Figure Competitor – Page 2

Carla Jones

Carla Jones got a late start into the world of fitness competitions. Although she was a group exercise instructor for fifteen years, it wasn’t until about six years ago she started competing as a bodybuilder, then moved into fitness competitions. She was competing in a bikini contest in Florida when she was approached by a couple of photographers. It wasn’t long before she was on the cover of Fitness and Physique Magazine, and it was time to start seriously training!

Carla is 36 years old. She is 5’3″ tall, and weighs about 125 lbs. She says the easiest way to break into fitness modeling is just to compete. The competitions are usually jammed with photographers and other people from the industry not only trying to sell their brand and their product, but also find spokeswomen for their companies. more Carla Jones

Carolyn Sessa

Carolyn Sessa is a 28 year old Figure Competitor with a bodybuilding background. She hails from Long Island New York. She stands 5’3″ tall and weighs about 120 lbs. She was not terribly athletic growing up, but she had and older brother she looked up to who enjoyed lifting weights. She says her triceps are her best body part. I’m not sure I can agree with her, but let’s just say she has many nice bodyparts and leave it at that!

As hard as it is to imagine, Britney Spears was one of her early idols, and she says she started working out in an attempt to look just like her. Carolyn does a lot of modeling, and it’s easy to see why. She has an amazing body and some really pretty features. more Carolyn Sessa

Jelena Abbou

Jelena Abbou is about to turn thirty five years old. She is a fitness model and competitor who grew up in Serbia but moved to the United States when she was 20. She stands 5’6″ tall, weighs 118 lbs, and her measurements are 34-24-34. She loves doing personal training, and modeling, and she lives in New Jersey.

Jelena is not stranger to competing. She does it a lot. Her contest history: more Jelena Abbou

Karly Woodle

Karly Woodle has been active her whole life. But she never really paid much attention to her diet, and new nothing about nutrition. In fact, for a number of years, she battled with several eating disorders. She moved from North Carolina to Arizona, and decided to really get healthy. She quickly got interested in figure competitions, and her life was changed forever.

Karly has been a fitness model for several years now. She is 5’4″ tall, weighs about 123 lbs, and measures 33B-24-29. She obviously has some great genetics, with very tight abs and thin skin. Her arms and shoulders always look great. As her measurements show, Karly has a tiny waist and not much in the way of hips. Her legs are muscular, but are probably her only weak point from a competitive standpoint. Her contest history: more Karly Woodle

Nicoleta Chiorean

As a former Ms. Figure Ireland, Nicoleta Chiorean has the looks and the body to earn a few trophies. She grew up in Romania, and participated in basketball and tennis. Her husband was always into bodybuilding and enjoyed watching fitness competitions. After he took Nicoleta to one in 2005, she became interested and started training. She won the NAABA Ms Ireland in 2006 after training for only 12 months. She also placed 8th at the Ms Universe that year.

Nicoleta is an expert in nutrition, and has gone to school to study that topic, as well as sports psychology and kinesiology. She loves working with people of all different capabilities as a personal trainer.

She is 5’3″ tall. Her weight varies between 125 lbs off-season, to 105 lbs (contest weight). more Nicoleta

Alea Suarez

The Europa Super Show in 2011 was a gigantic event, one of if not the largest NPC event ever. Alea Suarez managed to place 6th in the figure competition. (Heather Dees was the 4th place winner.) It has been a long evolution for Alea.

She is a certified personal trainer, but that just demonstrates her roots. She started out as an aerobics instructor, and eventually – after having three kids – she began competing in bikini in 2009. She ended up winning the 2009 NPC Texas State Bikini Championships. She then transitioned into figure competitions, and earned her Pro card.

Alea was born in San Diego California, but now lives in Texas. She has a very diverse ethnic background that includes Cherokee and Apache Indian, German, French, English, and Mexican. She says her jump from bikini to figure involved a much more detailed and careful approach to her training, diet, and supplementation. Speaking of which, she recently inked a deal with a supplement company called Fahrenheit Nutrition. They say they signed her more for her off-stage personality and role-model potential than for her winning weighs and stunning looks. more Alea

Erica Cruikshank

Hailing from Maryland, Eric Cruikshank grew up around DC and is a popular fitness model in the northeast. She learned how to walk on her hands when she was four years old, and quite a bit of gymnastics training ensued. She was very competitive until she hurt her knee. At that point, she relegated herself to cheerleading all through high school. Like a lot of the gals we see here on FBB, Erica was always athletic, and fitness seems to come easily for her.

Although she mixes it up, she tends to train one body part per day, eat plenty of protein, and keep cheating to a minimum. She says she loves M&M’s! Unlike lots of figure competitors, Erica gets all her protein from food, she does not supplement. Her favorite fitness stars: Ava Cowan, Tanji Johnson, and Nicole Wilkins. more Erica Cruikshank

Heather Dees

Heather Dees recently won 4th place in the Europa Super Show. She was born in 1983 and lives in Salt Lake City UT.

Heather was athletic and active as a kid, but nothing out of the ordinary. None of the sports she tried really struck a cord until she found figure competitions. She met a trainer when she was 24 who helped her turn into the fine physical specimen she is today. She was so appreciative, she ended up marrying him! You may recognize his name – Justin Dees. He is a competitive bodybuilder.

Heather says she loves lifting heavy weights, and her favorite part about competing is when she is shaping up for the countdown and she’s able to watch her body lean up and transform. She is known for having some thick, powerful looking arms, but her body is well balanced and very feminine. Obviously, she doesn’t cheat very often, but when she days, she say she loves dark chocolate. She does quite a bit of fitness modeling, which keeps her busy and also requires her to stay in good shape. more Heather Dees

Sara Hurrle

Sara Hurrle is definitely your standard “Type A” personality. She is an IFBB Pro, a personal trainer, yoga instructor, and owns her own gym. She grew up in the midwest in a fairly unhappy home. Sports like gymnastics and working out in the gym offered her an escape. She also tried softball, golf, dance, and soccer. But she ultimately fell in love with lifting weights at the tender age of 16.

In college, her activities continued and even increased. She managed the weight room, acted as a group fitness instructor, was the conditioning coach for the hockey team. She competed in several triathlons. Once she graduated, she worked as a corporate wellness instructor.

Sara is 5’5″ tall and weighs 125 lbs. She is 36 years old. Her measurements are more Sara Hurrle

Jackie Gayda

Jackie Gayda (aka Jacquelyn Gayda-Haas) was one of the WWE wrestling babes. She is 30 years old, and has retired several times, but has wrestled as late as February of this year. Jackie is married, and she and her husband have two girls and a boy. She was featured on the wrestling show because she won a contest called Tough Enough, where she endured some pretty rigorous training, avoided significant injury (other than a pesky ACL tear), and apparently loved it.

She’s still very active an very athletic, in fact she competed in July in the 2011 NPC Branch Warren Classic. She grew up in Ohio as the oldest of four, and played softball, basketball, was into cheerleading and swimming. Jackie’s favorite was always running. That led her into cross-country and track and field at the University of Toledo. more Jackie Gayda