38: Things Bodybuilding Taught Me

Hey guys! After a little time off I am back on the mic today with a brief update on all that I have been up to since my last episode. I also share some insight on some of the things that bodybuilding has taught me over the years and how these lessons and skills have had a positive transfer into my every day life. 

As always, like/subscribe/and share! And come join the conversation in the private Facebook group for listeners to talk about show topics. The Facebook group is called “The ‘Everything Else’ in Bodybuilding Podcast Insiders!” so head on over there and request to join!

Additional Resources:
-FREE posing assessment and road mapping call at http://www.learntopose.com
-Want to learn skills that will help you look and feel more confident in your posing and transitions from pose to pose? Learn more at:
http://www.weeklyposing.com
-Interested in posing courses and custom made tools? Shop Here: https://learntopose.podia.com
-Want to WIN your next competition? Learn more at: http://www.posingwinsshows.com
-FREE posing tutorials for Wellness, Figure, Bikini, and Men's Physique competitors at http://www.learntopose.com
-FREE ebook “5 Things Every Bodybuilding and Fitness Competitor Needs To Know Before Preparing For A Show” at http://www.eeinbb.com
-Grab your “My Own Motivation” tank top at https://shop.killitwithdrive.com/

Key Takeaways
*Update on what I have been up to for the past month (1:50)
*Bodybuilding teaches you courage (5:00)
*Bodybuilding teaches you self improvement (5:58)
*Bodybuilding teaches you work ethic (6:44)
*Bodybuilding will change how you look at the human body (8:07)
*The skills you learn in your off season (10:08)
*The power of finding and learning your weaknesses (11:20)
*How learning performance skills will reshape you and your confidence (12:10)
*Go to weeklyposing.com and let my classes be your secret weapon (13:55)

 

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What’s up guys and welcome back to the show. It’s been a minute since I published one of my solo episodes so thanks for the patience. A lot of changes have been going o n since January and it actually sparked my thoughts for this episode. As you know if you have been listening to the show that my husband and I toured the USA last year and drove over 20,000 miles promoting my podcast. Our living conditions were quite challenging and it didn’t make for the best environment for consistent workouts, sleep, or teaching my online clients.

Since we got back to the east coast in late December we have settled in and really capitalized on all the networking we did last year.  Many new opportunities surfaced for my posing business.  A year ago I created a new way of teaching posing and stage presence that is unlike anything in th e industry. I’ve been fine tuning the structure and processes for the past year and have now really hit a groove.   It’s pretty cool to see my students transforming in ways I don’t think THEY every imagined. And, get this, it’s all virtual. 

After making new connections and from networking over the past year, a couple of industry professionals and owners of federations agreed to offer and promote my custom programs to their athletes. What an incredible opportunity!  I mean really. Think about how much trust and faith it takes for a federation to offer my programs to all of their athletes. I don’t take this opportunity lightly.

So for the last couple months I have been customizing my programs to each federation that is on board with me. The programs are different for every federation because the federations are different from each other. The athletes have different needs from one federation to another, the judging is different, and there are different divisions in each federation too. 

I still have my classes for all athletes at weeklyposing.com that emphasize the fundamentals of posing and help people build better skills so they can overall become better at posing.  These classes have people across all federations which is cool.  It makes for a unique dynamic. 

These new classes I built are federation specific so they help you get ready for your show in your federation. For example, I have classes for OCB competitors only on Sunday. I teach bodybuilding, classic physique, women’s physique, men’s physique and figure in one class. And I teach bikini and wellness in the other class. The classes prepare people soup to nuts for an OCB show.  I am building new classes for other federations as we speak.  A new announcement will be coming up very soon on another collaboration.

My schedule is rounded out by the on 1 lessons I also teach virtually, and the services I provide my real estate clients too, since I’ve been selling real estate for 18 years and own my owner brokerage. Real estate and teaching posing actually does have similarities. I just spent a couple weeks staging a 6,000sqft home for the market. So I stage people’s physiques and I stage homes to present them their best so my sellers get top dollar for them.

I have just now hit a stride with all of this stuff going on and finally have a chance to join you guys here again. 

I was thinking the other day how much bodybuilding really changed my life in ways far beyond just the competition.  I think if you start your competition journey for the right reasons and don’t let heavy influence from the popular crowd lead you down a dark path, your life will transform in so many incredible ways. And the benefits compound over time.

Like for example, starting with your first show, that adrenaline ride to the stage and the unknown of what to expect as you goo yourself up with stage tan and/or drag queen make up and walk out in front of a crowd in your underwear is a freaking rush.  And if you are in a division that requires a 60 second posing routine choreographed to music you will have even more reason to feel anticipation.  Especially if you haven’t busted a move in 20 years. 

Courage is the first thing bodybuilding will teach you.  It takes a lot of courage to do that first show.    Win or lose you did something that is unlike anything else you will ever experience.  It’s like the Tony Robbins fire walking lesson where he has people walk over fire in one of his mass events.  When people walk across the fire, something changes in them.  It’s empowering to know they did something extreme and courageous. A bodybuilding show isn’t walking over fire, but it sure does take courage to apply yourself in a way that requires 24 hour structure to your life for an extended period of time for a one day event that is scored 100% subjectively.  That’s courage.

Bodybuilding also teaches you to always want to self improve and do better for yourself.  After the first show the adrenaline rush wears off and you go back to your every day life.  Except you aren’t the same anymore. Something has changed inside of you. The adrenaline rush of preparing for a show might be slightly addictive for one and you might already be planning on your next show before the current show is over. But the biggest change is with your self improvement goals.  You did the first show and hopefully had a lot of fun and enjoyed the day.  But now you are driven to get better.  Maybe better means looking better on stage. Maybe better means improving areas of your physique so you better represent the judging criteria and score better at your next show.  Whatever “better” is you now have created new goals that will keep you motivated and driven to get up and keep going day in and day out. 

Another thing that bodybuilding teaches you is pain tolerance and work ethic. Even in a simplistic way bodybuilding does this.  Lifting weights is supposed to be hard. You push your pain tolerance when you feel the burn.  In return, your body builds resiliency from lifting weights by building more muscle.  The dedication to structure and consistency of your workouts helps you build better work ethic too.  You also learn pain tolerance in ways like when you resist temptation to eat foods you might be craving, or just resisting eating in general when you get hungry during contest prep.  Doing hard things makes you more resilient and this carries over into every day life too. 

I remember hearing 4x Mr Olympia Jay Cutler talk about his childhood and how he was doing hard labor as a kid growing up working in his family’s concrete business. He was up at 6am and worked till the sun went down and sometimes with headlights on.  There were no weekends off, and after school he was working too. This was normal for him. I’m not promoting hard labor at 11 years old, but what I’m saying is that because he grew up doing harder things than most his perspective on what is hard is far different than the kid who was coddled his whole life and finds it laborious to have to brush his teeth twice a day.  It’s not a surprise that Jay went on to win 4 Olympias. The demands of his youth equipped him for the extreme demands of bodybuilding, like having to set an alarm to wake up and eat during the night or risk losing some of his enormous size.

I also think there is something to being said about bodybuilding and how it will permanently change your perspective on the human body and its capabilities. I remember being in absolute awe the first time I saw my abs popping out of my stomach. To know that my hard work did that changed me forever. In good ways and bad. I see the human body in contest shape as a work of art.  It’s like a sculpture to me.  I think it’s absolutely beautiful.  The bad side of this perspective is the years it took me to still find beauty in my physique when not in contest shape. My standards for my physique are permanently higher because I can’t unsee or unfeel what I’ve accomplished many times getting into contest shape. Instead of focusing on being in contest shape, I focus and create physical goals that make me proud of myself instead.  Little things like working my way up to 100lb dumbbell rows. I’m at 95 at the moment and working my way up to 100. Doesn’t seem like a big deal to you, but for me, small wins are positive reinforcement and self love.  Today I focus on mini strength goals and embrace the muscle I’m still building in my 40s.

All these qualities you learn from bodybuilding from patience, courage, self improvement, and a change in perspective on what really is hard carries over into every day life too.  Life has its ups and downs, relationships have their ups and downs, and so does work. You become better equipped to handle struggles and have better patience to persevere through them.  Striving for self improvement carries over into career and home goals too.  With bodybuilding you surprise yourself with how much more you are capable of so you don’t settle for mediocre in every day life. Plus you have the courage to go after things and not sit on the sidelines while life passes you by.  Belief in yourself is everything in life. And that self confidence radiates from you.

All of these benefits from competing assume you are working with a coach that knows human physiology and doesn’t starve or over cardio you during your contest prep. It also assumes you aren’t the person banking on winning a pro card in your first show and instead are focusing on ongoing self improvement. And it assumes you aren’t running for the nearest PED dealer before you have even maxed out your genetic potential.

Speaking of genetic potential, it’s not just contest prep where you learn a lot about yourself and your body’s capabilities. It’s also giving yourself time off from competing where you fuel your body and re-structure your training so you can build more muscle where you learn a ton. If you are new to competing listen when I say that your physique right now is not the best it will ever be. It is the best it is right now. If you just started lifting and maybe had a really great transformation, listen when I say, this is the best you are right now.  Not the best you will ever be. Every week, month, and year you train you can continue to make improvements if you apply yourself. Don’t you want to?  Even in my 40s there are things I see in my physique that still need improvement so I custom program my workouts accordingly. Having things to work on keeps me motivated and goal oriented.  If you showed up to your first few shows with the best physique you will ever have, what else do you have to work towards? Plus what’s the rush for? Bodybuilding is one of the few sports where being over 35 and 40 is not old.  One of my posing students is in his 70s and still competes regularly. You have plenty of time to build your masterpiece. After over 20 years I’m still building mine.

You can even look at competing this way too. You can think about getting on stage as a way to find out what areas you need to improve too. It’s one thing to see yourself posing in the mirror or flexing in your hot workout outfit for social media. But once you stand on stage next to other people, that’s where you find out out your strengths and weaknesses. You then take that information back to the drawing board and restructure your program to build up your weaknesses.  Not just in your physique but in your posing and stage presence too. Sometimes the best body doesn’t win on stage because of really bad posing. People underestimate the amount of time it really takes to become great at posing and stage presence. Learning this skill of honest self reflection and identifying room for improvement will also transfer into every day life when you start looking at your life as a whole and looking for ways to self improve.  It’s not such a new concept to want growth, change, and new challenges and pushing past mediocrity.

Learning how to become great at performing will bring out a new type of confidence that will transfer into every day life too. Some of the new people I work with in 1 on 1 lessons try to give me that “this is hard” nonsense before I crack the whip and tell them it’s not hard, it’s just new. Telling yourself something is hard will only engrave if further in your subconscious. Just the other day I bluntly asked one of my students which scenario she preferred. To look dull and forgettable on stage doing what she is currently doing.  Or challenge herself by doing the uncomfortably new things to become a stand out.  Her response was “good point” and then pushed past the negative self talk and put some effort into the skills I was teaching her.

Learning to love constructive feedback and new challenges that push you outside your comfort zone will only help you to become more flexible and open to growth in every day life too.  Changing something about your life whether it’s career or general self improvement won’t seem so cumbersome. Instead of crybaby talk about things being hard, you’ve learned to take a deep breath and tell yourself it’s not hard it’s just new.  Maybe you are going through a difficult time in your life right now where you might deck the person who says “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”  Just like you learned in the later stages of contest prep when you are hungry, tired, but still trucking along and staying the course until your show, you learned that even difficult times will pass and you just have to suck it up and wait it out.  With bodybuilding you learn to sit with the discomfort during these difficult times and wait for them to pass.  If this is resonating with you right now, I promise, you so got this.

Alright guys it’s great to be back on the mic with you again today and I hope you took even one valuable nugget from today’s show. I’d love to hear what that was so feel free to join my group Everything Else in Bodybuilding Podcast Insiders on Facebook to chat with me. Also, if you are getting ready for contest prep and want to learn the exact skills you need to become great at posing and stage presence, go to weeklyposing.com to join my classes. As always, if you are listening on iTunes please leave a review to let the podcast people know this show is cool.  I’ll be back again soon!