Lisa Birkett hopes her amazing body will literally shape her life.
The aspiring fitness model has recently taken up bodybuilding and believes the feel-good factor is second to none.
A former Kirkcudbright Academy pupil, Lisa was born in Yorkshire but grew up in Auchencairn where her parents ran the Smugglers Inn.
The 30-year-old gym instructor has always been into exercise and has had a go at most sports over the years.
But now Lisa, who works at Kim Harkness’ House of Bod at Palmerston Arena in Dumfries, has fallen in love with bodybuilding and is preparing for her second competition.
She gained 10 kilogrammes in just two weeks after her first, the Miami Pro Championships at St Albans in April, a clear sign of just how hard she pushed her body to be ready for competition.
And it’s not all about pumping iron either. You need a strict diet, supplements and a willingness to push your body to the limit.
“My brother Richard got me into it,” Lisa explained.
“I was a fitness instructor anyway but tried bodybuilding, saw the results and that was it. I was hooked!
“I’d definitely recommend it. It’s a great form of weight loss as well.
“People think body building is about getting bigger but in reality you could call it body shaping because you actually just shape the muscles you want.
“Anyone can do it.
“It took me seven months to prepare for my first competition. It was really hard – a steady build-up – so you have do be dedicated.
“But I’ve got good genetics which helps and my metabolism is quite good as well.
“The last two weeks were the hardest. After a month or so of the nutrition (no fizzy drinks or fish suppers of course) I got used to using MyFitnessPal.
“I scanned everything I ate! I had three days leading up to the competition with no carbs (carbohydrates like bread, sugar or pasta) and I had no energy. But you still have to put the work in.
“ I didn’t have a drink for seven months either. I was just on water and I hated it.”
Lisa made her bodybuilding debut in April despite never having been professionally coached. She taught herself the poses by watching Youtube.
The contestants do various moves on the stage with the main front, side and back stances the most important as the judges look for symmetry.
Lisa continued: “I was so nervous back stage. I didn’t attend any posing classes before it but I was really happy with my body.
“It was a good atmosphere behind the scenes.
“It was really relaxed and I made loads of friends. Everyone was helping each other out. It was a good experience.”
She didn’t place due to what she believes was her inexperience in relation to stage presence which counts for half of the judges’ score. But she won great recognition from fellow contestants for her eight-pack abs. The only set in the female competition.
And Lisa, who moved to Dumfries last month, is now set to do it all over again when she takes part in a UK Ultimate Physiques event in Warrington at the end of August. She also has one eye on her short and long term goals.
She added: “I really hope to place there or even get to the final. But one day the dream is to be a fitness model in magazines.”
Reporter Andrew McNair had his own take on the experience
I’ll start off with the obvious – I’m no body builder.
The pictures will tell you that but I do pride myself on being relatively fit.
I go to the gym, play football, have completed a half marathon and have ambitions on doing a full one in the near future.
But my eyes have been well and truly opened by Lisa Birkett who was a real inspiration.
I learned so much during my time with her and it’s great to know it’s not all about how much you can bench press but rather about technique and repetitions in the gym.
To hammer home the point, I can actually lift more than Lisa in a straight bench press but my body doesn’t look like hers!
In a one hour session with Lisa she made “super sets” the order of the day.
That’s when you do two exercises immediately after each other and work the same muscle. Feel the burn, burn, burn … I was left in agony for days afterwards but I felt alive.
Lisa corrected just about every aspect of my work-out and that had me desperate to get back in the gym a few days later (when the pain wore off).
And, for just about the first time in my life, I actually knew what I was doing.
And of course it was with the hope that technique, over weight, will soon start to show results.
Thanks to Lisa for putting me through my paces and I really hope she nails that short term goal and places at her next big event. She is clearly inspired by what she does and she is right about the body building – it’s infectious.
Lisa said: “Andrew did really well. We cleaned up on his technique a lot. It’s all about sacrificing weight for technique.
“He took it in well and did it well and hopefully he learned from it. Hopefully he’ll go away and use it.”
Courtesy of: Daily News