The successful competitors you have witnessed compete in the
physique world for years (or any sport for that matter) have one thing in
common; they built a solid foundation before “cutting” or peaking for any competition. All of
these competitors have either come from an intensive athletic background, such
as track or gymnastics, or have paid their dues in the gym lifting iron. Because of this time they have built sufficient
muscle, body awareness, baseline conditioning, structured eating habits, and
experience with “periodization.”
Periodization is a strategy professional level athletes use
to cycle their training through distinct phases in order to achieve a maximum level
of performance (ie body composition for physique athletes) without over training. The first phase of periodization that all
successful athletes begin with when they enter the world of physique
competitions is building a foundation of strength/muscle mass, coupled with the
development of eating habits that are conducive to muscle growth.
Think of your body as a skyscraper. In order to build a stable skyscraper you must
first start at the foundation with concrete, rebar, and solid framing before
building upward. The good news is that
with this approach you will not only achieve your goal but you will have a new
and improved foundation to build upon every time you prepare for another competition. Building the foundation allows you to achieve
a higher level of overall baseline fitness (marked by more muscle, higher work
capacity, and a stronger metabolism) that is substantially greater than where
you started. For this reason, the rest
of your prep will be easier, have less negative impact on your body, and will
minimize the plague of post-competition rebound. A true win-win!
Whether or not your goal is to compete in just one competition
or to win your pro card, every single competitor who succeeds must start at ground
zero; you must build a foundation. Very
few people walk into the sport of bodybuilding (even the bikini division) with
sufficient, balanced, proportional muscle mass. Do you think you are the exception? Does your butt look anything like Nathalia Melo's, Justine Munro's, or Ashley Kaltwasser's? If not, then you don't have enough muscle!
Without a solid base of muscle you are setting yourself up for some serious problems. For starters, you will likely place poorly because judges give low marks to girls that step on stage looking too skinny or bony. More importantly, girls who do not spend the time they need building their foundation are likely to be the same types that follow extreme “cutting” programs that inevitably lead to an uphill battle of health complications such as adrenal fatigue, thyroid disorders, eating disorders, depression, injuries, and a serious rebound of weight gain post competition.
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| Bikini Girls Need Muscle! |
Without a solid base of muscle you are setting yourself up for some serious problems. For starters, you will likely place poorly because judges give low marks to girls that step on stage looking too skinny or bony. More importantly, girls who do not spend the time they need building their foundation are likely to be the same types that follow extreme “cutting” programs that inevitably lead to an uphill battle of health complications such as adrenal fatigue, thyroid disorders, eating disorders, depression, injuries, and a serious rebound of weight gain post competition.
Doesn’t it sound horrible?
I agree, and the threat is real. There
is absolutely no reason to sabotage your health with an extreme and quick 12
week prep. You’d be doing more harm than
good to your body, mind, and spirit for the sake of a quick fix.
Do you know the classic parable of “The Tortoise and The Hare?” The hare was so ambitious that he ran as fast
as he could because he was so determined to be the first one across the finish
line. The tortoise, on the other hand, opted
for a patient, consistent approach in addition to admirable determination. He was therefore able to choose a pace that
he could maintain all the way to the finish line without burning out or risking
injury to his body. We all know how that
ageless nursery story ends. Well, I hate
to break the news, but preparing for a competition is the same story, evidenced
by the growing number of competitors who burn out and let a potentially great
experience turn into a nightmare. So, ask yourself, "Do I want to be the tortoise or the hare?"
Taking the time to build a foundation is a huge testament to
your level of patience. Patience is
personally something that I struggle with on nearly a daily basis and my
husband/coach always reminds me of the great importance of mastering this
virtue. If you can be patient with the
process of building a foundation before jumping right into the gauntlet of
cutting for a competition you will enjoy your journey so much more, increase your
chances of placing higher, and maintain a kick ass body post competition that you
can be very proud of. Most importantly,
you will still have your good health intact to fuel your determination to go back
to re-building your foundation and improving for the next competition.
In order to build a foundation you must be willing to
dedicate a significant amount of time to developing proportional, lean muscle tissue
while losing body fat slowly and gradually.
Yes, you can do both at the same time (see my chart below), but you cannot
focus on fat loss exclusively in the beginning. Your
workouts should consist of mostly weight training, developing proper technique
to avoid workout related injuries and connecting to the target muscles with some
basic conditioning added to the mix. Since
too much conditioning can take away from your ability to build muscle, you must
be careful with adding too much of it too soon. More intense conditioning sessions will come
later in your prep.
Your nutrition should support the gains you make in the
gym. Your nutrition should be full of the
three essential macronutrients (carbs/proteins/fats) and your calories should
not be too low. In order to build muscle
you must feed your muscles. If you are
consuming too low of a caloric load you will have a very hard time building
muscle and if you start cutting calories too early your body will push back by shutting
down your metabolism, making it harder for you to lose fat further down the
road of your prep. (For more information
about proper nutrition and recipes refer to my free eBook that you can download on the sidebar of this page). More specifics later in this series.
How much time should you spend building your foundation?
It depends.
Timing your first preparation for a bikini competition is as much an art
as it is a science.
The first question you need to ask yourself is how much
total time do you need to prepare, based off your initial starting point. Most bikini competitors step on stage between
9-12% body fat, so knowing your body fat percentage is essential. When done properly, a realistic figure for
losing body fat while gaining muscle is about .5% per week, on average.
For example, it took me 20 weeks to prepare for my first
competition with a starting body fat percentage of about 22%. Over the course of the prep, I built 9 pounds
of lean muscle and lost 15lbs of fat and ended up at just below 12%. I lost just as much body fat in the beginning
(while building muscle) as I did toward the end because I gradually intensified
my nutrition and conditioning.
How much of that time you need to spend emphasizing muscle gain
versus how much time you need to emphasize fat loss depends on your starting
point with respect to muscle mass and overall body fat levels. Keep in mind you will still lose body fat
while building muscle with your improved nutrition but the ratio of time spent
building : cutting depends on your initial starting point, how much muscle you
have now, and how easily you build muscle and burn body fat.
I spent the first 12 weeks focusing on muscle gain and
improving my overall nutrition to support my muscle gain. I spent the last 8 weeks carb cycling,
increasing my conditioning, and focusing more on cutting while maintaining my lean
muscle gains. See my progress chart below:
Here is a week (5 days) worth of workouts for you to get you going, excerpted directly from my
Bikini Beauty 12 week program (to be released soon!). It is the the first week of Phase 1 - "Acclimation & Attitude" which focuses on the first steps toward building your foundation.
Give these workouts a try and let me know what you think by commenting below! Stay tuned for more "Insider's Success Secrets" coming soon.
XOXO,
Abby
Want to read more? Check out:
"Bikini Competitor Success Secret #2 - Be a Minimalist"
"Bikini Competitor Success Secret #3 - Attitude is Everything"
"How to Avoid 'The Dark Side' of Bikini Competitions"
"Top 3 Glute Exercises for a Stellar Bikini Booty"
"Tour of My Gym and How I Train"
How do you build muscle while burning fat? Doesn't the former require a caloric surplus, while the latter a deficit?
ReplyDeleteEL,
DeleteGreat question. Unfortunately, sort of a complicated answer required.
While calories do influence the overall weight of your body, they do not tell you anything about what's changing on the inside. For example, in a caloric deficit you can actually build muscle and even at a "surplus" caloric load you can burn fat (this is a whole other complicated topic). Calories do matter to a certain extent, but so does the composition of the food you eat and the type of workouts you partake in. Building muscle while simultaneously burning fat requires a) sufficient calories, especially from protein, to keep your body in an anabolic (muscle building) state, and b) workouts with enough mechanical stress (force) to stimulate muscle growth in order to adapt to that stress.
If both these two criteria are met, the body will choose to build muscle and burn fat, even if at a moderate caloric deficit or surplus. The degree of surplus/deficit will only influence the rate of fat loss/muscle gain.
This is why a balanced diet and heavy strength training are so important to creating that curvy bikini shape ;)
To answer your question more simply, make sure you are lifting heavy enough and often enough, while not restricting calories too much (esp from protein) in order to build muscle while also burning fat.
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