Shrinking to Look Big Onstage

Bodybuilding Comp Prep is a Mind Game

When attempting competition training, a psychological block that many bodybuilders face relates to perceptions of their physical size. Regardless of the motive bodybuilders have for getting into training in the first place, generally getting get big and strong is part of it. Anything which compromises this becomes a threat. As a result, many bodybuilders become anxious leading up to a competition.

Competition Physique Tips

• The competition physique should be as much pure lean mass as possible, with excess body fat stripped away. Whilst you can’t flex fat, fat on your body makes you feel bigger and this can be psychologically unsatisfying to most bodybuilders.
• A bodyweight of 110kgs and 16% body fat, would be considered lean by the average man. When this same person starts to train and diet for competition, he has to alter his body composition so that he gets down to 9% body fat. At 110kgs and 16%, he would have originally been carrying about 17kg of fat. His lean mass would therefore be 93kgs, assuming he has not lost any muscle mass. So in terms of muscle, he will be the same size, but he will feel a lot smaller. All this sense of smallness affects some individuals to the extent that they find themselves psychologically unable to keep up to their programme leading up to a competition.
• A key factor in winning a competition is to change your body composition to help you win your contest. Whilst mass is vital to a bodybuilder’s physique, it is the shape and the quality of the mass that wins contests. Seeing big numbers on the scales, or the feeling that your clothes are tight all over your body, and not paying attention to stripping away body fat, achieving ultimate definition and contest quality will give you nothing but loss in a bodybuilding competition. The key is to dial in your overall conditioning to show the judges what you are made of. To achieve this can be a real mind game, and many fail in this quest due to the fear of feeling small in the process.