Hometown: Youngstown, Ohio

Height: 5’2″

Weight: 118

What made you start bodybuilding/training:

After having my second daughter Madeline I came down with a severe case of postpartum psychosis. I was placed on multiple medications and was hospitalized a few times because it got so bad. I ended extremely overweight and overmedicated. The turning point in my life was when my oldest daughter Ellen went looking for something to make her mommy feel better. It turns out that the mommy daughter yoga class she suggested saved my life. After I started the yoga, I then signed up for a pilates class on my own. That turned into me attending bodypump classes several days a week and mountain biking almost every day.When my progress came to a halt, I eventually decided to hire a personal trainer. It was then that I started to really lift heavy and pack on muscle.

How do you get motivated?

Well that’s easy. I picture myself standing on stage in my bedazzled buttfloss and imagine what the girl who’s going to take first looks like standing next to me. Whenever I think I’m going to cheat or think about skipping a workout I ask myself whether my competition is doing the same.

What’s you training routine?

In all honesty I don’t have one. I try to do legs once or twice a week and combine everything else into one day. I’ve always used a personal trainer since I’ve started bodybuilding and the beauty of that is having someone there that knows how to mix things up and challenge my body. I’ve never responded well to doing the same exercises over and over so every workout is unique based on how each body part is developing.

Any workout/routine work best for you?

Actually I find that when trying to put on mass the standard big lifts are incredibly helpful but when it gets closer and closer to contest time I think that bootcamp type exercises and plyometrics work the best to shape the muscles and give them a little bit more roundness. One of my favorite things to do instead of traditional cardio is bouncing on a mini trampoline. It may sound silly but it gives you an incredible core workout and lets you put some explosive movements into your workouts without doing damage to the knees or back.

If you had to choose one exercise for each body part, what would they be and why?

Well I’m not a trainer and I’m lost in a gym without one but I can tell you what my go to exercises would be. For legs I think creeper lunges with weights is the best because it seems to hit everything at once. For shoulders I like doing Arnolds. For chest I prefer doing inclined dumbbell presses. For biceps I like 21′s. For triceps I love unassisted dips. For lats, I like behind the head pulldowns. And for abs I think my mini trampoline works best because it forces the body to stabilize with each bounce. Finally, I’d go with reverse flies for the back.

What does your supplementation consist of?

Right now I’m in contest prep mode so I’ve given up dairy so that means no more protein shakes so I’m only using ZMA for recovery and test boosting, Meltdown as my thermo and Glycobol as a nutrient partitioner after workouts.

If you had to choose on supplement what would it be?

I absolutely love ON’s ZMA. It helps in muscle recovery, helps me get much deeper sleep and it’s got the right amounts of zinc, magnesium and b6. I think it works better than the standard multi because calcium blocks the absorption of zinc and most multis and even some zinc supplements contain calcium as filler. I think for bodybuilding purposes the zinc in the evenings is much more important for muscle health.

What’s your diet like?

I’m cutting right now so it’s pretty standard. I get in a few eggs and toast before my morning workout. When I get home I have brown rice, grapefruit juice, avacados and a lean burger. Later I’ll have some almonds or a scoop of peanut butter. Then I’ll snack on a few cans of tuna mixed with guacamole. Don’t knock it til you try it! For dinner I’ll have whatever meat my family is having which is usually chicken, steak or fish of some sort and I try to get in some broccoli and spinach. At night I’ll snack on dark chocolate almonds and have some more grapefruit juice.

 What’s your take on cardio? High intensity or low?

I absolutely despise cardio and I think until you get into the last stages of cutting it’s really not necessary. There are usually ways you can tweak your diet or cut out foods that may be causing you to hold onto the last few pounds of fat or water weight. When you get really lean and need to get leaner that’s when I think it should be thrown in. If you do too much cardio when it’s not necessary all you’re doing is training your body to be good at doing cardio and it starts to become incredibly efficient at it. It also makes people incredibly hungry, just like the saying “working up an appetite.” So I hold off till the last weeks of contest prep and start doing supersets and taking out breaks between sets. And if I’m going to do cardio, the cardio will serve  a dual purpose like toning my legs and arms so there will always be resistance involved. Some of the things I like doing are going hiking with ankle weights on or a weighted vest. I also like to go climb hills on my mountain bike or hit the rowing machine.And again, I’ll throw in some bouncing on my trampoline because of the added core workout.

Summer is here and many ladies will want to be toned and lean. From your experiences what advice would you give? 

I’d tell them that they should cut dairy, cut soy, cut out processed foods, get in protein six times a day and lift heavy and often. I’d also tell them to stop wasting time on the cardio machines.

Many girls don’t want to use weights in their routine as they are scared to look bulky. What is your take on this?

Honestly? This is my biggest fitness pet peeve. It’s what keeps people skinny fat. I have been at this for a while and I’m competing on a national level. I am paying a nutritionist and a personal trainer to TRY to get my legs and glutes to get bigger. I am lifting incredibly heavy weights and I’m supplementing with natural testosterone boosters and it is a HUGE struggle to add and keep mass. A woman can not…I repeat CAN NOT get huge without intending to do it and usually by extreme measures. It simply just does not happen. And if girls want a nice round booty and shapely shoulders they are going to have to do it with weights. It’s not going to happen in a step class or on an elliptical.

What was the biggest mistake you made when starting to train?

I didn’t eat enough and my protein intake was totally inadequate. If I could go back in time I would have saved my self a ton of time and effort if I actually had a real bulking plan.

Any final tips and advice?

I think that everyone who is trying to recompose their bodies needs to know that this is an ongoing process and requires patience and time. Also, people shouldn’t expect to follow the routines of people who are where they’d like to be. I know that Ava Cowan and Jay Cutler are not doing or eating the same thing that they did when they started out. People need to find what works for them at their current level of fitness and then progress to a point where they are tweaking and maintaining. There is no magic formula and what works for one person may not work at all for another. And I guess I would add that people should try to find a way of eating and exercise and enjoy so that they can stick with it and make it a lifestyle not a chore.