A: The purpose of a precontest period is to make your muscularity as visible as possible. That means getting your bodyfat as low as possible and your muscles as big as possible. Contrary to popular misconception, the two are not incompatible.

Prevailing myths hold that "as you lose weight, you lose a lot of strength" and "higher reps burn more calories," but I think those are cop-outs by low achievers who use contest prep as a vacation. To me, contest prep is just the opposite: a moment of truth, a trial by fire.

If I can do it, you can, too. By reducing your bodyfat, you increase your body's muscle-to-fat ratio. Since you then have more muscle relative to the weight you're lugging around all day, you will have more endurance, intensity and comparative strength.

Continue training with your heaviest weights, and you'll burn more calories than if you use lighter weights and higher reps. Heavy weight makes you exert more energy, use more muscles, work each muscle deeper and fatigue the muscles to a greater deficit. With higher reps, even in prolonged sets, the total calories burned will still come up short, compared with a heavy maximum-intensity workout.

Unfortunately, many bodybuilders are in worse condition -- small, wan, drawn and exhausted -- before a contest than when they're not competing, all because they back off from everything that made them massive and cut in the first place, namely, power-packed food and heavy intense training.

EASY DIET Precontest, don't reduce the muscle-building nutrients in your diet. Maintain or increase your protein intake, and find the calorie level that supplies you with enough energy to sustain your customarily furious workouts, while allowing you to gradually burn excess bodyfat without burning muscle. Break down your total consumption into six meals a day, but have a sufficient portion of protein in each of them. (To accelerate bodyfat loss, I have chicken or turkey, but that's because I don't like fish. In meals one and six, I substitute a protein shake. The rest of the meal is a baked potato, rice or grits.)

SIMPLE WORKOUTS People have a hard time believing that I still use the same workouts, the same exercises, the same sets and reps, and the same six-day schedule I had in the previous century, but it's absolutely true. The only difference is in the weights. I'm stronger now, so I can lift more. That's the only change I make, and I recommend the same for you. Once you've settled on the routine that gives you the best muscle growth for a bodypart, stay with it and try to gradually increase the weight.

Above all, don't waste a rep with sloppy movement. Use as many reps as it takes to pump a muscle full of blood, but always control the movement. Make that muscle contract so hard that you can feel it growing.

A: I've relied on a number of Weider Training Principles since the very beginning of my bodybuilding career. Here are five of the techniques that I have used with consistent success.

Forced Reps Training Principle
This is one of my favorite training principles, as it's an excellent way to extend a set beyond failure. Here's how it works for incline barbell presses, for example. During incline barbell presses, I often reach failure at the eighth repetition. Failure means being unable to complete another rep with that maximum weight -- it does not mean that I've depleted all of my strength. To put the forced reps principle into action, my training partner places his hands under the bar to provide me with only the assistance -- and no more than that -- needed to keep the bar moving. In this manner, I can complete another two assisted reps and take the muscles beyond their normal point of failure.

Rest-Pause Training Principle
Once again, the rest-pause principle is employed at the end of a set to push the muscles past their normal point of failure. For machine military presses to the front, for instance, I work to failure (usually around the eighth rep), then instead of stepping away from the bench, I sit there and rest for 10 seconds to recoup strength. Then I press out one more rep, rest another 10 seconds and press out one final rep. Rest-pause is a terrific strength builder, especially if you don't have a reliable training partner to help you with forced reps.

Descending Sets Training Principle
I employ this principle for exercises with which forced reps are difficult and impractical. Here's how it works for seated dumbbell curls, for instance. For my main set, I work to failure with my standard set of dumbbells. At that point, I put the dumbbells down, grab a lighter pair of dumbbells and pump out another two reps. After another two reps as I hit failure again, I grab an even lighter set and grind out another two reps. This is a way to extend the set and work the muscles to the max.

Partial Reps Training Principle
This is another way to extend a set for exercises that don't lend themselves to forced reps. Dumbbell side laterals are an exercise for which I often use partial reps. As I reach failure on a set of this exercise, rather than ending the set, I continue to raise the dumbbells as high as my strength will allow -- typically, it's three-quarters of a full movement or slightly higher. I manage that movement for a couple of reps and then continue for a couple of half reps and then quarter reps until my delts are fully fatigued.

Reverse-Gravity Training Principle
This principle, also known as negative reps, extends a set beyond failure and more fully works the muscle fibers used during the negative (usually the descending) part of a rep. Here's how I employ it for triceps pushdowns. Once I reach failure, my partner assists in lifting the stack until my arms are at the lockout position. My triceps are pretty much fried at this point, so the weight feels heavier than what my tris can typically handle. From the fully locked-out position, I start to release the weight very, very slowly, fighting the stack all the way down. The key is to lower the weight as slowly as possible in order to really burn the muscles. Negative reps will help you work through a sticking point (poundages lifted for a particular number of reps), but for safety reasons, I recommend limiting this principle to machine movements.