Post show strategies

For those of you who have just competed you will no doubt be finding the post show phase incredibly hard. After dedicating your life to prep for the last 5-6 months and following a strict meal plan/training regime it can be incredibly difficult to not feel lost and to adhere to your calories.

Post show can be a whole new experience for first timers and one that can sometimes make or break your love for the sport and relationship with food. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to explain the post show phases and discuss some strategies that’ll set you up for success.

Hunger and food focus

During competition prep, you experienced high levels of hunger but no doubt had the will power to not reach for more because you were trying to get in shape for the stage. You will have also experienced the fatigue and tiredness that went with it. Let me be the first to tell you that post show, no matter how much you push food up, hunger is going to stay high and remain high for a while. This is due to skewed hunger/satiety signalling in the body meaning that your body doesn’t recognise when your stomach is full.

Therefore, that want/drive to eat can be extremely high. Many won’t want to feel hungry, instead they want to feel full but the problem is that your body won’t signal to you that you are full until you are moments away from being sick. This does however, return to normal once you’ve regained a bit of body fat, you just need to try and be somewhat strict until that point. That might take a few weeks, or it might take a couple of months.

My suggestion would be to eat the exact same food sources you were eating on prep but just more of it. Keep your meal timings the same and train at the same time you were doing on prep. Even if you’re hungry once you’ve finished eating your meal, give yourself 20-30 minutes before eating something else. You’ll no doubt find that after some time has passed you are no longer hungry.

Allow yourself 1-2 free meals off plan, where you allow yourself to have something of your choice. That way you can satisfy cravings and be content knowing you haven’t f**ked the diet. On the odd occasion where you go completely off plan, don’t worry about it, tomorrow is a new day and simply wake up the next day and continue as normal.

goal setting

It is very easy to feel lost post show. Everything you’ve done for the past 5-6 months, maybe even 2-3 years has been working towards the goal of stepping on stage. Once you’ve finished competing you instantly think ‘what’s next?’ If you haven’t decided, talking from experience, it can be an extremely tough time mentally and emotionally. It’s easy to feel that way when you don’t have any direction moving forward. That being said, post show is the perfect time to get on a call with your coach and have a chat. It is absolutely essential to set a direction/goal to move forward and set a time frame. In doing so, you will still feel like you have a purpose and are simply beginning the journey to get to your new goal. That might be to come back in two years’ time and challenge for an overall or your pro card. This sport is all about progression and placing/winning can 100% be what you focus on.

To do so you might need more muscle in certain areas, that’s where setting performance-based goals is key. Go through your logbook with a fine-tooth comb, set some 6- and 12-month targets for where you want all your lifts to be. Re-learn moves where form and mind to muscle connection has gotten sloppy. Make it all about performance and less about how you look.

KEEP YOURSELF BUSY

Now that prep is over you may no longer need to do hours of cardio, spend all your time in the gym and be a hermit! The last thing you want to do though is spend all your time in the house with food in the cupboard that you’re telling yourself not to eat. If you sit there all day thinking about eating, guess what’s going to happen? You’ll eat it all and then some and I say this speaking from experience! So, my suggestion is to fill your weekends with plans with your family, friends and loved ones.

Your hunger will still be high, but you’ll have that distraction, plus it’ll be nice to spend some time doing non bodybuilding type things. Still continue to bodybuild, and train as you normally would but I promise you that filling your weekends up will drastically reduce your food focus.

In summary, the post show period is extremely difficult and often seen as more challenging than prep itself. You will have an insatiable drive to eat and have an intense food focus for a few weeks post show. By eating the same meals and allowing 1-2 meals off plan it will reduce over time and allow you to minimise fat gain. Set yourself performance-based goals that shift your focus away from how you look and keep yourself busy to avoid overeating and binging at the weekends.

Vaughan Wilson Bsc Hons