For every top-10 Mr. Olympia contender, four weeks out from the biggest stage in the world isn’t about abs, arms, veins, striations, or even willpower anymore. This is about your mind, what you consume, your chemistry, and whether you can hold it together when every fiber in your body—and every neuron in your brain—is screaming—begging—pleading for you to let up. 

But you can’t. Not these days. The battle has grown far too intense. 

But it wasn’t always like that. Arnold and Franco created quite a stir two weeks before one of their epic Olympia showdowns. They showed up at Golds at their regular workout time, but they were dressed in street clothes and eating ice cream cones! Most of us immediately thought they should be grinding it out now, honing their physiques, not eating ice cream! 

Imagine, in the days before the internet and social media, this news had crossed the world faster than news that WWII was over. But, like I said, those days are over.  Competing in the Olympia today is as close to a battle as you’re ever going to get without a tank. 

The Enemy Upstairs

This closer to the show, your competition is no longer your biggest threat. It’s the guy in the mirror. Stress hormones are peaking, sleep is shot, and you’re second-guessing everything. Anxiety triggers cortisol; cortisol holds water and eats muscle. 

But not to worry, the gurus have drugs for that—cortisol blockers, beta-blockers, sleep meds, anti-anxiety prescriptions. On top of the regular stuff. Not just one or two. A cocktail. While some people erroneously contend that bodybuilding today is all drugs, they do have a point. You or your guru must have a very good working knowledge of a very specific and complicated to manage—not to mention dangerous—array of niche drugs. Many of which are scheduled in this country by the DEA. 

Training: Less Weight, More Pressure

Here’s the thing: The workouts don’t stop. They can’t. They just change. Nobody’s going for PRs within spitting distance of the Olympia, not if they want to keep their pecs and rotator cuffs intact. Training gets tighter, more controlled, every rep dialed-in—it’s where the sculptor puts down the big hammer and picks up the little one, along several fine chisels. 

The risk of injury is too high for anything else. But intensity? That goes through the roof. Every set feels like it carries your entire career on its back. Failure isn’t an option, but neither is a torn hamstring. Balance is everything, but many times Satan laughs at those plans. And sometimes, faster than you can say front double biceps, you’re sidelined—all Olympia hopes put on hold for at least another year.

Diet: Hunger as a State of Being

Then there’s the diet—tighter than ever, calories in freefall, carbs cut to ribbons. Glycogen is being manipulated like a meme stock, and the hunger is unbearable. By now, it’s not just a physical ache. Hunger becomes a personality trait. Resting bitch face isn’t a casual reference; it’s your default setting. Ask your girlfriend.

Some guys break and find themselves outside Taco Bell at 1 A.M., wearing a trench coat, dark glasses and a hat pulled over their ears with taco sauce dripping off their nose. That one weak moment can undo weeks of suffering. It’s funny, until you see it happen to a guy who was top three last year.

The Cons 

On top of all this, water is pulled, sodium is cycled, glycogen loaded, unloaded, and reloaded like a bad Vegas slot machine. Do it right, and you have shark skin stretched over granite. Do it wrong, you’re spilled, flat, or cramping on stage. It’s chess with your physiology. And the stakes are everything.

And as if it wasn’t enough, in many countries from where these champions come, the pharmacological arsenal behind these physiques is illegal. Not wrist-slap illegal — federal felony, prison-time illegal. In the U.S., getting caught with half of what’s in a top-ten bodybuilder’s prep bag can earn you years in a federal or state penitentiary. Overseas? Worse. So now add paranoia to the stack of stressors: hunger, cortisol, insomnia, and customs agents in Vegas who might ask if those bags are yours, then tell you to come with them to a room in the back

Back in the Day

Contrast that with the golden era. Back then, guys cruised into contests like it was just a Tuesday morning in April. No guru spreadsheets, no water games, no cortisol blockers. Contest day was just another workout. 

Today? It’s a very complicated dance that incorporates some nefarious elements to do it right. The cost for getting it wrong? Astronomical.

Jay Cutler said it best: To be a bodybuilder, you have to have a screw loose. He’s absolutely right. Between the training, the diet, the drugs, the law, and the chalupa trench coat incident waiting in the wings, you’d have to be crazy to sign up for this life.

But thank God for the loose screws. Without them, there is no Olympia. No freak show. No spectacle. Just another sport.

Four weeks out isn’t about discipline anymore. It’s about survival. And survival, at this level, means fighting your body, your mind, your cravings, and sometimes your morals—all for the right to stand under hot lights with rest of the best in the world.