THERE is one Masters pro qualifier a year in Europe. One show, one line-up, one chance. After five shows and five golds this season, I’m now one week out from it in Milan. This is what I’ve learned about planning a season around a single date.
You’re a Masters athlete from 35 and I’m 53. A 25-year-old can’t bring the depth, maturity and density of muscle that comes from decades of training and I shouldn’t try to look like her. That’s apples and oranges and it’s no disrespect to either of us. A Masters athlete at an open pro qualifier will usually go nowhere. If it isn’t a Masters stage, it isn’t yours.
I start my season early, on purpose. The front end is a test drive: I get on stage, see how the physique performs and collect feedback. The back end is for fixing what I’ve been told, which is where Milan sits. This year I started on September 6, so I had every possible opportunity to arrive at the big one with my best package.
Winning is lovely, but feedback is what the early shows are for. For years mine was “more of everything”. This season an Olympia-level judge told me: don’t touch anything, just one thing. Going from a long list to a single item is the clearest sign you’re moving in the right direction.
In Toulouse they were short of competitors in Women’s Physique Class C, so I stood in, won it, then won Masters Bikini as well. I believe that’s a first at an international pro qualifier. It was a great trial run against high-level competition and I’d recommend it to anyone who gets the chance.
I changed coaches in November last year and the improvement has been exponential. You may have to trial a few before you find the one who fits. I’ve invested my life in this goal, so why would I cut a corner on the person guiding it?
Milan is capped at 600 athletes and bikini is one of the biggest and most competitive categories. Women fly in from around the world, so there’s no room for a dropped beat.
I can’t control who stands next to me. To win your category, then the overall, then the card, you have to beat everyone anyway. So all my energy goes into my physique. Less talk, more work.
Watch the full 24-minute season review below, which was recorded when Sibel was three weeks out:
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