hi. I have a question about how much cardio is too much. I am currently training for my 1st show for the Northern. my goal is compete at 150 lbs at about 6% BF. However, i've been doing cardio 5 times a week and burning about 1500-1800 calories per week. Currently, right now i'm about 153 lbs at 8% bf. Am i right on track or do i need to step it up a little bit more and/or i am over doing my cardio. Please help. Thank You

Good deal.

First contest?! Your best shot is keeping as you are going. Don't step it up. Plan a couple more contest up to the end of the "season" and that final contest, you should be crisp.

You may be lagging just a little behind for this contest. Overdoing the cardio may cause you to lose precious, hard to build, MUSCLE. If anything, keep your workouts intense.

Frank

so, Frank do you think i should enter this contest?

By all means, enter it! Just don't give up muscle for the sake of trying to get .5% lower.

Even pros do this. They will sacrifice 5 lbs of muscle to lose 1 lb of fat thinking they'll look better. They don't.

It's not about BFC %. It is about how well you present yourself, and that includes posing. If you're at 8% when you walk on stage and pose, show more separation (and it's possible), you can place higher than a person at 5% that does not know how to pose.

This is your first competition. Unless you have been coached on posing for quite some time, you will make a lot of mistakes in your posing and posing routine.

So, get the basics. Judges will notice the changes from contest to contest. Most definitely, they will see improvements/stagnation and so forth.

After the contest is over, spend some time with the judges and ask where you need to improve. Take notes and work on them.

Frank

SIDE NOTE:

The last one I coached placed 4th out of 18 in the class for his first contest!

His only problem: Posing. He continued to lose his flexing during the prejudging. He would hold for about 30 seconds, but since there were so many in the class, he got tired. The first thing to go was the tightness in the abs.

So, practice your posing.

Frank

thank you for the inputs. I will definitely enter this show. So, do you think if i continue to burn about 1500-1800 calories. it should be okay right? up to the last week before the show.

Quyen - Welcome to the board and congratulations on setting your goals to enter your first contest. There is no doubt about it, the first time is a huge learning experience. You will learn a lot about the sport, nutrition, posing and about yourself.

The keys to doing well in a contest are conditioning (level of leaness/definition, etc) and posing which is the presentation piece. You can be a monster, but if you are not lean enough and/or don't pose well you might walk away as a monster who did not do very well against others who were "ready" for the contest. Of course you can also overdiet, or overdo things like cardio in your quest to get lean, which as Frank mentions, can lead to the loss of muscle. Since you are coming in at a fairly light weight (what's your height?) my guess is that you need to hang on to the muscle that you have and that you don't want to see it eaten up by overdieting or too much cardio or training volume. Another possibility for you, if you think that you are making progress but just not far enough along to be your best for this show, is to consider a different show 3 or 4 weeks later. You can then take a "go slow" approach to your contest prep which almost always works in your favor when it comes to retaining muscle mass.

I would agree with Frank that too much cardio can be a bad thing. Call BI and ask them to send you the issue of the Body Muscle Journal with Julie Lohre on the cover. Starting on page 6 of that issue Roger has an article on how to determine what the right amount of cardio is for you. It provides a good explanation and it explains what the best type/style of cardio is for fat loss and muscle retention.

What Frank is saying, I think, is that you might want to consider more than one contest this year using the first one as primarily a learning experience that would put you in a position to do even better in future shows.

Remember it is really a competition against yourself. Have you done your best to be your best? Can you improve on that the next time? If you use that as your measure you will continually improve and along the way you just might look better than the others who show up and thus take away a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place finish. Good luck in meeting your goals.

thank you for the inputs VA MadDog. I am using this Northern as a learning experience. I am also planning on doing a small show in El Dorado, KS in June and only thing for me is gain some knowledge and experience. Hopefully, in the future i could place in top 5. Thank You.

Quyen,

I see your from Hays, KS and planning to do the El Dorado show(I am also in KS). Met rick the promoter 2 years ago but haven't been to the show yet, my wife competed in Wichita in 2003 and may compete there again. Maybe we'll see you in Kentucky what class will you be in?

Hi, Irongame. I am planning to be in the lightweight division. I hope to see you there.

Wow, this is the show (El Dorado) that I competed in last year! Rick is great and it is alot of fun. I'm planning on going back this year. Hope to see you there. Sue