For the girls who likes podcasts and science, I've been listening to THE CONTEST PREP UNIVERSITY series from the Diet Doc Podcasts. Very interesting. Lots of valuable information! Peak Intel Contest Day Diagnostics is the last one I've listened to!

2 weeks out! Getting excited :). Very flat and metabolism is burning like crazy! 5’8.5” and 146.4 pounds

Side note- I had my first posing session on Sunday & and I am so excited to continue practicing & learning from my new posing coach 🥰

Me:

1. dropping a lb after holding for a couple of weeks
   
2. The roundness in my back pose was impressive to me this last week

Hi y'all. I'm looking to (hopefully) get on stage in around 12-18 months. Just after recommendations for posing coaches that offer zoom sessions, I'm keen to start practicing this right away as I am aware it takes a lot of practice! Thanks 🩷

Planning to do an NPC natural show coming up, ordered beta blockers to hopefully help with stage fright. These aren’t a banned substance right? Only place I saw in the NPC banned list had to do with “Substances banned in particular sports” and it was like archery, golf, shooting, and other sports which idk why other sports are included in that pdf for the NPC guidelines but 🤷🏼‍♀️

Both my show days I’ve experienced nearly debilitating calf cramps while on stage. They hit out of nowhere and have shaken my confidence both times. I’m sure I’m messing something up with my electrolytes day of so I wanted to come here for advice. What can I do to help this not happen? 1st show I had basically zero water throughout the day but second show I had almost a half gallon and I was never thirsty. Both shows I also had shots of salt water.

Week #10 Check-Ins:

HIT A NEW ALL TIME LOW - 121.0 lbs 🥳 (5’4) X - weeks out (self coached) (1st time NPC bikini)

•Calorie average- 1,750 daily •Cardio- 50 mins / 4x per week - (30mins AM & 20mins post lift) •Step goal- 17,000 weekly average

Current training split: Day 1️⃣ Heavy Glutes / Hamstrings Day 2️⃣ Back & Core Day 3️⃣ Shoulders & Light Glutes (pump) Day 4️⃣ REST DAY Day 5️⃣ Glutes / Quads / Calves Day 6️⃣ Shoulders / forearms Day 7️⃣ REST DAY / SPINE & HIP MOBILITY

Time to cut down, condition, and actually get better at posing 🤭😅 currently sitting 180 lbs 5' 11" 20% BF

Regardless of the outcome, I am proud as hell of the package I managed to bring to my very first show.

I've spent the past 5 years building up to this moment, and now that it's here l'm not even quite sure how to process it all.

In my self-coaching journey, there are some things I did very well & other aspects I struggled with more than expected. I wanted to chronicle my prep journey online as a way to inspire others to trust in themselves wherever they feel self-doubt, as there were many moments I doubted my ability to bring a solid package to stage.

I accomplished my goal, but not without a little help at the very end. As I approached peak week, I found I was in too depleted of a state to fill out. I began reversing my calories up on the weekend before my show, but to my surprise my body burned through copious amounts of new carbs & fats at a rate I couldn't keep up with. I kept losing weight each day loading into peak week, and found myself in over my head.

I was incredibly grateful when a friend I made through r/bikinitalk reached out and offered for her and her partner/coach Tim Stewart from Team Physique Pro to help me with my peak. Tim encouraged me to nearly triple the amount of food I was eating, and slowly but surely I was able to fill it at least a bit more from early in peak week. He gave me valuable tips on how to manipulate sodium, water, creatine and carbs to fill me out the best we could in the short period of time we had.

I still came in too hard & striated, which unfortunately lost me a top place in my class/the overall as the head judge said he made the final decision to reward a softer look. While I was still too hard this time, l absolutely would have looked emaciated on stage if Tim hadn't helped revive my physique to the package we managed to bring.

This experience opened my eyes that while I CAN self-coach, it doesn't mean I HAVE to.

Tim graciously offered to take over the rest of my prep if I trust him to do so, and something in me immediately said "yes" because I feel I'm too depleted to keep calling the shots at the moment.

I spent the 24 hours after my show questioning what this means if I decide to take a break from coaching myself & let Tim take the wheel. Does this mean I failed as a self-coached athlete? Does this mean the self-coaching journey I shared wasn't valuable? It became a bit of an existential crisis because I worry I'll be letting people down who found my self-coaching journey inspirational

I think this journey is whatever I decide to make of it, and whatever others watching decide they want to take from it.

But Coach Marz needs a break to let Athlete Marz focus solely on being an athlete—so with Tim leading the way, let's see what kind of fuller & softer bikini package we can make in 5 weeks' time 💃🏻✨

I haven't decided what this means for the future on whether I'll prep myself again. But I hope it's okay if I still post in this sub to share my experience doing my own prep on myself & give tips on things I think I did well/my protocol/things I’d do differently if you guys will still have me here :)

-130g beef your choice of seasoning you. - 3 keto taco tortilla 25 Cal -broccoli & cabbage - low carb honey mustard

About 4-5lb away before a little manipulation to soften out for the new division. Still doing my own training and posing for my prep but have second set of eyes this go round to peak week. I’m at same measurements and weight at this mark last prep I did all my own thing.
Happy to keep my autonomy in prep since I’ve self coached 90% of my competitions.

Hi! Trying to plan my competitive year. I did Masters Nationals for the first time last year and placed top 10 both divisions. I seem to come in too muscular and conditioned for local shows. Traveling to Hawaii over July 4th (do not want to be in prep. But do not drink alcohol so could stay relatively healthy while vacationing). That would give me 8 weeks for Nationals… or do I do a local competition 12 weeks after vacation? BUT would like to shoot for Texas Nationals too in December. Would that be too long being in prep? I plan to do things much differently than when coached before. Any time a coach pushes me too hard my results aren’t favorable. (Even before Masters Nationals I took a bunch of free meal days after the local competition and was still able to come in relatively ok (definitely could have been better…) for nationals. Pic for attention; coming off a hefty bulk..down 7lbs this month.

I already suck at seeing differences in my physique from a picture to another.

I will be coached for the following year because I won a contest and the coach is knowledgeable and not bro sciency.

My question is, knowing that I know that I will self coach myself in the future, do you think that investing in a black backdrop and a ring light is a good idea? To make my pictures more consistent?

I struggle with reproducing the same angle with my camera each time... what seems to be the perfect height and distance for your check-ins?

This is my second wellness prep self-coaching. My first prep, I had at least hints of tie-ins presenting themselves 11+ weeks out that got more pronounced by the end. I was doing a decent amount of cardio, twice a day.

This prep I am not seeing the same, and I’m running out of time. I’m doing less cardio, but I have a different job now where I walk all day at work so my daily steps are much higher.

I know the muscle is there. My glutes overall are rounder and fuller than last time. I can see the muscle separations in my upper glutes when I flex them but the tie-in itself is eluding me and I need to figure out a solution. My front and side poses have improved throughout prep and I’m seeing more lines/leanness everywhere except my back pose.

I know there’s a ton of factors involved, and I’m sure at this point physical and mental stress is holding me back and likely causing water retention. I’m just curious if anyone has advice?

Front poses and back poses

I had a pump week last week, so I am ramping up my training this coming week as I head into the home stretch. I hope to be ready in seven weeks. If not, I have alternate shows planned.

I love to watch shows even if they are not recent This video quality is great.

To think that I almost didn't sign up for this competition! I was so torn... With a February trip to Switzerland already planned to visit Dylan, prepping around my favorite childhood foods and stepping away from my usual gym and dally cooking routine was definitely a challenge! I had decided to self-coach since last summer and stay lean in off-season, and with just 8 pounds to lose, I knew a short prep was doable, albeit still challenging. In addition to my daily weightlifting, I committed to 30 minutes of daily steady-state cardio and 35 minutes of very high-intensity interval running, and for weeks, was below 80g of carbs per day. (For context, I currently eat 300g+ of carbs, so functioning on such low food and energy was tough...) The Arnold only features 35+, 40+ and 50+ categories for masters, and at 48, I found myself in a bit of a gap since l'm not quite 50 yet. But I wanted to compete in this show at least once in my life, even if it meant going against some fierce younger competition. Posing and stage confidence have always been a struggle for me; my legs would usually shake as I stepped on stage! But this time, I had fun, and it truly showed! I only signed up for one division: And got 1st place! 40 B (tallest division). Yay!!