contest prep question

Do you work up til the day before a contest....or is it better to take a day or two off prior to? I am thinking with the tanning and all it might be better to not be at work LOL

 

contest prep question

I think many take the last week or 2 off!

 

contest prep question

I would have stopped training about 4 days out, but I hurt my foot the weekend before so no training the whole week. You don't want to have too much inflammation come contest day so having at least 3-4 days off minimum prior is a good way to go.

 

contest prep question

Normally you would make Wed your last training day, and maybe Wed - Thurs your last cardio day. Esp for women, the bigger deal is water manipulation and getting any last fluff off - possibly may go longer w/ the cardio than guys typically do. And then those last couple of days, recommended to stay off your feet, keep your legs up again to keep the water from building up

The whole point is to allow a couple days for your body to process the water that is invariably circulating as a result of the training & cardio activity. It also used to be that if you did your own protanning, you'd need at least a couple days to get all your layers on and you don't want to be sweating once you've gotten your first layer on.

And just a note - trying to use diuretics or something to force more water dropping if you think that's going to get rid of any circulating water faster so you can slide in more cardio - wrong approach. Let the body do what it was designed to do. If you haven't lost enough bodyfat or built enough muscle by the last week of prep, its too late anyway. The ONLY thing you can do at that point is manage water. That includes getting enough sleep, dropping the cardio, dropping the training, keeping your legs up & not fucking up your diet.

And just to keep things in perspective - I'm coming from the bodybuilding side where it really matters. Bikini or Figure - may matter less, but still if you look watery on stage, you fucked up somewhere. Its just better to stop w/ the trainign & cardio & let your body settle down. Spend your time focusing on posing at that point.

 

contest prep question

oh...miscommunication here...I mean work work, not the working out I am debating putting in for vacation time...just curious if you take off at all, or if you do, how long?

also, just saw the typo in the title...ugh, I hate posting with my phone LOL

 

contest prep question

Last edited by shan; 02-17-2012 at 01:53 PM.

 

contest prep question

Ha! Yea - so if I have to travel, I try to give myself a day, again for the water to settle down. Air travel can promote some puffiness. If not, then I will probably take Thurs-Fri off - again to prepare, get my suits & stuff in order. And even for a local show, I'll probably get a hotel - I've gotten to where the convenience of getting the tanning done by the show's tanning service is worth it - so I'll usually get a room at the host hotel, they do the spraying the night before & then in the morning for touch up.

 

contest prep question

excellent! This is local so I was not intending to do the hotel stay, but will talk with my coach to see what he says. I am still pondering the pros/cons of the tan choices, he has said protan was the only way to go for self prepared, but I would prefer to do the spray on if at all possible (though I see they now have self tan in a spray can LOL). I think I would prefer to pay a lil more to have it done well...I saw some really ugly tans last year LOL

 

contest prep question

I would recommend having it done. Totally worth the money IMO!

 

contest prep question

Getting sprayed depends on whos doing the spraying, they have to be very experienced to get it right and I was not impressed by my last competitors tan whom had jana tan sprayed, just not dark enough even with an extra coat. Honestly a base stain before spraying may work better. As for training, depends on the person, as for work....that's a personal choice.