Bridgewater woman triumphs at bodybuilding championship
Date: 20-01-2012
Posted by: Anabolic Info TeamUnited States |
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Bridgewater resident Pat Sullivan knows well the phrase, “No pain, no gain.”
Sullivan trained rigorously and also followed a strict diet for five months to prepare for her first National Physique Committee Figure Competition at the 2011 New Jersey Gold‘s Classic Bodybuilding, Fitness and Figure Championships held Oct. 22 in Brick, which brought out 69 competitors.
Awards were given to top five place finishers in each class.
Whatever pain Sullivan may have experienced in her training, was rewarded with the gaining of respect and a third-place finish in Novice Figure and a fifth-place showing in Masters Figure.
Sullivan, who just turned 50, was the oldest female participant. She is married and has one child, a son who is 20.
Although Sullivan followed a strict work-out routine and extremely regimented diet, her tips can help build lean muscle, a commitment to working-out, and she hopes her passion for fitness may inspire others to start the new year with fitness and health as a top resolution.
While preparing for the competition, Sullivan trained three times a day, seven days a week for 20 weeks which included 45 minutes of morning cardio, posing routine practice, intense weightlifting, and in the evening for an hour – doing another 45 minutes of cardio. She said while training, she woke up 7 a.m., five days a week (later on the weekends), drank water and went right to the treadmill for 45 minutes before eating. “Then I‘d get ready for work and pack up my food containers for the day,” she said. “Each day took a great deal of preparation, food weighing and planning,” she said. “My friends would laugh at all the food containers I would have to carry around with me all day.”
During training, Sullivan monitored carbohydrates, proteins and fats. “Everything is counted and measured and eat proportions depending on how far out from the competition you are,” she said. “The diet was high in protein, and included complex carbohydrates and nutritional supplements. A typical day for me would be to eat six high protein small meals a day timed every two hours.”
Meal ideas included chicken breast with spinach, ground chicken breast burger with green beans, a whey protein shake, four hard-boiled egg whites, and turkey breast and broccoli. On the days where she allotted for carbohydrates she would add a small sweet potato or oatmeal to one or two of the meals that day. “Plus, I made sure I drank a gallon of water everyday,” she said. “I don’t particularly like fish, so my proteins came from egg whites, chicken and turkey.”
This regimented meal planning was tough, admits Sullivan. “The hard part was if my two-hour meal timer went off when I was out or at an appointment. So as not to miss a meal, I’d always have whey protein on hand to add to my water bottle,” she said.
She allowed herself two cheat meals, one on Memorial Day and the other on Labor Day. “The two planned cheat meals consisted of anything I could eat in an hour. I believe for my Labor Day cheat meal I had four slices of pizza, cookies, Twizzlers, Reese’s cups, and a hot-fudge sundae,” she recalled.
In addition to diet, and exercising, her training included posing routine practice, which Sullivan said is important because competitors must master model poses and the three mandatory, front, side and back quarter turn poses while walking in 5½” heels. “Doing all your workouts is one thing, but you have to bring all your hard work to life on the stage,” said Sullivan. “During competition, you have to walk to the middle of the stage alone and perform model poses. Posing practice is much harder than it sounds as you have to hold and squeeze your muscles for a few minutes and get used to less than natural back arching as well as breaking in your heels.”
Sullivan admits this intense training schedule was difficult to maintain working full time as a senior manager, cost optimization at AT&T in Morristown. She holds a bachelor of science degree in exercise physiology from William Paterson University and a master of science degree in management from the College of St. Elizabeth. “I had to join three gyms to fit my workouts in depending where I was that day,” said Sullivan.
Her morning routine started walking briskly on an incline and over time increased the morning cardio on the treadmill to a 45 minutes interval run walk. After work, there was more but she said she switched it up to the bike, or an elliptical machine if she became tired of the treadmill. “Following, that I did an hour of grueling weightlifting with a trainer, concentrating on two body parts a day, and then headed to the other gym for p.m. cardio, getting home at 8:30 most nights,” Sullivan said. “On weekends I would do the cardio outside rather than on the treadmill. To let my muscles recover I did not lift weights on weekends.”
During training, Sullivan said it’s especially important to get eight hours of sleep for one’s body to recover and to get lean. “I tried my best, even though most nights I’d go to bed so exhausted than find I couldn’t fall asleep,” she said. “Others who had competed before told me that the same happened to them.”
Sullivan said the National Physique Committee is the largest amateur bodybuilding organization in the U.S.
Through this organization, bodybuilders compete in various competitions from local to national competitions sanctioned by the committee. There are several divisions of bodybuilding including bodybuilding, physique, fitness, figure and bikini. From those divisions they are then broken down further into classes, such as weight, height or age.
Sullivan said she became inspired to become a fitness buff after watching the movie Flashdance in the early 1980’s. “The dancing and music in the movie made exercise look fun,” Sullivan recalled. “Feeling inspired, I started taking aerobics classes and was hooked. Within a few months I was choreographing and instructing my own classes at many local gyms on top of my regular full-time job.” She said she eventually made the leap from an avid exerciser to competing in bodybuilding competitions. “I started reflecting and made the decision to go for it. I’d hear women talk about how they were having a hard time dealing with getting older, yet I felt differently about it, I embraced it. I decided I wanted to be in the best shape of my life as I entered this new phase in life,” she said.
After training for a competition, Sullivan said a body needs time to recover. She said her post training routine is to a clean eating lifestyle and she still eats five or six meals a day, but she now allows herself one night out at a restaurant to eat whatever she wants. “Clean eating is consuming food in it’s most natural state as possible so it includes food from the earth, not processed foods or meats,” she said.
According to Sullivan, the fitness, figure and bikini bodybuilders compare to a degree with the Hollywood image. “Some may think the female body builder is too muscular for our culture’s image of an ideal women, but I don’t think so,” she added. “ We all come in different shapes and sizes so what’s ideal to one person is not ideal to the next.”
When outside the gym, Sullivan said she enjoys traveling, and spending summer weekends at the Shore. She also enjoys gardening, reading, skiing and taking long walks at local parks.
As we embark on a new year, filled with promise and opportunity, Sullivan said she remains focused on her own goals by her favorite quote from Tommy Lasorda: “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.”
“It’s always helped me to set goals by thinking not only on the beginning but also on the end and beyond, Sullivan said. “It’s important to reach the finish line but to reflect on what you want or expect after reaching it is just as important. By thinking it all the way through and beyond you will be better prepared for any saboteurs or road blocks you encounter and most importantly, to assure your emotions are properly aligned with your goal,” she said.
