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Pre-Contest/Photo Shoot Preparation

Greetings Sixpacknow subscribers. My name is Philip Manuel Ricardo Jr., and I am a 33-year-old Marine, personal trainer, and Bodybuilder stationed at United States Southern Command in Miami, Florida. I have been competing for 12 years and have competed in many organizations and levels of competition and have always been a finalist in each show. 

Believe it or not, I weighed only 140lbs when I joined the Marine Corps after I graduated High School. I was lean but had a hard time gaining weight. The problem was I was an over active teenager who really wasn’t eating enough to counteract my super high metabolism. Three large meals per day and an occasional snack didn’t cut it…more meals and calories were my keys to more muscle and size. 

Its now 15 years later and I weigh around 210lbs in the off season and diet down to a lean 180-185lbs at a height of 5ft. 9 in. for bodybuilding competitions or photo shoots.  My experience has taught me that as a hard gainer no matter what I eat, I know I can get ultra lean if I adhere to a strict diet for 8-12 weeks, depending on how much weight and body fat I need to lose. It took some time to learn about my body and how it reacts to certain types of training and nutrition, so I advise all athletes who are preparing for a show or just want to get shredded for a photo shoot or the beach to look and listen to how your own body responds to all forms of stimulation.

In the past, I took for granted that I could lose weight fairly easily and get lean enough to step on stage and do well.  But the as I started to compete in tougher shows (national and Professional qualifiers in both drug-tested and non-tested shows) I realized that I had to step up my preparation to finish among the finalists.  I noticed that all of the top competitors were so lean and shredded that you could see every muscle fiber and striated tissue in every body part. Even the fitness and bodybuilding models had to have that dry, onion tight skin condition in order to display an anatomy chart looking physique in the magazines or videos.  This became my new goal…to achieve the ultimate condition that my body could achieve without losing too much muscle mass.

I changed my preparation from a mere 4-6 weeks of dieting and cardio to 8-12 weeks and that made a major difference in my physique. The extra prep time allowed me to slowly get used to dieting (no longer eating cheeseburgers and pizza is very tough for me), and to hold on to as much muscle as possible, optimally losing no more than a pound or two a week. Any more weight loss per week will risk you stepping onstage or for a photo shoot looking smaller and flat from excessive muscle wasting.  If you give your body the right amount of nutrients and calories to lose that one to two pounds per week, you will find yourself looking bigger and better naked (which is what counts our line of business) than you normally look in the off-season, even though your clothes will be a bit baggy on you by the end of your diet.