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So, we’re just 10 weeks away from the 2010 Washington Ironman, or, if you live in my world, it’s been 15 weeks since the 2010 Emerald Cup. But, I’m no longer in “recovery mode” and actually starting to feel more like my normal self everyday!

It was 2 years ago this month that I decided to do my first show, the 2008 Washington Ironman. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into…I thought I did, but looking back and knowing what I know now, I was absolutely clueless. I hired a 20 year old trainer from my gym who had assured me he knew how to train competitors. At 20? Really? No offense kid, but that’s doubtful. But, like the good student I aim to be, I followed his advice to the letter along with the advice of my “nutritionist” who as it turned out was giving me diet advice she was getting from some bodybuilder who didn’t even know me. Considering the fact that I wasn’t following the best protocol in training and nutrition, I ended up placing 7^th out of 15 in my class. Also not bad considering I only recently got serious about weight training and when leaned out didn’t have much lean mass to speak of. No delts. No lats. No butt. But there was one thing I could do well…walk in heels.

After that first show I met my friend Jon. He’s a bodybuilder and a CPT, CSCS and was looking for a training partner. He offered to help me with my diet and training and I felt like I had just hit the jackpot! To have his knowledge at my fingertips and to be able to train with him was really exciting. Meeting Jon changed my “competition world.” I learned what it was really like to eat and train like a competitor and then when I was 12 weeks out from Vancouver ’09 Jon turned me over to the “guru”, Dave Patterson. After my first show I knew I liked being on stage and I knew that I wanted to do well in this sport, so when I met Dave I was prepared to do whatever he told me I needed to do.

This sport is not for everybody. I think that the biggest thing you have to be able to do in this sport is SUCK IT UP and the “suck it up factor” is high in competitive bodybuilding. Contest prep doesn’t often feel good. It takes a level of commitment that most people aren’t willing to give. To be successful you must follow a plan and you must make the plan fit into your life somehow. As part of my contest prep I do a lot of cardio. I do morning cardio before my first meal. Given my job and my family obligations, sometimes that means I’m in the gym on the step mill at 3:30am. While I’d obviously rather be sleeping at that hour, I want the results more than I want the sleep. Then, of course, most of us go back to the gym for “round 2” to lift and maybe do more cardio depending on our current level of leanness. It’s a time-consuming sport, no doubt. And to do it right, you have to be intense, you have to push yourself when you don’t feel like it, when you’d rather stop your set at 8 reps when you know you really could make 10. The competitor that loves this stuff pushes for those extra reps because we know…those are the reps that matter.

I haven’t even started on the diet yet. Almost every client I work with tells me…”oh, but I just don’t have time to eat well.” Really, people? Y’all know I have 4 kids, maintain a household by myself, work full time and train twice a day. Please take your excuses somewhere else. The diet takes serious commitment. Sometimes I feel like eating itself is a full time job. When you’re in contest prep mode you can’t miss meals, you have to be impeccable with your meal timing and your supplements. You can’t go 15 hours without eating (uh-hum, not naming any names). Most of us work, so we have to be prepared in advance with our meals for each day. For me, this usually means an afternoon of food prep on Sunday and sometimes a second day during the week so I’ve got everything ready to go for the week ahead.

Anyone who has competed before can tell you that the final weeks of contest prep SUCK. I will never forget one of my sessions (actually, it was probably many) that Dave told me…”Jules, you haven’t suffered before. You’re gonna have to suffer to make this show.” And I was ready…bring it! I’m ready to suffer and suffer I did. It sucked. Managing my daily life, my kids, my other obligations was very challenging, but I did it because I wanted it and I wanted it bad. To achieve the level of conditioning and leanness that it takes to really look your best on stage, you don’t have any options, you have to suffer. You have to put in the hard work. If you don’t want it that bad, you aren’t going to do it. It’s definitely not for everyone. If achieving the physiques of a competitor was easy, you’d see everybody walking around like they stepped out of a fitness magazine.

This is my life now. Well, I don’t suffer all the time, but I know that for me to look my best at a show I have to put in my “suffering time.” But even when I’m not in contest prep, I do my cardio most mornings before my first meal and then I go back later in the day to lift and maybe do more cardio. I keep my diet pretty dialed in most of the time because it feels good to me that way and also because when I try to differently it just doesn’t feel right. It’s just become my way of life and I truly find it rewarding and enjoyable.

So…how bad do YOU want it? Is it in you?

~Julie~

Fearless, with cape in hand

Tags: contest prep