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![]() By: Layne Norton To those of you that have been following my pre contest updates I am sorry that I did not write an article for 3 weeks out. I have been doing government funded research in a lab at my college this summer in addition to preparing for this contest and I was just too busy to write a 3 weeks out update. Now where should I begin.
I have vascularity in my abs, obliques, chest, shoulders, arms, legs, and even my back when I flex it hard enough. I have visible striations in my triceps, shoulders, outer quads, and chest. In my chest I also have cross striations in my lower pecs. So I am pretty sure that I am lean enough for the contest. My diet from week 4 up until now has been.
At 3 weeks out, I realized that I was lacking hardness
in my legs and wasn't as lean as I wanted to be. In
an attempt to harden up more I increased my cardio to
45 minutes everyday in the morning before breakfast.
For the past 5 days I have done two 45 minute sessions
of cardio, one in the morning before breakfast, and
once in the evening.
This has really helped to bring out more muscle hardness and reduce my body fat to competition level. It should also be noted that I started sodium loading at 15 days out and started lowering my sodium back down at 1 week out. All that remains for these last week is to manipulate my water levels by sodium/carb depleting/loading. Here is my diet/workout/cardio plan for the next week: Sunday: Rest
275g protein, 150g carbs, 50g fat Monday: Legs (depletion workout)
Tuesday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps (depletion workout)
275g protein, 125g carbs, 50g fat Wednesday: Back, Biceps (depletion workout)
275g protein, 100g carbs, 40g fat Thursday: Abs (depletion workout)
275g protein, 100g carbs, 30g fat Friday: Rest
275g protein, 100g carbs, 30g fat Saturday: Wake up at 4 a.m.
Consume 1 sweet potato every 2 hours with small bites
of protein The purpose of this diet is to enable my body to handle more carbs than usual and store more muscle glycogen than normal so that I will appear fuller onstage. By depleting myself throughout the week, when I ingest carbs on Saturday my body will be able to absorb and store a greater amount of glycogen for a short period of time giving me a fuller look.
By
sodium loading and then depleting I am also
conditioning my body. Sodium makes you retain water
so if you sodium load your body will work extra hard
to get rid of this water, thus when you sodium
deplete, your body will not be retaining as much water I will also be supplementing with Potassium in order to prevent dehydration and cramping that may occur from sodium depleting. I plan on taking 99mg of Potassium with each meal on Saturday. My Tricks A few hours before contest I will apply Preparation H gel to my midsection or anywhere else that I feel may be retaining water.
About 20 minutes before prejudging I will also take 500mg of Niacin. Niacin flushes the skin and may increase vascularity. If the sun is out I will probably walk in the sun for about 15 minutes prior to prejudging, for some reason when I walk around in heat under the sun it always brings out more vascularity. Tanning To tan for the contest I will begin applying Pro Tan on Wednesday and apply it everyday until the contest. About an hour before prejudging I will apply Dream Tan, which is a bronzer and also acts as posing oil. This should give me plenty of color that even the brightest stage lights will not be able to down out.
If all goes well at the Mid-America Muscle Classic (my first show) I will likely use the same game plan for my second contest. I am not too worried about pigging out Saturday night since I will have been depleted for so long that I won't store any body fat from even pigging out all night. In fact my post contest binge will likely kick start my metabolism again and will sure make me feel a lot better. I will have the rest of the following week to deplete my glycogen stores again and this should be plenty of time. I have no pictures to show as of this time, but you can bet I'll have plenty from my contest! So the time has come time to rock the mid-west! As always, if you have any questions email me at biolayne@yahoo.com
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At one week out I'm holding steady at about 191 lbs.
By the end of the week after I carb deplete I should
be around 187 and after I carb up on Saturday I should
weigh in at around 190 lbs. I have no way to measure
body fat so I don't know how low I am but I can tell
you that I am very lean.
At 3 weeks out, I realized that I was lacking hardness
in my legs and wasn't as lean as I wanted to be. In
an attempt to harden up more I increased my cardio to
45 minutes everyday in the morning before breakfast.
For the past 5 days I have done two 45 minute sessions
of cardio, one in the morning before breakfast, and
once in the evening.
275g protein, 150g carbs, 50g fat
but your cells sodium pumps will still be working just
as hard at flushing out water. This will help get rid
of any extra cellular subcutaneous water I might be
storing.
Preparation H has an ingredient
in it which removes water from under the skin and thus
gives the skin a tighter look and feel (this effect
only lasts for a few hours)
After the contest is over I will definitely be hitting
up my favorite Italian pizza place and maybe even some
ice cream shops. I will try to avoid pigging out too
much however because of a recent development I'M DOING
ANOTHER CONTEST THE NEXT WEEK! The following Saturday
I will be entering in the SNBF Tennessee Bodybuilding
Championships.






