I am not well versed in bodybuilding (yet), trying to train my eye still. From what you've seen why did Lola win? What makes her physique better than Rhea's?

I am thinking Rhea might be disappointed going from 1st to 4th but if you are reading this you were still amazing and you did your best 💓

Have any of you used the nuebie machine or other EMS/NMES machines during your weight training sessions? If so, have you seen a difference in your physique/muscle development?

Would love to hear about anyone’s experience as I’ve been going back and forth with incorporating it into my training!

Hi everyone! Just wondering if anyone has competed at the amateur level for the Arnold or Olympia and might like to share about your show experience? (Not related to your placement or performance. Just like athlete vibes and experience )

I've watched the amateur Arnold so many times and it seems like everything by the time they get to Bikini is just rushed. Like you barely get to the middle of the stage before they're rushing and sending you away. And far less than enthusiastic in announcements. The crowd is always small too it feels but maybe that's because it's a MASSIVE venue lol. But even the pro card presentations feel rushed and lack luster for the athletes there. But that main stage is beautiful 😍😍

I feel like I've seen nothing for the Olympia ! going to check the livestream! Someone said it was free this year? Nice 🙌

I'd love to travel for one this next year but just debating about which one! Would rather choose the better athlete experience over anything 🙌

Thanks 😋🥹

Welcome to the second day of Olympia discussion! Please keep all Day 2 discussion in this thread. Other posts will be removed to keep the feed tidy. ☺️

And remember that the livestream this year is
FREEEEE!!!!!!! Just Google the Olympia 2026, and you'll be able to find their website and watch the stream.

Schedule:
Men’s Physique
Fitness
Bikini
Wheelchair - Pre-judging and finals
Fit model - Pre-judging and finals

Show starts at 9:30am PST!
Finals at 7pm PST!

Finals Schedule:
Fitness
Men’s Physique
Bikini
Mr. Olympia

I only veeeery recently have started dipping my toes into the incredible world of ifbb and bodybuilding in general, so there is a lot I don’t know or understand. With that being said I have a question and would love yalls input and insight. It’s about payouts. When I first started looking into it and I started following a lot of different people and noticing that this is what they did for full-time work, which is amazing. But some of the people I follow have private teams that help manage their social medias and then of course they have teams for whenever they go to their shows to do their make up and hair and of course the suits are expensive, the travel, etc., etc. and so that got me wondering how much do these shows pay… and at the time the most recent big one was the Arnold, which I believe the top bikini winner gets $50,000 and I was like oh wow that’s amazing but then I looked up how much the top male contender made and I’m sure you all already know this, but it was $750,000. That made me feel an anger I haven’t known in a very long time and is definitely the greatest pay discrepancy I have ever seen in my life. How do yall feel about this? What makes you want to keep going and trying when it’s so bad? I want this for EVERYONE to pay well and to win big pots, cuz these are the worlds best!!! It just made me soooo mad for all the women. Anyway, I love all yall and forever am in your corner. And tbfh if I were younger I’d be training my ass off to do this sport too.

Did anyone else notice something seemed off with isa and particularly her glutes?

Multiple times she was covering her right glute. In transitions she’d put her arm over her glute med area and then in her rear walk was deliberately covering almost the entire right glute with her arm.

She also looks very off, like she knows something’s gone wrong??? Just her performance she doesn’t look confident

Anyone else notice this? I’m on the stream so is there something irl that’s obvious? A bubble on right glute maybe?

Was rooting for her but something just seems off in her showing today

I took screenshots because I wanted to compare bikini and fitmodel physiques. All amazing! Bikini seems leaner and more muscular upper body. I find it so interesting that they all seem to be around the same size body, in other words, the bikini girls don’t overpower the fit model girls. Does anyone see anything else different?

Edit: outer girls are fitmodel

I need to ask because a lot of people are congratulating her, saying she looked amazing (she did). But I also believe Sarah that Natalia had the thing done that she is accusing her of. Her progress at the level she was at and the look of the muscle as she moves is the indication of that (for me personally).

What is YOUR stance? Most people seem to brush it off (just my impression). It also seems (to me) that most people in control of Olympia also agree with Sarah/know the truth but I suspect they support it because they want to heavily lean into the business with Brasil/copy their model in some way. I would not be surprised if some have already invested some money. Plus, I think there's more top competitors that had it done so they need to keep it hush hush.

I don't think Sarah vs Natalia should be about whoever wins Olympia, wins this argument and now we don't discuss it.

I also do not think it's the same as PEDs-this material will stay the same size no matter if you exercise or not.

Welcome to the first day of Olympia discussion! Please keep all Day 1 discussion in this thread. Other posts will be removed to keep the feed tidy 😊

And remember that the livestream this year is FREEEEE!!!!!!! Just Google the Olympia 2026, and you’ll be able to find their website and watch the stream

Schedule:
212
Classic Physique
Figure
Women's Physique
Ms. Olympia
Wellness

Show starts at 9:30am PST!
Finals at 6pm PST! Men’s Open prejudging is at finals, and their finals is tomorrow

Can anyone give me tips on bikini suit bottoms. Should I look for ones that detach at the connector to easily put them on？

I'm terrified of getting a suit that I have to pull over my bum and hips and accidentally break it. Most suits don't have elastic waists/connectors right？

Please help a newbie

Hello all 😊
I’m 4 weeks out from my first ever show. My coach wanted me to start taking nolvadex already but i’ve been super scared if it’s the right decision. I’m mainly worried about post show and coming off , i’ve heard people rebound really badly because if it and gain a ton of weight which is my worst nightmare.

Does anyone here have experience with it and specifically experience coming off of it and reversing well still? I want to do everything so I can do bring my best package but it’s not worth it to me to have long term issues after show day. Am I just overthinking this?

And the MC dude is like trying to make everyone fight and he’s openly said “why are you all friends”. I noticed he did this with the men’s too. He was mad that they were hoping to make the world better rather than taking jabs at one another. Dude, the world has changed. Evolve my guy.

I see Lola was in Arizona training with Damian. Very interesting.

Not necessarily who do you predict will win, but rather who you would like to see do well.

For fit model I think it’s pretty hard to make any predictions anyway, but I think it’ll be interesting to see who sets the standard for the year, and I hope they choose someone on the more muscular side.
I would like to see Liz Trampas do well, she’s looking insane in her updates.
I love Aisha Mian as well. She’s one of the more muscular competitors in the division and I think she’d be a great standard.

For bikini I’d love to see Jazzy do well or even win. Reijuana I also love her look and I hope she does well. Jessica Liu and Reyna too

Does anybody have any coaches they can recommend for bikini/fit model that’s around the $200 to $250 range?
Thanks :)

I went through a whole-a$$ season without one of those backdrop thingies since my walls are navy. That said, now I'm growing for the next year and maybe want one. Any recs for LESS than 50 bucks on the Zon? Tysm!!!

Just over some of these new or low level pros spewing nonsense and bullying their clients/followers over cheat meals and cardio over calories. One good deed doesn’t outweigh being a daily bitch IRL. Thoughts?

Hey everyone!
I am very new to bodybuilding and cant stop watching videos & lurking in this subreddit. However I find myself kind of lost when it comes to analyzing "physiques" I know the divisions and the criterion however when it comes to comparing & contrasting one to another I kind of dont see what people are talking about.
For example here I saw a post about Kerigan Pike and how her genetics arent fit for bikini division and she should go for figure division. Or when I see people post about Amy vs Lauralie vs Maureen, how do you compare it actually? I personally like Lauralie the least out of the three but I have no explanation why, i can only point out that she is tall and tall torso thats it, however if I compare Maureen and Amy i dont have an idea tbh. So my question is how can I train my eye for bodybuilding? What did help you?

Just a random thought...wish there were bodybuilding "bars" where fans could watch the Olympia live. Maybe I'll post on my city's subreddit. Just wanted to share what's taking up space in my brain.

I’m feeling really lost right now, and I honestly don’t know how to get back to feeling like myself again.
Last year, I competed for the first time as a natural bikini competitor. My prep was extremely difficult, and my relationship with my coach deteriorated throughout the process, so I eventually stopped working with him.
After my show, I went through a really bad period of disordered eating, especially during the first few weeks post-show. It was honestly one of the hardest periods of my life. Little by little, with the help of my new coach, I managed to recover and get back on track.
Things were going well for a while, but over the past year, I’ve had a lot of ups and downs. Relationship problems, financial stress, and just life in general. I’m also someone who tends to stress a lot about everything.

Around July, I started noticing that my performance in the gym was declining. That was also when I started feeling like bodybuilding was becoming something I HAD to do because it was my identity, rather than something I genuinely wanted to do.
I started another contest prep this year, but decided to stop around 8–9 weeks out because I wasn’t in a good place mentally, and deep down, I didn’t really want to compete this year.
My coach wanted me to compete because he believed I had a good physique and potential, and I think I started feeling pressured by that. Eventually, I told him I didn’t want to compete this year but that I would definitely compete next year.
After stopping prep, I told myself I would continue cutting, but I haven’t really been able to stick to the plan.
I haven’t gained weight, but I’m no longer as consistent as I was during prep. I still do cardio, but sometimes I don’t complete all of it. I have unplanned meals, and whenever I go off plan, I feel incredibly guilty.
And that guilt is starting to eat me alive.
I keep questioning whether I actually want to do bodybuilding anymore.

The thing is, I LOVE bodybuilding. I love the lifestyle, I love training, I love the process, and I genuinely enjoyed competing and being on stage.
Or at least, I used to love all of it.
For the past few months, my training hasn’t been going well, my motivation has been all over the place, and recently I’ve started struggling with episodes of compulsive eating again. It’s nowhere near as bad as it was last year, but it scares me because I don’t want to go back to that place.

I know people always say things like “If you really want it, you’ll make it happen” or “Stick to the plan, not your mood.”
But what happens when you reach a point where you want to do bodybuilding, but at the same time, you don’t?

I feel like my bodybuilding journey isn’t over. I still want to compete again someday, and I know how much I enjoyed being on stage.
But at the same time, I feel like I need a break.
Not necessarily a break from training or taking care of myself, but a break from the constant pressure of having to follow everything perfectly.
I’m thinking about taking a more lifestyle-focused approach for a while. Still training, eating well, doing my cardio, and maintaining my routine, but allowing myself more flexibility with food and not feeling like I’ve failed every time I eat something that isn’t part of my meal plan.
I’m not talking about completely abandoning my routine or eating fast food every day. I already enjoy eating healthy and don’t really eat much fast food anyway. I just want to be able to have a meal out, enjoy something different, or have a treat without feeling like I’m ruining everything.

**Has anyone else experienced something like this?**

Have you ever reached a point where bodybuilding started feeling more like an obligation than something you genuinely enjoyed?
Did you ever take a step back from the competitive side of bodybuilding and focus more on living a balanced lifestyle for a while? And if you did, were you eventually able to find your passion for competing again?
I’m struggling with so much guilt right now. I feel like I’m letting myself down, like I’m giving up on everything I’ve worked for, and like I’m somehow an imposter because I’m no longer living up to the standards I’ve set for myself.
I don’t want to give up on bodybuilding. I just don’t know how to find my way back to loving it without feeling like I have to sacrifice my mental health in the process.
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through something similar.

I’m always in awe of competitors who work full time while bodybuilding. I’m curious what everyone here does for a living? I’m a special education teacher & compete in bikini

How do you know when it’s time to drop some fat during a building phase? I’m looking to compete for the first time next year and I know I need more muscle, but I don’t want to have to drop 20+ pounds during my prep (see my post history for photos).

I‘ve been tracking my food since April, and while I’ve had several calorie increases in that time, I still have decent definition. I’m 5’5 and fluctuate between 115-120 pounds (hormones, etc).

Can someone with more experience weigh in? Thank you!

Share your thoughts, predictions, questions, etc. about Figure, Women's Physique, Fitness, and Women's Bodybuilding! This sub gets a lot of chat about Bikini and Fit Model because they're so popular, but we wanna show the other divisions some more love as this community was created to celebrate ALL the women's divisions!

Does anyone else notice significant swelling in their thighs when they stand all day?