only you can decide when you are ready to compete. you can compete now if you’d like and then see all the improvements that you need to make.
I’d suggest to go and watch a few more shows, talk to some bodybuilders your age and find out how they train, what they eat, how they prep, etc.
Learn how to pose and then go for it.
Right now I don’t think you will do very well (no offense) I think that you need another 20 lbs of muscle or so before you are competitive in any weight class. Generally the smaller the weight class the shorter the guys.
Good luck and enjoy it, once you compete and that bodybuilding bug bites you, it’s venom is addicting! lol
I decided to begin bodybuilding with the goal of competing last year after many years of training.
It was the best decision i have made - as it has given me a real direction to my training.
I am 28, 5’9" and just shy of 200lbs with around 12%BF… yet i wont be competing anytime soon.
I do want to do fairly well though, and not ‘just take part’… so i have looked at the competition intensely and know what level i need to be at or near to be able to win novice, intermediate or the higher classes…
i pose regularly, and i have seen some guys with largely muscled bodies and no clue how to pose; look ridiculous - and those with not so good bodies who can pose excellently who look very good.
it is a massive part of the sport, and should be treated as seriously as the training itself IMO.
the problem is that the guys competing in the 140 lb division diet don to get there. they are substantially heavier just walking around most of the year. no offense, but judging by the limited pics in your profile, you look more like a guy who participates in outdoor activities then who lifts weights. keep at it tho, you’ll get there.
i love how people lift for 1 year then think they have what it takes to compete. lol. am i the only person who sees people walking around or at the gym which actually are huge and keep my ego from getting too overflowed?
You should pick a BBer who has a similar build (height, bone structure), and see what their ‘contest’ weight is. Then add 20 lbs to that, and realize that you should weigh that much with a reasonable degree of definition before jumping on stage.
I’m 35 years old, closing in on the ‘masters’ class myself, and if my avatar pic is any indication, I’m 5’9, about 196 lbs, and I know that I’d have to get my bodyfat down so that contest day, I’d be weighing about 176 lbs. Am I FAT in my pics? Not by normal standards (I’m not going to put some B.S. bodyfat % up here -lol), but for a contest, I’d look like crap.
If you currently weigh 140 lbs, and let’s be honest, you’re nowhere near shredded, you end up competing at 125 lbs. That’s just ridiculous. Keep doing what you’re doing, and if you add a little fat in the meantime, it’s okay, just part of the process. You’ll strip it down once you have a better foundation. Make use of the advice you can get on here, it’s the best training partner I’ve found.
This is dumb. This is called bodybuilding for a reason. Don’t jump on stage unless you have actually BUILT A BODY. This shit weakens the overall image of those contests. What is the point of this?
In what other activity are people encouraged to compete before they ever gain the skills to do well?
Further, what is up with the “feel good” response of, “do it for the experience” from other people?
If you wouldn’t waste your time watching someone like this on stage, why the FUCK would you recommend they jump on stage?
i had hoped to avoid a PX raping since as i noted, i’m new. the feel good replies only helped to encourage me to keep my routine going strong for 2-3 years before jumping in, and to watch/learn from BB contest in the meantime…things i will do (i appreciate the encouragement). i had an honest question, well honest to me. i guess in the end it was as stupid a question as “am i intermediate or advanced”
oh well, take your lumps, move on, lift, eat, sleep. thats my plan.
[quote]urbanski wrote:
i had hoped to avoid a PX raping since as i noted, i’m new. the feel good replies only helped to encourage me to keep my routine going strong for 2-3 years before jumping in, and to watch/learn from BB contest in the meantime…things i will do (i appreciate the encouragement). i had an honest question, well honest to me. i guess in the end it was as stupid a question as “am i intermediate or advanced”
oh well, take your lumps, move on, lift, eat, sleep. thats my plan. [/quote]
Your goal shouldn’t even be to just wait 2 or 3 years. It should be to build your body up AND THEN see if you have built enough to do well in competition IF you have the genetics to do so.
This is like telling some girl who can’t sing that she needs to jump on American Idol to win a record contract. People may like to laugh at those idiots, but no one is secretly cheering for William Hung…they just like to laugh and they think he’s cute in an Elmo kind of way.
You can’t avoid paying your dues and no one can predict that you even have the drive to build enough size to do well.
That is something you still have to show. It will take you 3-4 years just to build enough size to see if you have what it takes to do well on stage.
I don’t see the point of this if you will definitely come in last unless someone completely out of shape gets on stage behind you.
I think that you should go to a show first so that you can see what its all about learn the mandatory poing, get some posing trunks and just compare yourself to the top guys at the show so you can see what your lacking you should never enter a show you dont intend to win.
Should I enter the 2012 olympics being held in London in swimming? I just started training a few months back but I think I will learn a lot from the experience of going through it. I know Michael Phelps is fast and all and I can’t get make it all the way across an olympic size pool yet but I wanted to see what the veterans thought of this.