Peak week prep

Above with my friend Peet, measuring my body fat this Friday. I was then on 5 mm fat on my belly.

Now I have just entered the final week of preparation for competition this Saturday. Peak week is hard both mentally and physically but the knowledge of pizza or a huge steak with fries and bearnaise sauce Saturday after the competition keeps me going 🙂

I have had a few questions about what I eat while prepping for competition, so I will write a bit about it. I want to say that I am no professional in this field but I am using advise from professionals along with what I see works on my body. Many things can be right so it is also about learning what works for each individual.

This time round I have not been as low on calories as previously and I have not done any cardio either. I wanted to keep a bit more “fat” on me for peak week. Week 6 down to week 2, I have been eating

• Breakfast: 4 scrambled egg whites, 60 gr oats in water with a kiwi
• Snack 1: 25 gr of almonds and 70 gr tin tuna or a Quest protein bar
• Lunch: 80 gr basmati rice or sweet potato with 80 gr chicken or fish
• Snack 2: 25 gr of almonds and 70 gr tin tuna
• Dinner: salad of lettuce, cucumber and red or yellow pepper with 120 gr chicken or fish (I don’t eat tomatoes or carrots as they contain lots of sugar)

Saturday cheat day. I don’t go crazy but a bag of Swedish candy and a pizza for example. This past weekend, being the last one before competition, I had no cheat day allowed.

Now peak week is a whole different story. This Monday-Thursday I am cutting all carbs from my diet and only eating protein, this to remove the last body fat. So…

• Breakfast: 4 scrambled egg whites (and a spoon of peanut butter yeeeeey, happy days )
• Then the rest of the day I eat purely tuna or chicken with nothing else. The snack meals 70 gr, lunch 100 gr and dinner another 100 gr and one more spoon of peanut butter with lunch!

On Friday I start eating carbs again (carb loading) to give the muscles a fuller look for competition Saturday. I will stick to basmati rice or oats as my carb source since they work well with my stomach. Also, the last night before competition I have a pack of crispy bacon with dinner and instead of chicken or fish a 120 gr low fat steak. This again to feed the muscles for stage.

This last week is also time to water load. This means that I am drinking 6 litres of water today Monday, 5 litres tomorrow and Wednesday, then by Thursday I cut water down to only 0.5 litres and Friday also 0.5 litres but only up until lunch. After that no more water until after competition Saturday afternoon. You may wonder why we do this… Reason is simple. When your body is empty of water the muscles show better and you get a leaner look. If you give your body overload of water for a few days and then cut it, the effect will be even bigger as the body has got used to all the water coming in so it stops retaining any liquid and suddenly the water intake stops. This helps create the “dry” look, we want for stage.

I know this is probably a lot of information to take in if you are not in the fitness game so please, feel free to ask me any questions. There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers 🙂

Now it is bed time for me, as when on no carbs, I get a head ache and feel very tired…good night xxxxx

 

 

 

X-Force gym, come to Marbella!

During my Stockholm visit, I went training at X-Force in Vasastan. As I had been once before last year, I kind of knew what was waiting me, but I still got surprised when I ended up with muscle ache for almost 4 days afterwards. Especially my abs where in bits lol.

The difference from the gyms we are used to is that their machines are built to increase the negative strain on the return movement. Sounds odd, yes, but it actually make sense. Basically the  difference when training at X-Force is that you feel the weight resistance mainly when you go back as 40% more weights are added on, and you need to make the return movement very slow. Activating our negative muscle power for 5 seconds during this return movement gives such a big difference in result that you need only a one day work out/week to achieve the same results as from a traditional gym work out. Good eh?!! I absolutely loved it and just wish they will open a franchise here in Marbella soon:-)

 

 

 

Get back to training- easy or not?

 

We all get that autumn flu that totally knocks us out. I was in bed for 5 days flat and on antibiotics. Do you feel it is hard to get back training again? I hear many people say: “I don’t feel up for it yet, let’s wait until I can give 100%. Yes, let’s start Monday again.” And so it goes. My trick is to start as soon as I am fit enough to go back to work, whatever weekday that may be. The more you wait the harder it gets. Why wait for Monday?

The first days, it is important to not over do it.  I start by doing 2 exercises for each muscle group with many reps and less weights. I stick to that for the first 3 times and then I get back to my normal training routine again. It is also really good to take some Probiotics after having taken antibiotics. It will get your immune system back on track. Another good thing is to powerwalk. A nice walk along the beach or in the mountains makes wonders for both body and mind!