Three bodybuilders and one powerlifter from BYUH share their physical and mental preparations for a recent competition
Competing in bodybuilding and powerlifting takes hard work and commitment, but according to Sidney Pere, an amateur bodybuilder who just finished her first competition, the discipline she has learned through bodybuilding can apply to anything in her life, whether spiritually, mentally or physically. Pere’s coach and professional bodybuilder Dr. Kate McLellan agreed, explaining, “I want [students] to learn how strong they are and to really build that self-confidence that they can do hard things, that they can sacrifice for a sport or an event.”
Pere, a junior majoring in Pacific Island Studies from Laie, and McLellan, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Science, were amongst a group of people from the BYU–Hawaii community who competed in the Shawn Ray Hawaiian Classic and the Ukiyo - Shawn Ray Bench & Deadlift Classic on Nov. 16. These competitions in bodybuilding and powerlifting were held together for the first time in the Hawaii Convention Center in Waikiki, according to Antonio Mu, a powerlifting competitor in the USA Powerlifting organization and sophomore from Australia majoring in business management.
Mu said he loves powerlifting because it’s an opportunity to do hard things. “Most of my life, I’ve kind of just done things because I’ve been told to do it,” he shared, “but this is something I actually got to choose to do on my own.” He said when he encounters mental hurdles in the sport, he often tells himself although it will be difficult, getting it done will prove to himself that hard things are possible.
McLellan, who has been competing in bodybuilding for nine years, shared while bodybuilding and powerlifting require sacrifices, they can be mentally empowering. In both competing and coaching others in bodybuilding, she said, “Even if you don’t win. Even if you don’t get the top five. [I want people to think], ‘Wow, I look and feel like a totally different person, and I did that.’”
She explained, “The athletes who look really good have [done] hours and hours of working out, practicing, stretching, meal prepping, sleeping and tracking their water,” which is what the competitors from BYUH have been working on. Bodybuilding consists of weight training for about six days a week, strict diets, sleep schedules and constantly staying “dialed in” to your body, McLellan shared. “It’s a job,” she said while laughing. “It’s like my part-time job.”
First-time bodybuilder Niuhiti Maruhi echoed McLellan’s sentiments, explaining, “It’s important to keep track of your physical health, also mental health, because if you’re stressed it’s definitely going to reflect on your body.” He said he did daily checks with his coach and fellow student, Vevohau Pahuiri, on his food intake, weight training and water levels. While keeping track of these things may seem difficult, Maruhi shared, “It’s all of these details that make the program, the journey, an adventure for me.” Maruhi said his goal for himself is to staying healthy, and bodybuilding has been a way for him to do that in the last couple of months.
Pere said she feels empowered by her ability to, “set a goal, meet it and then work towards the next [goal]” in bodybuilding. The preparation, she said, was “just hard and then there’s harder,” but she is motivated to be an example to her 3-year-old daughter of living a healthy life and accomplishing everything she sets out to do. Pere shared she is looking forward to teaching her daughter, “progress over perfection,” a mantra she feels she learned while preparing for the Shawn Ray Hawaiian Classic.
As the only male bodybuilder from BYUH participating in the competition, Maruhi shared he felt it was a privilege to represent the university. Maruhi said he was motivated by the sacrifices he made. “I don’t want to waste all of the sacrifices I made prior to the competition, whether financially [or] physically,” he said.
Maruhi has also been motivated by Pahuiri, he said, who did the Shawn Ray Hawaiian Classic when he was 17 but was unable to compete this year. “I want to show him that I was able to apply all of the things he has taught me,” Maruhi shared.
For Mu, powerlifting is currently a stress reliever, but he said once he finishes school, he and his coach “have a vision of being one of the the top in the world at what we do.” The Ukiyo – Shawn Ray Bench & Deadlift Classic was Mu’s fifth competition in powerlifting, and he shared he wouldn’t be where he was today in the sport “without the support of my wife, Kamaka, and my family.”
The weeks of preparation
The easier part of preparing for competitions is always the training, McLellan said. “When I walk into the gym, to me, it’s a playground,” she shared. “I’m like, ‘Oh, what fun thing are we going to do today? … I’m going to suffer and sweat and it’s going to be horrible, but I’m going to love every second of it.’”
Mu said the structure of training as well as having a skilled coach to plan the training makes it the easiest part of the powerlifting preparations. He said his coach, Jaron Yamane, the owner of Ukiyo Hawaii and the USA Powerlifting state chair of Hawaii, creates all of his training programs. “[I] kind of just show up, do the work, report back to my coach and then carry on,” Mu explained.
He said he also enjoys getting to train with others, especially David Ness, another powerlifting student at BYUH who competed at the Ukiyo – Shawn Ray Classic. Mu said he was excited to share the platform with him, explaining that training with him was “always a fun experience.” The friendly competition is a good way to accentuate the training sessions his coach plans, Mu said. “It’s actually very good to have a slight friendly competition. When they grow, you grow, when you grow, they grow, and then you just excel together,” he shared.
Trusting his coach’s training was easy, Maruhi said, because he has so much knowledge. “I feel like it was easier for me to trust him because he has done this before. He knows how to react quickly,” when Maruhi’s weight wasn’t right or things needed to be changed, he shared.
The hardest part of competing is the choice to be away from family, Mu said. “I’ll forever say this,” he said, “it’s definitely not a hobby you do faint-heartedly. I have to choose to step away from my family for the times that I train, the times that I compete.”
The diet that’s necessary for bodybuilding can also be difficult, Maruhi said, especially if you “just love eating food,” like he does. McLellan explained it can be a mental challenge for people to get over. She shared, “The food is boring. You’re eating the same thing every day. It’s a ton of chicken, a ton of rice and potatoes and vegetables,” and the athletes are doing the diet and the training day in and day out, even when they don’t want to.
Pere said sticking to the diet was definitely a challenge for her sometimes, but it was a lot of “just telling yourself you can do it and getting it done.” As she prepared for the competition, she said she only ate unprocessed protein, carbs and fats in moderation according to her goals.
Maruhi and Pere said they had planned ahead for what they’d eat after the competition as a reward for their dedication to the diet. Pere said she ate a cheeseburger, curly fries and chocolate cake, fulfilling her dream before the competition of eating a burger. Laughing, she shared, “I enjoyed every bite.” Maruhi went to The Cheesecake Factory with friends and had steak, salmon, mashed potatoes and cheesecake, explaining, “It was amazing to regain some of the flavors and tastes I’ve missed for the past three months.”
The journey to the sport
Mu said before getting into powerlifting, he and a friend were “just a couple of gym bros in the gym here at school” talking about signing up for a competition. While his friend didn’t end up competing, Mu was approached by his coach following his first competition. Mu said he has been competing ever since. For anyone interested in powerlifting, he recommended, “Don’t be afraid to just jump in, have a go and try it out. Because you never know until you have a go.” He explained you don’t need to have a certain amount of strength to get into it and see if you like it.
Maruhi said he has enjoyed lifting every since his mission but really started pushing himself this year. He said his friends “saw some potential” in him and encouraged him to look into bodybuilding. After meeting with Pahuiri, Maruhi said his future coach told him, “‘I think you’d be a good fit for this competition,’” and they began training. While he said he thinks competing in bodybuilding was more of a once-in-a-lifetime thing for him since he is busy with college, he encouraged anyone interested in trying it to “reach out to someone who has done the competition before.”
Although Pere has admired the dedication and time of bodybuilders for years, she said she was encouraged to try it out after taking one of McLellan’s nutrition classes. “I just think it’s so cool that she can be a professor, a mom, a wife and a professional bodybuilder,” she said. “It was empowering to hear her story and think, ‘Oh, if she can do it, I can do it,’” Pere added.
This first competition was a trial run for Pere to get her bearings in the sport, but she hopes to compete at least one more time, she said. Those who want to try this sport should know their limits, get a knowledgeable and trustworthy coach, and “start off small, especially if it’s your first time,” Pere said.
Having a body that was both healthy and looked good while healthy was part of what drew McLellan to bodybuilding, she said. McLellan said she wanted a sport or hobby that could be both a challenge and something she would be good at, and she discovered bodybuilding fulfilled this. “I loved how I could build a muscle and be like, ‘I built that, I did that,’” McLellan shared.
After finding a coach with results she loved who also just happened to live 10 minutes away from her, she said she felt like, “This is the universe telling me to do bodybuilding.” McLellan said she won her first competition in both her age category and open category and went on to get her professional card in 2017.
When starting bodybuilding, she advised making really small changes rather than drastic ones, explaining your body will respond at the rate it wants to. “You have to find a good coach, but you have to trust your body is going to do what it wants, what it’s supposed to do,” she shared. Seeing food as fuel instead of an emotion can also be helpful, she said. “It’s not how you feel happy, it’s not how you feel sad. Food is fuel and it does things for your body.”
A successful competition
Before the competition, Maruhi said he was slightly nervous about all of the people who would be watching him but was excited to show the audience and judges the results of his preparations. Afterwards, he shared he was extremely proud of what he was able to accomplish with his coach. Because of their preparation, he said, “I wasn’t stressed at all to compete. I had a strong mindset and a great trust in Vevohau.”
He said his favorite part of the competition was the excitement he had while on stage and “seeing the joy and smiles of my close friends.” Maruhi earned first place in the True Novice category and fourth place for the Novice and Open Men’s Physique Categories.
For Pere, she said the most exciting part of the competition was the opportunity to see her progress on stage as well as watch the more experienced athletes. “I left the competition feeling grateful for the experience and truly inspired by the dedication and discipline of all of the athletes,” she shared. Moving forward, Pere said she is setting new goals and is considering competing in the future since she now better understands what to expect.
Mu highlighted how the powerlifting community is very positive at competitions like the Shawn Ray Classic, with the athletes all wanting to share their success with each other. He explained, “Everyone’s open to sharing their success or sharing tips and tricks in the sport.” His relationship between other powerlifters on the island, he shared, is kind of like having “a long-distance family relationship. Even though you don’t see each other much because everyone’s kind of separated and all over the island, when we do catch up, it’s always a great experience.”
The atmosphere for this competition was really nice because Mu didn’t feel any pressure, he said. He also said he enjoyed executing his lifts in a the new environment of the convention center. Mu placed second in the competition, which he said was based on pound-for-pound strength across multiple weight classes.
McLellan agreed and said the backstage environment at bodybuilding competitions is really supportive. “You know how hard everyone works and you’re not judging each other,” she shared.
While McLellan said a mishap with her spray tan not developing enough overnight meant she looked lighter, lost some muscle definition and placed lower than she might have otherwise int he Shawn Ray Hawaiian Classic, she said she felt “dialed in to my stage look really well.” She shared she felt really graceful and confident on stage during the competition, especially because she “came in lean and toned, [with] a good balance in my upper and lower body muscle size.”
