Please note: This series of articles details the experiences of training one individual and is not meant to be used for your own training needs. Everyone's needs are different, so every training and nutritional program will vary from person to person. It's intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and we cannot be held responsible for any accident or injury that may result by following any part of this program.

May 1, 2006

Natalie Waples: A Two-Time Figure Champion in Just Three Months

Part Five: Month Three – Competition Time!

The first four installments of this series explained the groundwork for how Natalie and I approached her competition preparation. This fifth and final installment will describe the last month of our preparations which, in certain ways, was the most critical time of all. That’s because depending on whether or not you "peak" correctly can make or break how good you look on contest day. I’ve seen many people prepare earnestly for months, only to botch things up in the last few days.

Decision time

When we started out at the beginning of August, I set in my own mind a deadline for October 1 to decide if Natalie would enter one competition or two. If she would enter just one competition it would be the one held on November 5 – this would give us a tiny bit more preparation time. As well, it was being held where she lived, and her family and friends would be there. If she were to enter two competitions, the first would be October 22 – this, obviously, gave us less than three months from our initial start time. It also meant that the first competition was only three weeks away from my October 1 deadline. Furthermore, entering competitions on October 22 and November 5 would mean that she would be doing two competitions in two weeks. The deciding factor, of course, was what kind of shape she was in at the very beginning of October – if she couldn’t be ready in three more weeks, she wouldn’t be doing the competition on October 22.

So, during our first posing session of the month, I had her do her quarter-turns as usual; however, I was also assessing to see if she was "there" or not. She was, and I told her so. On the spot, then, we decided she’d enter two competitions. However, I could also tell she was a little nervous about it, because it meant the deadline was now three weeks away, not five. But she was excited too – after all, she started all this just to compete!

Counting down to that "last week"

The next three weeks were thought of as two "regular weeks" and one "last week." I made that division because in that last week before a competition you do everything you can to "peak" for the competition day, which is usually a Saturday. It means that you want your muscles to be at their fullest, your bodyfat at its lowest, and the water sucked out from under the skin but still in your muscles. You also want your presentation to be at its finest. To do all this, you employ little "tricks" within that last week to help get you there.

However, in Natalie’s case things were a little more complicated – since we had two competitions, we had two "last weeks" to concern ourselves with, and only a one-week break between. It meant that we had to be careful that what we did for the first competition didn’t mess us up for the second one, which was the one I planned on having her look her very best for.

Training schedule – first competition

Natalie’s body was literally transformed over the two months that had passed, so I figured that we must be doing something right. The only thing that changed in terms of training at this point was the intensity that she was going at. At the beginning of October, she "notched it up" a bit more again – meaning, she went at everything a little harder to get that little bit of extra muscle and to lose that little bit of extra bodyfat.

Towards the end of the second week, however, I started changing her training away from a split routine and back to a full-body routine. We also dropped her training intensity somewhat, because by this time she had built all the muscle she could, and we didn’t want to risk overdoing it or have her injuring herself. As well, during the final week, all you want to do training-wise is maintain what you’ve got and let your body rest as much as possible. So, we went back to a less-strenuous full-body routine to continue to work the body hard enough, but also to give it a bit of a break. We also had to schedule her training so that she peaked right for the competition day.

Since her competition was on a Saturday, we counted back eight days (Friday) – that’s when she went back to her full-body routine. She did that routine every second day until Thursday, two days before the competition (i.e., she trained on Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday). Cardio sessions were done on the days she didn’t do weights (Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday). The Friday before the competition was a "rest" day in which she spent the entire time traveling seven hours to London, Ontario, the location of the first competition. When she arrived there she started applying her tan and then got to bed pretty early so she was as well-rested as possible. (Figure competitors all wear very dark, artificial tans. The methodology to apply them is so varied and so detailed that it would take a full article, or more, to describe it.)

At this point some experienced people might be scratching their head, wondering why she worked out until Thursday – many people stop on Wednesday to give their bodies two full days of rest before the big show. Some even stop on Tuesday! The answer is this: Had she only been competing in one show, we would have scheduled her workouts to stop on Wednesday and she would have probably done only mild exercise on Thursday, perhaps walking or some other cardiovascular exercise, and then completely rested on Friday. But since this was the first competition of two, I saw this initial competition as more or less a bump in the road toward the second competition. As I said before, my real goal was to have her peak for competition in November, so I didn’t want her to take too much time off from the gym. That made the first event more or less a "practice" competition; however, that’s not to say that we didn’t take it seriously. It just meant that we had to plan accordingly and have achievable goals. On the other hand, she won this first show and that was a very pleasant surprise. It also gave her plenty of encouragement to continue on in figure, and to approach the second competition with an even greater commitment.

So, with two competitions in mind, she trained ‘til Thursday for the first competition, competed Saturday, rested Friday and Sunday, and then was back at it hard on Monday to prepare for the second competition.

Training schedule – second competition

With Natalie back at the gym on Monday, she returned to the split routine she had been doing throughout the second month and for the first two weeks of the third month. Then, on the Saturday (one week before the competition), she reverted back to the full-body routine that she changed to for the first competition. This full-body routine was scheduled for Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday, with cardio sessions scheduled in on alternate days up to and including Thursday. Once again she rested on Friday. And since she didn’t have to travel out of town, she went to the hairdresser in the afternoon, and she started applying her tan on Friday night. This time, she would be at her very best for the competition on Saturday.

Nutrition – both competitions

I think that one of the mistakes that many people make when competing is deviating from their diet as the competition day gets closer. For example, some people seem to think that you diet so far and then in the last couple of weeks there are other things that you do to make your body magically transform. I don’t know where this idea comes from, but I suspect it’s from some of the foolish articles that have been written in magazines and on the Internet. I think that it also comes from some supposed "contest gurus" who try to pretend that they have some sort of special tricks as a way of bolstering their own status.

Over the years, though, I’ve helped numerous people and I’ve also discussed this same topic with many top-level competitors as well as coaches. The fact of the matter is that the ones who come into competitions consistently in top form are the ones who simply time their diets right and coast into the show by getting better and better each week, and not by resorting to some ludicrous ideas in the last days or weeks. After all, if your nutritional program is actually a good one, why mess with it at all in the last couple of weeks?

Therefore, for the most part, Natalie’s nutritional program in October looked the same as it did in September – it allowed her to lose bodyfat while building muscle. The only real difference in this month was the inclusion of a special natural dietary supplement that I find can help some competitors – kelp.

If you look up kelp in the dictionary, you’ll find out that it’s seaweed. It used to be a big thing many years ago, but it’s been largely forgotten today in favor of some questionable "new" fat-burning-type supplements that serve little purpose other than to make unscrupulous supplement companies a lot of money. I find that kelp works better – and it's cheap to buy.

Kelp is rich in iodine, which helps to nourish the thyroid. Why is that important? Your thyroid function governs metabolism, which is critical when losing bodyfat. Kelp is also rich in trace minerals, meaning it can have various health benefits. Recent studies have shown that kelp can also reduce estrogen, which is important come contest time, since high estrogen levels can cause water retention problems and aren’t conducive to muscle growth. Therefore, although I’m not a big believer in many of the supplements sold today and find that none on the market is a substitute for hard training and good eating, certain natural items such as kelp can have benefits for hard-training competitors.

The real key is to know how much kelp is right for you, and when to take it. This information, though, I won’t talk about here because kelp can have a strong impact on your body and it’s quite possible that some people shouldn’t take it at all. Plus, I’ve learned that its effect varies highly from person to person – I’ve experimented with it carefully for years to find out just what’s right. I’m only talking about it now because the purpose of this article is to give insight into Natalie’s program. My recommendation, if you think you might use it, is to first read about it, next talk to your doctor about it in case it can interact with any other medications or otherwise, and then decide if it’s good for you.

Little tips and tricks for that "last week"

Although I mentioned that I find it best not to deviate from your nutritional program and not to be susceptible to some sort of hocus pocus that will supposedly transform your body, there are little tips and tricks that can be employed to help you peak to be your best come competition day. Again though, as with nutrition, everyone is a little different and what works for some doesn’t work for others.

As I already said, you want your muscles to be as full as possible onstage. The way you do this is by ensuring that they’re plumped up with glycogen, which mostly comes from carbohydrates. What some people do, then, is employ a carb-loading phase in the final week. Essentially, they deplete their carbohydrates at the beginning of the week and then start eating more carbohydrates again toward the end of the week. This means that at competition time their muscles will be full, and because they went through a depletion phase first, when they start loading up with carbs their body tends to overshoot a little and retain more, at least for a while – this gives a fuller-than-normal look, which can be beneficial.

The problem, though, is that sometimes people go overboard and get what is often called "spillover." Basically, the muscles fill up, but then the water starts to accumulate under the skin, too, which makes you full, but smooth. This is one of the ways many people mess up in their final week. In fact, I’d say the majority of people mistime their carb-loading, making them look worse than when they started, rather than better. My own theory is to err on the side of caution. Since Natalie was already following a carb-cycling program, it meant that we simply had to time the cycles so that she carbed up towards the end of the week. We didn’t really change anything.

Another thing competitors try to do is get the "water out" from under their skin to give their body a tighter, firmer look. There are lots of tricks for this, but not all are successful, and oftentimes they’re not even safe. For example, some resort to dangerous diuretics that will take water out of your body, but that can also kill you. I’m not exaggerating – there have been more than a few deaths at physique-type competitions that were the result of diuretic use. Besides, the water these diuretics take out isn’t always just from what’s under your skin – it can take it out from your muscles, too, which will leave you looking flat and severely depleted. Why anyone would risk all that is beyond me.

As well, there are some people who stop drinking water altogether in the day, or sometimes days, before a competition. This, too, can obviously be very unhealthy, and it’s very unnecessary. It completely ignores the fact that your body is mostly made up of water; if you stop drinking water, your body will start cannibalizing it from itself just to survive. Vital organs, for example, take precedence in your body over, say, muscles. So, in the quest to get the water out from under their skin and and show off their muscles, some people stop drinking water altogether and end up finding that the muscles they wanted to show so badly have been sucked dry and have seemingly vanished. Just as if they had a lack of carbs, they end up looking flat and small.

What we did with Natalie was simple and safe – it’s something I learned from my friend Brian Robitaille, a national-level, all-natural bodybuilding champion. At the beginning of that last week, she simply drank more water than normal. Towards the end of the week, she started drinking less. On contest day, mind you, she still drank water, just as Brian would backstage at competitions. This teetering of the water balance in the body simply tweaked it enough so that a little water went from under the skin and everything stayed in her muscles.

Conclusion – and what’s coming next

Over these five articles, I’ve given the A-Z of Natalie’s three-month transformation that made her into a two-time figure champion in a very short time. My own goals at the beginning of this experiment were simple: I’d coached others to win physique titles, but I wanted to know if I could do it again in a limited timeframe such as three months. Obviously, although I helped put this together, plenty of credit must go elsewhere. Vince Gironda developed the bulk of the training and nutritional principles that were used here. Many people consider Gironda to have been the greatest physique trainer who ever lived – I'm one of them. Dr. Mauro DiPasquale’s "The Metabolic Diet" also had an influence, which I discussed in Part Three. Then, of course, there was Natalie herself – nothing’s going to work if the person doing it doesn’t give it their all. Natalie came through by putting in all the effort required, and more. She also had faith in me to follow the program I gave her to the letter – not everyone will do that.

The point of this exercise not only shows that you can make rapid transformations and do well in figure competitions, but that you can also make drastic changes in a short time that can literally transform your look, whether it’s to go into a competition or to simply go to the beach. The key is to use all-natural methods built around a program that relies on good eating practices, well-thought-out training methods, and plenty of commonsense. I believe any type of artificial means, such as drugs, only lead to short-term gains that are lost when the person stops using them, as well as possible health consequences that can result because of their use.

Finally, although this initial series of articles was designed to follow Natalie during the three months of her training, we’ll also be doing periodic updates on her progress since then. Having her compete in a figure competition in a short timeframe was our immediate goal; in the longer term, though, we want her to go provincial, national, and then, hopefully, beyond. As result, since her last competition Natalie's been training non-stop using many of the techniques I described here, as well as some other ones that I'm sure many readers will find just as interesting. She's improved even more – so stay tuned, there's more to come in the months ahead!

...Doug Schneider
das@seriousaboutfitness.com

You can learn more about Natalie at her website, www.NatalieWaples.com.

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