My First Competition

[Insex]

I'm new to this bodybuilding thing, so I'll make this simple. I just retired from football (12 years) and decided to give bodybuilding a try. I signed up for my first competition, which is in April. It's a natural bodybuilding competition. January is almost over now, and so far all I have been doing is:
-Consuming less calories.
-Doing more aerobic sessions (one or two 30 minute low intensity sessions per day).
-Lightening up on the weightload and intensity of my weight training workouts.
-Supplements I am currently taking are protein shakes, multivitamin/multimineral pills, Glutamine, Glucosamine, and Essential Fatty Acid pills.
-Practicing different poses, ect.
My concern is, am I on the right track? I want to be in the best condition as possible for this competition, which is about eleven weeks away now. I don't care about winning, I'm just doing this thing for fun, but I would like to see how far I can get into this bodybuilding field.
My knowledge of bodybuilding is very limited, because I have never done it before. I entered in the Novice class for the competition. The only book I have read on bodybuilding so far is Arnold Schwarzenegger's The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding.
Thanks in advance.

[Old_Fart2]

Sounds like you're on the right track.

The last time I competed was about the time you started playing football; the philosophies may have changed somewhat, but here's what we did (my wife and I):

Reduced our fat intake to nearly nothing, but kept our protein intake high, even higher than normal, to prevent catabolism. Eat 6-7 times a day, at least every 2 hours.

Used lighter weights, more reps in our workouts.

Did cardio twice a day: once in the morning, once after our weight workout. Worked out 6 days a week.

Hit the tanning beds (also a great way to get a little cat-nap in). I wouldn't recommend this for the long term; terrible for your skin, but for a contest you have to have a tan base before you apply the artificial tanners.

Practice all the mandatory poses. These are the most important; they are what the judging is really based on, not your routine.

Practice your routine with music, preferably heavy metal (Metallica is good, I used Queen's "We Will Rock You")

A few weeks before, start shaving your entire body. Don't wait until the last minute to do this; you'll have nicks and rashes.

A few days before the contest, start applying artificial tanner (we used Pro-Tan; I thnk there are better ones available now).

A day before the contest, drink as much water as you can, them stop drinkiing the night before. The day of the contest, have a light breakfast; maybe some eggs and a little coffee. Don't drink anything else. Carry some frozen grapes with you to much on when you get too thirsty.

Enjoy yourself!

I'm sure Italianangel can add some to this; maybe update it a little.

[painless2]

Keep the weights as heavy as you can during the training regimen, it helps to preserve muscle mass as you diet down towards the competition. Take pictures every 2 weeks for comparison and slowly increase the amount of cardiovascualr exercise that you do over the course of the training period. Try to make the diet as clean as possible, getting rid of excess fats and sugars, eating on a regular schedule with lots of veggies, lean protein and fiber rich carbohydrates. There's a lot of things you can do in the last week, but I'll wait until you're closer before we start talking about those.

[Old_Fart2]

Good point about carbs: we kept our carb intake to low-glycemic carbs as much as possible.

[Insex]

Ok, thanks for the advice. I greatly appreciate it. I just shaved my entire body about a month ago, and I know exactly what you're talking about. I got all kinds of cuts and rashes from shaving my entire body. As far as diet, I've always ate clean throughout my life with a little bit of fast food here and there. So trying to eliminate fast food completely is the tough part. One thing I forgot to mention in the original post is that I've also been consuming 2 ounces of wheatgrass daily to my regimen. Would you guys recommend wheatgrass is ok, or does it have any drawbacks to preparation to a competition?

[Insex]

Well, my competition went well and it was a lot of fun. It was the 1st Annual Clark Bartram FAME Golden State Regional Championships in San Diego, California. I took 4th place, not too bad for my first time in bodybuilding. For photos of the event, you can check them out at my website: www.trainwithwill.com/competition.htm

I had a blast, and I will definitely continue competing in the sport of bodybuilding. The fitness modeling looked fun too, so I think I will compete in that too in the the near future.

[Old_Fart2]

Good job. Glad to hear you had a good time. You looked good.

Why don't you start a new thread and detail your precontest diet and routine?

[Italianangel]

Great job, you looked great! The experience itself really teaches you alot too!
Linda