Page 162 - Muscle & Fitness (December 2019)

FLEX_FLEX 101 B Y S H A W N R AY

to March, 12 weeks of trying to
’Tis the get in six to seven meals a day,

eating every three hours.

Off-season WINTER FEVER
By February and March, I’m in
full building mode. These were

What should you do with your body now that the the two months that I’d say
would be my time to pack on
contests are over? Shawn Ray explains his mass and try to be strong in

post-Olympia October-to-March regimen. my training. My reps would be

between six and 10, whereas
prior to that I would be doing 12
You’ve dieted, trained, built, workouts. I would use the month to 15. I also slowed down the
competed, placed, and even to gradually get through the pace of my workout as I was
had time to reflect on the past soreness phase of taking off two lifting heavier weight and going
season. and a half months of training. for stronger lifts.
Now it’s time to make some By January, I could start to I always liked to watch a lot of
serious off-season gains. When reimplement the fourth and video and study photographs of
and where did I begin? For me, fifth meals into my regimen and the competitors that I’d be com-
when a contest was over, most to gradually begin to add some peting against for motivation and
notably Mr. Olympia, I’d pretty weight to the bar. inspiration and also use this time
much take all of October and My cardio would be reduced to get fired up for the Arnold
November off and do nothing but from four or five days a week in Classic. That’d be my first oppor-
some light cardio and stretching. December to about three. My tunity to look at the bodybuilders
I had no need to lift weights, no off-season would begin with that I may be competing against
desire to get big, no desire to eat the bulking phase from January in the Mr. Olympia.
six, seven times a day, and I defi-
nitely did not have the inclination
to train twice a day. After putting
in nine months of hard sweat
equity to build, shape, sculpt,
and display my body, it was time
to let my body rest.

KEEPING IT
LIGHT EARLY

I would always try to do cardio
so I could eat the foods that I
deprived myself of for the calen-
dar year and break a sweat and
rehydrate myself and stay full
with water. I’d consciously make
the effort to try to eat only three
meals a day. There was no need
for me to overload my body,
considering I was preparing for
the off-season to relax and enjoy
the holidays.

DECEMBER
TO REMEMBER
Come December, I’d start K E V I N H O RT O N
moderate, nonbodybuilding

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