Bikini Competition Prep Guide

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I am a qualified personal trainer and competitive bodybuilder in the toned figure category. I am also a professional fitness writer with a global clientele.

So what is this word ‘prep’?

It’s thrown about in the competitive world an awful lot but do you know what it really means? Prep is short for the word preparation and it refers to the process bikini athletes undergo to get ready for a show. Prep involves 3 main components, which are carefully structured, these include:

• Eating & dieting
• Weight training
• Cardio

Depending on which stage you are at weight, shape and looks wise will determine how long your prep lasts for. Everyone is different, some girls require 8 weeks, some 10, some 12 and some preps can even be 16-20 weeks. Ultimately bikini competition prep is all about shedding body fat while maintaining and revealing the muscle underneath.

Eating & Dieting for Bikini Competition Prep Guide

The main component of a bikini competition prep guide is the diet plan. Ideally, your coach will do this for you.

Your plan needs to be based on your macronutrient ratios so your body is getting exactly what it needs from fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. You will need to be eating a calorie deficit in order to shed body fat.

As the weeks go on your food will change, carbohydrates usually become timed around your workouts to optimize their usage and nearer to show day they become less and less.
Your food plan will be tweaked and changed as you get closer and closer to show day to keep the body fat coming off.

An example of what a bikini prep eating plan looks like is this:

Starting Elements:

Take a vitamin C supplement in the morning
Tea/Coffees – fine, just swap sugar for a sweetener and have the red milk
Where you can, swap normal tea with sugar for green tea and a sweetener (you can get some awesome flavors of green tea). I’ve put this in because green tea actually helps you burn calories at an accelerated rate.
If you like fizzy pop always go for the sugar-free ones and stay well away from fruit juice as this is sugar laden.
Alcohol: No alcohol at all only on cheat day (it inhibits calorie burning by up to 50%).
Cheat day: 1 day a week either Saturday or Sunday you can have a cheat night where you can have a meal, and dessert of your choice with limited alcohol.
Invest in some little digital scales
As a general rule of thumb, you need to ensure you have a minimum of four cups of green tea per day, in conjunction with AT LEAST 2.5 liters of water. Every chemical reaction in the human body needs water to function, this includes your metabolism. No water = no weight loss.

Always do cardio in the morning fasted, without breakfast and only have water until you are finished. Fasted cardio means your body has no fuel to burn for energy so instead it uses up your fat stores. You can use a home bike or cardio machine, or go out for a brisk walk or use the gym whichever is most convenient.

Meal Plan For Bikini Competition Prep

Pace the meals out roughly every 2-3 hours. Don’t change or add anything. Before you proceed with this meal plan, please ensure you have thoroughly read through the points on the first page, as they are vital for your success.

Meal 1: Breakfast

200 grams of fresh raspberries.
18g of brazil nuts
One and a half scoops of whey protein powder.
(Feel free to have Walden’s farm sauces with the raspberries or a sugar/calorie free sauce from my protein.)

*You can throw all this into the blender if you prefer and drink it.

Meal 2 (Choose a meat of your preference):

150g of lean turkey mince or turkey breast
150g of chicken breast
1 1/2 tins of tuna

*Have the meat with as much wild rocket / leafy salad as you like. Mix in 20 grams of full-fat mayonnaise.

Meal 3:

One large smoked salmon fillet.
200 grams of cooked broccoli.
100 grams of fresh strawberries for dessert.

Meal 4:

One and a half scoops of whey protein powder mixed with water.
18 grams of brazil nuts.
200 grams of grapefruit segments in juice.

Bikini Competition Prep Guide — Betsy G posing on-stage during a competition.

Weight Training for Bikini Competition Prep

Another huge component of bikini competition is weight training. Ideally, you will be using training splits, which means training a different part of your body each day.

Monday – Hamstrings & Glutes
Tuesday – Shoulders & Triceps
Wednesday – Quads and calves
Thursday – Biceps & Chest
Friday – Full body

Your reps and sets should be within the hypertrophic range, which means 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps. This range is the ideal one for growing new muscle and toning up. If you have a body part, which is lagging, then ideally you should train it twice a week.

Bringing up lagging body parts in bikini prep in this way is very normal. In regards to exercises and how many you should complete during a session, you should be aiming for around an hour and around 7 exercises to ensure each head of the muscle is hit correctly.

Cardio for Bikini Competition Prep

Cardio is a huge part of bikini competition prep, without the cardio there is no competition prep. The cardio is used to shed the body fat alongside the weight training. This mixture of the two types of training is to ensure you can build and maintain the muscle while removing that fat on top.

During competition prep, cardio should be staggered. This means you start off gently and over the weeks you will up the cardio to keep the fat coming off.

Your body plateaus when you give it the same thing day in day out, so in other words, it gets used to what you are giving it and it realizes it doesn’t need to let go of fat, technically speaking, it knows it can hold onto the fuel. This is why you have to keep pushing it. An example of what a 12-week cardio regime for prep would be:

Week 1: 3 x 30-minute cardio
Week 2: 3 x 30-minute cardio
Week 3: 4 x 30-minutes cardio
Week 4: 4 x 30-minute cardio
Week 5: 4 x 45-minute cardio
Week 6: 4 x 45-minute cardio
Week 7: 5 x 45-minute cardio
Week 8: 5 x 45-minute cardio
Week 9: 5 x 50-minute cardio
Week 10: 5 x 50-minute cardio
Week 11: 5 x 60-minute cardio
Week 12: 5 x 60-minute cardio

Bikini-Competition-Prep-Guide-2 — Betsy G

Essential Supplements For Bikini Competition Prep

When you are competing it is important to supplement with a few essentials as you are putting your body through so much so it’s imperative to make sure you are not lacking in anything. Essential supplements for your prep should include:

Vitamin C & multivitamins – This will help to keep your immune system strong.
BCAA’s/Amino acids – These will protect your muscles when you train and help with muscle soreness.
Iron – Iron will stop you feeling lethargic and fatigued.

You need to rest too…

During your rest days, your broken, stretched, and damaged muscle fibers need a chance to repair. Rest days are so important because without them you simply won’t grow or repair. If you trained constantly than your muscle fibers would constantly be in a state of disarray and would never have time to heal.

Before you start your week training, ensure you are clever about your rest days and schedule them in strategically so your body can really benefit. If you have beneficial rest days and well times rest days your training and growth will both improve.

Ideally, you should use at least 2 rest days a week and try to have 1 before or after leg days as this often tends to be the most exhausting on the body. 3 rest days is better and training 4 days a week instead of 5 because training 5 times a week isn’t the best long-term solution for growth and repair. It’s all about quality over quantity.

Where to Buy Fitness and Figure Competition Suits

You’ve completed your full prep. Dieted for months, trained intense for just as long.

So now, you have to make sure you look your best on stage: this is where Fitness and Figure Competition Suits comes in.

You’ll notice that they’re all pretty extravagant. Well, it’s so you feel like a Queen on-stage – so you can perform at your best and hopefully win a trophy, to reward all of your dedication to the sport.

NOTE: FitnessandFigureCompetitionSuits.com was my favourite place to buy my competition bikinis from. Lydia Haskell did a great job.

It served many Pro Fitness and Figure Competitors including; Davana Medina, Jenny Lynn, Jane Awad, Mary Lado, Danielle Hollanshade, Julie Palmer, Julie Shipley, Dina Sabah, Kristen Gomes, Angela Semsch & many more!

However, it is now longer live.