Contest Coverage – FemaleMuscle, Female Bodybuilding and TalkLive by Bodybuilder Lori Braun

Claudia Fijal’s life has revolved around her image ever since she was 12. That’s when she started modeling, a career that’s led her to an increasingly popular fitness trend.

“Modeling is the only thing I know,” she said between triceps extensions at Premier Fitness on Rockford’s northeast side. “And one day I’ll wake up and the calls for jobs will have just stopped coming.”

To remain relevant in her industry, Fijal, 27, has taken what some might consider an extreme path to maintain her physique. Fijal has round shoulders, well-defined leg muscles and veins running over her lean abdominal muscles. For the past eight months, she’s crushed 30-second intervals on the StairMaster, pumped iron barbells six days a week and restricted her diet — sometimes eating only white fish and vegetables for days at a time.

The extreme nature of the sport concerns health care professionals, yet bikini bodybuilding continues to grow because of factors such as social media and more female-friendly judging criteria.

“Bodybuilder” isn’t typically associated with long blond hair, manicured nails and contoured eyebrows, but that’s exactly what Claudia is, and she trains for the vanity sport’s newest subcategory, the bikini division.

Women’s bodybuilding has been growing in popularity ever since theInternational Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness, or IFBB, the governing body of professional bodybuilding, introduced a bikini category in 2010. Since then, the number of professional female competitions has nearly quadrupled around the world.

Rockford is part of the trend. Kevin Noble, the promoter for National Physique Committee, or NPC, the largest governing body in amateur bodybuilding, has organized Rockford bodybuilding shows since 1988. In May, 72 women registered for the bikini division of his biannual show — 41 more participants than the second-most popular division, figure. He said NPC shows in Rockford have become more popular over the past decade, especially since the introduction of the bikini category.

“Bikini has just gone bananas,” Noble said. “The girls can get on stage, get recognized, and still be able to train. The idea is totally hot right now.”

A decade ago, you’d be lucky to see 100 participants in an NPC-organized show, said Daniel Stevens, owner of Premier Fitness. Now, Stevens, who is also an NPC Illinois certified judge, estimates that shows draw an average of 250.

“Ten years ago, if you wanted to lose a lot of weight you’d sign up for a marathon, but now it’s bodybuilding,” he said. “It’s not as much of an underground subculture as it used to be (in the 1980s). It’s becoming more mainstream.”

The sport appeals to women who want to get in the best shape of their lives and lose weight. And they like the recognition.

“We’re in a culture that says you need to stick out rather than fit in, which is uniquely American,” said Diane York Blaine, a University of Southern California professor who specializes in gender studies. “Here in the U.S., we have created the concept of ‘the individual,’ which men have and women want to play, too.”

Fijal met Daniel Stevens nine years ago at a car show, and then reconnected 2 1/2 years ago when he wanted to feature Fijal in an advertisement for Premier Fitness. The couple later married, and Fijal began competing. She uses bodybuilding competitions, and the preparation they require, as a healthier alternative to the crash dieting habits she developed while trying to land modeling gigs in Los Angeles.

“When (agents) would tell me I was too fat for a certain job, I’d run on the treadmill for a couple hours and starve myself until I felt skinny enough to land a different one,” she said.

Stevens, a Rockford native with a background in competitive fitness, personal training and amateur bodybuilding, helped Fijal focus on fitness over thinness.

“When I first saw her, I knew she had serious potential because she’s a tough cookie,” Stevens said. “I knew she could be a masterpiece. Bodybuilders are artists — we see our bodies as a canvas and the weights as our tools.”

With some fitness guidance from Stevens, Fijal started landing more modeling jobs — with big names such as Maxim and ESPN, among others. She was named Kandy magazine’s “2015 Krush of the Year” — the equivalent of Playboy’s “Playmate of the Year” — and recently won her class at a competition in Iowa.

The couple, who refer to themselves as “Fitness Barbie and Ken,” operate Premier Fitness, a mecca for the more obsessive fitness fans in northern Illinois. As business partners, they’re capitalizing on the trend; Fijal uses her modeling experience to coach posing practices, and Stevens uses his background to devise meal plans for a team of eight women.

Haley Pekala was seeking to tone up her legs, lift her butt and attain “boulder shoulders” when she started training with Premier Fitness last winter. She had hit a plateau in her solo workout routine.

“My goal has always been to lose weight, and competing really takes it to the next level,” she said. “I’m not a stick figure, and I don’t want to be … I might keep pushing myself to lose more, but mostly I’m just happy that I’ve gained so much muscle.”

‘Beauty pageant with muscles’

The women’s bodybuilding hierarchy is based on muscle, with the most buff women at the top of the pyramid. There are four categories: bodybuilding, which started in the early 1980s, physique, figure and, most recently, bikini.

The bikini body, meant to appeal to women who want the beach body look, can be obtained in as little as 12 weeks. Judges look for symmetry, tone and femininity — not exaggerated muscles and ripped abdominals.

In the physique and figure categories, judges’ scores are based on a woman’s athleticism and proportion. Athleticism is assessed during a two-minute routine centered on flexibility, strength and endurance. Physique and figure bodies, which require a certain degree of muscle maturity, are attained over the course of months, years and decades.

Conversely, bikini posing practices at Premier Fitness emphasize sass and sex appeal. Competitors perform front and back poses. Noble, the NPC promoter, said the “more well-endowed girls tend to place higher in bikini.”

Most competitors wear hair extensions, stage makeup and clear plastic heels and have long nails and spray tans several shades darker than their natural skin tone. The darker the tan, the more well-defined the muscles look under bright stage lights.

“It’s a beauty pageant with muscles,” Noble said. “Bikini was introduced so women could think, ‘OK, I can pump iron and be muscular and toned, and I can still be feminine and sexy.’”

With bikini competitions on the rise, traditional female bodybuilding, in which women seek to emulate the male physique, is disappearing. The IFBB voted to discontinue women’s bodybuilding at the continental and world levels in 2013, although it still exists in some smaller-scale competitions. Ms. Olympia, the largest professional bodybuilding contest in the world, discontinued the women’s bodybuilding category after its 2014 competition.

Noble followed suit, and the May show in Rockford did not offer traditional women’s bodybuilding. The category “used to be OK in the late ’70s and early ’80s,” he said, but then women started to look “too big.”

“A lot of the women get into the gym and start to see results,” Noble said. “Then they work out more. Then they start using drugs and work out even more. Then they get into that mode where they start getting too big and they can’t see themselves like the outside world does. They become over-muscled by society’s standards.

“The other categories give women a different standard so they don’t get nearly as big or freakish as women used to in (the traditional) bodybuilding division.”

Blaine, the USC professor, said the decline in traditional female bodybuilding reflects cultural expectations that have been around for several hundred years.

“There’s decreased popularity … because of the cultural need to re-establish the idea of opposite sexes,” she said. “When women are getting too independent and too powerful … there always seems to be some kind of backlash that puts women back in their place.

“It seems to me that we’re concerned about females who are in fact able to get muscle and bulk that very much resembles that of men. (Some academics theorize) physical differences are now almost the only ‘proof’ of the superiority over the female. It is the one last bastion of male superiority.”

Women’s body fat percentages are naturally higher than men’s, and reducing that percentage requires a strict diet before competitions. Ask any competitor about the worst part of the journey, and she’ll tell you it’s the diet. She’ll also tell you that without a strict diet, she won’t win.

The diet

June Darling’s path to scoring a bikini bodybuilding trophy started with five or six lean meals a day.

Every Sunday, Darling prepared her meals for the following week according to a plan provided by Stevens. During the weeks leading up to her second competition of the year, she weighed portions of white fish on a food scale, baked a few pans of green asparagus, and then divided the food into plastic containers. She usually eats separately from her husband and son, who do not adhere to meal plans.

An Army veteran, Darling started working out as a way to pass the time when she was stationed in Korea. Fitness then became a lifestyle she carried with her back to the U.S. Competition has become “addictive,” she said.

“When I’m not prepping for a show, I don’t really know what to do with my diet. I get used to eating (several) small meals throughout the day, and if I’m not working out then I can’t eat like that anymore. It’s really hard to make that switch.

At the start of a training cycle, Stevens said, the women go with the “God diet; if he made it, we can eat it.” Over time, however, meal plans change and certain foods are subtracted from the plan. By “peak week” — the week leading up to the competition, also known as “hell week” by the bikini competitors — food is restricted mostly to several meals of white fish and vegetables — even for breakfast. In the 24 hours leading up to a show, competitors do not drink water so they don’t appear bloated.

Shirley Poole, a registered dietitian and nutritionist at Rockford Health System, said the rapid weight loss and strict diet can come as a shock to the body.

“In order to lose weight so quickly, the (competitors) have to be starving themselves to some degree. And when you’re only eating from one or two food groups you will have a nutrient deficiency. If you look at this from a broad point of view, it’s socially acceptable anorexic behavior.”

Stevens said that he knows the gym attracts “borderline obsessive personalities,” but that he strives to teach balance.

“When it comes to preparing, we tell them to put the mirrors away,” he said. “We give them cheat meals where they can eat whatever they want. We tell them not to get upset about how much they weigh because the number is irrelevant.”

None of the women train year-round, and they acknowledge that their bodies could use a break from the extremes. Transitioning out of the sport can be difficult on the body and mind, however.

“I would guess the vast majority of the competitors become addicted to this lifestyle, so when it’s time to cycle out (of show preparation) we try to reintroduce foods into the diet over a few weeks’ time. We call it ‘the rebound period,'” Stevens said. “But sometimes you get the extreme people who immediately start eating junk again. Then they gain the weight back quickly.”

Competitor Haley Pekala said she welcomed a break from the pressures of show prep after competing in May. But with time off came a vacation, and with a vacation came some “unhealthy” eating.

“At this point, I still want to have more muscle mass and lose more weight. But when are you really going to be happy? You always want to improve.”

The yo-yo dieting doesn’t sit well with Emilie Lindsay, a nutritionist at Van Matre Rehabilitation Hospital in Rockford. She said she won’t work with bodybuilders because the desired results are not what she considers healthy.

“It’s a very slippery slope when a sport or diet revolves around numbers, like how low you can get your body fat percentage. This kind of lifestyle can harm your metabolism, your bones and your cognition,” she said. “I preach the ‘everything in moderation’ concept.”

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‘It’s worth it’

Although women’s bodybuilding is gaining popularity, it remains an elite sport. It can cost thousands of dollars to prepare for a single show when factoring in the expense of a good coach, an official NPC membership card, fresh food, professional hair and makeup and health supplements. A typical competition swimsuit runs north of $550. Some women go so far as to pay for breast implants in an attempt to look more feminine after losing their subcutaneous layer of fat.

Amateur competitors usually win trophies, T-shirts and glory. Winners also advance to a national competition, where they have a shot at attaining “pro” status.

“A modern, fit female’s appearance suggests that she has the money and the time to control her body and face,” Blaine said. “These women are seeking achievement and status, and I’m sure a lot of them are privileged.”

Poole said the long-term health risks aren’t visible to the competitors.

“I don’t think we know as much as we want to know,” she said. “The question is, how does this damage you internally? Are you destroying heart muscles by overexercising? Losing the fat that protects your vital organs? How balanced are your hormones?”

Despite the costs and potential health risks, Fijal credits the sport with giving her a much-needed lifestyle change.

“After living in LA, the fitness route was hard to get used to, but it is so much better,” she said. “I wish I could tell those girls who are out there (who are crash dieting) that this is a much healthier lifestyle.”

Name: Hayley Hirshland

Age: 25

Height: 168 cm

Contest Weight: 54 kg

Offseason Weight: 54 kg

Social Media Pages:

Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat – @hayleyhirshland
http://facebook.com/hayleyhirshland

Sponsors: Currently Seeking Sponsorship

Trainer: Menno Henselmans (bayesianbodybuilding.com)

Contest History:

2015 NPC Pride of the Midwest Championships: Figure (Medium) 3^rd place
2016 Wisconsin Natural Championships WNBF Pro Qualifier: Figure (Medium) 1^st place, Figure Overall winner (earned Figure Pro-Card), Fit Body (Tall) 1^st place, Fit Body Overall winner (earned Fit Body Pro-Card)
2016 WNBF Central USA Natural Championships (Pro Debut): Figure 1^st Place

Training Split: Full-body weight training 6-7 times a week. Cardio is dependent on contest schedule, but I train in classical Indian Bharatanatyam dance for three hours each week.

Tell us a little bit about yourself for our readers?

Hayley Hirshland: While I am originally a Midwesterner at heart, I am an international traveller, polyglot (I speak Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and English fluently), and absolute fitness addict. I was a competitive figure skater when I was younger and have always had a passion for watching and participating in sports (I worked at the Golf Channel in Orlando, FL as well as Golf Network in Tokyo, Japan, and my family is heavily involved in the golf world). I began weight training consistently in 2013 and starting competing at the end of 2014 – I cannot get enough! Outside of fitness, I am obsessed with cooking (I watch the Food Network like no one’s business), taking care of my cat (Xiao Hui – means “little grey” in Chinese), and I listen almost exclusively to rap music. The strangest things I have done are either drinking unpasteurized yak’s milk mixed with liquor in China or being on a Japanese game show (I intend to be on American Ninja Warrior next).

When did you start first start lifting weights and why?

HH: My high school in Madison, WI offered weightlifting class as an option for P.E, so I took that in my last semester of school after returning to the United States after studying abroad in the south of Japan. I am lucky that I was able to learn proper lifting form early on, which has certainly helped me with my training to this day.

I became more serious about my training while I was living in Tokyo, Japan. I moved there in January 2013 to work for a Japanese golf television station and my job was extremely stressful (it was not uncommon to work for over 12 hours a day). I would take the easy route when it came to nutrition by eating out constantly and not making the correct choices when at work functions. I was never overweight, but found that I had gained quite a bit after a few months of living abroad and I decided to make a change. I joined Gold’s Gym in downtown Tokyo, began lifting first thing in the morning before work, and stayed consistent in my training. Woman’s Shape and Sport Magazine, a Japanese fitness publication, eventually approached me, and they featured me on the cover of their Summer 2013 issue. My passion for weight training has only increased since then!

If you could go back to when you first started training what advice would you give yourself?

HH: If I could go back in time, I would tell myself to hire a proper trainer from the get-go, make whole-food nutrition a priority for my overall health and wellness instead of choosing the overly-processed “bodybuilding” supplements/food that the industry is saturated with, and truly understand that the best way to achieve results is through dedication and persistence.

More and more women are taking up weight training and seeing the benefits. What do you believe is driving this growth?

HH: I truly am inspired by the athletic women that I have met through this sport and I think that the majority of them enjoy the confidence and physical and mental strength that bodybuilding gives them. I know for me personally, I was probably a more standard image of a “desirable body” in terms of what the media claims is “desirable” before bodybuilding, but I was restricting calories, felt sick, and was constantly seeking affirmation from others. I think women are starting to understand that having a “thigh gap” and stick skinny arms, or not bothering to eat when they are hungry or skipping meals, all to appease someone else’s idea of “beautiful” is both morally incorrect and damaging. Bodybuilding has given me confidence, physical, spiritual, and mental clarity, and has allowed me to meet a community of women who are constantly growing and improving on themselves. I hope that this trend continues, as I love to see women who can find confidence their bodies, minds, and true capabilities.

Although more women have taken up weight training than probably ever before the myth that doing heavy weights will make a woman masculine is still quite common. What would you say to people who believe this myth?

HH: Unfortunately I receive many comments daily on my physique stating that I am “too bulky”, “too manly”, or that I “look like a boy”. I would beg to differ and say that I went from someone who was sickly thin to an athletic, strong woman with curves, strength, and confidence. I personally believe that weightlifting allows for a woman to build a beautiful physique, but more importantly, gives her the confidence to love and appreciate the body she has for what it is capable of doing as wellas what it looks like. If you feel good about yourself, you begin to radiate confidence and can spend your valuable time and energy focusing on the things in life that truly matter!

What factors do you believe are important in creating a successful training routine?

HH: I think that people tend to neglect full body exercises and tend to focus on isolation work (which certainly has it’s place in weight training) when they first begin. I tend to see a lot of women enter the gym, perform triceps push downs, some bicep curls, and abdominal exercises, do some cardio and leave. It was only after I started doing exercises that utilize your entire body, such as pull-ups, push-ups, squat variations, heavy deadlifts, etc. that I found real results. I also make sure that I am always using full range of motion and proper form when lifting. Bodybuilders aren’t power lifters, but we should also certainly work with heavy weights and should constantly be progressing.

What was your motivation to step on stage and compete for the first time?

HH: Honestly, I wasn’t interested in competing at all when I first started training. The Japanese magazine that I write for asked if I would be willing to compete so they could get an idea of how the competitions in the United States work, and I thought “why not?” I competed in the NPC, and didn’t enjoy myself, as I knew that I couldn’t succeed against athletes that may or may not have been using PEDs, but I thought I would give it another chance, but in a drug-tested competition. After meeting all of the incredible athletes, coaches, and attendees through the WNBF and feeling confident in my performance in the gym and on the stage, I caught the bug and can’t get enough!

You won two pro cards in your first ever natural competition. How did that feel?

HH: I honestly was so shocked, as I went into the competition solely for the experience. I did not have the greatest experience competing in the NPC, and I wanted to give bodybuilding competitively one more chance. Having to pose six times in one day (morning and night shows for Figure and Fit Body, as well as Figure Overall and Fit Body Overall) was extremely draining (we also seem to pose for a lot longer in the WNBF), so I felt a rush of emotions – I was honored, excited, tired, and had tears in my eyes; I was so happy that my hard work had paid off in such a way. I will forever be grateful to the WNBF for making competing one of the best experiences!

Physique and competition wise what do you consider to be your strong points?

HH: I currently think that my best body parts are my shoulders/deltoids, which is funny to say, because I always was self-conscious about my arms in general, even before I began bodybuilding. I certainly would like to add more size and definition to my calves, and am looking to further lean out my legs, which should happen over time. Competition-wise, I always make sure to smile and look directly at the judges – even if it is cheesy, I feel like it allows me to connect with them and gives me good stage presence.

Competitor numbers are growing across all divisions in the natural federations. What do you believe is driving this growth?

HH: I think that people are finding out that there are more divisions other than the few that may be more notorious for non-tested competitions. I think what was happening was that people would compete in those federations, get discouraged as natural athletes who could physically not become as big as the non-natural competitors, and then give up on competitions all together. I nearly did that, but I’m glad that I did my research and found the WNBF and its affiliates. That being said, one of the most impressive things about the natural federations is that all of the competitors have impressive conditioning and can certainly hold their own in the other federations; we just have to work a little differently (and over a longer period of time) to get similar results, but that makes the final result all the more satisfying.

Now that you’ve achieved your pro card what goals do you aim to achieve moving forward in your professional career?

HH: I am a translator by trade, so I am extremely lucky in the sense that I have the ability to control my schedule. This allows me to train and eat at optimal times for my body and, despite having strict deadlines, makes my work life relatively stress-free. I am looking to continue my training as usual, earn a sponsorship, and potentially squeeze in one more competition before Worlds in November. I would also eventually like to compete overseas in a natural competition.

You lived in Japan and have been published in Japanese fitness magazines. What is the fitness and bodybuilding scene like in Japan?

HH: The bodybuilding scene is just starting to make waves in Japan, but it is still relatively underground, especially for Japanese women. Unfortunately, there are still social stigmas for women that do not have extremely “skinny” body types and much of the fitness industry targeted at women is still flooded with gimmicky “diet” products (a great example is the face roller that “makes your face slimmer”…). Many of the exercise programs targeted at Japanese women still involve general aerobics, stretching, yoga, and Pilates for “weight loss”. I think it will be a while before bodybuilding truly takes off as much as it has in the United States, but Japanese people are starting to realize the benefits of weightlifting as fitness publications and television shows gain more traction. Currently, the only true “bodybuilding” gym in Japan is Gold’s Gym, which has a fairly large presence throughout the country, but gym memberships generally range from USD $200-$300 a month, so people end up not joining because of the cost.

Why do you choose to be a natural athlete and compete in natural, drug tested competition?

HH: I choose to be a natural athlete because it’s extremely important to me to exemplify that a fit lifestyle is something that can be maintained over the long run. Although drugs, supplements, and other shortcuts have permeated the bodybuilding world, it is very important to showcase that bodybuilding can be achieved in a healthy and holistic manner. Your “prime” while on drugs is most likely a very short one before you risk illness or severe injury due to the side effects, whereas drug free athletes are overall healthy individuals, and personify hard-work, effort, and dedication. I hope to showcase that great muscular gain can be made the natural way through a combination of intense effort and calculated approaches to dieting and training. It certainly is not the easiest way to go about bodybuilding, but it is absolutely the most gratifying.

What would be the number one piece of advice you would share with our readers?

HH: The biggest struggle of the natural athlete is that our gains come more slowly. My transformation up to this point has been years in the making, and no one sees the hours and discipline I have put in in both the kitchen and gym to get results, and I am still in the midst of progressing and further improving my physique. Stick with it, enjoy the process, don’t stress (it releases cortisol anyway!), and the results will come in time.

Thank you for your interview. Is there anything else you would like to add?

Hayley Hirshland: I would like to thank my family, who didn’t really understand my interest in the sport at first, but have come to be very involved, my boyfriend (my biggest supporter and, most importantly, executive “body oiler/suit gluer”), my trainer, Menno Henselmans (I couldn’t have achieved my current physique without his guidance), the WNBF for their integrity in the sport by promoting natural/drug-tested competitions, and my fans (both in the U.S. and abroad) and fellow competitors who inspire me to work harder every single day!