Bodybuilding Articles & News
Decades of trial and error from the highest level of bodybuilding written down. No hype. No shortcuts. Just what worked, what didn't, and why it matters for serious lifters. Every article connects to the Five Tracks on the BuildWithPros Education page.
How to Lose Weight During Menopause: What Changed, and the Five Levers That Work
How to lose weight during menopause and perimenopause: why the old way stops working, and the five levers that do, from protein to sleep.
Foods to Avoid for Menopause Belly Fat: The Short List, and What Not to Cut
Foods to avoid for menopause belly fat: the short list is the foods that arrive as a flood and the big carb dinner, and what not to cut.
Strength Training for Menopause: Why Lifting Matters More Now, and How to Start
Strength training for menopause: why muscle goes faster in these years, why two sessions a week is enough, and when the weight has to go up.
Menopause Belly: Why the Fat Moves to Your Middle, and What Moves It Back
Menopause belly is fat moving from the hips to the middle as estrogen falls. Why it happens even when women eat less, what the scale misses, and what moves it back.
How to Increase Ferritin Levels in Women Who Lift: Test First, Then Food
Low iron is the quiet brake on a woman's training. The symptoms, the foods in absorption order, and why the test comes before any supplement.
How Much Protein Should a Woman Have?
The daily protein range for a woman who lifts, the per-meal target that makes it work, and why the number climbs after 40 instead of falling.
Working Out on Your Period: Train, Adjust, or Skip?
The research found the effect of cycle phase on performance trivial to small, and the variation between women larger than the phase itself. The default is to train, and to adjust on your own pattern.
Signs of Not Eating Enough for the Training You Do
Sleep worse on the same hours, fatigue that no rest day fixes, training going backwards, a cycle that shortens or stops. Two or more together is the message, and the scale is the last place it shows.
A Beginner Workout Plan for Females: Where to Start, in Sets and Reps
Six to ten hard sets per muscle per week, five to twenty reps, and most sets stopping with one to three left. The three numbers that decide a first block, and the four movement patterns to build it from.
Creatine for Women Over 40: What the Trials Actually Found
The pooled trials in women over 40 found roughly a third of a kilogram more lean mass and roughly 7.5 kilograms more on the leg press. What the dose was, why the bone density claim does not hold, and why none of it showed up without resistance training.
Women's Bodybuilding Divisions: The Six Categories and What Each One Is Judged On
Six categories, six rulebooks. What each one asks for onstage, from ten seconds of front and back poses to sixty seconds of seven mandatory poses, and why Women's Bodybuilding is the only women's division split by body weight.
Women Building Muscle and Losing Fat: The BuildWithPros Approach
The rules of building muscle and losing fat do not run on a separate track for women. Protein builds tissue, training sends the signal, consistency decides the outcome. Here is what is specific to women, and what changes after 35.
What the BuildWithPros articles cover
The articles on this page are written reference material built on the same method as the rest of the BuildWithPros catalog: bodybuilding training, nutrition, contest preparation, recovery, and mindset for serious lifters with two or more years of training. Each article answers a specific question, states the answer first, and connects to the products and learning tracks that go deeper. The catalog behind the articles is organized by goal into the Five Tracks on the BuildWithPros Education page.
Where to start
The competing sequence runs in three parts: peak week, your first bodybuilding show, and the post-show rebound. Lifters over 40 can start with building muscle after 40, natural bodybuilders with how big you can get naturally, and anyone weighing up their supplement stack with do supplements work.
Who writes the articles
The articles draw on the teachings of IFBB Hall of Famer Shawn Ray, 13-time Mr. Olympia competitor with 12 consecutive top-five finishes from 1990 to 2001, and on the source material behind the BuildWithPros audiobooks, videos, and PDF guides. Articles produced by the BuildWithPros team draw on published research alongside his master class material. Every factual claim is checked against the source before publication, and no article promises results.
Press releases and company news
This page also carries press releases and announcements from BuildWithPros: new product launches, catalog updates, and company news. Press releases are written for media use and are marked as such in the title, so they are easy to tell apart from the educational articles.
How the articles connect to the catalog
Every article links to the titles it draws on, across the PDF guides, audiobooks, video master classes, and bundles. The articles give the answer; the catalog gives the full system behind it. For direct input on an individual situation, Pro-Level Coaching pairs two sessions with Shawn Ray with the complete video bundle.