What to eat the day of the show?

[tweeter37]

The day of your show, what do you guys usually eat? I hear about guys going all out with their breakfasts, eating like pigs. Do any of you do this? If anyone has any good suggestions, let me know!

[Arniefan]

PM Layne..........

Tweeter ive seen ur pics u look great!

[str8flexed]

The key about what the eat the day of is all about controlling intracellular and extracellular water. The following is taken from an article written by my idol...Dr. Joe Klemczewski.... THE man when it comes to contest peaking. Many of the natural pros...including Dave Goodin follow his advice (and he helps me with my peak week dieting).

"Carbing-up is the great myth started and continuing with 250-pound steroid using bodybuilders who consume huge amounts of food anyway and then take prescription diuretics to eliminate the steroid bloat. If this describes you, traditional carb depletion and loading may work. If you’re body isn’t an eighth grade science experiment out of control, let’s stick with normal physiology. Even the hardest, leanest bodies cannot metabolize and shuttle glucose into muscle cells at a maximum rate without having some extracellular spill-over. Read that sentence again. You cannot deplete carbs and then supercompensate and expect all of the glucose and water to end up in the muscle. You’ll certainly fill out, but you’ll also smooth out. Some a little, and some a great deal. Yes, a lot of carbs will go into the muscle, but a little or a lot will end up outside the muscle cell with a lot of water which makes you smooth. Next time you’re dieting and you’re fairly lean, log some comments every day in a journal. “Woke up pretty lean. Very smooth – must have been the sodium in the chips. Very vascular. Hard as a freak’n rock!!” Just write down comments on how you look in the morning. I guarantee that you’ll consistently be your hardest after a couple of low-carb, high-water intake days. You may not be your biggest because the carbs aren’t as high, but the lack of extraneous carbs and water under the skin makes you very tight and you appear much bigger. Who wins the show: the big soft guy or the bone-dry striated competitor? The way I carb up my clients catches the wave of glucose and water entering the muscle on the way up, but not at the expense of smoothing out on the rebound effect of over-carbing.

My general carb cycle for peak week is to start at the highest point on the weekend before. I start at a slightly above “normal” level on Saturday and Sunday and schedule no training. I want this weekend to be a recovery time with a refilling of glycogen. As training starts again on Monday, I slowly drop carbs each day. It’s a subtle drop, not a severe depletion. The training each day, Monday through Wednesday, with the slight drop will create a sufficient carb deficit without total depletion. Depending on the client’s metabolism, I keep the carbs coming down and keep the water very high all the way through Friday. For a very high metabolism bodybuilder, I’m not going as low on the carbs during the week, and I may start re-carbing on Friday. For carb-sensitive clients it’s very important to wait until Saturday to reload. By waiting until later in the week to carb up, you eliminate the chance of glycogen and water spill over. Your body can metabolize glucose very quickly and you don’t have to start three days ahead of time especially if you haven’t completely bottomed out with a severe carb depletion. There are also some issues with the type of carbs you use to reload. There are some that create more subcutaneous swelling due to being food allergens. It’s important to know which are the most common and how they affect you.

Water is just as misunderstood as carbs. The traditional carb and water theories have people drop their water sometimes days before the show. Nothing will flatten and smooth you out faster! You have to maintain a high water intake because your muscle tissue is around 70% water. No water, no hardness – just flat, squishy muscle tissue. The reason people typically start dropping water is because they’ve over-carbed so much that they’re already spilling glycogen and water under the skin and think, “Oh, my gosh!! I’ve got to get rid of this water!!” With the carb reload as I described, you won’t have that problem; you’ll actually get harder and harder throughout the week. KEEP THE WATER INTAKE UP AND LET IT FOLLOW THE CARBS INTO THE MUSCLE!! IF YOU’RE NOT OVER-CARBED, THE REST OF THE WATER WILL BE ELIMINATED!

Sodium also has to be cycled. Start with a moderate amount of sodium, up to two grams at the beginning of the week and around Thursday start dropping it slightly but don’t eliminate it completely. If you do, you’ll force water out of the muscle cell, you’ll look flat and smooth, and you’ll cramp like there’s no tomorrow. You need approximately four times more sodium than potassium for your muscles to contract normally. Again, don’t let the myths from the pharmaceutically dominated side of our sport lure you into doing things that aren’t physiologically correct. You don’t have all those drug side-effects to combat in peaking properly. If you sodium load and/or deplete in a big way you’re gambling with extreme chemical rebound effects that you can’t possibly time. If you’re lucky enough to stumble into a good effect, it will be short lived because you’re on a pendulum swing that your body will adjust to and you’ll look absolutely lousy in a very short time."


As far as what to eat the day of the show...I normally eat 30-40g of simple carbs every 2 hours, raisons are ideal b/c they are extremely high in potassium. Then 2 hours before the show I have like half of a pan pizza and then something a bit sugary and fattening right before I go out onstage...this always fills me out and hardens me up. Try not to eat too much and don't eat foods that have alot of fiber or are very bulky as they may cause your stomach to protrude. Also, take an anti-histamine the morning of your show... if for some reason you have allergies....they can cause you to retain water...taking an anti histamine can counter this effect for a few hours.

Peace

[str8flexed]

P.S. Just so you know Dr. Joe can walk the walk and not just talk the talk...here is a pic of him from his last show.

[Need2BHuge]

Wow bro, that article helped me tremendously understand the regimine you wrote for me to follow. Im gonna get good at this yet haha. THANX

[MARKUSR]

Hi Guys - My Name is Markus Reinhardt

I am a Musclemania Pro and also have appeared in NB&F with some of articles on High Intensity Training as well as the actual
HIT VIDEO itself.

Love this board! - Great stuff on all areas of the Irongame.

Currently getting ready for my first try at the Pro-Level at next weekends Musclemania World Championships in Redondo Beach California...wich me good luck.

I also sort of plan to do the same carb-up procedure as your great Doc talked about....

Carb depleted for 3 days - Then start loading on Monday and Tuesday, but lower the carbs already towards the middle of the week and do some mild training - look just right slightly depleted as well - then start eating some simple sugars along with a few junkfood sessions right before stage (in moderation)

I have my exact outline and pics posted on my website at:

www.markusreinhardt.com


Glad to be part of the board - I will post the results from the show here as well....TRAIN INSANE!

Markus Reinhardt (MR)
markusr@earthlink.net

[MARKUSR]

...here is a recent shot from last weekend.

Markus Reinhardt (224lbs)

[str8flexed]

Welcome aboard Markus...we're ecstatic to have you hear. I'm a big fan of your articles in NB&F. Best of luck
Peace

[LeBrunFitness]

I wouldn't be too worried about what you eat the day of the show, by this time pretty much anything you eat will not have enough time to impact the day of the show.

Maybe stay away from sodium.

I would go about eating just a regular breakfast, like some oatmeal, some eggs, or a meal replacement.

I usually just have some oatmeal and toast and peanut butter.

I know some guys get all bent about what to eat the day of the show but after talking with some pros and learning that what you eat will not impact your condition on that day, I haven't worried about it since.

Also, be sure to eat throughout the day a little at a time so that you get some fuel for all that posing.

Shawn
http://www.shawnlebrunfitness.com/tips.html

[jrusax4]

what to eat the day of the show- keep the meals small and frequent say every 1 1/2hours eat high glycemic carbs. dont worry about protein on the day of the show. and just sip the water. you wont spill water if your not taking any in. and a diuretic taking away bloat? never heard of that?? anyway if you put your time in and followed your diet you should be on the money 2weeks out right? so if you are why screw with it? more of a chance of blowing it then improving. what ive learned in my own experience is just to manipulate the sodium by zero ing it on thurs and cutting my water on friday to say 1/2gallon by 6:00pm then just sipping as you need to get your meals down. a nice help is taraxatone started on wed following the instructions. btw thats me in the ad if you care hahahha
feel free to email me