Should we have a competition?

[Pseudonym]

Back in the day, when we were called NZBodybuilding, we ran an online bodybuilding competition we called the NZBB Challenge. It provided a bit of extra incentive for people in the gym, and gave them a goal to train for. Also, we timed it so that contestants came out looking ready for summer.

Should we run another one? What classes should we have? Given that we're now Gymnation, not just NZBodybuilding, can we include the powerlifters and crossfitters too?

So many questions! But most importantly... would you be interested?

 

 

 

There would be prizes involved, of course.

[Gym rat]

That's a good idea I would be keen to do  that but if was next year since I am in off season mode already and love the fact that I am bulking sweet

[Phedder]

Well, I'm still only weighing 100kg and my class is 105kg, so keen for a 'how much size I can add to my waist' comp *biggrin*

[Shutupandsquat]

Well, I'm still only weighing 100kg and my class is 105kg, so keen for a 'how much size I can add to my waist' comp

Sorry dude, but I think Nate and I would  destroy you on that one once we both bounce back from this diet

[CHEEKA4]

Sounds like a fantastic idea Pseudonym, my twin sister & I need something to work towards before summer hits

[Pseudonym]

Well, I'm still only weighing 100kg and my class is 105kg, so keen for a 'how much size I can add to my waist' comp

Isn't that how they judge powerlifting anyway?

 

/runs

 

Sounds like a fantastic idea Pseudonym, my twin sister & I need something to work towards before summer hits

Hey Cheeka4, welcome to Gymnation! Would you compete in the crossfit class? How do you reckon we should run that? Videos of competitors doing a set of exercises for time?

[Kalidane]

If there is a gymnation t-shirt up for grabs I am keen.

 

I really want a free t

[Gym rat]

I have a idea for a class the best dressed male member on of gym nation and I like the idea of a gym nation t shirt for a prize or gift vouchers from Nz muscle and that would also include prizes from Eat me Supplements as well

[Pseudonym]

I would hope that we can do considerably better than a free tshirt, Kalidane!

Nice idea Gym Rat, but we can't run a Best Dressed class... There'd be no competition, because you'd win it hands down.

[CHEEKA4]

Well, I'm still only weighing 100kg and my class is 105kg, so keen for a 'how much size I can add to my waist' comp

Isn't that how they judge powerlifting anyway?

 

/runs

 

Sounds like a fantastic idea Pseudonym, my twin sister & I need something to work towards before summer hits

Hey Cheeka4, welcome to Gymnation! Would you compete in the crossfit class? How do you reckon we should run that? Videos of competitors doing a set of exercises for time?

Hi there,

Forgot to mention, my sister & I do weights training/Cardio in the AM & CrossFit in the PM. We were over 100kgs just over a year ago & have lost a whole heap of weight, look heaps different to what we were when we first started. I'll post pics soon We've done several CrossFit comps & have a few coming up, so not keen to do it in this forum, but in terms of your comp, I wouldnt mind doing a body transformation comp type thing, our goal is to get to our goal weights & build more muscle by summer, doing something like this would just give us more incentive to reach our goals. We've never done any bodybuilding type comps, so we'd have to be in a full on beginners class

[White_Knight_Ways]

Good idea!  I would enter, need to shred this fat and a competetion would be prefect motivation.

[Leeroid]

Please tell me youre going to run the strongest bodybuilder challenge again

[Pseudonym]

We were over 100kgs just over a year ago & have lost a whole heap of weight, look heaps different to what we were when we first started. 

Wow. Looking at your after photo, you'd never imagine you were so heavy to start. What do you weigh now? That is amazing progress! You should post the Before/After photos in our Post Your Progress section. I can't guarantee it, of course, but I'd say that's Photo of the Month potential right there.

 

Please tell me youre going to run the strongest bodybuilder challenge again

My plan was to run one big challenge, and have a class (or classes) for bodybuilders, a class(es) for powerlifting/strength, and a class for crossfit. So you could compete either as a bodybuilder, or as a powerlifter, or both.

I want to use this as a bit of promotion for Gymnation too - we need to get more new members joining up. That means we'd have a lot of big prizes as incentives. That's a good thing, but it does make arranging the classes trickier. With bigger prizes at stake, there's more temptation for people to cheat. And when people are new, it's harder to know whether they really are a novice, or under 70kg, or natural, or whatever other class categories we create...

Maybe that's over-thinking it, but I reckon it's still a good idea to keep as few classes as possible. (Besides, you never know how many people drop out along the way - too many classes, and it's quite possible to end up with only one person in each!)

 

So here's a list to start discussion...

• Bodybuilding - male
• Bodybuilding - female
• Powerlifting - male
• Powerlifiting - female
• Crossfit - male
• Crossfit - female
• Crossfit - best box (would it be purely the box with most entrants, or could we get some sort of formula to calculate the best?)
• Aesthetics - just a fun class that anyone could enter, with extra points for crafty lighting.

See, already that's a huge list of classes. Maybe a silly question, but is there any way we could combine male and female classes for powerlifting and crossfit? Give the females a handicap, or something?

[Pseudonym]

Any comments on this class arrangement? Good? Bad?

[Leeroid]

Just have 3 weight classes for men and 2 for women lol. Too subjective otherwise

[jimmybro1]

Where does the regular gym junkie come into this ?

A standing OHP comp would be good!

[HarryB]

Push press or regular strict press?

[DCYPL]

Id be keen, no idea in what form or how to compete, but still I would be keen

[Dinahlady]

I'd do something for prizes! 

Do you mean in general just weight loss?
Shouldn't the categories be like:

"Bulk" (muscle/weight gain)
"Lean bulk"  (gaining mass/weight without gaining much body fat)
"fat loss"  or weight loss (for people maybe overweight wanting to lose large amounts of weight)
Recomposition? (fat loss + muscle gain (guess that is similar to or the same as lean bulk in some ways)) 
strength gain (see below) 

Could be cool to do a competition of how much you can increase a lift or all your lifts - so it's reletive? then have classes in that like beginnner, advanced (enhanced too?) and to see who can add the most weight etc. Its a bit crap having like absolute weight lifted because people who have trained or are natrually/genetically strong will just take out the competition - not necessarily the ones who have worked hardest for/throughout the competition. 

You could get people to submit their "before" at a certain date - then track their progress then send in their "after"  -

But could still get fakes as you could still fake failing a 20kg bench on the before... lol! But I guess the competition would still stirr up interest and you just have to assume people are genuine.  

Could also be judged subjectively by you guys so there aren't 100% rules and maths involved with weight to strength ratio, or body fat percentages blah blah - as everyone will be starting from a subjective starting point. Also toto help with fakers it could also be judged on several factors like how much they posted their journey in their journal etc.....

Just some ideas... 

 

[jimmybro1]

Push press or regular strict press?

Strict press no leg drive, glutes and knees locked. 

[Pseudonym]

Just have 3 weight classes for men and 2 for women lol. Too subjective otherwise

I was hoping to avoid weight classes as much as possible. Certainly for the powerlifting and crossfit classes, we could calculate the winners using Wilks' formula (in fact, Wilks would let us group men and women into one class).

With bodybuilding, previously we just kept it simple... only two classes - Best Overall and Most Improved (men and women were mixed). Winners decided by public vote. That seemed to work well, and it meant people got decent prizes, rather than spread them too thinly.

 

Where does the regular gym junkie come into this ?

A standing OHP comp would be good!

Not sure what you mean, Jimmybro? The regular gym junkie can compete in any challenge they like, and we'll try to make the classes so that newbies still stand a chance too.

Standing OHP - maybe we could incorporate that into the crossfit challenge?

 

Dinahlady wrote: 

Could be cool to do a competition of how much you can increase a lift or all your lifts - so it's reletive? ... Its a bit crap having like absolute weight lifted because people who have trained or are natrually/genetically strong will just take out the competition - not necessarily the ones who have worked hardest for/throughout the competition. 

I know what you mean. Unfortunately I don't think we can have before/after lifts, because we can't gaurantee people will try their hardest in the before (and even if they do, others will still question it). And the bigger the prize is, the more doubt there will be.

What we could do is have Novice / Open classes. I think we've got a wide enough pool of members that there's a good chance someone will recognise a contestant if they've competed before. Powerlifters/Crossfitters, would this work for you?

 

So here's my current thinking, then...

• Bodybuilding - two classes, Best Overall & Most Improved. Winners decided by public vote.
• Powerlifting - two classes, Novice & Open. Winners calculated using Wilks.
• Crossfit - two classes, Novice & Open. Winners calculated using Wilks, multiplied by number of reps.
• Crossfit - best box (most entrants, unless we can think of a better formula?)
• Aesthetics - One class only - winners decided by public vote.

[Kalidane]

Sounds good.

 

What start and end dates are we looking at?

[jimmybro1]

So you can enter into multpile classes? 

[Leeroid]

That seems good

[Pseudonym]

What start and end dates are we looking at?

I want to end it on Sunday 1st December. That's the start of summer, so it's a good excuse to get into shape, and it's before everyone gets too hectic with Christmas.

That means we'll need to start it soon. So I'll probably open it up around the 12th of Sept. That gives me a week and a bit to arrange prizes, etc.

I don't think we should have a cutoff date for the Before pictures, but instead allow people to post whenever. Obviously the earlier they post, the more progress they can make so the better their Before/Afters will be.

The Before/After shots don't really apply to powerlifting and crossfit anyway, but we can still encourage people to post videos early. Then other members can give them advice on how they might improve.

Thinking about it, maybe we should also split the Aesthetics class into Best Overall and Most Improved too. That gives the "newbie aesthetics" group a shot at winning too.

 

So you can enter into multpile classes? 

I don't see why not. The only snag is that you don't want one person taking all the prizes. So maybe we allow you to enter multiple classes, but only win one?