This last weekend, I went to see my first NPC show. As many of you know, I have been toying with the idea of entering a competition. Knowing how much dedication and commitment is necessary in prepping for a competition, I wanted to see a show for myself and make sure that this is something that I really want to do before enduring months of grueling prep and grilled chicken.
The show was smaller than I expected. My cousin Deanna, who is probably one of the only people in my life that understands my desire to do this, tagged along with me for the show and the 5.5 hour drive there and back. Thanks DEE! Love you!! We went the morning of the show to see pre-judging. With no music on stage, each group of competitors, in their division, came out and posed for the judges. Some looked very confident, others looked scared, either way, I am sure that they were all nervous to some degree.
The night show is geared more towards the crowd. The music was pumping, each contestant was introduced individually along with a short bio. When the emcee would get to the portion of the bio that described what the contestants were interested in, each one of them was interested in training/working out/weight lifting. Duh. You have to be, right?
So, long story short, I am going to put in the work after my marathon is done. I am going to follow a contest prep schedule for a while and see how my body responds. If I like what I see, I will go back to a building phase for a while and hire a contest prep coach to see me through 16 weeks of contest prep when I am that far out from a show that I choose to do.
A few people question my desire to do this, or to even look like this. I know that this may not be appealing to everyone, but this is something that I really like and am really into. This is a sport. These women are athletes. Below is the overall winner of the NPC southern Indiana women's figure event.
Ashley Lemmons