Posted by Chip
For our competitive bodybuilding competitors: You trained and dieted your ass off and made the major accomplishment of competing in a physique competition. Most people work with a coach and plan for the months, weeks, and day of a show. Post-show heading into an off-season? Well, most people don’t plan for that…outside planning all-you-can-eat buffets options.
Post-show, you are going to likely be in a state of lowered metabolic rate, poor sleep patterns, a state of high fatigue, hormones and health markers out of adjustment (even more so for the folks that use enhancing supplements), high focus on eating, and likely some fluid retention. You will be a state to easily put on fat tissue as well.
Post-show is also the right time to do a post-show analysis – what was the feedback from the judges? Your coach? What muscle groups do you need to bring up during the offseason?
Smart competitors know the post-show period is another state to plan:
• You need to minimize fat gain as you increase calories from being in a severe deficit (which can be challenging with a strong desire to eat).
• Focus on healing up injuries.
• Restore health markers.
• Get back to normal sleep habits.
• Map out training plan to address needs from your post-show analysis.
Ideally, this will set you up properly for the off-season to come in bigger and better next show.
As always, we have a great team of coaches and trainers that can help. Let us know if we can be of assistance.
