some of contest prep is luck. Really. This year I coached Troy alves to his 3rd place showing at the pro Ironman. I expected him to look good. Very good. But the stars lined up perfectly for Troy, cause he ended up looking crazy. This is what he did - diet 
wise - to get there.
I remember seeing pictures a few years ago at Milos Sarcev’s gym in Temecula California. On the wall, there was a photograph of Milos along with Dennis James and Troy Alves. Although I had never seen either Dennis or Troy in person, I recall being very impressed with Troy’s physique, who was still ranked as an amateur. His shoulders appeared to be extremely square, his pecs full and his triceps had a Shawn Ray look about them when he hit a crunch or most muscular shot. And although he was wearing a tank top, it was easy to see Troy had a very small midsection. In the age of huge guts, this was not only a surprise but really refreshing to see.
A few years later in 2003, Jay Cutler and I were on the European tour where Jay was coming off a second place finish at the Mr Olympia and Troy a very good eighth place finish. Both Jay and Troy lost their conditioning a little while on the tour – a collection of three back to back contests in as many days. Jay was still able to win a couple of the shows due to his shear size. When he’s off a little, he can still appears to be hard and defined. That’s part of the illusion of being truly huge. When a really large physique is cut, it appears to be ripped and when it is ripped, it appears diced. With a smaller physique – someone like Troy – he has to be spot on to look spot “on.” Otherwise, he’ll just get lost among larger physiques. That’s sort of what happened on the tour in 2003 where Troy was beaten by lesser known “name” physiques. The judges tend to like “big” and when the non-mass monsters are not diced, they lose nearly every time to the larger athlete.
The next time I heard of Troy was previous to the 2004 GNC Show of Strength where I was providing advice to Victor Martinez. The folks at FLEX magazine had told me Troy had improved a lot upon which I said, “So had Victor” For that show, Victor simply out muscled everyone and brought to the stage really good conditioning. Troy, was bigger, and was in good shape, it just appeared that Victor was a much bigger version of Troy. Both have good lines and good condition. It’s just that Vic is hard to beat when he’s in very good condition. Still, Troy looked impressive. One thing that probably held him back was his gluteus and hamstrings. Vic and second place finisher Darrem Charles were extremely hard in those areas which made Troy – who was pretty hard there – look soft.
At the 2004 Olympia, I barely paid attention to the calls outside of the two guys I was helping - Jay and Victor. But, I understand Troy was overlooked and should have been placed much higher than 15th. I’m just speculating; but with the emphasis being put so heavily on “conditioning” I suspect the judges didn’t give Troy much of a serious look after he turned to the back. When the glutes and hamstrings are hard on any competitor, they tend to get a serious look and when they are soft; forget about it. The judges are quick to mark him down and place him low.
After the Olympia, Troy had called me a few times to see if I would be interested in helping him prepare for the Ironman competition about three months away. I was. However, I know helping someone takes a lot of time and effort and I was not sure I would be able to commit to that - to give him what he really needed. Of course, it’s easy to say “Troy you just have to come in ripped and big”, but figuring out how to get there, to accomplish that is a whole different matter. Diet wise, do you try high carbs with low fat, low carbs with lots of protein or do you incorporate tons of cardio exercise hoping the extra calorie burn will melt off fat – and hopefully not melt away valuable muscle mass. We decided to go for it and at 9 weeks, Troy sent me pictures weighing 229 pounds. He looked good for 229, not huge, not cut, sort of a gray area in between the two. I think the speed and rate at which Troy’s body changed surprised both of us. My idea was to try to use the first three weeks to grow; to focus on training hard with plenty of carbs for energy.. Therefore, I put together a mixed diet comprised of roughly a little more carbohydrates then protein. A typical day looked like this, which I call menu A
Menu A
Meal 1
8 egg whites
1 cup oatmeal or medium bowl cream of wheat
Meal 2
40 grams whey protein
1 small bagel
train
Meal 3
40 grams whey protein or 8 oz chicken
2 cups rice
Meal 4
6-7 oz turkey breast
1 cup rice
Meal 5
6 oz chicken
1 cup rice
Meal 6
45 grams whey protein
Troy’s weight increased to 231, sometimes – depending on how much water he carried- he’d drop down to 227. But, surprising to me, he actually hardened up, dropping body fat. I expected him to look bigger and maybe retain the same level of condition, but I did not expect him to actually harden up. While a surprise, it was a very pleasant surprise because I knew he would be able to get really ripped.
At week 6, I started having Troy drop his carbohydrates a little to facilitate the burning of fat. The menu changed to this, which I call Menu B
Menu B
Meal 1
8 egg whites
1 cup oatmeal or medium bowl cream of wheat
Meal 2
40 grams whey protein
1 small bagel
train
Meal 3
40 grams whey protein or 8 oz chicken
2 cups rice
Meal 4
6-7 oz turkey breast
1 cup of vegetables
Meal 5
6 oz chicken
medium salad with no carb dressing
Meal 6
8-9 ounces chicken breast
1-2 cups of vegetables
He also started performing 3 to 4 very hard 20 minutes sessions a week, first thing out of bed, with no food. I like hard cardio to boost the metabolism where the bodybuilder works as hard as possible, usually with intervals where he can work hard for 3 minutes then easy for 1-2 minutes. This type of cardio training burns more calories then lower intensity work and it seems to boost the metabolic rate more so in bodybuilder who is already pretty lean. Since Troy was already lean, it worked especially good for him. A lot of bodybuilders ask me about cardio; when it’s the best time to do it and the answer is always the same; in the morning without eating. With a lack of food in the body, the prevailing hormones that kick into play immediately upon aerobic exercise are catecholamines and glucagon. Catecholamines are tiny messengers released from the adrenal glands that are dumped into the blood with exercise. Their job is to target fat cells helping them to “open up” allowing fat to be liberated and burned as fuel. However, when you eat food, specifically carbohydrates, catecholamines become less effective at doing what you want them to do – help breakdown body fat. Glucagon is the second fat burning stimulus that increases upon exercise especially when there is a lack of food in the body. Glucagon is a major player in fat burning as it helps kick start the entire fat burning process. Glucagon helps tear down fat cells and upgrade the enzymes that use body fat as energy. Specifically, glucagon supports the production of hormone sensitive lipase, (HSL) a gatekeeper on fat cells that helps determine the flow of fat. When HSL is active, it allows more fatty acids from body fat to flow into the blood where they can be burned as fuel. On the other hand, when HSL falls, the flow of fatty acids out of fat cells becomes greatly impaired.
To be honest, things more or less fell in place for Troy; he continued to get harder and never loss any muscle fullness. That’s not always the case with most bodybuilders. They often flatten out which can give the scary appearance of looking fat. When muscles flatten, they just look deflated which creates the illusion of being soft and out of shape. This often leads to “panic” where the body builder goes overboard and eats radically less food or does more cardio in hopes of getting harder. Each week, Troy not only got more ripped but appeared to be getting bigger looking. At week 4 and 3 weeks out from the show, I had Troy take one day a week and increase his carbs to nearly twice what he was eating when starting the diet. His menu – just once a week changed to this, which I call Menu C
Menu C
Meal 1
8 egg whites
1 ½ cups oatmeal or large bowl cream of wheat
1 banana
Meal 2
40 grams whey protein
1 1/2 bagel with a little jam or jelly
train
Meal 3
40 grams whey protein or 8 oz chicken
3 cups rice
Meal 4
6-7 oz turkey breast
2 cup rice
Meal 5
6 oz chicken
1 cup rice
Meal 6
45 grams whey protein
Eating more carbs can boost the metabolism when a bodybuilder is extremely lean. However, a lot of bodybuilders fall for the trap of increasing carbs when they don’t really need them – when they have yet to burn away sufficient body fat. When you eat a lot of carbohydrates when you are lean, the body uses those extra carbohydrates to help stay in an anabolic state, something it struggles to maintain when shedding excess body fat. However, eating lots of extra carbs when you haven’t already burned away as much body fat as possible often slows the fat burning process. That’s one reason I don’t subscribe to the “cheat day” many bodybuilders follow; where they take one day a week during the dieting process and eat anything they want. In the long run, cheat days usually result in a softer physique, unless used carefully and implemented sporadically when the body has significantly leaned down and shed the vast majority of its body fat stores. At week 4, Troy was really lean and the extra carbohydrates were probably a big reason he came in fuller then in past competitions. After a single very high carb day, Troy would return to a diet plan that alternating both menus. He’ would follow the menu A for 3 days and then Menu B for approximately three days, then eat the high carbohydrate menu C listed above on the last day of the week.. Cardio wise: I had him on very little. He would do easy sessions twice a week; usually very easy exercise like walking outside for 40 minutes or walking on a treadmill- no incline and no speed. Where as the shorter very high intensity sessions were previously used to help kick up the metabolic rate and burn more calories, these two long, slow and easier sessions were simply used to keep the body burning fat- without tiring the body out. That is one of the intangibles of contest preparation. Yes getting ready for a major competition is a lot of work and one should expect to become tired and fatigued, but as the show ears, the bodybuilder should be extra careful not to go overboard and severely fatigue the body with heavy cardio, hard cardio or extreme dieting. The reason; the lower body fat levels fall, the more vulnerable the hormone system becomes. As body fat declines, testosterone levels struggle to remain elevated. When testosterone levels start to go down, growth hormone also starts to drop and fat supporting estrogen levels rise. For this reason, I try to put in the heavier cardio and the heavier dieting – complete with no cheat days – earlier in the dieting period where the body is well rested. That’s when it can handle more stress such as continuous low carb and low calories days coupled with very hard cardio sessions. When the competition gets closer, I try to drop out higher intensity cardio sessions for lower intensity sessions.
Last Week
One of the most important aspects in getting someone ready for a competition is this: Never try to use a diet and cardio plan that may have worked for one bodybuilder and give it to another. It wont work. Everybody is different. In fact, I usually stress that a diet and cardio plan that may have successfully worked one year may not work in another year. Not only are individual bodybuilders often very different but the same bodybuilder’s body can change from year to year. One year, things just fall right into place while in other years the same bodybuilder might have a much harder time getting cut up and will need more cardio and a stricter diet then ever before. The same idea holds true with the final week preparations. I did not have anything concrete in mind when I flew out to Troy’s house the week previous to the Ironman. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, I had him follow this menu
Meal 1
8 egg whites
½ cup oatmeal
Meal 2
40 grams whey protein
train
Meal 3
40 grams whey protein or 8 oz chicken
½ small bagel
Meal 4
10 oz chicken
Meal 5
9 oz chicken
large salad
Meal 6
45 grams whey protein
While he was on this diet, I went to the gym with him and Idrise Ward-El every day (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday) and had them perform a full body workout where they did one or two exercises per bodypart. The purpose was to get rid of as much stored muscle glycogen as possible. After 3 days, Troy was fairly weak- flat, but in the whole scope of things fuller or bigger looking then he had ever been. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I had him follow a higher carbohydrate menu to re-fill his muscles with glycogen resulting in better definition. The menu he used from Wednesday on looked like this
Meal 1
8 egg whites
1 cup oatmeal
Meal 2
40 grams whey protein
2 cups rice or 1 large yam
Meal 3
6 oz chicken or steak
1 ½ cups rice
Meal 4
6 oz chicken or steak
1 medium yam or potato
Meal 5
6 oz chicken
2 slices sodium free bread
Meal 6
45 grams whey protein
Troy was drinking about a gallon of water during his depleting process – on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and reduced that to ¾ of a gallon on Wednesday and Thursday with ½ a gallon on Friday. He weighed in at 221 and the stars all lined up that day. Though he did not win the show, he was arguably a strong candidate to win it. I don’t think a lot of people who saw the show would have complained had he won.
wise - to get there.I remember seeing pictures a few years ago at Milos Sarcev’s gym in Temecula California. On the wall, there was a photograph of Milos along with Dennis James and Troy Alves. Although I had never seen either Dennis or Troy in person, I recall being very impressed with Troy’s physique, who was still ranked as an amateur. His shoulders appeared to be extremely square, his pecs full and his triceps had a Shawn Ray look about them when he hit a crunch or most muscular shot. And although he was wearing a tank top, it was easy to see Troy had a very small midsection. In the age of huge guts, this was not only a surprise but really refreshing to see.
A few years later in 2003, Jay Cutler and I were on the European tour where Jay was coming off a second place finish at the Mr Olympia and Troy a very good eighth place finish. Both Jay and Troy lost their conditioning a little while on the tour – a collection of three back to back contests in as many days. Jay was still able to win a couple of the shows due to his shear size. When he’s off a little, he can still appears to be hard and defined. That’s part of the illusion of being truly huge. When a really large physique is cut, it appears to be ripped and when it is ripped, it appears diced. With a smaller physique – someone like Troy – he has to be spot on to look spot “on.” Otherwise, he’ll just get lost among larger physiques. That’s sort of what happened on the tour in 2003 where Troy was beaten by lesser known “name” physiques. The judges tend to like “big” and when the non-mass monsters are not diced, they lose nearly every time to the larger athlete.
The next time I heard of Troy was previous to the 2004 GNC Show of Strength where I was providing advice to Victor Martinez. The folks at FLEX magazine had told me Troy had improved a lot upon which I said, “So had Victor” For that show, Victor simply out muscled everyone and brought to the stage really good conditioning. Troy, was bigger, and was in good shape, it just appeared that Victor was a much bigger version of Troy. Both have good lines and good condition. It’s just that Vic is hard to beat when he’s in very good condition. Still, Troy looked impressive. One thing that probably held him back was his gluteus and hamstrings. Vic and second place finisher Darrem Charles were extremely hard in those areas which made Troy – who was pretty hard there – look soft.
At the 2004 Olympia, I barely paid attention to the calls outside of the two guys I was helping - Jay and Victor. But, I understand Troy was overlooked and should have been placed much higher than 15th. I’m just speculating; but with the emphasis being put so heavily on “conditioning” I suspect the judges didn’t give Troy much of a serious look after he turned to the back. When the glutes and hamstrings are hard on any competitor, they tend to get a serious look and when they are soft; forget about it. The judges are quick to mark him down and place him low.
After the Olympia, Troy had called me a few times to see if I would be interested in helping him prepare for the Ironman competition about three months away. I was. However, I know helping someone takes a lot of time and effort and I was not sure I would be able to commit to that - to give him what he really needed. Of course, it’s easy to say “Troy you just have to come in ripped and big”, but figuring out how to get there, to accomplish that is a whole different matter. Diet wise, do you try high carbs with low fat, low carbs with lots of protein or do you incorporate tons of cardio exercise hoping the extra calorie burn will melt off fat – and hopefully not melt away valuable muscle mass. We decided to go for it and at 9 weeks, Troy sent me pictures weighing 229 pounds. He looked good for 229, not huge, not cut, sort of a gray area in between the two. I think the speed and rate at which Troy’s body changed surprised both of us. My idea was to try to use the first three weeks to grow; to focus on training hard with plenty of carbs for energy.. Therefore, I put together a mixed diet comprised of roughly a little more carbohydrates then protein. A typical day looked like this, which I call menu A
Menu A
Meal 1
8 egg whites
1 cup oatmeal or medium bowl cream of wheat
Meal 2
40 grams whey protein
1 small bagel
train
Meal 3
40 grams whey protein or 8 oz chicken
2 cups rice
Meal 4
6-7 oz turkey breast
1 cup rice
Meal 5
6 oz chicken
1 cup rice
Meal 6
45 grams whey protein
Troy’s weight increased to 231, sometimes – depending on how much water he carried- he’d drop down to 227. But, surprising to me, he actually hardened up, dropping body fat. I expected him to look bigger and maybe retain the same level of condition, but I did not expect him to actually harden up. While a surprise, it was a very pleasant surprise because I knew he would be able to get really ripped.
At week 6, I started having Troy drop his carbohydrates a little to facilitate the burning of fat. The menu changed to this, which I call Menu B
Menu B
Meal 1
8 egg whites
1 cup oatmeal or medium bowl cream of wheat
Meal 2
40 grams whey protein
1 small bagel
train
Meal 3
40 grams whey protein or 8 oz chicken
2 cups rice
Meal 4
6-7 oz turkey breast
1 cup of vegetables
Meal 5
6 oz chicken
medium salad with no carb dressing
Meal 6
8-9 ounces chicken breast
1-2 cups of vegetables
He also started performing 3 to 4 very hard 20 minutes sessions a week, first thing out of bed, with no food. I like hard cardio to boost the metabolism where the bodybuilder works as hard as possible, usually with intervals where he can work hard for 3 minutes then easy for 1-2 minutes. This type of cardio training burns more calories then lower intensity work and it seems to boost the metabolic rate more so in bodybuilder who is already pretty lean. Since Troy was already lean, it worked especially good for him. A lot of bodybuilders ask me about cardio; when it’s the best time to do it and the answer is always the same; in the morning without eating. With a lack of food in the body, the prevailing hormones that kick into play immediately upon aerobic exercise are catecholamines and glucagon. Catecholamines are tiny messengers released from the adrenal glands that are dumped into the blood with exercise. Their job is to target fat cells helping them to “open up” allowing fat to be liberated and burned as fuel. However, when you eat food, specifically carbohydrates, catecholamines become less effective at doing what you want them to do – help breakdown body fat. Glucagon is the second fat burning stimulus that increases upon exercise especially when there is a lack of food in the body. Glucagon is a major player in fat burning as it helps kick start the entire fat burning process. Glucagon helps tear down fat cells and upgrade the enzymes that use body fat as energy. Specifically, glucagon supports the production of hormone sensitive lipase, (HSL) a gatekeeper on fat cells that helps determine the flow of fat. When HSL is active, it allows more fatty acids from body fat to flow into the blood where they can be burned as fuel. On the other hand, when HSL falls, the flow of fatty acids out of fat cells becomes greatly impaired.
To be honest, things more or less fell in place for Troy; he continued to get harder and never loss any muscle fullness. That’s not always the case with most bodybuilders. They often flatten out which can give the scary appearance of looking fat. When muscles flatten, they just look deflated which creates the illusion of being soft and out of shape. This often leads to “panic” where the body builder goes overboard and eats radically less food or does more cardio in hopes of getting harder. Each week, Troy not only got more ripped but appeared to be getting bigger looking. At week 4 and 3 weeks out from the show, I had Troy take one day a week and increase his carbs to nearly twice what he was eating when starting the diet. His menu – just once a week changed to this, which I call Menu C
Menu C
Meal 1
8 egg whites
1 ½ cups oatmeal or large bowl cream of wheat
1 banana
Meal 2
40 grams whey protein
1 1/2 bagel with a little jam or jelly
train
Meal 3
40 grams whey protein or 8 oz chicken
3 cups rice
Meal 4
6-7 oz turkey breast
2 cup rice
Meal 5
6 oz chicken
1 cup rice
Meal 6
45 grams whey protein
Eating more carbs can boost the metabolism when a bodybuilder is extremely lean. However, a lot of bodybuilders fall for the trap of increasing carbs when they don’t really need them – when they have yet to burn away sufficient body fat. When you eat a lot of carbohydrates when you are lean, the body uses those extra carbohydrates to help stay in an anabolic state, something it struggles to maintain when shedding excess body fat. However, eating lots of extra carbs when you haven’t already burned away as much body fat as possible often slows the fat burning process. That’s one reason I don’t subscribe to the “cheat day” many bodybuilders follow; where they take one day a week during the dieting process and eat anything they want. In the long run, cheat days usually result in a softer physique, unless used carefully and implemented sporadically when the body has significantly leaned down and shed the vast majority of its body fat stores. At week 4, Troy was really lean and the extra carbohydrates were probably a big reason he came in fuller then in past competitions. After a single very high carb day, Troy would return to a diet plan that alternating both menus. He’ would follow the menu A for 3 days and then Menu B for approximately three days, then eat the high carbohydrate menu C listed above on the last day of the week.. Cardio wise: I had him on very little. He would do easy sessions twice a week; usually very easy exercise like walking outside for 40 minutes or walking on a treadmill- no incline and no speed. Where as the shorter very high intensity sessions were previously used to help kick up the metabolic rate and burn more calories, these two long, slow and easier sessions were simply used to keep the body burning fat- without tiring the body out. That is one of the intangibles of contest preparation. Yes getting ready for a major competition is a lot of work and one should expect to become tired and fatigued, but as the show ears, the bodybuilder should be extra careful not to go overboard and severely fatigue the body with heavy cardio, hard cardio or extreme dieting. The reason; the lower body fat levels fall, the more vulnerable the hormone system becomes. As body fat declines, testosterone levels struggle to remain elevated. When testosterone levels start to go down, growth hormone also starts to drop and fat supporting estrogen levels rise. For this reason, I try to put in the heavier cardio and the heavier dieting – complete with no cheat days – earlier in the dieting period where the body is well rested. That’s when it can handle more stress such as continuous low carb and low calories days coupled with very hard cardio sessions. When the competition gets closer, I try to drop out higher intensity cardio sessions for lower intensity sessions.
Last Week
One of the most important aspects in getting someone ready for a competition is this: Never try to use a diet and cardio plan that may have worked for one bodybuilder and give it to another. It wont work. Everybody is different. In fact, I usually stress that a diet and cardio plan that may have successfully worked one year may not work in another year. Not only are individual bodybuilders often very different but the same bodybuilder’s body can change from year to year. One year, things just fall right into place while in other years the same bodybuilder might have a much harder time getting cut up and will need more cardio and a stricter diet then ever before. The same idea holds true with the final week preparations. I did not have anything concrete in mind when I flew out to Troy’s house the week previous to the Ironman. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, I had him follow this menu
Meal 1
8 egg whites
½ cup oatmeal
Meal 2
40 grams whey protein
train
Meal 3
40 grams whey protein or 8 oz chicken
½ small bagel
Meal 4
10 oz chicken
Meal 5
9 oz chicken
large salad
Meal 6
45 grams whey protein
While he was on this diet, I went to the gym with him and Idrise Ward-El every day (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday) and had them perform a full body workout where they did one or two exercises per bodypart. The purpose was to get rid of as much stored muscle glycogen as possible. After 3 days, Troy was fairly weak- flat, but in the whole scope of things fuller or bigger looking then he had ever been. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I had him follow a higher carbohydrate menu to re-fill his muscles with glycogen resulting in better definition. The menu he used from Wednesday on looked like this
Meal 1
8 egg whites
1 cup oatmeal
Meal 2
40 grams whey protein
2 cups rice or 1 large yam
Meal 3
6 oz chicken or steak
1 ½ cups rice
Meal 4
6 oz chicken or steak
1 medium yam or potato
Meal 5
6 oz chicken
2 slices sodium free bread
Meal 6
45 grams whey protein
Troy was drinking about a gallon of water during his depleting process – on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and reduced that to ¾ of a gallon on Wednesday and Thursday with ½ a gallon on Friday. He weighed in at 221 and the stars all lined up that day. Though he did not win the show, he was arguably a strong candidate to win it. I don’t think a lot of people who saw the show would have complained had he won.
