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How many times have you seen absolute monsters in the gym that become completely unrecognizable when they diet down for competition? Victor Richards comes to mind as someone who is the biggest man on the planet in the off-season (remember those pics of him at FIBO in 1994?) who becomes an average body-builder when it is time to get ripped. Why is this?

Actually I feel there are multiple reasons (not the least of which is a lack of sufficient Natural training to build up a good base although I do not believe this to be the case with Victor). Knowing what pharmaceutical compounds to use is one of the factors as is old-fashioned hard work and dedication and most importantly taking things slow.

The last statement is where I feel the majority of people error. I myself have done the very things I am going to tell you not to do in this article

1.Over-dieting: This is basically where you get obsessed with fat loss and when things are not going the way you planned, you decide to make drastic changes quickly.

2.Too much aerobics: This is the killer of more muscle than anything else, especially if you are a big man. I suggest no more than 45 minutes to an hour of aerobics per day. Anything less will slow the process and anything more will cause the body to go into a preservation mode and try and hold onto emergency fat stores and burn muscle instead

3.Too many carbs: Personally I do not respond well to carbohydrates as they get me fat real quickly and bloat me like a fucking cow. This is not to say that I do not love them to death as most other people do, but when trying to control bodyfat they must be kept in check. I suggest no more than 150 grams per day if you have a fast metabolism, and no more than 50 grams per day if you have the metabolism of a turtle

4.Too little protein: Whenever you cut your carb intake, your body will look for other energy sources to burn starting with the easiest stuff, mainly protein which is another way of saying your hard earned muscle. To prevent this, you must make sure that you OVER-compensate in terms of protein consumption. I suggest 600-800grams per day or more depending on bodyweight

5.Too little fat: Lets face it, you need fat to burn fat. The body likes to know that it is not ridding itself of vital and necessary fat stores without having a good amount coming in on a daily basis. Since you are keeping your carbs ultra-low, you can and must allow for greater intake of fat. Again this varies greatly, but 100 grams per day is not too much and in many cases a little more is necessary

6.Over-use of thermogenic compounds: D.N.P. is the latest range in the quest to get ripped. It can increase your BMR by up to 50%. The downside is that muscle will be burned in the process if you are not careful and oh yeah, you might cook yourself to death. I am currently researching D.N.P. further and will hold off on any general suggestions until that research is complete. As a rule of thumb though, I would not go over 6 miligrams per kilogram of bodyweight and in fact, I would suggest less. I would also use it on a 2 day on 2 day off pattern with-in a week on week off schedule to maximize safety. Remember this is rat poison and can and will kill you. Be weary of where you get it from if you plan on using and always do as much research as possible. Ian Harrison will tell you himself that it was responsible for catabolizing at least 25lbs of pure muscle in the last three weeks before the 97 Arnold. I would avoid its use and opt for a longer dieting period and the use of clenbuterol and T3. These 2 compounds are excellent tools and are relatively safe as long as you don�t over-do it. With clen there are many different theories on how to use, but the great number of people I deal with use it on a daily basis at 40-80 mcg per day. With T3, I would suggest not going over 150mcg per day during your dieting and not using it for more than 6 weeks in this fashion. Even with this, I would use it for 5 days and then have 2 days off.

7.GH: This will increase fat burning by up to 20% in some cases and will help you hold on to your muscle mass. For dieting purposes between 2 and 4iu per day seems best as more GH results in water retention. Again I would use it for 5 days in a row and then have 2 days off, although in some cases using it straight through works great.

8.Anabolics: Obviously, the long acting androgens cannot be used and neither can Deca due to the water retaining properties. Drugs that work well during the dieting phase are Anadrol, Test Proprionate, Anavar, Winstrol, Primbolan, Parabolan and Masteron

9.Training: A great number of people feel that their training has to change during the contest prep period and to me this is utter non-sense. If you train hard and heavy, as you should be doing, you need to continue it during the contest prep. I am not saying don�t be cautious, as you must when your bodyfat starts to drop and you do not want things to tear or injure, but training balls to the wall with some added "shaping" exercises will help to insure that you come in as big and full as possible. Has anyone seen the "Battle for the Olympia 98" tape? Kevin Levrone is the hardest training athlete on the tape, using weights that would crush most bodybuilders in the off-season, let alone 10 days before a competition. 500lb bench presses for 3 reps and 455lb inclines for 4-6 reps!!! And this is after he tore his pec!!! Kevin, I take my hat off to you as you are a fucking animal, and yet we are bombarded with bullshit strength claims about Kovacs and told that Cormeir is the strongest Pro. Now if Kevin would only put in a good 10 months of balls out training, and give me a call so we can tweak his program, he would be a 260lb freak that would crush anyone in his path

10.. Rest and Recovery: Yes you want to increase your metabolism, but if you do not give yourself adequate rest and recovery, you might as well take a 10ml barrel of cortisone, inject it and watch your muscles get eaten. Training for 4 hours per day and then doing 2 hours of cardio on a 1500-2000kcal diet while using D.N.P, GH, Cytomel and Clenbuterol will spell disaster!!

On a final note, I would suggest those of you who have yet to compete and diet for a show, but plan on doing so in the near future, set up a mock competition and go through a pre-contest phase. I would follow all of the above steps with one exception: I would over-diet a bit. The reason for this is 2 fold. First, it is often necessary to over-diet in order to get rid of stubborn fat deposits that have been with you for years and years (especially if you spent the necessary years of natural training, power-body-building and eating till you are bulked up to the size of a whale) Second, after a strict and severe pre-contest phase, your body will rebound like a fucking rocket and you will put on a tremendous amount of new, lean, quality size, plus you will tend to be leaner than you have ever been even when you are at your off-season heaviest. If you remember when Paul Dillet first came out and did the North Americans, he dieted down from an offseason high of around 295lbs, but came in a stringy 240, and very unimpressive. However the following year he came in 20lbs heavy and hard as rock. A lot of this has to do with the fact that this was his first major competition and he was coming down for the first time from a huge off-season bodyweight. He invariably had to sacrifice a good deal of muscle to get rid of the body-fat the first time around. But the following year, his body was already primed and leaner and he was able to come in huge and ripped.

*As a rule of thumb, it is important to have patience and start early and go slowly. This will allow for an even distribution of fat burning and save your muscles.

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