A bodybuilding competition was the last thing on Lisa Calhoun’s mind when she started working out at the gym nearly four years ago.
A gymnastics coach, she started lifting weights at Gold’s Gym daily with a former co-worker. The two would joke about competing one day.
[adrotate banner=”21″]
“Slowly my thinking started changing,” she said. “It went from, ‘Maybe I could,’ to, ‘I want to try it.’”
By November 2018, she hired a coach, and a year later, she competed in her first event and won.
Calhoun is one of several area women who are competitive bodybuilders. They compete in different federations and in different classes, but they share a similar drive to push their bodies to be the best they can be.
Starla Stallings, 39, started competing about five years ago.
The thought of bodybuilding had entered her mind when she was in college.
“I saw fitness models, and I thought ‘I would love to look like that,’” she said.
But it would be several years before she made that dream a reality.
Before she decided to make the transformation, she and her husband found themselves wanting to lose some pounds. She found a fitness challenge online. She saw some of the transformation photos and decided to jump in. With her first competition, she won the overall title. Stallings has joined the ranks of professional bodybuilders.
Her husband, Jarmaur Stallings, embraced the journey too. He’s now her coach, and he coaches other bodybuilders as well including Sandy Steed.
Steed, 46, eyed bodybuilding four years ago.
“At the beginning, I was competing with myself,” she said. “Now I want to be pro. I’m an amateur, but I want to be pro.”
Steed said bodybuilding came out of a desire to take charge of her health.
“I’m pre-disposed to diabetes,” she said.
Four years ago, she looked at her body and realized she was heading in the wrong direction. She knew she had to make some changes. She thought about other forms of exercise, but she doesn’t like cardio and she didn’t want to run a half marathon.
She went to church with someone who’d been a bodybuilder and that woman inspired her.
“I love muscle better,” she said.
While they maintain their fitness levels and workout even when not preparing for a competition, they buckle down about 12 to 16 weeks out, according to Stallings.
“That means cleaning up your diet, taking away refined sugar, eating whole foods,” she said.
[adrotate banner=”33″]
Stalling said she’s grateful to have a coach who cares about her and her overall health. She’s been around competitions long enough to know that not everyone is so fortunate. Some coaches are so focused on a win that they don’t consider the bodybuilders well-being.
The league Stallings competes in tests for illegal drug use and steroids, but she’s known of coaches who stress the use of diuretics multiple times a day. Some have practically unattainable goals.
Physical health is important, but mental and emotional health play a key role as well.
Stallings said competitors have to have a healthy self-image and realize that all judging is subjective.
“I’m chasing my best me,” she said.
She doesn’t get down on herself if one judge doesn’t think she’s in the best shape or has the best physique. She has to maintain that focus or else she’d stop doing it.
Calhoun echoed Stallings.
“Your physique is your physique,” Calhoun said. “You’ll go crazy if you compare your physique to someone else’s.”
Calhoun said she’s also fortunate to have found a coach whose main concern is her health and well-being, and she’s taken a non-traditional route. Although Calhoun lives in Augusta, her coach lives in Canada. They do everything virtually.
“Her first concern is me as a person. Lisa as a competitor is always second,” she said. “She’s a gem.”
The trio offers some advice for anyone interested in bodybuilding.
Steed said to find your “why.”
[adrotate banner=”21″]
What’s the reason for wanting to compete? That’s what will keep a competitor going through 4 a.m. workouts and pushing oneself to the limit.
Once that’s been established, find a good coach.
Just because someone is a trainer at a gym doesn’t make them a competitive bodybuilding coach, said Steed, whose husband is a trainer, but he’s not her coach.
Stallings said a good resource is www.bodybuilding.com. There are articles specifically targeting the sport and provide a lot of good information.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
[adrotate banner=”31″]
