WC: What’s your full Name, age, hometown, home gym and maybe a fun fact about yourself.

ML: My name is Mary Lynch (soon to be Dozier in less than a year! ) I am almost 39 I currently live in Lexington KY and workout out at Lexington Athletic Club! Fun fact about myself…I use to be a gymnast way back in the day and I have done a few pageants.

WC: When and why did you get started weight training and competing? What was your first contest?

ML: In 2019 I decided to take over my health so that I will feel better and will live longer for my kids! I met a bikini competitor at the gym and thought that would be fun to do. I signed up with a trainer the next month! May 1st 2019 is when I started working to my goal of doing a bikini competition. Sept 2019 was the first time I stepped on the stage and from there I didn’t want to stop! It was so much fun!

WC: What do you love most about the Wellness Division?

ML: I love that the wellness division focuses on a strong lower body! Since I use to be a gymnast, my lower body has always been bigger and stronger.

WC: What are some things you would like to accomplish in the short and long term with regards to competing?

ML: I would love to get my Masters Pro card! Long term, I would like to keep up my healthy lifestyle the older I get! …

WC: What advice would you offer would be competitors interested in learning more about wellness and competing?

ML: If someone is wanting to get into competition, I make sure they are aware of the time and money it takes to be competitive.  I also always like to encourage others to find a coach that you trust and believe.

WC: Thank you so much for taking the time to do this feature. Hopefully we can do an IG Live down the road. In the meantime where can your friends and supporters go to learn more about you, as well as your sponsors?

ML: Follow me at @buff_n_stuff01 

The post Kentucky’s Mary Lynch!! appeared first on WellnessCompetitor.com.

WC: What’s your full name, age, hometown, home gym and maybe a fun fact about yourself.

KB: My name is Kylah Bridge, I’m 22 years old. I was born and raised in Templeton CA. My home gym is Club 24 in SLO. Fun fact about me is I was a cheerleader for 11 years.

WC: When and why did you get started weight training and competing? What was your first contest?

KB: I started weight training to initially “lose weight”. I worked with a trainer for about a year before I took the reins myself. At that point my goal was to take up space, not make myself smaller. I did my first competition June of 2021, it was the Spectrum NorCal show!

WC: What do you love most about the wellness division?

KB: I love the look. The density of the muscle, being muscular, but still very much feminine. It gives women with a more built lower body a division to do well in. You can’t fake the look.

WC: What are some things you would like to accomplish in the short and long term with regards to competing?

KB: I would say my short term goal is to keep improving my physique to best fit the category. And my long term is a pro card.

WC: What advice would you offer would be competitors interested in learning more about wellness and competing?

KB: Don’t rush it!! Take your time building quality muscle. The stage will always be there!

WC: Thank you so much for taking the time to do this feature. Hopefully we can do an IG Live down the road. In the meantime where can your friends and supporters go to learn more about you, as well as your sponsors?

KB: My Instagram: kbfitt_
Tiktok: kbfitt

My sponsors are in my Instagram bio link

Thank you!

The post Kylah Bridge Featured! appeared first on WellnessCompetitor.com.

Today’s featured Wellness Competitor is Christa Faulk. We’re super grateful she took the time to answer our feature questions. She’s a big supporter of the WellnessCompetitors page and tags it often on her posts, stories, and reels. We hope to be able to do an IG LIVE with her at StrengthAddicts at some point in the future. She’s a very hard working competitor who’s constantly making improvements and who actively competes on stages all around the country. Be sure to read her feature and please give her a follow!!

WC: What’s your full name, age, hometown, home gym and maybe a fun fact about yourself.

CF: My name is Christa Faulk, I’m 27, and from Corvallis MT. I train at Canyon’s Athletic Club Hamilton MT, and I’m a full time hairdresser.

WC: When and why did you get started weight training and competing? What was your first contest?

CF: I weight trained in high school for sports, continued to love fitness and worked out 6 days a week as mental therapy. I started competing in Bikini 6 years ago in Spokane at the Night Of Champions.

WC: What do you love most about the wellness division?

CF: Wellness is so beautiful to me because it’s like an extreme hour glass shape and embraces women’s bigger legs!

WC: What are some things you would like to accomplish in the short and long term with regards to competing?

CF: My goal is to bring in the best conditioning possible. I want to earn my IFBB Pro Card in the next four weeks so I have to really give it my all!

WC: What advice would you offer would-be competitors interested in learning more about wellness and competing?

CF: The advice I would offer to competitors interested in wellness and competing, have patience and never give up. Progressive overload and stay consistent. Take  a really good off season before you cut down to put in quality muscle and make sure your mentally ready. Always focus on glutes they can never be too big for wellness. Train harder than yesterday and prioritize your rest and recovery.

WC: thank you so much for taking the time to do this feature. Hopefully we can do an IG Live down the road. In the meantime where can your friends and supporters go to learn more about you, as well as your sponsors?

CF: My Instagram is my only bodybuilding platform. Be sure to check it out @shortyyyspice . Thank you.

The post Meet CHRISTA FAULK appeared first on WellnessCompetitor.com.

WC: What’s your full name, age, hometown, home gym and maybe a fun fact about yourself.

KC: Kasie Cantor (CAHN-tohr) [pronounced like cantor in Spanish], 30, hometown is Oxon Hill, MD (right outside of Washington DC). Home gym is DMV Iron. Fun fact is I’m have a fraternal twin sister.

WC: When and why did you get started weight training and competing? What was your first contest?

KC: I started weight training at 21 years old because I was prediabetic and hypertensive. I was in my first year teaching and was stressed out. I started seriously bodybuilding in 2018 and competing in 2020. First contest was in 2020 at the Capital Grand Prix.

WC: What do you love most about the wellness division?

KC: I love how the wellness division gives women who have muscular legs and glutes the opportunity to shine. We don’t have to run our legs down to fit a division. I was in bikini before and now I don’t have to worry about my leg size.

WC: What are some things you would like to accomplish in the short and long term with regards to competing?

KC: Short term would be a pro card and long term would be winning pro shows and of course, dreaming of the Olympia.

WC: What advice would you offer would-be competitors interested in learning more about the Wellness Division and competing?

KC: I’d say research the sport and be optimistic. You don’t know what you can do or what your body can look like. Find a coach that cares about you as well.

WC: Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. Hopefully we can do an IG Live down the road. In the meantime where can your friends and supporters go to learn more about you, as well as your sponsors?

KC: Thank you. They can find me at @kc_fitco on IG and my link in my bio to my sponsors.

The post Meet KASIE CANTOR! appeared first on WellnessCompetitor.com.

If you’re not following her, we strongly encourage you to.

Social media is extremely powerful and it’s important to share as many aspects of your life as possible.

Take these beautiful photos of Sophie Maree taken by gifted photographer Kate Stavrov (Kate_Stavrov_Photography) as an example of how to showcase your hard-earned muscle and symmetry in a beautiful non-fitness setting. Take a moment to appreciate the wardrobe selection, check out the background, and look at Sophie’s body positioning and facial expressions. She’s not flexing hard but you can see her natural lines and flow. While it’s not an in-your-face fitness shot, it’s got a fitness subtlety that embraces elegance and style. It’s a sophisticated look with fitness cred. These are pretty epic shots, if you ask me, and that’s the whole point of this feature.

You have worked hard to build an amazing physique so don’t just limit how you present it to training and/or stage content. There’s so much more you can present on your feeds. People will not only dig it – they’ll want more!!

The post Beyond The Gym! appeared first on WellnessCompetitor.com.

And now… let’s welcome our guest Nationally-Qualified NPC Wellness Competitor Suzanne Sparks!!

WC: First and foremost thank you for taking the time to speak with us here at WellnessCompetitor.com part of the StrengthAddicts hub powered by Titan Medical Center. Please take a moment to introduce yourself and maybe give us a fun fact or two about you?

SS: Hi, I’m Suzanne Sparks, or Suzie.  I’m 41 years old, I live in Greeley/Windsor Colorado, it’s about an hour north of Denver. My home gym is Workout West and Armbrust Pro Gym on fun leg days!!! I’m an RN, BSN for almost 19 years and a nationally qualified wellness competitor.

WC: Do you come from an athletic background? When and why did you first get started weight-training? What are your favorite muscles to train and why?

SS: Growing up I was a competitive dancer from age 10. I went to CSU for Performing Arts Dance before finally heading to nursing school. I play soccer and was on the Pom Squad in high school – thus big quads.  My dad was a competitive bodybuilder growing up. I told myself one day that would be me!!! I love lifting legs! My genetics make it pretty easy to push hard and doing wellness just came perfectly into place.

WC: What was the progression like going from training to competing? Did someone get in your ear, did you learn about competing on your own? Also, what was your first contest?

SS: I didn’t start competing till I was 34 in 2017. I was a mom and went back to school to get my BSN. Those things were my priority. 2017 was my first show. I did Bikini and placed dead last! My legs were just too big. So we switched to Figure. I’ve done 3  figure shows. I did better, but my upper body was not big enough. 2020 come and wellness was a no brainer. I have done 8 wellness shows.

WC: While this might be a bit of a personal question, what would you say is your biggest challenge when it comes to being a competitor? What comes easiest?

SS: My biggest challenge competing would be the balance with home life. But it’s also the easiest thing also. I’m a fully time RN, full time mom, and wife. There’s house ,bills, and more. But I think all of that keeps me structured and in check. It keeps my head on the swivel and focused. Sure sometimes things get hard but I love bodybuilding so much that I like the hard shit! It shows me I’m doing this all for the right reasons. I’m showing my kids how to work hard and never give up.

WC: If you could talk to a person who wanted to compete but for whatever reason lacked the self-confidence to take the plunge – maybe they lacked support from their loved ones or co-workers – what would you tell them?

SS: If I could tell anyone getting started, I would say do it! Take the plunge and try! It’s the most amazing experience and it’s the hardest physical and mentally. But do this for you and only you. You have to love this or you’ll be miserable. You have to listen to your heart. You are your only Competition!

WC: I’d like to thank you for taking the time to speak with us. Hopefully we can do an interview on StrengthAddicts IG LIVE in the future. Please take this opportunity to give us any part words and/or upcoming shows you’re doing – or anything else you’d like to share.

SS: Thank you so much for allowing me to share my story and asking me to be a part of all this . I’m headed into my 13th show and my 6th Nationals. We are doing Masters USA November 20th.

I want to thank my coach Nikki Giacara – she saved me. My team, Team Elite Physique. Forever Young HH, And Suites My Shelly. My husband Oren Sparks II and Colin and Payton for everything  !!!

All photos taken by Paige Samantha Photography.

The post Suzie Sparks Speaks! appeared first on WellnessCompetitor.com.

Why Tag?

Tagging is one of the most tried and true ways to grow a social media following. It’s inspired by the collabs of the early YouTube days. What tagging does is it gets you in front of a number of different audiences. Instagram allows you to tag up to 20 different accounts through direct tags in a photo or video. You could potentially max out there and then add more accounts in the body of the post’s text, but this will likely trigger application to action block you. This is Instagram’s way of punishing activity which it deems to be spam. Even if you know everyone tagged and everyone tagged is OK with it, you risk getting your privileges suspended for 12hrs, 24hrs, 48hrs or longer. Some action blocks can last up to two weeks. That said so long as you keep your tags to 20 or less you’ll be in good shape. Just imagine getting your content seen by the audiences of up to 20 different pages.

A good tip to keep in mind when tagging is that you want to build a relationship with the page you’re tagging. I can speak for the StrengthAddicts Hub only. If a competitor tags our pages incessantly but seldom if ever likes any posts we publish – that’s a red flag. If they never comment on our posts – that’s another red flag. Sometimes if I really like the competitor and/or their content I might reach out to remind them that tagging is a two street. If even that reminder falls on deaf ears, then as much as I may like the competitor, I’ll move them from the primary list to the general list. I won’t unfollow them, I just won’t see their tags anymore.

If you’re serious about building an audience and you’re willing to put forth minimal effort into building a relationship with the websites you decide to tag you’ll do very well. The #1 goal in building an audience is having reach. The more people you can successfully reach, the more people will become aware of you. They’ll know about your journey – the good and the bad – and they will want to know more.

NEVER EVER buy likes, followers, or clout. Forget about fake till you make it. That’s a great way to get social media platforms to terminate your accounts. Buying followers violates most platform’s terms of service. Also, many of the companies that offer these services require you to share your password. NEVER EVER share you passwords with anyone. This is how people get scammed.

If you’re serious about building an audience keep it tried and true. Tag pages you like and show those pages love. Do interviews – whether email-based, in-person, or online – never turn down press. Another huge tip is ANSWER YOUR DM’s. The great Rich Piana, who commanded 4 Block Long lines at the Arnold Classic would spend 2hrs a day – everyday – on OTHER PEOPLE’S social media. He scoped out talent he wanted on his brand and he showed a lot of people a lot of support. This IS hard work, but if you love it, you’ll love doing it.

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