“I have a fabulous body, everybody says it”

Saturday, July 28, 2012

SHE ARRIVES with two turkey breasts in her handbag.

It’s the only indication that the slender, attractive 30-something might be a little different from you or me. Her arm muscles too are notably toned but not the bulging biceps I expected. I am a little disappointed. She’s leaning on crutches. One of the hazards of the routine that she drove her body through on stage as judges watched and marked her performance.

The result makes Jennie Mayberry smile. Fifth in the amateur World Championships for Female Bodybuilder in the Toned Figure category. There’s no denying it’s a baffling sport for most of us. What drives a woman to undertake an arduous fitness and gruelling dietary regime for the glory of standing on stage under layers of tan in a bikini? It ain’t the money. Being serious about bodybuilding is a costly business. Over 100 eggs a week, six chicken breasts or fish fillets a day depending on your category, the supplements, the gym fees and the outfits. Outfits, which can cost anything up to €2,000 at competition time.

“I’ve always been competitive,” explains Jennie. “From the age of three, I trained as a dancer, I wanted to go to Russia as a teenager and become professional and I’ve been weight training since I was 15. I compete with people over everything, it drives my friends crazy, it drives me crazy.”

Angela McNamara, World champion Bodybuilder in 2009 and 2010 has more emotional reasons.

“A lot of it was to do with my daughter going off to college. The house was empty, I would walk around thinking what am I going to do now?”

It also runs in her genes. Her mother was a champion body builder, her father a boxer and her grandfather a strong man.

“We grew up in gyms; it took up all our time and money.”

The Limerick-born 39-year-old knows the impact such extreme dedication to a sport can have on a family.

“We found that our parents didn’t spend a lot of time with us, “It’s a selfish sport,” she adds simply.

To reach Angela’s standard is unquestionably a full-time occupation. She gets up in the middle of the night to eat. And it’s not milk and cookies. Usually a “light snack of cold white fish”. Then she’s back up at 6am to eat the second meal of the day, six scrambled eggs. A half an hour later it’s mealtime again, half a breast of chicken usually. How many meals a day?

“I eat on average every two hours and I make 12 tubs of food each day for the next day. I’m a driving instructor, so I bring the food with me in the car. I had to stop bringing the eggs though.”

By normal standards, Angela should be enormous. But the food is low fat, low sugar and her training regime makes sure the extra two and half stone she gains every winter converts straight to muscle. Somehow after listening to stories of their diet, the training regime of Ireland’s female body builders doesn’t seem so drastic.
Angela heads for a 40-minute walk in the morning, 40-minute run in the evening and to the gym for a few hours of weights in the afternoon.

Thirty-year-old Laura Newton from Galway turned to bodybuilding gradually. It began as an attempt to lose weight. “I used to be a lot heavier than I am now, a size 16 and I did a lot of fad diets that never really worked. Then I started kick-boxing in a body building gym and it progressed from there.”

All three work full-time and schedule their training around the job. Socialising has to be worked in and any partner has to come with more than a little understanding.

So how isolating can it become? Laura agrees it can be a little lonely. “When I was invited to the World Championships, I realised I had no one to tell. My family aren’t into it so I could only share it with my training partner and friends at the gym. People who don’t train, I call them normal people, sometimes they don’t understand.”

Watching your daughter put herself through such lengths must be bewildering for the non-bodybuilding parent. Laura is not alone in having parents who are less than happy. Jennie’s parents knew about her fitness regime and her weight training, but thought that was all there was to it.

“When I told them I was entering competitions, they nearly disowned me,” she said.

Neither Jennie nor Laura’s parents attended the NABBA world championship event in Dublin recently where both competed. “I asked them not to go, they would make me too nervous,” says Jennie. Laura agrees she’s happier her family stay away but makes an interesting point. “It’s quite hard to see your daughter up on the stage in a bikini, and sort of posing.”

On an emotional level it’s difficult too. Laura suffered severely from cramping during the previous preparation regime for competition. “You can be literally crying with the pain of the cramping, caused by the lack of sodium and feeling so drained all the time. My parents are proud of what I have achieved but they don’t like it as they see the torture I go through.”

Female bodybuilding evokes plenty of negative commentary. Former glamour model Jodie Marsh fought off criticism that she had developed a manly figure after turning to bodybuilding. None of the Irish bodybuilders appear bothered by jibes or unpleasant comments.

Jennie says she’s never experienced any nasty remarks. When I ask Laura if there is something unfeminine about the look, she retorts: “There’s nothing unfeminine about me, I can assure you. I have muscle but it’s the way I choose to look and I like it.”

Angela, easily the most muscly woman I have seen, is equally sanguine. “I have a fabulous body, everybody says it.” She adds: “When I look at my friends who are half my age, their bodies are in an awful state.”

Being militarily disciplined about the content of food entering their bodies doesn’t stave the cravings. Angela has been craving an almond Choc Ice for three days. She’s afraid to give in though because she wonders where it might stop.

“On my birthday I buy two cakes, one to share with everyone else and one to eat myself.”

I think she’s joking. She assures me she’s not. “I’m a powerlifter. I have eaten a full cake, many times.” Her friends know not to invite her to weddings when she’s building up towards a competition. “I would eat everyone else’s food. You just can’t eat small amounts, your body craves food all the time.”

This all sounds alarming but Angela only laughs. “We’re elite athletes, it’s not a hobby, or a sport, it’s a lifestyle. Laura concedes that cravings can drive her crackers too.

“I know it sounds terrible, but I have been known to chew on a biscuit, just to get the taste, and then spit it out. Usually when I get the craving, I rub my (ribbed) stomach and that stops me.”

Elite athletes or not, the Irish Sports Council is not yet convinced that bodybuilding can be deemed a professional sport. It’s a factor that upsets many bodybuilders but the sport’s association with steroids may be a contributing factor. Competing entrants face random drug testing. The female bodybuilders I talk to tell me they would never take performance enhancing drugs. The side-effects, according to Laura, are not only increased muscle size, but facial hair, a square jaw and a deeper voice in women. A bit of a giveaway, she reckons.

Given that the lifestyle is all consuming, what happens as they age? “This is for life,” says Angela, who at 39 is already a grandmother. “You can be 100 years old and still on the stage.” Jennie disagrees. “I don’t think I’d like to be standing on a stage at 60.”Home