So you’re ready to attend your first bodybuilding show! You’re in for quite a treat. Amateur and professional shows are often chock full of some of the most interesting personalities the sport has to offer. Sometimes, the show in the audience will even trump the one onstage. Let’s look at some of the types you will run into at your first bodybuilding contest. Armchair Judges This group of fans is perhaps the most amusing. Many of them will actually have a printout of a competitor list spreadsheet. They will attempt to ‘score along at home” and make detailed notes of who they believe will win each class, and why. If you are naïve enough to ask for their opinion, you had better be prepared for a 150 minute monologue on the efficacy of Competitor A’s ...

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If you witnessed the 2008 Mr. Olympia contest, you witnessed more than the champ being dethroned for the second time in over twenty years.  You also witnessed the age of the “belly” ending, once and for all!  Dexter Jackson won the title from the incumbent Jay Cutler, despite Cutler being almost forty pounds heavier than Jackson.  It was the first time in modern history that a smaller man has beaten a bigger man to steal away the title.  It sent ripples across the bodybuilding world.  Not only did it mean a reigning champion had been dethroned, but it meant that he had been beaten by a competitor much smaller than him.  In other words, the best physique won, not the biggest one.  Jackson had better lines, conditioning, and shape – even though Cutler had him beat in terms of overall ...

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During the last few days before a bodybuilding show, athletes focus all their energies and efforts upon peaking for the upcoming show. Their diet is designed to finalize fat loss and remove all unneeded water from the body. They must get their tans applied for the show. They must perfect their posing. They must arrive in the destination city and prepare all the logistical details. Drug protocols must be minimized and possibly masked for testing. And, most cautiously, they must carb up. We have read hundreds of articles about all of these topics. The last week before a show is the most important of the entire training year and pre-contest. Rarely do we see anything about that very important aspect of preparation which gave us the muscle in the first place: ...

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Perfect posing You must be smooth, graceful and agile. You are not as big as the next guy, so you had better move ten times better in order to differentiate yourself from him. Quality CAN beat quantity if it’s presented correctly. Perfect color Tanning is often overlooked, especially in local competitions. Make sure your color is dark enough to show off your vascularity and cuts, but not so dark that it looks bad under the lights. Try different shades, check out the theater ahead of time, and do your research. A simple choice of what color to grab Be ripped and dry You cannot hold body fat. You cannot hold water. All things equal, the man with more muscle will win the show. But in most cases, all things are not equal. It won’t matter if the ...

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Many people have the desire to compete though rarely do. Determining why it is important to you to compete helps prepare you for the long road ahead. While competing is beneficial to many it is rare to find one with the drive it takes to compete. As in any sport, competing increases your confidence and forces you to strive for harder goals. Many people don’t have the motivation to continue to train; competing sometimes changes your outlook and your overall objectives. When choosing a competition you must give yourself ample time to prepare. Training times vary depending on the amount of fat you need to convert to muscle. Lightweight –middleweight bodybuilders should only be a max of 15lbs over the competition weight. Heavy weight categories should only be less than 25lbs max over the ...

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