FT Post Contest

[Scott Stevenson]

I'm planning of starting the FT right after my bodybuilding contest in late april. My question is: Should i start by an intensive cruise in the week following my contest or go right away with the Tier 1 progressive Blast??

Thanks!

Hey Logan,

I don't think you can know that until the time has arrived. The first question would be if you should even be training during that first week.

First and foremost would be getting yourself balanced out, as best as possible. Worst case scenario you might have massive water retention, especially if diuretics were used, uncontrolled eating and really achy joints. In this case, judicious use of training and perhaps cardio to reverse yourself out of prep mode (i.e., training as you had been to some degree) would be part of the strategy (IMO).

If you had a good prep and didn't have to push to extraordinarily depleting extremes, then you might start with "IC training," or actually simply Day 3 and 4 workouts (muscle rounds), possibly for a week or two. If you find that you can harness the renewed anabolism due to adding food back into your diet, then generally speaking a period of ~6-8 weeks (post-contest period) can be used for many folks to get back to pre-dieting body mass but with a better body composition (or at least get to a nigher body weight and be in better shape then when dieting down at that body weight.)

Post-contest is highly individual so variations of the above are entirely possible. John Meadows typically takes several weeks or a month or more off of training etc. and will LOSE weight b/c he's not generally got much of an appetite. Some folks will gain massive amounts of weight b/c their appetites are gigantic and will be back to pre-dieting weight probably prematurely. Some love to train and other not at all and for some (most) each prep is a bit different after the fact, which can be due to the prep itself and/or the result / placing of the prep and what that does to an individual's motivation.

-Scott