women figure competitors. help me please?!

[huffytrain05]

i know this is a womans section, but im a trainer and i was wondering if any of you were figure competitors? and what would be your advice to anyone interested in doing their first show? Ive got a client who's 34 with 3 kids, she is a former marathon runner that wants to convert, shes got potential. but as a male trainer, im looking for the right things to say to help her understand the commitment and dedication that has to be there. we've talked breifly about diet and training and supps, shes sleeping on the idea, and we are talking again in about 1 week. Any advice would help. thankx

[William Wallace]

My wife is a figure competitor (at least before our daughter was born last year). The advice I would give seeing the results is that she should train for herself and let her and you as her trainer judge the results. If she happens to place in a competition and the competition deadline helps motivate her to get in that kind of shape, great!

The reason I say this is that figure competition is even more political than bodybuilding competitions. In BB, the judges are forced to judge on symmetry, definition, size, etc. and can't sway *too* much from those criteria. Figure competition on the other hand has a whole different level of criteria that isn't necessarily measurable such as "softness", "female curves", "walk". Results sway very heavily from contest to contest. They may want someone closer to a body-builder physique in one contest and someone closer to a pageant contestant in the next. It's easier to sway the judges as well. In the show that my wife's personal trainer organizes, his girls always win. In other shows, they don't do as well and whoever runs that show seems to have more winners.

It is the same level of commitment as body building. The difference is that there is no "bulking" off season and the dieting before competition is not as severe. She would still need to carb deplete a week out and monitor that she doesn't become *too* defined and *too* vascular. You want to see the six pack but you don't want to see mountains and valleys. Posing, walking, posture, and smiling have to be practiced with the same intensity as the workouts. And the bikini, one-piece, evening gown, hair, make-up, shoes, etc. should be budgetted ahead of time. It ain't cheap.