Nineteen-year-old Olivia Houben once was so shy and worried about being judged, she said, she hated to be called on in class.
So when the Geneva High School alumna last year stepped onstage in a bikini with the sole purpose of having her body judged in a bodybuilding competition, family approached her afterward, expressing their disbelief, she said.
Houben, who is one of several women from the Tri-Cities area involved with bodybuilding, doesn’t deny the experience was terrifying. In fact, she said, she was shaking so badly she could barely hold her smile.
Five months of work and emotions came pouring out as she stepped offstage, she said.
“I just cried because I was overwhelmed,” said the University of Wisconsin-Madison sophomore, who competes in the figure division. “I put myself through something so mentally and physically taxing.”
Bikini division competitor Jessica Lewis, an Elburn resident who studies political science at Northern Illinois University and plans to apply to law school, agreed that bodybuilding takes discipline and described it as a “mental game you have to play with yourself.”
Since taking up bodybuilding, the former ballet dancer said she has watched her 108-pound “almost too thin” frame add muscle, bringing her to a more attractive 112 pounds.
“I’ve gained so much muscle,” Lewis said. “It’s a very exciting process because you see yourself grow.”
Although lifting weights is part of bodybuilding, Lewis and Geneva resident Rebin Roy said diet plays a big part.
“That’s 99 percent of it,” Roy said.
Roy, a former Bodybuilder.com “Female Transformation of the Year” who has lost and kept off more than 100 pounds, said a misconception about bodybuilders is they are intense and unfriendly. Most everyone she has met has been “incredibly nice,” and some have even helped others with dress zippers and safety pins, she said.
She said she has been bodybuilding for about five years.
“You have to be self-driven,” the 40-year-old said, noting the science involved in the sport hooked her.
Houben said she began bodybuilding about two years ago, when she was dissatisfied with her looks even after losing 25 pounds.
“Once I started lifting, I loved the way it made me feel,” she said, noting Nilsa Anderson took notice of her at the gym one day and offered to coach her.
Anderson, an International Federation of Bodybuilding professional female bodybuilder who owns the Competitor’s Edge gym in St. Charles, had an experience similar to Houben’s. She said she was once overweight and shy before building confidence through bodybuilding.
Now, she said, coaching is her obsession.
“I want my clients to exceed what they thought was possible,” Anderson said.
Lewis, who is preparing for a November competition in DeKalb, said her foray into bodybuilding isn’t fleeting.
“I hope to do it lifelong,” she said.
Courtesy of: Kane County Chronicle