Estevan athlete Cea Anna Kerr became the first Saskatchewan bodybuilder to walk onto the prestigious Joe Weider’s Olympia stage two weeks ago.
Kerr, a professional bodybuilder who trains at the Wicklow Centre’s Valhalla Gym, was one of 28 women competing in the physique division at the annual Joe Weider’s Olympia Fitness and Performance Weekend Sept. 17 to 20 at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. Joe Weider’s Olympia Weekend is held by the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness.
She finished out of the top 15 in the event, which brings together the best physique bodybuilders in the world for competition, by showing a little flat. But that doesn’t diminish her pleasure of just making it to the stage.
“It was such an amazing experience,” said Kerr, who starting training 25 years ago and has been competing as a professional bodybuilder since 2007. “It’s the world’s biggest bodybuilding fitness show. Twenty-five years ago, opening up magazines and looking at the pros who made it there, you’re just fascinated. I never thought I’d be a pro, but to actually make it to the Olympia stage, it’s a huge accomplishment, a dream come true.”
Kerr said the physique division differs from regular bodybuilding as athletes with physique use open hands when posing, point their feet and must be very elegant and feminine on stage. Physique performers are also not as big as bodybuilders nor dried out or hard looking.
“I never thought I’d be a pro, but to actually make it to the Olympia stage, it’s a huge accomplishment, a dream come true.”
She said the similarity is physique competitors must be conditioned, so dieted down to perfection where muscle lines are showing and muscle bellies are full, and there must be separation.
The competition portion of the Olympia Weekend began for Kerr when she took the stage in front of the judges for the first 60-second mandatory pose performance that involves front double bicep, back double bicep, side chest, side triceps and abdominal. She failed to make it to the top 15 from this point and could not compete in a second judged two-minute performance that involves her own poses, dance moves and music.
Kerr, who made it to the event through placing first at the Toronto Pro SuperShow in June, said the Olympia competition was performed on the Expo Stage. This stage is fronted by numerous booths, fitness events and massive swarms of people watching the show. She said her mindset going in was to not focus on this huge crowd in front of her and just complete the poses.
“You always hold focus on your judges because there are 10 judges and you’re presenting yourself to them,” she said. “It kind of helps, so you don’t get stage fright. If you start looking off into the crowd, sometimes it makes you forget your routine, for me anyways. I like to just focus on the judges and go through my head into my posing routine what I have to do.”
The problem Kerr ran into at Olympia Weekend was she wasn’t full, meaning her muscles were flat and she looked smaller. If she was full, her muscles would be round and pushed out and appear bigger.
Kerr said it takes her about 16 weeks to pull off this “illusion” on stage. She said the diet starts out with a lot of cardio to slowly burn off the fat without losing any muscle.
To accomplish this Kerr consumes large amounts of protein and keeps up her metabolism while doing a lot of cardiovascular exercises. The final week is when the tricky part happens.
“You’re so depleted down, but at the same time you have to slowly fill the muscle up,” said Kerr, noting you fill up muscle through eating carbohydrates. “Sometimes you might not hit it right filling the muscle up for that day, for that moment. That’s why we call it ‘you went a little flat,’ because your muscles weren’t full enough.”
Despite the poor result, Kerr said competing at Joe Weider’s Olympia Weekend was a great experience for her as it allowed her to compete against the best in the world while also allowing her a chance to meet fans of bodybuilding from around the globe. She said the hope is to go back next year and that means starting the dieting down process this February, after her short off-season, to prepare for another professional win and invite to the show.
“I definitely want to make it again if I can,” she said. “I’ll go back and try to claim my title again in Toronto. I’ll go back to the show that I won and try that.”
Courtesy of: Estevan Lifestyles