Bodybuilding champion reveals price of victory in sport

Anastasia Efremova from Ufa is the bodybuilding champion of Bashkiria. Recently, she won in the «Fitness Aesthetic» category at a local tournament, and last year she was one of the best among debutants. Then she even made it to the top 5 in national competitions.

UFA1.RU asked the athlete how preparation for such competitions goes and what lies behind the beautiful picture. What follows is in her own words.

Like all girls, I started going to the gym in my teenage years with the obvious goal of building glutes and abs. Moreover, I began in a basement gym in college, where there was just the minimal necessary equipment. That’s when I fell in love with strength training. But those were only the first steps.

Later, I had to save from my scholarship and accumulate money to buy a membership at a well-equipped gym. Unfortunately, I started my first workouts without a trainer, so there were many mistakes and no results in the early stages.

But nevertheless, every year I gradually gathered information from the internet, and then I even trained to become a coach. I started working in this field, and my first clients appeared. And naturally, with experience, I began to notice my own improvements, both visual and physical. Now I’m 22 years old, I’ve been training in the gym since I was 16, but I’ve been training smartly, competently, and systematically for about 3 years.

I didn’t think about competitions at first. The idea first came when other gym-goers started asking if I was preparing for any competitions or not. I became interested in testing my strength, started following athletes in my category, studying them. Eventually, I got hooked and decided to prepare!

For me, the main motivation is primarily my own results and achievements! Nothing motivates like seeing the changes in my body at each stage of preparation, especially during the cutting phase, they are noticeable almost every week. Year after year, my form only gets better, and I have that result in mind that I’m striving for. And the additional motivation from competitions only helps on this path.

It’s worth noting that in bodybuilding, preparation starts differently for everyone; it all depends on the initial data. On average, it’s from 6 to 12 months. In my case, preparation for the first competitions started exactly six months before the start.

The training process itself is routine and strict discipline. Performing exercises, precise control of food, mandatory daily activity, and quality recovery. Everything is scheduled almost to the minute. During preparation for competitions, the system doesn’t adjust to you; on the contrary, you adjust to it. It’s a good school; you learn to focus and not get distracted by unnecessary things.

In terms of food, it’s a strict diet. The simpler, the better! The foods during cutting can be counted on one hand. First of all, it’s grains, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, avocado, nuts and oils, sometimes crispbread. It might sound a bit sad, but I don’t find it hard to control myself in terms of food, even though I really love sweets.

Then, after competitions, you can treat yourself a little with goodies. But just a little, and that way they even taste better. And during preparation, you just go towards the goal, step by step. In such moments, you learn to get quality dopamine, to find joy not in food, but in other things. I spend time with family, loved ones, walk a lot, watch movies, read.

The hardest part during the «cutting» phase is «not going crazy» from the constant control of everything; you feel like a robot. You have to eat a certain number of calories, do an exact number of sets, monitor daily activity and emotions. Because everything affects it.

The body is already under stress due to a fairly low body fat percentage, and on top of that, there are constant physical loads. Immunity is weakened, and very often athletes get sick; catching a cold during this period is quite easy. Because of this, after the performance season, you have to recover. This happens differently for everyone, depending on what problems arise. After competitions, I try to do a body check-up.

Besides physical strain, participating in this kind of competition is also a burden on the wallet. This year, my competition season cost 222 thousand rubles (approximately $2,200 at current rates). This includes the registration fee for both competitions, a custom-made performance costume, makeup, photographer services at the competitions, and other expenses.