The day is fast approaching.
You’ve invited your Mum from Brissy, your sister from Perth and a whole row is
going to be filled with excited work colleagues!! You’ve invested a small
fortune on less than a metre of material, a bit over a hundred for sparkly,
clear, stripper heels. Hired a make-up artist for around $80,
coupled with a hair dresser who will also charge like a wounded bull for her
specialist services on the Rest Day of her week.
But they are only ‘incidental’
costs compared to the thousands splurged on coaches, supplements, PT sessions,
and posing practices – and let’s not even get started with sourcing asparagus
off-season or ensuring your supply of fresh chicken breast stays high. There’s
not a move you can make in this business that doesn’t sting you for at least a
cool hundred.
And then horror of horrors – you
anticipated ‘coast’ into comp has become a literal labour of lard!!! It won’t
budge! The thighs are still banging and the butt is still jiggling. The tummy
only looks lean if you catch it at 6.30am before breakfast, and the six pack is
thus far contained within the top shelf of the fridge in the coke zero section.
The clichés are becoming f***n
annoying quite frankly. “Trust the
process”, “it’ll happen if you are just patient”, “you’ve already won just by
getting up there”. Yaddah, yaddah, yaddah … might make others feel better
but it sure doesn’t/didn’t make me feel better! Why? Because they are not actually true. This mystical 'process' only bloody-well works if you do exactly what's asked of you.
So why aren't you ready? I'll give you a few possibilities and you can choose your ending;
* you keep binging ... no one sees you, no one knows, you eat extremely quickly so it doesn't count as much, you are meticulous on the other 6 days of the week .. but the honest reality is that you really are having a binge here and there and you don't fully realise the damage a big dose of sugar or fat can do to a slow metabolism. Binging generally happens during comp prep when your prep diet is deficient. Or you are just not cut out for depletion in food.
* you have been dieting for wayyyyyy too long and your poor body is simply no longer willing to play the game. You can only flog yourself for so long until it doesn't work anymore.
* Your coach/trainer is not cutting the mustard and their approach is rubbish.
So what do you do? Massive
question with a few scenario answers that I can think of.
Firstly I’d like to clarify something. I am not talking about those that are perfectly happy competing while
perhaps knowing that they are not in award winning shape. I’m only talking
about the situation where the competitor absolutely and categorically knows
that they are not ready – they haven’t achieved anywhere near where they
hoped/anticipated they will be and it's obvious to them and those around them that dare to be honest.
So with that clarified, what
courses of action are there for that awful situation where you are 4-6 weeks
out and it dawns on you (like a concrete brick in the head) that you are simply
not going to be ready to get on that stage in the shape you wanted to be in;
1. You
accept it, do it anyway and keep a big fat smile on the dial. That may be
increasingly hard on the day and it may leave an awfully bitter taste in your
mouth unless you are truly able to let go of your own expectations. I wouldn’t
choose this one for myself. I’ve stepped on stage, just last year, in a shape
that I wasn’t happy with. It bugged me from the moment I arrived to the minute
I left. I wouldn’t do it again.
2. You
find the humility and the guts from deep, deep down, and pull out of that
competition. You face the people you invited, and simply let them know it
hasn’t worked out this time. Tough, tough road, but ultimately one I’d rather
live with.
3. You
resort to ludicrous measures in order to fast-track the fat loss. You drop cals
to way under 1000 a day, no carbs to speak of, huge amounts of cardio – throw
in some steady state rubbish, some ridiculously stupid fasted cardio and turn
your weights into yet another sneaky hiit – but you call it another name like
“metabolic training” and pretend to anyone who’ll listen that it’s definitely
“not cardio” .. chortle chortle … (looks like a rat, smells like a rat, sounds
like a rat …. it’s a ??).
This #3 option, to
anyone with full common-sense, is rather stupid. But to a carb-depleted, broke,
proud body-builder – it’s the obvious choice. I consider myself a woman with
plenty of common sense. But I found myself starving, haggard, teary and
infinitely fatigued and still I continued to lower food, increase activity and
aim for the leanest version of myself I could muster. It got stupid and everyone
around me could see it, except for me.
The position of being ready ‘on
time’ can be addressed very early on in the piece. If you are being coached or
trained and you are reporting back religiously once a week with scale weight
and maybe the odd picture, and you get a standard reply and you are a little
suspicious that you may be getting the same diet as everyone being trained by
that person – it’s probably true. You are. But that’s ok – from a training
point of view, it is not necessary to have everyone on entirely different and
specialised programs. Until the end of the comp prep. And that is when the cost
of your trainer is justified. If they are still pumping out the generic “3
Weeks Out” plan and you are still looking as if you need to drop a good 4-5kgs ….
Your plan may not be quite right for where you are at.
At Final Stage, we sit and chat
each and every Sunday about our trainees and where they are at and what the
plan for the coming week is. We have no qualms in stopping something mid-week
if it isn’t working and we will keep trying new things until we find something
that works. I’m certain that is what all coaches/trainers claim to do – but you
and I know that the reality is often far from that scenario. Pick honest
trainers. You won’t realise their worth until that last phase when you need the
personal touch for your own personal situation.
So in short, if you are certain
that you aren’t/won’t be ready for comp day – be honest with yourself. Either
do it with good grace, or have the guts to retreat with dignity. Don’t labour
through with some sense of owing your fan-base something. If you are awkward
and unhappy, the whole stadium will feel those vibes – as a judge I can promise
you this is true. True smiles and confidence are not present in the eyes unless
it comes from the heart.
Good luck with all of the preps going on out there!
