Slow Contest Prep for BIG Change

by Kris Pitcher

"Have you noticed any changes yet?" Jacques asked. Now, this made me laugh because it was Tuesday evening. I started my prep on...Monday.

"It's only been TWO days! What changes would I see?" I laughed! And it got me thinking, it's going to be a LONG prep. It's would be especially long if I was looking for changes every day, or even every week.

That's the beauty of having his eyes, a coach's eyes, to look at me. He's going to see the changes in me I may not see. He holds the perspective, he holds the objectivity. The reality is, I don't have huge changes to make.

I won't be dropping 5 pounds a week...I don't have that much to lose. My changes will be small. They'll be in the curves of my arms, in the small of my back, and they'll be in the finer details. Changes will happen that I may not be able to see. I'll lose inter-muscular fat, I'll lose fat in places I didn't realize I had it.

The process will take weeks, months even. And this is why we start when we start. When you are in good condition as you begin your prep, you won't see sweeping changes. Those are the best kind of people to work with in terms of competitors, but often those same people have no idea where they are.

They can be looking for big changes, drops in numbers, and seeing changes on the scale. That hopefully won't happen. So it's the job of the coach to manage those expectations. We'll see very small changes on a weekly basis.

Fat loss will be slow. I may even continue to gain muscle into my contest. Will my weight fluctuate? Sure. Only being 14 pounds up from stage weight last year, I won't see big drops. If I'm losing a pound a week, that may be too fast.

It's OK if it's a slow process, that's the best scenario. Will my abs EVENTUALLY come in? Yes! Will my glute-hamstring tie in show up? Absolutely! But those won't be the first changes we'll see. Those will be closer to the end.

I gain, and lose, in a pretty balanced way. I expect to slowly get smaller, yes, smaller as the weeks pass. Things will get tighter. I'll lose everywhere! But it will be slow.

And we may even need to slow things down along the way. That's the BEST case scenario. My goal is to keep every bit of hard earned muscle I gained this past year as I slowly strip the fat off. So don't be looking for progress pictures, big losses, or massive changes.

Keep your perspective along the way as you make your journey to the stage. Huge drops and sweeping progress every week, are for people who have a long way to go. That just might not be you. For me, it's going to be a slow prep. But by the end, the change will be big!