Five mistakes competitors make before a competition

It’s that time again: the final week before your competition is about to begin. With restricted calories and a low carbohydrate intake, the past few days have been anything but fantastic. The goal, of course, is to be in your best condition once again on competition day.

If you’re an experienced competitor, you’ve probably tried carbohydrate depletion and loading, along with manipulating your salt and water intake. Yet almost every time, you’ve ended up looking worse on stage than you might on an ordinary training day. A few last-minute adjustments turn all that long, arduous preparation into a physique that looks blurred and lacks definition.

Let me start with this fact: when those final-week adjustments work, they might make you look 2% sharper, but when they fail, it’s common to end up looking 10% worse. I’ve always tried to get most of the competitors I coach into 95-100% of their competition condition by the start of the final week, then make minimal changes to their usual routine in the last few days. This may be a conservative approach, but it’s still the most reliable way to ensure you’re in your best condition on competition day. If you’ve lost the fat properly, on schedule and in good time, you simply shouldn’t need to make any drastic changes to your usual routine in that final week.

Pre-competition mistake no. 1: excessive tinkering with carbohydrate intake

For bodybuilders, the idea behind carbohydrate loading is to fill the muscles with carbohydrates to achieve a bigger, drier appearance. When muscles are full of carbohydrates, they push firmly against the skin, giving the physique a full, massive and dry look. A typical approach during the week before a competition is to deplete carbohydrates in the first half of the week, then load the muscles with carbohydrates in the second half, during the final days before the competition. Depleting first stimulates the muscles to store more carbohydrates than usual during loading. Nutrients are absorbed faster after depletion: the muscles are “hungry” and can hold more carbohydrates than normal. If the process works, this allows you to look temporarily bigger than usual. Yet many bodybuilders haven’t kept a precise record of their carbohydrate intake during contest preparation. If you’ve already been dieting on an average of 50 grams of carbohydrates a day, there’s no point planning any further depletion, and so-called loading is certainly justified. But that doesn’t mean you can eat anything you like in unlimited quantities. The amount you load is closely related to your average daily carbohydrate intake over the past month.

Another option is to increase your daily carbohydrate intake slightly during the final week, then follow your usual diet as competition day approaches, keeping an eye on your condition. Personally, I prefer this approach because it allows me to keep making adjustments. If necessary, I can add more carbohydrates the day before the competition, or keep the amount the same or reduce it. Again, this is a conservative approach, but it’s more reliable than drastic depletion and loading. And as I said earlier, if you’re already in condition, there isn’t much you can do to ruin it.

Mistake no. 2: restricting water before a competition

Carbohydrates in the body bind water and draw it along wherever they go. This applies to muscles, too. If you cut your water intake while trying to load carbohydrates without fluids, it generally won’t work very well. You need to be well hydrated for carbohydrates to be absorbed and properly stored in muscle fibers. If you load carbohydrates without restricting fluids at all, you’ll see how the carbohydrates being absorbed make your muscles look full and round. The fluid drawn into muscle cells along with those carbohydrates plays an important part in achieving that fullness. Loading carbohydrates while severely restricting fluids won’t produce this effect: the muscles won’t fill out and will still look flat and lacking in tone. Don’t be afraid of water: consume carbohydrates with fluids, and the difference in muscle fullness will be noticeable. Problems with water collecting under the skin are always more closely linked to excessive carbohydrate loading. The excess, unabsorbed carbohydrates no longer fit into the muscle cells, remain under the skin and bind water there. This makes your physique look watery and soft.

Mistake no. 3: failing to adjust your training to your diet

If you reduce your training volume/intensity while continuing to eat large amounts of carbohydrates, or even increasing them, you’re changing two variables at the same time. It’s not unusual to cut out cardio completely a week or two before a competition. If you’ve lost the fat, your body fat percentage is under control and you’re at energy balance or in a slight deficit, this approach is entirely justified. However, problems can arise if you drop cardio without accounting for the carbohydrates you’ll no longer be burning during those sessions. Cutting out cardio, even without changing your carbohydrate intake, is effectively the same as adding more carbohydrates.

It is also quite common to reduce the proportion, volume and intensity of strength training in the final week/weeks. There is nothing wrong with this, but stopping strength training altogether has the same effect. In that case, significantly more carbohydrates remain unused. This is why many competitors preparing for a competition may not actually need to eat enormous amounts of carbohydrates in the final week. The earlier you start reducing your training volume, the proportion devoted to strength training and its intensity, the more careful you need to be with your carbohydrate intake.

Mistake no. 4: drastic salt restriction

There are many reasons why it makes sense to keep your salt intake relatively normal right up to competition day. People often forget that salt is also needed for carbohydrate absorption. Glucose molecules cannot cross cell membranes without help, and sodium assists with this. Low sodium levels also reduce blood plasma volume. This, in turn, means less vascularity and a poorer muscle pump.

Think back to times when you were in shape and looking dry, and what happened when you treated yourself to one substantial pizza or a regular meal with plenty of salt after a competition. Chances are that about an hour after eating, you could feel a pump without even doing anything, let alone the increase in vascularity. Cutting out salt also reduces the amount of fluid your body retains, but this in turn means a reduction in blood plasma volume.

Sodium also plays an important role in muscle contraction and relaxation. If you see a bodybuilder suffering from severe cramps on stage, salt restriction is very likely the cause.

Mistake no. 5: convincing yourself that you are retaining water

Suppose for a moment that you really are retaining a little water under your skin. How much water do you think you are holding there in total? And why does this “fluid retention” problem tend to affect a particular area of the body, depending on the individual? It always amazes me how many bodybuilders desperately try to shed fluid the day before a competition, hoping to lose another 3-4 kg in the process. The question is, since a watery appearance often seems to be specific to certain body parts or areas, is fluid retention really always the cause? And if it is not, we all know what the problem is: the preparation has been inadequate. As I said earlier, if you have not burned off enough fat, restricting water and salt or loading/depleting carbohydrates in the final week will not give you the dry competition condition you are looking for.

References:
u20281. Scott Powers and Edward Howley; Exercise Physiology Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance 7th edition 2009.u2028
2. John Ivy, Robert Portman; Nutrient Timing -The Future of Sports Nutrition, Basic Health Publications, 2004.

Author: Janar Rückenberg (translation)

Supported by: Turg.Fitness.ee

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