A carbohydrate consumption review on the peak week for bodybuilding athlete during a drug-free and non-drug-free preparation

Background and aims: The Peak Week is the last week to competition day, that is, the final 6 or 7 days out until the competition day in which the athlete adjusts the number of calories and carbohydrate supply. This week, it is common for athletes to drastically reduce their carbohydrate consumption in the initial days, practically in the first three or four days of that week, to increase the quantity and improve muscular aesthetics within the last days out, thinking about a better physique to enhance on-stage presentation and performance. Therefore, the objective of this work is to bring a new discussion, a new understanding, speculating about the how much carbohydrates can be offered to the bodybuilding athlete during the Peak Week correlating non-drug-free and drug-free athletes.

Methods: Using the PubMed and ScienceDirect database, and Sports MDPI journal, a search was performed with the following keyword: “Peak Week”. The initial idea was to use the keyword “Peak Week” to find articles and filter articles that dealt with the topic specifically. The articles found could be reviews, case studies or cross-sectional studies, there would be no exclusion regarding the study model, however, it should directly address the theme of the keyword used.

Results: Using “Peak Week” as a keyword, the author obtained 18,693 results by PubMed, 850,855 results by ScienceDirect, and 5 results by Sports MDPI. In the ScienceDirect database, no article directly highlighted Peak Week, the words displayed in the articles titles found in the search were different from the subject of Peak Week for bodybuilding athletes. In PubMed, 2 articles evaluated the topic directly for bodybuilding athletes and in Sports MDPI, 2 articles also evaluated the topic directly for bodybuilding athletes.

Conclusion: During the Peak Week, athletes with or without the use of anabolic steroids restrict carbohydrates for the first three or four days, on the remaining days, the carbohydrates intake is increased to improve their appearance on the presentation day. However, non-drug-free athletes appear to be able to maintain lower amounts during the initial and final days of Peak Week compared to drug[1]free athletes.

A carbohydrate consumption review on the peak week for bodybuilding athlete during a drug-free and non-drug-free preparation

Haniel Fernandes ,A carbohydrate consumption review on the peak week for bodybuilding athlete during a drug-free and non-drug-free preparation