Bodybuilders show off their hard work in Fresno
Date: 11-03-2007
Posted by: Anabolic Info TeamUnited States |
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Standing backstage, waiting to change into a red bikini and clear plastic high heels, bodybuilder Lynne Wooddy sneaked a candy bar.
"It's part of the training regimen," she said with a laugh, hiding the half-eaten snack behind her.
Wooddy had just weighed in for the the Fresno Bodybuilding and Figure Classic, sanctioned by the National Physique Committee, in the Fresno High School auditorium Saturday. Now she could eat.
The competition drew about 60 male and female bodybuilders from throughout California, many from the Fresno area.
"I used to be really overweight," said Wooddy, 45. Then she went to work as a massage therapist at Gold's Gym Fitness Center in Fresno.
"I started asking people how they took care of themselves. I thought, I can't be a dumpy massage therapist. It took me about 2.2 minutes to figure it out.
"This morning, I'm 121.4. I used to weigh 170," said Wooddy, who's 5 feet 5 inches tall.
Wooddy drew her inspiration to compete from Vicky Korner, 49, a personal trainer at Gold's Gym who began competing as a bodybuilder when she was 40. She's 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds.
Both women were competing in the figure division, in which women are judged on an overall athletic build rather than on just muscles.
"I feel my physique is much more suited to figure. Being tall, it's hard for me to look as big onstage," said Korner.
She spread dark tan makeup on her legs, noting: "It gives you a better stage color."
Competitors performed a series of compulsory poses during the morning prejudging and were to return that night for the finals round to perform individual routines set to music.
"I felt pretty good, except I kept cramping up," said Joel Alcaraz Ruiz, 18, of Fresno, a former Bullard High School wrestler who competed for the first time in the teen division. "I was really nervous."
Korner and Wooddy competed in the masters division for women 35 and older. It's a harder field than the men's masters division, Korner said. "The men are broken into over 40, over 50, over 60. We have to compete with girls 15 years and more younger than we are."
The men also compete with bare feet, Wooddy says, pulling her platform high heels out of her gym bag.
"To walk in a little suit and high heels is very difficult. You just have to put on your biggest smile and go out there."
