Ultimate Guide to Bodybuilding: Peak Week and Post-Show Strategies

welcome back everyone to show prep part three with AJ Sims what's going on AJ what's up Kurt glad to be back maam

thank you everybody for your phenomenal feedback and it's just been encouraging to me and Kurt uh that people really

been enjoying this series of of contest prep and deep diving into strategies and methodologies and how to apply specific

things creating the best looking physique on show day and thereafter as well yeah so we were going to dive into

now part three which is like the week out right two weeks out peak week and then what we do is a rebound I guess

depending if there's another show coming up or if they're just going into the rough season or health phase or whatever

right what the rough I think we're probably not going to get super detailed with the exact Peak Week stuff because

it's not this should not be taken as personal advice right like if someone really is peing for show that confused

de how to do this they should really reach out to a coach yeah absolutely agree I mean I just I I don't think that

one size shoe fits all you know your your mileage may vary like I've been saying it's you know really going to

depend on how you're looking day-to-day hour to hour leading into the show did you get all the fat off is going to be

first and foremost above all else did you manage estrogen correctly did you reduce systemic inflammation is cortisol

being controlled aldosterone being controlled so all those co-actors going in so if you have done all that and

you've done your homework uh I know me and Kurt as a as a coach we will di the client in I know if that is not

happening uh we will tell them to just pick another show uh two three four weeks down the road just being honest

and transparent and you know that could be due to many different reasons but I think at the end of the day if you're

not ready and you do have a coach the coach should absolutely be totally honest and transparent with you not

sugar Kota yeah and on for many different levels right it's not it's not a good look for the athlete it's not a

good look for coach it's not it's not a good look for the judges the judges don't appreciate when someone is not in

condition at even at the amateur level it's not I don't really take that stuff um as a joke and you know the people pay

a lot of money to come watch these shows I can't tell you how many NPC shows I've been to where half the guys are in

horrible condition yeah and you spend $150 to watch this stuff and it's kind of a joke even and I'm not ripping on

anyone but even the Arnold Classic in Ohio this year the amateur show was some of the most unimpressive stuff I've ever

seen on a stage the conditioning was atrocious yeah I I think that that has a lot to do with this current thing with

the guys running the restro in super high and just not getting lean enough yeah but who knows I just we were

watching we were actually in Ohio for the Arnold and we're watching it the day before okay and it was like wow yeah I

mean I totally agree with you Kurt I think on top of that too and listen there is applic we we're getting more

and more data not only as athletes but as coaches as individuals as a whole from a physiological standpoint how the

Body Works how it adapts Kurt obviously being from the medical background has a a very deep dive knowledge into that um

but one one word that is going around it's a hot hot button word and there is definitely truth to a specific amount of

fatigue that the body can can respond to whether that be um you know your minimum recovery volume maximum recovery volume

when it comes to training whether that be you know how far can you get into a deficit uh you know without pushing you

know over the edge to be burning off tissue and you know getting into a catabolic State um but on the same token

I think that the using the word fatigue too much too often will hinder the athlete from actually pushing themselves

to get to the levels of body fat they need to uh because they think the second they start feeling tired uh is the time

to start pulling back and that is not the case because we are talking about an extreme sport with extreme levels of low

body fat there's going to be many times throughout the process that you do not feel well I am not advocating for you um

overexerting yourself to the extent again it's a fine balance but bodybuilding is like pushing that fine

line to achieve that look on show day it's only for a specific period of time so I do think that there is something

to um social media being a gift and a curse like we've talked about in the past Kurt that there is so much

information out there it's almost too much to an extent puts people into an analysis paralysis and like man you know

I'm tired after the second day of low carbs I think I just need to do a refeed or a cheat meal no cardio and uh we'll

see how it goes and what that does is I believe it puts you into a psychological

um negative effect where you're just constantly almost airing on the side of caution where you're babying yourself to

an extent if that makes any sense yeah and the guys will right they'll start to pull back even if their strength goes

down like no they their their leg press will drop by 45 PBS or something and they'll start to get nervous and they

they'll think they need a refeed that's normal you're not going to stay as strong all the way through it never

happens no right and this isn't a the judges don't care how strong you are they don't know what you weigh they just

care what you look like that's all we care about and we're not advocating that people push themselves into a dangerous

place but it is very uncomfortable it needs to be uncomfortable for a period of time to get that lean everyone has a

different tolerance for this amount of suffering right the're truly successful guys kind of thrive on this odd deep

place um you know and others don't and those are not typically the ones that make it very far bodybuilding no 100% I

mean I can use myself as example and I've never was a a phenomenal competitor by any standard whatsoever was known for

my conditioning but I guess I would pinpoint it to the mindset and I was 17 years old living in Las Vegas I just

competed at the teenage Nationals which I had trained uh two and a half years for I took two and a half years just to

get ready for that show I did a show at 14 and a half and then by the time I was 17 and A2 I put on 33 lbs of stage

weight I believe in between now I had started I started a cycle at 17 um just fully transparent uh with with

testosterone because you know my goal obviously back then was to to get to the Mr Olympia so by all means necessary I

did what I needed to but I remember the day after the show I got uh sixth or seventh and you know I went into the

show with with Cutler uh being in my corner back in me so you know there was hype involved I had just signed with

muscle tech you know so I was obviously disappointed uh but I do remember the next day sitting in the hotel lobby at

the Sheron Station Square in Pittsburgh and eating with my parents and a couple competitors that were a little older

than me and they were all piging out and I was eating oatmeal and egg whites and I put Splenda on my oatmeal and I said

this is a treat for me because I haven't had a packet of Splenda in 20 weeks now regardless of if that's even if it makes

a difference or not what I'm talking about is the psychological aspect of what it takes which me and Kurt kind of

wanted to touch on when it comes to prep what is uh the psychological standpoint that takes not only to get to the show

compete at the show uh and then after the show where do you need to be psychologically and mentally uh to to be

focused on what you're doing I mean I I think I would start with the goal is to win right there should never be another

thought in your mind that's the way I communicate to my athletes as well as I phrase everything

is after you win this we right we move on from there I don't it's never we don't go in things not to win absolutely

doesn't always happen right like I'm similar to you although you got farther than me I'm not a fantastic athlete

myself um I I sure can suffer though yeah know um and I continue to do so now at 50 I enjoy that process still like

like you I think you and not the only two insane people that still do that a competition but I think that there's

something to be said about it it it really puts you in touch with with what matters and I think in Focus right like

I'm my brain is a lot sharper when I'm leaner and I'm hungry yes agreed you know Agreed 100% And I think that may be

the case for everybody I mean I think when you're at a very high surplus of food uh constantly and just almost

overfilled to an extent right uh which could throw off you know maybe lipids to an extent or hemoglobin A1c glucose

levels from an acute standpoint and you're just stuffed all the time you're not as sharp you're not as cogni

enhanced you can't sleep as good so there is a cognitive enhancement and sharpness and focus that's why I think

me and Kurt do this because we do need to perform on the highest level uh not only for our clients but our families

and for ourselves I mean I think there's a certain expectation we both have being a type A personality we we enjoy it I

know I've talked to Kurt many times we actually like the feeling of being hungry and what I try to tell my clients

and I know you do too Kurt is when you get in that state of not feeling satiated you need to embrace that and

actually tell yourself this is enjoyable because when you shift your mindset you're actually able to train your brain

to think differently about when things get hard it's building mental resiliency I talk about it all the the time uh when

you're on the stair Mill or the incline treadmill visualizing the end result of what you look like on show day I always

tell my guys this I've used this line for over a decade you're going to be one of two people backstage you're either

going to be one one of the persons that looks around at everybody and says man I wish I wouldn't have cheated on my diet

I wish I would have done that extra minute of cardio I wish the day I was really really tired I didn't slow down

or you're going to sit back with a smile on your face not looking at anybody because you really don't need to you

know that you dialed it in and right on the money and you told tell yourself I did everything I checked every box every

day and now it's my time to present it on stage and not only is that it going to give you a lot more confidence on

stage you know from a physiological standpoint neurological you're going to be in a more parasympathetic rest and

digest State and not get into the fight ORF flight that's going to cause a glucose dip sweating on stage you know

Vaso constriction all the things that happen when you go into a sympathetic fight ORF flight State you know so it's

keeping your body uh much more int with performing on stage better because you are performing on stage yeah and like

you said every every professional athlete that I know does it as well you visualize yourself winning it's very

important to picture yourself I did it for years also looking at other people's physiques I know I started years ago I

started by looking at a Frank Zay physique and I would imagine myself until I look like him right and then you

progress through these things you stare you stare at these images until you you can accomplish those things I think it's

very important your brain has to be there and you can't question yourself there's no reason why you can't get

there there's no reason why anyone can't get there that's in our head yeah I mean when you get to the point of a contest

prep that's so hard in your body you it's really hard to sit on the toilet you know I remember getting up and you

know having to use the restroom and it's like you literally have to talk yourself into getting off the couch and trying to

use the rest that's when you're at the deepest darkest hardest parts of prep um man if your brain from a psychological

standpoint is where it needs to be your brain your mind will carry your body yeah it will carry your body and and

gratitude you know anyone that follows knows that I talk about this all the time starting the day off grateful you

know not saying I have to go do cardio but I get to do cardio or not saying I have to do low carbs saying I get to

even eat food or drink clean water like we take a lot of things in this country for granted or any country that has

accessible clean water and food but if you shift your perspective man it makes a huge I wish someone would have told me

this when I was 22 years old uh getting ready for shows cuz I remember being in a state of negativity and complacency

and complaining and really what that did was made the process that much harder on me uh because my mind was really telling

my body you know this is horrible you know why do you why are you doing this when rather you have gratitude you know

you are getting somewhat of a you could call it a placebo effect or a no sio effect you know and that there's

clinical data that will back that up you know telling your your your body that you can do this and that you're actually

enjoying doing this so no there's tons of evidence to show that with placebo effect the I mean the end of the day you

we choose to do this right food is abundant like for most of us that we work with right food is relatively

abundant this is a choice you can stop at any point versus someone who is truly starving to death that's not a choice

yes so this is a sport and it's a decision we made to participate in that sport so there is a suck but you have to

embrace that suck and you have to embrace it for a while that's powerful Kurt that that's awesome man if anyone

gets anything out of this podcast I take the last five minutes of what we just talked about I think that is going to be

a game Cher for the athletes because I know the majority of people they they struggle with that issue yeah well even

my lifestyle guys I think yeah there are some that like are totally fine with I have a couple guys that like they

they're like us they they enjoy that process I think you you just need to learn how to do it and just do well and

just repeat it and it's it's not a short-term thing it's generally long like you and I also talked about we

don't it's not like for a for a specific thing you kind of live like that I live like that as well I don't really ever

get out of shape absolutely AB go up a little bit but I by all means I would never be considered out of shape by any

100% lifestyle so we took some notes uh brother before we did this and we were talking about because we were taking

some of the comments people were leaving they were interested in you know what do you do if you have two or three shows

back to back um you know postow rebound what does that look like from a health standpoint blood markers like blood work

what are we looking for how do we get the body feeling uh you know back to somewhat normality right after the show

right to return back to homeostasis where energy levels are back up we're balancing maybe estrogen a little bit

back up if we did tank it um just for the benefit of getting as dry as possible on show day um so I'll let you

go ahead and you know kind of dive I was just gonna touch on the esteren thing first because I this has been like a

really hot thing Hot Topic right now clarify this because the the newest research show so estrogen with outside

of show prep estrogen with in range is where you should be you should not be above you should not be below we're not

advocating crushing it outside of sh prep we're not advocating running it high

absolutely estrogen similar to growth hormone is what you call sexually dimorphic it is different in men and

women it has different effects it's not the same it is similar uh in a man's body estrogen is not anabolic the only

thing it has the only effect outside of glycogen swords that it plays in a man is mitochondria so it creates it'll help

you create more energy within the muscles but it also acts as an anti- decoupler so in theory it's technically

going to be it's going to slow your metabolism down to some degree how much I don't know the answer to that yeah I

don't want to dwell on it but so guys get really hung up on this estrogen I it is not an anabolic hormone in men so

don't be worrying about running it at you know 80 80 is not good um okay so you know let me just I just

want to kind of touch on that too I will tell you from a lifestyle standpoint obviously that's what we do uh and me

being on you know transparency on trt um on prescribed trt I found my estrogen ratio when it's

pulled on labs when it's around 30 to 33 right around there that is when I feel my most optimal obviously if it starts

getting a little lower I start feeling the side effects if I get higher and I've tried this I went down the rabbit

hole three or four years ago of trying to you know add in trt uh with uh add to trt sorry with

Maston or primobolan uh it did not control my estrogen I felt worse on it and my estrogen went up to 80 to 90 and

I looked worse my blood pressure was higher I became more insulin resistant my sleep was garbage libido was horrible

um so I just wanted to really touch on that from an anecdotal standpoint I actually I tried it you know and we I

think we've all tried it to see what happens and it's not it's just but that's that's what the current science

is I'm sorry if guys it's not an individual thing and it's not an opinion thing unfortunately the science does not

line up there it is not anabolic in in humans um the Okay so we peak week we could talk real fast about so basically

assuming the athlete is in shape right they they're they're truly fat Freight peak week is not the time to be losing

fat that that should be done at least a week before that if not two or three weeks before that depending on the

athlete and their you know their capabilities I would love to see someone ready early and then start to bring the

food up right so like you said they go into the show in more of a rest and digest phase they're not so stressed out

yep um really peak week for me is about depletion refilling them and fine tuning some minerals and perhaps some water I

don't personally drop water altogether I think that's dangerous I've never really found a benefit to that that generally

will just result in your muscles losing water great and risking you know obviously health issues on stage right

at I don't know at Pro level shows if they still do this but at NPC shows if you pass out you're done they will yank

you out of the show I'm pretty sure they they've started getting standards because you know guys have push it to a

dangerous level and I and I don't either you know people will use use the terminology dropping water and I've

heard people that will what they try to do is they come up with a protocol where they will um hyper load water maybe a

day before the show and they'll they'll basically take in a gallon or two till noon and then just totally shut it off

and you know hopefully you know with all the variables that play into going to tan athletes meeting back and forth into

Ubers if you're out of town you're out of your environment and you may be shutting down the body's ability to even

process that urine through the kidneys like it normally would just because you are in a stressful

situation um so that is a big risk you know I never cut water I may reduce it and then we may control it meal by meal

and I may even have people taking fluid you know throughout the night into show Day based off their urination level the

color of the urine um you know what's going on with vascularity what's going on with just the feel of the muscle like

you know we've talked on this before too so just like you said we're balancing the mineral electrolytes we're balancing

the water intake to the carbohydrate rate ratio but really to touch on what Kurt said I mean the last week really is

all about the fine-tuning the small details which you should have enough data during the whole process that you

pretty much know what's going to happen you know somebody's Peak ceiling for carbohydrate intake into the glycogen

what they can handle and really finding out the psychology of that person are they a neurotic overthinker where they

try to overanalyze everything they're going to look at their pictures every five minutes and say one minute they

look great the next minute they look in the mirror they lost two vein so now they're flat or are you dealing with

someone calm cool collected then you have to approach those preps in two different manners the last week you know

so really it's all about fine-tuning where I will essentially there's there's many different routes you can go right

so you can do um just a small titration every single day leading into the show of macronutrients the majority being

from carbohydrates to fill up muscle glycogen um or you can go into a front load and then tapering it back down or

you could go into a moderate load in the middle of the week or at the end of the week and again you'll know this by the

data you've collected during the entire process in prep you have a coach like Kurt or myself the coach is monitoring

you every single day throughout the day they're taking all this data they're collecting it based off your appearance

based off using weight as a small gauge and based off all those other biof feedbacks where it's almost becomes like

the Matrix to us like an algorithm that we can read that you don't maybe understand but that's the coach's job is

for you not to fully grasp it right we take the thinking and the guessing out and we do the work for you and if you're

prepping yourself and there's some guys that are that are decently good at this very difficult though I believe that

when you've come out of an emotional prep and your all your neurotransmitters are screwed at that point uh to really

be able to fully assess yourself and you know do due diligence of being honest with the way you look so always having a

second pair of eyes that is actually knows what they're talking about um the cool thing is if you know people are

utilizing their wives or significant other I would only do that if you have a significant other that is absolutely

brutally honest with you yeah you don't need sugarcoated but in theory even backing up to the week

before with the show with the peak week it's just toine tuning thing in theory not that you would necessar do it you

could technically enter the show the week before and you should do pretty similar you're just tweaking that look a

little bit you're not good enough the Sunday a week out you're not good enough I all time I tell guys that all the time

honestly you should be at a point 10 days out where you're waking up you could slap on Tanner and just get on and

you should at least Place well exactly so that that just shows us that we can just get a little bit better if you get

greedy if you try to get too greedy the final week you will overshoot and you will make yourself 50% worse instead of

5% better Y and you see that even at the pro level there's a bunch of people that fill and spill all the time right and

then try to clean it up with things like you know diuretics after the fact and it generally doesn't work and you can see

it in their look that it's soft and yeah you know kind of wet looking um so people were they're obviously going to

ask you're going to say okay so we understand you know there there's a simplified version that you guys are

kind of directing into because there's people that have written books right on how to Peak yourself right become your

own coach and there's valuable information um in that for sure but everything's individualistic and the

scenarios are going to vary from show to show you know if I take someone that I've had in the past at a New York

to an Olympia they know the stakes are higher therefore anxiety and stress is absolutely going to be higher you have

to mitigate cortisol and stress as much as possible and get the person out of that uh fight ORF flight state so we've

talked about Kurt you know a few things people are using magnesium riola Rosa they're using ashwagandha they're using

rora medicinal adaptogen mushrooms there's there's certain things you can utilize um to to really be able to

benefit taking the stress levels down I mean I'm even big on using badil the last couple nights before it's really

fantastic to to calm that Stress and Anxiety it's very very useful for that also for a good night's rest as well so

sleeping sleeping Tak a nap even oh man sleeping I can't I can't even stress it enough man I will tell my guys the last

couple days listen if you could sleep 10 to 12 hours literally do what it takes to sleep 10 to 12 hours because the

difference in a physique from let's say two weeks prior where they're averaging six or seven or maybe five um to 10 I

mean dude it is night and day I mean they wake up and they're like what just happened I'm like you slept and you

dried out and the body lowered its cortisol and inflammation systemic inflammation went away it's an amazing

thing man sleep is your best friend so some of the little things you know again these are all individual things some of

the little things I would do so we talk about we pull injectables week out right you can have mishaps with injections we

can do a whole video on that there and even the best person with this stuff can have a mishap you can have an infection

you could have some some inflammation you could hit a vein it's a mess you want to pull them out as fast you you

know weak out um protein typically would lower it right peak week you don't need as much you're not gaining any muscle at

that point 100 grams is most likely plenty to hold your muscle mass you still have some anabolic load in there

um orals probably go up depending what like wind you know if you're using wind stroll perhaps it's citrated up

depending on the person with the look you're going for um you know or if things like Halo are

used you know perhaps that's going up as well I don't want to talk about specific doses or you know or can I let me let me

just ask you this Kurt why would we don't have to don't let's not mention a dosage like you said but why why would

people push against wistol not going up the final week I mean the mechanism knowing how it works right knowing how

it works we know how it works but can you explain to people I mean what what's going on from a physiological standpoint

what's the benefit and why is there push back on this I mean it's just it's a the push back I mean and you and I both see

this now they think there's push back on everything right like what what you and I are talking about now is stuff that's

been done consistently and successfully for at least 20 years this has not changed it's changed in a lot of coaches

eyes and competitor eyes right like I see people Cycles all the time going into shows and it doesn't look anything

like what I would what I would recommend right like 250 milligrams of testosterone and 1,000 milligrams of

masteron right and no 19 or no oral like it's just to me it's very bizarre where people are going no AI

um I think the push back with things like wistol is it's people look at it like it's liver toxic but yet at this

point it's kind of a double-edged sword right at this point in prep health is risky right we we are pushing this

metric it's why you don't use orals typically in the offseason if you can avoid it right because you don't need to

risk that and the funny thing is I a lot of times see people's blood markers improve during prep because they get

leaner so even though you would think when you look at the drugs you're like oh TR and Maston and crushing estrogen

all these things the blood the blood the markers be atrocious you look at it and a lot of times it's actually improved

what it was in the offseason when their blood pressure is higher and they're fatter and they sit more um if you do

cardio you know many hours a week during prep and your body Fat's really low and you're eating really healthy clean food

and you're digesting well you're drinking adequate water and you're getting if if you can get sleep your

blood should generally be improved so it's it is a in theory it would be a safer time to push wind STW so the

reason why wistw would be used is it it blocks something called there's a protein called C2 it's an inhibitor and

that pulls water out from under the skin that's why it's FDA approved now for something called chronic angioedema

which is a life-threatening situation it's really the only FDA use for wistol at the moment um and we're basically

just reaping the benefits of that effect so it's creating a harder drier look if you're fat it's not going to make it

difference you take all the win in the world you want it's not going to make you look dry and hard but if you if

you're in the low single digits of body fat it's what will bring out those striations right on your quads on your

triceps all those sorts of things and it still gives you some level of needed aggression needed Drive the ability to

still push through it is not necessarily going to I think other people worry they're like oh you know my tendons it

makes my tendons very dry some of that might be the fluid that comes out honestly most of it is probably because

when it's used it's generally used when you're dry already right's low yeah alestone is low you're you're going to

be dry it's the windol is not causing that technically windol causes collagen 3 production like all anabolics started

so it's not necessarily driving tendon ruptures or anything um not to say those things can't happen that's a whole

another conversation of why those things occur but that's not really a risk that we're we're worried about you're not

you're not going setting records in the gym exactly I mean I was going to say it's it's negligible at that point

you're not you're not you're just training for enough stimulus at that point number one number two you know if

you're taking something uh in the form of like say a super draw or anad Draw for 3 weeks I mean we're talking about

different types of toxicity that could possibly happen compared to windol the last two weeks being at or even 10 days

being at a higher dosage where you literally will see a difference in the physique hardness and dryness each and

every day and then if you know you're getting dried out tendons and ligaments like you said I mean that's more

estrogenic from what I've seen anecdotally dropping down and just being completely fat free and systemically you

are urinating more uh obviously creating more dryness but you know obviously if it depletes any type of cartilage or

collagen you know you can supplement with collagen or shark cartilage I mean there there's things that you can do to

help you know create a better you know internal environment but really again guys we're talking about 10 to 12 days

three weeks at the most yeah I mean there's really not much that's going to happen and and I'm speaking from

thousands of preps again we're not advocating for a specific dosage we're just saying that a lot of new uh

techniques of people trying to reinvent the wheel there's a reason why a lot of it doesn't

seem to be working um so yeah want to always try to stick with what's tried tested and proven over the years and

number one is getting totally fat free and then also number two is going to be utilization if you are using performance

enhancers not noting how to do them correctly the timeline of them the onset time the Peaks time the half-life of it

when to pull it uh what's causing inflammation that doesn't even need to be in we talked about um you know

trimone maybe pulling that early if it's needed because not always something needed for everybody some people get a

really bad response in terms of progesterone going up you know converting into prolactin and then

people want to obviously supplement with a cber goolan or pyxel which is extremely hard on the heart you know

yeah so I mean there's there's there's better ways to go about it so that's what me and Kurt are here to do and

we're here to show you that there's a smarter way to approach contest prep utilization of supplementation and uh

all these things in between man so yeah so with prolactin the standard so in men there's really three reasons why it

would ever be elevated so it's the the the simplest one is when estrogen goes up so during prep you should not be

seeing your estrogen going up uh tremone can cross detect in cheaper methods of labs as estrogen so you might think your

estrogen is going up if you do you know if you don't do I've seen it expensive Labs uh that's not actually the case

just cross detecting um the other reason is when thyroid function goes down so one of the things that tremone acate can

do is it can lower T3 output it doesn't always happen to every person but it can do that and that can make prolactin go

up as well I've seen that the third reason is what you call pituitary adona which is a non-cancerous tumor basically

that's pushing on the pituitary that's a whole another situation and requires surgery generally or at least hardcore

medicine uh C goolan is not the right answer there I would manage the problem what is causing the issue fix that first

don't just add toxic things like C ging on top of it manage that's to me that's not the right answer I would fix either

the estrogen issue or the thy issue first absolutely 100% so we touched real quick uh CU we are a little pressed for

time guys today so we touched real quick on kind of the final week which we can dive deeper if you guys have questions

leave them in the comments we'll touch on them um let's talk about post show show's over uh you know you just got off

stage you texted your coach uh it's time to rehydrate and uh you want to go out to eat with your family or friends or

loved ones obviously um and of course people will eat uh quite a bit of sodium and drink quite a bit of fluid and

they're super super vast because they have an acute uh blood pressure increase that caused a lot of ACO dilation and

they'll take a picture at the hotel and perfect lighting say oh man if I only look like this and of course it's not

nearly as dry or separated so just remember guys just because you're veiny does not mean you have the right look on

stage get that out of your head uh so uh they wake up the next morning or even that night Kurt you you uh what would

you have them do that night they want to get back to Baseline it's time to get ready for a progression season rebound

okay so no other show for now we'll touch on both scenarios real quick the first one no other show they're just

it's time for health um I would typically have them so we go back to to Esters for a second so typically like

we've been doing for 20 years you switch at six or eight weeks out to short Esters and the reason being there is

because you can pull or manipulate the doses really fast if you if you need to pull Trend you need to pull test it can

be done really quickly and efficiently and it's predictable versus if you're using tonate going to a show who the

heck knows when it's coming out so so assuming you switched there should be really no testosterone left in the

person at that point I would typically have them use something um just propionate just suspension some short

acting even an aate cenate to some degree still even though they're long Esters they still have a short peak time

yeah so that you can still use them if you want depending on what you're going into if you're not going into a show

it's probably safe to try something like that you just want to get the body back to health so I would typically have them

use whatever their typical trt doses perhaps it's a slight like if their trt dose again I hate talk about numbers

their trt dose is 200 milligrams maybe they do the all 200 milligrams initially just to get it back so they feel good

agreed and then you know let them have enjoy one sane meal you know within reason not harm themselves blow their

gut out and they go right back into probably where they were a couple weeks out from the diet yeah you know

and then solely TR trate the food back up to let the body adjust agreed I would I would not introduce unless someone

literally had to immediately make massive changes because they had something else coming up in two months I

wouldn't typically introduce a bunch of anabolics Y you know tons of food the body is very stressed at that point

health is not really great you're gonna do nothing but probably gain a ton of fat agreed agre yeah rebound that you

see a lot of times is when thyroid stuff is used if thyroid medicine's pulled then all of a sudden gain a bunch of

muscle back that's not necessar rebound that's you're actually watching the body normalize and not be anymore yeah which

so what I try to do in that type of scenario is I would do the same thing with testosterone CT

um and then with with any type of thyroid or or beta 3 chuol anything like that I'll always taper it down slowly um

I think the biggest mistake people make is they do a 180 from what they were doing right so they basically stop all

fat burners all thyroid immediately they start eating you know 2,000 uh calories above Baseline and then their cardio

goes almost next to nothing and then on top of that they're snacking because gin is just so high and they're bored you

know so there's no goal you know for another year or so so they just you know the hunger is just out of control it's

insatiable they just eat eat eat eat and before you know it you're 25 pounds heavier in two weeks and you've

literally ruined the entire process now we have to reverse you we have to recomposition you know do everything

basically backwards right so I always tell my guys listen if you want to win and you want to take this seriously then

we have to be methodical about our approach go have a free meal go enjoy maybe even a breakfast the next morning

after that we got to get the cardio back in we got to get the body going I also try to to reset adrenals to an extent

because people have fried themselves from stimulant usage so I really try to focus on micronutrient intake you know

and iodine selenium I'll even add in Copper ashwagandha again adaptogens to really kind of reset the body alanine

just to really calm down the nervous system as well uh you know and and really start to slowly titrate the food

up right so it's a slow titration up like you said you go back to maybe what you were eating three weeks prior to the

show and then you just slowly titrate up uh and then you utilize foods that really help with satiety so that could

be in the form of more you know fibrous vegetables fiber from fruit um you know things that are going to be more you

know heavy on the satiety so maybe even more roughage greens you know like I said um you know people will say well

fats are more satiating not necessarily true it's not necessarily true you could add in oils and avocado and still be

starving and when you do that your caloric intake just gets too high too quick you know and I want to focus on

performance and performance is normally going to come in the form of carbohydrate yes um and protein can even

be moderate at that point I mean you know I don't see the need to start going up to you know 1.5 to two 2.5 grams per

pound of lean body mass it's kind of irrelevant at that point you're going to grow at that point insulin sensitivity

is so high if you did everything correctly post show and the body's ready to you know we've used this term it's a

sponge essentially now how you approach the next six to eight weeks your coach can lay it out for you but if you don't

have that mental resilience we talked about you will falter you will give into the hunger cues and it's going to be a

big problem so for you guys that want to improve season to season understand that right after that show after you enjoy a

little bit of food it's time to get back to work and that's kind of the mindset yeah and you and I both don't really

refer to it as I I probably called it offseason prior but it's not something I typically call an offseason because

you're never really off right yeah it's progress um yeah I mean I would do the same stuff

I don't think it's about pushing anything and fat is not fat has a longer Transit time in the stomach but it's not

leptin doesn't respond to it leptin responds to protein fiber and carbohydrates that turned to glucose so

it's you will be much more full if you ate some rice or you know something similar to that versus you would if you

ate a tablespoon of peanut butter it's why you can eat a whole jar of peanut butter in one sitting easily if given

the opportunity and you don't want to do that ever yeah and I actually uh real quick to touch on the the foods and

stuff what I'll do for for fat right off the bat I'll increase their fish oil intake the highest DHA that we

can for cognitive function it puts people in a better mood obviously heart health cardiovascular health lipid

profile there's going to be a lot of things that are going to get you know uh really increased to a positive extent

from a really high quality High DH DHA based fish oil so I'll go to 12 to 14 grams sometimes with people you know as

opposed to them eating again avocados which are very nutritionally dense by the way not saying they're not but the

the biggest I think we would both agree on this the biggest uh Focus post show is to get someone back feeling good from

a neurological standpoint physiological standpoint hormonal standpoint they want to train motivation is there dopamine is

high motivation is high they're ready to get to work um but I will say and we can leave it at this and I'll let you finish

Kurt I will say that after a show and it's something I've noticed over 15 20 years of coaching so many

athletes the motivation is extremely high for the majority of people I mean they're ready I mean whatever it takes

for a week or two because that is almost like the postow rebound of dopamine they felt that adrenaline rush they felt what

it was like to be on stage but once they get into the monotonous day-to-day activity that will fall off two to three

weeks later and the majority of guys that aren't strong mentally just start they start missing meals and then meals

turn into missing training sessions and then it turns into two to three months of cascading into doing nothing and then

you basically lost any progression you could have made in a progression season and you've lost all the ability to truly

improve so remember we are process driven as athletes we are not motivation driven because motivation is a feeling

that is fickle it will come and go and it really relies on the dopaminergic system which dopamine will change a lot

throughout the day to it day to day do not count on motivation count on doing things things that you need to do when

you don't feel like doing them yep and and for long periods of time yes very I had a discussion with someone at the gym

today I was just not my head just wasn't in there but you know I did the same stuff I always do you don't you don't

stop you don't miss you keep going absolutely yeah and with fat that the other difference between just to touch

on so like AOC the avocados are totally healthy there's nothing wrong with at all the fat that's in them the mon

unsaturated fat that's in avocados are not essential fatty acids your body can actually produce those and from a fat

Storage Point point of view in order your body will less like least likely store polyunsaturated fat like fish oil

it's generally used for cell membranes and your brain um saturated fat actually comes in second as storage and then mono

is actually the highest ability to store which is kind of contrary to what most people would think so you're more likely

to store something like olive oil as body fat than you would as something you know necessarily like grass-fed butter

but that that doesn't mean that you need that doesn't mean any of these are right or wrong to eat it just Body Works I I

always opt out to for like a organic freerange whole egg just from the Coline source that you get from it too so again

yeah I mean that phenomenal uh you know pinpointing the reasons why we would use what we would use right everything we

try to do is methodical and thoroughly laid out we don't just throw in you know oils to throw in oils or fats to throw

in fat or tell you to go eat a riy steak just because it you know will hold hold you over and you know cause more

Sati again we're still trying to drive a aesthetic physique all year round we're still trying to make improvements and me

and Kurt I think are on the same page when it comes to the majority of guys we are trying to get you performance driven

through carbohydrates as one of the main drivers and that we know of course protein is needed to an extent not as

much as people think is needed um and then of course dietary fats is just for me is just enough to balance off

hormones for performance for you know blood work outside of that man I I don't get too high on the fats because then we

have to pull from somewhere else and I certainly don't want to pull from carbohydrates no I'm with you and I

think that that's a most successful bodybuilders realize that I think a lot of amateur guys or or

lifesty guys don't realize that until they work with one of us that that's really something that we we're we're

really just doing Trace fats I really you have to teach people especially in this country you have to teach people

how to eat less fat it's in everything everything right they need to count it all everything absolutely yep 100% you

got anything else C no I think that's I think that's it for now I mean if people have questions about more specific Peak

Week stuff you know perhaps we could touch on it you know the you know the sodium and the potassium and things like

that possibly using liquor or aldactone or or some of the specifics I think you and I both probably want to avoid very

specific advice though it gets it's risky to give and it's not always the right answer for everyone it's so

individual and even within a person I'm sure you see it all the time in with my own body as well I might respond totally

different to something one year versus another oh 100% I think the body no set way to you know Peak something the human

anatomy and body is something that we're still learning still understanding Kurt tried to I don't know if it got posted

up last week but it was a picture of the body's metabolism it's a phenomenal phenomenon your body can change year to

year what you did the year prior you can have notes and it's good data but you may not be able to do that the next year

it's just unbelievable what happened so we'll touch on that guys leave comments uh subscribe to Kurt hit the Bell

notification we're going to keep doing this every single week uh just continue to Deep dive if there's another topic

you want us to cover asive te let us we are here for you guys we're here to serve you guys and to put out phenomenal

information every single week Kurt thank you so much for having me on again on your platform look forward to the next

time man absolutely take care guys thank you