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Female Competitors and Offseason Body-weight

Female Competitors and Offseason Body-weight

Weekly Ramblings #1

As I look around on my Facebook and Instagram lately, I notice the same women competing year after year after year, both spring and fall. They are always competing which means they are always in contest prep. If they are always in prep it means they are pretty much always dieting.

What do I usually find to be the true motivation behind this? The most common reason is that many female competitors hate the way they look in the offseason. I can't tell you how many female competitors tell me they can't even look at themselves in the mirror without tearing up because they constantly compare themselves to their "show day selves".

I want all these ladies to know that it doesn't have to be this way. In fact, it should not be this way.

Here are some things to consider:

  • Repeated bouts of cyclical dieting will cause a slowing your metabolic rate. Research has clearly shown this to be the case. If you continue to run through restrictive diets without enough recovery time between, you will find it harder and harder to lose the weight every time you diet. Leading to having to cut calories lower and lower and raise cardio higher. Eventually you will not be able to get as lean as when you began and you will look worse.
  • While you can always keep cutting food lower and lower and add more cardio to get lean (assuming you don't mentally break first) the reason you won't get as lean as the first time is that you will lose muscle every time you prep. The caloric deficit and drop in anabolic hormones will eventually take its toll.’

This is why ample offseason time is important. Before you can even build new muscle you must allow time for hormones to recover and to regain muscle tissue you lost during last prep. Offseasons need to be measured in months or years, not weeks.

  • Last but definitely not least, your boyfriend, your husband, or your significant other DOESN’T GIVE A DAMN if you are 15-20lbs over show weight. In fact I'm willing to bet that they probably like the way you look in the offseason more than when you are completely dieted down for a show.

You need to realize that your "offseason body" is probably leaner than 95% of the population. Most people would kill to look the way you look in the offseason.

We all love the way we look on show day, but holding that look all the time is not realistic or conducive to making real physique progress. Also, spending your entire life hungry and hating the way you look is no way to live.

Take some time and really put in the effort to appreciate your "offseason body". It will not only allow for better physique progress but also a happier life.

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