Team Franco Podcast

The reason I put this series together is simple: take your goal seriously and give yourself a good opportunity to prepare.

When you reach those final 12–14 weeks, you want to understand your body, feel comfortable with your routine and know where you stand. There’s still work to do, but being prepared can mean less scrambling, less panic and more confidence. 👊

In the final episode, I’m talking about:

💪 Keeping your training productive without searching for a magical prep workout
🍽️ Managing the diet as hunger and fatigue become more noticeable
📉 Knowing when to adjust and when to let progress continue
🏆 Refining your posing and lining up the show details
⚖️ Staying focused while keeping room for the rest of your life

It’s getting a little more real, but there’s still a lot of opportunity ahead. Whether you started preparing a year out or you’re getting things going now, take advantage of that time!

In Part 2 of this series, I’m covering:

💪 Keeping your training productive
📉 Finding an appropriate pace of fat loss and looking at the bigger trend
🌊 Knowing when to adjust and when to keep riding what’s working
🏆 Learning to pose correctly for YOUR physique
⚖️ Staying consistent while keeping balance and flexibility in your life

🎯 Thinking about competing a year from now? There’s plenty you can accomplish before the demands of contest prep increase.

It’s exciting to picture yourself on stage. Give that goal some direction by focusing on what you can do today.

In the first episode of this three-part series, I’m covering:

💪 Making these next six months of training count
🍽️ Finding a productive place with your nutrition and body weight
📆 Assessing your progress before committing to a show date
🏆 Exploring divisions without feeling rushed to choose

💪 You can succeed without being consumed.

Ever scroll through social media and wonder if you’re taking bodybuilding seriously enough?

You’re training consistently, putting effort into your workouts, and taking care of your nutrition—but you also have a family, a career, and interests outside the gym.

That doesn’t make your effort any less valuable.

In this episode of the 🎙️ Team Franco Bodybuilding Podcast, I revisit three things that helped then—and still matter now:

💪 Keep doing the ordinary work.
⏳ Give your approach a fair chance, with or without a coach.
🎯 Remember why you started.

The off-season is still a season. 💪

It’s easy to get excited when there’s a show date on the calendar. But what are you doing with the months between shows?

It isn’t a secret workout, a magical diet, or constantly searching for the next new approach.

It’s training hard. Remaining consistent with your nutrition. Having a productive off-season. Practicing your posing. Managing your recovery and mindset. Giving yourself enough time—and being willing to repeat the basic, boring work over and over again.

And yes, genetics matter. But most competitors never stay consistent long enough to discover what their genetics are truly capable of producing.

In this episode of the Team Franco Bodybuilding Podcast, I give my honest perspective on what separates a good competitor from a great one—and why building a championship physique and winning a world championship aren’t necessarily the same thing.

Take bodybuilding seriously. Check the boxes. Put the work in. But don’t forget to step away and live your life too.

AI can calculate macros, analyze data, build workouts, answer questions, and give you more fitness information in seconds than we ever had access to before.

And I think that’s a great thing. I use AI myself.

But information isn’t coaching.

A good coach learns you—how your body responds, when to push, when to back off, when to change absolutely nothing, and how stress, work, family, sleep, travel, and life itself can affect the plan.

Then there’s something no algorithm can manufacture: experience and relationships.

For decades, bodybuilding has gone from Arnold-style high volume and frequency… to Dorian Yates and brutally hard, lower-volume training… to bro splits, PPL, and everything in between.

In this episode, I break down how my own training philosophy has evolved after 30+ years in natural bodybuilding and coaching.

We get into training frequency, intensity, recovery, junk volume, genetics, and why MORE isn’t always BETTER.

A good coach shouldn't just tell you what to do.

They should teach you enough that you eventually understand WHY you're doing it.

In Part 2, I take the conversation beyond macros, training, check-ins and show day.

We get into the bigger questions:

💪 What happens after the show?
🎯 Will your coach tell you when you're not ready to compete?
🧠 Are you actually learning about your body—or just following instructions?
👊 Is your coach supporting you…or creating dependence?