“If anyone asks me, ‘What should I do to get in shape? I’ll tell them, ‘Join the community choir,’” laughs Sam Moore.
Moore, a 37-year-old Grade 5 teacher at École McIsaac School, began her impressive fitness journey in an unlikely place—on stage at the R.H. Channing Auditorium.
Moore lived in Creighton until Grade 3, when her family moved to BC. They made frequent summer trips back to northern Manitoba, until Moore’s parents decided to return to Flin Flon just as Moore finished high school.
After a stint in Edmonton, Moore earned her teaching degree from Brandon University, then joined her family in Flin Flon and began to build a life here.
Two-and-a-half years ago, Moore auditioned for the Flin Flon Community Choir’s production of Chicago: The Musical. She was offered a major role: the sassy vaudevillian and murderess, Velma Kelly.
The role was physically demanding, with fast-paced song and dance numbers choreographed by former Flin Flonner Janelle Hacault. While Moore had felt confident after four weeks of music rehearsals, when Hacault added her choreography, the bar was raised.
“I almost had a panic attack when I got home,” Moore recalls. “I was thinking, ‘I can’t walk and sing without running out of breath. How am I going to do this?’”
Moore had played volleyball and slo-pitch, participated in triathlons and coached student teams, but she realized she would need to step up her fitness in order to give her all on stage.
Another motivating factor: the show called for costumes that didn’t leave much to the imagination.
Moore began rehearsing her musical numbers daily at home, cut some of the junk food from her diet and began working out regularly.
By the time Chicago opened in April 2013, Moore had mastered her role, and she was feeling stronger, more energetic and more comfortable in her own skin.
After the play wrapped, Moore decided to maintain her pursuit of better fitness. She began lifting weights, and developed a lean, muscular physique.
Moore had been playing with the idea of entering a bodybuilding competition when she started dating Aaron Chigol in spring 2014.
Chigol had competed in bodybuilding competitions and had a solid bank of knowledge on the sport. He encouraged Moore to try it out, with some words of caution.
“He gave me a good heads-up,” says Moore. “[Bodybuilding competitions] can play with your head in the sense that they are about external appearances.”
Moore also learned that preparing for a bodybuilding competition can push the boundaries of good health.
“You have to be on such a restricted diet, and you have to work out on reduced calories, so you’re a bit weaker than you normally would be towards the end,” Moore explains.
She notes that remaining in competition-ready condition is not sustainable
long-term.
“It’s more of a personal goal that I wanted to see if I could have the discipline to follow through with,”
she says.
Moore decided to take the plunge with a natural competition, one where entrants are barred from using performance-enhancing supplements such as steroids.
She set her sights on the Central Natural Championships, held June 20 in Winnipeg and organized by the International Natural Bodybuilding Federation (INBF). Entrants are required to complete a polygraph test before competing, and winners are tested for drug use.
Moore says that the natural competition helped create a more level, and safe, playing field, but it also made the preparation more challenging.
“You’re not on anything that dries you out or helps make you vascular, so you have to make sure you’re really on point with your nutrition.”
Moore entered two INBF events: female bodybuilding, which includes a series of athletic poses and a 90-second routine, and Ms. Fit Body, which requires competitors to form poses as well — in five-inch heels and a skimpy bikini.
With about five months to prepare, Moore sought out support. She followed a training program developed by trainer Scott Abel. Her stepbrother, Shawn Goodman, a personal trainer, helped Moore develop and stick to her nutrition and workout plans. She practised with a posing coach, and reached out to Chicago choreographer Hacault for help with her routine.
In the last two months before competition, the careful diet got tighter. Moore cut out all dairy and sugars, including fruit, and planned each meal for the right balance of lean protein and carbohydrate.
“The regimented diet plan was difficult,” she recalls, noting with a laugh that she fell off the wagon more than once.
“It’s tough socially … a lot of gatherings are based on food, so if I knew I didn’t want to have something, I usually didn’t go.”
Moore did get to have one “re-feed meal” — a high- calorie meal designed to kick the body’s metabolism back into a fat-burning mode — during her training. She went to Chucky D’s for a cheeseburger and poutine. “It was amazing,” she recalls.
As the competition loomed, Moore went into a calorie deficit state to maximize weight loss. Moore wanted to place in the lightweight category –under 118 pounds – a challenging feat for a 5-foot, 5-inch woman with a medium frame.
When competition day arrived, Moore crossed her fingers for the morning weigh-in. However, she soon discovered that she was the only woman who had entered the female bodybuilding category.
While Moore’s fitness journey thus far had been a competition against herself, the INBF competition became one as well.
In the Ms. Fit Body event, there were seven competitors.
As the only competitor, Moore placed first in female bodybuilding. In the Ms. Fit Body category she placed second.
Walking out of her first bodybuilding event with two trophies in hand, Moore says she feels ready to take on more competitions—after giving her body some time to recoup from the intensity of her last round of training.
In the meantime, Moore now knows what she is capable of, in terms of both physical strength and willpower. She has also discovered a new relationship with food.
“When you are on a restricted diet, if you let yourself get caught up in what to eat next, food can be all-consuming. But once we had the opportunity to have our [post-competition] pig-out, I realized, ‘Oh, it’s always going to be there.’ I prefer to eat in a more routine way and feel good on a regular basis than to constantly be having the treats.”
Moore also found an unexpected silver lining: “I find the treats taste better when you don’t have them all the time. When you do have a cupcake finally, that is the best cupcake,” she laughs.
