Prep update and progress pics

Hello and sorry for being an AWOL blogger! Life keeps getting in the way, dammit! Just a quick one for you today – a little update on bodybuilding prep and some progress pics.

So, prep is trucking along nicely. I am still loving my training, and not minding the dieting too much at this early stage. Training is still as hard and as heavy as we can manage, looking something like this:

M cardio, abs
T legs
W shoulders, cardio, abs
T arms, cardio
F off
S chest, cardio, abs
S back

Although I sometimes shake things up a bit – like today, a Bank Holiday here in the UK and what better to do on a Bank Holiday than AN EXTRA TRAINING SESSION? So I hooked up with my coach and we did a smasher of a shoulder session and some cheeky biceps too.

Diet is nothing to write home about at this stage, but I am slowly turning the screw and watching new lines and striations (and baggy clothing) appear on a weekly basis. It’s all good, although I’m feeling that itch which means it’s time to step things up a notch and see even more progress. As always, it’s a balance between coming in on time, not too soon and of course not too late!

I know I owe you a Notch Watch installment and that’s on its way. I’m nearly out of notches though! I’ll be back soon with something a bit more detailed and interesting (any requests? Just leave a comment…) but, for now, here are some piccies taken yesterday after my back workout.



Peace out.

Prep update and progress pics is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Notch Watch, chapter 2 (and some progress pics)

It’s been a while since the first installment of Notch Watch. Since the whole point is to watch the notches, shall we take a look?

Here’s the original pic, from early January, where I clocked in at notch-level 4.

Today, I dug out the same top and attempted to take a picture of my own waist in the mirror (how DO “kids today” take pictures of themselves in mirrors using their iPhones? I just can’t make it work #generationgap). The result, after 7 weeks of hard training and gentle dieting? Easily another notch. Here I am on notch-level 5. I’ll take it!

Fame has gone to thefitdog‘s oversized square head. After your comments on his post yesterday, he is convinced that everyone wants to see or hear from him on a regular basis. So, here he is with his own version of notch-watch (yep, I’d kill for that waspish waist, too. On the flipside, he has no ab definition whatsoever).

And, just to make this post even more pic-heavy, here are a couple of progress/posing photos taken by my coach on Saturday. If I’d known he wanted to take pics, I’d have worn a nicer top. Excuses, excuses. Anyway, we’re not here to talk about my outfit, we’re here to talk about my progress. I’ve been working hard – does it show? (I’m at least 20 weeks out from a show here, if not more – plans have yet to be nailed down!)

Oh, and one more – new sparkles! I ordered a “pre-loved” suit from Tamee Marie in the States, and it came last week. Here’s a sneak peak

Stayed tuned for further episodes of Notch Watch. Edge-of-the-seat stuff!

Notch Watch, chapter 2 (and some progress pics) is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Treadmill training to try

I used to turn my nose up at the treadmill, preferring to head off on road or trail to pound out mile after mile of same-pace stuff, with the odd track session or set of hill reps thrown in. Sport-specific, innit: I used to take part in running races and triathlons, and I needed to train that way.

These days, I do very little cardio, and the cardio I do needs to be short and sharp, stripping away body fat but preserving precious muscle (yep, it’s a good trick if you can do it). These days, I’m on first name terms with the treadmill (Chris), cross-trainer (Lesley) and rowing machine (Simon).

It dawned on me this morning, as I slid home from the gym on icy pavements (I’m still doing cardio during deload week), that even my triathlete and running pals might be getting familiar with a treadmill in this weather. And, why not. Sure, treadmill running isn’t as picturesque as a few glorious miles across hill and dale (unless the person on the treddie in front of yours possesses a particularly pleasing derriere…) but it does the job. And, actually, for the endurance folk amongst you, a short sharp treadmill session could deliver measurable benefits which are quite different to your longer, slower outdoor runs. So this post is for you, too!

I don’t (currently) do anything longer than 30 minutes of cardio in one go, and I prefer to do 20 minutes of “work” with a warm up and down. But the work does need to be work! Got 30 minutes? Then here are three treadmill sessions to try today (not all in one day, obvs). They’re my current “favourites”:

11/11/11
I’ve written about this before. This was given to me by a PT called Ben Lauder-Dykes. It’s a true delight. Really, just try it. And if you think it’s too easy, well that’s great, because you can also do 12/12/12 or whatever you like. You’re only limited by the % to which your treadmill will incline.

How to do it:
- get on the treadmill, warm up (walk/jog) for 4 mins
- set the treadmill to 11kph, 11% incline
- start running and run for 15 seconds
- jump to the side of the treadmill (so you’re straddling the belt) and rest for 15 seconds
- keep doing this 15s on/15s off for 11 minutes (if it all gets a bit much, just remember you’re looking for “15:00″ on the display)
- hit that speed button and decrease it slowly for 5 minutes til you’re walking to cool down
There. 20 minutes out of your day=boosted metabolism, fat burning, speed work, incline training, glutey-bootay greatness

Hill intervals
I did this today. How to do it:
- walk/jog for 5 minutes on an incline of 0.5% (only because completely flat feels weird)
- run at a sustainable pace (read the full session to guess at what this might be for you) for 2 minutes
- increase incline to 2% for 2 minutes
- down to 0.5% for 2 minutes
- increase incline to 4% for 2 minutes
- down to 0.5% for 2 minutes
- increase incline to 6% for 2 minutes
- down to 0.5% for 2 minutes
- increase incline to 8% for 2 minutes
- down to 0.5% for 2 minutes
- increase incline to 10% for 2 minutes
- hit that decline button, bring the incline down, and start to bring the speed down too so you jog/walk for a 5 minute cool down
There. 30 minutes of deceptive, increasingly heart-pounding work which will leave your metabolism ramped up for hours and do you much more good than just running at the same pace and the same incline for 30 minutes.

Flat intervals
How to do it:
- 5 mins warm up until you’re running at a sustainable pace (somewhere between 5 mile and 10K race pace I’d say)
- alternate 1 minute at this pace with 1 minute recovery (jog not walk) pace. Try not to bring the speed down too much, simply because then part of your next minute’s effort will be spent getting the treadmill back up to speed
- do 20 minutes of 1 min on/1 min off
- decrease the speed for a 5 minute jog/walk cool down

Do one session per week (or, if you dare, do all of these in one week) and tell me how you feel and how it’s affected your body recomposition and/or fitness goals. Don’t underestimate them, though. I’m always hugely hungry and very tired for a day or so after doing one of these sessions; a sure sign that they work the body hard.

Treadmill training to try is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Leg training with Helen Stack

I’ve said before that I believe in the law of attraction. Remember when I wanted to interview Kelly Rennie, then ended up sitting next to her boyfriend (now fiancee: congrats, guys) at a conference, without knowing who he was? Yes, I do believe that if you put requests “out there”, sometimes they get answered.

So, I wasn’t altogether surprised to find myself training legs last weekend with WNBF Pro Helen Stack: former NPA overall champion, INBF World Champion and WPF Miss Universe.

You see, when I started to get focused on my own 2012 goals, I put together my mood board thingy for the kitchen. It comprises a slightly tongue-in-cheek, slightly disturbing mathematical equation, played out in picture form:

(A x B) + C = X, where A is Helen Stack, B is Patricia Beckman and C is me. X is unknown outcome.

It’s highly doubtful I’ll ever train legs (or anything else for that matter) with Patricia, what with her living in America and everything. But the law of attraction (and…er…the fact that she lives locally) meant that, a few days into 2012, I found myself training with Helen.

And what a session it was! Want to know what we did? OK.

- Box squats (new to me – sitting back and down onto a low box which is placed within the squat rack). I think I did 2 warm up sets and 7 working sets (ay caramba).
- Vertical leg press – single legs and both legs. Helen did immensely more weight than me, I can’t even remember what she did but it was crazy. I did 5 sets.
- Leg extension (machine) – single legs and both legs, with a horrible “pulse and hold” thing dreamed up by Helen in the depths of her Pro-bodybuildery brain. I ended up covering my eyes and kind of screaming during these. 4 sets.
- Standing hamstring curls, 6 sets
- Lying hamstring curls, 4 sets
- Donkey calf raises, 3 sets

Helen doesn’t often train at Castle Gym but, from time to time, she pops in, and hopefully we’ll get to train again soon. I’m absolutely loving training there! The kit, atmosphere and other people are really motivating.

Which athlete from your chosen sport would you like to train with? From my “other life”, I’d love to swim in the sea with Lynne Cox (and some seals).

Leg training with Helen Stack is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Notch Watch 2012

Santa was very kind this year; he brought me a lifting belt. As well as using it for its intended purpose in the gym, I thought I could use the belt as a visual measure of my progress (waist circumference being a pretty useful indication of fat loss) and thought I’d turn the progress pictures (and belt notches) into a blog series.

I hereby present to you: Notch Watch, episode 1, January 2012. In which I managed to reach four notches on the belt. (Yes, it’s pulled very tight – it’s meant to be.)

Stayed tuned for further episodes of Notch Watch, which will feature fewer inches of waist, and more notches of belt. I bet you can’t wait.

Notch Watch 2012 is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Training at Castle gym

Christmas came early for me today. I was invited to go and train at an independent gym run by bodybuilders and, when I got there, they offered me free membership. You realise what this means. I can now train at a gym which has things like a squat rack, and more than one Olympic bar. :-O

Today was the best training session I’ve had in a long time, and I am very grateful to the guys at Castle for offering me membership. To say that it will benefit my bodybuilding training is an understatement. Training in that environment, with other bodybuilders and competitors, and with all that kit and equipment, will transform things for me. I’ll be able to do more, I’ll always have someone to spot me, and the atmosphere will be hugely motivating.

Look, there’s a squat rack! And a hack squat machine! And a vertical leg press machine! And… and… I was like a kid in a sweet shop, just looking round and beaming (and wondering what half of the stuff was).

As if free training at a proper bodybuilding gym wasn’t enough for one day, I ended up being coached by the guy who coaches one of the women who inspires me most in this sport (in fact, her picture is on my kitchen wall this year). As Castle’s owner Jason Joyce (no relation, but a fun co-incidence!) showed me round, he introduced me to Jerry. I recognised Jerry immediately as powerlifter Jerry Fox, the partner and coach of Helen Stack, former NPA overall women’s Champion, INBF World Champion and now WNBF Pro.

Jerry kindly ended up giving me some coaching points and helping me through a few sets of squats (in an actual squat rack! ) and his advice was so helpful (and his encouragement greatly appreciated).

I ended up doing a fantastic leg session, and could have stayed there all day – but there’s this thing called Christmas Day coming up soon, and we have a fair few things left to do.

You may thinks it’s a bit sad that I’m so excited about training at an independent bodybuilding gym, but you have to understand that my regular gym is not equipped for (nor populated by) bodybuilders. It’s a great gym, I love it there, and will continue to train there too, but I often wish I had access to various bits of kit, a spotter, or the company of other bodybuilders. I now have all of those things.

If you’re in the Windsor area, I really encourage you to go along to Castle Gym. It’s fantastic. I’ll see you there.

Jason, thank you so much for inviting me to your facility, and for your kind offer of membership. It was a fantastic surprise and an amazing opportunity which I’m delighted to take up!

Training at Castle gym is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

(Body) building works

**First up – the winners of the GOOD Hemp protein samples. Thank you all for entering and taking part. My five winners – chosen at random – are Anna, Karryann, BarnesFitness, Helen G and Dorthe Nielsen. Please get in touch to organise sending me your postal addresses.

Onto today’s post:

As bodybuilders, we spend so much of our year dieting (or maybe it just feels as if we do!) that it’s quite a novelty to be eating at maintenance or even at an excess. But this is body building, after all, and you can’t grow if you’re always dieting. My Facebook is full of such status updates at the moment, from bodybuilder friends for whom being off the competition diet is still a novelty. “If your abs are showing, you ain’t growing” is my current favourite. The point, of course, is that you’re not going to make any significant improvements in physique unless you back off the diet, eat up, and give yourself the chance to grow. Diet is for condition. Eating is for muscles!

My Mum is currently building a house. (I promise this is all one blog post, I haven’t just pasted two different ones together. Bear with me). For months, the structure was hidden behind roof-height scaffolding, which was covered in thick plastic. You couldn’t see what was inside. You could see a vague house kind of a shape, and of course we all knew she was building a new structure. We’d seen the plans and had regular updates. But, from the outside, it just looked like a big rectangle of scaffolding and plastic. Until the big reveal…

That, to me, is what off-season is like for me as a bodybuilder. It’s about building a structure, even if the finished item is under wraps, waiting for the scaffolding to come down.

I no longer look as I did when I stepped onstage for this year’s competitions, that’s for sure. But that version of me is still here, it’s just underneath. It’s still with me, I carry it around wherever I go. There’s just an extra me on top of it! And that extra me is helping to build the stage version of me to something bigger and better, ready for the big reveal.

On Facebook the other day, a few of us took this house analogy and ran with it. We were all under scaffolding and tarpaulin, we declared, working hard on our foundations and structures (and, for some, internal redesign and plumbing). We don’t care that from the outside it looks like a bit of a building site. After all, this is the building part of bodybuilding.

“I’m going to be a lovely art deco 1930s building next year,” I posted. “Streamline Moderne, lots of sweeping curves and long lines but with solid hard corners too. Lots of metal and sparkly glass, nice smooth finish. Ha! You? Some kind of big timber structure made out of solid oak?”

My bodybuilding friends indulged me, posting the kind of building they’re constructing under their winter scaffolding. We had some Colonial mansions, some solid oak beams and even an updated shed.

How about you. What kind of body are you building? There’s a certain beauty in scaffolding, you know. Strong, stable and supportive.

Eat up!

(Body) building works is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Random musings, 48 hours out

Less than 48 hours til the NPA Final. In fact, in 48 hours, I predict I’ll be all done and sitting in the audience cheering on the rest of the competitors. Whilst eating —insert current craving here— (today: corned beef sandwiches. Yes, really.)

As I mentioned earlier in the week, Friday of peak week is usually my favourite day. Of peak week. Perhaps of prep as a whole? Why? It’s restful, relaxing, time to reflect.

I don’t train. Carbs are back in my world. I usually take the day off work and, after walking the dog and prepping vast amounts of sweet potatoes and fish for the following 48 hours (I don’t fancy firing up the oven every time I need a serving of potato…), I just chill.

I wander into town. I buy the things I’ve been drooling over for months, knowing I’ll be eating them in 48 hours. I sit in a squishy chair in a coffee shop and read, or journal, or watch the world go by.

Today’s musings, on (almost) the eve of my fourth and final comp of the year, and (almost) the end of my 2011 competitive season. In no particular order.

What have I done?!
Whatever the result on Sunday, I have already achieved far more than I set out to and far more than I expected to. More, too, than I thought I was capable of in my first year of competing. I thought I’d only do one comp. Then I realised there were two associations, so I thought I’d do two. Never in a million years did I think I’d reach one let alone two Finals. As it turns out, all these months later, being a British Finalist twice over in my first year is what I’ve achieved.

Progress… step by step, rep by rep
Every competition I do means I’ve taken myself to a new level. Even if I come dead last on Sunday, it’s not dead last to me. It’s further than I was before. Any placing in a Final is a step onwards, because it’s a reflection of more hard work, more training, more dieting, more prep.

A year-long experiment (ongoing!)
This entire year has been an experiment. A guessing-game much of the time. A collection of research, ideas, plans and fine-tunings. It’s been absolutely fascinating and I’ve learned so much, about nutrition and training, about my body and my mind, about the limits I can take myself to and how much I can achieve. The competitions – those brief moments on stage – are really a very small part of it all. The most exciting part, for sure, and the part involving the sparkliest bikini! But just the tip of the iceberg. Most of it is stuff only I really know, and most of it is stuff I can’t even articulate or reflect upon yet.

“That’ll do, Pig”
I am proud. Not prideful, but extremely proud of myself. There, I’ve said it. I don’t often (if ever!) give myself credit or simply say “well done. You did great.” But I did. We’re not even there yet, but I hereby pat myself on the back and say “well done, you did great.” Don’t misunderstand me, my prep has been far from perfect. But I’m proud of how far I’ve come, what I’ve learned and how I’ve applied it.

Marbles? Check!
I’m proud, too, of the fact that I’ve gone through almost a year of prep without letting it send me insane. Those of you out there who have competed, you know how hard it is. The rest of you have some idea. It’s very easy to let prep – particularly the diet side of things – mess with your mind. I promised myself very early on I would not let this happen. Life’s too short, health is too precious. The moment it stopped becoming fun, I’d stop (believe me I came very close, on more than one occasion!)

So, for that reason, I’m proud of the fact that I’ve slipped up on my diet, given into cravings and eaten well outside my plan on some days. I’ve always been honest with myself and with my coach. I’ve never been ashamed, guilty, or dashed out to do extra cardio. I’m proud that I think I know myself and my body well enough to know when to say “shut up and eat the broccoli” and when to say “you’re right. Let’s have a bowl of that.” I’d rather get on stage 90% in shape physically and 100% in shape mentally, than 100% “shredded” if that means shredding my mind as well as my body. After all, time on stage is very short. Time at home, at work and being happy in my own self represents a far bigger portion of my life. In short, I’m proud of the fact that I’ve got through a long and tough prep, being strict enough to get great results without sending myself mad. I’m happy. That’s the main thing, and the thing which will still matter on Monday, trophy or no trophy.

I’m sure there was more I had to say, but that’s probably enough. To end on a lighter note, I must now go and scrub myself all over and get busy with a disposable razor. Tanning starts soon!

Random musings, 48 hours out is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

3 sleeps! (Or, how you know it’s nearly showtime)

Well, hello! This post is brought to you by carbohydrates. Life is good.

So, just three days to go til the NPA Final. I’m feeling good, on track and – most importantly – EXCITED! I just can not wait. It’s going to be such fun and I can’t wait to get on that stage, pose for the audience, give my supporters something to cheer for and have a ball!

I’ve now done my final gym session, and everything is “the last” this and “the last” that. We are definitely on countdown to showtime. I thought I’d walk you through a few things I see during my day which really bring that home to me:

Recycling bin – the result of peak week – many, many water bottles and an empty bottle of fish oil. (Next week I predict this bin will look somewhat different )

Wedding and engagement rings firmly on my hand, rather than in a “very memorable” (yeah right) place around the house. I don’t wear them when I lift weights, because I don’t want to scratch them any more than I already have (and they give me worse callouses than I already have). Recently, I’ve barely worn them. (Please excuse the Raynaud’s)

Bannisters. Empty! What’s usually there? My gym back, loaded and ready to go at all times. It is now upstairs.

I’ve been doing lots of posing practice, and so has thefitdog. He can only really do a front doggle bicep, and even that needs… some work.

Yesterday on Twitter I mentioned an “11/11/11″ treadmill interval session I do, courtesy of Ben the PT. To explain: after you’ve warmed up (I walk fast on the steepest incline), turn the treadmill up to 11% incline and 11kph. Then do the following for 11 minutes:
15 seconds run
15 seconds where you straddle the treadmill and rest (this takes some practice but if I can do it, you can. I’m a complete klutz)
repeat until 11 mins are up
Then cool down (again, I walk at about 5kph and 15% incline).

Ben says you can do 12/12/12 and he’s even had someone do 14/14/14. Good for them. Perhaps their legs are longer than mine.

So, that’s more or less it. I waved bye-bye to the gym today

(Or was it….)

Tomorrow I’ll walk, rest, eat more carbs, pop into town for a wander about, pose and practice my routine.

Saturday is much of the same, without the town bit and with extra Sister. Yep, my Sister is coming up for the weekend and I can’t wait!

3 sleeps! (Or, how you know it’s nearly showtime) is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Final peak week for the final Final (finally!)

Hello!

Well here we are in “peak week” - the final week of contest prep. This time next week we’ll be partway through the NPA Final and the season will be almost over.

I don’t have a lot to update you with… I’m approaching peak week the same way I have for all my other comps so far this year: carb deplete followed by a carb-up, water manipulation and lots of chilling out (hopefully!)

I won’t lie, I feel pretty rubbish, which is probably a “good” sign in that it shows my body is responding to those final dietary tweaks. It’s been a long season, particularly for someone who thought they’d do one show and that would be it! I can’t believe here we are in October and I’m still prepping and dieting!

I’m training up until Thursday. Friday will be my traditional “wander into town, buy treats to eat after the show, sit in a cafe nursing a hot drink and journalling in my training diary”. I’m looking forward to it already.

How am I feeling?
I never really know how to answer this question but, this time round, I’m finding it even harder. I just don’t know what to expect from Sunday’s show, I’m finding it increasingly more difficult to tell whether or not I’m looking as I should a week out, and I’m just tired. I know this week will change all that: I’ve got the week off work, so the pressure will be lifted and I’ll have time to reflect on the season, start imagining the show and really get excited. I know, too, that this week will bring about daily changes in my body, visual rewards which will spur me on and give me an extra spark of motivation. I’ve got a great support crew coming to Bedworth: my Mum and her husband, my sister and of course my husband. It will be a fun-filled, happy occasion and I can’t wait to step on stage again.

Knowing it will be the final time this year makes it even more special. I still can not believe I made it to not one but two British Finals in my first year of competing. The line-up for my category is immense, packed full of top-quality women who epitomise the highest level of natural bodybuilding. Just to stand on stage with them is a massive achievement for me. Every time I look at the list, I feel like a very small minnow swimming with big fish! (I was going to say sharks but they’re all very nice people!)

Then there are my feelings about the end of prep and transition into off-season. I’m torn. Prep is and has been hard, very very hard. Harder than I ever thought it would be and – I honestly think – the hardest thing I’ve done in sport (this from someone who’s swum the English Channel twice). It’s hard on your body, it’s hard on your mind. It’s hard on those around you (thank you, you know who you are…) It’s hard on relationships, work, sleep, social life. It really does affect everything. Bodybuilding prep is there 24/7. It’s not like any other sport I know.

So, for that and lots of other reasons, I am looking forward to prep being over. I have a list of things I want to eat (if I write them down, I don’t obsess about them any more), although I’m sure I’ll only eat a few of them (Pop Tarts? Why do I want Pop Tarts? I’m pretty sure I’ve never even eaten one.) I want to catch up on my social life, I want to go out to eat with my husband. I want to bake, and cook, and eat with family and friends. I want to give my body a break and make some changes in training.

But, I know myself well enough to know that I’ll miss prep in a way. I’ll miss the routine, I’ll miss the organisational side of it and, of course, I’ll miss the results. It would be great to be able to stay in contest shape year-round, but of course it’s not sustainable (and hardly healthy). Have my cake and eat it, too? At this stage, I’ll settle just for eating it.

After my bodybuilding Q&A post, a couple more questions came in – thank you! Here are my answers:

“How does your stomach react to the bodybuilding diet, with high protein, veggies, etc? Have you noticed any increased gas, bloating, constipation, etc? I hear the diet can be tough on your GI system.”

Hm, I don’t know! I’ve been eating this way for a year now, and on an actual prep/cutting diet for much of that. I don’t think I’ve reacted badly to it, although there are too many variables to be able to say. I do get a bit of bloating if I have too much protein powder (particularly whey) but I don’t think it’s the protein which bloats me, as I don’t get it from fish and meat. Sorry – what a useless answer! One thing I can tell you is that I feel great on this kind of eating – lots of fresh veggies (raw, stir fried, baked, roasted) and salads, a massive range of meats and fish. If I eat meat/fish and veg for breakfast, I feel great for the rest of the day. (Someone remind me of this next week…!)

“What tips would you give to someone competing for the first time?”

I would say ask someone a lot more experienced than me! Seriously, I could not and would not have got to this stage had it not been for my coach Kat Millar and various other kind souls who have helped me, advised me, given me feedback and taught me so much. Annie Uelese, I’m looking at you! So my advice would probably be something like:

- ask yourself why you want to do it? Because it’s going to get tough and you’ll need a reason which resonates with you.
- set yourself some rules. Someone outside the sport suggested this to me and it is very wise. Whether that’s “stay natural”, or whether that’s “don’t take my calories below 1600 a day” or “don’t do two cardio sessions a day”. Whatever is important to you, make the rules, write them somewhere and stick to them.
- find a coach, ideally someone who has competed and who knows the association/federation you’ll be competing with, so they’ll have some idea of what’s what, what the judges are likely to want from you, and little things like how the shows are run, how long your routine should be etc. You can find all that out yourself but when you first get into prep it’s just overwhelming. Having someone you can just ask if so comforting.
- get a great support system around you. My husband should probably be knighted or sainted (although I think he has to be dead for the latter so let’s say knighted!). Being the partner of a prepping bodybuilder is probably worse than being the athlete. I can’t imagine what prep must be like if you have no support or, worse, people around you who are negative about it.
- get a plan in place: identify a show to enter, count backwards, mark the weeks on your kitchen calendar and get going!

Final peak week for the final Final (finally!) is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.