"T'was the night before Game-Day and all through the house, not a creature was stirring"...except for a very tanned blogger with something to type about! Yep, tomorrow is my first entry into a UK Fitness competition - the FAME UK Natural Bodybuilding and Fitness Competition, no less. Held in The Scala club, near Kings Cross, it's an all-day event where Yours Truly plans to take home the gold in the 'Muscle Model' division.
It has always been an ambition of mine to compete in a live-judging competition. The great thing about the FAME UK Championships is that it's an American based company - the winners of the UK divisions get the chance to compete in Las Vegas for the US-based version. Prizes include a spread in Muscle & Fitness Magazine, and photo shoots with world-renowned fitness photographers. For me, my goal of entering is not just to fulfil a long-running ambition, but to really launch my fitness modelling career on a respected stage. Exposure is my number one goal - I need people to see what I've known all along: that my aspirations are credible and marketable.
I entered this competition last September, so this is not a spur-of-the-moment decision. I formed a plan of how I would achieve my ideal competition state, and it's taken a good 6 months for me to get to this point. In all honesty, despite my size and background in pro-wrestling, I had never really followed a specific training regime before. My experience comes from trial-and-error, advice and results from my peers, and on information I had learned from magazines and books over the years. I have learned to develop and trust my instincts when I train, and have often discovered that methods and exercises I've performed in the past based on instinct have more often than not had a sound, established recommendation in the fitness community.
But I have learned some important lessons for those individuals looking to peek for a specific event/date - be it a fitness competition or a beach holiday. In no particular order, here are some random thoughts:
- You can't train for size and definition simultaneously: These are two training goals at opposite ends of the spectrum. Sure, there are many exercises that you can perform that can aid both goals. But to truly maximise your potential, you must except periodisation as your training methodology. Accept the fact that you won't be at your leanest when attempting to pack on muscle - concentrate on building a solid foundation of muscle that can later be chiseled away. Next time round, aim to surpass your previous plateaus
- Have a plan: For my mass-building goals, I learned of a former Soviet strength-training master by the name of Pavel Tsatsouline - I highly recommend picking up his books for ideal reading material on the subject. His book "Beyond Bodybuilding" really opened my eyes to some fantastic training systems and a different psychology towards my training. While far too much information to simplify in this one blog, he taught me a very important lesson...
- Keep it basic: Bench Press, Dead-Lifts, Full-Squats...and nothing else! - performed at least 3 times a week, these basic power-lifting compound exercises are the essential core of your mass-building goals. BP and DL alone will cover the whole body. Performed in a fixed-duration hypertrophy method (DeLorme), they are sure to pack more meat on your bones.
- Realise the progress of your gains: 4-8 weeks is typical for how long your body can adapt to any one style of training, no matter how efficient or hard it may be. Do the same thing long enough and your results will slow, cease and at worse, regress. Have the next phase of your training in mind so that you can switch when you feel that plateau coming
- Have a strong-mental focus: Every day when you get out of bed, leave for work, get to work, before you train, before you go to bed - realise what the hell it is your training for. How much do you want this? How much is this important to you? Have an image in your mind of what you want to achieve, what you want to look like, and pursue it with single-minded determination. It's your choice. Just remember: no matter how hard you think you're working, there could be someone working twice as hard as you. Decide your level of commitment.
Well, it's time to get some shut-eye. I hope these thoughts will ring true for some of you. Until then; Good Training!
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