Competitions are super fun and super exciting, but to make sure you feel and perform your best the day of, it’s crucial to be prepared and use the week leading up to the big day to fuel and recover.
Pre-Competition Training Week
How you train the week leading up to competition is important and shouldn’t be considered just another normal training week. It is crucial that your body is recovered. The week should look something like this:
Monday – Class as usual
Tuesday – Class as usual
Wednesday – Class, but lighter load and lower intensity
Thursday – Rest / Stretch / Light Movement (20-40 minutes of low intensity biking, rowing, walking)
Friday – Rest / Stretch / Light Movement (20-40 minutes of low intensity biking, rowing, walking)
If you have open gym, you may want to consider using Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday to fine tune movements that are in the competition and do some last minute testing!
Fueling Up For the Big Day
It’s crucial that not only your nutrition is on point, but sleep as well! You should be aiming for 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Make sleep a priority this week!
As always, nutrition is SO important. Leading up to competition day, be sure to follow the plate method for each meal – 1/2 vegetables, 1/4 healthy starch, 1/4 lean protein – to ensure you are getting the right amount of macro nutrients in to fuel your body! Adding in a few extra grams of healthy carbs (sweet potatoes, rice, fruit, etc) to get that extra energy definitely won’t hurt!
H20…. drink it! Dehydration can impact performance and you definitely don’t want to feel dehydrated come competition. Shoot for 80 oz of water per day.
Competition day, you’re going to want some snacks to refuel between events! My competition day grocery list usually looks something like this…
Fruit (apples and bananas)
Protein Powder
Natural fruit snacks / fruit leathers
Deli meat (turkey or chicken)
Jerky
Kill Cliffs or O2’s
Rice Cakes
Nut Butters
What to Expect – Day Of
- Be sure to keep track of your heat times so you know what time to start warming up, probably 20 minutes before your heat begins
- For your warm up, do some type of full body dynamic warm up + certain isolated movements depending on the workout.The shorter the workout is, the longer your warm up should be to get that heart rate ready!
- If the workout happens to be a max lift, make sure you are warmed up to the number you want to hit for your first attempt! You don’t want to go out on the floor and start with the barbell, there’s simply not enough time.
- Judging – be kind to your judges! Although you may not agree with every call they make, the worst thing you can do is stop your workout to argue – it’s simply not worth it. Remember they are volunteering their time so you can compete, and we’re all just there to have fun and get some fitness in.
- With that being said, be sure you pay attention during workout briefings so you know all the standards, and what the judges will be looking for.
- Breathe! Don’t forget to breath during your workouts, and especially before you go out on the floor and the nerves are creeping up. Visualize yourself crushing the workout, then go out there and have fun!
Recovery
Sunday should DEFINITELY be a rest day. But that doesn’t necessarily mean be a couch potato! Go on a walk, stretch, any type of light movement – your body will thank you. Although you might not feel as sore on Monday, competitions take a huge toll on the body, and it might not be the best idea to go back to class and try to tackle it at 100%. The best thing you can do is listen to your body!
We hope this helps! Competitions are fun and fuel your fire to get back in the gym and continue to tackle those weaknesses. Get ready for an awesome day full of fitness.