Julia Harjula, 25, is a fifth year student of Political Science and a bikini fitness competitor. Here she tells us what her daily routine looks like, how she motivates herself to lead a strict lifestyle, and what she thinks of the criticism towards bikini fitness.
Julia with her coach Sami Maaniemi
Tell us a little about your background with bikini fitness.
I’ve actually been sporty my whole life. When I was younger, my most important sport was dance, which I also competed a few times, but I’ve also tried tennis and kickboxing. I’ve been training in the gym for five years now, but it wasn’t target-oriented until early 2013. At the time, I was training in Unisport and the personal trainer I worked with every now and then suggested that I’d try competing. After considering it for a few months, I contacted my now coach Sami Maaniemi and I started in his competition training in July 2013. The Finnish Championships in fall 2014 were my first competitions. After that I had a clear vision about the direction I wanted, which was to develop my physique, and since visible changes take their time, I decided not to compete in 2015.
Describe your typical day.
My typical weekday off-season starts by going either to a lecture or to the library to study, or to the office as I work twice a week. After that I go to the gym. In the evening I have dinner, chat with my husband about what we’ve been up to during the day, and watch TV. I try to go to bed early.
In the weekends I often begin the day with a run or cardio at the gym and in the afternoon I go to the gym again if I have a training day. I also try to see my friends and relatives and just relax at home.
How do you eat and work out during the competition season and off-season?
Basically I eat pretty much the same whether it’s competition season or off-season, only the amounts vary. Of course, during the off-season I might have a feast every now and then with good conscience and my diet varies more than during the competition season.
Whether it’s off-season or competition season, I go to the gym four or five times a week. Off-season I do cardio twice a week and more during the competition season. Every four or five weeks I also have a rest week when I don’t train so much and focuse more on body care.
How do you keep motivated to lead such a strict lifestyle? Do you ever cheat or get tired?
Motivation comes from the inside and from the will to develop myself. Eating clean also has its effect on my skin and general wellbeing and training help me to de-stress from work and studying. Often when I go to the gym, a bad day turns into a good one.
Off-season, I don’t see occasional feasting as cheating and taking it easier every once in a while also prevents me from getting tired to do this. During the competition season, my focus is so set on the competitions that cheating doesn’t event seem like an option, even if I have cravings. I love going to the gym and the feeling of having gone above and beyond. We also have a great spirit within our Team Solana Fitness competition team and we often encourage each other. My husband has a background within competitive sports so it’s easy to talk with him about my feelings at home, too.
Fitness sports, especially bikini fitness, have been quite of a hot potato in Finland in the past few years. It has become increasingly popular among young women, but there has also been quite a lot of criticism towards it, also from former competitors. It has, for example, been associated with thyroid problems and eating disorders. What do you think about this?
On one hand it is true that unprofessional coaching athletes can face health problems, but on the other hand, it is every athlete’s own responsibility to take care of their health. The biggest problem with the sport is that ordinary people see bikini fitness as a sport where anyone can start competing and gain success with almost no training background, and badly done groundwork leads to aforementioned problems. In reality, even if someone seems to succeed very quickly, they have years of background in some other sport. It’s important to remember that fitness as a wellness sport and as a competitive sport are two completely different things.
Disappointments and negative feelings are a part of every sport, but it’s not the sport’s fault in itself if the experience you have doesn’t resonate with your expectations. Mentally, it’s hard to put your physique under evaluation if your premises aren’t strong. For me, my physique doesn’t measure who I am as a person and my most important assets are inside my head, not in my muscles. You also have to remember that fitness sports are a new phenomenon in Finland and thus the media is much more keen on talking about them than about the same problems within more traditional sports, such as ice hockey or dance.
There’s also been other kind of criticism directed towards bikini fitness. The sport focuses on appearances and the IFBB (The International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness) rules state that the assessment takes into account also the face and hair of the competitor. They also feature precise guidance on what kind of bikinis and heels the competitors should wear. Many competitors have also gone through plastic surgery and gotten silicone breasts. Because of its focus on appearances, bikini fitness has sometimes been compared to Miss World competitions. What do you say to people who claim that bikini fitness is not a sport but only half-naked women strutting on stage?
I feel that all physique sports (fitness and body building) are aesthetic sports like, for example, dance. The aim is to evaluate the competitors’ visual pleasantness as a whole and that includes physique, but also performance. It is easier for the judges to assess the competitors when everyone’s attires are similar. What comes to plastic surgery, I don’t think that the sport itself leads to it, but rather the people who do fitness are in general more interested in improving and changing their bodies. Plastic surgery is not demanded in the competitions and also in the professional stage there are gorgeous competitors who haven’t gone through any.
I myself have never stressed about what other people think about my sport. I’m aware that my everyday life with training and competitions is that of an athlete’s and that’s enough for me. It’s difficult for some people to understand a sport where your athletic performance is something that you’ve created outside the competing stage. Still, few people who follow a fitness competitor’s life from up close question the fact that fitness is a sport like any other.
Have you faced any criticism about your choice of sport?
Not really. I’ve had many deep conversations with people who criticize the sport and these conversations have often been very fruitful for both sides.
What’s the best thing about bikini fitness?
The best thing is when I notice I’ve developed. I have a clear vision in my head about how I want to improve my physique and I work every day to achieve that. Because I feel like I’m still far away from where I want to be, and developing is a slow process, I feel pleased when I know that I’m closer to my goal today than I was yesterday.
What are your plans for the future?
My goal for this year is the competitions in the fall for which I’ve bee training since the last competitions. I also hope that I’ll have many more competing years ahead of me. Outside of fitness, I want to finish my master’s thesis and graduate as a Master of Political Science within a year.
All photos (c) Julia Harjula