For each top-10 Mr. Olympia contender, 4 weeks out from the most important stage on the planet isn’t about abs, arms, veins, striations, and even willpower anymore. That is about your thoughts, what you devour, your chemistry, and whether or not you possibly can maintain it collectively when each fiber in your physique—and each neuron in your mind—is screaming—begging—pleading so that you can let up.
However you possibly can’t. Not today. The battle has grown far too intense.
But it surely wasn’t all the time like that. Arnold and Franco created fairly a stir two weeks earlier than considered one of their epic Olympia showdowns. They confirmed up at Golds at their common exercise time, however they have been wearing road garments and consuming ice cream cones! Most of us instantly thought they need to be grinding it out now, honing their physiques, not consuming ice cream!
Think about, within the days earlier than the web and social media, this information had crossed the world quicker than information that WWII was over. However, like I mentioned, these days are over. Competing within the Olympia right now is as near a battle as you’re ever going to get with out a tank.
The Enemy Upstairs
This nearer to the present, your competitors is now not your greatest menace. It’s the man within the mirror. Stress hormones are peaking, sleep is shot, and also you’re second-guessing every thing. Nervousness triggers cortisol; cortisol holds water and eats muscle.
However to not fear, the gurus have medicine for that—cortisol blockers, beta-blockers, sleep meds, anti-anxiety prescriptions. On prime of the common stuff. Not only one or two. A cocktail. Whereas some folks erroneously contend that bodybuilding right now is all medicine, they do have some extent. You or your guru will need to have an excellent working data of a really particular and complex to handle—to not point out harmful—array of area of interest medicine. A lot of that are scheduled on this nation by the DEA.
Coaching: Much less Weight, Extra Strain
Right here’s the factor: The exercises don’t cease. They’ll’t. They simply change. No one’s going for PRs inside spitting distance of the Olympia, not in the event that they need to maintain their pecs and rotator cuffs intact. Coaching will get tighter, extra managed, each rep dialed-in—it’s the place the sculptor places down the massive hammer and picks up the infant, alongside a number of tremendous chisels.
The chance of damage is simply too excessive for anything. However depth? That goes via the roof. Each set feels prefer it carries your total profession on its again. Failure isn’t an possibility, however neither is a torn hamstring. Steadiness is every thing, however many occasions Devil laughs at these plans. And typically, quicker than you possibly can say entrance double biceps, you’re sidelined—all Olympia hopes placed on maintain for not less than one other 12 months.
Food regimen: Starvation as a State of Being
Then there’s the weight-reduction plan—tighter than ever, energy in freefall, carbs minimize to ribbons. Glycogen is being manipulated like a meme inventory, and the starvation is insufferable. By now, it’s not only a bodily ache. Starvation turns into a persona trait. Resting bitch face isn’t an informal reference; it’s your default setting. Ask your girlfriend.
Some guys break and discover themselves outdoors Taco Bell at 1 A.M., sporting a trench coat, darkish glasses and a hat pulled over their ears with taco sauce dripping off their nostril. That one weak second can undo weeks of struggling. It’s humorous, till you see it occur to a man who was prime three final 12 months.
The Cons
On prime of all this, water is pulled, sodium is cycled, glycogen loaded, unloaded, and reloaded like a foul Vegas slot machine. Do it proper, and you’ve got shark pores and skin stretched over granite. Do it incorrect, you’re spilled, flat, or cramping on stage. It’s chess along with your physiology. And the stakes are every thing.
And as if it wasn’t sufficient, in lots of international locations from the place these champions come, the pharmacological arsenal behind these physiques is against the law. Not wrist-slap unlawful — federal felony, prison-time unlawful. Within the U.S., getting caught with half of what’s in a top-ten bodybuilder’s prep bag can earn you years in a federal or state penitentiary. Abroad? Worse. So now add paranoia to the stack of stressors: starvation, cortisol, insomnia, and customs brokers in Vegas who would possibly ask if these luggage are yours, then inform you to come back with them to a room within the again
Again within the Day
Distinction that with the golden period. Again then, guys cruised into contests prefer it was only a Tuesday morning in April. No guru spreadsheets, no water video games, no cortisol blockers. Contest day was simply one other exercise.
In the present day? It’s a really difficult dance that comes with some nefarious components to do it proper. The associated fee for getting it incorrect? Astronomical.
Jay Cutler mentioned it finest: To be a bodybuilder, it’s a must to have a screw free. He’s completely proper. Between the coaching, the weight-reduction plan, the medicine, the regulation, and the chalupa trench coat incident ready within the wings, you’d should be loopy to join this life.
However thank God for the free screws. With out them, there isn’t any Olympia. No freak present. No spectacle. Simply one other sport.
4 weeks out isn’t about self-discipline anymore. It’s about survival. And survival, at this stage, means combating your physique, your thoughts, your cravings, and typically your morals—all for the correct to face underneath sizzling lights with remainder of the perfect on the planet.