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Bodybuilding deals with more than just training and eating... Alex
I will discuss training, nutrition, posing, school, work, relationships and more as I go through my contest prep for the 2008 BLNPA New England Natural. This article outlines my 12-6 weeks out diet, supplementation, and training.
Well here I am 6 weeks out from my contest; the last 6 weeks (weeks 12-6) have been the hardest so far. In this past 6 weeks I have updated intensity in my training and cardio, stuck with my diet 100% and had to revamp my schedule because of the new Spring College semester.
Honestly I think the hardest thing on the contest prep is making it through class. The mind is not supposed to function properly on no carbs. It did take a few weeks but my body has acclimated to the new schedule of waking up at 4:30am to get my workout in before class.
The diet changed a little during the last 6 weeks. I am sticking with a re-feed cycle but now instead of only having high carb days on Chest/Triceps/shoulders training day. Each cycle around my training split a different day will get a high carb day and the rest will be no carb. So every 6 days there will be a new high carb day.
Click To Enlarge. Alex Stewart.
I liked this diet a lot because my body functions a lot better with just protein/fat meals. I did find my pumps during my workouts on no carb day were not as good as when I had carbs in my system but I still got amazing workouts and my vascularity was insane. Below is a peak at a typical no carb and high carb day from weeks 12-6.
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As you can see above my training split over the past 6 weeks has stayed the same. The only thing difference is the added cardio. On days 1 and 2 I am doing 20 minutes of Steady State Cardio on the Step Mill after my second workout. On Day 3 I am doing 45 minutes of cardio once in the morning and again in the evening.
The cardio done in the morning is semi-fasted. Not completely because I am sipping BCAA's while doing it, so I do not eat up my muscle. The fasted morning cardio is done on a recumbent bike at my house and the evening cardio is done on the Step Mill at the gym.
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On Day 4 cardio is done at the gym for 45 minutes on the treadmill walking on the highest incline. Finally on day 5 I perform 20 minute of cardio after my workout in the morning on the treadmill in the same way as before and then come back in the evening and doing 45 more minutes on the Step Mill.
Surprisingly my strength has stayed very consistent. I believe it is because I have not lowered calories too fast and my body can adjust to the amount of food I am eating. I am happy with my progress in the gym. Below is a typical week of lifting from weeks 12-6:
One addition to my training and diet that I have started to do in the last 6 weeks is posing. I pose after every weight workout, just the mandatory poses at this point. Posing is a great workout in itself.
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I feel that my conditioning has improved because of all the posing that I have done. I also believe that one should pose as much as possible so that they are excellent in displaying their physique on stage. If you can't pose and display your physique properly the judges will never be able to see all the hard work you put into your contest prep.
Only 6 weeks to go it seems like so far away but I am taking one day at a time, training with the utmost intensity and dieting to a T. I will update you guys on the how the next few weeks go in my next article.
Click To Enlarge. 
No Carbohydrate:
