Go figure
Fitness background helps Kenmore native decide to enter bodybuilding contest at UB
by JASON NADOLINSKI Reporter

Besides weight training to get in typical competitive shape, which included lateral raises (left photo) and other resistance and cardiovascular exercises, Kenmore resident Wendy Page received instruction on the proper, professional way to pose for a figure competition from her figure coach and personal trainer, Terry Stokes (right photo). Page is entering her first-ever figure competition, which is a facet of women's bodybuilding, on October 21.

When it comes to being the best they can be, any dedicated athlete will tell you that a great deal of sacrifice takes place in their quest to reach their sport's pinnacle.

Most of the time, though, that sacrifice doesn't include getting up for an extra hour of cardio training at 5:30 every morning, or giving up chicken wings, Taco Bell lunches or a bagel breakfast from Tim Horton's. Then again, most athletes aren't training for their first-ever bodybuilding competition.

Kenmore resident Wendy Page, however, is doing that and more, pushing her body to the limits and ignoring pain from injury as she prepares to participate in the figure division at the 2006 Olympus Pro/Am Natural Muscle bodybuilding competition.

Page, 25, has grown up in a physically-fit setting her entire life, thanks in part to her mother being a personal trainer. Page participated in volleyball throughout high school and, due to her mother's occupation, was more than familiar with keeping in good physical shape by doing her own workouts at the gym her mother worked at.

This is, however, her first foray into competitive bodybuilding, of which figure competition is a facet - unlike traditional female bodybuilding, figure competitions are not focused on muscle mass.

Page will be entered in the novice and open divisions in the figure competition, which will be held Saturday, Oct. 21, at the University at Buffalo's Center for the Arts. Pre-judging for the show begins at 1 p.m., and the night show - where winners are announced - is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are available at the door or in advance by calling 553-4905.

If Page wins either of the two divisions in which she is entered, she will earn a berth in the overall division to take on the best of the show's best.

"Fitness is something I've always grown up with because of my mom always being in the fitness field," Page said. "Because of that, my sisters and I were always working out. I just never thought I would be the one to follow in the fitness footsteps."

Page's path to the competition began back in April. While training at her current gym in Buffalo, Page was approached by Terry Stokes, an independent personal trainer who also worked at that gym, about the possibility of entering a figure competition. Not knowing what a figure contest was, Page took Stokes up on his offer to attend a show in which he had another woman entered, and Page liked what she saw.

"I knew Terry from my mom's old gym, and I asked him if he would train me," Page said. "He told me he thought I could do well in figure competition, and he kept

mentioning it until I started to ask questions about it. I went with him to see a figure show back in April and I decided right after that, that I definitely wanted to do it. After I saw the girls on stage and saw the atmosphere, saw what Terry could do with people, I decided it was time for me to get my body in that kind of shape."

When the 5-foot-81/2 Page began the process of getting in competition shape in late April, she weighed 150 pounds and had 30 percent body fat. As of Saturday, Oct. 7, Page was down to 127 pounds and 15 percent body fat. Stokes' goal for Page is for her to enter the competition at 124 pounds and 13 percent body fat, which he said is in the typical range for contestants in this type of competition.

"We trained for about a month or so, and in that time I saw how hard she was working and her determination," Stokes, who is one of the area's only figure competition coaches, said. "I turn down more women for this than I accept. I have to be sure they're committed, but Wendy's tough and determined. I think Wendy's going to do well."

To get where she is now has been a long, grueling process for Page. Before officially embarking on the program Stokes set up for her, Page was doing weight training, along with boxing, treadmill running or other cardio training to put herself "at a mental point" where she thought she "was staying in shape." However, once Stokes officially started training her, cardio went out the window, and heavy weightlifting took its place.

"At the very beginning of training, you want to build muscle, and since it's more difficult for a woman to do that than a man, we did a lot of heavier stuff and a lot of combination stuff," said Stokes, who has been training women to be figure competitors for three years. "If you do, say, a lat pulldown or back row with a lot of heavy weight, you're still working your biceps. Then we moved into isolation stuff like bicep curls and triceps extensions, but with lower repetitions and higher weights to build muscle. It set her up for when she started the diet phase because once your muscles are conditioned to burn fat, you're going to lose weight a lot quicker."

"We had to cut out the cardio early on because your body gets used to it and it makes it harder to lose the weight at the end when you're looking to really get ready for the competition," Page said.

With that first couple of months of weight training - and the growing muscles that came from that hard work - under her belt, Page began the dieting phase of her training on July 1. With this being her first competition, Page had to begin the diet phase earlier than other competitors might have to, since her body wasn't used to getting in competition shape. Dieting also meant the return of cardio work (elliptical machines, treadmill running, boxing, etc.), which fluctuated with Page's weight loss. Depending on how she was coming on her goals, Page would do anywhere from 35 minutes of cardio training three or four times a week, to an hour or more as much as seven days a week.

As the competition date has grown closer, Page has even begun using her lunch hour at work as an opportunity to get in even more cardio and weight training, utilizing the recently-opened Fitness 19 across the street from her employer in Depew, SKM Group.

"Probably the toughest part about this is being tired, because you're always tired," Page said. "I'm at the gym before work and afterwards for two to three hours just about every day. You do have your days where it's worse, but for the most part I've been enjoying it all."

Enjoying the working out aspect has without question been easier to do than enjoying the diet part. However, just like the physical training, conditioning her body by following a much more strict diet plan has been an integral part of Page's preparation for the contest. Gone are the days of fast-food lunches, sugary snacks and other treats that used to be snatched up with hardly a second thought. Now, Page's diet is much healthier and has been a key component in her success in getting in competitive shape.

"I now eat every two and a half to three hours so that my metabolism doesn't slow down," Page said. "It's hard sometimes to stick to it when people bring in a bag of doughnuts or order out lunch at work, but I pretty much stay on it. Even if I do cheat on, say, a snack, I try to watch my cheating. I don't pick up a bag of chips anymore, I don't pick up a chicken wing; I just won't let myself. The first couple weeks were tough because I was missing the bad foods, the Taco Bell, the Manhattan Bagel, stuff like that which was cheap, fast, easy and convenient. Even getting used to what I was eating was tough, especially when it was eating tuna fish for breakfast. I had to try and choke down a tuna fish and wheat bread sandwich at 7:30 in the morning ... I had to have Terry change it because I couldn't do it."

"You can't have one without the other," Stokes said of the relationship between exercise and diet. "The diet is always the hardest thing for competitors to do. Someone who is working toward a competition has to be tight on their diet months before the contest. What separates a figure competitor from the average person who lifts weights is the diet. Lots of people lift weights and have muscles, but they have body fat which covers them, and that's normal. The difference is competitors are willing to change their diet, eat properly and work out enough to lose the body fat."

Coming up with the diet plan is a fairly deep and scientific process. Stokes had to figure out the best ratios of vegetables, protein, good carbohydrates and good fats to help Page lose weight and body fat while keeping muscle. Whereas Page may have been eating foods that gave her a ratio of about 60 percent carbs, 20 percent protein and 20 percent fat early in her training, Stokes predicts that by the time she gets on stage, Page will be consuming meals that are 55 percent protein, 30 percent carbs and 15 percent good fat.

"It's difficult because you want to be so clean going into a competition," Stokes said. "As the competition gets closer, I manipulate it so that she's eating more veggies, more protein and less complex carbs. The protein keeps her metabolism up, the veggies are filling with less calories and a high vitamin and mineral content. People think you have to kill yourself to do this, but you don't. You only keep yourself in contest condition for a very short time. However, the big thing is, once you've learned to eat like this, you'll always know how to lose weight the healthy way."

In addition to the physical training and diet, Page has also worked with Stokes on the proper ways to pose. All the work in the gym and all the dieting in the world aren't going to make a difference if a competitor gets on stage and doesn't know exactly

how to make her muscles stand out the proper way. Because of its importance, Stokes and Page work on Page's posing three or four times a week, and that will increase in the days leading up to the competition.

"My goal is to put a quality competitor on stage the first time so they just continue to get better without having to spend two or three years competing over and over again at the same level," Stokes said. "Very few women know how to pose correctly. It's something that a lot of competitors will wait until the last minute to work on because they don't realize it's very difficult. You have to learn how to walk and be comfortable in high heel shoes, you have to learn how to pivot, pose, and flex all your muscles and make it look easy. There are certain muscles that judges want to see and if you're concentrating on one place, a different area will get soft. I have Wendy hold poses for a minute to 90 seconds because on stage, you want to be able to hold your poses the whole time. If you relax your legs, that may be when the judges are looking at your legs. It doesn't look difficult, but you could pass out when you're posing if you're not used to it. Your muscles do get exhausted."

Of course, eating as healthy as possible and working out doesn't guarantee things will go exactly as planned. Injuries have a way of creeping up on competitors, and Page hasn't been able to escape the wrath of the injury bug. Early in her training, Page pulled a muscle in her back, then strained a tendon in her bicep, and more recently injured her knee after a

heavy squat workout, combined with a run on the treadmill. But with just two weeks to go until the competition, Page is determined not to let the knee injury deter her.

"Injuries are going to happen, so the key is to work around them and not push yourself to where you really hurt yourself," Stokes said. "Whenever you push your body to the limit, there's a very good chance you'll tweak something. It's very seldom that a competitor doesn't injure herself."

The dieting, exercise and many other aspects of the training have made it hard for Page to lead her life the way she did before she decided to train for the competition, but with some sacrifice and adjustments, Page has been able to maintain her sense of self throughout the process.

"I have to prepare all my meals the night before, which includes weighing everything, the cooking, all of it, so that I can just pick it up in the morning and go, because I know I probably wouldn't do it in the morning," Page said. "I'm going broke because it's so expensive to buy good food. It's expensive to purchase things that are healthy for you compared to fast food. I can't go out to dinner, and even if my mom calls to see if I want to come over for dinner, I have to take my meals. It's tough, but you do not put yourself, your body, your family and your friends through this not to win."

"The sport itself can take five or six months to get ready for a competition, and a lot of times, the women get so involved with the training and the diet that ... you have to be mentally ready to do it because it's very difficult," Stokes said. "There are many instances where the competitors get very little support from their friends and family. Many times I'm at a competition with just the other girl I'm training. It's a very lonely sport so you have to be mentally tough in order to do this."

Of course, compliments from co-workers, or even complete strangers, help to make it worth while.

"When I first started dieting, people would say to me, 'you don't have 25 pounds to lose,'" Page said. "Now, everyone's counting down with me at work and saying how good I look. None of my clothes fit anymore. The days you want to cheat and someone comes up to you and says,

'Wow, you look amazing. You're my inspiration,' that makes you not want to cheat anymore. It's awesome."

Aside from the even healthier lifestyle she's attained from going through the process of preparing for the competition, Page has taken away a better sense of self confidence - regardless of how she finishes at the competition in less than two weeks.

"I'm far more confident in myself and in the way I carry myself," Page said. "You build so much confidence doing something like this. If you look around, health and fitness is a big thing, but training for something like this is very unheard of."

e-mail: jnadolinski@beenews.com