What are Josef Květona's plans and how is he training and eating in the off-season?

We interviewed Josef Květona, a student of Tomáš Bures, who won a pro card at the 10X Ben Weider Pro Qualifier in April. You may know Pepa from our videos or articles when we mapped his journey to the pro card. His story is actually very interesting, not only is he a great bodybuilder, but he always works as a farmer in the off-season and working out goes a bit by the wayside.

Now Pepa is a pro and we were wondering if anything has changed since he got his pro card and what his whole summer looks like when he works up to 16 hours a day. How's his training and diet? Find out in the interview below.

Hey Pepa, you're out of training and working now, right? Has anything changed for you since you turned pro?

Hi, yes I am in the so called off season right now, since about the middle of June. What's changed in this off season prep is that I'm trying to think about food all the time to eat and to not go so down in weight when I'm working over the summer. I used to not stress so much at work.

What about your workouts in general, how much do you train now, do you have a schedule or do you just go when you can find the time?

I train according to the time, well. Whenever I can just go, I take advantage of it and when I'm busy, I always have to adapt the whole training to that and schedule the parts a little bit differently each time.

If I know I'm going to be home some days, I'll use every day to train, but then sometimes I have to work and I don't get to the gym for a whole week. It's quite different.

Have you changed your training style or do you train the same way you do when you're training? By that we mean splitting up the batches, rep counts, weights and stuff.

Like I mentioned, I have it all over the place, but I'll try to give you an idea. When time is short, I do the bottom, which is the legs, and then the push and pull, so I do a PUSH-PULL-LEGS workout.

When I have more time, I try to stick to the classic split:

• LEGS
• BRAIN/ARMS
• BACK/BICEPS
• HAMSTRING/TRICEPS

That's kind of how I do it now, and I definitely train differently than when I'm in training. Of course I lift lighter weights, but I go all out every workout, no slacking off. Then when I know I'm not going to work out for a long time, I completely ruin it. I don't lift those weights, but I use different techniques like deadlifts, rest breaks or supersets.

Current off-season form

Off-season form check

How do you deal with food now, do you take it easy and give it a rest so that you can concentrate on it again in preparation, or do you keep a base and then take it easy?

I'm definitely addressing food because if I didn't address food, my weight would go down so fast. I try to get at least 400g-500g of carbs and some protein in every day. Just to make sure I have at least two portions of meat a day and then I make up for it with protein, I buy ermels for my tractor and stuff (laughs). If I have a sweet though, I don't worry about it. I'm not totally strict about it like that now. I'm burning fast, so for me it's better to have some bad sugary food like that than none at all. As soon as I stop eating, I lose weight.

You got one of the few invitations to the 2022 Arnold Classic, but we know you're not going. Would you elaborate on what the reasons are or why you're not attending?

Well, since I'm very busy right now, we decided not to take this opportunity because I wouldn't have had enough time to prepare and I wouldn't have gone 100%. Unfortunately, I'm sorry too, but I don't want to show up for the first time among the pros with an unfinished form and the feeling that I couldn't give it my all. So.

I'm sure everyone is wondering what your plans are for next season, do you and your coach Tomas Bures have any plans ahead of you?

We definitely have some plans, in about a month I should be back to training in volume. We will try to get some good volume and see how it goes. I need to fine tune my physique and if we gain some weight there we would be happy. If we could put on a good two kilos that would be awesome. I definitely want to focus extremely on posing for this season as well. In January we'd like to make some sort of transition into dieting, but we'll be tweaking it all as the races go on. Either way, I can promise you that I will be 100% racing in the spring.

What are your ambitions on the professional scene? Aren't you a bit scared?

Do you know it? Those who are afraid must not go into the woods, so I'm definitely not afraid (laughs). I'm looking forward to it and I have ambitions to be in the top five. That would be something amazing for me. I'm not thinking about any wins yet, I've got my feet on the ground, but the most important thing for me right now is not to be in the back and burn out.

Are you planning to go beyond the big pond and try racing in the USA?

Yes, we are already planning to go outside of Europe this season because we want to race in the spring and most of the races at this time are in the US, so we will have to go to America to show it somewhere.

Thank you so much for the interview and fingers crossed that everything works out!

Thanks so much for the interview and once I jump into training you'll be able to see more of me again, so stay tuned everyone!

A short clip of Josef Kveton's form from last season!

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