First show, men's physique in 12 weeks, can I do it?

[MookyStick]

Well honestly I've never given any serious thought to competing(and I especially hate the idea of wearing a man-thong on stage lol)but there is an open men's physique show coming up in my area in just over 12 weeks and I'm wondering if that will be enough time to get into the shape I need to be from where I'm at now. Here's are a few pics I snapped recently...






I don't plan on taking this too seriously...I just want something to keep me striving to reach my goals.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks guys.

[Get-n-fit]

You still have quite a bit of body fat to lose. Do it regardless, it's a good experience.

[MookyStick]

You still have quite a bit of body fat to lose. Do it regardless, it's a good experience.

Thank you, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. I know I'm not super lean right now(probably about 4-6% more to lose)but I think it's enough time to make a good run at it and it will be a great experience either way

[POrtergolf]

Can you post some pictures with the standard Men's Physique poses (front, back, right and left side) it will let us make a better assessment.

I wouldn't recommend competing if you aren't going to take it too seriously. You will end up seriously embarrassed. You will be competing against guys who take this extremely serious and you will be left looking like a doof. Why would you even spend the money to compete if you aren't going to take is serious? That sounds like more of a cop out so you have an excuses when you don't show well.

I say skip the show honestly. Your attitude and mindset is wrong and it is disrespectful to the guys putting in the work. If you want to do it for experience you should still take is serious.

What show are you doing? If it is some mom and pop show maybe you won't be completely embarrassed.

Non-offensive critique
You are on the small side, you need to add size, depending on the show guys 5'9 will make you look smaller than you are because they will be coming in lean and 20-30lbs bigger than you. You have a good base but you need to spend a year or so adding some size. Just because MP is guys in board shorts doesn't mean they don't have size and the division is only getting bigger.

[MookyStick]

Can you post some pictures with the standard Men's Physique poses (front, back, right and left side) it will let us make a better assessment.

I wouldn't recommend competing if you aren't going to take it too seriously. You will end up seriously embarrassed. You will be competing against guys who take this extremely serious and you will be left looking like a doof. Why would you even spend the money to compete if you aren't going to take is serious? That sounds like more of a cop out so you have an excuses when you don't show well.

I say skip the show honestly. Your attitude and mindset is wrong and it is disrespectful to the guys putting in the work. If you want to do it for experience you should still take is serious.

What show are you doing? If it is some mom and pop show maybe you won't be completely embarrassed.

Non-offensive critique
You are on the small side, you need to add size, depending on the show guys 5'9 will make you look smaller than you are because they will be coming in lean and 20-30lbs bigger than you. You have a good base but you need to spend a year or so adding some size. Just because MP is guys in board shorts doesn't mean they don't have size and the division is only getting bigger.

Thank you for your input, I will try to take some new photo's as soon as I can.

I guess I should have chosen my words more wisely. What I meant by not taking it too seriously was the idea of bodybuilding as a career or anything along those lines. If I decide to do the show, I will go all in and give it my best. My plan is to continue in a caloric deficit like I have been but add in intermittent fasting to give me a little extra mental boost to keep the ball rolling. Obviously I'll also need to start doing more research on contest prep and things of that nature.\

So even if I give it my best shot and get as lean as I can...it still won't be worth it cause I'm not big enough?

This is the show I was considering...

http://www.naturalbodybuildingevents...t_Classic.html

[POrtergolf]

Thank you for your input, I will try to take some new photo's as soon as I can.

I guess I should have chosen my words more wisely. What I meant by not taking it too seriously was the idea of bodybuilding as a career or anything along those lines. If I decide to do the show, I will go all in and give it my best. My plan is to continue in a caloric deficit like I have been but add in intermittent fasting to give me a little extra mental boost to keep the ball rolling. Obviously I'll also need to start doing more research on contest prep and things of that nature.\

So even if I give it my best shot and get as lean as I can...it still won't be worth it cause I'm not big enough?

This is the show I was considering...

http://www.naturalbodybuildingevents...t_Classic.html

That show should have some good competitors just because it is Layne Norton's show and the turn out is likely to be good. I don't want to discourage you, it will be an amazing en devour. The worst thing that will come of it is you will likely be in the best condition of your life so there isn't much to lose. Thanks for clearing up your seriousness about competing.

There is a lot more that goes into Men's Physique that just being lean and having good size. every guy is going to come in lean and have good size. Other things that matter are body proportion, symmetry, aesthetics, stage presence, posing, quality tan, etc.

Here is an article I wrote last month for RXmuscle.com that gives some first timers some perspective on some of the small things they may not be considering but are critical to performing well in your first show.

http://www.rxmuscle.com/blogs/the-lo...irst-time.html

I am willing to share what adivce I can but there are more experienced guys on here and hopefully they chime in.

In all honesty, knowing you are serious about the prep and your performance I say give it your best effort and go for it.

If you aren't going to hire a coach for your contest prep I highly recommend you find someone who can teach you posing, it's harder than you would think. If you don't know of any posing coaches you may even want to tweet or FB a message to Layne to find a posing coach in the Tampa area if thats where you are. A lot of coaches host posing classes which would less expensive than one on one coaching.

[SUTTER3]

You might as well go for it. Even if you had a physique at the same level as the top guys in the competition, chances are your posing and stage presence won't be as good. Just do it for the experience, and then when you go back the next year with another year of training under your belt, you will rock it.

[MookyStick]

Thank you for the encouragement guys. I feel like I'm at a bit of a plateau right now with my fat loss...giving IF a try again to see if I can break it cause I'm pretty sure I have my macro's right where they need to be already. I'm also looking for someone who can teach me posing...I definitely don't want to make a fool of myself. Anymore tips you guys might have are very much welcome. I'll try and keep updating this thread with progress info and pics. Hopefully 12 weeks will be enough time to give this a fair shot. Thanks again!

[mkman]

I was thinking about doing mens physique as well......here in Hawaii, you wear board shorts, no thongs haha.

I feel like the only way I will even go through is if I can get more cut and have a full six pack instead of a 2-4 pack that i have right now. Mine is in 12 weeks as well, lets see how I do on my dieting!

[MookyStick]

I was thinking about doing mens physique as well......here in Hawaii, you wear board shorts, no thongs haha.

I feel like the only way I will even go through is if I can get more cut and have a full six pack instead of a 2-4 pack that i have right now. Mine is in 12 weeks as well, lets see how I do on my dieting!

I feel ya bro. I'm trying pretty darn hard. Weighed in at 155.2 today...that's the lowest I've ever been(that I can reasonably remember, probably haven't been that since early high school). I know I can get lean enough by November, I'm just not sure if I have a good enough foundation to walk on that stage and not make a fool of myself :/

[drkslr]

I feel ya bro. I'm trying pretty darn hard. Weighed in at 155.2 today...that's the lowest I've ever been(that I can reasonably remember, probably haven't been that since early high school). I know I can get lean enough by November, I'm just not sure if I have a good enough foundation to walk on that stage and not make a fool of myself :/

im sorry you are 5'9 155 lbs and you are going to cut to compete???? cut what? not to desincourage you but you have to put more weight in before you think on competing , i mean 5'9 155 lbs and you cant even see your abbs are you planning to compete on -140 lbs???

[JohnRainbo]

im sorry you are 5'9 155 lbs and you are going to cut to compete???? cut what? not to desincourage you but you have to put more weight in before you think on competing , i mean 5'9 155 lbs and you cant even see your abbs are you planning to compete on -140 lbs???

He makes an excellent point. Physique isn't about the lightest dude out there. Tiny guys in physique comps make me chuckle. You have to realise that there's gonna be guys 50 pounds heavier than you with better conditioning. Trying to cut more weight may not be the answer... you may simply be in the wrong shape at this time. Worst case, it will be a good learning experience.

[MookyStick]

Well I guess I'll just skip it.

[JohnRainbo]

Well I guess I'll just skip it.

Well wait now, that's not entirely my intention. I'm just saying it's gonna be harder than you think. Guys are gonna come in better than you and worse than you. You just have to know that going in. You will learn a LOT by doing it.

[MookyStick]

Well wait now, that's not entirely my intention. I'm just saying it's gonna be harder than you think. Guys are gonna come in better than you and worse than you. You just have to know that going in. You will learn a LOT by doing it.

I know I don't really have a chance of placing or anything like that. I just want to do it for the experience and to have a goal to strive towards. But I guess it doesn't make much sense if I'm just gonna end up embarrassing myself..

[anonymous]

I've always said to myself i'd be 175lbs and shredded before i'd ever step on a stage just to make sure i'm not the guy people look at and say "lol wtf is he doing up there" or anything like that. Not that I care what people think, but I wouldn't want to feel inferior to the people up there with me, i'd want to do it to win first time or not.

If you're happy to be that guy, then do it.. personally If I was you I would ride a few bicycles, get upto a good weight being lean and then go into a show with confidence.

[MookyStick]

I've always said to myself i'd be 175lbs and shredded before i'd ever step on a stage just to make sure i'm not the guy people look at and say "lol wtf is he doing up there" or anything like that. Not that I care what people think, but I wouldn't want to feel inferior to the people up there with me, i'd want to do it to win first time or not.

If you're happy to be that guy, then do it.. personally If I was you I would ride a few bicycles, get upto a good weight being lean and then go into a show with confidence.

I just hate the feeling of not accomplishing something I said I was gonna do...despite how random and spontaneous it might have been lol.

I probably won't do this show but I would like to do one in the future. And for now, I know I need to find something fitness related that I can strive towards because I can feel my motivation starting to slip a little. Since the beginning of this year I cut a lot of weight with my destination goal being "get into shape"...now I feel like I've achieved that and I need something else(was considering MMA or some other form of martial art...)...any suggestions?

Thanks guys.

[anonymous]

I just hate the feeling of not accomplishing something I said I was gonna do...despite how random and spontaneous it might have been lol.

I probably won't do this show but I would like to do one in the future. And for now, I know I need to find something fitness related that I can strive towards because I can feel my motivation starting to slip a little. Since the beginning of this year I cut a lot of weight with my destination goal being "get into shape"...now I feel like I've achieved that and I need something else(was considering MMA or some other form of martial art...)...any suggestions?

Thanks guys.

A famous bodybuilder called Victor Richards was asked why he wasn't competing despite being bigger than all the guys in the Mr.Olympia competition at 300lbs lean, 5'9. He said "First you have to compete against yourself".

Maybe try setting yourself target weights at a certain bf% and smash each one leading upto a point where you can compete.

[MookyStick]

A famous bodybuilder called Victor Richards was asked why he wasn't competing despite being bigger than all the guys in the Mr.Olympia competition at 300lbs lean, 5'9. He said "First you have to compete against yourself".

Maybe try setting yourself target weights at a certain bf% and smash each one leading upto a point where you can compete.

That's very true...I'm hoping to soon get a better grasp on that concept and stop comparing myself to others so much.

I think I'm going to totally switch up my training routine and do more stuff geared towards strength...probably for the remainder of this year just to see how it goes. I'm reading Rippetoe's "starting strength" now, hoping it gives me a good foundation to start with. I don't know if I can bring myself to do an all-out "bulk"(due to my fear of getting fat)but I'd like to put on some size(wouldn't we all lol).

Thanks bro

[tinyfrass]

Well I guess I'll just skip it.

I'm 13 weeks out from the show I want to do and I know I am not nearly where my body should be - but that's not stopping me from split two a days as necessary and training 7 days a week. Worst case scenario for me (and you) is that you bust ass and find out a week or two out that I'm (you're) truly not ready.

All you can do is shoot for it knowing it gets you that much closer and you've got an idea of what the prep is like. Then you can reevaluate and head on to the next one.

To see you so easily dissuaded is frustrating - (clearly I'm not men's physique) there are always those blessed with freakishly good genes that don't/won't have to put in nearly as much work as others (like myself)..it should make the journey to get there that much sweeter for you.