Holly Ledford is blazing a trail on the bodybuilding circuit.
Ledford, 31, of McAlester, started bodybuilding a little more than two years ago and has won each of her first four competitions — including two national qualifying events — and has been featured on two competition posters.
What is more impressive, some of her early success came without professional training. “I always wanted to do at least one to see how I’d do and how I liked it, and I loved it,” Ledford said. “The people are so nice and it just made me feel so much better, and just gaining muscle is a challenge.”
Ledford, who is also a photographer, said she has been a member at Dave’s Fitness Plus “for years” and spent a year training at CrossFit McAlester before shifting full focus to bodybuilding at Dave’s.
She first competed in October 2014 at the Heartland Classic in Oklahoma City, where she won both the open-figure and novice-figure categories to also win the overall.
“I had no trainer, no posing coach, no nothing for my first competition,” Ledford said. “I had no diet, so I had no idea what to eat, so I winged it.”
Ledford said she relied on YouTube for videos of competition poses and tried to watch what she ate.
She also started working out twice a day, focusing on one set of muscles in the morning and another in the evening.
Preparing for competition on her own without professional help made the experience even more special for Ledford.
“It was awesome because I didn’t (know what) I could accomplish, especially for my first competition,” Ledford said. “I was extremely nervous and I knew nothing about any of that.”
Ledford said her two children — Ayden, 13, and Ava, 10, — are also supportive and have developed better eating habits, but might get more excited after each competition because they know their mom can finally take them out to eat.
“As soon as I got done with this last one in November, my daughter was begging ‘mom, mom, can we please go to the buffet,’” Ledford laughed. “I told them, ‘Y’all are going to get me fat in a week.’” Ledford gained interest from several trainers during the next month after winning her first competition and started working with Norman-based trainer Tommy Brown at least once per week.
She competed in May 2015 at the Battle of the Bodies in Oklahoma City, where she entered the women’s physique category for the first time.
“You have to do a routine and I’m not good with dancing and doing stuff like that so that was all new grounds for me,” Ledford said.
She won first in both the women’s physique and figure categories to win the overall for the show.
Ledford said she was proud because she won a new category and did so on a stricter diet. One month later, she competed at the National Physique Committee national qualifier in Tulsa.
Ledford finished first in women’s figure and third in women’s physique to qualify to compete in a national event within the next year.
She competed at her second national qualifier in November at the Grand Prix in Tulsa, where she won women’s physique and was second in the figure category.
Ledford said her focus is women’s physique and she will take some time off before entering a national contest “I’ve never really had an offseason, it’s just been back-toback competitions,” Ledford said. “Plus it will be required to have a little bit more muscle at that level.”
Courtesy of: McAlester News Capital
Photo: Adrian O’Hanlon III