Here’s the thing about bodybuilding contests: you grind through prep for weeks on end, contest day arrives, and then it’s behind you before you realize what happened. You’ve been meticulously honing your physique for months, but now that the show is over, you find yourself ready to storm the closest doughnut shop. You wake up from your food coma a week later up 30 pounds and resembling a marshmallow. Twenty weeks of hard work vanish in just a few days. It doesn’t feel good, but is there any other way to tackle the infamous post show rebound and the ferocious cravings that come with it? Yes.
Post bodybuilding show weight gain can work against you or to your advantage—it’s all up to you. This article will dive into strategies for rebounding in a healthy way that will satisfy those cravings but get you to the next level. Because what you do post show sets the stage for either tremendous muscle growth or enormous fat gain.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
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What happens to us during rebound?
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How and what to eat post contest?
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What helps recovery post show?
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Creating a rebound bodybuilding plan
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Returning To Training
What Is Post-Show Rebound?
Post show rebound refers to the body’s rapid response to the sudden and simultaneous increase in weight and decrease in physical exertion that typically follows a bodybuilding contest. Limiting calories and increasing training volume during the prep phase leading up to contest day cause hormone and metabolic shifts that prime the body to store calories when they are reintroduced. This is pure caveman survival mode. Your body thinks it’s starving, so when you actually get some food it is going to store it away in case this starvation happens again.
The good news is that you can get the greatest pumps of your life because skeletal muscle is highly insulin-sensitive and will super-compensate glycogen. While this makes for an extremely anabolic environment initially, once glycogen is topped off, all that food typically turns into fat. The new fat cells (also more insulin sensitive) can grow rapidly.
Water and sodium are another issue. Typically manipulated leading up to show, once they’re reintroduced, the body compensates and stores more than before. Stored glycogen also increases water retention and the body ends up puffy with edema, the state commonly referred to as post bodybuilding show bloat, or simply post show bloat.
Although the simplest approach is to get right back on your bodybuilding plan and not eat all the crap food your body is craving, here are some additional guidelines.
Mastering Post Contest Recovery: Planning Your Way Back To Beast Mode
Have A Plan
The first step to managing post bodybuilding show weight gain is you to already have a post show plan in place before contest day so you can be a step ahead of rebound. Proactively addressing recovery post-contest will put you ahead of the game when it comes time to hit the iron again. You’ll feel and look less like a marshmallow, and you’ll recover from post bodybuilding show bloat faster and healthier.
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Know which days you’re eating freely. This helps you stick to a schedule and avoid over-consuming more than you want to.
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Know what you’re eating on rebound. Manage your diet when bulking back up will make for easier work burning off all that post bodybuilding show weight gain.
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Set a meal plan that you will return to after the show. You already have the discipline to follow a meal plan; determine what to eat post contest and stick to one that fits your offseason lifestyle and workout routines.
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Maintain a healthy lifestyle. If your rebound bodybuilding plan involves heading to an all-inclusive resort in Cancún, best of luck with managing your diet with all-inclusive dining options. Try to hold off on big excursions immediately after the show. Give it a few weeks and let your body stabilize first.
Watch Your Water and Sodium Intake
In the minutes and hours immediately following a show, your body is craving all the calories, salt, and fat you can give it. But rather than making a bee-line for the nearest buffet, you need to drink fluids. If you have been limiting water, loading sodium, or using diuretics, then you need to rehydrate before adding in any more sodium. Otherwise you are setting the stage for massive water retention.
What To Drink To Avoid Post Bodybuilding Show Bloat
Rehydrate with water or a drink that contains some carbohydrates and electrolytes. Keep water intake high over the next week to get your kidneys to adapt to excreting a greater volume of fluid again. It’s important that you do not continue eating high sodium foods or you will continue to experience post bodybuilding show bloat and waste your time wondering how to get rid of water retention. You need to be back to your normal sodium and high water intake by Monday after a Saturday show.
Managing Cheat Meals
I recommend you eat whatever you want immediately after the show. Do not binge, just eat what sounds good until you are satisfied—then stop there. All that high-fat, high-salt, high-sugar food ignites a flood of dopamine causing your brain to demand more and more, despite your stomach feeling like it’s about to rupture. [1] Discipline is key. Stop before you’ve had too much or you’ll be in what we half-jokingly call post contest binge recovery.
Then, on the day after your contest, have three good meals—again, of whatever you want. I don’t care if it’s a pancake breakfast followed by a burger and fries for lunch and pizza for dinner. Go for it; just don’t go overboard.
On Day 2 post-contest, go back to a strict meal plan. After seven days of being back on your plan, you can then implement a once a week cheat meal.
Setting A Diet For Success
Rebound diets are about more than just minimizing water retention after a bodybuilding contest; they’re about aiding your body’s recovery from an insanely intense period of physical—not to mention mental—stress. Diet is the single biggest factor to success or setback when it comes to post show rebound.
A good guide for your rebound bodybuilding diet, I recommend you review two of your most recent meal plans:
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What you were eating on Week 1 of your prep phase
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What you were eating to carb up the day before contest
For instance, I start with 60g of carbs per meal during rebound because this is what I consume during my carb-up diet. Protein can be adjusted up slightly to help with satiety and fats can also be added in to slow digestion and limit cravings.
If you feel like a bloated, watery mess the day after your show, try fasting until midday to give digestion a rest, then finish the day on just protein and veggies when your appetite returns. You can start the rebound diet the following day.
What Supplements Can You Take During Rebound?
Supplements can still play an important role during rebound. What helps recovery post show is getting sufficient levels of hydration and micronutrients. Think about it, your body has been stressed for weeks on end, if you feed it junk food and ignore water in favor of sodas, you’re going to feel and look really soft really quickly.
Supporting your diet with recovery supplements helps recovery post show because you’re less likely to be eating healthy. Supplements such as amino acids can fill in nutritional gaps as you ease back into a less regimented diet. They’ll also of course fuel your body with critical nutrients to power through workouts when you’re back to training. Speaking of…
How to Set Up Training
Post show rebound is a great time to make incredible progress. Disciplined athletes can pack on 4-8 lbs of solid muscle in just 8-10 weeks post-show, but only if they execute a strategic transition. The key to maximizing this anabolic window is shifting your nutrition and training from contest depletion to a powerful phase of growth and recovery. This is the time to capitalize on your hard work—no wasted effort, no excuses.
I like to get back into the gym that Monday following a Saturday show, but as long as you resume your normal weight training within a few days after your contest you should be back on track.
You still need to protect your muscles. To be safe, adjust your rep range higher to compensate for the weekend of dehydration and lack of recovery. Do not add more training volume into your workouts than you were doing on prep. Strength is going to start increasing fast, which will be a progressive stimulus on its own without needing to add more sets and exercises to your plan.
Here are some tips I recommend you follow:
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Add one extra rest day to aid with post contest recovery. If you were training 6 days on 1 day off, switch to a 3 day on 1 day off schedule.
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Resume cardio the day after your cheat meals end. The last thing you want is to go from high activity and low calories to no activity and high calories. Most athletes should pack in at least 25 minutes of cardio, four days per week.
Post show rebound is a very challenging time—it takes some real discipline to rein in all of the cravings and go back to a strict plan. But the rewards are plenty for those who do. If you aspire to reach the pro ranks, you must master self-control. You’ll notice a healthier, easier transition back to your peak and the motivation to to take it to the next level. Once you do, you will really get to the next level.
John Jewett is an IFBB pro and top 5 Olympia competitor. He’s also a self-proclaimed muscle nerd and Registered Dietitian with a Bachelors in Exercise Science and a Masters in Nutrition.
