Irongirl is too modest

The Anonymizer · #1 11-24-2006, 09:58 PM

She's too modest to post this herself, but I think it's deserving of some recognition. This was posted in her local online news website (name edited of course):

"IRONGIRL"

The 2006 HWC will mark the fourth competition for Irongirl, 40, who is the only female bodybuilder in this year’s competition. Last year’s event had five females, and the year before featured four.
“It’s really sad,” she said. “Bodybuilding is not a really popular sport. This is Newfoundland and you have a smaller population, so right off the bat you’re going to have much smaller numbers. And of course female bodybuilding again is even less popular.”
But Irongirl’s motivation and dedication have not dwindled because she’s the only female. In fact, she said she is in the best shape of her life.
“I know I gave 110 per cent this year,” she said. “All the judges are the same (every year) and they will know; they’ll see the difference. ***** (local bodybuilder) keeps telling me they’re going to die when they see me; that they’re not going to believe it.”
Irongirl has been especially diligent this year about focusing on past adjudications from the judges. She worked hard to make her shoulders look fuller, and to make sure her lower body, which is naturally bigger, not overpower her upper body.
“This year will be the first year my legs don’t overpower my upper body,” she said. “I’ve dropped them down, they’re leaner than they’ve ever been and they actually have separation, which they’ve never had before and it’s really hard for a woman to get anyway.”
Irongirl started getting into fitness six years ago when she was 34. She said she was overweight and wanted to lose some of the extra pounds. After doing cardio for awhile, she dropped about 42 pounds, but then began putting some of the weight back on again after a knee injury kept her away from the gym.
She vowed not to let herself get back to the 240 pounds she had been and joined the gym.
“I liked lifting weights right from the beginning,” she said. “And people were so encouraging, and then I started seeing all these changes in my body and people were noticing and commenting, and it makes you feel good.”
She would look at bodybuilding magazines because she liked the look. A friend told her she had the genetics to be a bodybuilder, and she said that was all she needed to hear.
“I never thought I would be competing at that point, but I got really serious then about my diet. I did all that myself initially and then I wanted to put on some size and get bigger muscle-wise so I geared my diet towards that and went from there.”
To get her bodybuilders’ physique, Irongirl does an hour of cardio every morning and then an hour to an hour-and-a-half of weight training in the evening. Now that she is closer to competition, she has also incorporated an additional 20 minutes of cardio in the evenings into her workout routine on weight training days (four days a week), and an extra 50 minutes on non-weight training days.
She is also extremely mindful of the food she eats, saying that 95 per cent of bodybuilding is what you put into your body.
When training for competition, her diet consists mainly of chicken, fish, oatmeal, egg whites, green vegetables, one small potato a day after she has worked out, and brown rice. She does not eat any dairy, is careful to keep her carb intake low, and stays away from fat and sugar entirely. She takes supplements, including 10 fish oil capsules a day, flax oil, extra vitamin C, and a multivitamin.
In the off-season when she is not training for competition, she will eat one piece of fruit a day, a piece of whole wheat toast every other day, and will drink protein shakes, which she has now cut out to prepare for competition.
Irongirl said she thrives on a low-carb diet, although she admits many bodybuilders find it difficult because they have very little energy.
She also eats five times a day now that she is nearer to competition, but usually eats six.
“You eat so often to keep your metabolism up,” she said. “Most people eat three times a day, but we eat smaller meals more often to keep our body temperature up.”
Now that she is a week before the show, Irongirl will increase her carb intake, which will make her muscles look fuller.
Then, the day before the show (Friday, Nov. 24), her water will be cut and she will dehydrate herself until after the competition. This will also help enhance her muscles.
On Friday evening, all competitors will weigh in to see which class they fall under. For women, there are only three classes – lightweight, middleweight and heavyweight. Irongirl expects to weigh about 138-139 pounds for the competition, which will put her in the heavyweight class (anyone over 125.5 pounds).
She and all the competitors will also spend a great deal of time on Thursday and Friday painting themselves with tanning products so their muscles look defined under the bright lights on stage. Then, before they go out onstage on Saturday, they spray themselves with oil – often many bodybuilders will use Pam cooking spray.
The judging will be done on Saturday morning. All competitors in each class take to the stage together so the judges can examine them before performing their individual posing routines. On Saturday night, the auditorium will fill with eager fans and the bodybuilders will perform again.
Irongirl had said this competition was going to be her last, but because she is in the best shape she has ever been in, she will definitely be competing in the future. She plans to take next year off, but after will be looking to compete outside of the province.