When prepping for shows and shoots I lift heavy and let my diet do the work. You have to go the distance in your deficit and this is where most people stop short.
Right now cardio only. Been dealing with a broken finger and all the ligaments/tendons in my finger joint are completely torn. It's been over 7 weeks now and it's not healing right at all...
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Have you taken anytime off? Do you schedule deloads into your programs? Maybe take a deload week and start fresh with a 3 day power/strength type routine. Scrap the hypertrophy work for a bit and...
How many days a week do you train and what program are you running? If you're having trouble getting the food down, throw in some liquid calories. You can also use fattier cut meats, pb, nuts,...
That's the bikini division (amateur level/bit different compared to pro level,) and they don't want to see a lot of muscle. They want to see a bit of nice conditioning/lean and some nice lines...