In April of this year I competed in my first body sculpting competition. It was one of the most challenging experiences I have been through.
As the competition grew nearer, my anxiety heightened with the fear of becoming injured or getting ill, (it was winter training so lots of coughs, colds and flu’s around!), a common anxiety amongst competitors training for their event or race.
I was weight training 6 days a week on average spending 2 hours at a time in the gym. This alone puts a strain on the human body, let alone the process of prep for my competition. Training becomes your life.
I had a professional trainer, Jordan Saunders-Bath, (Bodybyjr), who had a wealth of knowledge and expertise in nutrition and training.
I never realized the science behind food! I was eating foods I wouldn’t have touched before, believing I needed a low fat, low carb diet but carbs were introduced to every meal and so were eggs, avocado, almonds, dark chocolate…..I worried about putting on weight! How wrong I was!
I was eating 5 meals a day…..training hard…..losing body fat and getting lean. Muscles need energy and as I developed muscular growth, my body needed the calories.
Jordan tailor-made my food plan specifically to my needs and my body was using these calories much more efficiently and using calories as fuel to burn fat. My metabolism was working much better. I was drinking at least 4 litres of water a day, taking BCAA’s, Elite-glutamine as well as Tumeric, Vitamin D, Vitamin C and probiotics.
I made sure I had regular Sports massage every 7 to 10 days and regular osteopath/physiotherapy appointments throughout my prep. Not because I was injured but I know was a preventative measure against getting injured. I didn’t wait until I was!
Regular sports massage not only identifies areas that can become particularly stressed and dysfunctional, unknowingly to you, but it can also alleviate the areas that could be prone to getting injured which may prevent your training continuing to being effective or possibly stop it all together, especially when training is regular, repetitive and we are pushing ourselves.
I wondered, ‘Did all of this help prevent injury or was it that I trained carefully, without pushing myself beyond my limits?’ Both?
My reward?..... 1st place Muscle Model, 2nd place, Fitness Model.
All I know is that I did my best to look after myself. So when I do it all again next year, taking care of my body will be my priority.
Do you?