I want to cover contest preparation from off season to on, including the Do's and Dont's of your diet and training, plus the Quadfather "Your and idiot if you" list.

I've been competing for 12 years now and will move into the 50+ over masters next year. After all that I've learned in the past 33 years of weightlifting, the most important lesson has been to stay within 12 pounds of your projected contest weight and not blow up like a blimp with a bunch of fat that makes you think your big and muscular. Trust me, your fat, not muscular! It is eternally mythical to believe you just put on 20 lbs. of fat in order to build 8 lbs. of muscle. If you believe that, then your probably dumb enough to believe Al Gore's tax cut too. I feel sorry for how idiotic you look. By simply equating your BMR (Basil Metabolic Rate), you can determine how many calories you need for basic bodily functions. From there you start to add good complex carbs, more importantly first thing in the morning, understanding you need at least 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight daily and keep your fat at 17 to 20% of your total caloric intake. This structure can and should be maintained off and on season.

Workouts should be "periodization" bouts. These workouts can make you hungry, as you must eat every 2 1/2 to 3 hours whether your in contest preparation or not. Don't binge, this will only cause an insulin dump, which retards fat burning and aids in fat storage. Go wild on the weekends as far as diet is concerned if you must, but understand it's a 14 day process to store fat, so you have plenty of time to burn off your extra consumption. Exercise your fat off, do not try to diet if off.

The following are some Quad Rules to follow all season long.

1. Don't eat late at night unless it's a protein source.

2. Consume quality starchy carbs during the day up until 4:00pm, then switch to vegetables and protein in the evenings.

3. Use low fat proteins like chicken, fish, lean meats and beans.

4. Eat every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. This keeps your "furnace" stoked (metabolism up) and you won't get those afternoon drop offs or lows.

5. Don't eat too much volume at one meal. This retards fat burning capabilities and enhances fat storage. The first signs of this dump is that you start getting sleepy during the day. A good example is when on Thanksgiving when you make a pig of yourself and 40 minutes later you fall asleep watching the Football games.

6. Get some carbs and at least 30 grams of protein in you within 1 hour of your workouts.

As you move closer to your contest, you can use the same simple rules plus a few more to ensure coming in lean and hard. I like starting 15 weeks out. This gives me plenty of time to drop the body fat slowly and keep quality muscle. It's important to begin more intense workouts, like performing an abdominal exercise in between each set of whatever large muscle group that you're working ei. chest. Attempt this method for the first 30 minutes of your exercise routine as this will keep some muscle working the entire workout. Spend less time in the strength zone and more time in the 10, 12 to even 20 rep range. Remember you can burn a good amount of fat with an intense workout by boosting that all important metabolic rate to a warm burn. Your cardio does not need to be this 90 minute crap!! 25 to 35 minutes of interval aerobic exercise will be better for you. You will know your carbs are low if your energy is gone within 30 minutes of your workout. If this rings a bell, it means you must take in more carbs 2 to 3 hours earlier. "Dropping" carbs does not mean "Crashing" carbs. If you took in 600 grams a day off season, a cut would be 300 grams, a crash, like lots of idiots do, is more like dropping 500 grams. Trust me, your body will anticipate famine and hold on to everything. Once you have done your "Drop", begin to train harder in a shorter amount of time. This forces you metabolic fire (you'll burn more calories). Remember, you cannot, I repeat cannot burn fat without the presence of carbs. If anyone tells you different, tell them the Quadfather says "they're an idiot"!! It's important you understand your body type ie. Ectomorph, Mesomorph and Endomorph. Don't try and compare yourself to those guys that are all chest and skinny legs if your a stalky guy. They will reach a lean body mass faster than you, mostly due to the fact that they're lean in the first place.

If by week 6 you're losing too slow, increase your activity, don't decrease your calories unless it's a slight manipulation like going to white breast ground turkey instead of lean hamburger. You can save upwards of 250 calories weekly and eat the same volume of food this way.

As you get closer to the big day, use your head not your ego. Here's a list of Do's and Don'ts for the last 2 weeks. Trust me on this one, there are more useless contest prep myths out there than Bill Clinton has mistresses. Here's a few that make you look like an idiot if you believe them.

Your an idiot if you:

1. Cut your water: Your muscle is 70% water, you should be consuming a gallon or more a day. Cut that amount in half the day before contest. This chewing ice chips is insanity! As little as a a 10% loss of hydration can cause up to an 18% drop in muscle contraction.

2. Crash your carbs to nothing per day the final week. Your brain, even if it's as small as Al Gore's, uses 18 to 20% of the carbs you take in. If you have done your job in the previous 12 to 15 weeks you should actually be able to add 150 to 200 grams slowly throughout the week. It takes up to 3 days for your muscle to fully refuel itself if you crash those carbs. Do the math, carbing up Thursday and you will look great on Sunday, a little too late huh?

3. Use any kind of diuretic. It's as mythical as Hillary Clinton's health care scam to think your going to be able to affect the sruface of your skin unless your overdoing the sodium and the sodium would be taken care of if you're drinking enough water. You will only hurt yourself by using diuretics. Don't do diuretics. The most overused excuse before and after a contest is "Damn, I'm still holding water". B.S!! You're still fat! If you can pinch it, it's fat!! Smoothing out the last week is both due to fat still left on your body and too many sodium packed carbs. If you get rid of the fat and moderate sodium intake, drank lots of water and slowly added quality carbs, you will look awesome.

Now take this information out into the ignorant duped masses and spread the word of Quad!

Live Modern, Train Old Fashioned and Stay Drug Free!!

The Quadfather.

If you want to contact Quadfather he has two web sites:\

www.quadfather.com

www.wfna.net

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