Body Image During Competition Prep
This post is part of The Ultimate Bikini Prep Guide – check out the full guide for more!
Bodybuilding and body dysmorphia go together like peanut butter and jelly – hold up, maybe using food analogies isn’t the best plan here.
Bodybuilding and body dysmorphia go together like yin and yang – feeding off each other, and both reliant on the other for their own existence.
If you don’t have at least a little body dysmorphia, are you going to start bodybuilding? For many, it’s an obvious ‘no’.
Given that it’s such a present thing for so many people, let’s dive in to the ‘why’ and also how we can manage it.
Why Body Image Gets More Complicated During Prep
I think the ‘why’ here is pretty clear. Body image management gets more complicated during prep because you’re more fixated on it, in addition to the pressure of getting yourself ready to put on stage wearing very little and being judged like that.
It’s daunting.
If you aren’t scrutinizing every detail of your physique, you’re missing something. Maybe a lot.
We also worry tremendously about our rate of progress and overall ‘readiness’ which compounds the issue and turns it from textbook ‘body dysmorphia’ into something closer to broad, general anxiety.
To be clear this is all pretty normal, and you simply need to keep yourself grounded in reality to avoid going down a slippery slope.
Your goals matter, but they aren’t everything. For your first prep (or 2 or 3), there are so many unknowns it’s hard to know what to expect, and that compounds both anxiety and dysmorphia.
Give yourself time and opportunity to be an inexperienced amateur. It’s ok.
Leaner Doesn’t Automatically Mean More Confident
Bodybuilding history is littered with decades of competitors who were the leanest and their shows and didn’t win. Being lean isn’t everything. Being lean shouldn’t translate to confidence, and similarly being less lean shouldn’t mean less confident.
The Gap Between Visual Change and Internal Perception
Also know that you are – always – your own worst critic. No one will see you with eyes less fair than your own. This is why having a coach helps tremendously. A fair, critical eye that can confirm that you’re behind or give you assurances that you’re doing great.
Lately I’ve seen many people asking ChatGPT to analyze progress pics, and it does the reverse gaslighting that it’s so famous for – telling you exactly what you want to hear based on how you word your prompt. Do NOT trust AI to give you a fair and analytical breakdown on your progress.
Why the Goalposts Move as Prep Progresses
There is a very real tendency to want to change the goal and get more aggressive as prep goes on – and unfortunately, something this IS the right move so I can’t sit here and tell you that you should never do that.
Sometimes the goal just wasn’t correct at first. Other times however it’s prep goggles – you’re lean as hell, but you still see that one problem spot and instead of just adjusting a pose to hide it better, you go nuclear on your diet and cardio and push push push to fix something that isn’t really a problem to begin with.
It’s hard to know which category you fall into in the moment however. Again, a 2nd trusted set of eyes goes a long way here.
Body Checking Becomes a Full-Time Job
You can easily get over-fixated on body composition and changes to it in a way that REALLY doesn’t help.
There’s a reason why, as a coach, I don’t want daily pics from someone in normal circumstances. You just aren’t going to see much (if anything) change over 1-2 days. I know that social media is loaded with 2-3 day transformation photos, but these are almost always manipulated (intentionally or otherwise – strikingly different lighting and different outfits can make progress appear or disappear out of thin air) or misleading (the before photos were due to massive bloat, or something like that).
Real change takes time. Take photos weekly, but compare them over 3-4 week intervals (taking them weekly ensures you’ll always have plenty of options to compare them with).
Take daily weights, but pay zero attention to them – look at the average, the trend, and the average of averages.
Comparison Distorts Body Image Faster Than Anything Else
Body image takes a hit when you focus on it more, but comparing yourself to others makes the situation significantly worse.
Why Other Competitors Become Mirrors You Didn’t Ask For
Let the judges do the comparing – it’s not your job and your eye isn’t trained for it. When WE (the competitor) make comparisons, we want to see ourselves as that person instead of who we are in our own skin, so it starts to develop a low-key identity crisis. REALLY not helpful.
You’re aiming to be the best version of yourself, and comparison against others it’s hard to segment out “just conditioning” or “just glute size”, etc – instead you look at the whole package and think “that’s not me” and like, yeah, no shit. It’s not supposed to be you!
Social Media vs Reality
I have a companion post written about body comparison and specifically with regard to social media – click here to read that.
When “Objective Feedback” Isn’t
The problem in bodybuilding isn’t objective, there are very few hard, universal truths – everything is opinion, or subjective.
This holds true even for judges. It holds especially true when it’s randos in the gym or your DM’s offering comments. Whether positive or negative, your best bet is to ignore these.
I think every competitor – man or woman – has had this experience: in the gym, minding your own business, and someone comes up to ask if you’re competing and wanting to offer their thoughts on your progress. They used to compete, or know someone who did, whatever the F ever because none of that matters.
Ignore these people. Ignore your family (likely) because they also don’t know. Ignore your friends.
Listen to your coach. If you have a separate posing coach, listen to them as well. These are the people you’re hiring for their opinions and feedback.
Think about why other people want to offer their feedback. Assume everyone is looking to get something. That might not always be the case but it’s ok to be protective of your own interests and be very guarded as far as who you listen to.
The Mental Cost of Tying Self-Worth to Condition
This I think is pretty obvious. Not just in trying your self-worth to your condition, but the extension of that is tying it to your result at a given show. It doesn’t require a licensed therapist to tell you that this is probably a Bad Idea.
When the Physique Becomes the Scorecard
Now when you win? It’s all roses and glory, YAY!
But what about when you finish….2nd? That can still be a GREAT outcome. Many people are wired to think of this as failure.
This is a failure yes, but it’s a failure in the wiring in your brain – not in how the show played out.
This is the kind of thinking that can have someone spiral out of control. I hear from a LOT of people who are looking to hire a coach, and very often they say “I only want to step on stage if I’m going to win” – this results in a long talk that usually ends up with that person not hiring me, which I’m fine with.
You HAVE to be ok with not winning. Again, this is subjective – if you were thrilled with your presentation and finished 3rd out of 6, that outcome shouldn’t change how you felt.
This usually leads to a pattern of self-flaggelation and thinking you’re not good enough for whatever scenario might be present. Fixing this goes beyond the scope and what I can do (in this post or anywhere), but it’s good to recognize that as “not normal” and seek help in changing that mindset.
A Healthier Way to Relate to Your Body During Prep
Think of your body as a project you’re working on, versus your identity.
Let’s detach it from your body for a second, because it’s easy for that to turn more emotional than it needs to – we all do this when it concerns our body.
Let’s say you like to play guitar. How do you say that?
“I play guitar” – cool. You must like doing this, what about it do you enjoy, etc?
“I’m a guitarist” – now this has become your identity. It changes expectations, and applies unnecessary pressure – all because a couple of words are different.
Whether you say it out loud or just think it, that identity framing changes things. Be careful about how you use it.
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