Want to know how to prepare for bodybuilding competition? Find the answers by Physique and Bodybuilding Competition Preparation coach Jarrod Miller!

The Pros and Cons of Competing in Physique and Bodybuilding Competitions

The PROs: Your motivation is at an all-time high! Your commitment reveals just how much you can give and push through when you thought you couldn't. As a result, you discover inner and personal strengths you didn't know you had. 

Competing means maximising every hour of every day, so you have routine and structure. As a result, you learn a lot about your body and how it responds to specific nutrition and training. You'll also uncover new levels of confidence and energy, which also feeds your heightened motivation to succeed. 

You'll meet new friends and people during your journey to the stage as positive energy attracts other positive energy and positive people to you.

The CONs: Competing in physique and bodybuilding competitions is expensive. It is the only 24/7 sport in the world that requires 24/7 commitment to a lifestyle and routine. It's a lengthy and challenging physical and mental process as most preparations for competing can be up to 3-6 months long. 

If you do not prepare for competition in a structured and safe way to maximise optimal health maintenance and results, you run the chance of suffering from severe health risks.

Mental health can suffer due to depletion and pressure. It can happen post-show due to no goal in sight or a post-show blow set back. Competing professionally in bodybuilding or physique competitions consumes your life, and if you want to be the best, it means you must leave no stone unturned. 

Training like this can result in other pressures and areas of your life, too—your relationships, social interaction and outings, lifestyle, career and other commitments we have in life. 

What to Expect Preparing for your First Competition 

Preparing for your first show is a whirlwind of emotions. You are ecstatic with excitement, but you are freaked out with nerves as you have no idea what you are getting yourself into. Competing for the first time is an entirely new experience. If you have done another sport or think you've done something hard, forget it. 

Competing in the sport of Bodybuilding, Physique, or Bikini is extremely hard, and it doesn't get any easier the more you do it, especially if you are giving it your whole heart. 

Bodybuilding is the only 24/7 sport in the world. Therefore, you need to execute your day on a time clock and regimented routines day in day out. 

There are no cheat days. No fancy restaurant meals with friends eating this and that. You need to get your 8 hours of sleep for recovery. You have to monitor your water intake daily. You have to get up and do your cardio or steps when you don't feel like it or when it's cold and watch every gram of food that goes in your mouth. 

Organisation and preparation are essential to compete in a physique or bodybuilding competition. If you fail to organise and prepare, your results and routine will crumble, and in most cases, lead to some self-destruction. 

Furthermore, when you compete for the first time, you will need to have a complete mental shift around everything you feel and do in life. You will be hungry. You will be tired. Some days you'll be up; some days, you'll be down. You will always think you don't look good enough. You must sacrifice a lot. You still have to work and be able to communicate without snapping or getting angry at people. 

Yes, competing is challenging, but it is rewarding and is a great character builder. Those who succeed are usually the resilient people who commit and shine in the competition preparation stage.

Competition Preparation Coaching

Competition preparation coaching is a gratifying and motivating role. As a physique/bodybuilding competition preparation coach, my role is to prepare my athletes to unlock their greatest potentials, which is rewarding to me. 

As much as it has its perks, the role also comes with many challenges and pitfalls. For example, sometimes my clients aren't as honest as they should be, and I have to withdraw them from competing as they aren't or will not be ready for competing due to being non-compliant. 

It also comes with added stress. You need to trust your clients and athletes to follow the protocols you set to a tee. To give one hundred per cent, so they make it to the desired condition to provide them with their chance to make it to a placing position. 

You need to learn and master a lot of knowledge and skills before competing too. So as a prep coach, my role is to support, guide, mentor, and educate my clients and athletes. But it does not stop there. As a coach, it's also my role to manage my client's journey and achieve the results from a composition aspect while also mentoring them to be better athletes and human beings physically and emotionally. 

Then you have the mental aspect. When mental health declines and emotions take over, my job as their coach is to be there. To support them, pull them out of it, and reset their mind to focus on the goal and the finish line. 

Coaching doesn't just stop once the competition is over, either. It continues. I need to nurture my clients back after the competition to focus on the next competition and goals during the offseason. 

Let's Talk Discipline!

Discipline has many definitions and meanings, but the term discipline in bodybuilding competing falls under the three types of discipline, preventive, supportive and corrective. 

Preventative

When I refer to creating a mental shift, this is preventive discipline taking place. 

Supportive

The supportive form of discipline is through having a coach or a support network to guide and push the competitor through the mental and physical extremities of the sport. 

Corrective

Then you have corrective. Corrective is the act or implantation of the plans and lifestyle changes to correct and recenter the discipline for the desired goal. 

Discipline must be mastered within. It is the act of constantly pushing through mental barriers and negative self-talk. Then, when you want to give up and the times get tough, when you are exhausted, flat, tired, drained, fatigued, hungry, discipline kicks in, and you say no to the distractions that can derail you. 

Discipline will prevail over those who are destined and hungry to succeed in this sport. Unfortunately, based on my experience, those who do not make it have not made discipline a priority. 

The Rewards of Competing? 

Many financial, emotional, mental and physical rewards can come to those who compete successfully. In addition, when you compete and begin to do well and draw attention to yourself as a quality athlete, some companies may even consider you for sponsorship.

However, this should not be your prime focus. Don't get blinded. To do well and acquire sponsorships, you need to be a quality athlete who can produce results and impact people. 

Competing can also be rewarding because it can build powerful emotional and mental strength barriers. However, the people who succeed are high functioning and focused, pushing for more significant results and gains in their sport and lives. 

The most important and one I find to be the most rewarding is the physical reward. 

When you compete in physique/bodybuilding competitions, you push your body to its limit for 20-25 weeks. At the end of that time, you look back at how far you have come since preparation started and how your body shape has transformed. 

You feel on top of the world, have sky-high confidence, and have a fantastic ripped physique where your mind and body functions like a well-oiled machine.

How Do You Know If You're Ready to Compete?

My best advice here is to commit! Commit to signing up with a competition preparation coach who can plan a solid offseason to prepare, grow and improve your physique for the competition stage. 

During those 12 months or so working with your coach, learn as much as you can. Ask questions. Absorb as much information you can learn about nutrition, the human body and how your body works and reacts to training.

Next, focus on perfecting and mastering the basics such as sleeping 8 hours, hydrating yourself every day and training your mind to block out distractions and setbacks. 

Once you have done that, then focus on perfect the micros. These are the things that will take you to the next level and prepare you for the stage. If you can give your all in a 12-month off-season and you thrive through it, then you are ready to compete. You will have built and mastered the skills and character to give the effort and discipline that competing in a physique/bodybuilding competition requires. 

However, if you complain, are not true to yourself, do not stick to your eating plan, skip exercises, keep being distracted or stopped training for a lengthy period of 2 weeks or more, then you aren't ready to compete. Competing may not be for you. 

Just remember why you want to compete in physique/bodybuilding competitions. 

Are you doing it for yourself? Or are you doing it because you think everyone expects you to do it, or you feel like you need to because everyone else is competing?

For more information or interview requests, please contact Jarrod Miller at Purpose Fitness Australia on

Website: www.purposefitnessaustralia.com.au