding purposes and they are used in quite few cases now days that i wont talk about here. it is OK to use CLENBUTEROL-CYTOMEL,, DNP but IT IS NOT OK TO USE METH! in the last case,,those pros f**k their physiqe and never win a show but this is an example of taking the in and out contest shape to a new stupid level.

hahaha, "lean, mean meat", i like this guy.

[NotMrAverage]

IŽve gotten to contest shape in 8 weeks once, iŽll never do that again! I was quite fat when I started, around 15% bf and had to do 3 hours of cardio and 1,5 h gymwork each day. Looked like CRAP 2 weeks out, but was good enough to place 3.rd at contest time. I did diuretics for that one too, which I normally donŽt. Diuretics play a huge part in contest prep for most pros and can account for some wacky weightloss and weightgains.

[bigdumbbell]

howard, u should run you mouth on the PDI network ..southern drawl and all.  u bring things to the table or are you just the waiter?   

[War-Horse]

you need to get up in weight/size as high as you can get! that can only be done if you eat everything in site and make sure it is  high in protien too. if you go and play the sodium game,,if you go and play the zero sugar game,,,if you go and play any game when you try to grow you WILL NOT GROW. yes your physiqe will always get compliements of how great it is and how nice it is but growing? um no.

with out hormones you will be stuck at 5'7 ~ 160lb of lean mean meat
with hormones you will be stuck at 5'7 ~ 190 lb of buffed up lean/bloated muscle.

eating clean is not going to make you grow and i dont care who you are. as i said before you need to EAT inorder to grow. you need to eat everything and make sure that with the poundage added also comes muscle growth (200lb~18 inch arms,,220lb~19-20incharms,,etc etc) if muscle growth dont come then you do something wrong! most likley training!

if you have 250+ lb on you of muscle that was gained with hard work in the gym (hard correct work!), with enough calories eaten (basically all you can eat to a point kinda diet) , and with the use of bulking hormones doing cycles...if you have those 250lb it will feel and also look like a piece of cake dieting while applying the right cutting hormones! why? because you have enough lean muscle mass! because your 50lb loss down to 200lb wont make you the thin little boney thing you used to be...but will transform you to the 200lb ripped muscle machine under those 250lb of muscle/water/fat combo.

it is very fun to diet down knowing you are huge! you just add in the hormones, cardio and get the crappy food out of your way and make it clean for 14-16 weeks and this is where it HAS TO BE CLEAN!

the problem comes when a pro uses meth at his  size  in order to get even more dry and even more cut and even more ripped inaddition to all of the drugs taken. see problem start when the rec drugs are being used for bodybuilding purposes and they are used in quite few cases now days that i wont talk about here. it is OK to use CLENBUTEROL-CYTOMEL,, DNP but IT IS NOT OK TO USE METH! in the last case,,those pros f**k their physiqe and never win a show but this is an example of taking the in and out contest shape to a new stupid level.

This guy is spot on with his advice......very good post!!

[cfox]

you need to get up in weight/size as high as you can get! that can only be done if you eat everything in site and make sure it is  high in protien too. if you go and play the sodium game,,if you go and play the zero sugar game,,,if you go and play any game when you try to grow you WILL NOT GROW. yes your physiqe will always get compliements of how great it is and how nice it is but growing? um no.

with out hormones you will be stuck at 5'7 ~ 160lb of lean mean meat
with hormones you will be stuck at 5'7 ~ 190 lb of buffed up lean/bloated muscle.

eating clean is not going to make you grow and i dont care who you are. as i said before you need to EAT inorder to grow. you need to eat everything and make sure that with the poundage added also comes muscle growth (200lb~18 inch arms,,220lb~19-20incharms,,etc etc) if muscle growth dont come then you do something wrong! most likley training!

if you have 250+ lb on you of muscle that was gained with hard work in the gym (hard correct work!), with enough calories eaten (basically all you can eat to a point kinda diet) , and with the use of bulking hormones doing cycles...if you have those 250lb it will feel and also look like a piece of cake dieting while applying the right cutting hormones! why? because you have enough lean muscle mass! because your 50lb loss down to 200lb wont make you the thin little boney thing you used to be...but will transform you to the 200lb ripped muscle machine under those 250lb of muscle/water/fat combo.

it is very fun to diet down knowing you are huge! you just add in the hormones, cardio and get the crappy food out of your way and make it clean for 14-16 weeks and this is where it HAS TO BE CLEAN!

the problem comes when a pro uses meth at his  size  in order to get even more dry and even more cut and even more ripped inaddition to all of the drugs taken. see problem start when the rec drugs are being used for bodybuilding purposes and they are used in quite few cases now days that i wont talk about here. it is OK to use CLENBUTEROL-CYTOMEL,, DNP but IT IS NOT OK TO USE METH! in the last case,,those pros f**k their physiqe and never win a show but this is an example of taking the in and out contest shape to a new stupid level.

So are you saying you to eat a clean meal (ex. brown rice and chicken), and also some junk at the same time?  Or just mix the "dirty" calories in between the clean meals?

[War-Horse]

So are you saying you to eat a clean meal (ex. brown rice and chicken), and also some junk at the same time?  Or just mix the "dirty" calories in between the clean meals?

If going for size, yes.    If cutting, stay clean and refeed once a week.

[pumpster]

Why would you ask how they quickly get out of shape? The PIG-OUTS are a natural reaction and are entirely understandable after starving a huge physique to unnatural levels.

The advantages of staying in great shape year-round are minimal vs. enjoying some down time and being human again.