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IronLife.Com Up & Coming Star Of The Month - Leah Wynne
by Sachet, Team IronLife.com Staff Writer
(For more information on Leah Wynne, please click on the above banner.)
When Leah Wynne walks past, most would probably assume she's just another pretty face. Quite the contrary. Aside from the beautifully sculpted body hidden beneath her clothes, there's a complex woman packed into her remarkable 5'4" frame.
Leah is a multi dimensional person with a variety of interests and accomplishments and it's not surprising that all those components have discipline as a common bond. Leah's confident she can achieve most anything she desires. How does a woman obtain that level of confidence? One step at a time through education, discipline and consistently striving to conquer hurdles.
Leah has ten years of MA training backing her, something which requires developing physical and mental strength and developing different strategies. Interestingly enough, doing these interviews has made me aware of a strong connection between women involved in Martial Arts and confidence.
During the past seven years, Leah has focused on weight training, setting realistic goals and being consistent. You may think, 'Well, so what?! Every competitor has to do that.' However, that's a pretty high bar to set when you have a job and children needing quality time. One of the things I find most appealing about Leah is that she has found the way to balance a career, home life and children and still manages to keep a section of her life all her own to fulfill her bodybuilding dreams.
LEAH WYNNE PROFILE
Age: 32 years old
Height: 5'4"
Weight (Off Season): 130 lbs.
Weight (Competition): 119 lbs.
Educational Background: Business Marketing, Office Administration, NSCA-CPT
Occupation: Personal Trainer, Model, Collector
Website: www.leahwynne.com
LEAH WYNNE INTERVIEW
- IronLife.com/Sachet: I love your website Leah. It appears that you're still under construction in sections, but it's beautifully done! What else do you plan on adding in the future?
Leah Wynne: My website is always under construction it seems. I used to have a forum and a members section. I may implement those again in the future. As well, I would like to broaden the content to include some of the other areas of interest that I have...I have a ton of recipes that I haven't had time to get online yet. A kids training and nutrition section has been on my mind as well. And I also want to include a section for ADD, since that is something I've had to recently deal with.
-I did notice at your site that you had some of your recipes published. How did you get involved in that? Do you enjoy cooking?
I was approached by the author of the Fitness Menus. The entire book is full of recipes submitted by competitors and fitness models. I have tons of recipes...one of my favorite pastimes is adapting regular recipes to a bodybuilding lifestyle. I am much better at baking than cooking however.
- What a great opportunity for you through Fitness Menus! I'm always scanning recipes since I enjoy cooking and creating new dishes by modifying recipes I find. Most come out good, but there have been a few that made everyone gag LOL Since you're more in tune with your body than most mothers, is there anything in your children's diets that differ from your upbringing?
Well there's a lot actually. My upbringing had nothing to do with health or fitness. My kids probably eat a lot different than most kids. More so for the younger one, who is an athlete herself. The older one is all about what tastes good. I am aware of their protein intake, EFA's, and do try to keep the sugar in check...although that is not always so easy when they're not around me.
- Proper nutrition is so important. I wish more parents would see the value in instilling a healthy lifestyle as a normal way of life in their children, rather health problems dictating a lifestyle change as their children turn into adults. Would you describe your current nutritional program?
Well...right now it's the off season...so nutrition is a little more lax than when I'm training for a competition. I don't track calories or macros at all, but I am aware of what I'm eating. I try to eat well through the week, and relax more on the weekend, but it doesn't always work out that way. I do try to make sure I still get my EFA's in, and make sure I still utilize proper PWO nutrition.
During competition training, I generally go with some type of carb cycling. I have trained on my own and with a coach and I much prefer with a coach...so I end up following the diet my coach provides for me.
- Do you believe in taking supplements? If so, what do you use?
Yes...I do believe in certain supplements. Probably not your typical bodybuilding supplements though. Other than protein powder, most of my supplements are in the forms of vitamins, minerals, various herbal remedies for conditions I have and fish oils.
- Well, you're smart since consuming a variety of vitamin and mineral rich foods is the best way to acquire powerful disease fighting agents. However, it's difficult to constantly analyze our diets and since vitamins and minerals are the key to establishing and assisting the biochemical processes that our bodies perform, it's important to take them. The only supplements I take are what you listed, although the only herb I use Echinacea. Another component for a woman to establish a road to good health is through weight baring exercises. Since you pump iron, what age do you feel a girl should start strength training?
I believe both boys and girls should be involved in as many sports as they have time and desire to do, and they should do this as early as possible. The earlier you get a child involved in sports and regular exercise, the healthier they will be and the better chance it will stick w/ them as they get older.
Strength training can involve lots of different things. Kids at any age can and should do all sorts of bodyweight exercises. My daughter is ten, and is a competitive gymnast, as well as a distance runner. Her coaches have her doing pull-ups, pushups, and various other conditioning exercises...not to mention the training for gymnastics itself.
As far as lifting weights is concerned, this is highly individual and one should not place an age on it. Some kids will be ready at an earlier age than others. One needs to consider maturity levels (both physical and mental) as well as prior athletic experience.
- What suggestions would you have for a young girl aspiring to become a competitive bodybuilder?
Regarding Training: Lift heavy and train for strength. Training basic compound movements for strength will take you further, faster, than doing traditional bodybuilding isolation exercises. The added benefit of this of course is that being stronger will carry over to other areas of your life, including your health.
Regarding Nutrition:Try to maintain some perspective and balance in regards to eating. The thing I hate most about competitive bodybuilding is what it does to your sense of balance regarding nutrition. During competition it's all restrict, restrict, restrict and then when you're done its binge, binge, binge. It's very easy to fall into that routine and it's not healthy. Diet with discipline for your competition, but know it's only 12 weeks and then your regular, BALANCED, nutritional plan should be used.
- You're also a trainer.. how do you like being a personal trainer? Are there more pros than cons?
I do enjoy personal training. It gets a bad rap sometimes, but I enjoy working with people for the most part, and it's great to see someone succeed in their physique and health goals as a direct result of your involvement. There's a few cons to working in a commercial gym, but I'm not going to get into them. For the most part, training with other people is very rewarding work.
- It doesn't seem as though the workday drags as much when you're working with people. When you get chance to relax, which I'm sure isn't too often since you have two children, what do you like to do to unwind? Favorite vacation spot?
Well...throughout the week, most of my unwinding is done either by training, or surfing the net. Come the weekend though, my favorite thing to do is watch movies with my kids.
That would definitely have to be Las Vegas. There is so much to do, and of course the casino's are always a blast.
- Yeah, casinos are fun.. I live within driving distance to Atlantic City, but I'm pretty disciplined with my money and only play the slots a little. When I do go, it's generally for the shows. Speaking of discipline.. were you ever involved in something that required alot of discipline in your past which subsequently has helped you in your training now?
I did train in the martial arts for over 10 years before I started heavy into bodybuilding. There's a lot of discipline in that. I have always had a lot of discipline...I know that I can do anything I set my mind to.
- What inspired you to start bodybuilding?
There were a couple things actually. I first got started in lifting weights because I was training in the martial and wanted to get stronger for that. I gain muscle pretty easy so once I started my body changed quite quickly and I obviously liked what I saw enough to keep at it. I started competing after having seen Monica Brandt doing a Fitness competition. I thought hey...I want to do that. And I did.
- Good attitude.. go for it! What do you feel is your strongest physical asset?
Other than the fact that I seem to gain muscle very easily, I would say my quads are probably the strongest physical asset I have.
- And what would you like to improve?
My chest and biceps. My chest seems to respond to nothing I throw at it. It is something I will be working very hard on during this off season. And I've had chronic tendonitis in my left arm making training biceps directly very painful most of the time.
- So.. how long have you actually been training?
I have been training seriously w/ weights for about 7 years. Before beginning bodybuilding, I had trained off and on with weights as a supplement to my martial arts training.
Daily Work Out Schedule
It varies occasionally...but it usually comes back to the following because it is such an effective split:
Monday - Horizontal Push/Pull
Tuesday - Quad Dominant Legs
Wednesday - off/cardio
Thursday - Vertical Push/Pull
Friday - Hip Dom Legs
This is apt to change as I prioritize chest for the next little while but I haven't got that far yet. This is an awesome split, especially if you need to bring up legs and back.
- How does your training change pre competition?
Pre-comp, my volume gets lowered and I concentrate on maintaining muscle through strength training, as opposed gaining it through hypertrophy training. I also obviously add in cardio...steady state in the morning and some HIIT sessions as needed.
- Well, that certainly explains why your body looks fantastic. You also started showing.. which shows did you compete in and how did you place?
Kingston Bodybuilding Championships, 2003, 2nd place, level 1
Eastern Ontario Fitness & Figure Championships, 2003, 1st place Figure
FAME 2003, 27th out of 130 competitors, Fitness Modeling
Bodyshock Fitness Model Competition, 2002, 5th place
NY State Naturals, 2002, 1st place Figure
NY State Naturals, 2002, 1st place Fitness Model
WNSO Fitness Model Competition, 2001, 7th place
Kingston & Eastern Ontario Championships, 2000, 3rd place Fitness
- You also had planned to compete at the most recent Kingston show but, pulled out due to an injury. You still went through with your cut.. why?
Well, at the time that I pulled out I was only 4 weeks out from competition. I finished the cut and took my updated progress pics for my coach. He worked hard for me and put a lot into my training and he deserved to see me finish.
- What does that do to you mentally?
Well the whole thing really sucks to be honest! LOL You get your heart set on something, and when something gets in the way it can be very disheartening. The injury was not the only reason I pulled out. It was the main reason I couldn't do bodybuilding. But I could have gone into Figure...and that was my intention at first. However, I really only wanted to do the bodybuilding. And training for something that you don't want to do is very difficult. I was driving myself crazy and it just made more sense to pull out of the figure and wait until I could do what I wanted to do: Bodybuilding.
- That must have been really crummy to go through. Although, after seeing how you considered your coach's contribution to your efforts and followed through on your cut, I think it's clear to see that you're a winner no matter what happens! You have a very positive outlook on life and it's that the type of attitude that you need rebound from setbacks. What do you find appealing about bodybuilding and competing?
The end result. I love being in competition shape. I love being on stage too. You never get over your butterflies mind you...but you learn to settle them enough to feel the overwhelming sense of accomplishment and the rush of being up there after all the hard work you put in.
- Best of luck with your future bodybuilding competitions and juggling that busy life of yours! I'll check your website for updates and I'm interested to read what you post regarding ADD. It was a pleasure talking to you Leah, as always.
Leah also has a thread at http://www.beyondmass.com/, http://www.beyondmass.com/forums/sh...p?threadid=3722
Be sure to check out her website too!
by Sachet, Team IronLife.com Staff Writer
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