The Experiences of the First Time Female Body Builder

Female bodybuilding often gets a lot of bad press. However to me, it is just another incredible example of the feats of great sportswomen, in exactly the same way that gymnastics or swimming is also an illustration of the potential of female athletes. So when my sister, Rosie, took up body building, and then went on to place third at her first ever championship – the UKBFF North East Championships, no less – it only seemed natural since she was so incredibly sporty anyway. However, as we both found out, whilst the vast majority of people supported her in every possible way, there were still some skeptics who felt compelled to mention to both her and myself, that she was ‘ruining her body.’ Not deterred by them, Rosie speaks of her fantastic experience of her first ever female body building championship.

Sports before Bodybuilding

My name is Rosie, my home is in Northumberland but I study at Edinburgh Napier university and so I spend half the year living in Edinburgh. However currently I am studying abroad in Toronto, Canada as part of a photography exchange programme.

I have always been fascinated with sports, I remember being in middle school when I used to do kickboxing. I trained 2 – 3 times a week and regularly took part in competitions; even the World Championships when I was 12. Braggingly, I used to say, “I came 6th!” Admittedly I never said…out of 6 people. 

Even at an early age, many of my people would comment upon my love of sports and my general physique. I’d have comments from the boys in my class; “wow your abs are so muscly!” and “don’t mess with Rosie; what a beast!” Instead of being upset, as perhaps other girls of my age would be,  I instead saw the compliments in these comments. I always used to feel pride and I guess I just enjoyed the attention.

The problem was that I was a great all-rounder at sports, but I never excelled in anything in particular – and I tried a lot of sports. I wanted to excel in something that I could call my own.

I started going to the gym a few years ago to improve my strength for running and rugby, which I had picked up towards the beginning of high school, but it wasn’t until I took up weightlifting this January, that I noticed I was getting stronger but also looking better. I decided to switch my motives completely and focus on working to achieve the best body I could with what I have, and not to “be the best runner in my school.” And besides I secretly hated running.

FamilyMy parents took a little while to warm to the idea that I wanted to compete in a bikini fitness competition (and don’t get me started on how my grandparents reacted), but it was a relief not to be a closet body builder anymore and once they were on board they supported me 100%. Although it has to be said that my mum was concerned about the weight loss and extreme dieting.

Role Models

My idol has to be a fitness competitor called Michelle Bish, a quick follow on Instagram and you will see why. Its cheesy but she really did give me daily motivation.

Training and Diet

My routine now is fairly normal – in my eyes anyway. I train 5 days a week, resting on a Wednesday and Saturday. To be honest, I love the gym it is usually the best part of my day. If I didn’t, I don’t think that I could have even attempted to become a body builder. My diet usually involves oats with raisins for breakfast, lunch is usually a sandwich, or chicken and vegetables, and a protein shake and dinner varies between wholemeal wraps with chicken and salad, or quinoa and chicken. Literally chicken with everything and anything. Chicken, chicken, chicken. And for dessert? Extra chicken with a couple of squares of 80% dark chocolate. Not mixed together obviously.

Competition Preparation

My diet for the competition was the hardest part about the whole prep by far. I worked out everyday, sometimes twice a day, but that is nothing compared to how mentally hard the diet is.

I cut out … (deep breath)…carbs, diary, gluten, wheats and grains, and alcohol. (God no!!!) Chicken and vegetables for nearly every meal can be very uninspiring. One of the hardest things to overcome was the lack of delicious snacks. I have a very bad sweet tooth and I remember asking my coach what I could eat just to stop that pesky sugar craving. He replied, “you could try a glass of cordial juice or just brush your teeth?” Great. Lucky me.

In the last week during run up to the competition I had to swap trainers for see-through stripper heels and take pampering to a whole new level. I have never really been one for beauty treatments so made a lot of rudimentary mistakes. For example, after getting the darkest spray tan available (and still being not brown enough) you have to air dry in the tanning salon and at home while you steadily turn into an Oompaloompa. Any contact will rub off the tan so you have to wear loose clothing and no bra back from the salon. Of course, little did I know and – alas! – that morning I had wisely chosen a see-through blouse, and I had to race down the main street of my town desperately hugging my chest, manically trying to avoid anyone I knew, whilst getting darker by the minute and hoping I wasn’t…er … on show… It was a speedy trip back to the car!

The day before involved a lot of stressing about things I wouldn’t never usually stress about. My hair has to be ‘’big’’ but not too distracting; should I wear it up or down? Fake nails or no nails? What colour should I paint them? Will it match my tiny red bikini? Is my tan dark enough? How do I even put on these fake eyelashes?!

I don’t think I slept at all the night before, knowing I had to be up at 6am to get my hair done before traveling down to Durham to register at 9am.

Competition

The rest of the day followed a nerve-racking wait for my category to be called up on stage combined with endless sizing each other up and bizarre compliments such as “wow hey, I really like your calves” and “ooh your tricep heads are really popping today.”

It was a very mixed atmosphere backstage; all of the girls in my category crammed in a tiny room, hotboxed with the fumes of hairspray and oil spray (to make you shiny, of course). There was lots of picture taking and minimal small talk. It is very bizarre to walk through first a room of huge male bodybuilders also oiling up and flexing where you can practically smell the testosterone in the air, then into another where girls in bikinis and high heeled shoes are doing press ups and curls to get ‘pumped up’ before going on stage.

But once on stage my nerves disappeared. Now it was all about being calm whilst posing and smiling. I had done all the hard work, now I just had to show it off and stand out from the line up of the other equally as well trained girls. The lights were hot and the floor had a layer of grease from the previous line up of body builders, and as you can imagine walking in heels was not easy, and at one point I nearly slipped. After what seemed like an eternity we were told to leave the stage and the top 3 winners would be called out. To be complete shock my number was called out and I had to go back up to perform my routine T walk with 2 other girls. This was my moment! I had trained for months and had choreographed my routine myself. My heart was hammering in my chest but as I got into my routine I felt at ease as I felt that I knew what I was doing. After what felt like seconds, it was over and I stood nervously and waited for the results. After a lot of deliberating by the judges, and standing under the stage lights trying to look relaxed and calm (but also have every muscle on my body tensed and pumped) I came 3rd to 2 other worthy winners but I couldn’t be happier! I couldn’t believe I had even managed to place at all at my first ever show – and best of all, when I arrived home with my trophy in hand – it was time to eat! A Chinese!! Oh my, that first Chinese was delicious!

I couldn’t believe all the support I received over social media in the run up and especially on the day. I was so grateful for all the encouragement – it was a really uplifting feeling. I did have a few negative comments along the way, things like “ I heard you were trying to be a bodybuilder – are you trying to be Arnie or something?” And of course there were concerns about how ‘manly’ I was going to look and how I might “ruin my body”. One man at my local gym kept coming up to me and asking me not to lift heavy weights as I would look bulky and kept pointing me towards the cardio machines… This just made me more determined to achieve my goal – I felt and looked a lot of things that day, but I don’t think ‘manly’ is one of them.

Since my competition, I have been training more than ever during my offseason trying to build upon my weak areas. I have only just started in this industry so I have a lot to learn and a lot to improve upon. I plan to compete a few times next year instead of just one competition and bring a better package to the stage.