Things to Know Before Selecting Your Show

This post is part of The Ultimate Bikini Prep Guide – check out the full guide for more!

Things to Know Before Selecting Your Show

So, you wanna be a bodybuilder?  That means you’ve gotta step on stage, and in order to do that we need to find a show that’s going to be a good fit for all the right reasons, so let’s dig in to the process that I use to help my clients find the best shows.

Key assumptions:  to start, we’re going to assume that you know what category you want to compete in and that you have a reasonable amount of muscle on your frame so that when you’re stage lean, there will be enough mass left to be appropriate for your chosen category.

Quick note:  when looking at show options you’ll see lists of “available classes” like “open”, “masters”, “novice”, and “debut” or “true novice” (same thing).  For our discussion here, we’re not going to worry about what those distinctions mean – just know that all shows are likely to offer all of those options for (most) all categories.  So that won’t be something that influences our decision making.

Let’s dive in.

 

Why Show Selection Matters More Than Most People Realize

Picking the right show isn’t just about plopping a new event on your calendar on a specific date (though it is that as well).

It finalizes your initial timeline and helps guide phases that happen before prep as well.  It sets the bar for your expectations and outcomes, and helps inform the starting point or baseline for the stress that you’ll feel during prep.

A LOT of prep problems start here.  So let’s go slow and get this right.

 

Your Starting Point Sets the Rules

Body Composition and Muscle Maturity

As a gut check, as mentioned at the start we need to make sure you have enough lean tissue on your frame that when you’re very low body fat, there’s still going to be enough shape left to be ‘category appropriate’ for bikini, figure, wellness, or whatever the category is.

If you have a coach, they can help you answer this.  When in doubt, more time spent growing is rarely a bad idea.  Without a coach, you basically just say “I think so”, do the show, and evaluate the on stage look and make decisions from there.

It’s also good to have an idea of where – ROUGHLY – you expect your stage weight to be.  This depends on height and category and there’s nothing like a “standard table” you can look up to see where you should land.  It depends on how you look.

Generally speaking, the number will be lower than you think.  If you think “man the last time I was 115lbs I was pretty damn lean and tight!” then “stage lean” is probably closer to 105ish.  Of course these are BROAD assumptions.

Make a guess.  How many pounds from where you are now vs. that weight?  If you dropped 1 pound per week, long long to get there?  Give yourself that much time to prep.  You may drop more than that per week, but that’s a reasonable assumption if you haven’t done this before.  Worst case scenario, you’re ready early and then you just have to maintain until show day.  There are worse problems to have!

 

The Calendar Is Not Neutral

So knowing how long it might take, you now have a rough range of dates (or a “no earlier than this” date) to help guide the selection process.

The next step is to work up your conflict sheet.  What are the events and activities you have during a proposed prep period (14-22 weeks) that can make prep difficult?

We’re not looking for a completely clear runway, but a stretch for prep that has FEW conflicts, and nothing major.  If you’ve got a 2 week European vacation in July and you’re thinking about an August show, that is a textbook definition of a Bad Idea.

Vacations, parties, seasonal things (wedding season for example), work rushes (tax time for accountants, etc), anniversaries and birthdays – all of those add challenge and degree of difficulty.

Again we’re not looking for a calendar block that is devoid of those things, just one that has fewer and nothing major.  We want a relatively clean stretch on the calendar to operate in.

 

Drug tested vs. Untested, Local vs. Regional vs National-Level Shows

First up:  can you pass a drug test for banned substances?  If not, you’re clearly looking at untested shows (NPC shows in the US).  If you CAN, you can still compete in untested NPC shows (though on an unlevel playing field), but the NPC also has drug tested shows you can consider – but there are a host of amateur organizations that ONLY put on drug-tested events (NFF, OCB, INBA, NGA, WNBF, UFE, etc ) that are worth checking out.

VERY broadly, the categories are largely the same among these and the judging standards fluctuate but not wildly.  People often say “well the OCB is softer than the NPC and I have a hard time leaning out so I should do an OCB show” – this is backwards thinking, because leanness/conditioning is ONE factor, it is NOT a monolith where it is consistently judged the same at all shows, and it also depends on who shows up on a given day.

NPC shows have “national qualifiers” which are their local shows, and you have to start there.  Most drug tested organizations have only amateur and pro distinctions, so “local vs. regional” is largely an artifact of days gone by and isn’t something you really find anymore.

Your first show will be an amateur show, and a “non-national” show if you’re evaluating NPC options because national shows require a qualification from placing well at a local show.

I would also avoid falling into the trap of looking up historical data on how many people have done a particular show before, if you’re looking for a “smaller” show with less competition.  First, “fewer people” does not mean “easier show”, and just because a show was small one year doesn’t mean it will be the next year.

In summary for this section – I would focus on tested vs. untested, and that’s it.

How Much Margin You Really Have

It’s important to factor in margin of error into your planning.  Don’t fall into the trap of setting high expectations for your rate of progress and not allowing any kind of buffer is life starts to happen.

The Cost of Tight Timelines

The primary cost of not having enough time is simply not being lean enough on stage.  And while that isn’t EVERYTHING, it is a very big thing.

You’ll have weeks in prep where you do everything right and progress is still slow.  You’ll probably have really BIG weeks that offset those, but I’d treat those as a bonus and not an expectation.

Give yourself some added time in case you need to program in a deficit break to give the body a short rest in prep.  Taking 5-7 days just to chill on cardio and eat at maintenance can make an impossible prep start to feel doable, but you’ve gotta plan for that on the front end or it only slows you down and will hurt your conditioning on stage.

You might get sick.  You might have unexpected travel that creates a sub-par week.  You might have to miss a week due to minor injury.  You might just fuck up your diet and need time to claw back.

Shit happens.  Plan ahead and give yourself room.

Why Margin Creates Better Physiques (more time is better)

When you aren’t in such a tight, high-pressure environment, the secondary effect is that your stress is lower (higher confidence you’ll be ready) and you make better, more rational decisions because you’re not making all decisions from a place of panic.  That’s a huge win.

Enjoy being calmer.  Again, bodybuilding seems to reward “go hard and fuck balance” but those are slogans for t-shirts, not strategies for a successful prep for an adult.

Picking a Show for the Right Reasons

People at the gym telling you that you should compete?  Ignore them.  Some coach (not yours) saying you should compete?  Ignore them too.  DM’s from a show promoter saying you should do their show?  OBVIOUSLY ignore them as well.

These people are either serving their own interests or just don’t know any better.

Ask yourself WHY you want to compete, and make a decision that’s aligned with that.

Do you want to show up with a physique that leaves people with their jaws dropped?  Take a LOT of time to grow and give yourself a long runway for prep.

Do you plan on a long, competitive career but want to do your first show kinda early in the game to see where you sit?  That’s ok, but know that a rushed or shorter prep will be harder and you’re much less likely to be competitive that way.  I’ve had plenty of clients who were ok with that, and if you’re reasoning is sound I’m one of a small handful of coaches that will get on board with that kind of thinking.

The “not yet, you have to earn it first” mentally is much more common and, I think, really dumb.

At the same time, be more strategic and less emotional when thinking about your show timelines.

 

A Smarter Way to Choose Your Show

Some people like to pick a general window on the calendar as opposed to a specific date.  That CAN work ok, but depending on where you are (geographically) it might be a bad idea.

You might think “Oct/Nov is good!” but if you live in North Dakota, what if there are no show options in that window?

You have to balance flexibility with reality.

Generally speaking, I like to pick specific shows, but have a couple options.  A primary and a couple (later) fallback options if needed.

Closer to home (less travel) is ideal.  Don’t fly for your first show.

Give yourself options and flexibility, catered to your conflicts and needs (tested vs. untested), and with enough room for a successful prep.

Want to learn more?

Explore Bikini Blueprint

Get notified when new posts like this get published.