Taming the dragon - a journey into the wilderness of competitive Natural bodybuilding.
Picture this…
You’re 8 weeks out.
You’ve already achieved an all-time personal low bodyfat level: veins in the abs, separation in the legs, striations in your chest so deep you could grate cheese on them.
You’re proud, feeling accomplished and dominant… but you’re also the most exhausted and hungry you’ve ever felt in your life. Time seems to be slowing down as you watch the minute hand tick closer and closer to your next meal.
All of a sudden, you are struck with an intense hunger pain…
…the beast inside of you has had enough: it NEEDS to FEED.
Seemingly possessed, you head over to the pantry as the surge of desire grips you…
”OMG, YAASSSS!” you let slip as you stumble across a box of chocolate cookies - those decadent, triple chocolate ones everyone has been raving about.
Your other hand reaches for the tab, ready to pry the box open and unleash sweet hedonism upon yourself, when suddenly…
… you’re stopped by something…
…or rather…
…someONE.
”Hey man"…
…it’s you, from the future…
“Y’know, you could definitely have some of those cookies right now, and it certainly might not do anything - hell, might even help you given how lean you are. And yeah, no one has to know either… except, that’s not really true, is it?”
You look at the label on the packet, hoping to find something that will justify your act… time stands still.
”Because YOU will know… and whatever happens on that stage in 8 weeks time could actually come down to the decision you make here today… then again, it could not. And sure, nothing may come of a victory anyway. But none of that matters - because at the end of the day, when the dust settles, there will be one undeniable truth not open to debate - you broke your promise to yourself and didn’t give it your all.”
You hang your head as you contemplate your decisions at this proverbial crossroad before you, torn between the primal drive for food and your spiritual desire to actualise your potential…
”You might get away with it, but are you really willing to risk it?”
~ Fast forward 8 weeks ~
Your day of reckoning is finally here - it’s show time…
Backstage, you see your fellow journeymen - all of them showing the signs of months of dedication and sacrifice - eye’s sunken in, cheekbones protruding, veins bulging…
…the scars of daring greatly.
You slip off your track-suit and start pumping up…
”Holy shit… he’s ready” you hear from across the room, undeterred.
You start practicing your poses and with each passing moment, your body starts to resemble something out of an anatomy book - veins everywhere, muscle on top of muscles, separation from head to toe.
Transformation? Maybe…
Transcendence? Hmmm, now we’re talking.
”Open bodybuilding, you’re next!” calls the backstage marshal.
You step into the darkness of backstage…
You punch out your last set of push ups, stand up, and take a deep breath, every cell of your body tingling as time once again slows down for a brief moment…
…the calm before the storm…
”I did it” a voice deep within calls.
A sense of self assurance and agency that’s you’ve never felt radiates through your body as your mind ventures back to that fateful day in front of the pantry, ready to loose the dragon within as you held on to it’s tail helplessly…
…except…
…that image never comes…
…because the dragon was never given the chance.
Against all the odds - the hunger, the sleep deprivation, the emotional toll, the life responsibilities, the incessant fatigue permeating every waking moment, the constant questioning from those unwilling to leave the comfort of “the cave” - against all of it…
…you chose to see it through…
You chose to step outside the bounds of normality… to ask the question “just how far can I take this?”.
You chose to step into the fire and get up close and personal with your rawest, most vulnerable self - the good, the bad, and the downright ugly…
And not just once… but in every, single decisive moment over the last 6 months.
You chose to tame the dragon.
And in that moment, right before stepping out into the lights, you realise that come victory or defeat, there is one undeniable truth that no ONE and no THING can take from you…
…you chose to dare greatly…
…and that made all the difference.
welcome to the wilderness.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A crucible for personal growth: Natural Bodybuilding isn’t just about looking awesome - it is a vessel for self mastery.
Know your why: The stage is just one measure of success — understand the deeper reason you’re competing.
Mind over muscle: Mental discipline will carry you when motivation fades.
Commit to the climb: Many start; few push all the way to their peak.
Character counts: Titles fade, but how you carry yourself lasts.
Let’s get (Meta)Physical…
Now, full disclosure — I was going to start out by giving you a non-exhaustive list of some of the practical parts that go into getting to the stage:
Get your posing trunks
Have the right habits in place
Manage stress
Empty the pantry of ALL the cookies
Get a coach-slash-hire me 😉
And then — out of the blue — the miniaturised version of my beautiful wife and her proverbial megaphone appeared on my shoulder (a tad cuter, yet just as tenacious), with words of wisdom that form the cornerstone of her own coaching practice:
"Every time you say yes to something, you are — by definition — saying no to something else."
Stick that in your protein shake and drink it.
So before You Buy the Tan and Budgie Smugglers…
Let’s have a little peek into the reality of what you are signing up for.
Let me start with what might be a bit of a controversial perspective:
You will be hard pressed to find another personal endeavour that challenges you quite like natural competitive Bodybuilding.
That's certainly not to say other endeavours aren't challenging - but it is to say that the challenges natural competitive Bodybuilding presents are really quite unique.
And I AM talking about Bodybuilding — the biggest, the leanest, the hungriest-slash-most exhausted (lol).
Not bikini. Not men’s physique-slash-bikini (I jest… but only slightly). Not wellness, figure, sports model or swimwear model (🤦). And definitely not “evening attire” (🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦).
Just good ol’ fashioned open Bodybuilding (and classic bodybuilding for that matter).
This Isn’t Just a Sport — It’s a Rite of Passage
Don’t get me wrong — I like to poke fun at the other divisions. Hell, most of it’s aimed at bodybuilding itself! I mean, who wakes up and decides that lines in your ass so deep you could lose your keys in them is a "cool thing"? Therapy would be easier… and cheaper.
But I’m not here to undermine the challenges of the other divisions. Dieting to lose weight is hard, PERIOD — even just to be healthier.
Or to use an analogy: getting to Everest Base Camp is still a feat worthy of its own accolades.
But…
…it’s not the summit.
And no matter how you slice it, only those who go past base camp truly come face to face with what lies beyond.
Bodybuilding, many seem to forget, was the pioneer in the world of physique sports. It deserves the reverence it’s lost in the age of Instagram flexes and hash-tagged suffering.
Bodybuilding Is a Disruptor of Life
What makes the challenges of natural competitive Bodybuilding so unique is that it is so encompassing, so intrusive and so interruptive on the other areas of your life - and none of it get's put on hold just because you want to be able to see veins in your earlobes.
Sure — triathlons demand herculean effort. Boxing and MMA require insane poise. But at least in those, you can eat when you’re hungry - a quick google of Michael Phelps’ diet will hammer the point home.
In MMA, there’s even a fat cheque waiting for you after you get your head kicked in (at least at the pro level).
And although not a sport, the US Navy seals don’t even limit food consumption in their infamous BUD/S training school (which seems fair though - if I was putting my life on the line, and literally being drowned in freezing water in between PT sessions consisting of 1000+ lunges multiple times a day, I’d want a stick of butter wrapped in a meat lovers pizza as well).
Not so in Bodybuilding.
Hunger is a prerequisite.
Exhaustion — to the point of debating whether the calories spent walking to the toilet are worth it — is par for the course.
As for financial gain?
HA! You’ve picked the wrong sport for that. Unless you want to become a walking pin cushion (use steroids) — and even then, the cost (both on the wallet and your health) makes any prize money almost irrelevant.
Welcome to Base Camp. Now Let’s Talk About the Summit
Beyond the more accessible divisions of competitive Bodybuilding (which I admit are fantastic introductions for those not ready, willing or even able to go further), the summit demands real physiological compromise.
For example, in one particular study* that tracked a drug-free Bodybuilder in the 6 months leading into competition, there was a change in resting heart rate (amongst others) from 53bpm to 27bpm.
And no, that's not from all the cardio - it's a simple adaptation in an attempt to slow down metabolic rate thanks to such low available energy stores, and a fantastic way to give your doctor a fright.
For context, these heart rates aren't even recorded in the worlds top endurance athletes. Lance Armstrong himself only got down to 32bpm, and that was WITH the help of drugs.
So heart rate is one such thing you can expect to be affected.
Now let's talk about our primary recovery strategy: sleep.
Your Nervous System Will Break Before You Do
Drop below a certain level of body fat and calorie intake, and your body enters a chronic state of sympathetic nervous system activity.
That’s science-speak for this real world interpretation:
Essentially, you’re in a 24/7 state of threat. Blood sugar availability is squeezed to the bare minimum — just enough to train hard and keep muscle while shedding fat to sub-5% levels.
The result?
An inherent state of chronic anxiety where your body squeezes out catecholamines (energy hormones and neurotransmitters) like a spin class towel after the fourth remix of Eye of the Tiger.
And this has real consequences. Most notably:
Your circadian rhythm tanks
Your sleep becomes fragmented as you become tormented by dreams of either having blown your diet at the nearest buffet OR rocking up on stage without abs and/or tan
Your sex life? Lol, that’s cute.
Your recovery? Forget about it
Not to mention the tricks your mind plays on you, trying to convince you that “surely a slither of cheese isn’t going to derail things? Just a wee wafer?” or “I wonder what boiled chicken breast would taste like if I sprinkled some protein powder over it and mixed it in with my oats?” 🤔
And no, you can’t “hack” this. No, your favourite hustle-bro podcast host isn’t the exception.
Even the Special Forces don’t train around sleep — because you can’t. Sleep is THAT important to the human animal (any animal really) that going without enough quality sleep for too long will lead to a significant decline in quality of life, not to mention performance or physiological markers. Anyone whose done shift work can attest to that.
You can try polyphasic sleeping if you really hate yourself… or you can just accept that you’re a mammal, ruled by that big ol’ ball of fire up there in the sky, like every other carbon-based lifeform.
Hungry? Good. That Means It’s Working.
Food is another area of real struggle, which you’re probably already aware of. And sure, humans can live without food for extended periods, as is evidenced across many cultures and traditions, or just downright scarcity. But let’s be honest — if you’re reading this, your problem isn’t lack of food access.
Your problem is abundance.
You’re managing:
The job
The money
The mortgage
The family
The social life
The pressure
The temptation of biting into a fish oil capsule on purpose because you’re so hungry, your lizard brain says: “Maybe… just maybe…”
…all while trying to shred your glutes into something resembling a cheese grater.
You're lifting heavy — 4 to 6 times a week — to exhaustion.
You're posing endlessly, muscles ON, effortless smile ON, nothing spared.
Now try doing all that for months on end, at a time when you have to genuinely debate whether you need to spend the energy to get to the toilet to go to the toilet, whilst having such a finely tuned sense of smell you can identify every baked good within a 5km radius.
All This… For Maybe 20 Minutes On Stage?
And even if you do everything right — biggest, leanest, best-presented version of yourself — there is ZERO guarantee of winning.
Because this is a subjective sport.
Unlike other sports where you can turn things around by sheer performance, your outcome on the stage is dependent on:
Other people's genetics
Your own genetics
Other people’s opinions
Politics (yes, wherever there are humans with opinions and egos - so like, everywhere - there will be politics)
Judging panels
Travel disruptions
Plain dumb luck
You can even have top spot taken from you simply for using the wrong tanning product!
You could dominate one weekend… and get buried the next, due to factors ENTIRELY out of your control.
And that’s kind of the whole point…
This is where it gets real.
By giving yourself fully — in mind, body, and spirit — to something that is completely out of your control, you can develop this transferable skill to transcend ANY outcome.
You can battle a level of fatigue and hunger you can feel in your bones and have it amount to no material outcome.
You can come dead last one week, and be the undisputed winner the next.
You can get ghosted, side-lined, dismissed — and still stand tall.
Because how you hold yourself through all of it… how you respond… that, my friend, is yours alone.
No judge, no outcome, no adversity can take that away from you.
For those willing to step into the fire (without the need to post about it), that is what the crucible of competitive natural Bodybuilding can give you.
You’re Saying No to Comfort — and Yes to Yourself
So while you're saying NO to:
Restful sleep,
Healthy stress levels,
Regular sex that doesn't require you to take pre-workout,
A full belly, and
The absence of mental warfare around going to the toilet.
You're saying YES to something much, much deeper:
A pilgrimage into your most vulnerable self, and the development of skills that are increasingly rare in today's age of convenience, plenty and the "next shiny thing".
Institutionally imposed restrictions e.g. being incarcerated, serving in the military etc, force the individual to find a level of resilience and self-control in themselves they didn’t know they had.
In the realm of competitive Bodybuilding, there is no enforced accountability - the only thing forcing restrictions on yourself is YOU.
Even if you have a coach, even if you give into that piece of cake, or don’t get your steps in, or don’t meet conditioning standards, you can always bail on your coach, you can always pull out of the show - there is always an out.
The ONLY THING that you can’t really escape is YOU.
This is more than simply getting in great shape - it is a descent into the darkness that invites you to dance with your demons…
To discover your most indomitable strengths…
To test the mettle of your character (and you don’t have to sign up to the military to earn it - nobody dies, hooray!😀).
Because despite what we like to believe about ourselves, when under extreme physiological and psychological stress (life-or-death situations aside), we don’t rise to the occasion...
We fall to the level of our training.
So… What’s It Going to Be?
Yes — to meeting yourself; fully, raw and real, regardless of the outcome, willing to be tempered by the pressures of prep?
Willing to accept that your own self-approval is enough, rather than relying on the pseudo-adoration of strangers on the Internet?
Or no — to the burning questions you know live inside you?
“Can I do it?”,
“What am I made of?”,
“Where do my limits lie?”,
“What does a fish oil capsule taste like when I bite into it because I’m so damn lean and hungry that I’ll literally lick the scales off of a fucking herring for an iota of a calorie?”.
(B-T-Dubs, I'm well aware that not EVERYONE wants to look like a condom full of walnuts dipped in chocolate sauce… buuuuuut, you’ve read this far, sooooooo 🤷)
Whether or not you choose to step on stage doesn’t really matter.
What matters is that you choose You.
That you surrender yourself to your own baptism of fire. That you dare to do something that will test you like you’ve never been tested before, where the only thing truly holding you accountable is your own spirit.
If natural competitive Bodybuilding sounds like the crucible for you, stay tuned for Part 2, where I’ll take you into the practical side — what to expect, how to prepare, and of course, what colour posing trunks to buy 😉😏.
Give yourself the best shot at making this journey one of the most rewarding crusades you ever embark on.
Till next time.
References:
*International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 2013, “Natural Bodybuilding Competition Preparation and Recovery: A 12-Month Case Study" - Lindy M. Rossow, David H. Fukuda, Christopher A. Fahs, Jeremy P. Loenneke, and Jeffrey R. Stout
