Well, we’re just back from the Canadian championships. Still dead tired from everything!
Things didn’t go as planned but a lot of good things also happened.
Christiane competed in probably the strongest women’s heavyweights class EVER at the Canadian Nationals… there were 13 girls there, 7 of them almost as big as me (one was actually bigger … and would have won many of the men classes!!!). She didn’t make the top 5. But she wasn’t dissapointed because she did came in fantastic shape. For the first time in her life she had hard, cut legs. But at around 132lbs she was 30+lbs under most competititors. Sad thing is that the HWT class is 125lbs and more …LOTS of difference between a 135lbs girl and a 175lbs one!!! In the US they have a lightheavy women’s class (I think that it’s from 126 to 140) and then an heavyweight class.
This would have been necessary for Christiane to be able to battle it out on an even playing field.
The sad thing is that we were screwed by the competition scale which was 2-3lbs light (because they put it on a carpet). On friday morning, Christiane was at around 134 but she weighed in at 130 DESPITE having carbed up the whole day!!!
If we had known that the scale would be like this she would have easily made the middleweights and from what I saw, she would have placed 2nd or 3rd.
But it’s a learning experience.
We were also the victim of a bad color choice. I put 5 coats of Pro Tan (over 3 days) on her and she looked great. But we still had to add a finishing color for the stage. Now, the thing is that for a National competition in Canada, there are only 1-2 coaches allowed per province. So I didn’t get to apply her color backstage. We had some Dreamtan 1 and 2 … one sucks (gold) and the other one is good… well she came out with the gold color (not her choice, nor mine). I almost fell out of my seat! This color is great for figure competitiors becase it actually hides away some hardness and definition, making them look more feminine. But for bodybuilding purposes this was a bad choice. She used the good color and came out looking at least 7lbs heavier.
Anyway … For the good stuff!
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She had 4 professional photo shoots during the weekend, meaning that the photographers hired her to take pics and videos. So she made a few bucks and will gain some publicity and visibility with all of this.
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She was the most beautiful and feminine woman out there. Of course I’m biased since she’s my girlfriend, but I feel that it would be hard to argue against that.
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The photographers loved her. All said that she had grace, was a fantastic poser, tons of charisma and superb lines. Steve Wesserman, who’ve been shooting female bodybuilding since it’s beginning 28 years ago was amazed by her line and shape.
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During one of the shoot she did hanging leg raises and she actually had DEEP lumbar striations. The videographer said that it was the first time he saw that (and he has filmed most of the top pro women).
So all an all it was a very positive experience. She just happened to have stumbled into a year where all the mastodont women bodybuilders decided to compete. Against last year’s field the story would have probably been different.
She was probably one of the 2-3 athletes (if that) who were 100% natural at that show. However Christiane wants to make sure that she has nothing against peoples who use anabolic aid, she is not bitter AT ALL about loosing to un-natural competition. She respects everybody who competes and go through all the pain of contest prep. But staying natural was a choice she made and she is living with that decision very well.
Just to give you an idea about her competition … the women heavyweight winner was 165lbs on 5’0" with striated glutes and 18" arms… and I’m talking peaked biceps. It think that she was the one person, man or woman, with the most muscle per inch in the competition.
We’ll probably get something like 1000 pics, so I’ll post 1 or 2 when I get them.
