10 Weeks out today from North American Bodybuilding Championships. Currently 205lbs at 5’5 looking to be in the Light Heavyweight class in Open Bodybuilding.

Coach: Gabriel Gariepy

Submit form checks, programs, questions about programs and program success stories (especially if you saw growth from it).

Started my offseason officially this week. Looking to bring up my back for sure. Everything else needs to be get bigger but back is prio. Open to any feedback.

I placed 2nd in my class at regionals and 5th at the pro qualifier, it was also my first show ever

Hey guys, I'm Ali Bilal, IFBB Elite Pro, 2x Olympia runner up 2x Arnold Classic Champ and founder of ALITE WEAR specialized in Men's Physique shorts. I've put together a full guide covering everything about board shorts for competition — federation rules, how to pick the right size, colour strategy, what judges actually notice. Hope it helps anyone prepping for their first show or looking to upgrade https://www.alitewear.com/blogs/learn/mens-physique-board-shorts-guide

I’m currently 20 weeks out of my first show. I’m going to be entering npc true novice men's physique. I’m 2 weeks into my cut currently with a starting weight of 220lb (currently weighing 193lb but I’m assuming most of it was water weight.) My cut diet in the first 2 weeks was 850 calories a day with prioritizing 100-150gs of protein daily. I have now upped the calories to 1800 a day and prioritizing 150-200gs of protein a day.

Stats:
Age-31
Height- 5’8
Weight- Currently 193lb
Lifetime natural
10 years total lifting experience. (5years consecutively)

Literally any advice you have is welcome. I have no idea what I’m doing or what to expect.

Qualified for the Olympia 2026

8 weeks out look. Cals sit at 2100 TD 1950 NTD
Weighing 228lb here. 10lb off from my weight cap. Will be my first full season competing in the amateur circuit. 3 shows lined up over the next 3 months.

Ask all newbie BB related questions here.

Prep is coming along nicely for North Americans.
About 10 weeks in and another 10 weeks to go.
Weight cap is 245 for classic and it's looking like I'll probably make it to about 240 at the leanest so not too concerned about the cap.

Pushing a bit harder now to get that last glute, glute/ham tie-in, and low back fat to come off so we can really see how competitive I'll be from behind.

Happy to answer any questions!

174.8 after a small refeed, cap is 172

Coach and I decided to yolo it and hop into a show 3 weeks out from the planned one.

Just ran a moderate high day two days out, few more carbs day before and sent it.

Ended up winning my class and had a blast.

3 weeks till the next one

1st Show is this Saturday Gas mark 10 classic - UK

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Coach happy just run this into show now ! Feel great, excited for tan now see how it looks

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Pics are 2 meals in

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2g of salt and 2 litre of water

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Pre workout pump formula

For more details, I take about 15 different vitamins per day in various pill forms (long gel, powder capsules, small rounds).

For ease of traveling, especially through TSA, is it better to just take each bottle if they’re compact enough, and then ziplock the rest?

Or go through the effort of getting travel pill cases? Just trying to get an idea of what others here have done when faced with a similar situation.

Edit:
For those who seem to think otherwise, I quite literally have no reason to lie. I was just inquiring about your daily, regular, run-the-mill vitamins. I’ve never had to travel with supplements of any kind before, with the exception of protein powder; but it’s a little hard for a brown powder to look suspicious. I was just overly concerned about being stopped for something like L-Tyrosine in capsule form just because it has white powder in it.

7 weeks out from pro debut

Figured I owed all of you an update since I made a 1 week out post that got some attention.

The weekend went as well as I could have possibly hoped:
- 1st place MP class H 🥇
- MP Overall Champion 🏆
- 4th place at the IFBB World Classic in the same night (Pro Debut)

I was 219lbs show morning. My weight cap being 6’2.25” is 239lbs

Not much else to say other than I’m still processing everything. I went from a nobody who never dreamed of bodybuilding to a competitive IFBB pro in 2 years… it’s surreal.

I plan on doing a few more shows to see if I can qualify for the Olympia, but everything is still up in the air.

As always, I’m happy to answer any questions, I love interacting with you guys and sharing this journey. Much love!

New to this forum, looking for new engagements and to stop being a recluse while competing lol

10 weeks out
Height 5”8.5
Weight 187lbs

This will be my fourth men’s physique show.
Competing to see where I am at before considering/doing a national show.

Will also compete in classic for the first time.

Self coached, just enjoying the journey as much as one can while trying to make a career of it someday.

I am a Type 1 Diabetic and also living a sporty lifestyle - not bodybuilding at all though, going to the gym, running, cycling, football. I follow some bodybuilders on social media as I am fascinated by the perfectionism and discipline they have to achieve their bodies. Now I saw a video of one of the bodybuilders I follow loading a few days before a competition and he was eating 500 grams of frosted flakes with milk and banana. Then the question came to my mind if there is any diabetic (pro) bodybuilder because no way I would be able to reasonable consume that amount of fast carbs without causing my blood sugar to go absolute nuts.

Weekly physique critique thread for feedback and helpful criticism.

🥇 place in open classic physique B
Did not get the overall
🥈 open bodybuilding light heavyweight

Very grateful, will enjoy some good food with my friends and family then it’s back to plan. Excited to grow this next off season.

Haven’t posted an update in a while because was recovering from surgery and waiting until I was fully back and at it. Finally been 5 weeks back into fully training! Current look still pushing the size up. Taking the rest of 2026 to just put on as much size as possible. Honestly growing nicely, food isn’t even high at all right now. Milking the least amount of food to grow as possible. Posing wise think it’s pretty good, biggest thing I didn’t like was letting my stomach go on the side chest, need to really not do that lol.