SuppliedFor Laura Perram, the decision to compete in bodybuilding championships was simply to challenge herself.
The fifth-year student is one of many from the University of Alberta that competed in the Margaret Logue Northern Alberta Bodybuilding Championships at the Myer Horowitz Theater on Sunday.
A student of the Alberta School of Business, Perram competes in Bikini, in which athletes are scored on their balance, shape, and overall aesthetic. It’s the lowest women’s class in the Alberta Bodybuilding Association, which also includes (in ascending order) Figure, Fitness, Physique, and Bodybuilding.
“As you go up, the muscles get bigger,” Perram said.
Leading up to a competition, Perram’s training regimen includes lifting weights five days a week and cardio up to seven days a week. She combines physical exercise with the IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) diet, where a person will eat foods that add up to a set number proteins, carbohydrates and fats each day. After competing, some athletes will go on a reverse diet, where they ease back up to the number of calories they would casually eat.
Perram’s dedication to the gym started in her first year of university after she was diagnosed with cancer. Experiencing chest pain, shortness of breath, coughing blood, and later after a few visits to the doctor, Perram learned there was a tumour in her lung.
While she was able to receive immediate treatment, and responded well to chemotherapy, she ultimately had to drop all of her courses at the U of A. Between chemotherapy and radiation therapy, she decided to dedicate her free time to working out.
“I fell in love with it,” she said.
Perram’s cancer treatment has been very successful since being diagnosed five years ago — in fact, her sessions concluded last month.
“Honestly, I know this sounds messed up but (the cancer) has been the best experience that has ever happened to me,” Perram said.
“It changed my life.”
The biggest thing she’s learned from overcoming cancer has been to just go with the flow. “From competing, it’s that it’s tough — it’s a mental struggle,” Perram said.
“The challenge with competing in Bikini is not knowing exactly what the judges are looking for,” she said.
“Since Bikini is the lowest class, it’s very ambiguous,” she said.
“So they don’t want you too muscular, but obviously they want you to have muscles. They don’t want you to be too lean but obviously you have to be really lean.”
Her first competition, Muscle Beach, was last October. The first-time Bikini competitor placed above half of her class. After working out consistently for five years, the decision to start competing was just to challenge herself, she said.
“Last year people would just ask me, ‘Are you competing, are you competing?’ And it had never been something I had wanted to do,” Perram said.
“It’s totally not something I expected from myself, but I kind of just needed something to push myself. I know it’s a really intense diet and really intense (workout schedule) and I just wanted to see if I could do it.”
After Sunday’s competition, Perram will be preparing to travel Asia — maybe on a reverse diet, maybe not.
