Goal Before Protocol: Where the Rebound Beats a Reverse Diet

Goal Before Protocol

Where the Rebound Beats a Reverse Diet

Opener

Most post-show advice starts with a protocol. Justin starts with a different question, and he has little patience for the most common answer.

"I do the same thing after a show. Calories are really high, consistent. I don't cycle them right away, until they get past the food focus part. I always say, either we do it now or you're going to binge. I hate the people that reverse diet right out of the show… No one's following that. They might tell you they are, but they're not."

This lecture explains when the rebound is the right tool, when a reverse diet is, and why the decision matters most in a competitor's first few shows.

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1. The goal decides the path

There are two ways out of a hard diet, and the athlete's goal picks between them.

"After a hard cut or show: suggest a rebound only if the client is trying to add size. If they must stay lean and cannot add much size (weight-class limits), use a typical GRAS-style reverse diet — not a full rebound push."

The reverse diet is the generally recognized approach, and its method is covered in the reference library rather than here. This lecture is about the case where the rebound adds something the reverse diet cannot.