- “Looking good is a side effect of health but health is not a side effect of looking good” – Mark Ottobre
What this means is that before you even consider competing, you come from a place of health.
If you are overweight, have an unhealthy relationship with food or your body, reconsider your goals.
- “I am a healthy person, who eats healthy foods that build and nourish my body” – Mark Ottobre
This means we make tweaks to an already healthy diet, in order to get you ready for the stage.
It also means your comp prep will be a whole lot easier on your body (and mind).
And your body (and mind) will adapt. Hence…
- What you do 2 weeks out will be different to what you do 20 weeks out
Our approach is to get you is to start you off with the highest amount of food intake your body can handle without putting on body fat.
Then, we try and get you as lean as possible with weight training and diet alone. Not cardio, because…
- Cardio will be your “ace card”
Or as we like to think of it, “your ace card(io)” once the body has adapted to the diet and training.
Many people tend to go all-out from the start. But what you need to understand is that the body is adaptive. If you implement an hour of cardio everyday 20 weeks out, your body will adapt to it. To continue to progress, you will need to continue to force the body to adapt. This means increasing the amount of cardio your doing.
Then before you know it, 3 hours of cardio 2 weeks out and now your left wondering why you look flat and depleted.
With the correct weight training and diet, we’ve helped many competitors get stage lean (no cardio whatsoever).
But for this to happen it does require your total compliance to the plan. There must be no deviations from the diet plan.
In other words…
- Before you start cardio, your diet, training and supplementation needs to be 100%.
So what is 100%? It means ‘following the plan to the ‘T’’, as people like to say.
No smart ideas. 
No protein pancakes.
No dash of milk in your coffee.
No bacon in your mince burgers.
But what about IIFYM?
What about it? Fit your macros eating real food; you will look better. Stop looking for shortcuts.
It may sound boring, but remember,
- “Prep is a choice – YOUR CHOICE. A choice that you will commit 100% to.
There is nothing wrong with having a little treat or enjoying your Sunday brunch dates with friends, but by choosing to compete, it will have to wait (for now).
The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
Each and every decision you make and action you take in life ultimately shapes the life you live.
The same applies to prep. Every time you add that dash of milk to your coffee, or skip that rep during training, shapes the package that you will bring to the stage on comp day.
And that day marks one (of many) finishing lines.
- Remember, the competition physique is not meant to be an endless marathon where you keep “dieting”.
After the comp is over, you get back to healthy eating with a treat on occasion depending on your goals post comp. But for now, you will stick to the plan.
And if you didn’t, you tell us.
- Because we cannot help you if you are not honest with us.
Your commitment means you are honest about milk in your coffee, your Nonna’s lasagna, a missed workout or anything else which interferes with the plan.
Many competitors don’t get ready for the stage in time not because they started out wrong, but because they deviate from the diet plan. They think, ‘will this really work?’ That attitude ultimately won’t work and you will fail.
Many competitors become disillusioned because they start to see a little progress and start to think, “a little bit won’t hurt me”. ‘A little bit’ is not giving 100% commitment to the plan, it’s not giving 100% to your goal. So let’s leave that ‘little bit’ for after comp.
These 8 contest philosophies serve to prepare you mentally for the challenge that you’re about to take on in the next phase of prep.
We often hear that competitive athletes have to mentally prepare themselves in the lead up to a ‘big event’ so that they can perform optimally.
That’s no different with bodybuilding competitions.
In a sea of competitors, be an athlete.
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