When to Push — and When to Pull Back During Prep
This post is part of The Ultimate Bikini Prep Guide – check out the full guide for more!
THIS is where prep start to feel a bit like magic and alchemy and less like science, but the more you understand how the body operates under the stress, the more sense it makes. It’s all learnable with a little trial and error when you understand the underpinning principles.
Prep isn’t supposed to be a constant, linear progression – nor is the pressure you feel at various points in prep constant. You need to be able to zoom out, see the whole picture, and make intelligent decisions from there.
So let’s get smart.
What Pushing Actually Looks Like – and When it Makes Sense
“Pushing” means a deliberate and controlled escalation of the deficit. More cardio and/or less food. Small changes here work. You don’t need to go from 30 minutes of cardio 3 days a week to an hour a day. Add a 4th or 5th day at the same duration.
Pull back on carbs by 20g or so.
Increase your steps by 2,500 per day.
Small moves matter.
Honestly if you’re “stuck” just increasing your deficit by 150-200 calories per day via a combination of diet and output can do the trick to get you unstuck in normal circumstances.
When do you do this? When things feel good and stable but progress is slow. If you say to yourself, “self – let’s push a bit harder” and your gut response is “let’s effing go!”
If you think “push” and your immediate response is a big ol’ sigh, it might not be the right move.
If your training is already suffering, sleep or digestion are off, mood is already being impacted – a push might not be my first move.
What Pulling Back Actually Looks Like – and When It’s the Smarter Move
So if we’re not pushing, clearly we’re pulling back instead – if there’s a move to be made at all.
This often looks like the opposite of a push, but different. When pushing, we make incremental changes that are designed to stick around for awhile.
When pulling back, we make some slightly larger moves that are much more temporary. Maybe just for 2 meals, or up to 3-4 days in some cases.
This could be a bigger pre/post-workout meal carb up on one day. Maybe we take an extra rest day but NOT treat it as a low carb day.
Maybe we “de-output” for a day or 3, meaning we reduce steps and/or cardio.
In some cases, a dietary deload may be needed where you go all the way back to maintenance intake levels for 2-3 days. This often is a problem with less experienced competitors but psychologically they see it as a failing on their part, and their brain chemistry thinking “shit I failed” makes the refeed ineffective. Yes, your mood can overcome physiology in prep, 100% I see this happen regularly and it’s a big part of my gameplan when I implement a refeed like this – ensuring the reasoning WHY behind the move is clearly understood so it’s known clearly that it’s part of the plan.
So WHEN is this the right move?
Fatigue is accumulating faster than progress
After a couple weeks in prep, you know what normal fatigue feels like. If performance slips and that fatigue just keeps climbing higher and higher, that’s a great sign that some small moves are to be made.
If you catch it early, I’d start with small moves here. Maybe a single day bump to pre/post carbs, and follow that up with an EXTRA rest day.
No drastic measures here.
Health markers are slipping
Sleep quality, mood, and irritability are all signs of hormonal dysfunction on some level, as well as digestive performance (understanding that non-prep or ‘life’ stress can be a factor here as well).
In this category I’d take slightly bigger swings. Taking 2-3 days off from lifting but treating them like lifting days (higher days, if you’re carb cycling) can help here. If your cardio intensity is moderate, I’d often aim to maintain that output as well as step count.
Adherence is starting to fracture
For me this is a big one because as you get deeper into prep, I’d expect adherence to INCREASE as you get closer and start to see more and more detail come through in your physique.
This is also one that’s obvious and in your face – and is very easy to know if the action we take is sufficient.
In this case I might employ a modest untracked meal as a psychological break. This is often for newer competitors as well that frankly just aren’t as accustomed to what prep feels like – and yes, the more you do it the more normal it feels.
A higher degree of food fixation just makes prep suck. There are also non-prep things that can help here as well. Keeping busy with a hobby, etc. Days off are the worst for people who struggle with this because they find themselves with idle time that can prove dangerous.
The body is just clearly signaling overload
If your mood is majorly flat all the way, brain fog is high, you’re dreading going to the gym, you’re starving but don’t look forward to eating…
You need a damn break. Give yourself one.
The counter thinking here is “but then I won’t get lean enough!”
Dude – you’re about to break at this point and just abandon prep, tell me that isn’t a worse result than coming in less lean than you might like.
This is where we need the big swings. A few days off from training while eating back at maintenance, with the understanding not to get TOO comfortable there because it’s temporary. But after a few days we want to feel ready to return to the grind.
Framework Beats Grit – Every Time
For sure, grit is needed in prep. But grit alone isn’t going to get the job done and haul your ass over the finish line in most cases.
You need to be able to act intelligently on the information your body is giving you, which means you need to pay attention. Especially if self-coached, but if you’re working with a coach you need to communicate these things so they know.
I always tell my clients to not put on a brave face – if something sucks, tell me. It’s not complaining or whining, it’s informing.
And it’s information I need to make the best decisions for your prep. It’s much harder to self-assess which is why a good coach is worth it. It’s doable, but not easy and especially difficult if you’re new to prep as a whole.
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