Ursula McCulloch did not have the most auspicious start to bodybuilding.
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Going to the gym was a way to fill in some time when she was bored.
It was there she was approached to see if she would consider taking up bodybuilding about nine years ago.
And it quickly grew from there.
McCulloch was crowned Ms Figure Australia, her first national title, at the iCompete Natural Australian Fitness Expo in Melbourne in October.
It was one of her first competitions after serving a two-year sanction (December 10, 2014 to December 9, 2016) by iCompete Natural and International Natural Bodybuilding Association for use and the presence of Clenbuterol in her system, a drug used to lose weight by increasing a person’s metabolic rate while allowing the user to retain muscle mass and strength.
Hearing she didn’t pass the drug test was one of the worst days of her life, McCulloch said.
“I’ve always prided myself on being a natural competitor … I was gutted.”
In the nine years she has been competing, it was the first time in the 15 tests she received a negative result.
Speaking about what happened, McCulloch said a former coach gave her a set of supplements and vitamins to take, but she did not check the ingredient list.
“It can happen so easily.”
She hoped her story would prompt athletes to be more careful about what supplements and vitamins they took.
To this day, she still did not know what supplement the Australian Sports Anti-doping Authority test picked up, she said.
However, the two-year sanction made her more determined to win a national title and prove she was a natural competitor.
Competing involved a lot of hard work, training and nutrition.
There was more to bodybuilding than fake tan, chicken and broccoli, and trips to the gym, she said.
“People look at the pictures and go ‘OMG’. You do look different because of the tan – that’s just what you have to do for the sport,” McCulloch said.
“You’ve only got 10 minutes on the stage, whereas you’re working every day in a gym, hours and hours of training. You’ve got a small period of time to show what you’ve just built.”
Walking into the APEX Performance Institute, where she trains, it’s not immediately evident McCulloch is a bodybuilder, just exceptionally fit.
Until she starts lifting.
McCulloch can dead-lift 125 kilograms, squat carrying 115kg and bench-press 65kg.
To become a bodybuilder was a big commitment, she said.
McCulloch has a young son and works two jobs as well as competing in state and national competitions as a bodybuilder.
She enjoyed the mind clarity from lifting weights.
“I like pushing myself to the limits … to be able to watch your body and know your mental strength obviously makes you a stronger person to deal with day-to-day things.”
Already she has started preparing for her next competition with her coach, APEX Performance Institute owner and director Corey Baldock.
She has a strict regime in the lead up to competitions, which she acknowledged did impact on her social life.
It meant no alcohol for six months, no sweets and a lot of hard work.
“(Poor nutrition) inhibits your training, fat loss and your overall health … if I’m putting in 100 per cent in here (the gym), I need to be putting in 110 per cent out there to get to the goal I set myself.”
Outside of competing and training McCulloch enjoyed living a healthy, active lifestyle.
“I love cake, but it’s a treat, not an everyday thing.”
Her next competition may not be until March next year, but hard work needed to be put in from the start.
Baldock said the longer they had to prepare for a competition, the better the outcome.
“We don’t have to rush things or do any extreme dieting,” Baldock said.
Instead they could gradually work on improving muscle mass and lowering fat.
They started with strength training and working on improving her diet, but it depended how long they had before a show.
Chicken and broccoli was what she first turned to when she was starting out as a bodybuilding novice years ago.
But it was far from what appeared on her plate nowadays, despite the common misconception, McCulloch said.
“If you’re uneducated (about bodybuilding), that’s what’s people will turn to,” she said.
“You’ve got to be able to eat what you enjoy.”
McCulloch trains about six hours a week, every week as well as preparing all of her food when she has her sights set on an upcoming competition.
“What I do now is a thousand times easier than what I did then, with better results,” she said.
Starting earlier meant any diet or training “extremities” would happen just before the show to maximise her results.
Crash-dieting wasn’t healthy and could be avoided by improving what she ate earlier rather than later, she said.
In the lead up to the show, McCulloch would often train two times a day.
Baldock piped in, saying understanding nutrition was one of the most misunderstood elements of training.
“The one cliche line I use in this office is ‘You can’t out-train a poor diet’,” Baldock said.
“That quote seems very, very strict, but it’s pointed towards people who are at the elite level.”
Proteins, fats and carbs became the priority for her diet, and she needed to eat five times a day, each day.
“You’re looking at one of Australia’s genetic freaks,” Baldock said.
“She puts on muscle faster than any other female I’ve ever seen.”
The last 12 months McCulloch has put on seven kilograms of lean muscle naturally.
Baldock has trained other women for years who could not do the same, despite all of their hard work.
“When you get someone like that in the gym, which is not very often, they’re the ones that go all of the way.”
McCulloch will compete in the Arnold Classic in Melbourne in March next year, where she will again be donning the fake tan.
“If you went up there without any tan on, you would see nothing. You’d just look like a white, blank canvas. But when you put the tan on, the tan outlines all the lines and the definition by casting many shadows on the body,” Baldock said.