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Ten days worth of preparation can't perform miracles. In this short amount of time you won't get any more ripped in terms of subcutaneous body-fat nor any bigger in terms of lean body mass; these 2 morphological adaptations need a sufficiently longer period of time to help the body make its adjustments muscle growth, fat loss according to the right stimulus.

These adjustments belong in a completely different article! The content of this article is merely about how to bring out one's muscular hardness and avoid the smooth look that shows up under the powerful lights of a big show. Truthfully speaking, writing an article about this is a hard task to be accomplished by anybody, including me.

This is because it involves a lot of scientific knowledge from an endocrine point of view and it also includes your personal adjustments too. I'll try to be the most comprehensive possible in giving you the tools to understand how to achieve that goal and I will also write about my personal pre-contest schedule.

This won't be the easiest article you have ever read, but TRUST ME, you will be glad you read the whole thing! Let's get started! This is the very first step bodybuilders commonly use during the pre-contest period. Glycogen as you already know from previous articles is the glucose polymer stored either in the skeletal muscles or liver.

It serves as fuel for energy, but its release from the skeletal muscles occurs under different stimulus compared to its release from the liver depots.

Glucose is a molecule that consists of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen in fact its chemical structure is: C6 H12 O6. It contains water! In normal conditions the skeletal muscle glycogen concentration ranges from 1. After this limited 3 day period of carbohydrate depletion, a carbohydrate-rich diet was followed causing a new higher level of muscle glycogen content.

As you may see from figure number 1 above, marathon contestants also use the method of downloading and reloading the glycogen through diet manipulation before the marathon. As shown in the figure, exercise is gradually reduced during the week and the carbohydrate intake of the diet is increased for the last three days.

From Sherman, W. Sports Med. The consequences of this study have been of great utility for those endurance athletes whose performance is high and who need larger amounts of ready-to-use energy stored as glycogen. Furthermore, these results apply very well to bodybuilders too.

You may be wondering why an increase in glycogen depots should be an aid for a bodybuilder during the show. If the "depleting glycogen phase" has been done correctly, inducing a dramatic lowering of glycogen depots, it creates a "hunger state" for your muscles so that during the next "super compensation" phase they will store more glycogen than in normal conditions.

In other words, they could store from 3. Don't forget that 1 gram of glycogen is linked with 2. All this weight gained comes from glycogen and water.

It's not water retention! Water retention means that water is being kept between the cells in this case between the muscle cells giving the muscles that smooth look that won't give you that ripped look that is so hard to reach after all the sacrifices that you made while preparing for competition.

The water gained is all carried into the muscle cells because glycogen depots are located only inside and not outside the muscle and liver cells. That's why this loading phase makes the muscles appear bigger and fuller!

To cause this "supercompensation" it is very important to reload the right amount of carbs. The consumption of fewer carbohydrates than those needed won't lead to the desired effect and you may even notice that your muscles feel empty and become smaller.

This is what usually happens to competitive bodybuilders! If this does happen, it would have been better NOT to have done the "depleting carb phase" at all. If the consumption of carbs exceeds the amount needed to refill all your glycogen depots completely, that surplus will be converted into subcutaneous body fat.

NOT GOOD. Now you probably want to know how many carbs you should be eating in order to refill all your glycogen depots while avoiding the risk of reducing your muscle size or gaining bodyfat.

The recommended carbs consumption has been estimated at to grams per day for a period of 3 days after the depleting phase. There are also other very reliable experts on bodybuilding that instead of suggesting the 3 day depleting formula, they opt for 2 days for depleting and 2 days for reloading.

My opinion on this is that the difference between the number of days for depleting and reloading is strictly personal and not applicable to everybody; and this is for many different reasons.

Even the good results obtained with different schedules on different individuals cannot be simply applied directly to everyone else. During evolution, the human being developed its muscular structure as well as its muscular functions to adapt himself to the environment. In fact, the muscular skeletal ratio of FTF to STF has been set to satisfy that same purpose: SURVIVING!

Since the STF muscle fibers are characterized by a "resistance" quality and low fatigability, they developed on the body within those areas that are involved in continuous movements such as walking, long running etc. and efforts that require of course resistance: lower limb, abdominal wall, and so on!

The upper limbs instead are mostly composed of FTF to match different purposes from the other fibers, like rapid movements such as throwing, fighting , and strength etc. Even though this is the general distribution, each of us has a different ratio of these fibers in our bodies.

This is an important factor because the capacity to use glycogen varies enormously in these two types of fibers. FTF are the glycolitic fibers, meaning that they use primarily glycogen for energy production. STF are the oxidative fibers, meaning that they need oxygen to produce energy and they need oxygen to completely oxidise the organic substrates.

FTF generate energy even when oxygen is not available to them, during pure anaerobic efforts like when weight training with a max rep range of 12 while using a weight that is heavy enough to only allow you to get 12 reps.

STF are mostly recruited during aerobic efforts, like running, jogging, etc. Returning to our purpose, we aim to deplete our glycogen stores as much as possible and this depends on your genetic predisposition to the fiber ratio as well as the kind of workout you follow.

If you do have a favourable ratio of FTF to STF in your muscles, you would hold more glycogen depots than if you had the contrary, and this in turn translates to more glycogen that can be stored during the replenishment phase.

The training schedule that should be followed during the carb depletion phase has to aim to cause drastic skeletal muscle glycogen depletion. During the 3 days of "Carb Depletion", weight training should be performed on every one of these 3 days. All the muscle group should be trained.

Usually a whole body circuit is followed, consisting of one set per muscle group. After the whole body has been hit, a new circuit starts and so on, until exhaustion won't allow you to go on.

Usually the circuit is followed 3 to 4 times in a row. Chest 1 x Latissimus dorsi 1 x Deltoids 1 x Biceps 1 x Triceps 1 x Abdominals 1 x As you may notice there's no exercise for the legs! This is because the quadriceps need at least 7 days to get deep cuts and look defined after the last workout.

Other experts work each muscle group with 3 to 4 sets in a row instead of doing one set and moving on to the next exercise.

Even though this practice will allow you to feel much more of a pump, it could exhaust you before you hit all your muscle groups.

The muscle fibers that need to be stimulated are of course the FTF, the Glycolytic ones, since these are the only fibers that show a high affinity for anaerobic glucose catabolism anaerobic glycolysis and are then able to breakdown glycogen into glucose for energy production during high intensity lactacid anaerobic training.

This has been shown because the enzyme Phosphofructo kinase PFK is highly active when these kinds of fibers are stimulated. This enzyme plays a dominant role in regulating the glycolytic process.

In fact this enzyme operates in the isomerization catalysis process of Glucosephosphate into Fructosefosphate. This is a process that occurs in the cytosol only when glucose has to be used for energy production. This shows that the stimulation of FTF is highly connected to the catabolism of glucose.

Most of this glucose derives directly from muscle glycogen breakdown therefore ultimately causing its depletion. The STF instead have oxidative metabolic properties and very poor glycolytic ones.

This has been shown by the observation of the activity of the enzyme "Succinic Dehydrogenase" SDH that plays a crucial role in the oxidative metabolism. This enzyme permits both the conversion of the Succinic Acid into the Fumaric Acid this happens in the Krebs Cycle inside the mitochondria that is important for continuing the Krebs Cycle and the Reduction of the Co-Enzyme FADH2 which in turn is involved in the production of ATP inside the "Transport Chain of Electrons" on the inner membrane of the mitochondria.

Even though this chemical reaction is very important in the energy production process, it has no impact on glycogen stores as much as PFK does when FTF are properly stimulated.

All this is to clarify that the stimulation of STF is useless for promoting the muscle glycogen depletion in the best way possible. Remember that your goal is to create that "hunger muscle state" that will allow you to increase the glycogen depots as much as 4 grams per grams of muscle tissue during the "Carb Replenishment Phase".

To cause this, the best kind of training should consist of a "Lactacid hypertrophic" workout with reps in the 8 to 12 range per set. This range of reps stimulates the FTF at their maximum, in fact the High Lactic Acid production that this causes is the natural proof of their stimulation, because lactate is the last step of anaerobic glycolysis when Pyruvate goes under reduction because of the absence of Oxygen availability.

In this case lactic acid is derived from glucose catabolism glycolysis , and glucose is derived in this case during weight training from glycogen catabolism glycogenolysis.

A lower number of reps with a heavier weight involves the FTF much more than a moderate weight lifted for 12 reps but the energy substrates to which the FTF rely on to produce energy is not glucose deriving from glycogenolysis, but ATP CP.

A range of reps that goes beyond 12 begins to stimulate more STF than FTF. To sum this all up, stay in a range of 8 to 12 reps during the depleting carb phase in order to assure glycogenolysis as much as possible for energy production.

During the first reps of the first set, the muscle burning effect is absent because the Lactate has not yet been produced. In fact, in the very first reps the molecule used to produce energy is ATP that is stored in the muscles.

The degradation for energy purposes of only molecules of ATP and CP Creatine Phosphate that are stored into the muscles is called "Anaerobic Non-Lactacid Metabolism" because it doesn't produce any lactate.

Once the set is over ATP depots get replenished through different mechanisms and it takes about 3 to 5 minutes. If the set is restarted before the ATP molecules have been re-synthesised and are ready to be used, the ATP for energy production needed for the next set will come from glycolysis that in turn comes from glycogenolysis.

The less you rest between sets the more glycogen you use for energy production and the more glycogen you use the higher its depletion in your body. Aldosterone is secreted at the end of a hormonal cascade activated primarily by the decreased quantity of sodium that reaches the "Distal Tubule" of the kidney.

There are also other factors that contribute to the activation of this cascade but the sodium level is the most important. Sympathetic stimulation acting via B1- adrenoceptors , renal artery hypotension, and low concentration of sodium in our case in the distal tubule of the kidney causes the production of Renin.

Renin is an enzyme that acts upon a circulating substrate, Angiotensinogen, that undergoes proteolytic cleavage to form the decapeptide Angiotensin I. The endothelium in the lungs has a particular enzyme called Angiotensin Converting Enzyme ACE that cleaves off 2 amino acids to form the octapeptide Angiotensinogen II AII which in turn stimulates the adrenal cortex to secrete Aldosterone.

Aldosterone is a steroid hormone that belongs to the category of Mineralocorticoids produced by the adrenal cortex. As the name suggests, mineralocorticoids regulate the mineral salts, sodium and potassium in the body's extracellular fluid spaces.

Aldosterone acts by regulating sodium re-absorption in the distal tubules of the kidneys. When large quantities of Aldosterone are secreted the sodium ions that enter the kidney filtrate are reabsorbed back along with increased fluid.

Consequently, little sodium passes into the urine. This sodium re-absorption therefore promotes the re-absorption of water due to osmosis. This explains why water retention occurs when very low levels of sodium are introduced through the diet. It sounds hypocritical and controversial when hearing that to get rid of subcutaneous body water you need to drink MORE water than normal.

There are still so many competitive bodybuilders that refuse to believe this and they stop drinking water a few days before the show. In order to understand why getting plenty of water is the only and best "natural" means to get rid of it, you need to take a closer look at what happens from an endocrinological point of view in your body when stimulus like either "low water intake" or "abundant water intake" occur.

Steroidal hormones are produced only when they need to be secreted due to certain kinds of stimulus because they can't be stored inside the same gland that manufactures them. Peptidic hormones, instead, are produced even when the body doesn't need them and then stored inside the same endocrine gland that secretes it.

They are promptly released when the stimulus signals the glands to do so. This is to introduce one of the two main hormones that control the balance of water in the body: ADH Anti Diuretic Hormone also named Vasopressin.

When it gets secreted it inhibits water excretion due to the fact that it's actions increase water re-absorption by the distal or collecting tubules of the kidney and it promotes re-absorption of water back into circulation.

This Hormone is manufactured by the Hypothalamic Nuclei and then released into the bloodstream by the Posterior Lobe of the Pituitary Gland also known as Neurohypophysis. The Neurohypophysis can secrete it or leave it stored.

It depends on the body's necessities. Two main stimulus control its secretion or inhibition:. When plasma osmolarity increases meaning when extra-cellular electrolytes increase above a certain threshold the hypothalamic osmoreceptors that are sensible to such a stimulus, recognize it and stimulate neurons that secrete ADH.

At the opposite side, when Plasma osmolarity decreases, ADH secretion is inhibited. When the blood volume is low they trigger the signal for its secretion. On the other hand, when blood volume is higher than normal its secretion is inhibited.

Another important hormone that is unknown to many bodybuilders plays a very crucial role in one's body water balance. It is the Atrial Natriuretic Hormone ANH. In the Atrial chambers of the hearth there are granules that contain this hormone, and studies demonstrated that the heart plays its role in maintaining blood circulation not only by its pumping action but also by the biological action of this hormone.

It also interacts with other hormones in order to regulate their secretion. The adrenal glands have been shown to be its first endocrine target tissue by inhibiting minearlocorticoid synthesis Aldosterone inhibition as well as Glucocorticoid synthesis Cortisol inhibition.

ANH also affects the hypothalamo-hypophyseal axis by inhibiting ACTH and ADH secretion; furthermore it also antagonizes the sodium as well as water retention due to Aldosterone. This hormone is released when extra blood volume is detected by the stretch of the walls of the Atria. This explanation is useful for you to understand why it's important to overload your body fluid volume by drinking more and not less prior the event.

To sum up the last two points, the best way to get rid of subcutaneous body water is inhibiting ADH and Aldosterone secretion, and to attain this you should drink more water and increase your sodium intake through the diet.