Contest Magic

Bodybuilder Hubby is competing in a bodybuilding contest today. 

For a long list of reasons that starts with two preschool-aged kids, I’m not there to cheer him on, though he’s got friends and fellow competitors there who I know will do a good job of yelling his name from the audience.

If there was some way I could magically teleport myself to that auditorium to see Bodybuilder Hubby on stage, I’d do it in a heartbeat.  I want to see how he looks.  And I want to see how the other guys on stage look next to him.

There’s one thing that I’ve learned watching years of contests:  There’s no magic formula for being ready for a competition.  The same routine and diet won’t bring about the same results in two different competitors; it won’t even bring about the same results in the same competitor from one contest to the next.

There are so many other factors that make a difference: stress levels, hormones, all those other little things that are part of daily life make a difference.  New job?  Stress levels are up, and it shows in your body.  Had a bad case of the flu last winter?  Your body reflects that too.  Everything matters.

Over the years, Bodybuilder Hubby has experimented with what works best for him.  But every year the results are just a little different. 

Bodybuilder Hubby gains something like 30 pounds or so during the off-season, though this, like everything else, varies.  There have been years when I swear he drops the weight by doing nothing more than blinking – the fat just seems to fall off of him.

There are years when he ends up doing cardio (such as running on the treadmill) multiple times a week for weeks leading up to the contest.  But there was one year when he did cardio only six times in the months he was getting ready to compete; that year he just didn’t have too do any more than that.

Over and over I’ve seen competitors look absolutely fantastic one year and not so great the next, and vice versa. 

The thing that baffles me the most is how much a competitor’s body can change just on that one day of competition.  I’ve seen over and over again a competitor on stage in the morning looking just fine, but then they came back for the evening show looking absolutely amazing.  Whatever they did – or more likely, whatever they ate – made a huge difference in a matter of hours.

This can be good and bad.  The judging happens in the morning, but the awards are given at the evening show.  So, it seems like every year, a competitor will get on stage in the morning and be placed appropriately in something like 3^rd or 4^th place, but at night, that same competitor suddenly looks better than everyone else on stage so the audience is all shocked and upset when he doesn’t end up in first.

This is why competitors need to encourage friends and family to come to the morning part of the competition.  That’s the part that matters most.

So, for today, I know how great Bodybuilder Hubby looks.  I know how hard he’s worked.  But I don’t know what the other guys on stage look like, so I get a little nervous.  Of course, I want him to do well so that everyone else sees how amazing I already know he is.

Good luck today, Bodybuilder Hubby.  I love you!