Goodbye Summer, Hello Gains!

What is off-season? What are off-season gains? These are questions every bikini competitor has. Off-season does not mean eating sloppy or letting yourself go. It's a chance to replenish your muscles. I call it "Filling Out". The goal is to eat clean and maintain your muscle definition. By doing both, you accomplish off-season gains.

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Amanda’s Recommended Off-Season Split

• Monday - Biceps/Chest/Abs
• Tuesday - Back/Triceps
• Wednesday - Glutes/Abs
• Thursday - off
• Friday - ONLY CARDIO
• Saturday - Legs/Abs
• Sunday - off

Cardio

I never cut out cardio. It is important to slowly decrease cardio from competition season to a reasonable everyday routine. For example, for competition season I did 45 mins - 1 hour of fasted and night cardio. That was almost two hours of cardio per day, 6 days a week.

After competition season, I dropped down to 45 mins - 1 hour of night cardio 5 days a week, or just under half the hours I was logging during competition season.

The goal is to stay healthy, but maintain a small, petite frame to ease into the upcoming competition season. The schedule below illustrates how I incrementally decrease my cardio:

• Week 1 Post Comp: 45 mins fasted + 45 mins night
• Week 2 Post Comp: 30 mins fasted + 45 mins night
• Week 3 Post Comp: 1 hour night
• Week 4+ Post Comp: 45 mins - 1 hour night

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Nutrition

Diet and exercise go hand in hand. Think of them as water and oxygen; you need both to live. Well, you need diet and exercise to maintain gains. To do that, you want to slowly add in complex carbs and more protein while also decreasing cardio every week.

During the competition season, all protein is lean and there are NO cheat meals for me. However, during the off-season, I want to see fullness and continue gains, so I add more protein, complex carbs, and one cheat meal weekly. I utilize one cheat meal weekly to accomplish two goals: 1) to enjoy myself, and 2) to speed up my metabolism and make me tighter the next day.

My body is carb sensitive, so it reacts to the cheat positively. The cheat should be the last meal of your day (usually meal 6). What can you eat? Just about anything. Go out to dinner and have a blast!

Just remember to stay away from alcohol. Alcohol stops your metabolism, so it defeats the purpose of the cheat meal. The weekly cheat meal is implemented to increase your metabolism, and I would recommend that other bikini competitors do the same.

Amanda’s Off-Season Sample Diet (Include 1 cheat meal per week, last meal of the day)

• Meal 1: 4-5 egg whites, 1 yolk, veggies
• Meal 2: 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 scoop IsoJect protein
• Meal 3: 4-5 oz. lean protein (chicken, turkey, lean fish), 4 oz. carbs (potato or 1/2 cup rice), 1 cup veggies
• Meal 4: 1 scoop IsoJect protein, 1 1/2 peanut or almond butter
• Meal 5: 4-5 oz. fatty protein (red meat, ground turkey, salmon, tuna, swordfish, etc.), large garden salad (w/ olive oil and veggies)
• Meal 6: 2 rice cakes, 2 tbsp. almond butter

Get your Off-Season started the right way this Fall. Time for Gains! - Amanda A. Werner

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