Fitness Show
The main reason that I’ve been in FSJ for the week was on a freelance assignment for the paper up here. I spent the month of May writing stories about the upcoming Northern Classic fitness, figure and bodybuilding show. It’s a fitness show that my mom’s friend Jeni Briscoe has been putting on for eight years. (You can find the links to the articles in my Published Work section). Jeni is a personal trainer and a professional fitness competitor who owns a gym in FSJ, she’s an IFBB pro card holder and there are only 12 of them in Canada, so she knows her stuff! Jeni owns the gym in FSJ that I workout at whenever I am back in town. Every year, her and her staff coordinate the Northern Classic. She also gives my mom free tickets every year, but we’ve never gone before now!
So the fitness show was last Saturday night and we both totally enjoyed ourselves. The competitors came out on the stage and posed for the judges and then some of them did performances to music! It was really interesting to see that even though they were all completely ripped they had totally different body types. Some had more muscular upper bodies and less muscular lower bodies, some were tall, some were short etc. etc.
Doing the interviews and research for all the stories leading up to the show made me realize how hard people have to work to get ready for this thing. It’s not easy, by any means. When I was training for my half-marathon it was a lot of work, and took a lot of dedication, but training for these fitness competitions involves intense amounts of exercise and dieting.
Jeni explained to me that even though they are limited on what they can eat, they absolutely don’t starve themselves. Most girls eat 6-7 meals a day and they have to consume more calories than they normally would because of all the training they are doing. But, what they can eat is pretty regimented. Absolutely no junk food (pizza, pop, cookies etc.), limited carbs, not too much fruit because it’s high in carbs and sugar etc. Once it gets closer to the show, about 2-3 weeks beforehand, some girls have to cut out carbs completely! But, like Jeni said, it really depends on who you are, EVERY person eats different things and trains differently. Jeni has been involved in fitness, both competing and training other people, since she was 18 and she told me that if one of her girls that she is training eats a piece of cake (or some other bad food) that she can tell! They get so lean for these shows that if they eat anything that they aren’t supposed to it will immediately show on their bodies.
As for the training, some people do 2-3 hours of cardio every single day, plus 1-2 hours lifting weights! It’s intense, training for this show basically consumes their life. But all the competitors that I interviewed LOVED it and I can understand why. I’m not comparing it to training for a half-marathon, but it is similar in the fact that you’re not putting yourself through all of it for nothing, there is an end goal in mind and that can be really motivating. It’s tough, but it’s rewarding at the same time. I think it would be an amazing challenge and it’s one I might consider for the future. I know I could handle the workouts no problem, it’s the dieting I would be worried about! Even though I did intense training for my half-marathon and *tried* to eat healthy, I still would eat a piece of cake or have wine when I wanted, and let’s face it, runners eat a lot of carbs leading up to races so it’s the opposite from fitness competitors who eat NO carbs leading up to their shows!
I would absolutely recommend going to watch one of these shows if you ever have the opportunity, though. It was really cool.
Here are some pics from the show:
This is Jeni when she’s in competition form, this picture was actually taken from when she won the Nationals back in 2007 (she doesn’t look like this all the time). She competes in the figure category so doesn’t have to get really bulky, and I personally think she looks good here!
A group of ladies posing for the judges/audience. I think the hardest part of this would be going on stage and have the judges critique your body. The whole time they were out there the judges were going “quarter turn to the right, quarter turn to the left” etc. and they had to turn and then stand there, with smiles plastered on their faces, while everyone looked at them and decided who looked the best!
The male competitors, who my mom was cheering for quite loudly!
They did really cool performances to music where they had to do a sort of “dance” while flexing their muscles. So it shows the judges that they’re not only muscular, their also strong and fit!
The bodybuilders would have to do a “pose-off” where they had 30 seconds to flex in front of the judges. This was also done to music and was quite entertaining as they’d all be jostling each other to try and get to the front of the stage!
I wrote an article about the woman in the purple bikini, she lost 59 pounds and 61 inches training for this show!! There is a before picture of her accompanying the article I wrote (in the Published Works section is a link) and she looks SO SO SO good. Hearing stories like this show me that this kind of thing CAN be the motivation for people to start eating good and working out and it’s not as unhealthy as some people say it is!
Me, with my first ever cheque that I received for my writing! I was paid by the word and the photo for the articles I wrote! I feel like a REAL writer now 
So, what do you guy’s think of fitness competitors, have you ever seen a show? Do you know anyone who’s done it? Would YOU do it yourself?
Congratulations on your first paid assignment! The show sounded fascinating.
as fascinating as the show sounds. I just cannot get past how women look, and i tend to not think that any of those women look attractive whatsoever. but it’s quite interesting to see how hard these women work to transform their bodies to look like that. CRAZY!
and congrats on your first paid written assignment! whoo hoo!!!
very nice to get a check for writing! what a pro you are!
i got on a real bodybuilding kick a few years ago, before i got on this cardio kick. it’s amazing to see what those people put their bodies through to get the body fat % down so low. i like the weightlifting and most of the diet regimen. but the difference between 6% bodyfat that you’ll see at triathlons (and in my race reports) and the 3% bodyfat that those guys get down to is really very dangerous. drinking a cup of water before the show will knock those guys out of the medals. I don’t ever want drinking a cup of water to be a bad thing.
Congratulations on your first paycheck! I really can’t stand the look of body building on men or women. It looks wrong and slightly disgusting to me!
I know a girl who does it, and I see she gets completely consumed by it…PERSONALLY, I wouldn’t do it – BUT to each their own!!!! I also wouldn’t run a marathon, but it doesn’t mean I don’t support people who DO!! It’s just not something I have drive for.
I think it’s super interesting though, and the girl that I know who does it is about a month into training for hers and she just looks like she was carved from stone, PLUS she’s gorgeous!!! The rest of the year she takes it easy and keeps a KILLER body, just a little softer.
Thanks for this post! Sooo interesting to read about! And you’re a great writer.
I don’t think I’d want to try entering a figure contest…mostly because of how much time and energy it would take. And I couldn’t be spontaneous with any of my eating, which might cause me to isolate myself from my friends due to not being able to go to a restaurant or someting. :0( But it was cool to read about!
Fitness competitions…quite interesting. Don’t have much experience with them, although i think the people always look just a bit too grossly tan. Impressive about the lady in purple! She sure lost a lot! I love the photo of you and your check. You look so cute! Someday I want to be holding a similar check.
Congrats on the first paid assignment, that’s so exciting! Ever since I saw that True Life: I’m a Bodybuilder I’ve been really interested in these competitions. Sounds like an interesting experience!
Congrats on your first paid job!
Honestly, though I think those competitions are a little scary. Especially with the girls, its like their faces don’t match the rest of their body.
I have a friend from college who does she competitions. Except she doesn’t look freakishly muscular. But she doesn’t appear to have an ounce of fat on her body… and she follows an extremely strict diet in order to compete in these competitions. To each their own, I guess – but it’s DEFINITELY not something I’d ever be interested in doing!
Congrats on getting your first check. Or Cheque as you Canadians say.
Yes, I HAVE been to one of those shows. One of my very best friends in the entire world is a fitness freak and she trained for two shows a few years ago. She looked just like those pictures.
I’m proud of her because she accomplished a tremendous goal and did an amazing job but it was a very weird time. Her boyfriend (now husband) and her broke up over it and all of her friends (including me) were very concerned about her health. Her diet and schedule was severely strict and she refused to cheat. She wouldn’t come out with us anymore and if we went out for dinner for a special occasion she always brought her own food. It was very hard for us to understand.
She doesn’t do it anymore and she’s back to her normal size, but she does enjoy working out constantly and teaches tons of group fitness classes. She’s been teaching almost as long as I’ve known her and it’s so fun to go to her classes! It’s too hard to choose a favorite but I love step, bodypump and kickboxing
Great post! Congrats on the first check!!! That’s pretty sweet!
Congratulations on your assignment! Sounds awesome! Body building women really freak me out… I don’t know why.. probably because I’m really small.
Hey Amber!
Thank you so much for your sweet email and for answering my question!
Congrats on your first check for writing! That’s so exciting! Yay! I remember when I received my first check for writing — it was for a story about a health food store for dogs and another about the pros and cons of declawing cats. (A local magazine was doing an animal themed issue.)
Wow, a body building show! What an interesting story to cover! I’ll have to check out your article!
Oh, and btw, I think your hair looks so cute in your picture!
Gee Amber…
After reading this article i’m not feeling so good about sitting here and eating chocolate covered strawberries! I can only imagine the dedication that it takes for these women to become so fit. I don’t think i have it in me… my willpower seems to run out every time i try to lose weight or get fit. Can’t wait to see you soon!
I love fitness competitions!! I had to check out your blog being a redhead myself