Fitness categories

Many of you have asked me: 'What is a fitness competition', and 'Will you look like a bodybuilder'? In order to answer these questions and more I am writing this post about the IFBB fitness categories for women, focussing on Fitness, the category I will compete in. 

The categories

There are different categories to compete in at the IFBB (International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness). These include the Fitness category (including Bikini-Fitness, Body-Fitness, and regular Fitness), Physique, and Bodybuilding. The picture below shows these categories and the corresponding body types. 

Overview IFBB fitness categories

In the text below, I will further explain the Fitness category.

Fitness

The first category is Fitness. There is 'bikini-fitness, body-fitness, and regular 'fitness'. The Bikini fitness subcategory requires the fewest muscles from all categories. The preference for this category is a sporty look, without visible lines of muscles (only the abs may be lightly visible) The posing on stage exist in the form of a line-up with front- and backposes. The ladies wil be judged on general presentation, tanning, and looks. Below, you can see a picture of ladies from the Bikini fitness class. 

Line-up Bikini fitness category

Brazilian Bodyfitness athlete Janaína Ferreira

Another subcategory is body-fitness. This is the category that I will be competing in. The category was added in the year 2002 by the IFBB, in order for women to compete by only physical rounds (so, posing on stage). there are for categories per length: 158cm, 163cm, 168cm and >168cm. During the competition, the ladies will do the T-walk: walking to the middle of the stage and do a frontpose, backpose, and frontpose. This T-walk is individual. In addition, all ladies come on stage and will be compared in the front-, side- and backposes. The ladies will be judged on general presentation, so not only on physique, but also looks and presentation on stage.

Line-up Bodyfitness category

There is also a subcategory 'Fitness;, where the participant will, next to the T-walk and line-up, also perform an act on stage such as acrobatics or circus.

My competition

I will compete in the Body-Fitness class. Why? Because that seems a challenge that suits me. It requires lean muscle mass, and a low fat% (about 12%) and a good performance on stage during the T-walk. With my dance experience in the past, I think I will perform well on stage and this is my opportunity to shine! :) The other category I considered is the Bikini-Fitness class. However, this body physique requires less muscle mass and thus requires more focus on cardio and lean eating rather than heavy weight training. I prefer weight training way better than cardio, and thus the Body-fitness training scheme looks way more appealing for me! I can do this! You can do this too! Let's rock the stage!

Source: www.ifbbnederland.nl/wedstrijden/klassen