Fitness athletes’ own experiences
We interviewed fitness athletes who have already competed. We asked them a few questions and also asked them to tell us about their sport in their own words. Below are our first interviewee’s own experiences and thoughts on the sport.
Riia, 20 years old, Team Piukat Paikat, Bikini Fitness
Our second interviewee is Riia. She is 20 years old and represents Team Piukat Paikat and her sport is Bikini Fitness. She has three more years to compete in the junior category (20-23 year olds) and in addition to that she competes in the open category, which has competitors of all ages. Riia has her first season of competition behind her and competed in autumn 2023. She finished sixth twice, reaching the finals and a podium finish. In the international race, she finished seventh. In addition to fitness, she is studying to be a physiotherapist in her first year and her previous education is as a practical nurse, so she is well versed in health issues. Physiotherapy as a profession is very close to sport and wellbeing. With this in mind, she finds that both professions are a plus for fitness.
Riia says that she got into the sport through gym training. “I have always been very self-critical and determined. I wasn’t happy with myself at all and started going to the gym. As I trained more and more, I realized that I really like what I do. I wanted to take my training to a new level and started looking on the internet for possible sports. I quickly found fitness and realized that I definitely wanted to try it. My friends have never really been interested in the sport, but that didn’t slow me down. Before taking up this sport, I was into dancing and horse riding.”
Riia has been in competition coaching for four years and even before she started training for competitions she had been going to the gym for a few years. When she started fitness she was very young, only 17 years old and still has a great passion for the sport. She currently has gym sessions 4-5 times a week, bodywork three times a week, posing two times a week and aerobic training 2-3 times a week. She says that the workouts are planned to include rest days to allow for recovery, which is an important part of the overall plan.
Riia is feeling good about her first season and wants to improve even more and return to the competition stage better than before. Her goal is to compete in the spring of 2025, so her new diet would start this autumn 2024. “I am happy with the past season, of course there is always room for improvement. I want to improve, gain muscle and be a better version of myself next season! It was a great experience and taught me a lot about myself, but after the season I felt a certain emptiness. A feeling of emptiness about what I’m doing now that I’m not preparing for the competition. It took a few weeks to unravel that feeling of emptiness and the whole process. It took longer to recover, but it started to go in the right direction under its own steam.”
Riia tells us that she spends a surprising amount of money on fitness, so it’s a good idea to save for it. She says that the bikini was her most expensive purchase, costing €550. Other purchases such as competitions jewellery cost €50-60 and for example competition dye was €150, competiton licence €250, competiton fee €100 and competiton shoes €70.
“In addition, you can count hairdressing, doing the nails, sugaring and other beauty treatments. The competitions were held in different locations, so several hundred euros were spent on accommodation. About €90 was spent on the make-up needed.”
Before deciding on her first competition plans, Riia had been in the competition coaching for a year and a half. The coach wanted to get to know her properly and to gain more muscle mass before the diet.
“This made sense because I was very young (17 years old) when I started coaching. At that age, my mind might not have been able to cope with all the aspects of competing. Moreover, it is a judging sport that requires a certain amount of guts. “
Riia did well on the prepp and found it reasonably easy. She would have expected the prepp to be tougher and more difficult.
“My body worked well and everything went very smoothly from start to finish. There were some bad days, but overall everything went well, fitness improved, I ate well until the end and my mood was steady. My diet lasted a total of seven months.”
Fitness also takes up a lot of time from everyday life in Riia and is therefore comparable to a lifestyle. It’s about daily choices and planning your schedule. Riia says that you have to train for the love of the sport. She also has the opportunity to influence the content of the training programmes, as they are made for the athlete. The coach often asks her what she likes and what she doesn’t like, which is the starting point for planning training programmes.
“The freedom of the sport to do the training when there is time in the day and to adapt it to your own week is possible.”
Riia says that on the prep, her favourite foods were definitely minced meat, macaroni, sugar-free ketchup and fresh salad. On refeed days, she had the freedom to eat whatever she wanted, so there was also the opportunity to eat some sweets. However, on refeed days, she did not like to buy chocolate or sweets from the shop, for example.
“I liked pastries and home-made food with cream. On the prep, I ate a few sweets with home-made food on the day of refeed. The first thing I ate after the competition was carrot cake! The best treat ever.”
The downside, in Riia’s view, is the constant comparison with others, which can lead to excessive self-criticism. “You need to be aware of body image changes and have good control over your mind when taking up the sport.” However, she feels that the sport definitely gives more than it takes!
Riia wants to emphasize the importance of a good coach. “Your coach should be someone you can trust completely and you can tell her everything.” The coach plays a big role in fitness and should have the professional skills and training to coach.
“My coach is my superhero, without her I wouldn’t be able to do this!”
In addition to succeeding in fitness, Riia’s future dreams include having her own dachshund and a detached house. Of course, the dream is also to stay healthy and feel well.
We will also be publishing our second interviewee’s own experiences and thoughts on the sport, so stay tuned!
Ideation, writing and planning: Sarianna Virtanen, Suvi Rantala & Heini Lehtiranta