Female bodybuilding

March 15, 2009 | By admin |

Female bodybuilding

The first U.S. Women’s National Physique Championship, promoted by Henry McGhee and held in Canton, Ohio in 1978, is generally regarded as the first true female bodybuilding contest - that is, the first contest where the entrants were judged solely on muscularity. In 1980 the first Ms. Olympia (initially known as the “Miss” Olympia), the most prestigious contest for professionals, was held. The first winner was Rachel McLish who had also won the NPC’s USA Championship earlier in the year. The contest was a major turning point for the sport of women’s bodybuilding. McLish turned out to be very promotable, and inspired many future competitors to start training and competing. In 1985, a movie called Pumping Iron II: The Women was released. This film documented the preparation of several women for the 1983 Caesars Palace World Cup Championship. Competitors prominently featured in the film were Kris Alexander, Lori Bowen, Lydia Cheng, Carla Dunlap, Bev Francis, and Rachel McLish. At the time, Francis was actually a powerlifter, though she soon made a successful transition to bodybuilding, becoming one of the leading competitors of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In recent years, the related areas of fitness and figure competition have gained in popularity, surpassing that of female bodybuilding, and have provided an alternative for women who choose not to develop the level of muscularity necessary for bodybuilding. Rachel McLish would resemble closely what is thought of today as a fitness and figure competition instead of what is now considered female bodybuilding.

In competitive bodybuilding, bodybuilders aspire to develop and maintain an aesthetically pleasing (by bodybuilding standards) body and balanced physique. The competitors show off their bodies by performing a number of posedowns - bodybuilders spend time practicing their posing as this has a large effect on how they are judged.

In contrast to strongman or powerlifting competitions where physical strength is important, or with Olympic weightlifting, where the main point is equally split between strength and technique, for bodybuilding competitions it is the, size, shape and symmetry that are the important factors during competition. The different types of competitions entail different training and dietary regimens.

Preparations

Cutting and bulking

The general strategy adopted by most present-day competitive bodybuilders is to make muscle gains for most of the year (known as the “off-season”) and approximately 12-14 weeks from competition attempt to lose body fat (referred to as “cutting”) while minimizing the loss of muscle mass. Generally this involves reducing calorie intake and increasing aerobic exercise while monitoring body fat percentage.

The precise effectiveness of the cutting and bulking strategy is unknown, with only limited observational case studies on the subject. No studies involving precise hypercaloric feeding combined with resistance exercise have been conducted.

Many non-competitive bodybuilders choose not to adopt this strategy, as it often results in significant unwanted fat gain during the “bulking” phase (particularly for those who do not use anabolic steroids). While competitive bodybuilders focus their efforts to achieve a peak appearance during a brief “competition season,” most ordinary people prefer to maintain an attractive physique year-round. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a proper training program combined with a modestly hypercaloric diet with proper macronutrient balance can produce steady gains in size and strength, while avoiding significant increases in body fat. more