bodybuilding

October 05.

Seeing you today made me well up.

So proud of you- you look ace.

Could not tell you to your face.

I would have cried.

You look great love Ian.

These words I had to write on a scrap of paper, I had on my counter. I had just watched Michelle go through her posing routine. It was a week to her show and we were doing a dress rehearsal of sorts. This was the first time I had seen her do this routine and this was now the finished product of a whole year of hard work and tears.

Tears were welling up in my eyes and I was so choked up I could hardly talk. I placed the paper in her hand as she came from the changing room, hugged her and waved her towards the door. Michelle thanked me and made her way out, she knows me well.

Yes, I am soft and sensitive, I like to cry at chick flicks, its me plus I care a lot about my clients. I give them 100% and they do in return. Perhaps this is why we do so well in competitions.

Seeing her like that was just too much for me. She had worked so hard and had made such a dramatic change, you would have hardly recognised the Michelle of a year ago to this point. Many would have said it was impossible as many did. I knew she could do it and so did Michelle and that is all we needed.

Rewind- October 04.

Michelle was sat on the bike in bodyindesign warming up for her once weekly workout. We were having a chat about many subjects as we always have. Michelle has been a close friend of mine and Louise my wife now for the last sixteen years. Michelle sometimes calls me her big brother, as over the years I have helped her out with advice and just being a shoulder to sound off to.

I am close to Michelle, as I see her struggle through life I like to be there for her. Just being a helping hand at times, keeping her positive that things will get better. I have at times, many times struggled in many aspects of my life and come through the other end- so I help- because I know how she feels.

She won’t mind me saying this, but at this time in her life ,she was maybe at her lowest point ever. This was caused mostly, as it usually is, getting involved with the wrong guy. After many years of ups and downs- mostly downs, here she was now, two children later and on her own.

Yes- she was now the single mum caught in the trap of not being able to work for loss of benefits. Trapped in the system with no help at all from her ex partner, not even financial.

She was the lowest I had ever seen her mentally and physically. She was a shadow of her former self, gone was her confidence that seven years ago to this point had her competing in the ANB British placing 3rd behind Kim Davis, who was in the top spot that year. In-fact Michelle had won many figure shows and this was a comeback after her first child.

In October 04, here she is weighing just under 13 stone:

when her competing weight was around 9 stone. It had been seven years since she had last been in real shape. She had through sheer circumstance, bad luck and depression got out of shape. Over the years, a back injury through a car accident, plus a bad knee from way back that now needed surgery all added to her problems. Add that to trying to bring up and provide for two kids on a shoe string, anybody would get down.

Michelle ate wrong and drank wrong. Chocolate, crisps and cheap wine offered a small escape. The kids got all she had and what little their was left was hers. She was constantly robbing Peter to pay Paul, everything was hand to mouth. No available cash at all, no nights out, no DVDs, no new clothes for years- nothing-just fighting on each day.

So here she was on the bike. I was telling her about the 2004 NPA British which I had been to at the weekend. She interrupted “you know, I was so happy when I used to compete, I miss it. My life had such order and direction. When I used to work for you and Louise at the gym, they were the happiest times of my life.”

“Why not compete again”. I said, right off the bat.

“As if, I am thirty two now and my backs not good and my knee.”

I got right on at her.

“ So- We can train round them, what’s wrong with your age?. You have good skin, no stretch marks, even after two kids. That awesome shape is under there Michelle. All you have to do is lose weight, that’s all, lose weight, if you want to do it- just do it”.

I saw something in her eyes, so I pushed deeper. “You need a direction again, you need a focus, you need this for you. I’ll be here for you as always, lets do the British next year. Come on! lets go for it”.

“Do you think I can do it again?”

“Michelle I know you can, just do it, get your pride back, get that confidence back”

She smiled, the switch had been Clicked.

“Yes I will, come on let’s go for it”.

We had a great first workout that day and we chatted excitedly in rest periods about our plans. The diet started that night.

The Plan.

The plan was to start a base line diet to allow the body to balance out it’s body composition and to clean out the system. This was just a basic healthy eating plan. This along with hard training and a new found focus gave a much needed direction that worked well. The weeks ticked by.

The body fat started to reduce and muscle tone improved all round. We checked things out regular and went for target weight on the scales every week. We also worked on short term goals, as well as the big one. Six weeks to wearing shorts, twelve weeks to putting a bikini on and so on. This kept the large goal in the picture but helped with keeping that intensity and burning desire to improve.

That she did, other clients started to remark on how well she was looking and how much weight she had lost, every Saturday at boot camp we had a weigh- in with a few girls and they all gave each other a boost of confidence. Some weeks there were a few tears when her weight stuck for any length of time. But we deviated and tweaked things and got it moving again.

The Program.

We did a once a week workout, yes once a week. Believe it or not this along with my boot camp on Saturdays was and is enough. The workout was an all body high intensity routine that used weights, free hand exercises, plyometrics and agility movements to build a trained figure. We worked hard and fast and attacked each workout.

The boot camp is a workout in a class environment aimed to work the whole body with emphasis on the legs and bum. Plyometrics are heavily used and many agility moves, press ups, clean and press, core work and bag work are all thrown in the mix. This is one of the hardest workouts you could ever do and only advanced clients take part, it is always pushing the boundaries of their fitness and agility.

Michelle never missed one scheduled workout and her focus built week to week, as did her confidence. I felt the change in her, she at last had a direction, she was excited about the changes in her body. Her whole outlook on life changed, she was enjoying the journey- that could be clearly seen in her attitude as well as the change in her body.

We were around eight weeks from the NPA Yorkshire, when we had our first bikini try out. I could not believe how much she had changed, the shape was coming in, the shoulders were broad and square, hips and waist pulling in nice. If I could have only stood the old Michelle next to this one, the difference was just that startling. Looking at Michelle seven months prior, many people would have not believed this possible. Many didn’t. Now, how they are eating humble pie.

I was in awe of how far she had come and we had plans to do the August Heart of England show, the one I was scheduled to guest pose at. Things seemed on track, we made a few diet adjustments and started to pose in-between each set. Training was good ,we had a few back problems and some knee ones but they never made us let up, we just went around them. In-fact as her weight came down the problems became much less of an issue.

Five weeks out from the Heart of England and we are checking things out now with all the girls present, one Saturday after boot camp. This is the first time anybody else has seen her in a bikini other than me in years, some have never even seen Michelle compete before. This must have been so nerve racking for her. There were eight of us waiting for her to come out of the changing room. All ready to study her, this has to be done to get you ready for the stage environment again or for the first time.

So out she walks and the girls can not believe how much she has changed. It does not take long for a smile to open across her face and the nerves soon fade away. She runs through some poses and I make a few mental notes on areas that need a further attention in order for her to be her best.

The girls do a fantastic job of lifting her spirits and confidence, but I need to have a chat with her and let her down a little.

I wait till most of the girls have gone and then say. “Sorry Michelle you are not going to be ready for this one in time”. I can see her just deflate. “Look, you have come so far lets do this right, I want you to be your best. We haven’t come this far to just stand on stage I want you to have a chance of winning”.

We talked further and I explained that she needed to come down in weight a little more and work her bum and legs harder. This must have been like finishing a marathon, getting over the finishing line and then somebody saying, “hey no, you have another six miles to go!”

We made some more plans and set her on a new diet plan where I rotated her carbohydrates and protein. We also made changes in her training, incorporating a progressive and heavy workout to build some muscle tissue back and keep what she had, as the more bodyweight you loose the more likely you are to loose some muscle tissue. So- we had a fresh start. This did the trick, she had new goals, a new workout and a new diet, She went away smiling, happy and ready for a new challenge.

The workouts were hard, very hard. Michelle felt sick many times, but I knew I got nothing less than 100% from her. The more I pushed the more improvements I saw. The carbohydrate rotation diet worked fantastic and along with a more progressive weights program her body composition altered again. All credit to her she never once faltered, she did everything right and only ate what I had written down for her. As changes happened the more focused she became, as you would. The more improvements you make the less a cheat becomes an issue as you don’t want to undo the changes you are experiencing. If only people would just stick to a plan for a few weeks, the changes would come and so would the discipline.

So one week out from the NPA UK and PRO AM show. Michelle is in my gym in her bikini, preparing to show me her posing routine. This she has produced by herself, it had been a long time since she had done this but like riding a bike you never forget. She was always good at routines.

I put the CD in and she starts, I am honest to god, shocked, I can not believe the change, here she is four stone less and looking fantastic. The routine is as good as it gets, entertaining and innovative.

I feel myself welling up, my mind is whizzing back over the year all the ups and downs, hard work and tears. To me this point today was like the end of a Rocky movie. Nothing, I mean nothing had been easy for this girl. The bikini she wore and her stage shoes had been saved for, for months. The tan she had, had been paid for by a friend as she could not afford sun-beds. So her friend paid for a course at the local tan shop for her. I welled up even more, could not speak, you may think soft bugger, but I had seen this all at first hand-I was proud-very proud of her. I love my job and I am so blessed to work with such fantastic people and I thank them for being part of my life and trusting in me.

Show day ,The Penistone Paramount theatre is packed out, all the girls are there to support each other. Two of my other clients are also competing in the same class, we never have a problem with this as I have so many girls that compete its inevitable. My philosophy for this as the girls know -I give each one 100% and let the judges sort them out.

So the gang are there, her Mum and kids, plus a couple of close friends. Michelle hands me a card, I open it and it’s a thank you card with some of the kindest words in there, one line stood out. Thank you for making me the girl I once was. So after all that hard work, she stood under the lights for the first time in eight years. The day could not have gone better as she was announced the winner as we all cheer, shout and whistle as loud as we can.

She did it, yes she did, her shape was under there so was the girl of the past. She was now stood in the winners position confident and smiling looking awesome. To top it all, she was also awarded the best presentation award. What a hell of a transformation and all done with the lowest possible funds in a very tough situation, a true underdog story.

The story does not end there, three weeks later she stood on the British stage alongside ten other fantastic trained figure girls. Four including Michelle were from the bodyindesign camp, Jenny, Claire, Debbie and Michelle. Like I say, give them 100% and let the judges sort them out. Jen took the top spot looking otherworldly and Claire was in the runner up spot and Michelle took third, Debbie was just out of the top three. Hey we must be doing something right.

At the time of writing Michelle is a few weeks out from the Yorkshire show 06. She kept her weight off and has trained hard right through. To say she has improved from her last outing is an understatement.

Improvement has not just been in her body but also in her life. Many aspects of her life took a turn for the better, after that year. Maybe because her confidence had improved maybe it was the fact that she knew now she could do anything she set her mind to. I believe it is.

Look for Michelle at the Yorkshire this year as well as Debbie who again has made major improvements. That’s another story, we also have a new girl Louise. It will be a great show. Like I say- let the judges sort them out!.

Ian Duckett’s bodyindesign.

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