Standing on the Dalhousie Arts Centre stage in Halifax — clad in a bright blue bikini with her long dark hair draped over one shoulder — Surrey’s Robyn Gill listened intently for her name and number.
The personal trainer and competitive bodybuilder had made it to the top five in her figure class at the Canadian Body Building Federation’s National Bikini, Figure, Fitness and Physique Championships last Saturday night.
Focused and completely still, holding her pose and smile, she stood among Canada’s best female bodybuilders as they awaited the final results.
The judge called out fifth place, then fourth, then third — and Gill had yet to hear her name or her number, 228.
“Then second place was called out — number 220 (Melanie Girard from Quebec),” Gill recalled. “I like had a heart attack, because at that point you know you won.”
“I dropped my whole pose and my face dropped and I didn’t know what to do.
“I was freaking out. I started screaming thank you to the judges, I’m like screaming, I’m jumping — it was like I won the lottery.”
But it was much more than luck of the draw that got Gill to that stage last weekend.
Her physical training only took a short two years (it usually takes about two years of training just to reach a novice stage). She set the national championships as her goal in spring 2013 and with hard work and determination placed second at her first novice competition in B.C. later that fall, then took fourth in provincials which ultimately led her to nationals in Halifax.
And while it seems like an impressive fast track to success, it took a lifetime of struggle to get to where she is today.
When Gill was 17, her mother, who was bipolar, committed suicide. That tragedy sent Gill into a “downward spiral,” she told The Province in a previous interview. Gill got involved with gangsters and drug dealers in Surrey and found herself in and out of the court system for assault charges and driving infractions. While she managed to get out of the gang lifestyle, she later struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts after suffering a series of devastating losses, including the deaths of her father, grandmother, grandfather and childhood friend — all within a few short months.
But her goal to make it to the national bodybuilding stage gave her something to live for.
“It feels like a dream, I can’t believe it,” Gill said of her win. “To me this is everything.
“I said, at my lowest point, I’d … make it to best in Canada. It shows that you can really be anything you set your heart on.”
THE PREPARATION
The 16 weeks leading up to the competition were particularly gruelling for Gill. Her diet consisted of unseasoned eggs, chicken, beef and rice.
“That’s all I ate every single day,” she said. “For 16 weeks I didn’t even cheat once.”
At 10 weeks before the show she carb-cycled (one day eating carbs, the next without). With six weeks to go she was doing “morning fasted cardio” (cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach).
By July 1, 18 days before the competition, she was training every day — no rest.
“It was very strenuous and tiring … to go two weeks without stop,” she said. “I was getting so lean and so depleted.”
She was down to 113 pounds (her normal weight is usually a lean and muscular 120 pounds). In the off season she lifts heavy — an overhead press with 40-pound dumbbells in each hand — but at this stage, she could barely lift 10 to 15 pounds.
“Everything was aching on me but I just had to keep pushing through it,” she said.
And it all paid off.
“I still can’t believe it,” Gill said, still in awe of her big win.
WHAT’S NEXT
For now, Gill is back to training hard and training clients in Surrey. She’s “reverse dieting” to get out of show mode, which means she’s slowly adding rice, peanut butter and other foods back to her diet that she had to restrict in her prep.
She plans to return to the national championships with her first place title next year to compete for her pro card, which she gets by competing against the first-place winners from every height and weight class in her category. The pro card eventually gets her to the international bodybuilding stage, where she hopes to represent Canada in the Ms. Figure Olympia category at the world’s biggest bodybuilding competition.
Courtesy of: The Province