It’s not about bulking up and it’s not about looks and that is the important part about the Northern Classic fitness competition for Kayla McColl.
The June 4 fitness competition, hosted by the B.C. Amateur Body Building Association, has two components, a routines round and a swimsuit round, McColl explained.
In the routines round the competitors have 1.5 minutes to show off their strength and flexibility in a series of well-choreographed moves designed specifically to entertain and highlight both their strength and their fitness.
“You have to have both strength and flexibility,” McColl stressed.
The strength moves include different kinds of pushups such as regular pushups, tricep pushups, crossover pushups and one-arm pushups, all of which McColl demonstrated with ease.
“I think the hardest part is the one hand pushup and some of the jumps I have to do,” she said with a slight shake of the head.
The flexibility moves include splits, high kicks and jumps.
The routine also has to be entertaining, McColl said and that part comes from the originality of the routine and the accompanying music selected by the competitors.
McColl, 23, has pieced together appropriate songs from Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Justin Timberlake.
“It makes the routine high energy and lots of fun,” McColl said of her choices.
“You want to be unique onstage and you want to appeal to the judges,” she said.
“You want to be something different, but at the same time, you have to perform the traditional moves, to the best of your ability.”
The second portion of Northern Classic competition, the swimsuit competition, places emphasis on form and fitness.
Although the judges are looking for lean and toned bodies, they also want to see healthy bodies, not overly muscular and certainly not too lean.
“You can get disqualified if you look too lean,” McColl said.
Key features the judges look for, McColl explained, include muscle tone, proportion and symmetry.
Competitors highlight these traits wearing specially-designed bathing suits adorned with rhinestones and crystals, as well as high-heeled shoes while posing front and back and from the left and right side.
In all the competition aspect takes five minutes or less, but McColl has been training for the last seven months.
Since March, she has ramped up her training to six days a week, including 1.5 hours of weight training, in addition to cardiovascular training.
McColl also practices her fitness routine and posing twice a week for at least an hour, sometimes under the careful eye of Charlotte Mastree, a former personal trainer at the gym.
She’s been helping me out and she hasn’t charged me for anything,” McColl said with a tone of appreciation.
“I pose in front of her and she’s been really motivating.
“She’s been helping me work on certain muscle groups so I can strengthen them.”
McColl said she has always been into health and fitness and enjoys working out, which made for an easy decision to enter the fitness competition and her competitive nature has her looking ahead.
“I was trying to find something I could compete in and I kind of found it,” she said.
“Because it’s an amateur competition, there’s room for advancement.
“Depending on how well I do, I could enter the Canadian championships and move up from there.”
In addition to the physical training, McColl has also paid close attention to her diet in order to give her body the energy required to do the intense training.
She explains a proper and healthy diet is pretty tough because you have to lower your body fat levels and still be able to push during the intense workouts.
High on the list are low-fat high-quality proteins such as poultry, fish, egg-whites and protein shakes.
Carbohydrates come in the form of brown rice, oatmeal and sweet potatoes.
Also high on the list are vegetables.
Given the intensity of her workouts, McColl said she doesn’t count calories when eating, but rather, with the help of an online trainer, has developed a meal plan that meets her nutritional requirements without introducing additional fats into her diet.
“It’s a lot of kitchen work,” she said of her meal plan that includes eating six times a day.
McColl admits her foray into the fitness world has drawn attention, but not necessarily the attention she wanted.
For example, her family was concerned she was going to become a big-muscled woman.
“I’m definitely not going to be Mrs. Arnold Schwarzenegger,” she replied emphatically.
“I definitely do not want to look like that, but I think muscularity is beautiful and healthy in moderation.”
Others have questioned her sanity because of the time and energy she puts into training and the fact she has sworn off junk food and alcohol.
But McColl said she is fine with giving up junk food and alcohol, but appreciates some people would have a more difficult time.
At the same time, McColl recognizes the benefits of her diet and training and believes other women could benefit from her regimen.
“It’s really beneficial,” she said.
“It’s a healthy thing to do, to commit to.
“Especially for young people, there are so many problems with eating disorders.
“I know so many women, especially young women, who are dieting and having problems with it.
For the competition McColl said the toughest part will be the routine, making sure it’s clean, she performs all of her moves and all with energy and a smile on her face.
Although she admits some days it is hard to get up and do just that, she says satisfaction will not come from a first-place finish, but rather from the satisfaction of knowing she pushed herself to achieve her goal.
But it is just one goal.
“If I’ve reached this point, I can only keep getting better,” she said assuredly.