It’s no secret, prep is hard. If you haven’t ever dieted to extremely low levels or body fat, it will be the hardest physical and mental challenge you will ever done. The reality is that for every one person you see on stage, there will probably be a few who didn’t quite make it, and that is nothing to be ashamed about.

If you are competing for the first time, it is likely that you’ll be nervous leading up to your first show. After all, you’ve probably read so much about show day, watched videos, etc, but you’ve never experienced it yourself! So, naturally, you’ll probably be feeling a little nervous and maybe even stressed, as you won’t know what to expect.

If you are reading this, you are more than likely a first timer or seasoned competitor, who is currently well into the season having done multiple shows and are currently wondering when to wrap things up for the season. You might also be about to embark on your first prep and simply just want more information about the process.

So, you’ve decided you want to compete in a bodybuilding show. This might be for the first time, or it might be your return to stage. Whatever the scenario, there tends to be differing opinions as to when it’s most appropriate to hire a coach. Some of you might decide to do this the week before or a couple of weeks prior to starting prep, but some of you might decide to do so much earlier.

When I look back on my first ever season, I realise that put everything into one show, and when it didn’t go the way I wanted, I was heartbroken. Fast forward to now, 4 years later, and I’ll be doing 5 shows over the course of 5 weeks. This is fairly common for 2nd-3rd time competitors but not so much for first timers.

If you are new to the bodybuilding game, you may have heard people talking about looking “flat” or “full” and you’ll probably not have a clue on what they are talking about. I remember being confused by those terms too when I first got into the sport, and I wrongly felt embarrassed about the fact that I didn’t know what those terms meant when applying them to someone’s physique.

Whilst it’s obvious that prep is very much about you and your own physique progress, I wish someone had told me in 2017 that dieting to the extremes would also change what I was like as a person, especially towards the back end of a prep. If you’re a loner, you’ll be grand – but for 99.9% of us, prepping will impact on our friends, family, and our other halves.

If you’ve just started prepping for your first show, after a few weeks, the thought of placing can come into your head. However, this thought can become somewhat of an obsession and fixation, whereby you end up putting your whole self-worth on the outcome of the show.

Let’s imagine you’ve decided you want to compete in a bodybuilding show or get lean for a physique photoshoot. After making this decision, your next step might be to sign up for the show or pay for the photographer, and that’s when the penny drops: these things are quite expensive. Never mind the cost of the competition entry fees or the photographer: when you start adding up things like outfits, tan, makeup, … it really does add up. At this point, you may have already enquired to work with a coach and realise that it’s another substantial investment.

In the lead up to a show/shoot, you may have heard people talk a lot or hype up their “peak week”, which is simply the week before the main event. This is often seen as the place where the magic happens, as the final tweaks are made to present the physique at its best.

If you have never stepped on stage but would like to do so one day, you probably already know that posing is something you’re going to have to do. It can be quite the task to get your head around, and in my coaching journey, I’ve repeatedly seen that the first time an athlete attempts this, it can be quite off-putting.

You may have heard people describe the process of competing in a bodybuilding show as being quite addictive. You might step off stage and be tempted to compete year after year! However, the last thing you’d want is to show up next season and look exactly the same as you did the last time around. This is the biggest fear competitors have, as everyone’s goal is to improve on their placing or present a better package on stage.

Let’s face it: once you’re in the bodybuilding game, it can become all too easy to fall into the trap of wanting to compete every year. However, I personally feel that once you’ve competed for two years in a row, it’s time for a break, and here is why:

So, you’re thinking of competing for the first time and you’re Instagram shopping for a prep coach, wondering when you should approach them to start your journey. After all, you don’t want to step on stage till the back end of 2021 so why bother starting now?

So, it’s been just over a year since this day…I still get goosebumps when I remember hearing my name announced for a 3rd place in fitness model and open bikini at last year’s UK Ultimate Physiques British Finals. When I realised I would be placing top 3, I remember feeling my bottom lip quiver, and I did find it hard to hold the tears back.

Do you look at photos of competitors on Instagram and think “but how do you do it?”? Do you wonder what it takes to get stage lean and question whether you’re capable of doing it yourself?

Is this what you’re telling yourself? Are you a beginner bikini competitor, right at the start of your journey? Then let me tell you this.

When that first little lightbulb in your head goes off and you think I can get lean I can get on that stage, what is your first call to action after that?