5 Common “Peak Week” Mistakes
It’s that time aga
in, your last week of training before your big show. Your last few days have been less than amazing and short-lived due to low calorie intake and low glycogen stores. Your goal as always is to try and get your backside to be as equally in shape as your front side.
In the past you’ve tried to glycogen load, adjust sodium, and tried the optimal “peak week” depleting water and carb loading. But you always seem to end up with a filmy watery mess in your “problem areas” and all the time, effort, and energy you put into your contest prep quickly erodes.
Let me start by saying that last week adjustments can make you look 2% better or they can make you look 10% worse. With most clients, I prefer to have them at 95-99% contest condition going into the last week and make very minor adjustments each day as the contest gets closer. While this is a more conservative approach it’s also the safest way to ensure you’ll look really good the day of the show because if you’re really in shape you shouldn’t need to do anything drastically different during the last week.
Mistake #1 Over manipulating carbohydrates
The idea of carbohydrate (CHO) loading for bodybuilding is to fill the muscles with glycogen to create a leaner appearance. When the muscles are full they will press more firmly against the skin leaving what bodybuilders refer to as the “shrink wrapped” appearance.
A popular protocol is to deplete CHO earlier in the week and load them later in the week. The process is intended to draw more CHO into the muscle cells which have been primed during depletion for higher absorption and results in fuller rounder muscles. However, one thing many bodybuilders forget to consider is the amount of CHO they’ve been consuming during their contest prep. For example, if you’ve been training and dieting on 50 grams of carbs per day, CHO depletion doesn’t make much sense. However, adding some CHO might. That said, that doesn’t mean you should begin loading 400 grams per day. The CHO load should be relative to the amount you’ve been consuming during your last month or two of training.
Another method is to slowly add CHO each day at the beginning of the week and then adjust CHO intake every day as the show gets closer. I personally prefer this route because it gives you time to make adjustments by adding or removing carbs as needed in order to fine tune your condition. This is a more conservative method but I believe it’s smarter and safer than typical CHO deplete-load methods that risk a drastic change in your condition. And as I said before, if you’re in shape there shouldn’t be a lot to change.
Mistake #2 Cutting water
Carbohydrates draw water to themselves wherever they go and this is no different with CHO within your muscles. If you stop drinking water, adding CHO will be of little or no help. Glycogen can only be stored if you are adequately hydrated. Typically, if you add CHO the muscles become fuller and rounder, and water accounts for a good portion of that fullness. By not drinking enough water those nice full muscles will become small, “flat”, sagging muscles.
When you eat CHO and drink water your body will fill your muscle tissue first. The issues with water retention are usually due to adding too many carbs. These extra CHO will cause water to start spilling over under the skin and make you look softer.
Mistake #3 Not accounting for a reduction of training
If you add CHO and eliminate training you are adjusting two important variables that need to be considered. It’s not uncommon to eliminate cardio in the last week or two prior to a contest. If your body fat is stripped and you’re still in energy balance or a slight deficit this is probably perfectly fine. However, the problem arises when you fail to consider the extra glycogen you burn while performing cardio. When you eliminate cardio sessions these CHO are spared, leaving you less depleted, so simply eliminating cardio could have a similar effect as adding CHO.
It’s also common to eliminate strength training in the last few days of prep. If you do this it’s also fine, however keep in mind this accounts for even more sparing of CHO. This is another reason why it may not be necessary to add a ton of CHO in the last week.
Mistake #4 Eliminating sodium
There are numerous reasons to keep sodium in your diet all the way up until the day of the show. Gluc
ose generated by digestion of starch or lactose is absorbed in the small intestine only by co-transport with sodium. Carbohydrates simply cannot cross cell membranes unassisted and require sodium transporters to carry them across. When sodium intake is low blood volume will also be reduced. This means less vascularity and also makes it more difficult to achieve a “pump”.
Remember the last time you were really lean and ate a salty meal? Within an hour or two you probably had veins popping out and a slight pump while doing nothing. When sodium is excreted from the body, it is accompanied by water loss as well. As sodium and water loss continues there will also be a reduction in blood volume.
It’s also important to add that sodium plays a key role in facilitating muscle contraction and relaxation. When you see bodybuilders cramping on stage it is likely the result of sodium depletion.
Mistake #5 Assuming you’re holding water
Let’s say that you ARE in fact holding some water. How much water do you think you can you possibly hold under your skin? And why is it that everyone holds water in specific “problem” areas like the hamstrings, glutes or lower back? It amazes me when I hear about people trying to lose ten pounds of water the day before their show. The message here is if you’re holding a LOT of water it’s best to assume it’s not all water. And if you’ve made this mistake, everything I’ve discussed up until now is probably pointless.
As I said earlier if you aren’t completely shredded of fat, no amount of water or CHO depletion or CHO loading is going to get you the “dry” grainy look that you’re seeking.
Train Smart and Good Luck!
References:
Scott Powers and Edward Howley; Exercise Physiology Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance 7th edition 2009
John Ivy, Robert Portman; Nutrient Timing -The Future of Sports Nutrition, Basic Health Publications, 2004
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