So You're Thinking About Your First Figure Competition

Standing on a stage in a bikini and heels, lean and muscular under the lights, probably feels a long way from where you are right now. I remember that feeling before my first one. It seemed like something other women did, not me.

I've since earned a pro card, won world titles, and coached other women through their own first preps. So let me tell you what it actually takes, especially if you're a beginner, and especially if you're over 40 and wondering if you've left it too late. You haven't.

Prep is longer than the diet

Most people think a figure comp is a few brutal months of dieting before you step on stage. The diet is the small bit at the end.

The real work happens well before that, in the build phase. That's where you put on the muscle you'll actually show on stage, and where you lock in the habits and routines that make the eventual prep survivable. Enough training, enough food, enough consistency that when it's time to lean out, you've got something to reveal and a rhythm that holds.

The best way to think about it is a full 12 months (or more!), not 12 weeks. You work backwards from the comp season you're aiming at, and you map out the phases from there. Build first. Prep second. Stage last.

The two things beginners get wrong

There are two big ones I see over and over.

The first is not realising how lean you actually need to get for the stage. Stage lean is a different thing to beach lean or gym lean, and it takes proper time and structure to get there safely.

The second is trying to skip the build. Women want to jump straight into dieting, when the muscle has to be built first. Diet down before there's anything underneath, and you just end up smaller, not shaped. You can't reveal what you never built.

Understand those two things up front and you're already ahead of most first-timers.

How I coach it

My approach comes down to a few things.

I take the long-range view. We look at the next 12 months, decide on the target, and reverse-engineer the phases so nothing is rushed and nothing is crammed.

I coach it evidence-based and personalised. I won't hand you the plan that worked for me. It worked for my body, my history, my life. Yours needs its own. I use everything I've learned through my postgraduate sports nutrition study and combine it with years of experience as a competitor, coach & PT.

And I get what it's like to be a first-timer, and a 40-plus first-timer at that. The nerves, the doubt, the wondering whether you belong up there. I've stood in those shoes.

Why I love this part of coaching

I'll be honest about why I do this. A prep is one of the most confidence-building things I've ever been through. If you can do a prep, you can do anything. It asks everything of you, and it hands you back a version of yourself you didn't know was in there.

Getting to walk that road alongside another woman, especially her first time, is one of my favourite parts of the job.

Thinking about it seriously?

If a comp has been sitting in the back of your mind and you want to know whether it's realistic for you, let's have a chat. No pressure, and I'll be honest about what it would take.

Book a free discovery call and we'll talk it through.