Things You Should Do To Prepare For A Figure Competition

So, you want to prepare for a figure competition? What is your course of action to build muscle, lose body fat, and get muscle definition? Do you cut calories or slice carbs? Do you become a cardio queen and venture onto a full-force cardio program, hitting it hard to burn that stubborn fat?  How to prepare for a figure competition is more than just starving yourself and doing endless hours of cardio. You will be surprised to learn that you can still eat food and not have to live in the gym to get lean, cut and defined for the stage.

Ready, Set A Goal!

Setting goals, blah, blah, blah. You may think this is an unnecessary step and a waste of time, but NOT making a committed goal can be your biggest reason for failure. As cliché as it is, it is true… Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Setting goals doesn’t have to be a written contract outlined like a house deed; it can be as simple as marking out your training and nutrition on a calendar for a quick, daily birds-eye-view. Simply map out a week or two on your calendar and follow it if you want to prepare for a figure competition.

Stick To It Like Glue

Don’t keep changing your mind once you’ve set a goal. Sure, just because you have some goals written down or outlined on your calendar doesn’t mean you will get that to-die-for body. You have to actually follow your plan.

The problem many competitors have with setting goals is they make the decision in their mind and they may even write it down, but they keep changing their minds of what they want on a weekly basis. You have to decide, do you want to prep for a contest or build muscle?  There are no right or wrong answers here and it’s not anyone else’s decision. You have to decide what you want to do and stick to it.

Constantly changing your goals every week will only cause you to lose motivation and lead to frustration. Set a goal and stick to it.

Don’t Just Eat, Eat Balanced Meals

Eating balanced meals is one of the most important aspect you can do to prepare for a figure competition. Most competitors tend to think that a can of tuna or an apple is a meal. Wrong. A meal is a combination of a complete protein and a carbohydrate.

Your body NEEDS nutrients from ALL the macronutrients in order to build hormones, burn fat, build lean muscle tissue, and just keep you healthy and functioning. To keep your energy levels high and to stay motivated, eat several balanced meals throughout the day.

Eat Real and Natural Food

Just ANY food won’t do. You should be feeding your body QUALITY nutrients in the form of natural foods. Far too many competitors rely on processed food-like items in boxes labeled “healthy,” low-fat, low-carb, etc. for fat loss.

There THOUSANDS of synthetic chemicals in processed foods and many of them have carcinogenic properties. The human body isn’t designed to process chemicals to the degree we are putting them in our bodies.

These synthetic chemicals become lodged in your fat stores as toxins and make fat loss an even greater chore. To add to the equation, the amount of toxins trapped in your body makes your body work even harder to purge them, adding stress to your immune system and leaving you open to illnesses and diseases.

For the best quality food eat those that Mother Nature has provided. If you can hunt, pick, gather, or harvest it, you can eat it. More importantly, it would be wise to eat organic as much as possible.

Say Farewell to Skipper

Many competitors think that in order to prepare for a competition they have to starve themselves. Your body relies on food from your meals to repair and build muscle, to keep you healthy, and to burn fat. When you skip meals you miss out on opportunities to burn fat and build muscle.  Missing meals leads to metabolic downgrade.  You need to feed your muscles for them to grow beyond the normal.

Learn The Truth About Carbs

The no-carb craze is still in high-gear. Granted, lowering carbs can have an effect on fat loss to a certain degree, but there’s a certain procedure you have to use to do it correctly to prevent fatigue, burnout, and excess muscle loss.

Too many competitors jump into EXTREME low carbs and burn out in a matter of days. Take the lowering carb process slowly for it to be fully effective.

Cardio Queens Aren’t So Lean

Cardio is fine, provided you are eating the right nutrients to support it. The problem many competitors have when trying to prepare for a competition is that they DRASTICALLY cut their calories AND carbs, and then suddenly jump on an hour of high-intensity cardio a day. This is simply as recipe for disaster because it leads to metabolic downgrade.

Cardio does not need to be an all out torture session. When you eat the correct combination of macronutrients and implement cardio by listening to your body, you will achiever far greater results than going through dieting and cardio abuse.

Wonder Supplements

Many competitors become desperate when they want to lose body fat to prepare for a competition. This can lead to taking “fat burning supplements” with high promises and disappointing results.

Supplement companies prey on your emotions. They know you may be feeling hopeless and despondent. Therefore, they use that opportunity to employ deceptive marketing techniques with misleading before and after pictures, false claims, and a whole host of other marketing tactics used to draw you in, and make you buy their “latest breakthrough supplement.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of effective supplements on the market, but you have to know what they are and how to take them for them to properly work.

Keep In Mind When You Prepare for a Figure Competition…

These are just a ways to prepare for a figure competition. Use them to your advantage.   When you feed your body what it can use for energy and building, you’ll start to see results in as little as a week.  See below and get my FREE Contest Prep Crash Course…