Dawn Scholey train

Q.1 Why did you start training and did you have any goals of competing to begin with?

Since a young girl I had always taken part in gymnastics and love to have some form of competition to keep myself motivated. However, 3 years ago I was in a car accident and completely tore a ligament in my knee. Due to the nature of gymnastics I was unable to perform at the standard I was at and therefore, unable to compete. To keep up the exercise and to strengthen my knee I joined a gym and found a personal trainer. From there on we managed to strengthen my knee and worked on developing my physique. My personal trainer suggested about getting into Fitness Competitions and it all started then. I competed in my first competition 2 years ago and have only been training for 2 and half years. To this day I have competed in 6 competitions.

Q.2 Were you into sport growing up? If so which ones?

Yes I have always loved to do sport. As a child I did artistic gymnastics and the amount of time I spent training in a week didn’t leave me with much time to do other sports, apart from in a PE lesson. I loved to do PE at school especially netball, trampolining and aerobics .

Q.3 What is your current training schedule like? How does it differ between pre-contest and off season? Do you do much cardio work?

I will train 6 days a week for at least 2 hours in the gym. I will do an hour of cardio and an hour of weights each session. When I am in pre contest I will still train 6 days a week but I will do more cardio and alot more gymnastics and routine prep work as part of my competitions is the fitness routine. So overall I will train twice a day.

Q.4 How long have you been competing?

Only for 2 and a half years now but I have really got into it.

Q.5 What are your main competitive achievements?

I won the British Championships last year. I came 7th in the European championships and 11th in the World championships. I have the |Arnold classics in March 2011.

Q.6 Who are your main sources of inspiration in your training and whose physiques do you most admire?

I don’t really. When I am about to do a show I will research into who won the show last year so I can get some idea of the standard of the shows and watch a few videos but there is not one person I really look up to. Every person that has dieted & trained that hard to walk on stage is a WINNER already. For inspiration? I just think of my goals to be in the top 6 in my category. It’s kind of an addiction. Now that I am competiting in an international level I have the ‘buz’ and don’t want to give up. I want to keep going till I get to my goals.

Q.7 What are your current competitive goals?

I would just love to be the best that I can be. I would love to come in the top 6 in my category for the Arnolds and the Worlds. That would be awesome.

Q.8 Why do you feel you have been able to make continuous gains over the years?

I have had a huge amount of support from friends and family and after competition I can see how my body works – what exercises work best for my muscles, what burns fast and what builds. Plus I feel that after doing the shows my muscles have got used to the type of training and the gains that I make remain. I never give up. I always want more and to do better so I ask a lot of questions to the judges (after shows) to find out where I need to go to improve, or where I lost marks in.

Q.9 What supplements do you use?

Currently I take a whey protein twice a day and multi vitamins to help maintain a healthy body. When I diet I take all the vitamins and separately so they all get into my system at different rates.

Q.10 How much do you feel supplements and sports nutrition help your training?

They do help me out a lot. I feel like I have so much more energy and my muscles are ready to train hard every day. Throughout all the strenuous lifestyle that the diet and training has on your body I don’t become ill, all through taking the right supplements.

Q.11 What is it that motivates you through a hard session?

Being the best that I can be. If I slack or don’t put 100% into training then I won’t achieve my goals. I want to go on stage knowing that I’ve put everything into my training and there’s nothing else I could have done get to where I am. I know the pain and hard work is for a reason so I look past all that and think of where I want to be.

I’d like to say thanks to a few people:

My friends and family who help and support me throughout the while process as I couldn’t do it without them. Also to my personal training who knows how my body works and gets me into a good physique and competition state of mind.