Front Pose (Photo by Mark Mason)

Transitional Pose (Photo by Mark Mason)

A year ago on March 26th, 2016, I participated in my first Bikini Competition, NPC’s Jay Cutler Las Vegas Desert Classic.  A four month, 16 week preparation of training and dieting transformed my body to a muscular frame I knew I had but never trained it to its potential until then.

When I first started my competition, I weighed in at 158 pounds, on stage I was 141 pounds.  I lost 17 pounds of fat and water off of my body within the 16 weeks.  Had I been true to my diet, I would have lost a few more pounds and would’ve been leaner and tighter on stage.

Back Pose (Photo by Mark Mason)

Waking up early to do fasted cardio and evening weight training took up much of my time besides work and spending time with my kids.  Training 6 days out of the week become second nature.  The wear and tear my muscles took made me exhausted and I found myself needing a good straight 7 hours of sleep with a 20 minute power nap during the day before my weight training session.

I trained at Phase 1 Sports, an elite training center with top of the line trainers that build athletes.  I soon found myself being called a Bikini Athlete.  I’ve never trained my muscles as hard as I did training at Phase 1 Sports.  They had ingenuity when it came to pushing my body past its limits with valuable knowledge of breaking from the norm of using only weights and adding natural body resistance with multiple techniques.  Mike Waters and Royce Boone opened my mind to fun in the gym!  Although it was tough, I was never bored working out and I believe that is what made me continue training.

I never thought I would ever step on stage in a bikini, yet compete against other women in one being judged off of the muscular development of my body.  I’ve done triathlons, played basketball, baseball, volleyball and was a sprinter in track and training my body to be stage presentable does deserve the title of Bikini Athlete.  “Athletes are people who train in or are good at sports, games, or exercises that require physical skill and strength” (Merriam Webster).  The physical skill and strength are required to develop my body where it needs to be for competing.

I’d like to share my Fitness with you and even if you may not chose to step on stage, your body can still be worked hard to where your strength and physical skill could let you perform any fitness task.  I’m making my Fridays on my blog, #FitnessFridays, where I will show ways of training your body like a fitness bikini athlete.