Training my girlfriend for her first figure competition

by: DannyStevens - October 15th, 2008

It all come up mid July this year. We were flying back from Collegiate Nationals when out of nowhere, my girlfriend said, "I think I want to try figure competing." Keep in mind, this is a 18 year old girl who at that time never did more than 30 minutes of cardio. and a few sets of crunches. She ate like a teenager and had no idea what skullcrushers or lat pull downs were. What a difference a few months can make.

We decided to pick a show in late November for her to aims towards. She was active in sports so had a fairly nice athletic base. The most important thing was to get her diet down and some structured training. Most people would have said that getting her into a show this soon wouldn't be ideal. But, I feel other wise. Getting her into it this early will give her an idea if she really likes this stuff. She just turned 18 last week. If she turns out to be in love with this stuff, she will have a huge jump on everyone. I thought I did my first show early when I was 20. She's got 2 years on me.

Once we got her training down, we started her diet 14 weeks out. In a total of 8 weeks, she has lost 26 lbs.! While it might seem like a lot (it doesn't seem like a lot, it is a lot) she has worked her tail off. She's really giving it her all. She is now eating, training and feeling like a competitor. I'm trying to teach her everything I know. She's even got the backing and help of my coach Chuck Sanow. He has been more than willing to help her through the poses and prep.

This experience is going to be priceless for her. None of her friends really have any idea how hard she is working or how much dedication this takes. I'm extremely proud of her but I'm making sure to stress the fact that this all should be fun. Even though no one like's dieting, try to enjoy it. She's no doubt starting to get run down, but seeing her progress is making her really happy. Her newest favorite thing to say is "I love my legs now!" She really enjoyed picking out her jewelry and shoes. And of course, what girl doesn't like picking out the suits. Even I'm excited to see how those will look.

I'll definitely keep you guys up to date on her. As for my training, no complaints at all. If anything, I'm at the best off-season form I've ever been. Just the other day, I weighed in at a fairly lean 225 lbs. 250 here I come!

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