Try This Figure Competition Workout Plan
Your figure competition workout plan has to be perfect if you want to hold your own on the stage. Training programs are a dime-a-dozen online. Even so, you need to be able to sift through the mud and find that gem. So, with that in mind, I’m going to give you a few pointers on how to train. These guidelines will help prepare you for hardcore training off-season and even contest prep.
Break-Up Your Figure Workout Plan
Ideally, you want to break your training up into off-season and contest prep mode. The off-season phase allows you to eat more calories. The extra calories fuel your training. Your off-season time is when you focus on your muscle building.
To build muscle you need to train each muscle group once a week. Choose 3-4 exercises per muscle group. Do 3-4 sets in the 8-10 rep range. Keep in mind that your are not building muscle working out in the gym. You are only tearing down your muscle tissue. Your muscles actually grow when you are resting. Therefore, be sure to get your rest time in. Then, when contest prep time comes around you will have the muscle built. Your job then will be to maintain it as yo diet down.
Attack Your Weakest Link
Most people continually train their strongest muscle group. Why not? It’s such an ego boost. However, true athletes train their weakest muscle group to make it a strong body part. If you want to improve your overall physique, you need put 100% focus and dedication into that weak link. Doing so can bring balance to your body.
A word of caution though. Don’t go ballistic and overtrain that lagging muscle group. Trying to overcompensate isn’t the answer. Train it as scheduled, train it hard, and let it rest.
Prepare for Attack
You need to make a plan and attack those weak areas to bring them up to speed. For example, many lifters have weak shoulders. They just don’t measure up to the rest of their physique. To combat that, they should train shoulders at the start of the week, Monday. That allows 100% pure mental and physical energy to go into each rep.
So, if you have weak shoulders your workout for the week could look something like this.
Monday – Shoulders
- Overhead Press – 4 sets of 10 reps
- Rear Delt Rows – 4 sets of 10 reps
- Front Raises – 4 sets of 10 reps
- Lateral Raises – 3 sets of 12 reps
Inside Tips on Your Figure Competition Workout Plan
For training, not much has to be changed between off-season and contest prep. Typically, as you diet down you will lose some strength. That’s normal. Now, when that happens, simply lower the poundage if you have to and hit a couple more reps. Adding some of the Weider Training Principles for contest prep works well too.
