10 weeks out and need a little help!

[shugga]

Hi everyone! I am currently 10 weeks away from my first figure comp and I think I need a little help. I have posted on here for a few weeks, and have found y'alls advice incredibly helpful. Not to be repetitive, but want to give my stats prior to question. I'm 34, 5'2, 134 lbs, 13.8 %bf. Basically I look like I need to for the time I am at. I recently dropped a bit of bf that made a HUGE difference in appearance. I do not log a diet or w/o every day, as I am unable to get online like I need to-to keep up w/ it. First...I don't think I am eating enough. I am afraid I will lose too much muscle in the next 10 weeks. Avg. day is: Isopure low carb shake around 7AM, 3-5 slices of white roasted turkey 7AM, 2 cups of coffee w/ Splenda. I do cardio at 6 AM (45-60 min of eliptical while I watch All My Children!). Gym for weights at 9 AM. 3-5 slices of turkey @ 11 & Protein bar. 5 egg whites & 1 whole egg around noon, and one oatmeal pancake. 2 PM-4 oz chicken b. & 1 c broccoli or asparagus. 5 PM-lean (96-4 or 98-2%) meatloaf ( cooked w/ oatmeal & egg whites, 1/4 onion) and green veggie. 7-8 PM Isopure protein shake. Sometimes I have another oatmeal pancake w/ nat. pb. I have low blood sugar and get quite shaky-that always helps.
Second ???...In attempting to rid myself of pregnancy ass & belly (which are the trouble spots), I occasionally do more cardio in the PM. Bad idea? Over the last week I have dropped about 5 lb just by increasing water and cutting cream out of coffee. I have a tendency to look almost skeletal in the face when my bf gets below 15%.
Currently taking Clen 2 wks on 2 off, e,c,a stack in off weeks. Recently finished taking T3.
Biggest problem is area about 2 inches under belly button. Weighed 208 at birth of last child and that area is like loose panty hose. Just ordered Yohimburn a few days ago and hope it works on that area and upper ass area. Bottom looks like a box at present time.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Sassy69]

Very soon I would toss out the protein bar. I would also look to getting rid of the coffee. The idea is to have an extremely clean diet as you approach your show. You can decide what you want cut out based on your habits & your progress, but I've always been told to cut out the diet soda, coffee, etc. as I get close to a show.

I'm still going to suggest that you put your meals into fitday.com so you know really what you are eating. Doesn't have to be every day, but if you feel you aren't getting enough protein, then you should quantify that.

You should be drinking about your weight (lb) in oz of water.

What was your t3 cycle like -- how long, how much did you take, ramp up / ramp down?

As far as dealing w/ that loose skin -- either saran wrap or a neoprene body wrap (about $15 at Target). Rub on the Yohimburn, or Preparation H, cover it in your wrap & do your cardio in it. Hell, I also sleep in that (not sweaty after cardio, but the wrap w/ Prep H). This will tighten your skin as you are losing bodyfat.

Legs & ass -- I don't know what your muscle shape is now, but I've got some decent amount of muscle but it needs to be defined. I'm not doing big power moves anymore. Instead, I've gotten my best results (got my biceps to peak & also hamstring development) doing half range reps, like 21's w/ an EZ bar (standing curls) and also same approach on the lying leg curl. And now same thing w/ things like the leg extension -- mid - to -top of the range, hold at the top for a 1-2 count, controlled drop to about half way, back to the top, hold. Then bottom to mid range and then full range.

And again, depending on how you are tightening up as you get closer, I've always had to do 2 x / day cardio, at least from 5 weeks out to show week. I'm still trying to get my hips to go down so I know I'm going to need the 2x/day, no question.

 

[shugga]

Thanks so much for your help! T3 was 12.5-25-50, to 25-12.5 (did that make sense?) for only 2 weeks. Husband called it "pyramid"?!?! I'd just as soon not mess w/ that anymore. I have a good deal of muscle-especially in legs. Really looking to maintain & define. Had a competitor/friend check me out tonight and she & her hubby said I was right on target. I may just be freaking myself out due to inexperience. I sure do appreciate your input. Thanks!!!!!

 

[Sassy69]

Sounds like you are doing good. Since you are in the ballpark now, you need to not worry too much about the bodyfat numbers, but instead start focusing on how you 'look'. Are you cutting in the right places? If not, I'd look at exercises that help to bring out the definition of your muscle, because as you are now no longer on a diet tha would support building, you really can't "build" anymore. You need to get the definition to pop and getting lean. What I see in the winning competitors is:

Shape:
- 6 pack abs
- not too vascular
- some muscle definition, but no striations
- long lean muscles. - i.e. a giant set of quads will throw off the symmetry. Instead you want long & lean w/ good sweep, but always long & lean
- just an odd thought here, though I've never heard it from a trainer specifically for contest prep (though never heard it not mentioned explicitly for contest prep) is Pilates. ... long & lean.
- Excellent delts
- Calves
- high & tight ass -- no saggage or lines when u look from behind. That's why you see lots of girls doing sort of contorted standing w/ their ass sticking out exaggeratedly - that's to get rid of the line where your butt would 'hang' when y ou stand up straight.
- when you pose lock your legs straight to get the definition to pop
- As you are prepping watch your proportion top to bottom.

Looks:
- good makeup
- good hair -- I've seen girls with amazing bodies but the hair just looked like no attention was paid to it -- this isn't bodybuilding -- this is a damn beauty pageant!
- SMILE SMILE SMILE
- excellent posing -- if you learn a particular way to pose which, say for side qtr turns you put one side's arm out further than then other & the judges say "Arms down & to your sides, Ladies" -- then some girls who have only learned that one way, are lost. Practice all the different stances you see so you can be ready to go into whatever they require at that show. If you go to any of the contest results sites and look at the different poses, you will see what I mean - there are a million diff ways to do it. Practice all of them & see how you look doing each so you can easily adapt any of them & know what you are doing.
- Walk with grace (don't trip! and keep SMILING)
- Graceful transitions in your qtr turns
- Acknowledge the audience & the judges EVERY time you are called up or complete your qtr turns. (This is like a little curtsey & a raised hand to acknowledge, first which competitor you are, and second when you complete your actions, that you are done.)
- Suits- girls who have excellent abs may look fatter in the 1-piece suits because the abs have a layer over them. On the 1-piece, you want your abs to really stand out, show the depth & 'full muscle bellies' - but on the 2-piece suit, its covered, so the girls w/ no abs may actually come out looking better. So if you have the 6-pack, make sure you suck it in on the 1-piece. Again, look at yourself from every angle (and in good lighting, better yet, stark harsh lighting like stage lighting) in your suits and see how you look. Better yet, video tape it and critique as you go.

Sounds like you are on track!

-

 

[shugga]

Did you ever know that you're my hero?
Ya know...I never thought of videotaping. Great idea! Doing suits this week.
One big problem. I have a torn rotator cuff (sp?). My delts DO stand out, but I am in so much freakin pain-MRI shows I need surgery-don't want to do it (chicken). I'm waiting till after my comp to even consider it. I'm afraid I'll lose delt size/def as I am not able to do all the exercises I was previously doing. Any suggestions?

 

[gollieth2]

My advice would be this, at this point cardio in your fat burning hart rate 60 min at wake a nd 60 be fore bed, wait a little if can for weights, get some some meals in you. You should be having egg whites, chick breast, fish period.. At least 1.5 grams / pound of lean body mass. Vegies, brocc, asparagas, snap peas, green beans, 1-2 cups/meal. Carbs, oatmeal, yams, white potato, first three meals. six meals per day. Gear seems ok, be careful with t3, maybe through in some var for keeping and building lean. Suggest hydro testing for body comp every 2 weeks at this point, this is what will keep you on track... Good luck, im sure you will do fine......

 

[Sassy69]

Var might help w/ the rotator cuff, though I'm not going to encourage self-medication... just a thought. As far as cardio, at 10 weeks out I would build up to something like 2 hrs of cardio / day but not immediately. You would want to adjust that in response to your leanness as you go. If you start looking too gaunt & notice that you may be losign muscle to it, then cut it back. The cardio I'm talking about is a slow pace - say speed 3, incline 8 on a treadmill. Not HIIT or anything for 1+ hrs.

 

[psychedout]

2 hours a day of cardio seems pretty excessive. You advocate that much though?

 

[The Shadow]

Im sorry.....I got distracted at Sassy's "high and tight ass" comment

 

[Sassy69]

2 hours a day of cardio seems pretty excessive. You advocate that much though?

When we discuss what & how we do cardio, it is *VERY* important to note 2 things -- it is goal-specific and there is no "one way" to do it.

My comment re: 2 hrs of cardio is VERY EXPLICITLY for the purpose of competition prep. I don't have huge amounts of experience in competition prep, though I've done 2 shows, prepped for one, worked with 4 different trainers who have trained people on everything from a local level to national & IFBB level. Depending the person prepping for the show -- how they hold their weight, how they respond to training & diet and also their level of experience prepping (i.e. the more times you train your body to respond to targeted contest prep, the less you need to do extreme work and the more experience you have with optimized tweaking of diet / training).

Most of the people here are very new to competition and getting your body prepped the first few times requires that you get your body, including subQ water, glycogen, etc. off. This doesn't necessarily happen your first time around if you've never gone through the exercise of shedding all that at least once before. In other words, if you are not coming from even an off season of some bulking or non-dieting, unless you have already trained your body to be extremely lean, it often needs to go through at least one round of some extreme work to cut *all* the excess off in order to perform as a seasoned competitor.

I have not done a sequence of shows where I've done the initial prep, done a show, maintained & tweaked & showed again. So my experience is every time I've prepped for a show, I'm essentially coming from a newbie state where I have a bunch of well-established fat on me and it needs to be stripped off. The intial stripping is done w/ several weeks of diet & training. Mostly diet. Then when we start getting to the point where the excess is off and we are now starting to cut & define and start manipulating the body to look a certain way at a certain time of day on that show date, things like carb-cycling and increased cardio come into play. For me, in every case, I cannot achieve the cut w/ only training & diet. Not even w/ 1 session of cardio / day. It takes 2.

Me personally, I'm working w/ a trainer right now who advocates working up to 2 hrs of cardio / day for a show. At the moment I'm about 6 weeks out. I'm not cut yet, but leaning out very nicely. I do 40 min cardio on the treadmill at speed 3, incline 8, in the morning and after training at night. As I need, I will increase this by 5 min about every 3-4 days, maxing at 2 hrs/day UNLESS I start to look gaunt, at which point I am doing more cardio than my diet will support (i.e. I'm losing muscle).

I don't advocate 2 hrs of cardio / day as a maintenance program. God no. Unless you have a specific time frame & goal in mind, I advocate a changing routine of cardio that you enjoy and can fit into your life style and gets you the results you need. Could be HIIT for 6 weeks, could be some cardio classes, whatever.

But the training, diet & cardio are SPECIFIC TO YOUR GOALS.