In 2009, Jennifer Taylor paid $250 to a kickboxing gym — the entry fee for its body transformation contest.
“I was unhappy with the way I looked,” Taylor said.
Taylor, 42, thought if she paid to be part of a contest, the results she wanted would follow.
They did — and then some. She won, and found a passion for the sport in which she competed last month at Mr. Olympia 2015 in Las Vegas: bodybuilding.
Taylor, who now co-owns RetroFlex Fitness in Zephyrhills, did gymnastics and karate as a kid. As an adult, she took up barefoot waterskiing. But in her 30s, her body began to change.
“You have to actually work at keeping it in shape,” she said.
So she entered the 2009 body transformation contest and took home the $1,500 top prize. After that, Taylor attended a “sport of figure” contest as a spectator, where women competed as amateurs in a type of bodybuilding called figure.
The “sport of figure evolved from bodybuilding for ladies who want to look feminine with muscle,” Taylor said.
Figure fascinated Taylor, so she decided to train to compete in it — something that fits into her schedule. When she first started, she worked from home as the bookkeeper for the lawn business she owns with her husband, Jim Taylor. They decided to open their own gym, RetroFlex, with co-owners Alysia and Dave Vidrine, about a year ago, because they each have a passion for working out.
Jennifer Taylor does the books for that business, too, and always trains as a bodybuilder.
“You’re training 24/7,” she said.
Cardio and weights, six days a week, she explained. Vigilance about what you eat and when you eat, when to carb load and when to carb deplete.
“You can’t cut corners,” Taylor said. “Everything you eat and drink throughout the day dictates how you’re going to look on stage” — the part of the sport that challenged her the most.
“Stepping on stage was going to be stepping out of my comfort zone,” she said.
The first time, she shook “like a leaf,” she said.
Taylor competed in one show per year until 2013, when she entered a show that could qualify her to go pro.
It did.
At her first pro shows, “I placed at the bottom of the field,” she said. “Which was anticipated. Now you see where you line up with the pros.”
She had work to do. So, she did it and, over time, started placing first in her division. She admired other pros, including women and men who have competed at Mr. Olympia.
“It’s like the Super Bowl of bodybuilding,” she said. “It’s where Arnold Schwarzenegger began. I never thought I would be that caliber of an athlete.”
In August, Taylor won first in her division at a competition called the Texas Pro, a Mr. Olympia qualifier.
She had about a month to prepare for Mr. Olympia, where she competed with 27 other women.
“After 15, they stop placing,” Taylor said. “I got what they call ’16th’ ” — each competitor who fares worse than 15th is 16th, in no apparent order.
“I just kept in mind that I’m here,” she said. “I’m already a winner.”
The ability to shake it off when she doesn’t win is one of many skills Taylor has had to learn.
“That just spills over into the rest of your life,” she said. “I’ve learned to be a gracious loser. Patience in relationships. (To) be disciplined to pay bills. Confidence, so you can walk into a crowd and not feel anxious.”
She also has learned to use “losing” as motivation to train harder.
Before she qualified for this year’s Mr. Olympia, she already had earned a spot to compete on Oct. 3 at a show in San Diego.
She placed second in one division and sixth in another.
“Great trip and show,” she said. “If I can do this, anybody can.”
Courtesy of: Tampa Bay Times