Confessions of a Bikini Pro

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Ndeye Ndour, a mom of two kids who is married to the love of her life. She was born and raised in Senegal and graduated from the Air Force academy. She just started her competition journey in April and five months later competed in the Olympia. She won her Pro card at 2023 Junior USAs, where she took third overall. She qualified for the Olympia with her first Pro win at...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Kendall Call, born and raised in Oregon but currently living in Tampa. She was involved in sports at a very young age and began training with a coach when she was 15. She became a personal trainer while in undergrad and went on to get her Master's in Nursing from Johns Hopkins while also starting to online coach as a side hobby. She had planned on competing in June of 2...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Holly Zarski, a native Floridian who was part of the 2012 Etsy boom creating one of the top Etsy wedding sign shops 'Z Create Design' and has since expanded their line of custom products to larger than life backdrops and installations for weddings and parties with 'Golden Hour Rentals'. She started competing in March of 2020, days before the world shut down, placing 2nd...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Erin Mayrhofer (formerly Gales), who first moved to Los Angeles in 2010 after college to pursue a career in dance. In 2015, she experienced traumatic event, which led her to a deep depression. On her search for what she wanted to do next in life, she discovered bodybuilding through a friend. What started with a short term goal to lift her spirits became an 8 year journe...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Megan Long, who has been competing as a bikini bodybuilder since 2014, earning her IFBB Pro Card by winning 1st place at 2021 NPC Universe. She has been a sponsored athlete since 2016, and featured in publications such as FitnessRx. She has been on Team FitBodyFusion since 2018, coached by Jami DeBernard. She recently made her Pro Debut at the 2023 Nashville Fit Show.  ...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Vesela Hristova, a 26-years-old Bulgarian, living in London, who is also an online coach and a posing coach. She started competing in 2015 as a junior and took a long break before returning to the stage in 2019. In 2022, she competed in the Amateur Olympia Romania and won her Pro card!     Vesela shares her journey finding bodybuilding early and life, and how she manage...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Kelsie Woodhouse, a 38 year old, married, working mom of 2 living in the greater Seattle area as a Washington native. She works full time as a Business Development Director in the engineering and construction industry, and she loves to cook and bake. She grew up cheerleading and started self-guided weight lifting in 2016. Five years later, she decided to realize a bucke...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Casey Hill, born and raised in northeast Ohio and currently living in Tampa. She works for a Matrix Hormones as a weigh loss specialist. Casey started competing in 2017 when she competed in 3 national qualifying shows and placed top 5 in all 3. She took of 2018 to grow and fix hormone issues and returned to the stage in 2019 when she competed in her first National show,...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Viviana Salazar, a former soccer player from Mexico who moved to the US a year ago to live her dream of being a pro athlete. She has only been competing for a year, but has been training hard her whole life as an athlete who attended IMG Academy school in Florida for soccer.   Her first show was the 2022 Patriots Challenge where she got nationally qualified, She then di...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Kallie Travers, originally from the small town of Hurt, Virginia. She was introduced to the competition world about 5 years ago. She started competing in the OCB but soon after switched to the NPC in 2019. She competed in 5 regional shows and 5 national stage before earning her Pro card at 2023 Junior Nationals. She teaches posing and has online lifestyle clients, as we...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro April Conley, a mother, and grandmother, who started in ballet and fell in love with fitness as a teenager, go as far to dance on a professional team. In 2012, some personal issues led her to want to get stronger to not appear as a victim. Through this she became aware of bodybuilding and was inspired by Isa when she won the Olympia in 2019. Her then husband was jealous...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Rhoda Allie, and interior designer and server, who is going back to college for her PT certificate. Throughout high school, she played basketball, volleyball, and softball. In 2019, she competed in her first body building competition on a whim because her now fiancée challenged her to. After a short 6 week prep, she did well and her love of bodybuilding started. She ear...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Angela Rutherford, a coach for FitBody Fusion, who started competing in 2012 in a natural federation called NANBF, in figure. She switched to the NPC and bikini in 2013 and did her first National show at the end of the season, where she got last callouts. After taking time off to improve her physique, she returned to the stage in 2017 and competed in multiple National s...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Amber Pacholok,   a former competitive cheerleader and gymnastics coach from North Carolina. She started college as an early childhood education major with a minor in psychology, and halfway through I made the decision to follow her dreams of becoming a makeup artist and went to cosmetology school. She found bodybuilding by doing extensions for clients that were in prep...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Aimee Jacobs from Wellington, New Zealand, who has been competing since July 2018. She competed in her first IFBB show in March 2019, taking first place in both Open and novice. She competed in Nationals that year with a new coach Kurt Dell, and took first place in her classes but missed out on the overall win. She earned her Pro Card at Nationals 2020 with an overall w...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Daniela Benitez who born in Costa Rica and moved to Utah at 14. She's a mother, makeup artist, baker, and sales manager, who started her fitness journey after a divorce. She began body building at the end of 2017, competing in three shows back to back. She won the overall at her 4th show ever which led her to compete on the National level. She earned her Pro card at 202...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Ally Vattauer from Tucson, Arizona. She started competing in 2018, competing in both regional and national shows. She took 2020 and 2021 off for an improvement season and returned to the stage in 2022 when she won her first regional Overall. She earned her Pro card at Jr. Nationals in 2023 with the Overall win!   Ally went to school for and worked as a Registered Veteri...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Kateryna Kauffmann, a 36 years old originally from Ukraine who moved to Canada when she was 11 years old as a refugee. She is a mom of two girls who are 15 and one and a half years old. Kateryna started competing in 2015 and first turned pro in the IFBB Elite. She switched to NPC/IFBB in 2019 when she then had a 4 year break due to COVID and having a baby. She earned he...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Tianna Weymouth, who is the youngest IFBB Pro. She started competing at 17 and earned her Pro card in her first season at 18 years old, 12 hours after she graduated from high school! She competed in two regional shows and one national show before winning her Pro card at Junior Nationals. Her goal is to inspire others to find their passion, as she has done with bodybuild...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Brooklin Bade, a posing coach and aspiring aesthetician with a bachelors in health sciences. She was also in the military, but she found her passion was to help women become more confident with themselves. She started competing in 2020, becoming nationally qualified in her first show. In 2021, she competed in her first National show and earned her Pro Card in 2022 at Na...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Abby Reyna a personal trainer and owner of Reign Athletics gym in Houston, Texas. She started to compete in 2018 as a way to challenge herself to overcome shyness and discomfort in big crowds. Sh won her Pro card the next year at only her second show ever, and then took an extended growth season, making her Pro debut in 2021. Because of her decision to compete, she foun...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Amy Vetters, a Masters athlete living in Colorado who started competing in 2017. She began in bikini, dabbled in Wellness and returned back to bikini. Any has only competed in 7 shows total, and earned her Pro card I turned pro at her 6th show in November 2022 at Masters USAs. She then earned a top 10 at her Pro debut less than a month later. She owns two businesses; Al...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Laura Ziv, an athlete, personal trainer, nutritionist and business owner. Laura grew up in the south of France, she has always been very sporty and has had a taste for competition since a very young age, having participated in the French horse riding championships for several years. After the death of her father, she fell into alcohol and drugs. In 2018, she discovered...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Mia Bartschi, who grew up as a cross country and track athlete. She lived the "bodybuilding lifestyle" for a little over 6 years before decided to get a coach and step on the stage for the first time. She recently graduated college and will be attending law school in the fall! She began her competitive journey in the NPC in March 2022, with her first show in June 2022....

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Emily Dean, a Masters athlete who started competing in 2017   and earned her Pro card at the 2022 Teen Collegiate & Masters Nationals where she won the Overall in 40+ and 45+. She then made her Pro Debut at Masters World Championship 40+ where she won 7th Place. Emily is a mother, wife, grandmother, owner of Beauty Beast Skin Care, and woman of faith.   Emily shares wha...