A Williams Lake fitness competitor is headed to New Westminster this July for the Provincial Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure, and Bikini competition.
Renee Cooper qualified for the event after finishing second in the bikini class on May 21 at Kelowna’s Western Canadian Tested Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure, and Bikini competition.
“What it is is a bodybuilding competition through the [B.C.] Amateur Bodybuilding Association,” Cooper said. “I went in the bikini class. It’s a fitness competition so you have to be physique-wise well defined and lean.”
Competitors are categorized by height and are judged by a panel on their look, among other things.
Cooper’s class featured 33 competitors, with the top three all qualifying for July’s provincials.
“What they [the judges] are looking for is overall muscle tone and balanced physique,” she said. “And then you need to have your core muscles showing and see all the lines of your muscles. You’re also judged on your overall stage presence.”
The other divisions — figure, fitness and bodybuilding — are judged based on different criteria.
“Bikini is your overall toned physique,” she said. “Figure is a little more muscle, fitness includes gymnastics and bodybuilding is obviously your really big, muscular ladies.”
In preparation for the event Cooper said she trained for five months in Williams Lake, and with a group of ladies in Kamloops. The Western Canadian Tested Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure, and Bikini competition was Cooper’s first competition.
“It’s always something I wanted to do and the opportunity kind of came up and I jumped on the wagon and got into it,” she said. “I’m really looking forward to provincials.”
Though Cooper expects the competition to be tougher, she said she has high hopes for herself.
“I didn’t really know what to expect coming into this past one,” she said. “There was a photographer there taking pictures who thought I might be able to have a career in the fitness industry so that’s something I’d like to strive for.” And for the next month, Cooper said she will continue to train while getting ready for provincials.
“It’s going to be quite a bit more intense so I’ve stepped up my training quite a bit,” she said.