So You Want To Compete in A Body Building Show?

Onk

1kg = 2.20 lbs
So You Want To Compete in a Body Building Show? By Onk

Introduction:
As someone who has competed naturally and enhanced, having never had a coach or personal trainer, I have read a lot of bull shit regarding competition preparation. A lot of key focuses are missed or skipped over, and there is a lot of poor information out there that is too specific and not tailored to the idiosyncrasies of our different bodies.
Here are my synthesized notes that cover the fundamentals of why you may want to compete, choosing a federation, how to train, diet, prepare and be emotionally ready for a completion.
Don't get me wrong. It is tough. Being prepared will help you out tremendously.

Deciding to Compete:
This is the hardest part, getting started. Unless you are 6 foot and 220lbs with 10% body fat, you probably do not know what your body will look like on stage. Dieting down will show your body in a new way, you will need to know how to pose (or pose better) and you will need to train differently. Not to mention, it is is a mental struggle. It is hard. No drinking. No partying late at night. You will be tired. Work and relationships will be harder. BUT, you willl have memories and discipline like never before. I would recommend it.
The one thing I don't recommend is stepping on stage and not being muscular. This is bodybuilding. It is insulting when little shits get on stage without dieting or any decent muscularity. Work your butt off and have something to show for it. Take it seriously or don not do it at all.

Emotionally:I am putting this in early as it is very important
Competing is hard. You will be asked by HEAPS of people about your diet and training non-stop. People at the gym will constantly ask how much longer left. No one will ever ask about your emotions and how you are doing. Make sure there is at least 1 or more people that know to ask about your emotions. Other competitors are best here. They know the pains.
Just make sure the person is a good listener and you can vent. You will become somewhat obsessed with calories, training and every nuance of the competition day. If people know what you are going through, it makes it easier. Share the burden.
I have known a lot of competitors (men and women) that obsess about their up-coming show. They have no lives outside of their training, they develop eating disorders and it becomes a vicious cycle. Be very careful here, as your newer, leaner body will be a great achievement and become your new benchmark for looking good/fit.
Pro tip, organize events away from drinking and food. Go to the beach, do a hike (there is some cardio for you), take your meals with you if it i;s a event/trip covering multiple hours. Have a life outside of the BBing contest.
Personally, if my BBing ever affected my relationship with my partner, I would stop straight away. I love the process of lifting weight and doing shows is not worth losing loved ones. Chances are if you are reading this, BBing is not your job and income source, which means, there is more to life for you.

Choose a Federation:
Choose a Federation with a show that suits your timetable, your weight class, your category (physique vs. BBing vs. Classic) and your legality of hormone supplementation. IFBB and NABBA don't test for steroids, diuretics or thermogenics. INBA, for example, has been known to. In my view, as a BBer who does use Vitamin S, I do not do natural competition as it is not fair. If I win one that does not give me any joy. Also, I can not speak for everybody here, but it iss the general consensus to HATE guys that pretend to be natural BBers, yet they take gear and win natural shows.
Think about that before you do it. If you get found out and tested, then you have a lovely ban from your relevant sports anti-doping agency for x number of years. Your family and friends can find out. Any sponsors (if any) will never touch you again. Also you're annoying the guys that are natural. I've seen BBers pushed down stairs as they file off stage because they are jerks. Fake nattys get the same treatment.

Dieting:
Do not take this the wrong way, but 95% of people misjudge their body fat levels. I believe it is due to ego. Chances are, you are fatter than you know. As such, use this to plan your dieting down approach better. Rule of thumb is that you can lose 1% of your weight a week manageably, so if you think you have 20 pounds to lose, give yourself 14 weeks just to be sure. The last 4-6 pounds are hardest of all, so give yourself time. Also, if you really had 30 pounds to lose, you won't step on stage and be embarrassed when you're ~10% and the other guys are ~6-7%. Keep proteins high and don't be afraid that you WILL lose some muscle. IFBB Olympians still lose muscle. You are not the genetic exception. It is okay, it will come back.
Calculate your TDEE and then set a caloric intake that will achieve your goal. Re-calculate it every 2-3 weeks as TDEE drops as your weight drops. I aim to lose about 1% of total weight per week as my max. Hence, if you have 20% to lose, you are starting your diet longer out than a guy that only has 5% to lose.
Also if you start doing more gym sessions and cardio then your activity levels have increased increasing your TDEE.

Weight Training:

No days off, do not miss muscle groups, hit them all. Research shows that hitting a muscle 2-3x a week is most beneficial, so do so. Bro splits of chest day, back day, leg day, shoulder day etc. are not for BBers. Be careful of depleting glycogen. You willl already feel like shit, so smashing your muscles will make this worse. Noting, that this is calorie and carb dependent. The greater your caloric deficit, and if you have to run low carb intake, you are more likely to be tired. Higher carbs, you can get away with more volume.
Keep the weights as high as you can, that way you willl lose less muscle. Simply drop the volume if it is too much for you. Be wary of increasing volume. It s a tradeoff and you will have to lower weights to do this. Chances are your training is becoming cardio with weights if you do this.

Cardio:
I am not a big fan of cardio. I always find diet and weights are enough. If you are not strong enough to diet, you probably should not be BBing. However, I do feel good after a good walk on the treadmill, so can see some purpose here. Use it to increase your caloric deficit if you need to. Do not overdo cardio as it will tire your body for weights, making it harder to lift as heavy.
Do not believe the myth that getting on the step machine or bike will lose you gains. People walk on treadmills as they are so tired it is the lowest impact cardio you can do. Also, big BBers are taking a fair bit of tren and possibly clen/dnp. This does not allow them to do the harder cardio varieties.

Posing:
Know what schedule your preferred Federation has. Learn the mandatory poses they employ. Make sure you know if a posing routine is compulsory or not. In IFBB it is, and many people have been caught out with no practice or music ready. Posing to a song you have never heard before, with no idea on transitions will suck and are NEVER advised. Do your research. Takes 10 mins to find out or to call the organizer and ask.
Pose for a good 15-30 mins a day. You need to watch videos, attend free posing classes the Federation puts on and ask friends to help you. Practice without a mirror as you will not get one on stage day, so you are comfortable. Practice with a mirror and correct your mistakes. Hold your poses for a good 10 seconds each, the more the better. Come competition day, you willl be on stage for maybe 10-20 minutes. This means you HAVE to impress straight away and do it quickly. 14 weeks of prep comes down to a short time. Some guys blow it by walking on stage and not contracting their abs and showing a bloated belly. Hold everything tight and practice this. Practice walking with abs in and lats slightly flared. Be ready to be moved around on stage for comparisons. Also, you will be sweating and hot, so get used to it. It is fu**ing tough on stage hitting every pose and tensing everything. Your abs and lower back will be hurting. It is okay, it is worth it.

Grooming:
You are on stage and being judged. Time to look your best. Get your hair cut within 1-2 weeks before the competition. You need to rid yourself of body hair so choose a method. Shave, wax, laser are the normal ones. I prefer waxing as shaving will just make it grow back quicker. For me, waxing 4x a year is enough and it will help rid some water held in your skin. I also find my comp tan looks better after waxing as opposed to shaving. Laser I have never tried. Some of the girls I know and train do this, but they have usually lasered years before and just get a touch uup.
Have a good shower before you get your tan put on as you won't be able to put on deodorant once tan is on as it will make things a funny colour. You don't want to be smelly and upset competitors and judges. Brush your teeth. On stage with bright lights it will show. Your teeth if not clean will show every single yellow spot. It is horrendous and makes any smiling ineffective.
Organise your spray tan well in advance. Find some posing trunks (or board shorts if doing physique) well in advance. I have two pairs of posing trunks, blue and red. I ask my spray tanner what colour will work best with my spray tan. Also, they can tell you what everyone else is wearing so you can always wear a colour not to look the same as them.

Peak Week:
Have a plan for peak week. I am not going to give you one. You will hear terms such as water load/deplete, sodium load, junk load, carb load/carb up.
Do not just try something if you have not done it before. At least practice once. Water loading and carbing up usually go hand in hand and are not too hard to pull off. Keep it simple.
Always go on stage a little hungry. Being overly full usually means your belly will be bigger and say goodbye to those abs you worked on bringing out.

Substances:

Steroids -
If you are taking steroids, know which ones work coming into competitions. Usually a mix of test, a DHT (primo/mast/winny/var) and tren is the go. If you are not ready for tren then something anabolic that keeps muscle will do. As with diet and training, this is totally up to you and your experience. If it works for you, simply run test into a show. If you are using test/tren/mast/drol/winny/slin/HGH then more power to you. Just do not overdo it, spend too much money if you do nt have much spare and do not try new things at the last minute.
Be careful of injecting too much test. It aromatizes and risks you holding more water than you want. Be careful of EQ as you may be hungrier when trying to cut weight, though some love the vascularity it brings. Do not inject within 5 days of the competition. You will automatically be disqualified from ANY Federation for showing injecting marks. IFBB might not test, but they sure do not want to be seen advocating illegal steroid use.

Aromatase Inhibitors -
I nuke my estrogen levels the last week to help lose water. I have enough pseudo test from the oral steroids that I barely even notice. Letro is your friend. Otherwise, be careful and again, practice this before doing it.

Thermogenics -
DNP, clen, t3/t4, ECA can all be used in different ways. As I said earlier, I prefer my diet to do the main lifting. I use t3 in conjunction with tren and t4 if using HGH. I have never used DNP or ECA. Do not overdo it. You still want energy to lift weights and go about life in general. Remember if using DNP and clen, drop them well before the last week. They make you hold water.

Diuretics - I like potassium sparing ones such as dyazide. Like steroids, some Federations ban their use, some do not. Do some research on what your Federation approves of, then some testing if you are going to use one, and see if this works for you. I find they have much more visual effect at lower body fat.

Post-Show:
Here is where people go crazy. You give yourself one day MAXIMUM to eat whatever you want afterwards, and then you keep training and eating clean. BBing is a life style. I know people who eat recklessly for a week or two afterwards and gain 10-40 pounds, they look like marshmallows. By giving yourself a day, you will at most eat 4-8k calories which can be burnt off quite easily.
Make sure to plan this out. I am 2 weeks to my next show and I have it already written down. Mexican food dinner, chocolate mousse dessert. Next day I only want a Chelsea bun, 2 dohnuts (pink and chocolate) and then a slice of ricotta cake. Baked goods are going to call to you, as are pizza, burgers and chocolates. Do not go crazy. If you are a BBer you probably do not eat this stuff often anyway. So why start now?
After a cut, your body is primed to put on muscle again. Bring your calories up to maintenance for a few weeks after the show as you transition towards bulking again. Going straight to hulk smash bulk mode will lead to fat gain. You have just been losing weight so you will have lower t3, lower leptin, lower test, lower natural insulin levels, lower igf1, higher ghrelin, higher NPY etc etc. If you are competing natural you will not have the fat burning and androgenic properties of steroids to help.

Do not waste this. Enjoy your hard earned 24 hour junk binge but then get back to work and get back to Gain City, population YOU.

Summary:
As a TL;DR, make sure you have chosen the correct Federation for your skills and substance use. Make sure someone knows what you are going through and your emotions are in check. Be careful of becoming obsessed. Do your homework, know what works for you and be prepared.
Most importantly, enjoy yourself. The process of working out is a privilege many people in this world can not afford, do not have time for or can not physically participate. You are one of the lucky ones. Shows are a good way to hone these skills, create some lasting memories (and photos) and possibly win some money.
 
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weight training, no days off?
Could you suggest a more appropriate split alternative to my current bro-spilt?

And no, I do not want to compete, but I respect you for your discipline.
 
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weight training, no days off?
Could you suggest a more appropriate split alternative to my current bro-spilt?

And no, I do not want to be a body builder, but I respect you for your discipline.

I didn't want to get into too much detail, but even with a 3 day split:
1/ push
2/ pull
3/ legs

you can hit them 2x a week and still rest on the 7th day (yes that seems a parallel to Genesis)

I know I'd rather hit my chest a good 104x a year (about 110~ since I don't rest that 7th day) rather than 52x

it does bring a lot of discipline. I love it.

So, how are you doing my brother?

Great writeup bud! :)
I've got about 5 people trained to ask me :)

also, I don't obsess to the same level as others do, so I'm a bit better off than the girl I'm training currently....she worries way too much. Asking her how she's going is an every day thing.
 
Pretty impressive Onk brother. Keep up the hard work and showing the way for those that want to make the dedication this lifestyle takes.
 
Stickify this!

This is brilliant. Exactly what I needed to read as I'm planning to compete next year for the first time. I've been told by fellow gym buds and others who have competed in the past that I'd do well. My issue is flexibility and the fact that I don't know shit about posing or even competing in general. I have a lot of educating to do but this guide will give me a good outline on where to go from here.

Great stuff Onk.
 
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Stickify this!

This is brilliant. Exactly what I needed to read as I'm planning to compete next year for the first time. I've been told by fellow gym buds and others who have competed in the past that I'd do well. My issue is flexibility and the fact that I don't know shit about posing or even competing in general. I have a lot of educating to do but this guide will give me a good outline on where to go from here.

Great stuff Onk.

thank you, glad it could help.

When you get closer, give me a PM.

Most of posing comes from one's ability to "hit a beat" and be fluid from one pose to the other. Other than that it's up to angles, feet position and flexing...which isn't that hard to do. If you're tone deaf and can't hit a beat then you're going to have trouble compared to a guy who's naturally more rhythmical. None the less, means you just need to practice more!
 
thank you, glad it could help.

When you get closer, give me a PM.

Most of posing comes from one's ability to "hit a beat" and be fluid from one pose to the other. Other than that it's up to angles, feet position and flexing...which isn't that hard to do. If you're tone deaf and can't hit a beat then you're going to have trouble compared to a guy who's naturally more rhythmical. None the less, means you just need to practice more!

I wonder how big Lou Firigno hit the beat. He was all the way deaf I think.
 
I wonder how big Lou Firigno hit the beat. He was all the way deaf I think.

same way Beethoven did. You can feel it through the vibrations through the floor. You're bare footed so it's easier than with shoes and there's usually subs right next to the stage to help.

If not...you'd have to time it perfectly with someone counting the beats and you hitting them in practice. Sound easy enough....but I wouldn't want to have to do it..


(not to take away from what Beethoven accomplished, as when he wrote his symphonies, he wasn't able to listen, that was just music in his head he had to get onto paper. That is already hard enough, let alone not being able to test it out)
 
What a great post and article for all of us.

You hit on this about posing practice. Posing is so important when running neck and neck with a competitor in your class. Learning to pose is needed with a coach and the mirrors so that when you hit a pose you know the naturally where to make the max squeeze. There is the hit and if you timing is on a second ultimate squeeze to show the striations and more. ( lost for words here)

Not much more to add that Onk didn't cover. So very good instructions Onk and my respect to you.

FYI: Myself having been a competitor ( in the dinosaur ages , lol) and owning a gym know what the mirrors in the gym are for. Not just to be vain but to have lighting and a pump to see how you are progressing. If you are hitting your target point as you work specific muscles and lagging body parts. To see your symmetry more when your coach is not there.
Just saying my .02 cents
 
Onk. Awesome write up. Killer.

My first show I over dieted and was miserable, cramping etc. I don t do diet s really well but the chump Mr. Main Street show s I was in, it s still an awesome way to see what your made of with respect to discipline. I d usually cut to 198 for a power meet and then compete wherever was close depending on time of year. Spray tan and go.

Posing sucks I m o. Hated it but it s no picnic. I d chug red wine and smoke red s instead of pump up and go out lit up...and swollen up...look how good I turned out.
I want a new avi, son. FROM YOU, Onk.
 
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