Biomass Muscle

THE TALE OF TWO
DIFFERENT PEAK
WEEK PROTOCOLS 4
WEEKS APART
by John Gorman
With a lot of people starting to get ready to hit the
stage I want to post about a topic I really started to
open up more and more about the last few years-
Peak Week. There is so much misinformation out
there; lets clear some of that up. I posted this last
year and a lot of people gave good feedback, so I am
posting it again now.
I want to show a great visual picture of the difference
that a peak week can make, most notably the
difference certain day of show protocols can make.
So many things are often done wrong and I want to
highlight just how simple things really can be,
because let’s face it most people are very scared of
water, carbs, and salt. I have been there, I remember
very well. Being scared led me to do things that
actually backfired almost every time, and I want to
help you not have to worry about that.
This is a client from last year, Ed. The pic on the left is
from a show in May (working with previous coach)
and the pic on the right is us working together for 4
weeks and peaking for the Mayhem in June. He won
his Masters classes in both shows, but looking at the
pics you can see a very drastic difference in his look
on two totally different protocols. Let’s get into the
differences.
that flattened him out- no water, low/no salt, and a
diuretic. When you are this flat, and not having water
the day of show, you also will not get any vascularity,
notice the difference in pics.
Now comes the part a lot of people don’t realize isn’t
going to work. He ate plenty of carbs to "carb up" on
the day of the show, but without water and salt those
just aren’t going to store as glycogen in the muscle.
(Carbs need water to store, but also sodium so the
sodium/glucose transporter works efficiently to store
them). Now there is a bunch of food sitting in his
stomach not storing and def not fast enough for the
day of show. "But John what about the water in the
body wont it pull water to store in the muscle with the
carbs?" - yes it will, but there's only so much it's going
to use and your body is designed to survive not fill out
for a show, water isn’t going to be pulled from
important places in the body to move carbs into a
muscle. BUT, did you know carbs will store in the fat
cell without water? Yes, it's true, most people didn’t
know that and I didn’t either when I used to employ
these methods.
So here's what I had Ed do that is very simple and will
work for everyone reading. Ed kept his sodium
constant all week. Never dropped it, and actually
upped it slightly before taking the stage to help him
get a pump. Ed kept his water at 1.5 gals all week,
and the day of the show he had 1/2 gal by prejudging
and a gallon by the time he hit the night show. Water
doesn’t make you hold water under the skin, TOO
MANY CARBS MAKES YOU HOLD WATER. When
you eat too many carbs they hold water to get
processed, so CARBS are the culprit not water, don’t
over eat them day of show.
On the left, Ed had high water most of the week, and
then cut it off for the day of the show down to barely
any water intake. His salt also dropped down very low
at the end of the week, while he ate plenty of carbs
days of show to carb up. The problem here is cutting
water makes you go flat, the muscle is mostly water
and cutting it makes it deflate. (See his chest and
shoulders on the left compared to the right). Cutting
sodium way down actually flattens the physique out
as well. Ever tried to get a pump backstage and
nothing happens? Yup, that's what happens when
cutting out an electrolyte that is responsible for
contractions in the muscle and also cell swelling. Ed
also took a diuretic, another thing that flattens
everyone out no matter who you are. I don’t care if its
potassium sparing, it still pulls water and will never
pull water from just the skin, it pulls it from
EVERYWHERE. So now Ed had 3 big things hitting