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Contest Prep & Fat Loss Coaches

@usaphysique

27.3K

followers

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1 in 4 win IFBB Pro Cards at Nationals
Bikini, Fit Model, Wellness
Figure & Men’s Physique
Run by IFBB Pros & Judges
Contest Prep & Lifestyle Coaching

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

@jd.king1 is an IFBB Pro.

Six weeks ago at TCMN, Jeff went second, second, and third across three age classes. The feedback was more size to his back. That’s it.

After the show…he asked me how he was supposed to “get around his back size”.

Here's what I told him.

“You just competed against 43 men across three age classes, including guys more than a decade younger than you, and beat 39 of them. That's not a size problem. That's one area to improve.”

Everyone gets told something. When I won my pro card, two judges told me to bring up my shoulders. If Jeff had won that day, the judge still would've said bring up the back.

“…and you don't build a new back in six weeks. You change how it presents. Get leaner, hold more glycogen, find the poses that show what's already there.”

His reply, without hesitation: "See you in 6 weeks then."

I warned him…this prep was “about to get nasty” and it did.

Weight stalled about 3 weeks out and his digestion went sideways, weight shot up. Most coaches cut calories or add cardio there, which usually makes it worse. We didn't touch either one. This stall came too quick like hitting a brick wall…there was something else so we discussed it. Traced it to a new iron supplement irritating his gut, then to fiber sitting too long as his metabolism slowed. Removed the iron, dropped fiber down, weight went with it.  That was the fix.

Did he question himself? Sure. But thoughts are one thing…actions are another.   Jeff never blinked once.

His posing coach @posebyfeyi went to work on how that back presented, opened it up more…tweaked a few things and nailed it. The conditioning brought the rest. This time it matched everything he was bringing.

Then prejudging.

He started far right, the outside and moved everyone else but him, left him standing there, alone, while all the others shuffled around.

Then...they moved him. One spot. Then another. Up, one by one until he was dead center.

No more turns or comparisons. They called it.

Jeff is the kind of athlete who reads the plan twice, asks the one question nobody else thought to ask, and executes it exactly without cutting a corner.

That’s why he now has “IFBB PRO” beside his name. by @usaphysique

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a month ago

🚀From a two show amateur to an IFBB Pro 🚀

In two years and two shows, @iamstephisrad won her IFBB Pro Card at NPC Universe. Stephanie's journey with USA Physique is nothing short of spectacular. 🏆💪

Once Stephanie joined the team, we went right to work. The goal was to build a pro worthy physique before the next time she stepped on the stage.

Mission accomplished!

But Stephanie's success didn't stop there. Her personal growth has been just as impressive.

💥 Seeking the right guidance? Stephanie found hers with us at USA Physique, turning her hard work and dedication into victory.

✨ "I am so much stronger, so much more confident." - Stephanie Walti, IFBB Pro ✨

Ready to discover your potential? Drop "results" in the comments below, or in our DM, and let's turn your dreams into reality too! 💬👊

#USAPhysique #IFBBPro #FitnessGoals #ContestPrep #Empowerment #Confidence #TeamUSAPhysique taken in Meridian, Idaho by @usaphysique

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2 years ago

🌟 It was her time. 🌟

At the NPC USA Championship, @ifbbpro_valerie achieved her dream and became an IFBB Pro!

The moment she took that first step during her individual routine, Natalie, Karin, and I all got chills.

We knew.

Her balance and conditioning was on point. Her posing was MASTERFUL and stage presence captivating (thanks Karin aka, @vitruvianposing), as she worked the panel with her eyes and expressions... they just couldn’t take their eyes off her. They felt it!!!

When it was time for first callouts, Valerie was moved straight to the center and never moved. 💪✨

Three years ago, at this same show, Valerie missed her pro card by one spot. It was a long prep, but she came up a little bit short. The main feedback? A little more conditioning and growing her upper body.

Valerie intended to take a year off, but as a new coach with USA Physique, she dove into her training and studies, completing the National Academy of Metabolic Science Tier 1 and 2 certification program (Thanks Dr. @joeklemczewski)and started putting her all into coaching and began to excel.

But competing never left her mind or heart. She knew she was destined for more. She kept hitting the gym, working, and grinding away. When the time was right, she started prep.

At the beginning of this year, it was time. So off to work we went.

What I love about Valerie... she is so cool, calm, and focused. She's not one to rush. Never complained ONCE about being hungry, tired, or fatigued. She knows it's just prep life. You expect and accept it and "embrace the suck." She followed the plan to the T. When she had ideas (and she had many good ones), we discussed them. Whatever the outcomes, she did the work. Every challenge was a lesson learned. Every obstacle was faced head-on. No excuses. No complaints.

That’s how champions are made!

Congratulations, Valerie, on becoming an IFBB Pro! Your dedication and hard work have truly paid off. 🎉🏆💪

#IFBBPro #BikiniPrep #HardWorkPaysOff#ChampionMindset #EmbraceTheSuck #NoExcuses #Bodybuilding #DreamAchieved by @usaphysique

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2 years ago

Slow metabolism after 40? Yours is a little slower than it was at 25, but not by nearly as much as you’ve been told, and almost everything that did change is something you can fix. Here’s how I’d fix each of the seven if you were standing in front of me.

1. Metabolism: Quit looking for the thing that “resets” it. Your metabolism responds to what you do with the other six on this list, so start there.

2. Muscle: Get back under the weights and track and record your workouts so you can look at your history. If the weights you’re using keep climbing over the next few months, you’re building back what you lost.

3. Training: Lift three or four days a week and pick weights where the last couple of reps on every set are hard. When you hit the top of your rep range, go up. Keep the classes if you love them, and walk more, but neither one is your fat loss plan.

4. Food: Track everything for two weeks before you cut a single calorie. The wine with dinner and the bites while you’re cooking count, and so do Saturday and Sunday. Most people find their missing few hundred calories right there, and that’s the first thing we cut.

5. Protein: Aim for about a gram per pound of your goal weight, so if your goal is 145, that’s about 145 grams a day spread across your meals. Get most of it from chicken, eggs, lean beef, and Greek yogurt, because bars and nuts count toward the number but don’t do as much for your muscle. More isn’t better, but this at least makes sure you’re getting enough.

6. Hormones: If you’ve got symptoms, go get your bloodwork done and talk to your doctor. Then keep working this list, because you still lose fat by eating a little less than you burn and holding onto your muscle.

7. Pace: Lose about half a percent to one percent of your body weight a week. At 170 pounds that’s around a pound to a pound and a half, which is slow enough to keep your muscle and fast enough that you’ll actually see it working and finish this time.

Be honest with me...which number are you fixing first?

#metabolismafter40 #over40fitness #fatlossover40 #strengthtraining #womenover40 by @usaphysique

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2 days ago

Everybody has an explanation for why they didn't place better. Bad judging, politics, genetics, the coach screwed up peak week...take your pick.

But when you keep showing up year after year with the same weak points, the same conditioning issues, and the same posing mistakes, maybe it's time to stop looking for someone to blame.

You can argue about your placing all you want. But you can't argue your way into a better physique.

𝐀𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭.

Just saying... by @usaphysique

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4 days ago

The Fit Model division is going to change, and it might start in the 2027 season.

Fit Model is only in its second year and just crowned its first Olympia champion, and every division in this sport has moved once athletes figured out what was winning, and something has to be improved over the previous one. Something will be different next year...that’s inevitable.

Bikini is the proof.

Every Fit Model girl knows who Ashley Kaltwasser is, because the IFBB Pro League pointed to her 2015 Bikini Olympia look as the Fit Model reference, and Bikini looks completely different today.

But do you know who came after her? You’d better.

Every season after that, competitors brought a little more muscle, conditioning, shape...something evolved. The judges rewarded it, and the girls who won after Ashley show you exactly how the look moved. You need to know that if you want to see where Fit Model is going, because like Karin says in this clip, the look keeps changing.

Karin (@vitruvianposing) said this almost a year before Fit Model was announced, and it still applies.

Karin is a two-time Olympian and a judge, and she competed right alongside @ginaaliotti and @officialmonicabrant, the women who set the standard for their division, so she saw firsthand how divisions evolved after them.

Know the history of your sport, not just its begining… and it’ll tell you where your division is headed.

So if you’re building for Fit Model, plan for where it’s going to be when you actually step on stage. History will repeat itself, one way or another.

Where do you think Fit Model will be in five years?

#fitmodel #fitmodeldivision #npcfitmodel #bikinicompetitor #ifbbpro by @usaphysique

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4 days ago

The final package is built in the offseason, not during Peak Week. This is @emma.a.dawn, one day out from the NPC USA Championships in her second season as an NPC Bikini competitor.

I took this the day before she stepped on stage, and it’s the last good look I get before she walks out. At this point almost nothing changes. We can adjust carbs and water a little to bring her in fuller and tighter, and that’s it. Everything you’re looking at was built in the offseason.

And honestly, not a lot changed between her first and second season. She won the Bikini overall at her second show that first year, so we didn’t reinvent anything. We kept building, with more emphasis on her upper glutes and her shoulders, because that’s exactly what the judges’ feedback told us to do and it lined up with my personal oberservations. Then she went out and made first callouts at NPC USA’s last year.

When something is working, you don’t change it just for the sake of change. A lot of competitors have a good season and then…blow up the whole plan because they’re bored or they saw something new online.

Take the feedback, fix what the judges actually pointed out, and keep doing what got you there.

What feedback did the judges give you after your last show?

#npcbikini #bikinicompetitor #bikiniprep #npcusa #bikinioffseason by @usaphysique

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5 days ago

Why am I gaining weight after I started working out? If you're a couple weeks in and the scale went up, it's almost all water, and it's the most normal thing in the world.

When you start training, your muscles hold extra fluid while they recover. They also start storing more carbs, and every gram of carbs you store in muscle brings water along with it. None of that is fat. It's your body getting ready to train again tomorrow.

So for the first month, stop letting the scale make the call. Measure your waist and take photos in the same light every week or two. Write down your weights and reps, because if those are going up, you're doing it right.

If you still want to weigh in, do it every morning the same way and look at the weekly average, not one morning.

Give it three or four weeks before you judge anything, and don't cut your food to fight a number that's mostly water. That's how people quit right before it starts working.

How many weeks in are you, and what's the scale doing?

#weightloss #fatloss #waterweight #beginnerworkout #weightlosstips by @usaphysique

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6 days ago

Everybody wants the physique. Way fewer people want the life that builds it.

Eventually the workouts are the easy part. The hard part is weighing your food at a birthday party and leaving early on a Friday because you've got legs at 6am.

That's where most people find their line...and there's nothing wrong with having one. But don't keep saying you want an exceptional physique while you protect every comfortable habit that's keeping you from building it.

Just saying... by @usaphysique

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11 days ago

Do squats make your waist bigger? Bikini competitors hear it all the time, and it's a gym myth with nothing behind it.

The argument usually points at powerlifters. But a lot of the best powerlifters were built with a thick, blocky waist to begin with, and that structure helps them move heavy weight. Squatting didn't give it to them. That's like telling someone to play basketball if they want to be tall.

How wide your waist looks comes down to your bone structure and how much fat you're carrying. Heavy squats and deadlifts build glutes and legs, and bigger glutes and legs make the waist look smaller. @katelynnmejia squatted 240 here in 2024, and started bodybuilding in May 2023. She has won 3 Overalls and two 4th place finishes at IFBB Pro Qualifiers.

If you don't like squatting, plenty of other exercises build glutes, and that's fine. Just don't skip it because of a gym myth.

What's the worst training advice you've heard about Bikini?

#bikinicompetitor #npcbikini #bikiniprep #glutetraining #squatsforglutes by @usaphysique

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12 days ago

Does muscle soreness mean muscle growth? No, and chasing it can actually slow you down.

You get sore when you do something your body isn't used to. A new exercise, more sets than normal, or a slow eccentric phase you don't usually do will all leave you walking funny the next day. Keep the same program for a few weeks and the soreness fades, even though the muscle is still growing.

What you want to see is the weight or the reps going up on the same exercises over time. So write down every set. If your hip thrust, your RDL, and your pulldown are all moving up over four to six weeks with the same form, it's working, sore or not.

Switching exercises every week to stay sore resets you back to square one, and it can limit your chance to progress anything. If you're in prep, extra soreness costs you even more, because it eats into recovery you need for training and cardio.

Do you write your weights down every session, or go by feel?

#musclegrowth #progressiveoverload #gymtips #hypertrophy by @usaphysique

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13 days ago

Contest prep and relationships...if you're a bikini competitor and your boyfriend doesn't get prep, he doesn't have to. He has to know what's coming before it starts.

A lot of the prep fights I hear about start the same way. He finds out what sixteen weeks of contest prep really looks like when you're bailing on his friend's birthday or eating out of a container at dinner with his parents. Nobody told him, so he takes it personal.

So have the talk before week one. Tell him how long prep runs, how tired and hungry you're going to be near the end, and the one or two things you actually need from him. Then give him a night that's his and protect it the same way you protect your training.

What's the one thing you wish your partner understood about prep?

#contestprep #bikinicompetitor #npcbikini #bikiniprep #npccompetitor by @usaphysique

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17 days ago