First bikini figure competition in June..how much cardio during prep!?

[vesteban95]

ooookay so I just signed up for my first bikini figure comp in June..I'm doing it solo so i need some help from u guys! currently I don't do any direct cardio..ull never catch me in the cardio room at the gym, always in the weight room (woops, bad habit I know) for cardio I just dance sometimes nd do small things that keep my heart rate up. if u check out my pics u can see that I'm already quite lean and I don't wanna lose any more weight. my main goal for this comp is to grow my glutes nd legs a lil bit more nd to make my shoulders a bit fuller! so with that being said how much cardio do u guys think I should do a week?? I just don't wanna lose muscle/weight!

[SSJ3Isaac]

try doing 20 minutes of the stair master right after every workout, its not a lot and it helps tone the legs and glutes

[george1612]

squat for them glutes and legs, and the guy above has suggested excessive cardio, do it on off days considering you dont want to lose weight.

[vesteban95]

haha oh I am believe me!! nd yea that's what I thought too I'm gonna stick wit 15-20 mins of hiit 3 times a week!

squat for them glutes and legs, and the guy above has suggested excessive cardio, do it on off days considering you dont want to lose weight.

[SSJ3Isaac]

squat for them glutes and legs, and the guy above has suggested excessive cardio, do it on off days considering you dont want to lose weight.

Of coarse im not saying switch out leg day for the stairmaster. 20 minutes of cardio is defiantly not an excessive amount, it takes 10 minutes for your body to warm up and get into a fat burning state so in reality it's only 10 minutes. At this point building legs and glutes is irrelevant (building is done in the off season) the point of a contest prep is to condition what has been built on the offseason by loosing weight (fat). Of course squats are still essential exercise. To vesteban, you already said you are lean, by doing a small amount of cardio you are guaranteed to get in contest shape, of course if you notice that you are loosing some of your muscle then lesson the amount of cardio. All Im giving is a suggestion to work with, im sure you already know that every body is different, you need to find out what works for your specific body.

[mccoy19]

Of coarse im not saying switch out leg day for the stairmaster. 20 minutes of cardio is defiantly not an excessive amount, it takes 10 minutes for your body to warm up and get into a fat burning state so in reality it's only 10 minutes. At this point building legs and glutes is irrelevant (building is done in the off season) the point of a contest prep is to condition what has been built on the offseason by loosing weight (fat). Of course squats are still essential exercise. To vesteban, you already said you are lean, by doing a small amount of cardio you are guaranteed to get in contest shape, of course if you notice that you are loosing some of your muscle then lesson the amount of cardio. All Im giving is a suggestion to work with, im sure you already know that every body is different, you need to find out what works for your specific body.

Her competition is in June... she still has a good amount of time to build up her legs and work on her delts, especially if she's already fairly lean and won't have to cut all that much anyway.

I'd just keep hitting the weights hard and doing the HIIT 3 times a week. I don't do much cardio myself when prepping, I prefer to let my diet handle it mostly. I will say it wouldnt be a bad idea to take progress photos every few weeks and either post them up on here, or if you have any female friends who compete/are seasoned in the sport i'd get their opinion on it. It's hard to accurately critique yourself, and outside eyes (that know the sport well) view over your pictures can help give you tips on what you might need to do throughout prep. I have a few ifbb pro men's physique friends and always just shoot them some photos and ask their advice during prep and off season, helps out so much.

[kimm4]

Her competition is in June... she still has a good amount of time to build up her legs and work on her delts, especially if she's already fairly lean and won't have to cut all that much anyway.

I agree with SSJ3Isaac, it takes women months to build any kind of decent quality muscle. She would have to get herself in a calorie surplus and stay consistent in a heavy training program, which would be her focus in the off season. She should get herself up to maintenance calories and keep the focus on the weights. She's already quite lean and cardio at this point makes no sense. Use it as the smallest tool and save it for when it's needed.

[Keyboardsmasher]

You're already lean so you shouldn't have much of an issue bringing up those areas you mentioned for June. 2 of my friends, both compete at the national level, one in figure the other in bikini.. keep there workouts aerobic so they can cut back on the cardio and stay lean in the off season, they still do about 30-40 min after a workout and they both do a lot of plyometrics and crossfit.

Don't know if that helps any but good luck!

[-Manolo-]

ooookay so I just signed up for my first bikini figure comp in June..I'm doing it solo so i need some help from u guys! currently I don't do any direct cardio..ull never catch me in the cardio room at the gym, always in the weight room (woops, bad habit I know) for cardio I just dance sometimes nd do small things that keep my heart rate up. if u check out my pics u can see that I'm already quite lean and I don't wanna lose any more weight. my main goal for this comp is to grow my glutes nd legs a lil bit more nd to make my shoulders a bit fuller! so with that being said how much cardio do u guys think I should do a week?? I just don't wanna lose muscle/weight!

Nice cutdown so far.

[EPolis13]

I agree with SSJ3Isaac, it takes women months to build any kind of decent quality muscle. She would have to get herself in a calorie surplus and stay consistent in a heavy training program, which would be her focus in the off season. She should get herself up to maintenance calories and keep the focus on the weights. She's already quite lean and cardio at this point makes no sense. Use it as the smallest tool and save it for when it's needed.

This. Eat, rest, lift heavy as stuff, and no cardio yet.

[FotoShopped]

I like cardio before my workouts, gets me warmed up. Unless your intensity is pretty high then after or just later in the day.

[dizzle32]

right now your pretty lean already so cardio at the moment will burn more muscle than you want so i agree with everyone else just lift heavy,rest and eat good.if your diet is on point in general the less cardio anyone has to do. cardio is a just in case not a requirement