Athlete Profile: Sharon Briand

What does it take to get noticed?

From his own experience on the bodybuilding stage, to his role as a coach and mentor to a number of top physique athletes including Val Waugaman and PN experts Amanda Graydon and Krista Schaus, you could say that John Berardi knows what he’s looking at when it comes to physique competitors.

So when John picked out 47-year-old Sharon Briand from a stage full of figure competitors this past fall, and mentioned her ahem… butt… in What I learned at Amanda Graydon’s Latest Contest, we knew there had to be something special about Sharon for John to take notice.

“For starters, I learned that there are some 47 year old women out there that I’d definitely try to pick up at a bar, at a Starbucks, at the grocery store, at the gym — oh, hell, wherever!”

With her rapid rise to success in figure competition, Sharon’s getting noticed a lot lately. She started training with Mario Mavrides of Persechini Fitness Centre in June 2008. Although she was the oldest member of the six women making up “Team Mario”, she was the only one to successfully place on the figure stage a few short months later.  After she registered for her first competition and realized that people like JB would be judging her behind in a tiny 2-piece on stage, Sharon realized that she would need to give a lot more attention to her nutrition and training.

Habits change

Unlike many aspiring competitors, Sharon didn’t want to lose weight but to gain mass in order to have a muscular and defined figure physique. But her original nutrition and training habits weren’t doing her any favours. A torn rotator cuff and two previous back surgeries left her feeling limited in the gym. She skipped breakfast, snacked on candy bars and potato chips, and pretty much ate “whatever she wanted”.  Not exactly an auspicious start.

Once Precision Nutrition helped Sharon understand the importance of good nutrition, she started building and reinforcing new habits.  Now, she always starts her day with breakfast: either a hard-boiled egg with toast or a bowl of oatmeal with a little honey.  She eats every 2-3 hours to keep hunger at bay, and chooses meals high in protein and vegetables, and low in starchy carbohydrates.  Her former cravings for pasta and bread are replaced by snacks of lean turkey sticks, almonds, cottage cheese, fruit and yogurt, shakes made of vanilla whey, juice, and fruit, and meals such as chicken and salad.  Sharon includes generous doses of fish oil each day and also supplements her diet with Vitamins A through E, Beta-K and green tea.

Sharon’s principle for eating is to eat guilt-free and to follow Precision Nutrition’s 90% rule: eat the foods that fuel your body for success 90% of the time, and enjoy other foods you like for the remaining 10%. She has found that by incorporating cleaner starchier carbs like fruit or wheat wraps with almond butter, honey and apple or banana slices, she feels no sense of deprivation or denial.

With the diet in place, Sharon also had to change her training habits. The gym became Sharon’s home away from home. She focused on strength training to build mass and to improve her shoulder caps, hamstrings and glutes.  Squat and squeeze became her new mantra.

Hour-long, full body training sessions 4 times a week progressed to two-hour sessions with 45 minutes of posing practice 5 times a week.  Because Sharon was naturally lean, she didn’t need to incorporate extra cardio conditioning, but she did include brisk walks of 2.5 miles most nights. Posing practice was the least favourite aspect of her training – learning the poses was easy but presenting and holding them for several minutes was unpleasant and hard.  Sharon has a new respect for anyone who can present a proper pose showing relaxed hands and a smile in 4 inch heels!

In the end, Sharon’s new habits allowed her to gain 3 lbs of lean muscle mass and drop from 14.7% to 11% body fat.  At any age, that’s fantastic progress in 5 months.  At 47, that’s downright astounding.

Unexpected challenges bring unexpected rewards

Sharon expected challenges when she decided to compete. Participating in figure demands a certain level of dedication, time, and practice -– the hours in the gym, the dietary restrictions, the commitment to see it all through to the end. Sharon also knew that one of the biggest challenges would be to balance her workouts with a full time job and a family.

What she didn’t anticipate were the challenges that arose from having to become completely self-absorbed and focused on the process.  From concentrating on the target muscle to feel and see it contracting with each rep, to becoming the “gym bitch” –- the person who opts to forgo socializing in the gym in order to give the most to workouts — Sharon’s focus on training and nutrition didn’t leave her with much time or energy to concentrate on anything else.

Sharon also encountered some negativity along the way. Outsiders made comments about the “cult-like” nature of her behaviours; told her that “a woman showcasing muscle definition is not sexy or attractive”, and pointed out that she looked fatigued and unhealthy.

Yet with these unforeseen challenges came many unexpected and priceless rewards.  Sharon realized how blessed she was to have the unconditional support of family and friends, who provided her with ongoing inspiration to stay focused on the end result: becoming the greatest that she could become. She gained more friends, experience, and knowledge along the way than she ever would have imagined.  She shared a special bond with the women of Team Mario, and they rode the emotional and physical rollercoaster of competition prep together.  As Sharon recalls, “Not everyone is willing to help you with your tan or glue the bottom of your suit to your butt”.

Sharon’s age may have been the catalyst to her getting noticed: at her first competition, she was the only one in the Grand Masters category. It wasn’t hard to pick her out as she stood courageously alone on stage.  However, this was not a win by default but rather by bravery, determination and focus.  After her first competition, Sharon went on to compete in both the Level 2 Eastern and Western Ontario Physique Championships, placing in the top three for her height and age group.  Sharon’s success means she’s qualified for Level 3 Ontario Provincials in June 2009, a challenge she’s definitely ready to embrace.

Sharon believes that “age is just a number, and life is a gift, so enjoy your present every day”. Her goal is to make it to the Nationals and along the way, she hopes to share this gift by inspiring others to lead a healthy, active lifestyle.