Bodybuilding is a sport with many new divisions that allow a wide range of body types to compete as well as actually be competitive. In a big way, bodybuilding is mostly about what your body looks and like how you present it. That is pretty much what the sport comes down to...for all divisions except one, the fitness division.
Coming into bodybuilding, I had no clue about the fitness division. I had seen the greats from men's bodybuilding and knew a bit about some competitors from other divisions, but I had no idea what fitness was and what it entailed. I was lucky enough to connect with a fitness pro and Olympian before the 2022 Olympia which led me down a rabbit hole of chatting with numerous fitness Olympians including several top competitors even at the Olympia level.
I found fitness to be a division with an added element of performance. This added about a million questions to my head when I figured out these athletes were not only aesthetically training and prepping, but also training to perform a routine that they had to both remember and perform at a high level. The fitness division is special and allows a crowd member to have no clue about what the judges are thinking in regards to size, symmetry, conditioning, hams, glutes, shoulders, chests, etc. they just needed to watch this person perform and connect with their performance. Even if you don't get the fine details, you can see if someone is doing something impressive and you can have a good or bad feeling about their performance. It really connects the non-bodybuilding fan with the sport in a great way.
On episode 273 of The Weight Room, I got the pleasure of having on Ms. Fitness Olympia 2022 Runner-Up, Jaclyn Baker. She is still a young competitor and has a lot of years left to compete, but she has already achieved greatness. On the podcast, we chat about her background in dance which is very common in the fitness division. We talk about how she was introduced to bodybuilding and what her experience was with her first competitions. We then chat about turning pro and then qualifying for the Olympia. She has a very bright future as a competitor and many believe her to be a consistent front-runner in future Olympia's to come. It was a great chat and a great opportunity to learn about her story, especially with so much of that story in bodybuilding still untold!
Go listen to the full episode of The Weight Room with Jaclyn Baker anywhere you find podcasts including linked below!
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