Road to Balkan & WORLD Championship - 7 days out! My Story & Preparations
Hello everybody!!
Today is exactly 7 days from last competition which was European championship where I placed first and today is exactly 7 days till next competition which is in Bosnia. It's about Balkan Open championship and I want to write something about preparation in the "peek week".
That is some special preparation which I need to pass through in the last week. It's very hard and it's not for everyone. I already feel sick when I even think about it... But nevermind, the last days of that week is the best!
Everyone has their own way how they prepare for competition. Personally, I always love to change something, and this time I think I did the right thing.
First of all, everything starts for about 10-12 weeks before the competition. It starts with lowering carbohydrates, higher protein intake, and slowly increasing fats intake. After 2 weeks carbs are even lower, and the calories from carbs need to be replaced with fats.
So my full day of eating looks like:
Meal 1: Oats with egg whites and whey protein powder
Meal 2: Whey protein shake
Meal 3: Chicken or fish with vegetables or eggs
Meal 4: Cottage cheese or meat with some nuts
Meal 5: Cottage cheese
With all that I train sometimes twice per day, and later I train every day 2x per day with and the Sunday is the rest day. That is 12 training in the gym per week with calories deficit. It's not that easy as it looks like!
Supplements which I use during contest preparation is whey protein, glutamine, creatine, BCAA, vitamins and minerals, citruline malat and omega 3 fish oil.
Sometimes I use caffeine or some pre-workout too if I feel tired.
Whey protein is the best solution for the meal right after training because it will feed muscles and will speed up the resting process which is very important if I train twice per day!
Glutamine and BCAA are also great supplements for resting and recovering. It is about amino acids which I dring during the training because it goes directly to the muscles thus contributing to the recovery and regeneration of muscle fibres.
Citrulline malate improve pump in muscles and delays fatigue which is a great thing in contest preparation for me!
The last week is the hardest one. In that week I need to empty my glycogen stores so I can refill it later again to look bigger and fuller.
To achieve that I need to eat at least 5 days only proteins. Without any fats and carbs. So I usually eat only Egg whites for breakfast, and the rest of the day I only eat fish or the chicken with more salt at that period, Salt helps me to hold water in the muscles for normal function.
After that 5 days of starving, there comes the easy part - carbs reload.
That is the period when I need to eat! Eat a looots of carbs or even junk food. I will try to explain later why but for now let's just say to looks stronger, bigger and fuller on the stage. That is usually one day before the competition and at least 8 hours before I stop to drink water becaosue of water bloating.
Last time competition was on Saturday and on Friday evening I ate 2 big pizzas and in the morning I started a day with lots of sweet like jam, honey, Nutella...
In this sport everything is really complicated so there is no need to explain everything in the details, this is it for now, I hope that you like this post and that you learned something new! :D