Figure Contest Prep - What the?
1. Here’s a good one for ya:
Talked with trainer by text yesterday and he called me this morning to see how i was holding up. My diet changed as of today and he told me i MUST get the 2 hours of cardio in … in addition, I have 15 minutes of step-ups … to work the booty
Where to begin?
Do you realize my keyboard has dents from typing about these subjects?
15 minutes of step ups to work the booty? Who is this trainer? They belong in another industry. So what is the 15 minutes of step ups going to do to ‘the booty’? Is it spot reduction cardio? Sure, of course that works. Muscles grow or they shrink. Or I guess a third option is they stay the same. I’ll assume that since this person is dieting (the 2 hours of cardio per day gives it away), that the step ups are not being done to ‘build the booty’. So I take that’s to mean they’re being done to strip off booty fat? If someone ever tells you to do this - you need to immediately start laughing hysterically at them. And then call them an idiot.
2. How about this one?
I recently started talking to a girl I went to high school with me and she has hired a trainer for the first time to do a figure competition (she’s done a few in the past apparently). She tried to “give me some pointers” from her trainer (mind you I never asked, she just offered because I’m a “newbie”). She thinks her trainer is awesome because he “really gets into her muscles” by having her do bodyweight lunges for about an hour. No joke. And SS cardio not to be done above 60% max HR. MAN I am SOOO glad I am working with you Erik.
Ok, you thought the first one was bad - and she was only doing 15 minutes of step ups. This poor girl is getting AN HOUR of lunges. You know, to get really deep into those muscles. Can these trainers even keep a straight face when they say this? Let’s not forget - how incredibly boring would 60 minutes of alternating lunges be?
Oh and don’t go past 60% MHR - because if you do, you’ll burn NO FAT. Let’s bow down to the fat-burning zone. Oh wait, one more thing - make sure it’s done fasted too.
3. This comes from the same source as the last point.
The same girl I talked about in my last biweekly gave me a few more pearls of wisdom the other day. First, her diet sucks. She gets like 1 tbsp of peanut butter, and lean steak every third day, but has to eat egg whites/chix/veggies/oatmeal for the rest of her diet. Poor girl also has no salt, dairy, fruit. She told me to watch the fruit and yogurt because “They have a lot of sugars in them that will keep you from getting the leanest you can.” Oh and no surprise she has 2x day cardio.
Awesome! She gets four different foods on her diet. FOUR!! Does anyone want to bet what’s going to happen the day after the contest? FOUR FOODS!!
Oh no! Fruit keeps you fat! Yeah, it’s the fruit that keeps people from getting lean. How much fruit would you have to eat for that to happen? Sure, a piece or two of fruit is going to be the one thing that keeps you from the stage. Does this even sound logical?
Got any more for me? Let me hear it in the comments.
Related posts:
- Figure Contest Prep - RANT!!!!
- More Figure Competitor Nonsense
- Contest Prep - When It’s All Said & Done, Was It A Good Experience?
Tags: Figure competition, figure competitors, figure contest prep
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Ive been doing it all wrong. next year….must not eat fruit. must up cardio to torture myself…pick four foods. compete and suffer with all that? no thanks.
Excellent rant, Erik
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Ha! I don’t think so. I think we’ll do it our way again, don’t you?
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Ahahahahaha. Ahahahahahaha. Ahahahahahaha. I love it when you rant. LOL
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:48 pm
What? No fish in the blog? But don’t you know you can only eat fish and asparagus 4 times a day and oatmeal with protein powder the only other two meals? My last competition diet: oatmeal, egg whites, fish and asparagus, almonds, 2 scoop protein powder, 2 oz. chicken. THAT’S IT. Needless to say that rebound results aside, I have learned my lesson and regardless of that trainer’s reputation I will NEVER suggest him to anyone or use him again!!!!
October 24th, 2008 at 1:07 am
“You can have ‘Non Starchy Veges’ (carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, radishes etc) at breakfast and lunch but not at any other meal of the day.” Hmm, makes having a salad at dinner difficult!
October 24th, 2008 at 8:17 am
So glad you speak up about these rants!
It really makes me sad (and mad) to know that there are so many people out there that are tortured so and endure this type of training. I can imagine what it does to these people from a health standpoint, never mind a physical one.
Im am ever SO thankful the ONLY way i know to get lean is YOUR way.. I cant imagine i’d ever wanting to have pursued my dreams under some of those hideous circumstances.
October 24th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Because of these “trainers”, competitors are killing themselves with endless cardio on no food and non-competitors are going to the gym for years with no improvement.
SO grateful to have found you!
Plus, I love when you rant. “Yeah, it’s the fruit that keeps people from getting lean”…I cannot stop laughing!
October 24th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
After doing an insane prep last year there was no way I could put my body through that again; no sparkly bikini is worth doing that to my body and my mind.
I am so grateful I dumped my former trainer; these past 10 months working with you have been a blast and I was able to lose 20 lbs in 20 weeks for my shows without doing tons of cardio or cutting out ANY food groups. Thank you!
October 24th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Yes!
Missing:
-my trainer can tell from looking at me whether I should have a sweet potato or butternut squash.
-the difference between my legs during that prep and this one is all about the diet. No more chx. Only tilapia!
-all sets have 20 reps MINIMUM
October 24th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
An hour of lunges? :blink:
October 25th, 2008 at 10:20 am
bahahahahahahaha
I think you should be more passionate in your writing Erik. I’m not quite feeling it.
bahahahahahaha
A woman I work with was asking if I was doing the FAME show this year. I said I was thinking about it. She said, “me, too, but I’m really scared of the 4 hours of cardio per day!” I had to sit her down and straighten her out, but I don’t think she got it.
October 26th, 2008 at 8:24 am
This rant is simultaneously sad and hilarious.
October 26th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Thank goodness for you and Noel or a good deal of us would be turning to these people for help and would probably be miserable and burn out.
I’m going to have to talk to Noel about my serving of fruit. I think it’s making me fluffy! LOL!
October 26th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Some good follow up here guys. Thank you.
Amazing the nonsense people are lead to believe. I’ll keep preaching.