Anja Langer

This is Anja’s story. Read more at anjalanger.com
I was born in the city of Stuttgart in Southern Germany on 3 June 1965, and I grew up in a nearby town, called Boeblingen, in a house that was right next to a forest. During that time I conducted a lot of outdoor activities, which might explain my still existing fascination for nature. At a very young age I discovered that my talents and strengths were in physical activities. My first passion was for gymnastics.
At the age of eight, I became an active member of the gymnastics association and participated successfully in several competitions. I also competed in show for a horseback-riding club. As my family owned two horses, riding was a natural choice for me. From early in my childhood, physical activity had been an important and rewarding part of my life. My need for variety also became apparent at that time.
During my teenage years, other sports captured my curiosity. I tried diving when I was 14. Within a year I was able to dive off the 10-meter platform. Then, with my curiosity about diving being satisfied, I took up jazz dance.
I was filled with enthusiasm for jazz dance. I loved the music, the motion, the expression, and the performing. It was during that period that I met my first love and the young man who introduced me to bodybuilding. Armin is still a very good friend of mine, and I am grateful to him for providing me with a solid foundation in the basics of bodybuilding.
In 1980, at the age of 15, I started training with weights. At that time, I was the only girl in the gym, which didn’t bother me at all. The guys were amazed at how strong I was.
Step by step, I got into working out. For the first six months, I trained twice a week. Gradually, I increased my training to three times a week, then four times a week, and so on. Eventually, I participated in my first competition, the Baden Wurttenberg, in 1981. I placed second to last, but rather than letting it discourage me I allowed my enthusiasm and ambition to take over and trained even harder. I studied up on dieting and how to get the most from my workouts and then applied that to my training. A year later, in the same local competition, I won second place.
At that point, bodybuilding was still a hobby for me, and my parents made sure it stayed that way. In secondary school, I took the first public examination, which allowed me to leave school and put that part of my life behind me—which I did gladly. I was ready to take on the world, but I wasn’t 18 yet. Since my parents were against my bodybuilding, I was forced to prepare for competitions secretly—a situation that only fueled my determination. It wasn’t until much later that my parents recognized that bodybuilding was part of my life’s philosophy, and that my positive outlook has been and still is a direct result of my participation in the sport.