1st Figure Competition

[jnuts]

My wife has never done this before, so she's looking for an idea of where she stands. She's doing her first figure competition next weekend. She's been dieting and working out pretty hard for the last few months and has had a trainer for the last month. She's been making good gains since she's been with the trainer. Since we've never done anything like this before, she is kinda wondering what to expect. She currently sits at at 13.5% BF, but expects to be around 12% next weekend. She also plans to do another figure contest at the end of June and expects to have lower bodyfat for that one. I think she looks great, but I'm guessing she's going to have to have a lower BF % to do well in the figure comps. The nice thing about the competition at the end of June is the over 35 class (she's 37). I think that might help her, but we really don't know.

Any thoughts?

I'm going to include a before (January of 2000) pic, a present day (last weekend) and a screen shot of her last months rough diet breakdown.

I guess we are kinda looking for what to expect. I thing we are looking at this weekend to be a good learning experience for the next one. I think she has a chance of doing well in the over 35 category in the end of June if she can keep on the diet.

Thanks for any ideas.

-nuts

(this is the beginning pic)

 

[jnuts]

Here is a current (last week) pic.

 

[jnuts]

Damn...the message board is really choking when I try to upload pics tonight... Here is the before picture.

 

[jnuts]

And here is her diet for the month of may...using some web based software I wrote for her. I guess it's kinda like fitday, though I didn't know fitday existed until a few weeks ago

 

[jnuts]

And the last one - a detail view of one of her days.

 

[jnuts]

Okay... is it always that hard to upload pics? It kept choking on me with 425 errors....

 

[jnuts]

About 125 with 5-5 on the height (I think)

She's been having her BF checked with calipers for the last few months. I think they do 7 spots on that one.

She'd like to lean for these first to contests, just to do it, then try to add some more muscle mass after these first two.

She's much better now than she used to be. She just used to do aerobics until she dropped. Now she's doing a lot more weights.

For now she's just trying to hold on to the muscle she has as she leans out

 

[aurelius]

That´s your wife, huh? Very nice.

You mentioned she wanted more mass. Don´t expect much. Have you ever seen the girls in these competions? Many are former fitness competitors who know their way around the steroid world. If the judges want muscle, she won´t stand a chance.

Doesn´t matter. You´re now the envy of many a married man here I suspect.

 

[new@gettinbig]

I congratulate her on her progress from her before pic...that is great. To compete she is going to have to lose more bodyfat and bring out her shoulders and build some legs. She is a little soft to compete and I would say it is a little early to have her step on stage. I would give it another solid year of training and diet. Go watch a few shows and see. I compete in figure and at the bigger shows the women are coming in around 9%-10% bf...and they are fairly hard.

 

[jnuts]

Folks, points all well taken and thanks for the feedback.

Spats - Water is still going to be guzzled up until the end (now)

New@ - Agreed on the soft. She'd like to come in on a lower bodyfat. She was 17.9% at the beginning of May and was just under 14% last weekend. When she started out she was at 21.9% in Jan. It's steadily coming down and she's maintaing her lean body mass, so that's a good thing.

One thing I'd like to do is change up her diet for the month of Jun. I'm not convinced that the one she is on now is the best possible. (Diets - who ever agrees on them?)

I've been looking at the diet CrumbCake writes about in this thread:

http://boards.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=124559

To me it looks good and was wondering if anybody has had success with it here.

thanks

 

[jnuts]

A couple of corrections, a new pic and some questions.

First, I was in error on what her trainer wanted her to do with regards to water intake - it was a different trainer, with a different girl that has been cutting water. My wife's trainer wanted her to keep drinking a lot of water up until the end. So, it was my mistake on that one.

Her trainer also doesn't always do a diet as drastic as what she's on, but she went to him late into the game and this is what he thought would work for this short of a notice (1 mos). Ref my earlier post about the "crumb cake" thread diet. I'm wondering if this will be better for her energy levels - not sure.

She's beginning to have second thoughts about stepping on stage this weekend. She'd like to have a much lower BF level, and it just doesn't look like it's going to happen - she ended up not having enough time. There is one more contest she'd like to try at the end of June, and with the progress she's made so far, that might be the one to do.

The vibe I'm getting is that she's carrying too much BF for stepping on the stage right now. She really doesn't want to step on stage if she's gonna be the only one looking like that. She'd like to get some experience doing it, but doesn't want to get discouraged in the process.

I'm attaching a pic we just took for any further thoughts.

Thanks for the info so far.

-nuts

 

[makedah]

I just want to say -- that smiley face really creeps me out!!!!

 

[Sassy69]

I also agree w/ the above -- figure has been around for a couple of years now and they are slowly weeding out the "beach bods" more for the "fitness" look. They dont' want the bb muscle look (e.g. thickness) but they are still looking for muscle definition and leanness.

A couple things that tell you that you are near the right bodyfat (11-12%) levels are 1) when you get that rounded look in your shoulders and 2) when you start seeing that big vein running along the inside of your arm.

I'm curious - is the water depletion you are talking about the same one that many bb's use the last 2 days before a comp to "dry out"?

 

[new@gettinbig]

Doing a show is not something she should rush....she wants to be confident and at her very best...I would give it some time...there is plenty of shows and time to get on stage. I agree w/ spatts...if I saw her at the pool I would say she had a nice body, but as far as competing...she needs to bring out some body parts and get some muscle hardness...this can be done with proper diet and training...muscle maturity!!! Go to a few shows and see what figure is all about. Take a look at the muscle and fitness mag...w/ pictures of fitness girls...It takes time, be patient and give it some more time..she is on the right track.

 

[jnuts]

We took the kids to the park today and had a talked about all these things. We are going to go to the contest coming up, then do the one at the end of the month. Hopefully we'll then have an idea on how these things work.

Then, keep a low body fat throughout the summer. When summer ends, hit an adding muscle type of diet and gym routine, until it's time to try and lean down for the next spring/summer.

She'd like to keep working at these things and sooner or later she's going to have to pull the trigger and enter one. The upcoming one is definitely too soon, but she's gonna do it anyway and chalk it up to a learning experience.

She's in this for the long haul and would like to try one out. Any failures/weaknesses that are found will end up fueling her for the next years round of events.

Her diet is something that will really help her when it comes time to start building muscle. Before, she never really ate enough to add any lean mass. With the whole process of getting ready for this show it's been a good learning experience on the importance of diet and exercise. Based on this, tt will be different this time when she goes to try and add muscle - she's accepted the fact that she's going to have to add some BF as the muscle is being added.

Sassy - not sure about the water depletion strategy is that you are talking about. What she's doing is taking taraxatone and drinking her normal amount of water (1-2 gallons) up until the end. I had initially thought her trainer wanted to cut her water intake and wasn't too hip on that idea. I was wrong in his intentions.

New@ - We both think its a bit of a rush for the show, but it's something that she would like to do to get experience/drive to do better on other ones down the road.

She (we) are new to Figure competition thing, so it will be an interesting experience.

 

[jnuts]

Okay, looking forward to the end of jun contest and continuing to lower the BF...

Been searching on the board for ALA information... looks like a lot of people have used it with great success.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[jnuts]

The diet that she's on now is beginning to drive her (and I...) a little crazy. It's been running around 60%P/30%C/10%F (calorie wise) for the diet, but those totals also include a lot of veggies, so the carbs are pretty low. Her energy is really sagging. For the month of Jun I'd really like to change it up to something different. Over the last few weeks, I've been scouring the board and keep going back to the "Crumb Cake" diet in this thread:

http://boards.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=124559&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

It took me forever, but I read through the entire thread and noticed that some women had success with it. The carb totals are still low, but at least she'd have some fat for energy.

Anybody out there that have some other insights/experiences with this diet?

I appreciate all the info and comments so far.

thanks,
-nuts