Fellow Muscle Maniacs,

 Mike Hludzik here.  First of all I want to thank Big Ken Arsenault for asking me to contribute to his site.   Throughout the years as I’ve gained more experience in the sport of bodybuilding, I’ve found myself wanting  to make a difference and  help others, but wasn’t quite sure how to.  Big Ken emailed me with a variety of topics to write about and it so happens they are all topics I’ve wanted to cover so if the response to this one is good I’ll touch on all the others.  What I’d like to write about here are some of my experiences, some things I’ve learned along the way, and elaborate on the lifestyle I’ve led to compete in all the shows I’ve done.  Now you’re probably asking yourself, “Why should I listen to you Mike? You’re fat.”  Well my diesel dieters, that’s exactly why I think I can help.  You see, I’m not some freak with shredded hamstrings in the off-season, and I don’t have a very athletic background (I played college baseball, but I guess that doesn’t really count).  I’m a fisherman, guitar player and former baseball player born in Pittsburgh that took over 20 minutes to finish a mile run in P.E. class as a kid, and couldn’t make it halfway across the monkey bars that decided he wanted to be a champion natural bodybuilder.  With that in mind, and 22 competitions in 6 years, many frustrating experiences of trial and error, and a metabolism slower than whale crap sinking to the bottom of the ocean in Antarctica, I feel I may be able to help a few people out.

Now I could go all night with my experiences, so I’ll do my best to keep it condensed and to the point.  But I have had a lot of stimulants today and I love talking about this stuff, so get comfortable and pour yourself a big cup of coffee just in case.

Where should I start? Ok, in 2001 I was about 230 pounds and looked like a mutated bloated tick.  I was done with college baseball and I was already into bodybuilding for a few years, but I followed the Flex magazine, eat everything in sight and don’t do cardio approach and clearly it backfired.  I had taken an interest in competing and when my friend Brett Oteri showed me pictures and shared his experiences with me from his first show, I decided I wanted to do it.  Now I was starting pretty much from scratch, I didn’t have much scientific knowledge, and I got my advice from different people, some of who never competed (First of many mistakes) so I had a long road ahead of me.  Throughout the years, after countless mistakes, finding legit sources of knowledge, having some success, and even more disappointments I finally feel like things are coming together because I’ve taken what I’ve learned works for me and what doesn’t so I am able to follow an approach I am confident in.

Now I can already see this going into my do’s and don’ts so let’s talk about lifestyle first.  First, something I’ve learned from the mighty Sean Sullivan is you must identify your body type.  Once you are able to pinpoint that, you can develop a plan on how to construct your lifestyle approach to bodybuilding.  I am an Endomorph, so I must keep cardio in year round, keep my calories in check, follow a high protein/low carb/moderate fat dietary approach, and train like a madman because it’s very hard to over train an endomorph.  What type are you? Are you an Ectomorph that has a hard time building muscle, but are super ripped due to the blessing of a fast metabolism?  Are you a Mesomorph and can just train like a freak, eat however you want and still be jacked? For a further elaboration on body type, as well as many other great articles, check out www.soabodybuilding.com.  My point here is for a long time I was dieting as if I were an Ecto or Meso, when I’m an Endo which slowed my progress as a bodybuilder.  Sure I put on muscle, but also 25-50 pounds of lard I could’ve done without.  So stay lean in the off-season.  Once I realized this I really started making progress.  Now, whether it’s in-season, or off-season I know I can keep my carbs low while still building muscle and staying lean and it’s paid great dividends.  Throughout my journey I’ve also learned not to be overly concerned with losing muscle.  Muscle loss is very overrated, unless you’re a true Ectomorph.  A lot of times people lose weight for a show and feel they’ve lost muscle, and they may have lost a little, but 2 days later they’re 10 pounds heavier, full and hard with no signs of added body fat yet.  A lot of the time it’s a case of lack of water, carbs and sodium within the intracellular space of the muscle.  So don’t be afraid to really push yourself. Just keep your aminos in throughout the day and you should be fine.

Now I want to talk a bit about pre-contest lifestyle and off-season lifestyle.  We all have different approaches, but these are just my viewpoints.  I’ve went through years of yo-yo dieting, fat off-seasons, lean off-seasons, long contest preps, short contest preps and so forth.   My pre-contest approach, again based on my body type, is very strict.  I don’t cheat on my diet and I have a dietary and training plan carefully planned out before anything starts. But, something I’ve found over the years is you have to be able to follow your instincts and don’t be afraid to alter the plan based on how you look and feel.  For years I thought there was one textbook way for me to get ready for a show and I wasted a lot of time trying to find that textbook. The answer was right in front of me the whole time, it was break the mold and pay attention!  I attended a seminar at the Mecca of sports nutrition and supplements, Cape Cod Nutrition, put on by Scivation president Marc Lobliner, when he mentioned, “The body is not a textbook” it couldn’t have been said any better.  Here’s a quick story, a few years ago I grew frustrated with looking great a week out of the show, to only end up looking flat and smooth on stage.  I would look at the pictures from the show and compare them to the week before and I would be so much harder and fuller before the show.  So as an experiment, I entered a show and did not change a thing.  I trained all the way up until Friday, didn’t go through any crazy sodium depletion/potassium loads/water cutting and I looked great at the show, it was one of my best shows ever.  Now keep in mind here I was doing everything you’re not supposed to do before a contest.  My sodium intake and water intake is more than most people’s during the pre-contest phase, and when I say I did nothing different, I mean nothing different. The day before the show I went tanning, drank four gallons of spring water, 2 liters of diet soda, dumped salt on every single meal and I was dry and shredded the whole next day for the show. I kept slamming water all day and still kept some sodium in the food.  It was a great showing because I finally went with my instincts and hit it right.  A week later for my next show it was suggested I cut sodium halfway through Friday and replace it with potassium. Other than that I changed nothing and I flattened out like a pancake.  That one little adjustment screwed everything up.  Now I’m not saying dump salt all over everything and so forth like I did, but my point being I was in great shape while doing that stuff and I stuck with what was working.  So if you’re eating cocoa puffs every day and you’re shredded, well maybe that’s what you should keep doing, or maybe not.  There are people that go through peak weeks and hit it right just about every time, but again those people found what works for them.  My experiences have resulted in peak weeks being a gamble.  So find what’s right for you. Even throughout the prep, if you do your own diets and something isn’t going according to plan, change it, if it doesn’t work then scratch it off the list and try something else.  If someone conducts your prep for you, ask them questions and don’t be afraid to make suggestions based on your experiences.  Now for the off-season.  Stay Lean! I can’t emphasize it enough, if you have a good starting point you can be ready for a show a month out and go into it with no worries and last minute attempts to be ready.  Also let me emphasize, don’t let competition dictate the enjoyment of your life in the off-season! I’ve gone through strict off-seasons where I would miss out on opportunities to enjoy some good food with family and friends, late nights and a couple beers with the old college boys.

I wouldn’t even go see some of my favorite heavy metal bands in concert because I was more concerned with eating the right food on time, and getting enough sleep.  Hopefully you never took it that far because always remember, bodybuilding was meant to improve the quality of one’s life, not run it! (I think Joe Weider said that).  So, find a balanced enjoyable approach to your off-season.  If you enjoy the bodybuilding lifestyle that much, have at it.  I know I enjoy it, that’s why I keep doing it, but there must be a balance. Here’s another story.   Last year I challenged myself to follow the lifestyle strictly and rigidly year round.  I started a diet in March of 2007, did three shows in the fall, kept dieting and did 3 shows in the spring .  That came out to 13 months of contest type dieting.  Now, I’m not going to lie to you, I really had a great spring and the constant dedication paid off, But looking back on it, I wasn’t as happy as I could be. So I made an adjustment. Of course after all that dieting I went on a tear like Kirstie Alley after Cheers got cancelled. But now I’m more balanced.  The majority of what I do is still like what I was doing, but I never pass up an opportunity to have fun. If you’re still training and doing your cardio, trust me, it won’t hurt you. You will make great gains and you’ll probably find more success in your bodybuilding because you’re enjoying yourself more.  So make up a rough guideline for yourself either on paper or even just in your mind, follow it, and when Megadeth comes to town go get some food with your friends, hit the show, then just get back on the treadmill the next day.  Even during contest prep, you can still go out and have fun. So what if you’re up a little later, so what if a meal gets pushed back 4 ½ hours. You can still go out to eat.   You can get chicken, fish, vegetables etc. anywhere.  Just emphasize the importance of no butter and all that stuff.  An adjustment I made was switching from sushi in the off-season, to sashimi in season. Even on my re-feed days I would have some sushi.  You can do things to keep contest prep from getting monotonous and keep it highly effective. And believe me; if my chunky self can do it so can you.

I also want to talk about my outlook on what bodybuilding is.  When I first started I thought it was about getting freaky and bringing home a trophy of a big muscle dude, but in time I realized what it’s really all about.  What we have to sit back and realize is that bodybuilding is a battle within one's self. It’s not so much about the competition, but the journey. We learn to do the best we can with our genetics to build an impressive physique and a healthy mind and body. It is very rewarding to try your best and strategize to make improvements and realize that you have progressed in some way. Then we compete, check out the pics afterward and see where we need to improve, but more importantly savor the excitement of where we have improved, and realize we had a great time, made some great friends, and learned a lot about ourselves. This is a continuous journey, that's why it's referred to as the bodybuilding lifestyle. It’s easy to get lost in the hype of the contest and our placing, but the show is really just the climax to the whole quest. I know I may sound like a little league coach, but we must realize these things.  Or maybe it just makes me feel better when I get smoked, but either way it makes sense.

So thanks for checking out my article. If any of you have and topics you’d like to see me give my 2 cents on just let me know.

Get Beefy, stay shredded, and have fun!

Mike

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