Last spring I fulfilled a nearly 20-year-old dream.
I competed in three figure and bodybuilding shows, placing well in all of them.
As a young adult, I became fascinated with muscles. I bought my first gym membership when I turned 17 (with mom’s signed permission) and at that moment, I was hooked. Exercise became a daily priority, with weight training being my favorite activity. I loved how it gave me strength, confidence, and the ability to change the shape of my body. Muscle & Fitness Magazine became one of my staples, which exposed me to the elite female bodybuilders and fitness pros. I could never believe the amount of muscle these women had, and I thought it was beautiful. My dream of competing was born out of reading that magazine and surrounding myself with hardworking folks at the gym.
A dream it was. I didn’t know how to go about getting ready for a competition. Being so young, I did not have the resources to pay a trainer for advice. I thought there was some special way of training, or a wacky diet to follow (turns out this is true). So instead, I continued to train with weights as hard as I could, learned about “clean eating” (unprocessed foods, lean protein, low fat, low sugar, whole grains, veggies), and strived to attain a certain physique on my own. While I never stopped working out, the dream of competing faded. Starting a career, getting married, and having children became my reality (a wonderful reality to me, I must clarify), and thoughts of competing became “what could have been”.
Years later (at which point I was 36), a friend suggested I talk with her trainer, Terry Stokes. He specializes in training women for fat loss and in preparing them for figure competitions. She thought I could do well in such an endeavor. At first I laughed at her, but her incessant pressure found me walking into her gym to talk with Terry. The rest, you could say, is history.
Training for competition is hard. Dieting for competition is hard. For 12 weeks, you work out at a high intensity for at least two to three hours a day. For 12 weeks, you eat five times a day, weighing every bite. Your social life is non-existent, and family life is strained. Your bank account dwindles from the cost of training, food, show suits, show entry fees, spray tans, and drug tests (mandatory in the natural shows). For figure competition, you’re required to wear five-inch heels, so you must practice walking and posing every day. In cases like mine, you also juggle work, kids, domestic chores, and schoolwork. You become obsessed, exhausted, and very hungry.
You also become strong, lean, and amazed when you look in the mirror. My body transformed completely. I stare at pictures of myself in the competitions with awe. It is just so hard to believe that my body looked like that.
Of course, that physique does not last long! The diet tapers drastically to get you lean for show day, so once you start to eat normal you bloat up quickly. It has taken months for my metabolism to adjust, and psychologically it’s still hard. You never feel lean enough after peaking for a show.
Clearly, bodybuilding for competition is not healthy. I suppose most sports at that level aren’t. Nevertheless, it is rewarding. For me, it was a dream come true.
I competed in three figure and bodybuilding shows, placing well in all of them.
As a young adult, I became fascinated with muscles. I bought my first gym membership when I turned 17 (with mom’s signed permission) and at that moment, I was hooked. Exercise became a daily priority, with weight training being my favorite activity. I loved how it gave me strength, confidence, and the ability to change the shape of my body. Muscle & Fitness Magazine became one of my staples, which exposed me to the elite female bodybuilders and fitness pros. I could never believe the amount of muscle these women had, and I thought it was beautiful. My dream of competing was born out of reading that magazine and surrounding myself with hardworking folks at the gym.
A dream it was. I didn’t know how to go about getting ready for a competition. Being so young, I did not have the resources to pay a trainer for advice. I thought there was some special way of training, or a wacky diet to follow (turns out this is true). So instead, I continued to train with weights as hard as I could, learned about “clean eating” (unprocessed foods, lean protein, low fat, low sugar, whole grains, veggies), and strived to attain a certain physique on my own. While I never stopped working out, the dream of competing faded. Starting a career, getting married, and having children became my reality (a wonderful reality to me, I must clarify), and thoughts of competing became “what could have been”.
Years later (at which point I was 36), a friend suggested I talk with her trainer, Terry Stokes. He specializes in training women for fat loss and in preparing them for figure competitions. She thought I could do well in such an endeavor. At first I laughed at her, but her incessant pressure found me walking into her gym to talk with Terry. The rest, you could say, is history.
Training for competition is hard. Dieting for competition is hard. For 12 weeks, you work out at a high intensity for at least two to three hours a day. For 12 weeks, you eat five times a day, weighing every bite. Your social life is non-existent, and family life is strained. Your bank account dwindles from the cost of training, food, show suits, show entry fees, spray tans, and drug tests (mandatory in the natural shows). For figure competition, you’re required to wear five-inch heels, so you must practice walking and posing every day. In cases like mine, you also juggle work, kids, domestic chores, and schoolwork. You become obsessed, exhausted, and very hungry.
You also become strong, lean, and amazed when you look in the mirror. My body transformed completely. I stare at pictures of myself in the competitions with awe. It is just so hard to believe that my body looked like that.
Of course, that physique does not last long! The diet tapers drastically to get you lean for show day, so once you start to eat normal you bloat up quickly. It has taken months for my metabolism to adjust, and psychologically it’s still hard. You never feel lean enough after peaking for a show.
Clearly, bodybuilding for competition is not healthy. I suppose most sports at that level aren’t. Nevertheless, it is rewarding. For me, it was a dream come true.
