Retired bodybuilder Lee Priest knows the ins and outs of preparing for a contest. He recently discussed the biggest peak week mistakes bodybuilders make and how to fix them in a YouTube video shared on April 17, 2025.
Throughout his career, Priest always kept fans and rivals guessing. His weight, at times, soared to 270 pounds as a competitor standing at five feet four inches. Nevertheless, he always delivered against bodybuilding greats throughout the 1990s and 2000s with conditioning and fullness.
Bodybuilders today use peak weeks to bring their best onstage. Varying methods are involved in this process, like carb manipulation, diuretics, and reducing water intake to present a drier and more detailed physique for showtime. Though for Priest, he explained that these measures are unnecessary and provided his approach to presenting a stage-ready physique without as much hassle.
Lee Priest Highlights Peak Week Mistakes Every Bodybuilder Makes and How To Fix Them
In a recent YouTube video, Priest called peak weeks the ‘dumbest thing ever,’ and explained why. He believes most competitors look better in pictures leading up to an event rather than when they step onstage.
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“I don’t know why people still do it. Bodybuilders, their gurus, peak week, the dumbest thing ever. I’ll say that till the day I die. Why do peak week?
How many times do we see it on Instagram and Facebook? people put up their photos a week or two out looking fantastic, I mean they are vascular, they’re hard, they’re full.”
He argued that diuretics should be used more sparingly and advised against pulling excessive water.
“They might have a little bit of water, which if you use sparingly, some guys and girls go crazy if the contest is Saturday, they’ll start Monday or Tuesday with a whole diuretic and then another whole diuretic and then pulling water out of muscle, muscle is what? 70% water? Pour it all out, they get flat, they try to carb up, it doesn’t work.”
“That’s why I’ve always said if you’re looking good and you’re full, you’re hard, you’re vascular, you’re like a couple percent away from getting onstage, all you got to do is pump up, tan up, and if you need a diuretic, need it, like if you really think you need it, maybe a quarter or a half the day or two before. Then see how you look the day before. If you need a little bit more, only a quarter,” he shared.
While some athletes worry about holding a film of water over their skin, Priest said that it dissipates once they pump up, as the water goes into the muscle, allowing competitors to look harder and bigger when they compete.
“You got to remember, you might have a film of water, a tiny bit, but when you pump up, that water is going to go into the muscle. And even if you were a little bit flat sometimes, but you’re harder, so you’re going to look bigger on stage.”
Priest said if competitors look near stage-ready, a peak week isn’t necessary. During his career, he shared that he never went lower than 250 grams of carbs daily.
“That’s why if you’re full and you’re hard, I’ll say it again and you’re almost stage-ready, don’t do it. Why do you got to get it in your head that we need a peak week? You just can’t rely on how good you look already?”
“I never went lower than 250 grams of carbs,” Priest adds. “Why not just stay high and stay full? If you’ve got no problem losing the weight and you’re doing the cardio and shit, you don’t need to lower your carbs down. Your workouts are going to be better.”
Ensuring a stage-ready physique is a tall task. According to eight-time Olympia titleholder Ronnie Coleman, bodybuilders can only successfully peak for a contest once a year, which is why he doubts that Derek Lunsford will be able to achieve a winning physique at the 2025 Mr. Olympia against Samson Dauda after winning this year’s Arnold Classic.
Priest might have indulged during off-seasons, but he always came in shape at contests during his tenure. He believes it’s better to focus on fullness, vascularity, and condition instead of using peak weeks to prepare for the stage.
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