Few decades ago, bodybuilding was a sport solely for men. Nowadays, 10% of the competition is characterized by the women power. Bodybuilding for women is increasing rapidly, as more women decide to join this competitive sport.
What does it take to be a female bodybuilder? In this post, the ultimate guide to bodybuilding for women.
What’s Bodybuilding?
Bodybuilding is the culture and shaping of one’s body.
Mainly through the use of resistance exercise, bodybuilders aim at growing their muscles. This process is called muscle hypertrophy.
Bodybuilding is considered a sport since September14, 1901, when Sandow organized the first bodybuilding contest in Royal Albert Hall, London.
Since then, the rest is history. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronnie Coleman, or Jay Cutler have starred the history of the bodybuilding.
Bodybuilding Competitions
Different from other sports, bodybuilding competitions are based on the subjective perspective of the judges.
They will decide who, among all competitors, show the best physique of all.
There are different categories according to body size, height, weight… In bodybuilding for women, the main categories are:
Female Bodybuilding Categories
- Bodybuilding: Powerful and muscular
- Physique: Strong and sexy
- Figure: Reclaiming “feminine”
- Fitness: Power and flexibility
- Bikini: The beach babe
The First Steps to Become a Female Bodybuilder
Bodybuilding for women is still a quite unknown sport. Not a lot of girls decide to compete in bodybuilding and take their physiques to the extreme.
Becoming a female bodybuilder requires of a lot of work, effort, and time put into training, eating, and shaping your body to its best.
What does it take to be a female bodybuilder? 🤔
Define your goals
All journeys start by defining the goal you want to achieve. In bodybuilding for women, these could be reaching a certain physique, classifying for “x” competition, or achieving a specific weight mark.
To set the right goals, follow the SMART Guide. To be the right goal, it must be:
SMART Goals
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-Bound
Having the right goals will set the road you need to take to enter in the world of bodybuilding for women.
Make a Workout Plan
One of the core principles of bodybuilding for women is to build and improve their physiques.
The best way to do so is by going to the gym and combining resistance (lifting weights) with cardio (aerobic) training.
This will help you build and shape your body while keeping the body fat and resistance in the ‘sweet spot’.
Making a workout plan for women follows the same principles as for men.
To build muscle, you must create a resistant force. Such force will tell your body to act against it, and build muscle over time to adapt to the new situation.
To create a workout plan, you should first figure out when and what you want to train.
Once you have that defined, you can play with the intensity and training volume to progressively make the workout more difficult and keep building muscle.
Create a Diet
In bodybuilding for women, diet is the other side of the coin.
To compete as a female bodybuilder you need to reach extremely low fat percentages, and get in stage with your best possible physique. To do so, following a diet is key.
Creating your diet is easy if you know where to start. The most important aspect is the calories you need to take.
Once you have that figured, set your macronutrient goals, and structure your meals according to what you like, when you can eat, and make it fit in your schedule.
These are the five steps you need to follow to create your own diet.
How Can You Succed as a Female Bodybuilder?
The world of bodybuilding for women is gaining a lot of popularity. More females sign up every year, raising the level of competition and making it harder to achieve such physiques.
These are the key aspects you need to succeed as a female bodybuilder!
Defy the Odds
Bodybuilding for women is not accepted yet by everyone.
Some people still look at female bodybuilders as if they were antinatural monsters about to kill them… How sad and frustrating can that get?!
Being a female bodybuilder means having to defy all odds imposed by society and going all-in. Follow your dreams and don’t listen to what they have to tell you.
If it’s your passion, you should go for it. No one has the right to tell you not to compete as a female bodybuilder.
Set your Mentality
It all starts in your mind. Bodybuilding requires of a lot of discipline and perseverance.
Along your fitness journey, you’ll encounter tiredness, hunger, muscle soreness, frustration…
Starting the journey with the right mentality can save you from a lot of trouble. Build a strong mind before working on your physical strength.
Get Experience on Stage
Bodybuilding is a sport you only master through years.
Getting on stage requires of a lot of courage and experience. The first time will be awful, but the tenth or twentieth time you’ll be so comfortable that it will feel like being walking in your living room.
Bodybuilding for women is not only about the physique, but also their presence on stage, beauty, make up, and how they develop themselves up there.
Be Disciplined
Discipline, together with constancy and perseverance mark the success of bodybuilding journey.
Going to the gym when you need to, following the diet every day, and keeping up with the posing and supplementation is all about discipline.
If you are not disciplined, you won’t succeed in the bodybuilding world.
Hire a Personal Trainer
There’s people out there with a lot of knowledge training female bodybuilders to get on stage and compete.
If you lack the knowledge, time, or simply want to make your life easier, hiring a personal trainer is an option.
He/she will do the dirty work for you; make the diet, workout plan, and guide you through the journey to get on stage with the best possible physique.
Conclusion
Bodybuilding for women is a demanding and competitive sport. To become a master female bodybuilder, you must start setting the right goals, creating a workout plan, and designing a diet for your journey!
In this post, we have seen the ultimate guide to bodybuilding for women. I hope you enjoyed it, and we’ll see you on the next one!
