Ep 182 – How To Get Started In Bodybuilding

Giacomo:

Welcome back to another episode of Vegan Proteins, Muscles by Brussels Radio. My name is Giacomo. I’m Ben. And this is episode 182.

Ben:

All right. What are we talking about today? Giacomo?

Giacomo:

Oh, you want to dive right into it? Really? Just like that? No, no.

Ben:, Giacomo:

Wining and dining means no, no, no, no, no.

Ben:

I think you’re right. Let’s, let’s catch up. So last time we talked, you were, I believe right about to head off to Georgia or that was what was on the mind for the Peachtree Expo. I think that was the name of it.

Giacomo:

Peachtree road race.

Ben:

Peachtree road race.

Giacomo:

I found out is the second largest race in the country and the oldest five K. The crazy thing is that it didn’t even happen two years in a row heat advisory. So it’s like, but it’s this larger than life thing where everyone just all in the moment and I bet anything they still were happy to be there even though they didn’t run the actual race, which is crazy. The only race bigger than that is the Disney run, which I believe we’re gonna try to do next year with vegan strong.

Ben:

I’ve heard a friend who wanted to do that one and it was like impossible to try to sign up and get into it. It was like super exclusive. She wasn’t able to get in the first time or something like that. So they had to add more dates. Crazy. So did you, have you done any other traveling events? I think it was also before you got your eye thing done. That was right before that as well. How’s that? How’s that doing?

Giacomo:

It’s kind of driving me crazy because they tell you that like you’re gonna be able to be fine, you’re gonna be seeing in a day and you’ll be good to go and I’m, I still got like a fair amount of halos and some crazy light sensitivity going on and a little bit of dry eyes happening. I have really bad, had really bad vision. So I think that has something to do with it. Plus my eyes are older. I’m 43. I think that has something to do with it. But I also had a little bit of a false expectation that I

was gonna be just fine from what I know most of that stuff goes away, but some of it can linger for six months and some of it can linger for a couple of years. So that’s a little frustrating. I’m not used to having eyes that are very light sensitive and I’m definitely not used to seeing things in my field of vision that are normally not there also a little, they call it ghosting like you, you know what floaties are.

Ben:

Right. Yeah.

Giacomo:

And they say that now that you have good vision, they were probably there all along but now you have to get used to them and your brain has to adapt and learn how to ignore them. So, kind of frustrating.

Ben:

That is frustrating. What else is going on with you?

Giacomo:

Well, you tell me, I mean, you competed and I haven’t heard much. I have, we’ve been busy doing stuff. I would imagine. What’s it been like after your competition?

Ben:

Yeah. So I’ve done four now. I did my last one coming up on three weeks ago and my next one will be most likely in seven weeks. So I’ve got a nice little stretch, nice little gap here, but nothing too much other than the, the competitions. It’s been a lot of family time.

spending time split here between a area in Cape Cod. My parents have a house there in Cape Cod. And so I’ve been going there hanging out with family friends to the extent that I have the energy and mental space to do so because prep takes a toll on you. It does.

Giacomo:

So what do you think your family’s perspective is if you could put yourself in their shoes because they haven’t seen the side of you yet?

Ben:

When will this be over so we can get our son back. Sounds about right. I mean, I’m doing the best that I can but, you know, it’s hard. It’s like your personality changes, the amount of energy you have to lend towards doing just basic things changes. So I’m trying at the very least to uphold my household duties as I live with them. So that is a very least lowest bar that I set for myself.

But also just trying to have a lot of self awareness around how I react to things, how I respond to things, how I treat people, like going out of my way to try to be a little bit more gracious and thankful for them understanding because they are generally very understanding when it comes to the fact that hey, I am, you know, I’m not joining us for take out tonight or I’m not staying up to watch the movie with you guys because I gotta go to bed because I’m tired and I don’t have any energy.

So I think the thing that I’m looking forward to the most is the social flexibility and having the energy to have more social interaction because I’m already in generally, somebody who generally is quite introverted and needs a lot of recharge time and needs, needs my space. And I feel like that only gets exacerbated from doing a contest prep.

Giacomo:

So how do you protect that energy when you’re competing? And you have a hard time existing essentially because you’re just drained as it is. And people are curious about what you’re doing.

Ben:

I try to just be as honest and upfront about it as possible. Like saying, you know, hey, whoever I’m talking to, I’m having a really low energy day. I need to take a nap. I’m sorry, I can’t, you know, hang out or do this or do that. And thankfully I have very supportive and understanding friends and family and social circle, but I could see that being really difficult if you didn’t, didn’t have that.

So it’s like, come on, why can’t you just, you know, do this or do that, whether that’s something related to food or just even hanging out. And I think also having understanding when maybe we would be doing something in terms of how we’re interacting that is more physical and being OK with changing that to something that’s a little bit more low key, like instead of going out and playing sports for two hours, we can hang out and play a board game or something like that.

So it’s, I think for me been about communicating and just trying to be as honest and open and upfront and apologetic about that as well. Like communicating, this is temporary, this isn’t how it’s gonna be forever. But I need to make sure that I can at least do the basic things like you said, that I need to do, which are fulfilling all my basic responsibilities when it comes to the home front work and then obviously the contest prop itself

and then trying to maintain my relationships the best that I can and then communicating that I’ll be giving back more to that area once the prep is over at the end of the year.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. Well, I feel like this is a decent segue into what we’re talking about because the idea today, our topic is how to get into bodybuilding and you’re in it and we’re already sort of in a discussion about what it’s like what the outcome is once you’re already in it. So why don’t we walk all the way back here and start from the beginning? Someone has this idea, right? They’re training, they’re feeling good about themselves and like, what if I could get in such good shape that I

could be nice and shredded and lean and then I look this way. So why don’t I just hop on a stage and compete? So someone’s interested, what’s the, what would be a good starting point for someone like that who’s just training? Feels good, feels like they can diet themselves down to looking a certain way and they want to look like that on stage. And that’s, that’s their first, that’s what sparked it for them. That’s how they became curious about the idea of bodybuilding.

Ben:

Well, I can share my own personal experience and then I’ll kind of tie that into what I would recommend to somebody or the questions that I would follow up with them for myself. I didn’t even consider bodybuilding competitions, something that could be for me until I discovered that you could do it naturally, that you could do it in a drug tested federation.

Because before my perception of what a bodybuilding competition was was, oh, you have to take steroids to compete in bodybuilding. And once I kind of found that out, that was what sparked my own personal interest in it. And I was very early on in my journey and self aware enough to know that I needed to have some more muscle mass on me before I considered that viable option or considered that to be something that I could do competitively s for somebody who feels like, hey, I’m at a

point where I’ve done my time in the gym and this is something that’s appealing to me. Usually, I would start by asking what is the kind of underlying reason or drive or motivating factor behind why you wanna step on a bodybuilding stage or competition? And everyone can have different motivating factors for why that is. But I think this is something that is almost the a priori screening tool as

coaches.

When we get somebody who comes to us who wants to do a competition prep is trying to figure out maybe not as directly asking them why do you want to compete? Sometimes it’s as simple as that. But sometimes you can pick up on little cues and, behaviors from people that let you know, is this probably gonna be the best thing for them or might it not be?

So, for instance, if you hear somebody who they’re struggling with sticking to their training and their nutrition plan as it is currently and they want to use a contest prep as like this carrot dangling on the end of the stick to get them to commit to a goal. And what they’re doing, the reason that I think oftentimes this ends up backfiring is because even if you do achieve the desired outcome and you do get to stage, which is not a given, it’s not a given at all.

You don’t see the amount of people who say that they’re gonna do a show and they’re not there on Show day because the trials and tribulations were too much to overcome. But once they no longer have that, that carrot dangling in front of them, that post show period can turn into a nightmare. And I don’t wanna be hyperbolic with this, but really, you know, especially if we’re talking like male bodybuilder levels of lean.

It’s not uncommon to hear people say, oh, I put on 30 40 50 pounds in a matter of weeks after my show because I just couldn’t stop eating. And now I have a terrible self image. My self efficacy is shot. My confidence is shot and they really developed this negative relationship, not only with the sport but with their body and their eating behaviors.

And so, it’s serious business is not something to mess around with. And so ascertaining why somebody wants to compete, if it’s for social media recognition or fame or clout or, getting compliments from people kind of a similar thing. Yeah, maybe that gets you, you know, through some hard days. But ultimately, if the result or the placing or the reason that you’re doing, it is more external in nature as opposed to internal, I wanna do this to show myself that I can do something

difficult. Or I want to use this as a a means of self improvement in some way and see how that carries over to other aspects of my life. It could be so many different things I want to show my kids that you can do this at 50 or what, you know, there’s so many, I think valid reasons for wanting to do a contest, but I’m not gonna say that there’s an invalid reason, but maybe for some reasons carry more risk than others.

So I would first try to get to the bottom of why somebody wants to do a competition. That would probably be the first step when somebody’s I hear somebody express to me, I’m thinking about doing a show, I would say, OK, interesting. Tell me more. You know, how did, how did you come to that conclusion? Did, trainer in your gym say, hey, you look like you could be four weeks out, six weeks out, eight weeks out, I’ll get you there.

You just gotta pay me. And, those, those are the most dangerous kind of situations. We actually had one of those recently, come up and thankfully this individual was self aware enough to know that, hey, you know, this isn’t the right approach. And so they came to us and that was one of the best things that they could have done. But yeah, it’s, it’s sad. The story is all too common where you get that.

Some, you know, a prep coach could be in person, could be online, hard to even call them a coach

sometimes if they’re putting people through this sort of thing. they’re a trainer who did one show and now they think that they can prep anybody in four weeks or six weeks or eight weeks. So outdated practices and maybe they’re not setting people up for success.

Ben:, Giacomo:

So there’s, there’s so many things that, that go into it for sure.

Giacomo:

It does help to think about the external reasons why you wanna do something because it gets your wheels spinning and puts you in a better place where you’re more likely to have a good experience. You’re more likely to think about what you’re doing and you give yourself a chance to see if you really want to do it. So say you have your external reasons. It’s self improvement. It’s seeing how far you can take something it is putting on more muscle.

It’s seeing what you can get your body to look like based on what your body is capable of. Say, you get all those things and you have now officially started to dip your toes in the water with the idea and you start to look into the bodybuilding world. What are some places where are some places where you would suggest someone begin to look at and things that you would suggest?

Ben:, Giacomo:

I mean, aside from what we put out there, obviously, I think getting a coach is a big one.

Ben:

You know, if you, it can be done the the self coaching thing. But if you are just exploring, starting to explore that world, the amount of fast tracking that you can get by getting someone in your corner who has done this before with hundreds of people, like what we’ve done here at Vegan Proteins that not only will take your own personal knowledge and confidence in the process to another level, but it will allow you to avoid some of these pitfalls and mistakes that competitors often

fall into. So the first thing I would say is hire a coach because they’re going to be able to hopefully you have some time to work together before the contest prep. I’ll say that as Well, that would be, something that I would recommend people consider is, hey, do you have a specific show that you’re thinking about doing or a list of shows, do you know?

Ok, like this is the area that I’m in, these are some organizations or federations that I’m interested in competing with. Do you know anybody who’s done any of them locally? Can you talk to them to see what their experience was? You know, one of the nice things about having access to the internet and social media these days is that you’re not limited to your immediate surroundings.

So you don’t have to hire the local prep coach. You can go and outsource, you can hire somebody online and it can be tough. It can be really tough to know who is a good source of information and who can you trust. But I think when you do search out a coach, talk to their clients, see the people that they have worked with, try to find them, look at the, look at their testimonials, look at the people that they’ve worked with, talk to them.

Hey, what was your experience working with this coach for this prep that will do a lot if you can talk to 34 or five of their previous clients. And if you’re considering working with a coach, you should be able to ask them, hey, could you, you know, refer me out to a couple clients of yours? That you’ve worked with in the past, or preferably you would be able to just kind of like, find their clients yourself and, you know, send them a message or something like that because, yeah, the

coach could maybe give you some of their clients that they did well with and not give you some of the ones that they maybe didn’t treat so well. So I’d say talking to their clients is a good thing. See, the information that they’re putting out, see if you kind of think you might vibe with their personality, or their general philosophy, you know, are they evidence based?

Are they putting out information that? And again, that’s something that can be hard to know if you’re just starting out. So it’s tricky, you know, I’m trying to think back to what, how did I parse out good source of information versus an inaccurate source of information? And I can see why a lot of people fall into these pitfalls of hiring the coach.

But I would say if you get somebody who’s trying to rush you into a contest prep or they’re trying to really push for you to do something and they’re not giving you the autonomy to make that decision yourself about when, what your timeline looks like. I would say that those are some that would be a, a major red flag for me. So somebody who’s a pushy coach, somebody who doesn’t want you to talk to previous clients that they’ve worked with.

Those are the things to avoid, things to look for would be basically the opposite of that. Their clients have good things to say about them. They’ve done it with, they have a lot of experience doing it. They’re well established. those would be some things that I look at. I know that all went into just one thing of hiring a coach.

But I think hiring a coach is such a massive part of the process that you really want to give it your due diligence because this is somebody you could be working with for your entire competitive career, potentially. You never know.

Giacomo:

Yeah, for sure. So I’ve heard two things so far, the external reasons and making sure you focus on that because you probably have them and you don’t even realize if you haven’t thought about them yet and then make finding someone who can fast track you and help you avoid blind spots because they know they have the experience, the resources, they can help you get out of your own head and get out of your own way and make the right choices.

The third thing, the thing that I’m beginning to think about is understanding what you’re getting into before the fact informed consent. huh. Exactly. Because, and there’s really no way that you can truly

know until you experience it like any experience in life. But a little bit of heads up from someone and a little and a fair amount of digging on your own to really try and wrap your head around.

What competing is like can go a long way for your expectations for doing a better job once you’re actually going through it and understanding just the toll, the toll that it’s gonna take, it’s not meant to scare you away from something. It’s not meant to shame you away from doing something. It’s not meant to discourage you in any way. It’s literally just so that you’re clear on what you’re doing and you see it all the time in this industry, people are already, they already got one

more than 1 ft in the door. They’re already full blown, preparing for a competition without the slightest idea of what they’re getting into. Even those who are mostly aware, like I, I’ll have a conversation with someone, I’ll be like, listen, you might not be able to get it up in six months from now because your testosterone is gonna be clocking in like 250 and their wife is sitting there right next to them.

I’m like, you hear that right? Like you ha I mean, I know that’s direct and blunt, but that’s just one small example. Like these are really important things to say because they can happen. And I mean, I understand, you know, some things are a little touchy but I mean, those real risks, they should be discussed. People should be aware of just how taxing it is on your body and the consequences that that can have to the relationships in your life and to your own physical health and all

that temporarily as a natural bodybuilder. Fortunately, you can get back to baseline completely in about six months and you can be more than 50% back to baseline in about eight weeks when you do it properly. When you don’t, I’m exaggerating here. But it could be like a death sentence, meaning like you can find yourself repeating patterns that you established because you started prepping that you just cannot seem to undo that easily or sometimes not at all.

And rather than blaming the competitor and saying which came first, the person that was attracted to the extreme thing or the extreme thing that put them in a place where they couldn’t get out of it. You know, I think that’s, I think that’s a croc, I think that’s BS, it takes a certain kind of person to want to be competitive and it takes a certain kind of person to want to do something extreme.

So if you are that person, you might as well do it the safest, healthiest and most effective way possible. So that after the fact you could do it again if you want and if you choose to not do it, you could walk away from it and be like that was the be best experience it could have possibly been because I knew what I was getting into. I sought out support.

I did it for the right reasons. And, yeah, I re, I mean, in this hypothetical, yeah, I regret what I did. I don’t like how that felt and I wouldn’t do it again in, in that kind of hypothetical, but I did everything I could to do it as healthily as possible. And now after the fact, yeah, maybe I got some stuff I need to work on to make sure that like my mental health is where I wanted to be. My physical health is where I wanted to be.

And like, I feel good, but like, I’m not, this didn’t wreck me because if you don’t think about this stuff, you might not even realize how much it messed up. But, but it definitely can, I mean, because you, you are literally putting your body and your mind through the ringer to do something. And unfortunately, that can have lasting repercussions if you don’t get into it in a responsible way.

Ben:

And you’re preaching in the choir here. I, I don’t have too much to add on that other than I think, like you said, at the start of that expectations are really important. So knowing what category do you want to do, because that’s gonna require different levels of leanness and therefore different levels of sacrifice and different levels of physiological adaptations that occur.

Like the example that I gave difference between a male bodybuilder and you know, woman’s bikini competitor, those are gonna be two diff, you know, subjectively, those could feel equally as difficult to those people. But from a hormonal or physiological perspective, there’s gonna be less of a, you know, a different effect on, on one’s body and maybe a different amount of time that it takes you to get back to baseline.

every individual is different. So obviously, context dependent, but that’s one thing like you said, knowing how it’s going to impact, not just you, but the people around you, that’s really big too making sure that you have their consent, not just your own consent. If you’re somebody who’s in a partnership or you have kids, you know, there’s so many things to consider there and if you kind of along the lines that you were saying, if you go in blind without these expectations, then

you really don’t know what you’re setting yourself up for. And sometimes you get in so deep you get this tunnel vision, it’s like I’m gonna keep going no matter what and you truly don’t understand what could potentially be on the other side of that. And that can be scary. That can be scary.

Giacomo:

And if you are gonna have tunnel vision, at least someone have someone in your corner that is not gonna have tunnel vision so that they can help you make the right moves because sometimes a little bit of tunnel vision can go a long way when you really wanna do something and you don’t wanna get someone going through 10 different scenarios and 15 different thoughts about something. If it’s going to disturb their process and make it harder for them to commit, I get that.

But if you are that kind of person and I feel like sometimes you kind of need to be, you don’t really want to take someone out of that comfort zone necessarily, but you might as well have someone else who’s been through it that has thought about all this stuff after the fact because they’ve experienced it many times over themselves with others, et cetera, et cetera. So that they’ll make sure that you make the right moves. Put it that way.

Ben:

Yeah, it’s hard to stay objective. Very, very hard. Your mind starts to play tricks on you and you start to think things that are not true and that you wouldn’t think if you had somebody kind of in your corner telling you like, I know you feel this way right now, I’ve been in your seat, but this is not actually, you know, the way that you look or whatever it might be. You know, you need to, I know it feels like your wife is treating you unfairly right now, but you’re being an asshole and you

need to correct your behavior. Like sometimes it definitely didn’t happen to me, like, like like sometimes it takes that, that that outside perspective, that unbiased person to, to say those things to you because you might not want to hear it directly from that person or from the people around you, or you might think it’s not as bad as it is. So it’s kind of another reason that having a coach or someone in your corner is kind of a necessity.

Giacomo:

Yeah, for sure, for sure. You mentioned the different kinds of divisions. Can you elaborate, tell me that like the different ideas around that?

Ben:

I think that’s a, that’s a good thing to consider if you want to compete. So, it’s always interesting to here where people are coming from when they like, how did you discover bodybuilding? Was it a friend at your gym said, hey, let’s do this show together. Was it you saw someone on social media compete and you kind of drew you towards that. It’s hard to know where someone’s coming from, but generally there are a few different male and female divisions or categories.

And what that means is that the judges who are making notes on you and you’re up there on the stage and they’re giving you a score. It’s a competition at the end of the day. They are looking for certain criteria and there are different divisions you can choose to compete in. So there’s male bodybuilding where they have you in the, you know, the, the banana boat or whatever the, the speedos, the posing trunks, which is, the division that requires the most level of leanness, the most

amount of muscles, the most extreme. but generally judges across all categories are looking for some degree of muscular development in different places. They’re looking for some degree of muscle separation, conditioning, leanness. These are all kind of the same things, toned ness. If you want to use that term in, in different areas, they’re looking for.

How defined can we see the these different muscles? they’re looking for a general shape or structure. So usually that is having a narrower waist, having a wider kind of upper body and lower body, not wide in the sense of having body fat but wide and that it creates this kind of illusion, this X frame, this taper this might sound very like wishy washy.

So if it OK. So I think it’s like looking at, hey, what does it? I think it matters again. Why are you getting into bodybuilding? If you, if it’s to be competitive, you might choose your division based off of the way that your body looks and the way that you are structured, which might require somebody to give an outside perspective on what category they think fits you best.

But you might say, hey, I understand that this might be the best for me based on my shape. But I really feel called to this other division or this other category. And that’s just a conversation that you need to have with yourself. and with your coach about what are your expectations? Is it to be the most competitive, is it to, you know, en, you know, enjoy the process and get the most out of it myself?

Because that can also influence what comes before the contest. Like if you wanna do really well in figure and you don’t have, you know, the, the widest upper body, then, hey, let’s, we need to focus on building those dts and building those laps before we get you up on stage. If your goal is to be really competitive, if your goal is to just experience what it is to get up on stage, then that’s a different conversation.

So I think it’s determining what do you want to get out of the competition? What categories kind of appeal to you because you might look at one category and say, oh, I definitely don’t wanna do that. I don’t wanna be in heels or I don’t wanna wear, a, you know, a two piece. I, the, these I don’t wanna show, I just wanna wear the board shorts. I don’t really wanna have my legs judged as much.

So there’s all these different considerations and factors in terms of what division you choose to compete in. So I think it’s often just weighing it up. What’s most important to you. Is it being competitive. What are the different ramifications that this might have as you go from more, less and more extreme requirements in terms of how lean you need to get, how muscular you need to be.

Cause that’ll impact everything that comes beforehand and that’ll impact what your expectations are going in, not just from a placings perspective, but what you can expect from your body and physiologically the side effects that come with the prep.

Giacomo:

Yeah, the different divisions matter. And there’s also a certain level of stage presence that needs you need to consider because certain divisions will require you to have, be a lot more well practiced with posing and have a lot more endurance, meaning you have to hold your poses for a longer period of time. And certain divisions will require you to have to spend a lot more time on presentation, right? Even if you’re not necessarily judged on it, it is part of the process.

So you might as well encourage your athlete to consider it the different whatever. And then eventually, when you take something far enough, I’m and I’m thinking specifically with bodybuilding, the men’s bodybuilding division, women’s as well. It’s just you have what pro and once you go pro, you actually are scored on your routine, for example. So you might as well get into it.

Ben:

That is a, that is a good consideration is how you present yourself on stage because as a first time competitor it’s very easy to get up there and to be looking around, you’re doing the wrong things with your posing. So again, kind of another nudge towards hiring somebody who can help you with posing, who can help you with presentations, who can help you feel confident up there.

So when you get up there, you’re smiling, you look like you’re having a good time. That matters how you carry yourself on stage matters as well. So I would say, know what to expect on the day. That’ll help a lot with your confidence. Know, hey, generally how do shows run, which just kind of put something into my head. And that is if you’re interested in bodybuilding, go to a show, go to a couple of shows, go to an OCB show, go to a WNBF show, go to A I NBA show, go to all these different shows

and see. OK. Do I like the vibe of the organization? Do I like the vibe of the promoter? Do I like the vibe of the specific show if it’s a year, if you can say, hey, I want to do this show in a year and you can actually go to that show and see exactly. Obviously, some things change year to year. But as best as you can, what that’s gonna be like, talk to the competitors that were there?

Hey, how is the show? How is your show day experience? Because they all run a little bit differently and try to understand what actually takes place on Show Day. What’s the tanning process? Like, what is it like to, get your bikini or your suit? That’s another thing. The financial cost of competing. We haven’t even delved into that yet either. Financially. Are you in a place to compete? Because not only are you hiring a coach which comes with its own, cost, I would argue it’s pretty

much a necessary thing, but also the tanning fees, the polygraph fees. So these are, drug testing that they do the hotel fees, the travel fees, the food that you’re gonna, you, you know, obviously we’re bodybuilders, we eat a certain way. So you’re gonna be spending money on food regardless, but potentially you might need to, that might be a consideration as well. Just that, that’s always a consideration. what else goes into?

Ben:, Giacomo:

Is there anything I’m missing out jewelry, I guess for, the female competitors, different kinds of coaches, posing, coaches in person, posing clinics.

Ben:

Yeah. the suits can be a really big one, especially for the female competitors. So you, you could be looking at a couple of 100. I’ve heard people going up to close to $1000 for a suit potentially. So, yeah, it’s definitely something to consider. there isn’t as another benefit I think to competing drug free is you don’t have to spend exorbitant money on supplements and enhancements, which I think can be a considerable cost for the other, the other side of the sport.

So that’s something that is, is nice about natural bodybuilding, gym membership, but you’re already like paying for that or whatever equipment that you need access to. So, honestly, not that much changes from like the money that you’ll need to spend on, like a membership or food. And if you already have a coach, then it’s probably not gonna change too much either.

But I think maybe a little bit more attention as you or if you want them to come to your show or something like that. Sure. but I think the main costs associated are usually with, travel registration fees for the organization, show fees. photography if you want to get photos, professional photos. Yeah, there’s a lot of little things that add up and go into it. and it’s something to consider because if financially you’re not in a place right now that is stable, enough to like, you’re

already kind of feeling like things are tight. Maybe it’s not the best time to compete, maybe you could look at doing it in a year from now and doing a nice build and set yourself up nicely for a show in a year. So, I think it’s something that has to be considered, especially if you, you know, you have a family, you have kids you have financial obligations. It’s, it’s not a joke. Yeah.

Giacomo:

You mentioned there’s two thoughts I’m thinking about the first one I wanna bring out is timing because to me it seems like an impulsive thing when someone gets the itch and they wanna do it. And it’s very, I find it challenging to hold someone back. So, rather than telling them, hey, you shouldn’t compete right now, I walk them through two different scenarios.

I was like, I’m gonna tell you exactly what’s what I think is gonna happen if someone reach out to me and they don’t want to compete if you choose to compete four months from now, and I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen. What I think is gonna happen if you choose to compete a year from now, which one do you prefer? And it’s their choice.

Ben:

It’s huge. I think that comes back to the informed consent and the autonomy, like you’re giving them the knowledge and the tools and the information to make their own decision. And you’re not saying, hey, all right, let’s get you in there right now. Let’s do it. Eight weeks, let’s go. You can say, hey, you know, this is an option, we can do this, but these are the, the pros and the cons and the risks associated. And if you ask me like this, maybe the second option, you would be more

competitive. That’s something that you care about. But we can, you know, I’ll leave it up to you and that way you’re kind of, you can nudge them in a certain direction without necessarily making the decision for them because like you said, I think it’s huge for that person to be able to come to that themselves and, and feel good about the decision that they’re making as opposed to feeling like you push them to do one thing or another thing.

Giacomo:

Exactly. Sometimes they do choose the fast thing that isn’t necessarily the best outcome and you coach them and you support them, you know, they’re gonna do it anyway. So obviously you want to consider nudging them in the direction where they’ll have the chance of being the most competitive and they’ll get the chance to do the most work in their body possible to get out there.

But sometimes someone doesn’t want that. Sometimes someone wants it right away because they want to invest in what they’re doing, they’re ready to do it and they’re gonna, but as long as they know what they’re getting into, then it’s ok. But there is also the matter of, sometimes you do, in fact, need to tell someone, hey, you’re, you’re not in a position to do this and that’s a hard conversation to have.

But you, but those are conversations you need to have with people who are looking to compete too and tell them straight up. You go out there, you’re not going to be stage ready, you have to be willing to, there are athletes that go out that are not stage ready, but they don’t realize it. So I think that’s another thing too. Again, you’re not necessarily telling someone to not do something but being like, hey, you can go out there and whatever, 4 to 8 weeks from now, but you’re not gonna

be ready and you’re gonna look like you’re not ready, but sometimes someone will say, yes, I’m OK with that. For me, this is about a place to showcase my transformation. I just lost 75 pounds. I’m gonna lose this last 10. I know I need to lose, I’m just talking with weight just to like explain things easily. I know I need to lose at least 2530 but I’m gonna lose another 10. I’m going on stage because to me that’s what this is about.

It’s about showing my transformation. I realize that I’m not going into a transformation group and I’m going into physique or this or that. And I know some part of that is a little off as far as the stage in sport, but it means something to me and it’s a pretty supportive culture. And as long as that person knows what they’re getting into when they step up there, I feel like that’s OK.

Ben:

I would say so. Yeah, I’d say the bigger thing is usually if somebody is dead set on competing and the reason that you maybe think they shouldn’t compete isn’t necessarily that they might not be ready in time. Of course, like having to push them too much too soon. you know, you can, you can let them know the risk and the side effects. But, I think it’s more often like, if psychologically you feel like this competing would not be a good idea for this person or, like, you’ve been working

with them, you know, the their relationship status or like the people around them. And you’re like, dude, I gotta be honest, like knowing your situation and all the stuff you’re going through right now, like a prep is not a good idea. And there could be some scenarios in which you just can’t necessarily like you, you have to say, I’m sorry, like I can’t in good faith or in good conscience, like sign on to this.

And that can be really hard because if somebody is dead set on it, like you said, if you, even if you’ve been working with them, they could leave you like as a, as a client, they might say, all right, I’m gonna go find somebody who is gonna prep me. And that’s unfortunate, but I think you have to be willing to draw the line somewhere and if you feel like you’re gonna be putting this person’s mental health or physical health or emotional health, financial health, even at risk by saying

yes to them doing a prep. basically if, if they’re in kind of rocky straits as it is and they’re trying to use a prep to, to fix things. I think when you try to use a prep as a band aid to cover something up, it’s usually not gonna end well. And you have to be able to say, I’m sorry, because I want what’s best for you, I’m gonna say I’m not gonna do this and that can be a really hard line to tease out as a coach.

It’s like this person’s gonna go to someone else and they’re gonna get a bad experience. So I need to kind of say yes and try to help them do it the best way possible versus no. I, I, you know, I can’t in good, in good fits on our list. So it’s tricky when you get those kind of situations.

Giacomo:

It is. Yeah. There are a lot of difficult conversations that you have to have with potential competitors for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes they have no idea and it rubs in the wrong way and it’s, they’re gonna go off and do their own thing anyway, but it’s your responsibility for sure to at least let them know.

Ben:

So I think we talked a lot about the potential risks and consequences and harms of competing, which I think is good because that’s what people need to know because what are, what is often glamorized is like you’re up on stage, you got your trophies, your medals, maybe it’s the, the post show meal with the guy in the front, double biceps in front of the plate of food or something like that. but I think it would be good also to touch on some of the really positive things that can come out of

competing so that we’re not completely painting it and, you know, we wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t feel like there is something good to come out of it. So, what do you feel like, maybe you’ve gotten out of bodybuilding and something that you see consistently with the people that you work with, who end up really enjoying the sport?

Ben:, Giacomo:

What are they, what are they getting out of it when something happens, whether you choose it or not?

Giacomo:

And it makes, and it puts you in a sit in a place where you’re under pressure, you realize just how much more you’re actually capable of. You become resilient and whether it’s something for good reason, whether it’s something that is for bad reason, whether it’s something you choose, whether it’s something that you could walk away from free will wise, but it’s not something you’re necessarily choosing regar regardless.

Like when you become resilient, you grow, there is growth in resiliency, bodybuilding tests you and it makes you realize just how much more you’re actually capable of because you have to go through your same normal routine. But now you have a whole lot more to do with a whole lot less energy. So what are you, what are you going to do? What is human nature going to do for you in a situation like that?

Well, you’re going to become a more efficient person with your time. Now, obviously, the downside is that you may not be able to develop that skill fast enough and be able to compete well. And that’s where the negative comes in. But with the positive, where the positive is is that you will grow, you will be able to, to do something that requires more of your time, you will be able to do something requires more of your energy all while having less energy.

And what that does to the rest of your routine that has nothing to do with bodybuilding is you become better at everything you’re already doing, you become a fish more efficient in everything you’re already doing. And on top of that, even though you have less time to do everything you’re already doing and you have less energy and on top of it all, you still learn how to bodybuild and spend a lot of time on that.

So if you ask me what bodybuilding does for someone, it basically teaches them how to be

superhuman, it teaches them what they’re truly capable of. It tests every fiber of your being essentially. And then when you’re not bodybuilding, guess what you do, guess what you get to do with all that energy that you poured into being able to bodybuild and life. You get to live your life like that, whether you choose to continue bodybuilding or not, and you get your time back, you get your

energy back and you realize just what you’re truly capable of when you don’t, when you’re, you’re not competing and whether you’re bodybuilding or not. And to me that’s, that’s just incredible. It’s, it’s like a gift. It’s like, look what you get to do with your life because you chose to body build. I think that’s pretty freaking clear.

Ben:

Life on easy mode.

Giacomo:

After you’ve, you’ve done a body, people tend to do some pretty incredible things after they bodybuild, they take on new projects that they didn’t think they were capable of or didn’t even dream of or didn’t even think about. They start businesses, they start relationships. They, someone who’s able to compete successfully is empowered to do more things and their, their confidence grows this and that. I think there’s a lot of positive when it comes to competing.

Ben:

I think even if you decide that the sport isn’t for you, the fact that you got through it and you’re like, I made it to the end and I did, did what I set out to do that can be huge as well, you can say, yeah, bodybuilding wasn’t for me. I didn’t like getting up on stage with the tan and the you know, the suit and the posing and everything, but what this taught me about myself and the resilience and the grit and the, you know, the fact that I can dig deep when my back is against the wall, that is

something that you’ll carry with you through the rest of your life. And so I’d say for anyone who’s considering, bodybuilding, once you’ve, you know, checked all these boxes, you’ve done the prerequisite prerequisite work to make sure that you know what you’re getting yourself into. go for it, see what it’s like, see if you like it, you might fall in love with it.

Thank you everyone for listening to another episode of vegan proteins, Muscles by Brussels radio. If you want to get in contact with us, head over to vegan proteins.com, click the contact link, one of our coaches will get in touch with you. We love to work one on one with people. This is what we do. We’re bodybuilding, prep coaches. So if this conversation has appealed to you, if any way, kind of piqued your interest, you’re interested in learning more about the sport, get in touch

with us. We’d love to help you out at vegan proteins, muscles by Brussels everywhere on the social. So check us out there, you can get in touch with us there as well. This has been an episode 182. I’m Ben and I’m Jiao and we’ll see you in the next one.