Have you ever seen the movie “Pumping Iron”? In it, bodybuilding great Arnold Schwarzenegger enters a gym just a few months before a show. He informs the gym owner (was it Joe Gold?) that he was “Here to get muscles!” He was entering the gym in a very small and soft condition, but would emerge onstage just a few months later with his best muscle form yet. Unlike today’s bodybuilders, who swell up large in the off-season them shrink down for a show, Arnold “grew into” his stage size. Recently, Kevin Levrone was famous for doing the same thing. He was a “normal? 185 pounds in the off-season, then somehow ramped up to 255 pounds of stage-ready muscle in 16 weeks, with the added protein and other compounds necessary to compete in professional bodybuilding.

There’s a not-so-new school of thought emerging not only with professional bodybuilders, but with amateurs as well, which just might be healthier, safer and perhaps more productive for the peaking bodybuilder than the traditional off-season bulking program. This program involves the use of very moderate AAS use and food intake in the off-season. Then, with 12 to 16 weeks to go, you increase your food and anabolic steroid intake substantially. The result is that your receptors are fresh and you are able to grow rapidly – when you need to.

For your AAS dose, going completely clean in the off-season is your best bet. This may be difficult for bodybuilders who have been on a steady stream of artificial testosterone for several years without going clean. Most guys will run, at the very least, 200 mg of testosterone per week just to maintain sexual function and feel normal. Their dosage will quickly ramp up to 800 to 1200 mg per week as it’s time to add muscle mass, although this might be overkill. With no off-season testosterone use (if you can get away with it), 400 to 600 mg of testosterone ester per week may be all you need to peak for a show.

In terms of diet, the off-season would see the bodybuilder drop down to 10 to 15 pounds below his contest (ripped) body weight, so his food intake would drop dramatically. Here is an example of an off-season diet that keeps the bodybuilder in a very healthy 2000 calories per day – a low number practically unheard of by today’s off-season mass monsters.

• Meal 1 - 4-scoop protein whey shake, 2 cups oatmeal and 1 piece of fruit
• Meal 2 - 8 oz steak or chicken, 2 cups rice, 1 cup green vegetables
• Meal 3 - 4-scoop whey protein shake, 2 tablespoons peanut butter, 1 to 2 small pieces of fruit
• Meal 4 – 10 to 12 ounces flank steak or 1 chicken breast, one cup rice, and one large green salad.

The only thing that matters in bodybuilding is how you look on the day of the show. If you are able to use a system such as this to give your organs and receptors a break, and still look good on show day, it’s an option you may want to consider!

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