First week of serious diet has passed by very fast. I am lucky having a fast metabolism so as soon as I cut the fat out, my abs start showing through. I need to stay very vigilant as I don’t want to get too lean either. I can easy be stage ready a week or two to soon and that is not good at all. Last competitions I was way to dry with only 4 mm fat on my belly. I want to get down to 6 mm this time to not have my veins popping.
This weekend I have spent both Saturday and Sunday pose practising. As everywhere in life, first impression is very important. The first step up on that stage is everything. The posing is not at all as easy at it looks. Believe me. It takes hours and hours of hard work to get it right. Hit every pose and wait a few seconds, fast is not good. Bum out, belly in, no breathing, big relaxed smile at all times and a nice flow between the pose changes. It need to look completely effortless. I watch many youtube videos from the big IFBB (International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness) championships over and over again. Then I adapt my ‘favourites’ poses to make them match me and my personality. After that it is just to do them over and over… and over again until you can hit those poses sleep walking. My main issue is the relaxed smiling while holding my stomach in and not breathing more than through my nose in tiny sips haha. Give it a try and you see just how easy that is lol.
And the hands, another important part. Hands that are placed wrong will cover muscles and ruin the whole pose. Also hands that are very tense and in awkward angles will take the focus off the body. Relaxed hands that follow the body flow is what I want to achieve. They tend to tense by accident when I can’t breathe properly haha. Everything is so damn syncronised that your mind does things automatically. I am working on breaking those patterns. And I will improve since last competition. That is what it is all about! Practise makes perfect ,-)
The other day I wrote about how I got back to the gym and how great it makes me feel. So to continue from there, I want to tell my story of starting to compete in bikini fitness at the age of 38. Many of you probably ask yourself: “What the hell got into her?” I actually don’t really know myself to be honest 🙂 I know that among the amazing new friends I met at the gym , two girls were competing in fitness themselves and they both encouraged and motivated me. They made me feel like I could do it too. I like achieving goals and that is probably what made me go for it. At first it was just a thought but once I decide to do something, I do it 100%. I was introduced to a well known Spanish trainer, Hector Defez and he set up a 3 month training program including cardio along with a tough diet plan. I have a very strong upper body but my legs and bum were lacking size so the training program included leg training 4 days/week. The following 3 months were really tough but mainly fun 🙂 It was so amazing to see my hard work pay off! It was like fine tuning a car haha, every little detail matters. Each meal is carefully measured and weighed. One thing I must say is, I wasn’t really hungry. I ate 5 meals/day of just the right quantities. It was just like fueling a car. The problem was the munchies, omg, haha, I was dreaming of cakes. We measured my body fat with calipers and I went down from 8.5 mm at the front belly and 19 mm at the back on the 7th February to 4.5 mm belly and 8 mm back the day before competing 1st of May 2015. To give you and indication, the fat on a normal hand is aprox. 3 mm. Another important part is the posing. Presentation is everything and the posing is very hard. Belly in, bum out, straight back and a relaxed and effortless smile to go with it.
Marianne Steneholm 