Two years ago, Ladner's Shelagh Bannerman walked into local personal trainer Cara Thien's studio looking to make a change. Little did she know just how far she would come.
This summer, Bannerman, 47, brought home two first place trophies from the International Natural Bodybuilding Federation Canada competition in Vancouver. She placed first in the masters division and first in the open middleweight category.
When she arrived at Thien's Tsawwassen studio in the fall of 2011, Bannerman was out of shape. While she played soccer a couple of times a week, and had been an active child and teen, she admits she had some couchpotato tendencies. "I just thought to myself, you know, it's time to get off the couch," she says.
Bannerman says she didn't go in with the goal of entering a body building competition, but she had always wondered what she could do with her body.
"I've always thought about, 'I wonder what I could look like, how muscular I could get."
The first orders of business, however, were losing weight, building cardio and stamina.
In the beginning, Bannerman trained with Thien, a certified trainer and international fitness competitor, for an hour twice a week in addition to her soccer games.
After almost a year of training, last fall Thien suggested taking things to the next level, and Bannerman jumped in with both feet.
Her training increased to a minimum of 13 hours a week of weightlifting, cardio and stretching. The self-employed horticulturalist was able to change her work hours to suit her new training regime and had to adopt a strict nutrition plan.
"It's challenging. At times it was beyond challenging."
In addition to the training, in order to be able to compete Bannerman had to learn how to pose like a body builder and perform a 90-second routine, which she did with the help of a Maple Ridge choreographer.
