What to Avoid? Tips from Bikini Competitor Allison Murphy

Allison Murphy has competed in bodybuilding as a bikini competitor and joins us to day to give some tips on diet, cardio and mindset. Tips from Allison - What to avoid: Excessive cardio. Not getting enough rest. Alcohol. Focusing on others. Not having a post-show plan.   These are relatively simple but NOT easy to put into practice. Excessive Cardio – Cardio is built into every bodybuilding program but how much should you be doing? That answer will be different for each person but here are some things to keep in mind. Cardio isn’t the only way to lose weight. Lifting weights and strength training are a great way to burn extra calories and shape your physic into something worth looking at. Plus, you have to keep in mind how much motivation you have and not overdo it otherwise you risk burning out. We’ve seen some programs out there where you do as little as 2 hours of cardio per week. Not Getting Enough Rest – We’ve spoken to many experts on the show and learned that sleeping is when the body repairs itself. For this reason, sleep should never be overlooked when building a training program and you might even go as far as writing it into your program. 8-9 hours a night is a good place to start. Focusing on Others – Everyone is at a different place on the journey toward their goals and comparing yourself to others will always lead to disappointment. For this reason, we suggest that you take measurements of your body, plenty of pictures and make notes of how you feel. Overtime you can use these to measure how far you’ve progressed and rather than comparing yourself to others you can see all of YOUR results from your hard work. Alcohol – A glass of wine or a beer every now and then won’t completely destroy your gains but drinking consistently can lead to some challenges when prepping for a competition. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram and those calories have nothing to offer you in the way of nutrition, they are empty calories and your body has no use for it. Also, drinking can lead to other poor decision such as late night junk food and lack of sleep. Having No Post-Show Plan – This is a thoughtful question that anyone competing needs to ask themselves. What will I do after this is all over? The majority of people who compete in a bodybuilding show are not going to make a career out of it and are usually competing for the joy and fun of it. Knowing this it’s good to have an idea of what to do after the show is over. Goals are always important and can be as simple as wanting to be healthy.   We would like to thank Allison for joining us to share these tips and her story. For a complete picture we would suggest listening to her interview and hearing her tips and story first hand!