When to compete...(kinda long)

[nailzix]

New to posting here...not new to reading them though!

I will try to make this as short and sweet as possible.

I did 2 shows (bb) last year and got my ass pretty much handed to me. Both were natural. I basically was on a 1600 cal/day diet and did 2 hours of cardio a day for about 8 months...and I wonder why I looked horrible. (I am a 5'10" female)

Anyway, I made the jump to the dark side and have one cycle underneath my belt...along with not doing much cardio, and actually eating more than my body was burning up, i have gained 31 pounds since September. My bf is 17%.

I have a few national level competitor friends who are telling me take a year off from competing to put on some more size but i don't want to get much bigger than I am now.

I am not willing to do what is necessary to compete on the national level so to take a year off to get even bigger.?.?.and I can't wait to see what dieting correctly (and with a little "extra" help) does to my body.

There is a good show here in 18 weeks so i would need to start dieting pretty soon.

All opinions and comments welcomed.

Give me hardness or give me death

[Pharm Animal]

...to the board /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

women's bodybuilding is changing...both in the NPC and the IFBB. the new look is what more women who compete want and offers more for the mainstream, which in my opinion, is very good for the sport. as a female bodybuilder, i would advise against trying to become a freak. this distinction is better left for men in the current day and age in BBing.

on that note, i would say to keep improving your body's muscularity and shape as much as possible. you do not need to wait for a year in order to compete. in my opinion, the sooner you get back onstage, the better. this time though, use what you have learned this year and put it all to work for you in an effort to improve YOURSELF. there is definately an I in bodybuilding that cannot be removed. this is an individual sport and has individual goals and motivations. do not base your worth as a bodybuilder upon how well you place at a competition, but rather how you improved from the last show. anyone may show up to a competition....you may have between 0 and 20 people in a local level show....so placing is all based upon who enters the weight class you are in. would it be better to place 1st out of 2, and be the same as last year, or to be 6th out of 6 and have all of the people at the show compliment you on how much you've improved in one year?

this is a very passionate subject for me, as you can tell. from 1993 to 1999 i entered 7 competitions in washington state, where i never won a single weight class. i did improve most of the time, but never did i win my class. in the meantime, my younger brother put together a nice streak of wins in the junior divisions in local (WA) shows. i became known as "that jr. division guy's brother". last year in san diego, i competed in the novice and open san diego championships.....i won the novice light-heavies and the nov. overall, and placed a very respectable (and surprising to me) third place in an open division class amongst 10 other competitors.

so i would not wait to do another show. improve yourself, only looking forward to realizing YOUR physique improvements (instead of others' ideals), and i will guarantee you, on contest day you will feel that much better about yourself....even if you place worse than last year!

take care,
PA

[nailzix]

PA- Thanks and all of the points you made were great. Pretty much solidified what I was leaning towards as well.

Give me hardness or give me death