My 1st year as a ‘figure’ competitor.

This is a blog written by Lucy a PFP figure athlete. It is her account of her journey to the UK finals.

It all started in January 2011. I was sitting as home thinking about what I would like to achieve over the next year. I’ve always enjoyed my training and I work very hard at it. While most girls were on the cross trainer chatting about what they did over the weekend, I was in the weights room trying to improve on last weeks deadlift!! My motto has always been ‘if it doesn’t hurt then I’m not working hard enough!’

I’ve always been interested in bodybuilding, how these people are so dedicated and get there body’s into such amazing condition. I went to watch a few bodybuilding shows and was so impressed with all the competitors up on stage doing what they love to do and looking so confident and in such amazing condition. This is when I thought ‘right that’s what I’m going to do’.

I looked into all the different federations as there are so many out there and decided that I want to compete with the BNBF (British Natural Bodybuilding Federation). I choose these guys as I wanted to be a natural competitor not steroid induced. I sent my entry form in March and then the hard work started. I had 4 months to be stage ready!

I was lucky that I wasn’t in to bad a shape to start with. Also I was very lucky that my boyfriend James Buckingham (Precision fitness and Performance) is a Strength coach/nutritionist so he was a massive help to me. He provided me with all my training programs and my nutrition, we kept my training the same up until 12 weeks out from the competition. I was training 5 times a week for about 1hour at a time, each day was a different type of training (hypertrophy reps, stength reps, power, endurance etc). I trained Monday - Wednesday with Thursday off as a rest day, then again Friday and Saturday, taking Sunday off as another rest day. This seemed to work really well as I was getting results from it.

I’ve always stuck to a fairly clean diet, so the nutrition plan wasn’t too bad to stick to. I made sure that I was eating every 2-1/2 to 3 hours. Each meal eating protein and veg with some nuts occasionally. I also maked sure I was drinking enough water, about 2 ½ – 3 litres over the day.

I had to make some changes like drinking less coffee, cutting out the cream (don’t drink milk) so just having it black. Drinking green tea, which I didn’t do before, cutting out the sugary treats, still occasionally on my carb loading days allowing myself some dark chocolate (85% coca), and making sure I was eating enough protein through out the day.

I would weigh my protein in the morning and then divided it over 6-7 meals. I was consuming between 150g – 175g of protein a day. A typical day for me was.

-Up at 7:15am
-Meal 1 7:45am:  Steak, spinach, few almonds and a black coffee. (supplements – I’ll talk about these later on).
-Train 9:30 – 10:30am
-Meal 2: Protein shake straight after training 11:00am
-Meal 3: 1:00pm: Chicken or Fish with leafy greens, Tomato, Red pepper (supplements).
-Meal 4: 3:45pm  Same as above
-Meal 5: 6:30pm Same as above with a few Almonds
-Meal 6: 9.30 pm Same as above

Each meal pretty much consisted of the same thing. Protein, (Steak, Chicken, Fish) Fats, (Nuts, Extra virgin Olive Oil, Fish oil) and Carbohydrates (vegetables, Leafy greens e.g. Spinach, Rocket, Watercress, Tomato, Pepper). 

All my carbs came from my vegetables. On Thursday when I wasn’t training was my carb loading day where I would increase my carbs and would eat things like white potatoes, Sweet potatoes, Brown rice and Quinoea. I didn’t eat bread as I struggle with Gluten and become very bloated so I avoided it.

Supplements
My supplements were all mostly from Charles Poliquin / Phil richards range which James gets whole sale as he is a Poliquin practitioner. They and included:

• Fish oil (2 capsules three time a day)
• Multivitamin (3 tablets a day)
• Digest Force (3 tablets with each meal) my digestion is very Poor!!
• Green tea extract (1 capsule three times a day)  
• Calcium D Glucarate (3 capsules once a day)
• Dim (2 capsules three time a day)
• Grape seed extract (3 capsules once a day)
• Estroclear (3 capsules once a day)
• Zinc (2 tablets once day)
• Probiotic (2 Capsules after last meal)
• Magnesium (2-3 capsules an hour before bed)
• Whey isolate Protein ( 1 scoop after training)
• BCAA’s ( 12-15 during training)
  These were not all taken together, we rotated through them as was required.

It was all well getting my body in competition shape but I didn’t have a clue when it came to being on stage and ‘posing’ for the judges. I got in contact with Hannah Bryant who competes herself over in Canada. She was a massive help and gave me some great advice and tips on how to hold myself and present myself on stage to look the best I could look. I saw her 3 or 4 times until I felt comfortable with the posing. It was amazing how natural it felt in the end. It was also impressive how I managed to do it while walking around in a pair of 5’’ heels!!! That took some practice!!

For the last 6 weeks on the run up to the show it was practice, practice, practice with the posing everyday to make sure I felt confident with it. I could imagine there is nothing worse then going on stage not knowing what to do. I was told that the judges would mark you down if you lacked confidence. They like confidence and elegance on stage. The two things that I struggle with especially the elegance!! I had to practice walking around the house like a lady as I do walk very manly I have been told!

James was very supportive. I was constantly asking him how I look, do you think this pose is better then that one? Constantly looking in the mirror posing. Having him constantly holding the camera so I can see how my back poses/hamstrings were looking! Very vain I know! He also did periodic Biosignature hormonal analysis which involved taking 12 skinfold site and monitoring how and where I was storing fat. This was invaluable as it allowed him to tweak my supplements, training and nutrition constantly. It also gave me motivation as I could see the body fat and lean muscle change each week.

We had a trail run 2 weeks before the show where we put on my tan, bikini, jewellery and shoes. I did my hair and makeup how I wanted it done on the day. This was so I could see how I was going to look and if I needed to make any improvements/changes. It was amazing what difference the tan made, ‘Oh my god’ my legs looked good, even though I say so myself!!

The last 2 weeks were a struggle, my energy levels had completely dropped and I was starting to lose motivation. I seemed to have peaked the weekend before the competition. James told me to back off my training. The last week I was only allowed to training for 30 minutes (after warm up), reducing the number of sets I was doing. The hard work had been done so I just needed to back off the volume but keep the intensity so I still had energy to perform on stage the following weekend. This worked well because on the day I felt good!!

The day of the show arrived so quickly. The preparation started the evening before on the Saturday, James was in charge of my tanning! We had to put on 3 coats the evening before and then do a further one on Sunday morning (Show day). We did find the whole tanning process quick tricky. It looked patchy and also started going green in places, I later found out that it wasn’t my skin but the tan as other girls had had the same problem with it. There is differently a knack to putting it on!!

We arrived at the venue in Newport Wales where the show was being held and checked in, I was given my number the procedure for the day was explained to me. I had to hang around for awhile as we were rather early. The other girls started to arrive and I started to feel very nervous when I started seeing my competition. We all went and got ready and we started chatting, were all really nice and realising they were just as nervous as me, which made me feel a bit better!!

First stage of the show was the pre-judging stage. We (all the girls) went on together and were asked by the judges to perform certain poses that we thought showed our figures off the best. I was amazed with myself, for about 30 seconds I was a bag of nervous standing in front of all those people in the audience looking at me, but after that I relaxed and really enjoyed myself. I came off stage thinking ‘oh my god, I’ve just been on stage, something I’ve always wanted to do and really enjoyed it’. Couldn’t believe had quickly it went. All those weeks of preparation for 15 minutes on stage. CRAZY!!!

The evening show was where I did my T walk performance. This is where you walk around the stage in the form of a ‘T shape’ performing different poses to music for about a minute on your own, again I loved it!! At the end all the girls come back onto the stage and line up together, the judges make thier final decisions on who gets placed where. It was such a shock  when they called out “and the winner is Lucy”,  seriously I couldn’t believe it, on my first ever competition!

From that show I was given an invite to the BNBF UK finals in Glasgow. So my plans for doing one show and going back to normal life had gone out the window!! More dieting and training were on the cards for the next 10 weeks.

We changed my training programs, I was training up to 10 times in an 8 day cycle, having every 4th day off and having a carb meal on the ‘off’ day rather then just once a week like I was before. This was because we wanted to build a little more muscle on to me. This worked really well because my muscle mass went up from 57kg to 59kg. But the biggest difference was I went from 6.5% body fat (which I was for the qualifier show in Wales) to 3.4% body fat. I was ripped big time!!

I was ready to hit the stage again and this time I enjoyed it more as I knew what to expect and loved it even more. My Tan looked good, I used a different one this time and no disrespect to James but someone else applied it to me!

It was the same protocol, on stage for the pre-judging and then back on in the evening for the T walk and presentation. I picked up 2^nd place in the UK championships which I was so thrilled with. My first year in the sport and I have 2 fantastic trophies sat here with me at home 1^st and 2^nd. They have pride of place in my lounge.

My friend Nicola Millichip was competing in the physique class. I shared an apartment with her and her husband in Glasgow. I remember sitting down with her on Saturday evening, the night before the show and we discussed that we would both love to come away with 2^nd place. Even though 1^st would have been fantastic but for out first year (as this was also her 1^st year in the sport) 2^nd would be fantastic. Would you believe it she got 2^nd as well!!!! 

I’m now back to what you could say as ‘normal life’. Not having to be so strict and have a lot more freedom with what I can eat/drink, although I can’t go stupid, still have to stay in reasonable shape. To be honest I have struggled with getting back to normal life. I have been eating so cleanly for so long that anything I eat that is not ‘meat, nuts or veg’ seems to make me bloated. That just shows you I’m obviously only designed to ‘dead stuff and green stuff’. I’ve backed off my training and now train 4-5 times a week, all over body workouts given to me by James. I’m planning to compete again next year. So it will all kick off again in April for the show in July.

Without my boyfriend who is also my coach, I wouldn’t have been in such incredible shape and have come home with 2 wonderful trophies. These are as much his as they are mine. He is a wonderful man and also father to our 2 year old boy so I thank him very much for all his help and support. x