Well as I embark on my fitness journey and prepare for my first ever figure competition, I figure the best way for me to stick with my routine is to give you an in-depth look into the life of a figure competitor and the amount of time and dedication I am putting into getting ready and preparing for the transformation of a life time.
First things first, let's get the some of the most common misconceptions out of the way:
"Oh you're doing a bodybuilding competition, wow you must workout so much!"
Actually the workouts are the easiest part, that's 1 or 1.5 hours out of your day. Yes I'm training hard during that time and giving my all but that's not the biggest factor. It's the nutrition and the meal plan that what consumes your life the other 23 hours in the day. You have to make sure that everything you're putting into your body is going to help you to reach your goals not hinder you. My meal plan right now involves 5-6 small meals per day. Most of that involving a lean protein (chicken, tuna, shrimp), a veggie, and a complex carbohydrate (brown rice, sweet potato), and the occasional healthy fat (peanut butter, avocado, olive oil). There is a lot of planning and prep work that goes into making sure I have meals ready to go at all times and am not going to be deterred into choosing an unhealthy/convenient option.
"But lifting makes women huge, like gross, look like a man huge."
If you have ever said this please kindly just give yourself a punch in the face. While women do have small, trace amounts of testosterone in their body, they do not even have a fifth that allows men to create the bulky muscles you often see. But what about those women who do have huge muscles? These women have gotten this way unnaturally (steroid use). There is no scientific way for a women to get that massive without an unnatural assist. Lifting is one of the best things women can do to lean down because the more lean mass you have the better your body works to burn fat and remember even though muscle may weigh more than fat...it takes up a lot less room in your body!
"So do you just walk up on stage and flex in front of judges?"
The amount of time that goes into stage presence is huge. Not only does posing practice start occurring at least 15 weeks in advance of a show, it involves way more than just doing a bicep flex and smiling. For women's figure (my category) it involves four different judging poses (front, side, back, other side) and a model pose. Not only are these are very hard to learn, you want to make sure you have practiced them until they become second nature to get into them in an instant. Even though someone may have a better physique than you, if they can't present that physique in a way that is confident you are going to place higher.
I am so excited about the journey that I am going to go through in preparation to my show and can't wait to see the transformation my body is going to go through.
Next, I will give you all a look inside the day of college student going through a competition prep. And let me tell you, the word free time isn't in my vocabulary!
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