12% BF in 8 weeks?! thats crazy…did you take any fat burners to help with lo-carb?
Not a judge or expert but do have an opinion. Narrow shoulders might lose points before some judges but not from me. Too many women successful in figure have wide shoulders and end up with a narrow-hipped triangular masculine look. Then to compensate for their loss of feminine curves, they add gobs of silicone to the chest, all of which makes them look horribly topheavy IMO.
Agree that biceps need more detail and triceps more detail and mass. My feeling is that decline pullovers would help the upper triceps.
IMO you need a little more back width, shoulders could be a little larger, biceps and triceps need to be a tad bit bigger. You have very nice hips, but because of this it makes your v-taper a little smaller, hence the extra lat width and shoulder size needed. I think if you would have came in a little leaner, maybe 10% you would have placed higher. That bf% would have brought out the definition in your legs, and may have made your shoulders look bigger because of less fat between your delt and bis/tris. Overall great progress! congrats on your 9th place finish, and good luck getting your IFBB pro card. I think with your bone structure, you will go far.
Thank you legacyfighter. I (and the judges) agree with you to the T! Working on the back width, have made a lot of progress over the past few months, I’ll post update pics sometime soon. Agree on the delts… working on those too.
The judges said the exact same thing about the bf%, and I knew that, but hey, I had 8 weeks. If I had done bikini I probably would have placed pretty well.
Thank you to everyone else as well. I am doing this to compete, not just to walk around and look good. I do agree about compensating with fake boobs and etc buuuutt like i said, i’m looking for comments from a judges point of view. Also, figure women get so low in fat our boobs go away, so fake boobs are kind of necessary to still be a woman!
Dont know what that means, but her response was definitely called for. She didnt come on here to get get horny dudes cat calling her or making reference to their genitals. Its sad how now people can’t come on here and get serious responses when they themselves are serious and looking for advice.
FrancesATX, I’m not familiar with figure competition, so I don’t really know what proportions are optimal for a woman, but I’ve been looking at pics of some figure competitors and think that you definitely need a BIT more lat width. Not vast amounts, just a bit.
As for your quads, and the separation of your delts and arms, I think they would be taken care of through getting leaner. I know you’re already lean, but some people are different and have to get to an extremely low body at level in order to see their desired separation, whereas some people can see their optimal separation at a higher body fat.
Blame genetics I guess. I’ve heard deep quad stretches help to bring out detail in the quads, dont know the veracity of that, but I say its worth a shot.
I agree with legacyfighter. The other thing that I question is your hamstring development. It may be that those pictures just don’t show them but in the picture with your glutes they don’t seem to have much sweep.
I need a green card. Will you marry me?
Hehe… Great results! Keep going!
Okay, here goes…basically for your next show I would focus on the following:
Improves
Chest-no striations, increase size
Back-increase in width, separation
Shoulders-separation
Biceps-separation
Triceps-increase in size/proportion to biceps
Quads/Hamstrings-need much deeper cuts, decrease in bodyfat
Calves-I don’t know, I couldn’t see them (which is why if you want your physique evaluated you should post full body pics, front, sides, and rear)
Abdominals-you seem to focus a lot on your abdominals in your photos, which is nice, but doesn’t give a full picture (anyway), lower bodyfat.
Sustains
Overall proportions are pretty good. I think if your legs were leaner you’d be right where you want to be, with the improvements above.
Granted that’s a lot of improves, but it’s a work in progress…“Never stop remodeling.”
Figure is quite a different creature in comparison to bodybuilding. Number one, there is so many figuire competitors. So very competitive and very political, as most things are…
You get a few shows under your belt and you’ll know what I mean…a lot of woman do them as their hobby and it drives me nutz when I see some of them on stage, cause they don’t look good, more like they’ve starved themselves for 12 weeks with endless amounts of cardio and performing band exercises for resistance training. I’m generalizing here, so some not all.
Anyway, that’s all I can remember from you pics. Hope it helps.
v/r
Gremlin
BF-lower, try to hit somwhere round the 7% area. But with that will mean you need to be sucessful with your bulk. Sounds like you got a good plan though.
I tend to agree with most, more shoulders, epecially in the traps IMO. I agree that your delts have good mass and that’ll increase with your max lift schedule you’ve adopted.
For me the most lagging was your triceps and upper chest. Some incline CGBP and OHP can help with that a lot. Though those could cause a significant shift in your current training regimin.
I agree with Legacy that the BF% should pretty much clear up any discrepencies in the lower body department.
All in all, I think you’ve got an incredible start. One that most will envy. Stay dedicated and you will achieve.
Congrats on your success Frances! Don’t mind some of these morons on here.
My fiancee’ and I discovered she was gluten intolerant this year also, borderline Celiac’s disease! So we found it easier for her to have dif. types of rice and potato flour/products for carb sources instead.
Got any tips I can tell her? She needs the energy as well because she is a ballet performer/instructor.
Congrats! and thanks.
[quote]FrancesATX wrote:
ok soooooooo if this is such an elitist bb community and such a “quality” post… then where’s all the quality, useful replies?! let me have it people, I didn’t post to show off anything, I posted to get feedback![/quote]
As for feedback… Quads look great. Can not tell about your hamstrings and development. Plus no back shot. I don’t know how judges over there score, but here, backs make and break female competitors IMO. Once again, great job so far and keep us posted on your progress.
i wont comment on your figure competitions, as im on the dude side of the coin. but from a purely aesthetic approach, you have a beautifully proportiohed body now. before your photo showed you as quite bottom heavy with exaggerated size on your legs. your post transformation photos seem to show you completely changing your physical structure. your shoulders have a pleasant roundness, and you abs show definition that reminds me or greek gods. great lookin legs that bloom in the middle and taper towards the joint. i do think your shoulders outweigh your arms, but i kinda like it that way. you also have nice forearms
if your natural right now (i mean breasts) you have it in all the right places. Best of luck
It’s really difficult to tell what the figure judges are expecting out on the stage…I’d say just differs in area and what’s popular at the time. It never seems to follow the same pattern as bodybuilding, where generally the leanest, veiniest freaks win tons of shows, even if another guy is bigger and more proportional. At least in Local/NPC Shows. The figure just seems to be all over the board. Sometimes they want more of a bodybuilding look, really lean, muscular, vascular, and then sometimes they want a more feminine look with muscle mass, but more curvy, and not as lean. Who knows…I say the best idea is to learn who the judges are and go talk to them at the end of a show to see what they’re looking for onstage. Chances are they’ll be judging again in another show down the road. Plus that gets you good visability to them and they remember that you came and asked them what you could work on to improve. It makes a big difference.
v/r
Gremlin
[quote]FrancesATX wrote:
ok sorry sorry sorry!! honestly, I didn’t realize there was a protocol to posting in here sooo… here’s more details!
(I can’t give every detail of my training regime due to legal rights by Layne but here’s most of it)
Before my contest last November: (before pic in the transformation of the week)
Ht: 5’10"
Weight: 174lbs
Bf%: 24%
training: was alll over the place, didn’t follow a real routine
nutrition: I only had 8 weeks to get ready after coming off a US tour, we took my carbs down 5-10g/week, no salt or water depletion the week of contest
Contest: (in after pic)
Weight: 154 lbs
Bf%: 12%
After contest:
I went crazy for about a month, barely any training, no nutritional plan. Went nuts on the food : /
Now (started back December 24th):
Weight: 160lbs
Bf%: 18%
Doing a 6 month bulk, currently 2 months into it.
Sunday - Upper Body Power
Monday - Lower Body Power
Tuesday - HIIT, abs
Wed - Back & Chest hypertrophy, 20 min LI cardio
Thurs - Lower body hypertrophy, 20 min LI cardio
Fri - Shoulders & arms hypertrophy
Sat - HIIT, abs
For the first 6 weeks we worked up the power exercises from 55% so that now I am maxing out every week at 5 reps.
Nutrition: my carbs have been raised by 5g every week, fat stays at 30g, protein 165g. I’ve maintained my weight so far except I recently have had some bingeing problems and put on a few pounds.
and btw, I’d really like some REAL feedback about what I need to work on![/quote]
I’d put in at least one whole days rest in your training split especially if you’re training heavy
GREAT JOB! Inspiring transformation!
What are you doing on shoulders/arms day specifically? To me that seems to be the area where you could use some focus/improvement.
A big old squat ass is awesome on a girl so keep working those too.
My 2 cents.
[quote]Wilba wrote:
What are you doing on shoulders/arms day specifically? To me that seems to be the area where you could use some focus/improvement.
A big old squat ass is awesome on a girl so keep working those too.
My 2 cents.[/quote]
Shoulders/Arms Day: (hypertrophy)
DB press 3x 10, 65% of max
Machine Press 3x 10-12, to failure
DB lateral raise 3x 12-15
DB back lat raise 3 x 12-15
alt db curl/skull crusher 4 x 6-10
cable curl/reverse tri pressdown 3 x 10-12
I also have an upper body power day
Updated Pics!!
Took these today. Have put on ~12lbs since my show in November. A lot of it fat… yea yea I know. But I’m on track now. Currently entering month 4 of the bulk of 6 months. Metabolism is still slow, so I’m still only up to 1610 calories, basically up 5g carbs every week.
[photo]27546[/photo]
[photo]27545[/photo]
[photo]27543[/photo]
bb.com is great because it gives you a diverse culture of people.
The transformations section (the is where I noticed you from) reiterates to everyone what it takes to be successful.
Keep up the great work.
I especially like the fact that you took it in the gym bathroom. They always have the best lights…LOL.
v/r
Gremlin