Fat Burning Zone: Common Contest Prep Mistakes & How To Correct Them

Every year dozens of athletes commit to stepping on stage and do so after months of preparation. I hear similar conversations every time backstage at bodybuilding shows. As they exchange stories one thing is for sure, most everyone put forth a great amount of effort to get on stage. Most of them had a well thought-through plan, but very few had things go according to that plan. Everyone starts out with the highest of hopes for their prep, but hardly ever does it manifest into the results they want.

Starting The Diet Too Heavy

This seems to be something more common in first time competitors, or young competitors. If you have never competed before or have never been in elite contest shape, it can be very hard for you to understand how much fat you might be carrying. It is common for many to grossly overestimate their shredded, on stage weight by as much as 12-17 pounds. While young competitors may find the suggestion that they might need to compete in a lighter weight class almost insulting, the truth is that I have only seen one natural amateur competitor under 6’ tall who actually could compete over 200 pounds. As to how this mistake will negatively affect your prep, well the main problem is that this is an initial blunder that normally can’t be undone.

Not Allowing Enough Time To Diet

As much as I would like to think that the common 12 week diet is an extinct dinosaur, I find time and time again that T-Rex still lives! First of all, if you are a natural athlete you should know that the common 12 week prep is something that is inherited from our enhanced brethren. Since anabolic steroids can only be used for set periods of time, it is common for the length of a diet to concur with the length of a steroid cycle. For natural athletes, the longer, less aggressive diet is more ideal because sparing muscle is a big concern. You may think a shorter, 10-14 week diet would help preserve more mass, but in fact the exact opposite is true.

Making The Wrong Adjustments To Weight Training

Keeping performance up in the gym throughout your whole prep will ensure that you step on stage with all your hard earned muscle. However, what performance is and what is optimal for preserving lean body mass while dieting is still very misunderstood by the average bodybuilder. The first mistake I will touch upon is turning weight training time into fat burning time. This is where the athlete actually makes an effort to chew through fat while in the weight room. Let’s get this straight, if there is one time you don’t want to be burning fat, it is while weight training. You should be tapping into fat stores during other times of the day and relying on what you ate while lifting. Adding sets, reps, and lowering rest times in an effort to eat up more calories is not a good idea. Not only is it going to sway you in the wrong direction hormonally, but it will make your body adapt to accommodate this training and these kinds of adaptations are not conducive to preserving muscle. On the contrary, smaller, more efficient (aerobically) muscles are better suited for this kind of training. And trust me, while on a deficit your body won’t fight the idea of having smaller muscles.