Accepting My Off Season

It's that time of year, the "off season". It's been over a month since my competition. Right after a show, many competitors induldge in the foods that they've deprived themselves of for so long. While I certainly indulged, I did so with moderation. My daily diet remained very healthy with lean protein, clean carbohydrates, and good fats. I enjoyed a lot of fruit and introduced low fat yogurts and other dairy products. I did not experience the bad bloating, skin breakouts, and mood swings that happened to me last year during my off season! I made sure that I wasn't going to go through that again! I kept in mind that I needed to come out of my diet by reversing it, going from very strict to how I ate one week, then two weeks, then three weeks out from my show. This worked great and I gained back a healthy 5 lbs. But, I know that this needs to change. When you diet, you obviously lose fat, but also muscle too. As much as you try to minimized muscle loss, it will happen. And that's why a competitors "off season" is so important. I will use my offseason to increase my muscle mass as much as I can in the areas that the judges said I needed to be thicker. I was told that I needed a thicker back and upper chest, so that is what I will focus on. So, here is my plan (which may change in a few weeks depending on how I'm responding).

I will do 5 days of lifting, 2 fitness workouts (to keep my conditioning up for my routine, and this is also good cardio), and 2 HIIT cardio workouts per week and 2 slow, steady cardio workouts per week. I will continue to work on my mandatory moves 2-3 times a week and stretch daily.

My split will be:
Sunday: Legs with a quad/glute focus followed immediatly by 20 minutes HIIT on stairmaster (legs should be shot after this!!)
Monday: Treadmill walking at 12% incline for 30 minutes in AM, heavy shoulder workout in PM, stretch
Tuesday: Fitness workout in the morning, practice mandatories, stretch
Wednesday: Heavy back workout focusing on pull ups in various hand positions, followed up with biceps using lighter weight, higher reps
Thursday: Legs focusing on hamstrings and calves, followed by 20 minutes of sprints
Friday: Treadmill walking at highest incline for 30 minutes in the morning, and then heavy chest workout followed by triceps in the PM
Saturday: Fitness workout, practice mandatories, stretch

I will see how this goes for the next week, and then adjust as needed. As far as nutrition, I'm going to follow of 40/40/20 split (40%carb/40%pro/20%fat), keeping my calories around 2300/day.

That's all for now!