7 precontest straight foward questions. Please help

[Shinobi]

Uhmm nobody read the BodyBuilding Discussion Forum so Im posting here.
I used the search tool and lots of info about precontest preparation but TOO much info and I got kinda confused. I know that everybody react different to carb loading, diuretics, water intake etc but I would like to know what most people usually do.

The contest is going to be Saturday May 28th
The questions are:
1) when should I stop drinking water? what about sodium intake?

2) When should I start taking diuretics and doses? (I have aldactone and aldactazide)

3) I know that carb up before a contest differ from person to person but normally when should I start carbing up? The night before the show or what?

4) I want to try humalog before the contest. How should I do it?

5) Should I use r-ala during carb up?( Considering that Im going to take humalog... dont know if r-ala and humalog should be used together)

6) When should I stop training and cardio before the contest?

7) Which supplements should I take during the last week of the contest? Creatine? Chromium? Really dont know what to take

During my researches I found tons of posts about Zilla Shitloading(at anabolex.com) but I didnt find the original Shitloading post by Zilla. Any of u guys have it? I wanna give it a try. BIG THANKS!

 

[PRoXoNEtAPiMpbitch]

hmmm May 28th hu?
that leaves you about 18 days...
Here it goes:
Water: Up your dosage to at least a gal a day, then 10 days prior up your water intake at least to 1.5 gal a day, I know its hard but this game is hard. High water intake will take your aldosterone levels very low (hormone that takes care of body water) so your body will be excreating water! 3 days prior your contest cut your water by a half, then 2 days prior cut your water again by a half, add a diuretic (I have used lasix at 10 mg in the morning and 10 mg at 1:00 pm, I can´t help you with the diuretics you mentioned) on the day before your show, again add diuretics and cut again the water by a half or less... the day of your show add the diuretic again and only sip some water when you are thisty... hell you will be!

carbing up: 6 days prior cut carbs by a half , then 3 days prior, resume your normal carb intake and add a half more... this does not count if you are already on a very low carb diet... if you are then only do the 3 day prior carb up process by adding twice your carb intake to your diet.

Salt: Since you have 18 days ... up your salt intake ! I mean not too much, but be certain to include salt in every food you take, the 3 days prior cut salt by a half, stick with some, since water and diuretics will dry you up.

Potasium: Be sure to eat at least 4 or 5 bananas on the dry process (3 days prior) or use some potasium complement on the way (warning: this does not count if you are using potasium sparing diuretics) be sure to consult with a physician what kind of diuretics you will be using (i speack from personal experience with lasix).

Humalog? 18 days prior? hell no, waste of money, better stick to some winny, primo or anavar at high dosage to prevent mucle waste only, do not expect to grow on 18 days!

I do cardio until 2 days prior, I use some sweating belt for the water in my belly area and some ephedrine thermogenic to help me sweat the water off.

be sure your tann and poses are in check, poses count a lot more than you expect so practice! be sure to tell all your friends to go to the show to cheer you up, that counts a lot to the judges if you are really competing... good luck!

 

[sweed]

i was talking to an amateur natural bodybuilder.. he get down very very low bodyfat with no fat burners etc. well i was talkig to him for over an hour (the guys can talk and talk forever) and he drinks about 3 gallons of water the day before...
I was like " holy shit, why do u do that??"
he goes.. well the muscle is made up of 70% water. if u load water then water deplete before the show... you'll be dehydrated and flat since u fill up your muscles and they are full, then once they are depleted they get flat and have less fullness to them. makes a lot of sense.
just some rambling...

 

[needsize]

dont mess with insulin for a show unless you know exactly how you react to it, it could easily cause you to "spill over" and bloat, so experiment with it in the off season

 

[canadianhitman]

May 28? Where are you competing? I have a friend doing a show on May 28th as well.

 

[Shinobi]

hmmm May 28th hu?
that leaves you about 18 days...
Here it goes:
Water: Up your dosage to at least a gal a day, then 10 days prior up your water intake at least to 1.5 gal a day, I know its hard but this game is hard. High water intake will take your aldosterone levels very low (hormone that takes care of body water) so your body will be excreating water! 3 days prior your contest cut your water by a half, then 2 days prior cut your water again by a half, add a diuretic (I have used lasix at 10 mg in the morning and 10 mg at 1:00 pm, I can´t help you with the diuretics you mentioned) on the day before your show, again add diuretics and cut again the water by a half or less... the day of your show add the diuretic again and only sip some water when you are thisty... hell you will be!

carbing up: 6 days prior cut carbs by a half , then 3 days prior, resume your normal carb intake and add a half more... this does not count if you are already on a very low carb diet... if you are then only do the 3 day prior carb up process by adding twice your carb intake to your diet.

Salt: Since you have 18 days ... up your salt intake ! I mean not too much, but be certain to include salt in every food you take, the 3 days prior cut salt by a half, stick with some, since water and diuretics will dry you up.

Potasium: Be sure to eat at least 4 or 5 bananas on the dry process (3 days prior) or use some potasium complement on the way (warning: this does not count if you are using potasium sparing diuretics) be sure to consult with a physician what kind of diuretics you will be using (i speack from personal experience with lasix).

Humalog? 18 days prior? hell no, waste of money, better stick to some winny, primo or anavar at high dosage to prevent mucle waste only, do not expect to grow on 18 days!

I do cardio until 2 days prior, I use some sweating belt for the water in my belly area and some ephedrine thermogenic to help me sweat the water off.

be sure your tann and poses are in check, poses count a lot more than you expect so practice! be sure to tell all your friends to go to the show to cheer you up, that counts a lot to the judges if you are really competing... good luck!

Thanks for all the advices!!! Let me make some things clear:
The show its on May28 but Im ready for the show already. I didnt start to prepare myself 2 weeks ago but 3 months ago so Im very secure how Im. Im using 1gr of tren and 1gr of masteron ED with clen. I would like to use T3 but the last time I used I got so flat that Im affraid to use it again. What u guys think? I was using GH but I quit a week ago cause although I was already ripped I could notice the water retention from GH so I stopped...The questions I've made its just some doubts I have.
Good point on the water, sodium and potassium! I will do that
I didnt understand very well the way u carb up. Im on a low carb diet 80gr of dextrose. 40gr before workout and 40gr after workout. I've been doing carb ups every 5 days. What I would like to know is: should I start the carb up the night before the show or thats normaly too late? Or should I start carbing up one day before the show? and which kind of carbs should I eat? I know we all react different to carb ups but the how is the usual way to do it?... probably starting with simples and finishing with complex?
When I talked about Humalog I mean using it for the carb up day for the show. I dont want to use it during my pre-contest preparation only on the day of the show cause I know some BB's do it and they get big pumps with it but maybe Im going to do what needsize said, Im not going to try humalog right now cause its my first show and Im still learning how I react to carbs, water, salt etc. Any more inputs will be apreciated! THANKS!!!

 

[Shinobi]

May 28? Where are you competing? I have a friend doing a show on May 28th as well.

The show will be in Europe(Portugal)its the IFBB National

 

[Makavelli]

hmmm May 28th hu?
that leaves you about 18 days...
Here it goes:
Water: Up your dosage to at least a gal a day, then 10 days prior up your water intake at least to 1.5 gal a day, I know its hard but this game is hard. High water intake will take your aldosterone levels very low (hormone that takes care of body water) so your body will be excreating water! 3 days prior your contest cut your water by a half, then 2 days prior cut your water again by a half, add a diuretic (I have used lasix at 10 mg in the morning and 10 mg at 1:00 pm, I can´t help you with the diuretics you mentioned) on the day before your show, again add diuretics and cut again the water by a half or less... the day of your show add the diuretic again and only sip some water when you are thisty... hell you will be!

carbing up: 6 days prior cut carbs by a half , then 3 days prior, resume your normal carb intake and add a half more... this does not count if you are already on a very low carb diet... if you are then only do the 3 day prior carb up process by adding twice your carb intake to your diet.

Salt: Since you have 18 days ... up your salt intake ! I mean not too much, but be certain to include salt in every food you take, the 3 days prior cut salt by a half, stick with some, since water and diuretics will dry you up.

Potasium: Be sure to eat at least 4 or 5 bananas on the dry process (3 days prior) or use some potasium complement on the way (warning: this does not count if you are using potasium sparing diuretics) be sure to consult with a physician what kind of diuretics you will be using (i speack from personal experience with lasix).

Humalog? 18 days prior? hell no, waste of money, better stick to some winny, primo or anavar at high dosage to prevent mucle waste only, do not expect to grow on 18 days!

I do cardio until 2 days prior, I use some sweating belt for the water in my belly area and some ephedrine thermogenic to help me sweat the water off.

be sure your tann and poses are in check, poses count a lot more than you expect so practice! be sure to tell all your friends to go to the show to cheer you up, that counts a lot to the judges if you are really competing... good luck!

I have to disagree with several points, the most dangerous being eating bananas and taking additional potassium while using Aldactone. This can kill him. Aldactone is potassium sparing and therefore makes the level of potassium rise. By combining Aldactone with a diuretic like Lasix, which causes the body to dispell potassium, you'll be fine. But don't add any additional.
You only need to drastically reduce your water intake the day before and the day of the show. Cutting it out too early will cause you to flaten out and cause cramping.
Don't play around with sodium loading. It's too easy to fuck up. Just cut out the sodium from Wed before the show on. Anything found naturally in food is fine.
the carb up should be done from Wed through the show. Start very high and taper down.

 

[Shinobi]

I have to disagree with several points, the most dangerous being eating bananas and taking additional potassium while using Aldactone. This can kill him. Aldactone is potassium sparing and therefore makes the level of potassium rise. By combining Aldactone with a diuretic like Lasix, which causes the body to dispell potassium, you'll be fine. But don't add any additional.
You only need to drastically reduce your water intake the day before and the day of the show. Cutting it out too early will cause you to flaten out and cause cramping.
Don't play around with sodium loading. It's too easy to fuck up. Just cut out the sodium from Wed before the show on. Anything found naturally in food is fine.
the carb up should be done from Wed through the show. Start very high and taper down.

Thanks for the advice!
I can get Lasix to so how can I use it properly with Aldactone? How many mg's per day? A friend of mine take aldactone and aldactazide 1 week prior to the show.
When u say "start very high and taper down" u mean how many grams of carbs wednesday? and how many thursday and friday? So the show its on a Saturday(2PM we all going to be weight on the scale)... What should I eat during the day on Saturday? What about r-ala during carb-up?

 

[todoveritas]

Hi Shinobi! This worked great for me the last week before the show. This was the last week of a 16 week diet in which I went from 198 to 154 lbs. Some are going to disagree bc my technique is a bit controversial but it works for me; I came in incredibly vascular & ripped to shreds and won my class.
Sat, Sun, Mon-carbs below 100 gms; H2O intake 2 1/2 gallons; heavy salt on food; K supplement every 4 hours.
Tuesday-Weds; dropped carbs to zero (protein = 200gms); dropped all salt on food, H2O intake-2 gallons; K supplement every 4 hours.
Thursday-carb up 100-150 gms every 4 hours (I used bananas, rice cakes and cookies(yes, lots of sugar cookies) I keep careful track of carbs and wound up with about 700 carbs for the day (protein = 160 gms; just chicken, no added salt with food but didn't bother to cut sodium); H20 cut to 1 gallon; K as usual. Watch the mirror Q 2 hours for smoothness; back off carbs at first sign.
Friday- At 5 am, if looking good continue to carb up as before, maybe cutting back to 100 gms every 4 hours, ( simple carbs are fine-it's been my experience that a carb is a carb and I don't sing praises to yams as being anything special-at least for my body) protein = 160 gms; I cut water to 1/2 gallon, just sips after 7PM; K supplements.
Now here's the tricky part. I get up at night every 2 hours to check my body out, if even a tiny bit of smoothness, hit a light diuretic. Now, my pre-judging was at 11 AM-so I did a modified sh*t-load as follows:
6AM - 6 vanilla wafers with peanut butter; sips of water
9AM- a meal of about 90 gms of carbs and 20 gms of fat by way of raisinettes and sugar cookies covered with peanut butter; gatorade to wash down.
10AM-About 16 oz of gatorade with 20 gms creatine; K supplement.

Now I know people are going to say complex carbs are better but biochemically it doesn't make sense why they would be. We are dealing with glycogen loading in a depleted state and the body, being starved as it is, will suck up the carbs fastest in the easiest way it can, thus simple carbs do not need to be broken down and will be the preferred substrate for intake into the muscle to make glycogen. Plus, with simple carbs you can modulate intake better, that's why I check my body all the time. How can you stop the process with a complex carb that's going to keep releasing sugars hours after you need to stop? The fat serves to establish an osmotic gradient (so I'm told) that pulls the water preferentially into the veins and the muscles. This is theory at best, but I can say it worked like a charm for me and I absolutely peaked at about 11:30 AM and you can't do much better than that. After pre-judge I ate a cheesburger and fries and a coke and still looked great for the evening show. Final note: stay away from insulin if your first experience with it is going to be the day of the contest. You must know how your body reacts; whether you're going to get tired; how much extra sugar you need to take, etc. about a zillion things you need to figure out on a dry run 3 weeks or so before showtime. I hope this helps.

 

[Makavelli]

Thanks for the advice!
I can get Lasix to so how can I use it properly with Aldactone? How many mg's per day? A friend of mine take aldactone and aldactazide 1 week prior to the show.
When u say "start very high and taper down" u mean how many grams of carbs wednesday? and how many thursday and friday? So the show its on a Saturday(2PM we all going to be weight on the scale)... What should I eat during the day on Saturday? What about r-ala during carb-up?

I suggest using Aldactone at 200 mgs/day starting on the Monday before the show. Run it all the way through. I prefer injectable Lasix to tabs. For diuretics I don't like using orals. They're too unpredictable. With intravenous injection I know exactly when the athlete will start pissing and when the effects ware off. That way there's no risk of over doing it. Depending on how dry you are by Friday night, I'd inject 10-20 mgs of Lasix at 8 P.M. You'll be in the bathroom w/in 30 minutes. If you need more on Saturday morning inject another 10-20 mgs at around 6 A.M.

The carb up is very individual. How many kgs of lean body mass do you have?

 

[Shinobi]

I suggest using Aldactone at 200 mgs/day starting on the Monday before the show. Run it all the way through. I prefer injectable Lasix to tabs. For diuretics I don't like using orals. They're too unpredictable. With intravenous injection I know exactly when the athlete will start pissing and when the effects ware off. That way there's no risk of over doing it. Depending on how dry you are by Friday night, I'd inject 10-20 mgs of Lasix at 8 P.M. You'll be in the bathroom w/in 30 minutes. If you need more on Saturday morning inject another 10-20 mgs at around 6 A.M.

The carb up is very individual. How many kgs of lean body mass do you have?

90kgs

 

[PRoXoNEtAPiMpbitch]

I will do lasix only instead of aldactone, pill form(piss can be handled), at 90 kg you will be needing 20 mg in the monrning and 10 mg at 1:00 pm starting 2-3 days prior the show,and until about 4 hrs prior (20mg or 10 mg depending on your mirror sight). I already mentioned that the potasium wont work if aldactone is used, it can kill you.
So stick to lasix and potasium and bananas.
The carb up process as I stated, if you are on a very low carb diet, then just do this:
3 days prior your show double your carb intake, your muscles will display more cuts!
3 days prior cut salt by a half but do not stop all salt intake.

 

[satchboogie]

i still dont understand the carb up phase..

can somebody please shed light on WHEN to cut carbs down and when to carb up???

 

[Shinobi]

I will do lasix only instead of aldactone, pill form(piss can be handled), at 90 kg you will be needing 20 mg in the monrning and 10 mg at 1:00 pm starting 2-3 days prior the show,and until about 4 hrs prior (20mg or 10 mg depending on your mirror sight). I already mentioned that the potasium wont work if aldactone is used, it can kill you.
So stick to lasix and potasium and bananas.
The carb up process as I stated, if you are on a very low carb diet, then just do this:
3 days prior your show double your carb intake, your muscles will display more cuts!
3 days prior cut salt by a half but do not stop all salt intake.

I prefer to use Aldactone cause I dont feel like eating bananas during my last days before the show. How would u suggest for me Aldactone dosage and which days?
Ok, I understand. 3 days prior to the show I eat carbs but now that u know I have 90kgs how many grams of carbs should I eat +-? and which type, complex or simple? What about the carb intake on the day 2 and 1?

 

[Makavelli]

I prefer to use Aldactone cause I dont feel like eating bananas during my last days before the show. How would u suggest for me Aldactone dosage and which days?
Ok, I understand. 3 days prior to the show I eat carbs but now that u know I have 90kgs how many grams of carbs should I eat +-? and which type, complex or simple? What about the carb intake on the day 2 and 1?

I already answered this: Use 200 mgs/day starting on Monday prior to the show. It's better to combine Aldactone with Lasix so that you can use a lower dose of Lasix. It's safer. Get the injectable, not the pills.

 

[Shinobi]

I already answered this: Use 200 mgs/day starting on Monday prior to the show. It's better to combine Aldactone with Lasix so that you can use a lower dose of Lasix. It's safer. Get the injectable, not the pills.

Ok I got it.
What about using T3 and what about r-ala during carb-up? and when should I stop training and cardio?

 

[Makavelli]

Ok I got it.
What about using T3 and what about r-ala during carb-up? and when should I stop training and cardio?

If you're on T3 now then just continue with it all the way into the show. You can use R ALA during the carb up and you should if you're not using insulin. Stop training and cardio on the Tuesday before the show at the latest. I usually cut out cardio a week and a half before. Make sure you have at least 5 days in b/w your last leg workout and the show. Otherwise your legs could be washed out.

At 90 kgs of lean body mass, not just weight, but lean body mass you'll need to take in about 12 g/carbs/kg of lean body mass in the first 24 hours. That works out to about 1100 grams of carbs. These should be from simple sugars like dextrose, sugar oatmeal, and rice cakes with sugar. The next 24 hours should have about 9-10 g/carbs/kg of lean body mass. So 800-900 grams coming from moderate to low glycemic carbs such as plain oatmeal, yams, rice cakes. The last 24 hours should be about 7-8 g/carbs/kg of lean body mass and should be low glycemic. I suggest yams and brown rice cakes. The rice cakes aren't low glycemic, but by combining both it works great. Notice that this is a 72 hour carb load. That means that you must eat every 2 hours around the clock. You need to get up and eat in the middle of the night. Your insulin sensitivity is not on hold while you sleep.

 

[Shinobi]

Thanks for all the advice!
Im not on T3 but should I use it to burn that tiny little bit of fat? Or its not worth it?
Sounds good the way u explained the carb up and training, thats how Im going to do it! I will keep u posted on my progress during the last days with pics.

 

[Makavelli]

Thanks for all the advice!
Im not on T3 but should I use it to burn that tiny little bit of fat? Or its not worth it?
Sounds good the way u explained the carb up and training, thats how Im going to do it! I will keep u posted on my progress during the last days with pics.

If you're already lean enough then don't worry about the T3. Don't forget to do a full body depletion workout on Wed morning prior to the carb up. This should take about 1.5-2 hours. You circuit train your whole body using high reps and don't go to failure. Good luck.

 

[Shinobi]

If you're already lean enough then don't worry about the T3. Don't forget to do a full body depletion workout on Wed morning prior to the carb up. This should take about 1.5-2 hours. You circuit train your whole body using high reps and don't go to failure. Good luck.

Yes Im lean enought. I can see veins even on top of my sick pack already
1.5/2hrs workout!?!? How many exercices and sets per body part?!?!

 

[Makavelli]

Yes Im lean enought. I can see veins even on top of my sick pack already
1.5/2hrs workout!?!? How many exercices and sets per body part?!?!

This is what I usually do: Leg press, leg curl, leg ext, standing calves. Repeat this 5 times going from machine to machine at a slow pace. Don't rush. It's exhausting. You should be able to get about 20-25 reps per set. The last one you'll probably only get about 12-15. At which point you know that your glycogen stores in that muscle have been exhausted.

After that I'll do incline press, pulldowns, cable crossovers, and low rows for another 5 sets and 20-25 reps. Next traps, Shoulder presses, lateral raises. Again for 5 sets of 20-25 reps. And last do pressdowns, Machine preacher curls, dips, and standing cable curls for 5 sets of 20-25 reps.

Remember don't go too fast. You won't make it. Do not go to failure. Stop about 3-4 reps shy of failure.

 

[Quadsweeps Sister]

dont mess with insulin for a show unless you know exactly how you react to it, it could easily cause you to "spill over" and bloat, so experiment with it in the off season

...yes, all that and die too. Only for the very experienced.

 

[needsize]

...yes, all that and die too. Only for the very experienced.

I guess there is always that too

 

[Singleton]

...yes, all that and die too. Only for the very experienced.

Wow nice abs. Is that you in the pic?

 

[Quadsweeps Sister]

Wow nice abs. Is that you in the pic?

Yes - in my BB days. Jr Nat'ls - Chicago 2003 as a middleweight. Doing some competitive powerlifting now. A lot more fun after 7 yrs of BB. Everybody needs a change now and again. Thanks!!!
__________________
Mythicwrld

"We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more."

 

[Makavelli]

Yes - in my BB days. Jr Nat'ls - Chicago 2003 as a middleweight. Doing some competitive powerlifting now. A lot more fun after 7 yrs of BB. Everybody needs a change now and again. Thanks!!!
__________________
Mythicwrld

"We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more."

Damn! Where did you place?