Getting Stronger By Bill Pearl

[Kerrie Gingrich]

PicturedAbove: The incredible and beautiful Rebecca Thieneman winner of the Fitness Contest at the 2004 Debbie Kruck Classic. Rebecca is a multiple Figure and FItness Champion on the NPC circuit. The female Bob Paris of Figure contests she displays a rare combination of natural beauty and perfect muscle like no other. A full time student Rebecca is as smart and nice as she is gorgeous. A real champion.

Training is an individual thing. You have to find what works for you. Once you find once works--you still have to train very hard for results. For my advanced course on all aspects of training (including pre-contest specific training) visit this link. What we will focus on in this section is what to focus on to achieve the "look" that is needed to win in a figure contest.

BE LEAN: Of course you have to be lean. Not just a starved bag of bones. You have to have full shapely muscles. Lift to be strong and eat enough food to to not look overly dieted. Don't compete if you are fat. Stay on the diet, keep training and diet the fat off, then plan to compete.

EXERCISES YOU NEED TO DO: Weight training and aerobics. You will do both. Usually resistance training with weights 2 or more times a week to build muscle tone and aerobic training to burn fat like walking or bike riding (not aerobic classes).

Find aerobics that you like (some folks love biking, some hate it ect..) And makes sense. For many people a good investment is a gym with treadmills and or stationary bicycles. I have a stationary bike in my home and it was a good investment. Find what works for you and use it.

What is peaking?: Peaking is the culmination of (hopefully) a long build up cycle. You build up to a new level of size and strength (get in great shape), training for 8 months or more (sometimes years), then chiseling down (taking off all the extra fat) as it were, to a super lean and muscular condition. If you do it right (peaking)and don't starve all your muscles off yourself by over dieting, you should end up leaner with more muscle then ever before every time you peak yourself.

Peaking is an art. It takes practice. That is why you need to keep an eating log, to record how much food you need to achieve a certain look in a certain time frame. For example: for me 3 months of 3,300 calorie's a day, of eating super clean food every 3 hours and doing aerobics 2 times a day will take off my body about 12 pounds of pure fat. Knowing this for a fact, I can make plans on when I should start dieting for a certain date (contest) sometime down the road.

There is lean then there is super lean--tissue paper skin with no body fat at all. A true peak is an extreme temporary condition where you are at your physical best with super low body fat. This means training a little more often and really going for it--in terms of effort and intensity. Most athletes peak their strength (for the year) and increase their volume of training about a month or so before they compete and carry that level of performance all the way into the contest.

Can you be lean all year round? Yes, you can, but it's hard and not advised to live on a peak diet for more than a few months. It's hard to recover properly and grow stronger when you live on a very low fat fat and low calorie diet. To get strong--you need an off season--you need to eat, rest, and recover. There is no need to get fat, but you should not try to live at a "peak". It often leads to burn out and lowers your energy levels and often leads to injury.

A peak condition is usually followed by a month or two of low level training to recover from the strain of the peaking process and heal any injuries that happened during the season. This year I took 6 weeks off after my peak (training light once a week) and many of my nagging injuries cleared up completely. Within 3 months, I was stronger and training harder than ever before. The time off, the rest and extra calories, rejuvenated me and the investment in rest paid off handsomely. I built up to a new level of performance almost immediately

This is why you need a cycling of your training over a year or 2. You build up, to a new level, then diet all the fat off and see what you have left. To read about training cycles in depth please read this book (free online).

2. PEAKING: For most of us this means eating ultra clean for a long time (months) and doing lots of aerobics and more frequent weight training. Training for a peak condition is all consuming and very draining. You try to be as muscular as possible with the lowest possible body fat. Training like this is different in that the goal is to harden up and cut up and not necessarily "build" up. You will find your shoulders, abs and legs will really take shape and respond with more frequent work outs.

For a peak, legs are often trained twice on a training day. Usually the first leg workout is heavier and harder than the second session of the day. Usually the second workout is lighter for more reps and often focusing on buttocks all by themselves. This double training really helps harden the gluteus and legs. If your shoulders are weak, try training them twice a day on upper body days. Make the second workout just a pump up the delts workout avoiding heavy weights.

Competing is just a goal to use as a CARROT to get in shape. The goal is not to compete but to be great (as you can be). We use contests to help us FOCUS. IF you come in dead last as many beautiful people do..don't worry..you are still beautiful!

BOOKS TO READ TO HELP YOU LOOK GREAT: "Ripped 2" by Clarence Bass. "Beyond Brawn" by Stuart McRobert. Sly Moves by Sly Stallone. Read these books over and over and brainwash yourself into eating and living clean and lean. I read "Ripped 2" every week I am dieting. It keeps me on track.

A READER ASKS THE RIGHT QUESTIONS: " Dan how come I look better after a show?"

You are so right about looking better off a contest..one day..you look great.. After a diet you have lost a lot of muscle..usually you enter a show all depleted and thin..... After the diet..when you begin to to train without aerobics and eat again..you grow all your muscles back. You look better with all your muscles back. Fullness is the thing we are talking about.

If you eat lousy food this will happen a day or two after the show (you look really full and stilll cut) but after a about 36 hours you smooth out for good.

However for others who stay lean after the show and continue to eat clean for several months and quit aerobics..and even eat more (more clean food than on the diet) will reach the highest level of bodybuilding..the metabolic rebound..of muscle...

If you stay lean, you will look bigger as you stretch back out (muscle fullness returns)...in a few weeks after the show..you hit a new peak..usually not as ripped but very muscular and full. This is common. If you are smart you peak..say in July..then spend several months building back up to say October..to be at your true best . Since July I have not done an aerobic..lost another 1/2 off my waist..and my arms that withered to 14 on the diet..are now 16.5 inches. The difference in how I look is amazing. The secret is staying lean..after the diet is over.. Peaking means different things. For us lets not define it as getting all depleted..let's define it as personal best. Spend x months getting small and ripped (lots of aerobics, hard diet..)..then spend X months eating clean BUT MORE FOOD..and building up all that lost muscle (using muscle memory..what you once had you can get back in weeks)..You end up better than ever.. I would not touch an aerobic if I did not need it. If you are already lean..don't do them or do very light..(very)..better to just not eat alot of carbs.. And if you are NOT training with BANDS YOU SHOULD BE..Especialy legs. I won't give up on you. The damn bands will harden and cut you up like nothing else. I swear it. If you do not believe me I have a Mr. Olympia, A Mr. America, the 2005 Nationals Figure Champion (yes my good friend) who all SWEAR BY BANDS. Call Frank Zane. He will tell you. Please use them. They work. a few weeks on bands and you will thank me.

Like this: 9am leg press, leg curl, squats, calves go home rest and eat.

1PM Bench machine , dead lift, lat pulls, rows, press, Reverse laterals --back delts db flyes go home rest and eat. 6pm Bands or weights again

Bands: Arms and back and legs again (at home). or if you are not doing bands just go to the gym and do: curls, triceps extent ions, laterals, Front laterals, leg extensions, lunges, ball hamstring contractions.

Because you are so rested between each session you can really give it your all. This is not an excuse to over train..in fact the opposite ...doing 1/4 of the normal volume at each workout NEVER RUNS YOU DOWN. You are fresh and strong for each exercise. Yes you can work out once and get it all done--but at some point to increase performance you will have to break it up. When I dip heavy ..I don't do anything else. I do 4 sets (warm up, warm up, warm up, then do a heavy one) and leave the gym for 2 hours. It allows me to MAX every lift I do. Like walking lunges (2 football fields with DBs)...I am so whipped from them I do them alone. If I was to do anything else after this..my performance would suffer. (I can't do leg press hard cause I am fried from the lunges).

Warm up then do one hard progressive set (progressive means do more than before) and move on to the next exercise. DO not strain. Work hard but never to your limit. Training to your limit makes you weak. (it does this by over taxing the nerves and glands). Train hard..but not till you puke or turn purple. Super hard effort is NOT advised.

---Using my leg routine won't make your legs look like mine. Again..this is true . You will look like as YOU LOOK. Let me explain it this way. I met a guy with great arms. It turns out he does a routine of curls and triceps dips 1x a week....and he has the greatest arms EVER!!!! If I did his routine for 100 years I would not LOOK like him. There is no magic routine that will build me like him (genetics).

3a8082e126