Staying in Control Mentally AND Physically is The Key to Success at 6 Weeks Out
Congrats. You’ve been dieting smart and training hard and now you are 6 weeks out from your figure competition. You can definitely see and feel changes, and others are seeing the transformation in your physique and confidence as well. You feel great about your success so far, but you still have just over a month to go before your big day.
Yeah, show time is getting close enough for the nerves to set in a bit. It’s okay to get a little anxious, that’s normal, but you should be excited as well. Are you? Remember, contest prep is about progression and fine-turning. Don’t make any drastic changes to something that is currently working.
Cornerstone That Will Make You Or Break You
Your figure posing while you are on stage should come second nature. Proper posing will actually hide your weak areas and highlight your strong body parts. Is that cool or what!?
Yes, you absolutely read that correctly… You can manipulate your physique and create the illusion you want the judges and audience to see by simple posing tactics.
Now, you should know your poses to some degree by this point in your contest prep, but it’s time to get serious and really nail them down and practice your posing every other day at least. However, nothing beats daily practice.
Can you learn posing yourself via videos? Absolutely. You can use instructional videos, contest videos, and even photos of high-ranking amateur and IFBB Figure Pros such as Monica Brant.
If you want to take your posing up a notch, attend a posing class or hire a coach to work with you one-on-one. Having hands on help is really a benefit.
Get Serious About Your Color
You’re 6 weeks out… If you haven’t been tanning yet, you need to start. Part of contest prep and getting the right look, the total package, is having good color. You can’t just start tanning at the last minute and expect to be ready. You have to build a tan slowly over the course of several weeks to months. The longer you allow yourself to build your tan, the deeper and more natural your tan will be.
Keep in mind that the richer you build your base tan, the more deep your color will appear on stage once you apply you skin dye. A good dark tan is the perfect canvas to start applying Pro Tan and/or Jan Tana.
If you don’t tan at all and just apply the skin dye you will have a washed-out look on stage and even can have a yellowish appearance. Contest color is designed to enrich an established tan, not to be used as makeup to fake a good tan.
Now, users of Dream Tan report that no base tan is necessary. However, the judges frown upon Dream Tan due to its lack of consistency. Most competitors don’t know how to apply it properly, and therefore look blotchy on stage.
With any contest color you use it would be wise to use all-natural soaps and deodorants. To bust the myth about tanning products and turning your armpits green, this is simply due to the chemicals in commercial soaps and deodorants altering the skin’s pH. If you use natural products there should be no “chemical reaction” that alters your color to anything but bronze.
Screen Capture Yourself
Break out the camera, iPhone or whatever you use to take pictures. You need to take pics of yourself to see how you look 6 weeks out from your figure competition. Photos allow you to assess your physique and posing so you can see how you really look.
You should take your photos in your figure poses at this point. Take photos of the model pose, front pose, quarter turn right, quarter turn left, and back pose. You’ll need to be able to view and assess your physique from ALL angles, just as the judges will be doing.
What about selfies? It would be best not to hold your smart phone up and try to take self snapshots if at all possible. Now, I do realize that you may not always have access to someone to take those glamorous photos, but when you can, do it. This will allow you to focus on you and your posing, not stabilizing a phone for a clear shot.
Become A Star 6 Weeks Out
Video your walk, figure poses and quarter turns when you are 6 weeks out. Having a clear and action formatted visual of how you look in your poses, how you transition, and how you walk is a great tool to use to improve your presentation. A video gives you a full view of your stage presence and what you need to work on.
Start from the side as if you were walking out on stage, do your T-walk and assume your position, then go through your quarter turns, just as you would if you were on stage. Go through the whole shebang so you have the practice under your belt.
Re-Evaluate Your Program 6 Weeks Out (So Important, Yet So Neglected)
By the time you are 6 weeks out from your figure competition you need to re-evaluate your diet and exercise program. Get your weight and take your stats and compare them to the previous week’s stats. Are they improving? If so great work. Keep doing what’s working.
What, not much change yet? If no great changes have occurred in the last week or two then you need to take a good and hard look at your diet, calories and macros, as well as your cardio and training. You may need to seek the guidance of a figure coach to pull you in through to the homestretch. It’s not too late if you still need to pull things together quickly.
A quick short-term fix to prompt fat loss is to lower your calories 10%, provided they are not below your BMR. In addition lower your complex carbs and replace them with non-starchy veggies. This combination is a powerful duo for extreme fat loss for emergencies. Keep in mind that this is an emergency tactic and should be used for a short amount of time!
Avoid Supplemental Overload 6 Weeks Out (Take ONLY What You Need)
A lot of competitors love their supplements, and for great reasons. Certain supplements help with muscle building; others help with preventing muscle wastage, and some supplements amp-up the metabolism to burn fat faster, some suppresses your appetite, the list goes on and on.
However, some of the supplements you take at the start of your prep, you may not be need at 6 weeks out. Do any of your supplements cause unnecessary water retention? Are you taking a multitude of sports nutrition products, all containing creatine, going over your basic creatine needs?
These are important issues to address. You might implement the use of supplements that target lower body fat more 6 weeks out. Typically, the lower body is the hardest area for female competitors to lean up, and having the right supplements for the job can make all the difference in the world.
Your Figure Prep Solution 6 Weeks Out…
If you are just starting or if you are 6 weeks out… If you are a bit overwhelmed about the whole contest prep process I can help you. You can join over 73,000 others who are taking part in transforming their bodies. Learn what to do and what not to lose fat and get contest-ready.
