Get
ripped for a photo-shoot/competition
Articles
Home
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.
The rest of
this Article is available in the Members-Only Area. Guarantee your
access to the Web's Largest Abdominal Training Resource
Join Sixpacknow.com Today