Competition season is right around the corner, which means it’s time to make a plan for the year. As a coach here are my top 5 tips for you to think about.

Set a Goal Date

Do you want to compete in the spring, summer or fall? Or are you going to compete in multiple shows throughout the year? Where are the shows offered? What fits your life schedule? Once you have confirmed a rough timeline, are there multiple shows you can do around the same time? Make sure you set a date that will give you enough time to prepare, there is nothing worse than being 5 or 10lbs off competition conditioning or having to deplete yourself going into a show.

Plan Ahead

Set a rough plan for your training and nutrition; but remember things will happen, life will get in the way and you will have to change your plan. Aim to be ready 4 weeks early, if you are the bonus is you get to increase food intake going into a show, if you get delayed at least you will still be show ready.

Train Smart

The biggest problem I see with training is people start off doing too much; typically you will burn yourself out, get sick and ultimately slow fat loss. If you’re starting a new program, reduce the initial volume and slowly increase it week to week, doing this will allow you to continually improve. Another problem I see is most people negate strength work, I find working through multiple rep ranges (low, medium and high) will help optimize your physique.

Cardio

Don’t start out with 5 sessions of 30 minutes a week, your body will quickly adapt and then the only way to continue with the fat loss is to the increase the volume. My philosophy is to let the nutrition do the work and use cardio as a tool. Secondly high intensity interval training (HIIT) has been shown to increase fat loss throughout the entire day and also maintain more muscle when compared to low intensity cardio (LISS). I would focus on shorter HIIT sessions and use LISS as a recovery tool a few times per week to create a deficit.

Be Accountable

Being held accountable for what you do, improves the likelihood that you will succeed and achieve great results. Even as a coach I still pay someone to overview what I do for every contest prep. You want your best results, look for someone who knows what they are doing and have results to show for it.

There we go, a few tips to consider before starting your 2015 prep.
Good luck!