… At one point, I left Mike with my backstage ‘stuff’ (cooler, gym bag etc) to run to the bathroom. When I returned, Mike informed me that the competitor I was worried about had approached him in my absence to find out what weight class I was entering. Apparently we were both viewing each other as serious threats to our respective chances at winning the class. He came over and actually made a few pleasantries.
He wasn’t rude, or mean, or anything negative, but no one ever shows up hoping to lose. At one point, discussing what shows he and I had done, he made a point to let me know that he was already a USBF Pro (amazing coincidence eh? -lol). The rest of the day, we were as respectful and cordial as you could expect. No one is ever rude backstage at these shows, and I do want to stress the amazing air of camaraderie you will typically experience, even amongst competitors that are dying to beat each other.
Maintaining my blood sugar levels throughout the day was going to be a task due to the late start, and sheer number of divisions and competitors. Your main focus on the day of a contest is to keep your glycogen levels topped off, and be able to maintain a pump, while not ‘spilling over’, or eating so much that you display any degree of distention. Add to this any ‘issues’ to due water games some competitors play, and the listlessness of being sleep deprived (no one plans this, it just happens), and you’re not exactly feeling on top of your game no matter how well you plan.
I did have some funny reactions to my choices in food for the day. Some people knew I was an experienced competitor and peppered me with questions, while others didn’t know who I was and were just blindly following the advice their coaches had given them (and I heard some really bad, practically stupid advice some competitors were given!).
At one point, a younger competitor watched me as I slumped on the floor, clutching my cooler and took out a jar of Nutella to eat. “Really?!” was the question I received -lol. Other times, the reaction to my giant container of jellybeans just made me laugh, wondering if I was the only competitor who truly what he was doing, or if everyone else would have just blindly followed any advice given to them. A few eyebrows were raised as well by my other staple food choice, as I don’t think too many people had ever seen Finibars before, and I easily put down half a box of them throughout the day.
When the time finally came for the prejudging of the middleweights (it was already after 3pm, prejudging started at noon!), I was the first onstage, having drawn #1 when I first checked in. Any competitor knows that you don’t want to end up (or remain) on the edges of the stage while being judged. Usually if you’re in, or get placed in, the middle of the lineup, it’s taken as a good sign. Grabbing quick glances over my shoulder as the other middleweights and myself lined up to walk out, I realized just how big some of these guys really were. Most of them I had pegged for light-heavies in the pump-up area. I felt like I was going to walk out first, and then just be ignored for the rest of the judging.
Due to the ‘new’ judging criteria in the INBF, there are 3 rounds that are adhered to as the competitors are judged: Symmetry (quarter turns), Mass (mass -lol), and Muscularity (conditioned size). Each round focuses on different specific poses to assess the bodybuilders. Whether it’s always done, of whether it was just done in my last (and first INBF) contest, the competitors are reset in their numerical order after each round to begin anew.
Starting with the Symmetry round (being on the very left end spot), we were instructed to make our quarter turns (‘relaxed’ poses). After those four poses, I was instructed to switch places with the competitor in the #2 spot. After a moment (no more poses called for), I was instructed to switch places with the competitor in the #4 spot, directly in the middle of the Lineup (7 competitors).
As per the usual procedure, I raised my hand expected #4 to do likewise so we can switch, but he seemed to not acknowledge that the judges had called his number several times to switch out. Eventually, I had to walk over and tap him on the shoulder saying “uh,… they want you over there”. I really felt like an ass, because it was painfully obvious what the rational was for the movement.
After going through the relaxed poses once more (obviously comparing me to #3, my ‘main concern’ backstage), I was left in the center position for the next two rounds which were done amazingly quickly. No poses were asked for twice, and although the competitor in position #5 was too close to me on a number of poses (screwed up my rear back shots by knocking into me), things went as smoothly as they could have.
By the time I walked offstage though, every one of us was dripping in sweat. Something I realized was that unlike the USBF shows I had competed in, the INBF shows not only had very bright overhead lighting, but a second set of insanely bright (and hot) lights angled upwards at the lineup as well.
Even though I realized that I had been in the middle of a staggeringly difficult lineup, I knew that competitor #3 was a beast. Just standing there backstage, he was larger than I was, and certainly came in condition. All I could count on was the knowledge I had that despite not always looking impressive in relaxed shots, I knew that when I locked down into a pose, that my muscles popped, and my conditioning (achieved through highly disciplined suffering) became readily apparent.
…
S
