Top 4 Factors to Building the ELITE Bikini Body

As a coach of many WBFF Bikini Pros and even a World Champion, one of the most common questions I get always involves competing, primarily doing a Bikini Competition. 

Everybody wants to know what it takes to become a Bikini competitor and what you need to focus on primarily, especially if it’s your first time. My answer is always the same: there are 1001 things that can affect you and all of them are just as important as the next. 

When it comes to competing, stepping on stage and absolutely killing it (and potentially winning your PRO card), there are a few things that I always refer back to as being the most important aspects:

1. Patience
Doing truly epic things with your physique takes years and years. Take a look at my long-term client Nurah, who has recently just won the WBFF Miss USA title in her PRO Bikini category last year. 

Before we achieved this physique and got to where we were, I trained Nurah for 3 whole years (online)! I know, 3 years seems like an eternity to people starting out but it’s not a long time in the grand scheme of things. Truly changing and developing your physique takes time… SERIOUS TIME!

2. Getting Strong
Going back to my client Nurah, when coaching her for the 3 years prior to her show, we increased her strength to the point of squatting 100kg for reps! Many of my other clients who went on to win their own Bikini show have squatted over 150kg.

Getting strong builds more than just a physique, it helps build a mindset to challenge yourself. It’s not about being strong for 1 rep but instead is about laying a nice foundation to your physique.

I program phases where we incorporate low rep (neurological) work to then increase the client’s ability to be stronger on higher rep (traditional hypertrophy) phases. Using strength can be a catalyst to breaking through hypertrophy plateaus.

3. The Basics Win Out
The foundation of all the great clients I have worked with is not anything crazy when it comes to exercise selection. They squat, hip hinge, lunge, thrust and do upper body exercises, especially pull ups. These are my staples for women – the basics! Once they get good, they get really, really good.

4. Eat!
Get out of a calorie deficit! One of my main goals for ALL of my clients is to NOT have them walk around stage lean, all year round. You don’t make serious gains being comp-shredded all the time, in fact, you most likely won’t make any. I get my clients out of a deficit where I can and have them spend a good period of time in a surplus (when not competing). Months and months in a surplus, not just a few weeks. Great physiques are not built by staying lean all year round, they’re built by getting out of a deficit.

Looking insane and stepping on stage as a bikini competitor isn’t as easy as mastering the 4 above factors, there’s a lot more but this is a good starting point! This is just the beginning but you can always learn more in my leading program Building the Bikini Body!

If you want to train like a WBFF World Champion or one of my many PRO Bikini clients, the entire, 12-month Building the Bikini Body series is for you. These programs are what my own clients used to WIN, and they can be your foundation too.

You know what to do,

Coach Mark Carroll