All Things Body Image:

Our body image and body composition are two separate things

Our body image consists of how we think and feel about ourselves whereas our body composition refers to the percentage of fat, bone, and muscle mass in our bodies

Both our body image and body composition can and will fluctuate throughout our lives for numerous reasons

It can be helpful to acknowledge that you can and will have bad body image days without your body composition changing at all. You can go from feeling like a 10 (whatever that means to you) to really not feeling yourself at all without gaining or losing a single pound of body fat

Recognising this can really help with your ability to take a step back and rationalise your thoughts on the days you don’t feel too great about your external appearance

And for the record we all have those days, so you’re not alone.

The goal isn’t to eliminate them, and so we need to ditch the perfectionist mindset that lingers in many of us..especially those of us in the fitness industry

The goal is to improve our ability to deal with the days we don’t feel our best, and to decrease the frequency of bad body image days

Bad body image days shouldn’t effect your ability to go about your day and live your life, they shouldn’t stop you in your tracks

And if they currently do, then have faith that this is something you can work on with the right support and guidance.

How can we improve our body image on the whole:
- Reduce body checking

- Appreciate our body for it’s capabilities, and celebrate non-body composition based wins such as progress with our training performance

- Practice mindfulness, and being present in the moment throughout our lives. Immerse ourselves in the day in front of us
- Go to wide open spaces – it can help our problems feel much smaller

- Wear comfortable clothing that fits us

- Acts of self care such as moisturising

- Recognise our positive qualities that are nothing to do with our external appearance

- Call ourselves out for negative self talk. Ask yourself: what would I say if my mum or my best friend was saying these things to herself?

- Recognise the positive qualities in others that are not body composition related, and give out non physique based compliments

Danni x

As the end of the bodybuilding season approaches I wanted to talk about how to prepare yourselves for the post show period, as it’s often so much more challenging than prep itself!

In this post I’m going to talk about training and energy expenditure.

In the immediate post show phase, we’re not in a position to be able to push training and maximally grow muscle tissue. We’ll look visually fuller due to an increase in muscle glycogen, and we might regain some muscle tissue lost through prep..but we’re not going to be able to respond to the best of our ability to training at high intensities until health has been restored.

So what we need to do post show is prioritise recovery and take some stress off the body. First and foremost post show you’re going to be pretty battered so I would usually recommend at least a few rest days from resistance training as a minunum. Stay active yes, but take some stress off your mind and body and then ease your way back into things.

With clients what I do is run a recovery mesocycle or training block, where we train with reps in reserve and ensure that training volume and frequency isn’t excessive. When we think about our health and wellbeing we also need to do everything we can to avoid injury. We need to make sure we’re warming up properly for our training sessions, and making sure our form is on point. We can do this via training videos which we can audit ourselves or send to a coach we’re working with.

From an energy expenditure perspective we need to pull this down and make sure that any cardio included is at a lower intensity again to remove as much stress as possible.

We know that daily activity is beneficial from an overall health perspective, especially when it involves fresh air & daylight exposure! And so keeping this in is important, but we need to make sure it isn’t excessive and ensure that we’re in a calorie surplus consistently on a daily basis in the immediate post show phase. This is essential so that we can recover and regain the necessary body fat needed for our health and ability to function properly!

Getting strong AF is exciting and something you can all look forward to post show but patience will serve you so well, so play the long game here and don’t rush it! We only get one body and one mind, and we need to do better at looking after ourselves!

I’ll continue with the post show guidance on up and coming posts! Danni x

Hey guys,

I know post show will be coming up for a lot of you towards the end of this year, and I want you to know that I’m here to support you and help in any way that I can, so don’t hesitate to get in touch!

I don’t want my section on here to be all about my personal journey, but instead I want to provide education, awareness, and support you through the post show process and transition into life after bodybuilding as I know how difficult this transition can be after going through it personally, and taking many clients through this process.

I also know what goes on physiologically during this process, and what protocols need to be put in place in order for you to recover both mentally and physically and get back to full health!

If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to drop them down below!

Danni x