Finally Competed!

[mommymakeover]

People may remember me from a while ago wanting to be a figure competitor. Well this past April I did my first bodybuilding show.

I was one of the people that assumed that you could lift a little weight, lose some weight and be ready to hit the stage in no time. I had NO CLUE what competition meant. But one thing I did know is that I didn't want to look like I didn't belong. I hired one coach and that didn't work out. I lost a whole bunch of weight but hated how I looked. I just looked skinny and bleh. I knew that was not how I wanted to step on stage. I did a lot of reading of the boards here and was seeing the same thing over and over again “Build a base”. So I decided to do a bulk, but I ended up putting on a ton of fat because again I was clueless and thought I could just stuff my face. I also decided I wanted to do more than quarter turns and changed my mind to do bodybuilding. I found my new coach and proudly proclaimed I wanted to do a show in like 4 months time while sitting at 32% bodyfat. He was nice and gentle about it but I suspect he was laughing inside thinking, “uhhhh...no”.

This was very important. I think a lot of people either won't or aren't tactful enough to tell people the truth about their goals. I know it's probably difficult because that's money they may lose, they want to get more money out of the person, or they don't want to dash someones dreams. But I've watched too many shows in person and online where people are on stage and you're embarrassed for them! I went into this with an open mind and knew I didn't want to be that person. So, I swallowed my pride and put off multiple shows because I had so much work to do.

One thing I've always done was lift very very heavy(relative to me), progressively, and intuitively. I'm a little OCD so I have many workout books that chronicle my progress. I like order, so I've always started with 8 reps for how many ever sets and then stayed at it until I could pump out 15-18 easily before moving up in weight. I also became very in-tuned to my body and relied a lot on bio-feedback. For instance I like to squat but I have a janky hip joint and while at the time it may not be bothering me, I can kinda tell if today is not a good day to squat even though nothing is currently wrong. The one time I went against this I hurt myself something bad and pulled a hip flexor (doing RDL). Same thing with the weight. If something in me is saying, “I know you did this last week but today is not the day.” or “Dooon't even try to lift that.” I tend to back off. Again the one time I ignored that I ended up with a 45lbs dumbell crashing towards my face and screaming for help.

Because I do have a small child my gym time is limited. I have about 45 minutes to an hour to spend. Depending on the times I can get her into the daycare there. So I have to focus and maximize my time in the gym. No socializing, no standing around admiring myself in the mirror. The only time I did that was when I practiced my posing. And I am in the gym 5 days a week.

Another thing that was and still is extremely important is that my new coach was not only a competitor himself but also had academics and scientific knowledge as a foundation. He also prepped other people. It wasn't just some random personal trainer at the gym. This person not only guided me nutritionally and physically but also taught the ins and out of posing and nuances that you probably wouldn't pick up from just a random trainer at the gym. And most of all they were flexible and worked with me, it wasn't a dictatorship.

But I also did my own learning. That was very important. I roamed a lot of message boards, read research papers, looked at instructional videos, watched educational videos, listened to podcast, read books on nutrition, bio-mechanics, biology, and so on. I actually find it all extremely fascinating. So when my coach was speaking to me I actually understood what they were talking about and could discuss. I also researched physiques, posing, and watched countless hours of shows. I think I was practicing posing before I even knew what show I was gonna settle down and do. I even knew HOW I wanted to do a posing routine. I didn't want to just do mandatories to music. I wanted to make it something beautiful.

Prep was prep. My coach likes to keep people fed so rather than starving. He gave me numbers and I was free to create my own meal plan using him as a second pair of eyes, so I had a lot of variety and mixed and matched things. I created deficits through energy expenditure. I've heard of women eating like 800 calories a day. I can't imagine. I did have to cut calories and I did get hungry but I wasn't starving. I did do cardio which was monitored. We started off slow and depending on progress made adjustments. I was able to lift a full capacity and even went up during prep literally until the last couple of weeks before, as my bodyfat got into the lower teens my energy levels started lowering. I got a good hand slapping from my coach for the dumbbell incident. When I first started prep, my body was like “WTH are you doing to me?!!” I think I was in a walking coma for a week. It was like pregnancy. At first your sick and feel like crap, then when things leveled out you feel great and then toward the end you start winding down again.

I carb cycled, I guess you could say, and timed my refeeds around leg day or back day and made use of that extra glycogen! It wasn't anything crazy. Really just carb ups. I was first doing them every two weeks then every week. And the night before my show after an eval to see if I was full or not I was able to go to Ihop. Ihop was my BFF during prep. I know the waitresses were baffled seeing this little thing put away these syrup drenched pancakes, waffles, and what not week after week. We also reached a certain point where the numbers didn't matter anymore, it was about how I was looking. So who know how low in Bodyfat% I actually was at towards the end.

But beyond that I listened to my coach and was honest with him. He had to talk me off the ledge sometime due to my OCDness during prep and post competition, but other than that its been a smooth ride.

Funny times when I was told not only did I need to tan a bit but I'd have to get spray tanned. I'm like. I'm already black. Lucky I listened because those stage lights will wash you out. And I'm pretty dark already.

The most important thing for me was stepping on stage looking the absolutely best I could. I had no idea who was going to be on stage with me. And even if I did look better then anyone on stage I wanted to impress. And I did. I won the womens novice, womens overall, got my pro-card and won best female poser. But the best part is that I got excellent feedback from the judges and people in the audience. People came up to me and told me I looked great, my proportions were great, my posing routine was beautiful. Judges only critique, which was obvious, was that since I was in the pro ranks(SNBF) now I needed to put on more size and get leaner(which I can do). This is also a testimony that you think you have all this muscle and then when you lose that nice layer of fat your like, “oh....that's it?”. So I have a lot of work to do for this off season.

I was also told it was obvious that I was training smart and to keep doing whatever I was doing. Sometimes being OCD can work for you. Haha.

Even though I may not have the same success next time I'll still do it giving 100%. A lot of it depends on who shows up on stage with you. You never know what you up against until you step on stage so its best to try to be your absolute best. If that means passing a show date for a later one. Do it! But all in all it was fun!

It was a wonderful experience with a wonderful org. Everyone was great. The girls I competed with were awesome. Backstage was so much fun. I can't wait to do it again.

Now into the off season. Again playing it by ear. Might do a show later in the year, maybe next year.

[Miranda]

an awesomely excellent post

[kimm4]

What a great story and awesome experience for you! I hope that women who are thinking about competing will read this and really think about how much work goes into prepping for the stage.

Congrats, you looked beautiful!

[Lou1se]

Congratulations on your wins MM! That was a great read! I really love the fact you had a lot of fun!

I expect you have also made a lot of good connections and friends. The next round can't come soon enough lol

Quote = "I won the womens novice, womens overall, got my pro-card and won best female poser. But the best part is that I got excellent feedback from the judges and people in the audience. People came up to me and told me I looked great, my proportions were great, my posing routine was beautiful. Judges told me the obvious that since I was in the pro ranks(SNBF) now I needed to put on more size and get leaner(which I can do). Its also a testimony that you think you have all this muscle and then when you lose that nice layer of fat your like, “oh....that's it?” But I was told it was obvious that I was training smart and to keep doing whatever I was doing."

[stephanielynn76]

First of all, you look incredible! You deserve all the accolades you achieved in your competition. Hard work pays off and you are the proof!!

Thanks for sharing your experiences here... very personal and informative.... and inspiring!!!!

[mommymakeover]

This is what I get for trying to write out something when I'm sleepy. Errors galore. My show was this past April not August *D'oh!*. Edit Edit Edit!

And yes Lou1se I did make a lot of contacts and new friends. That was a huge bonus!

[erinlee01]

Great write-up! This should be stickied for women who are considering competing to read.

[lynore]

Wonderful post. Inspiring and from the heart. Best of luck to you.

[SweetEsquire]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!! On both competing and your wins! And thank you for sharing this with us...

Totall agree that this should be stickied - as someone who is contemplating competing, I'm so happy to have read this. Reading it was immensely helpful and encouraging.

[mellie369]

Awesome job!! Thanks for sharing! Very inspirational!

[freebirdmac]

Best post of the year! Congrats on your success and the best for the future!

[5more]

Congrats!!! You've inspired me.

[thepowerwithin]

Thanks for sharing and keeping it real. Best of luck with your future plans.

[Sarah97]

Great write-up! This should be stickied for women who are considering competing to read.

Agreed. Totally inspirational, especially as a mother!

[mommymakeover]

I also wanted to add that I absolutely be telling a different story if I had try to do this on my own. Having a coach was vital. It is my number 1 reccomendation. And also don't keep yourself blind. Because I did my own learning I was able to determine that I was working with someone I could trust. He also never pushed supplements on me or told me to do any weird training protocols. He also shared with me his experiences and mishaps and successes. And if I questioned something he respected me enough to explain and always gave me an option. I think people should spend the extra money on a coach, especially for their first time. I mean you spend money on suits, supps, food, why not?

[AshBob87]

Wow what an amazing read. A massive congratulations!! That's fantastic and really well done, I admire all the hard work and determination. Your trainer sounds perfect too, nice to get insight from him who actually had real experience on all of that.

[Monicka8311]

Thanks for the post! It was a great read and I think it will be a lot of help and motivation for many of us!

[sy2502]

Thank you for posting this! Last night I was wondering if maybe I hadn't been a pain by putting you on the spot about making a thread, but I am so glad you did it. There is such a lack of female body builders, I personally don't know any, the only ones are on this site. If I could sit you down and pick your brain for... oh I don't know... 10 hours...

I'd be curious to hear what the people around you (friends and family) reacted, did you get support from them? How did you balance your personal and social life with your competition prep?

[mommymakeover]

Thank you for posting this! Last night I was wondering if maybe I hadn't been a pain by putting you on the spot about making a thread, but I am so glad you did it. There is such a lack of female body builders, I personally don't know any, the only ones are on this site. If I could sit you down and pick your brain for... oh I don't know... 10 hours...

I'd be curious to hear what the people around you (friends and family) reacted, did you get support from them? How did you balance your personal and social life with your competition prep?

There is a lack of female BB. There were only a handful of us. Of course there were 50,000 figure and bikini girls .
One of the expediters told us to keep female BB alive and it was good to see us. She said she was about to retire and someone has to keep it from dying.

Regarding the people around me. Almost everyone supported me and was totally excited. I got made fun of at work for the way I was eating but it was all in good fun. My co-workers were great. They would make sure if we went out for lunch that it was somewhere I could find something to eat. There were cracks about how skinny I was getting from friends and family, again joking. Some people that didn't know what I was doing thought I might be getting sick LOL. But ultimately everyone was extremely supporting and encouraging. I suspect part of that is because there was a novelty aspect of it that excited them. My mother in law doesn't really understand it or why I was doing it but she offered words of support here and there. My father in law kept reminding me to not get on steroids *L*. And my father, while telling me he was proud of me, told me not to get "too big" to which I replied, "I'm going to get as big as my body will allow and no I'm not going to turn into Ronnie Coleman."

But I absolutely could not have done this if it wasn't for my husband. Prepping for a show becomes a very selfish path. You have to eat funny, your tired, you get cranky, you have to be working out, etc. He took over primary responsibilities for the munchkin. Got her dressed in the mornings, took her school if I couldn't or needed extra sleep. Took care of her while I went to posing practice or went to do cardio. If I was having a hard time or exhausted he would take her out of the house and give me some alone time to just relax and veg. He helped me with household chores and was okay with fending for himself for dinner. And he did have to suffer some neglect because as the show got closer my time got more focused and between working a full time job, being in the gym 5 days a week and having to do cardio I had almost no time. I also flipped out a couple of times at stuff because I was hungry, tired, and wanted to bath in a box of donuts. He took it in stride. He was absolutely great!

I had to get on a very strict schedule. I still had to work full time at full capacity, I still had to be a mom, and still be a wife, still had to get chores done, went to church. Life didn't stop because I was in prep. I was able to meet my social obligations. I don't have a lot of friends that need to go hang out and party so I didn't have that problem. I went to family functions without being a dork and making a huge deal about anything. I planned things out so I could eat fairly normal without it being detrimental. I didn't make a big deal about anything, "look at me everyone I'm doing a bodybuilding show". I actually tried to be humble about it and didn't really talk about it that much unless people asked about something, "why are you so skinny girl?!".

The only "negative" if you want to call it that is that people seemed to think I suddenly became a fitness and nutrition expert. I did let people know what I learned and my experiences. I would also try to share what I know to help someone. But people were coming out of the woodwork at me with their weight loss problems. It was flattering at first but then it started getting annoying because I couldn't understand why people just kept thinking I suddenly had all these credentials. And they didn't seem to understand the "pain" I was going through to look how I look.

"Ohh, I want abs like yours, what kinda of ab exercises do you do"..." none. I just lift heavy weights. The abs have to keep me stable" *blink*.

"Ooh I want to get 'toned' like you, what do you do?"..."Okay, well not only do I pull some heavy a** weight every day. But I wake up at 5:00 in the morning and do 45 minutes of cardio and eat grilled chicken and kale for lunch." *blink* "Oh I can't lift too heavy I'll bulk up" *I blink*

"I'm trying to get my tummy flat. Should I cut out red meat"..."I eat a steak almost every day for dinner and sometimes I have a steak salad for lunch. Stop over eating, lift weights, and do some cardio " *blink*

"I want legs like yours, do you do the elliptical. " ..."Yes for cardio, but I also deadlift and squat almost 200 pounds" *blink*

It was almost like they were expecting me to say, "Giiiirl all I did was cut out soda pop and do Zumba on the weekends." I got to the point where I told people flat out, "You don't want to do and won't do what I'm doing to look like how I do. Trust me."

But its not their fault. People don't understand what it takes and the mental fortitude you have to have to do this. And its taxing. I mean sometimes I came home, stumbled into the door and just mumble to my family that I'm going to bed and they had to fend for themselves and just barely made it to the bed before I would out like a light. I had just enough energy and brain power to get through work and give it my all at the gym that day and then I had nothing left. I'm not gonna lie, prep can suck especially when you've never done it before(I heard it gets easier). And luckily I had people close to me that understood that.

[Monicka8311]

"Ohh, I want abs like yours, what kinda of ab exercises do you do"..." none. I just lift heavy weights. The abs have to keep me stable" *blink*.

"Ooh I want to get 'toned' like you, what do you do?"..."Okay, well not only do I pull some heavy a** weight every day. But I wake up at 5:00 in the morning and do 45 minutes of cardio and eat grilled chicken and kale for lunch." *blink* "Oh I can't lift too heavy I'll bulk up" *I blink*

"I'm trying to get my tummy flat. Should I cut out red meat"..."I eat a steak almost every day for dinner and sometimes I have a steak salad for lunch. Stop over eating, lift weights, and do some cardio " *blink*

"I want legs like yours, do you do the elliptical. " ..."Yes for cardio, but I also deadlift and squat almost 200 pounds" *blink*

It was almost like they were expecting me to say, "Giiiirl all I did was cut out soda pop and do Zumba on the weekends." I got to the point where I told people flat out, "You don't want to do and won't do what I'm doing to look like how I do. Trust me."

= Priceless

[MelnCrash]

= Priceless

I agree!

Well done OP!! Very inspiring!

[MaliaBot]

= Priceless

Right??? Love it.

Thanks for the post, really great.

[Lou1se]

haha love it! Hilarious account

You are an inspiration MM!

Had a look at your competition pic, wow!!

You are gorgeous

[ten2go]

CONGRATULATIONS! You look fabulous! Though I never plan on competing (in anything, LOL) you are an inspiration! How very exciting for you!

[Kricket09]

Great post. Exciting and inspiring, Congratulations!

[wakechica]

Brilliant post, thank you for sharing

[sarasunnysideup]

People may remember me from a while ago wanting to be a figure competitor. Well this past April I did my first bodybuilding show.

I was one of the people that assumed that you could lift a little weight, lose some weight and be ready to hit the stage in no time. I had NO CLUE what competition meant. But one thing I did know is that I didn't want to look like I didn't belong. I hired one coach and that didn't work out. I lost a whole bunch of weight but hated how I looked. I just looked skinny and bleh. I knew that was not how I wanted to step on stage. I did a lot of reading of the boards here and was seeing the same thing over and over again “Build a base”. So I decided to do a bulk, but I ended up putting on a ton of fat because again I was clueless and thought I could just stuff my face. I also decided I wanted to do more than quarter turns and changed my mind to do bodybuilding. I found my new coach and proudly proclaimed I wanted to do a show in like 4 months time while sitting at 32% bodyfat. He was nice and gentle about it but I suspect he was laughing inside thinking, “uhhhh...no”.

This was very important. I think a lot of people either won't or aren't tactful enough to tell people the truth about their goals. I know it's probably difficult because that's money they may lose, they want to get more money out of the person, or they don't want to dash someones dreams. But I've watched too many shows in person and online where people are on stage and you're embarrassed for them! I went into this with an open mind and knew I didn't want to be that person. So, I swallowed my pride and put off multiple shows because I had so much work to do.

One thing I've always done was lift very very heavy(relative to me), progressively, and intuitively. I'm a little OCD so I have many workout books that chronicle my progress. I like order, so I've always started with 8 reps for how many ever sets and then stayed at it until I could pump out 15-18 easily before moving up in weight. I also became very in-tuned to my body and relied a lot on bio-feedback. For instance I like to squat but I have a janky hip joint and while at the time it may not be bothering me, I can kinda tell if today is not a good day to squat even though nothing is currently wrong. The one time I went against this I hurt myself something bad and pulled a hip flexor (doing RDL). Same thing with the weight. If something in me is saying, “I know you did this last week but today is not the day.” or “Dooon't even try to lift that.” I tend to back off. Again the one time I ignored that I ended up with a 45lbs dumbell crashing towards my face and screaming for help.

Because I do have a small child my gym time is limited. I have about 45 minutes to an hour to spend. Depending on the times I can get her into the daycare there. So I have to focus and maximize my time in the gym. No socializing, no standing around admiring myself in the mirror. The only time I did that was when I practiced my posing. And I am in the gym 5 days a week.

Another thing that was and still is extremely important is that my new coach was not only a competitor himself but also had academics and scientific knowledge as a foundation. He also prepped other people. It wasn't just some random personal trainer at the gym. This person not only guided me nutritionally and physically but also taught the ins and out of posing and nuances that you probably wouldn't pick up from just a random trainer at the gym. And most of all they were flexible and worked with me, it wasn't a dictatorship.

But I also did my own learning. That was very important. I roamed a lot of message boards, read research papers, looked at instructional videos, watched educational videos, listened to podcast, read books on nutrition, bio-mechanics, biology, and so on. I actually find it all extremely fascinating. So when my coach was speaking to me I actually understood what they were talking about and could discuss. I also researched physiques, posing, and watched countless hours of shows. I think I was practicing posing before I even knew what show I was gonna settle down and do. I even knew HOW I wanted to do a posing routine. I didn't want to just do mandatories to music. I wanted to make it something beautiful.

Prep was prep. My coach likes to keep people fed so rather than starving. He gave me numbers and I was free to create my own meal plan using him as a second pair of eyes, so I had a lot of variety and mixed and matched things. I created deficits through energy expenditure. I've heard of women eating like 800 calories a day. I can't imagine. I did have to cut calories and I did get hungry but I wasn't starving. I did do cardio which was monitored. We started off slow and depending on progress made adjustments. I was able to lift a full capacity and even went up during prep literally until the last couple of weeks before, as my bodyfat got into the lower teens my energy levels started lowering. I got a good hand slapping from my coach for the dumbbell incident. When I first started prep, my body was like “WTH are you doing to me?!!” I think I was in a walking coma for a week. It was like pregnancy. At first your sick and feel like crap, then when things leveled out you feel great and then toward the end you start winding down again.

I carb cycled, I guess you could say, and timed my refeeds around leg day or back day and made use of that extra glycogen! It wasn't anything crazy. Really just carb ups. I was first doing them every two weeks then every week. And the night before my show after an eval to see if I was full or not I was able to go to Ihop. Ihop was my BFF during prep. I know the waitresses were baffled seeing this little thing put away these syrup drenched pancakes, waffles, and what not week after week. We also reached a certain point where the numbers didn't matter anymore, it was about how I was looking. So who know how low in Bodyfat% I actually was at towards the end.

But beyond that I listened to my coach and was honest with him. He had to talk me off the ledge sometime due to my OCDness during prep and post competition, but other than that its been a smooth ride.

Funny times when I was told not only did I need to tan a bit but I'd have to get spray tanned. I'm like. I'm already black. Lucky I listened because those stage lights will wash you out. And I'm pretty dark already.

The most important thing for me was stepping on stage looking the absolutely best I could. I had no idea who was going to be on stage with me. And even if I did look better then anyone on stage I wanted to impress. And I did. I won the womens novice, womens overall, got my pro-card and won best female poser. But the best part is that I got excellent feedback from the judges and people in the audience. People came up to me and told me I looked great, my proportions were great, my posing routine was beautiful. Judges only critique, which was obvious, was that since I was in the pro ranks(SNBF) now I needed to put on more size and get leaner(which I can do). This is also a testimony that you think you have all this muscle and then when you lose that nice layer of fat your like, “oh....that's it?”. So I have a lot of work to do for this off season.

I was also told it was obvious that I was training smart and to keep doing whatever I was doing. Sometimes being OCD can work for you. Haha.

Even though I may not have the same success next time I'll still do it giving 100%. A lot of it depends on who shows up on stage with you. You never know what you up against until you step on stage so its best to try to be your absolute best. If that means passing a show date for a later one. Do it! But all in all it was fun!

It was a wonderful experience with a wonderful org. Everyone was great. The girls I competed with were awesome. Backstage was so much fun. I can't wait to do it again.

Now into the off season. Again playing it by ear. Might do a show later in the year, maybe next year.

Thank you so much for sharing!

[TheAmazon]

LOVE THE bit about the zumba and cutting out soda...it's really just THAT easy....

Congrats and best of luck in future shows!

[sy2502]

LOVE THE bit about the zumba and cutting out soda...it's really just THAT easy....

Congrats and best of luck in future shows!

Unfortunately it's true, I have 3 or 4 colleagues that, at regular intervals, tell me how much they like my physique, how much they'd like to look like that. Every single time I tell them my exercise routine and nutrition, and you can totally see the look of incomprehension. Usually it's because their heads are so full of the mainstream fitness crap that they can't fit what I tell them into what they know. I used to put a lot of effort in talking to them, but now I change subject, because I have already told them enough times, what they do is up to them, and if they don't want to do it, that's fine, not my problem.

[TheAmazon]

Unfortunately it's true, I have 3 or 4 colleagues that, at regular intervals, tell me how much they like my physique, how much they'd like to look like that. Every single time I tell them my exercise routine and nutrition, and you can totally see the look of incomprehension. Usually it's because their heads are so full of the mainstream fitness crap that they can't fit what I tell them into what they know. I used to put a lot of effort in talking to them, but now I change subject, because I have already told them enough times, what they do is up to them, and if they don't want to do it, that's fine, not my problem.

yeah I bet it especially blows your mind when they complim,ent you on your arms or legs or something, then turn around and say how theirs are huge ,muscular and disgusting.

At this point I"m uusally like, do me a favor and try to pinch some fat above your knee...feel like muscle?