I’ve coached my fair share of female bodybuilding champions over the years, and in this article I will be sharing what it is like to train them – including what it takes, for both myself and my clients.

Personally, I was obsessed with bodybuilding since the early years of my career, falling in love with the sport in 2003. After a long stint getting myself ‘ready’, I started competing in 2010. In 2012, I prepped my first client for a fitness model competition. From 2013 I trained a team of women for two bodybuilding seasons per year.

I’ve trained about 115 individual women for a bodybuilding competition since I began, and many of those clients have competed in multiple competitions, over multiple seasons. So the total number of competition ‘preps’ I have done, would be over 200.

Each time a client diets for another competition, their body responds differently – this is the difficulty of fat loss and high-level body transformation coaching.

In the 12 years I coached, two of my clients have made it to professional status, and 16 have won an ‘overall’ title – beating all of the competition at their chosen event.

BODYBUILDING IS TOUGH

Bodybuilding is a tough sport – the diet and training is gruelling, and being judged on how you look is difficult for even the most secure female. Coaching them is equally hard, and if you know anything about fat loss and weight loss, you can surely imagine what it’s like to get a group of women to a point where they’re fat-free, but still showing an amazing amount of muscle (which is symmetrical, of course).

Despite not training as many women for competitions now (2024), I really loved this phase of my business. It was challenging and I knew I was cut out for the job, with most trainers just not having the expertise to get women this lean without causing health issues down the line.

And that’s what I pride myself on – supporting women in achieving their best bodies, without impacting their health in the long term.

Those are just a few of the 1st place trophies my clients have taken home over the years.

Now that you know what it’s like, what does it take to win?

1. An amazing relationship between trainer and coach – you must have trust and respect and this is the only way it can work
2. Adherence from the clients side – these clients all followed my advice 100%, all the way through (I also have many clients who followed my advice and didn’t win, but this is the nature of bodybuilding!)
3. The coach MUST be knowledgeable in advanced fat loss protocols – I was lucky enough to work for one of Australia’s best gyms between 2005-2014, where I was mentored and trained by the best, and learned all the industry had to offer (before Instagram took over and ruined everything).
4. Confidence – the coach must be confident in their methods, and the client must be confident in all ways – and most importantly, on stage. If you’re on stage next to someone who is in just as good condition as you, the most confident competitor will win.

BODYBUILDING PREP IN 2024

After many years of bodybuilding obsession, I have taken a step back from the sport. I still love it, and I love to coach, but there are too many self-proclaimed experts in this field now, most of them fuelled by performance-enhancing drugs, and the online presence of bodybuilding has moved away from what I love.

Client expectations are unrealistic, and I have moved to more of a holistic place. I battled this for a little while, but moved past it, and now I am happier than ever as I coach women in their holistic health journeys ongoing, and through my Academy platform.

So that’s what’s required to create female bodybuilding champions. If you would like more content like this, please let me know and I’ll be sure to create some!

Jen x