TJ
New Brunswick, NJ
Male, 33
As an avid lifter, I decided to compete in an amateur bodybuilding competition to showcase my hard work and appreciation for the sport.
Pre-contest workouts consist of two gym sessions a day. The first is a cardio session lasting 30 mins to an hour, depending on how close to competition day it is. This is done first thing in the morning on an empty stomach to burn the most fat. The second afternoon workout consists of the actual weightlifting. The cardio sessions were 7 days a week while the lifting sessions consisted of 5-6 days a week. During the "off-season" is the time where you want to grow and put on quality lean muscle mass. It's not as important to keep up on the cardio. I'll do one gym session 5x a week. Making sure to allow for rest periods for your muscles to grow.
Surprisingly, yes. They'll make comments such as, "Do you workout?", or "I wanna look like you." It's bizarre when I'm out in a club or a bar I've had people actually come up to me and grope my chest while making comments on the size of it.
Not being a doctor, I can't give you a definite medical answer to that. But from personal experience, I would say yes. Your exercise regimen does take a toll on your body and joints, as well as just draining you physically. Working out without giving your body time to rest and stop for injuries takes a toll. Some days you are running on no carbs and have no energy. When you put your body through such strain and depletion of carbs, you react emotionally as well, mostly with irritability. The actual 'day before' and 'day of' the competition prep consists of completely dehydrating your body so your muscles will show the best definition or "striations". To show the extent of level you need to cut out liquids, you cannot even eat rice because it is made with water. Some bodybuilders will sit in saunas to sweat out every ounce of retained water.
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