The Post Contest Rebound

by Kris Pitcher

We've all woken up in a strange place with our hair crusted to our smeared lipstick wondering where we are. We've felt the crumbs under the weight of our body on unfamiliar sheets, heard a snore jerk us into crusty consciousness only to wonder...what happened last night?! Tripping over a pizza box with our shoes in one hand and our pants in the other. This is an UGLY situation!

And welcome to your rebound! OK, maybe I saw that in a movie. But you get the picture. Bad, bad things can happen once we reach a goal weight, or particularly after a competition. So, this one is for my competitor friends. Don't leave now though, read along. I'm about to pull out some science.

The period following the competition is an IDEAL time. We call it the rebound. And it is an anabolic opportunity. Given the right attention this is your chance to make your off-season into something really special.

Because your body is at a very low body fat level it is primed to make progress following competition state. When our body fat is low leptin is lowered. Leptin is a protein hormone that helps to regulate hunger and metabolism. When it's lowered it makes us hungry by an increased release of ghrelin (an amino acid & hormone that makes us hungry).

This situation makes you primed to store the nutrients you eat after your contest. And it's no wonder you are so hungry you would eat your own arm off. In addition, when our body fat is low, our insulin sensitivity is high - meaning less insulin is needed to escort the nutrients for use and storage.

So, the right hormones are making us hungry, and our insulin sensitivity is high. In this situation the premier destination for the nutrients is to our muscle cells vs. our fat cells. Our muscle cells need the nutrients. See the opportunity?

By eating more of what you ate pre-contest with the addition of variety of protein such as lean red meat, chicken, etc. and adding those essential good fats from nuts, avocados, and fatty fish along with moderate complex carbs you are giving your body exactly what it needs to grow. Also, the addition of extra calories stimulates your thyroid output which increases your metabolism, and restores your hormone production.

Couple this with maintaining a moderate amount of cardio, and working back up to lifting (like you did before you completely ran out of steam) and you are in the perfect anabolic opportunistic situation! Exciting!

Taking advantage of the rebound in this way fixes the fatigue on all of your systems from low calories and too many stimulants during your prep IN NO TIME. Your period will be back before you know it (or you're ready), and you'll be crying at that commercial where the dog is trying to protect his belongings with insurance. My point is your hormones will naturally restore by eating in this way.

Give yourself a day or two to eat without thinking about it. Get in those things you've been missing. Have the burger and shake. Eat what you want. Then get on program. Get your eating and workouts on track and fast. Schedule in one (or two) weekly metabolic boosting re-feed (cheat) meals. Not cheat days. A meal. When you are a competitor there is no being "off". You are always eating like a competitor. You are just eating more or less.

The alternative is where we started in a metaphoric way. Stuffing yourself with a landslide of garbage because you "deserve it". That garbage doesn't work for you, won't get you to your goals, fix your fatigue, or reset your metabolism. It will also make you really fat. That's the bad rebound where you wake up next to the guy with face tattoos. You don't want that.