BE YOUR OWN BODYBUILDING COACH
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PERSONAL BODYBUILDING INVENTORY (Re-usable PDF Form; Click Image Below to Download)
CONTEST COLOR & OIL TUTORIAL BY BARB HARMER-GARCIA
Perceived Recovery Status Scale
The PRS Scale was originally developed as a practical perceptual (psychobiological) means of predicting changes in performance during a series of high intensity exercise (sprinting) bouts(1). More importantly for us, a PRS Scale reading correlates inversely with indices of post-resistance exercise muscle damage, and directly with blood testosterone levels when muscle damage is at its greatest(2). Even more impressive is that PRS measures (taken at rest) predict ratings of perceived exertion during resistance exercise: The PRS Scale can help tell you, before you get under the bar, how it’s going to feel that day. The PRS scale changes with performance during the days after a tough training session (PRS scores are lower 24 vs. 48 hours later), and this holds true especially for multi-joint exercises (Squat, bench presses, deadlifts, etc.) where, as you likely know, gym strength recovers more slowly compared to single joint (isolation) movements(2).
116. Laurent CM, Green JM, Bishop PA, Sjokvist J, Schumacker RE, Richardson MT, and Curtner-Smith M. A practical approach to monitoring recovery: development of a perceived recovery status scale. J Strength Cond Res 25: 620-628, 2011.
117. Sikorski EM, Wilson JM, Lowery RP, Joy JM, Laurent CM, Wilson SM, Hesson D, Naimo MA, Averbuch B, and Gilchrist P. Changes in perceived recovery status scale following high-volume muscle damaging resistance exercise. J Strength Cond Res 27: 2079-2085, 2013.
116. Laurent CM, Green JM, Bishop PA, Sjokvist J, Schumacker RE, Richardson MT, and Curtner-Smith M. A practical approach to monitoring recovery: development of a perceived recovery status scale. J Strength Cond Res 25: 620-628, 2011.
117. Sikorski EM, Wilson JM, Lowery RP, Joy JM, Laurent CM, Wilson SM, Hesson D, Naimo MA, Averbuch B, and Gilchrist P. Changes in perceived recovery status scale following high-volume muscle damaging resistance exercise. J Strength Cond Res 27: 2079-2085, 2013.
Post-Contest Readiness Checklist
The Post-Contest Period Readiness Checklist below is a simple guide to help you
think through your situation in terms of training, diet and balancing your life with
competition ambition. (See ABOVE for the Perceived Recovery Status Scale.) Feel free to
add to this checklist – personalize it based on your own set of priorities.
The checklist derives a (weighted) tally of the basic items in your favor for continuing focused bodybuilding Post-Contest (positive scores) versus considerations for scaling back your focus on diet, training and bodybuilding (negative scores). This is not a scientifically validated checklist, but one I hope might help you think objectively Post-Contest when it’s easy to feel a bit “lost.”
To use the checklist, look at each item in the left-most column (e.g., Perceived Recovery Status Score), consider which of the three options best fits you, and then note the associated score (in the colored boxes). I’ve grouped the responses into those that are “good” (positive scores), typical for most post contest (neutral or negative scores) and “not so good” responses (negative scores).
The scores for all 6 items can thus be tallied. Positive total scores suggest readiness to pursue Post-Contest training and diet with vigor, whereas a negative total score suggests you should closely address those items where you scored poorly. (Naturally, any negative scores deserve attention, even if you have an overall positive score!)
think through your situation in terms of training, diet and balancing your life with
competition ambition. (See ABOVE for the Perceived Recovery Status Scale.) Feel free to
add to this checklist – personalize it based on your own set of priorities.
The checklist derives a (weighted) tally of the basic items in your favor for continuing focused bodybuilding Post-Contest (positive scores) versus considerations for scaling back your focus on diet, training and bodybuilding (negative scores). This is not a scientifically validated checklist, but one I hope might help you think objectively Post-Contest when it’s easy to feel a bit “lost.”
To use the checklist, look at each item in the left-most column (e.g., Perceived Recovery Status Score), consider which of the three options best fits you, and then note the associated score (in the colored boxes). I’ve grouped the responses into those that are “good” (positive scores), typical for most post contest (neutral or negative scores) and “not so good” responses (negative scores).
The scores for all 6 items can thus be tallied. Positive total scores suggest readiness to pursue Post-Contest training and diet with vigor, whereas a negative total score suggests you should closely address those items where you scored poorly. (Naturally, any negative scores deserve attention, even if you have an overall positive score!)
Be Your Own Bodybuilding Coach is for bodybuilding enthusiasts who relish the rewards the endeavor, both learning and doing, as much as the physique that comes from their efforts. Dr. Stevenson has poured decades of personal experience as a competitor, scientist, coach, educator and gym rat into a highly detailed strategic plan for setting goals, and navigating the Post-Contest, Off-Season and Pre-Contest periods of the "bodybuilder's year."
The book's purpose is to put you, the reader, in the driver's seat as your own bodybuilding coach by providing a structured reference guide that covers nearly every topic you might encounter along your bodybuilding journey:
• Setting goals and keeping to them: The Personal Bodybuilding Inventory.
• Dietary manipulations to gain size, drop body fat and maintain insulin sensitivity.
• The most important resistance training program variables, choosing and rotating training programs, an integrated approach to bringing up weak muscle groups, and dealing with overtraining/overreaching.
• Tracking and enhancing recovery: Sleep, sauna, heart rate variability, perceived recovery status, adaptogens and CBD oil.
• Peak week without pharmaceutical diuretics and an Advanced Loading Strategy that can be used, for instance, when making weight is a priority!
• Moving up a weight class, estimating body fat, bulking in the Off-Season, cheat meals, Off-Season "damage" control, and how / when to use cardio.
• Nutrient timing, probiotics, low FODMAP diets, fiber, and strategies to both increase and decrease appetite.
• Protein, Carbs, Fats and Alcohol: How much, what and when!
• Nutritional supplements for performance, fat loss, sleep, and cardiovascular, liver, gastrointestinal and kidney health, etc.
• Intermittent fasting and eating organic.
• Strategies for post-contest rebounding and avoiding the ghost of "metabolic damage."
• Bodybuilding performance enhancing drugs, side effects, and inter-individual variability.
• Posing, presentation, and travel: Being ready on game day!
• Training after 40 and beyond: Training strategies for the weathered lifter and dealing with aches n' pains.
• Insights on gender/sex differences.
• Being a critical thinking consumer of bodybuilding knowledge.
• Bodybuilding resources including trusted medical practitioners and sources for equipment, apparel, food and supplements.
The book's purpose is to put you, the reader, in the driver's seat as your own bodybuilding coach by providing a structured reference guide that covers nearly every topic you might encounter along your bodybuilding journey:
• Setting goals and keeping to them: The Personal Bodybuilding Inventory.
• Dietary manipulations to gain size, drop body fat and maintain insulin sensitivity.
• The most important resistance training program variables, choosing and rotating training programs, an integrated approach to bringing up weak muscle groups, and dealing with overtraining/overreaching.
• Tracking and enhancing recovery: Sleep, sauna, heart rate variability, perceived recovery status, adaptogens and CBD oil.
• Peak week without pharmaceutical diuretics and an Advanced Loading Strategy that can be used, for instance, when making weight is a priority!
• Moving up a weight class, estimating body fat, bulking in the Off-Season, cheat meals, Off-Season "damage" control, and how / when to use cardio.
• Nutrient timing, probiotics, low FODMAP diets, fiber, and strategies to both increase and decrease appetite.
• Protein, Carbs, Fats and Alcohol: How much, what and when!
• Nutritional supplements for performance, fat loss, sleep, and cardiovascular, liver, gastrointestinal and kidney health, etc.
• Intermittent fasting and eating organic.
• Strategies for post-contest rebounding and avoiding the ghost of "metabolic damage."
• Bodybuilding performance enhancing drugs, side effects, and inter-individual variability.
• Posing, presentation, and travel: Being ready on game day!
• Training after 40 and beyond: Training strategies for the weathered lifter and dealing with aches n' pains.
• Insights on gender/sex differences.
• Being a critical thinking consumer of bodybuilding knowledge.
• Bodybuilding resources including trusted medical practitioners and sources for equipment, apparel, food and supplements.