Anna Virmajoki – bombshell from across the gulf
FACTSPlace and date of birth: September 6, 1985, Kuusamo
Residence: Helsinki
Marital status: married
Occupation: customer service manager at Imperial Health Club and Team Bombshell athlete
Height: 172 cm
Weight: competition weight 57 kg, off-season 60 kg
Favorite sayings: “When there is a will there is a way!”, “To be extraordinary, you can`t live like ordinary”
Anna Virmajoki, winner of the Finnish Bikini Fitness Championships, talks about themselves and their sport.
I have always admired a beautiful, well-trained female body. A few years ago, while training in the gym, I heard from several female competitors that I had great genes and a good physique for starting out in some fitness sport. I have always enjoyed performing, and since the various sports I have done over the years have made me a very competitive person, there was no option left but to try my hand at bikini fitness.
While I was living near Toronto in Canada, several fitness model and bikini competitions were held in the city by different federations. I decided to compete, and my first training program and menu were put together by bodybuilder Janeen Lankowinski, whom I met at the gym.
At my first bikini competition I placed third. Since my coach had no previous experience coaching bikini competitors, I followed a program designed for bodybuilders for 12 weeks, and as a result my body “dried out” to almost nothing. Looking at photos from that time, I can’t help wondering what kind of starved shape I had gotten myself into. Now I can say that I have come a long way since then. I remember my mother calling to say she was coming to visit soon, so that I could get some proper Finnish food.
The next competition, the Lysabeth Lopez Classic, took place 5 weeks after my debut. I won that one, which suggests I had learned from the mistakes of the first competition. Even though the competition was organized by a relatively small federation, the level was incredibly high compared with Europe’s. The competitions also gave me a huge amount of stage experience.
Getting started
All my life I have done various sports, from ice hockey to cheerleading. At the end of primary school I started going to aerobics, and in upper secondary school I also completed an aerobics instructor course. Gradually, though, aerobics classes faded into the background and eventually the gym won my heart. I became addicted to watching how my body changed, and gym training was here to stay.
At first I had no coach, so I read a lot of American fitness magazines for women, from which I took training programs and tried out various nutrition recommendations. The internet also offered an almost unlimited database of workouts, as long as you had the desire and the skill to search.
We were at work at the gym when a coworker, flipping through Body magazine, saw an ad saying that a bikini fitness competition was coming to Finland too. Since the coworker knew about my earlier competitive experience in Canada a couple of years before, they suggested I take part in these competitions as well. I took the magazine with me and started digesting the idea, and the more I thought about it, the more enthusiastic I became, until I decided it was time to return to the stage.
Coaching over the internet
Having decided to start training again, I also needed to find a coach. I remember reading Shannon Day’s articles in American magazines, in which I noticed a reference to Bombshell bikini fitness training. I contacted Shannon and the other Team Bombshell coaches. Most of the competitors live in America, where distances are long, so coaching is generally done by email and photos, and it all works seamlessly.
Once a week I send Shannon a photo of myself, and very quickly I get honest feedback: “thumbs up, looking good” or “girl we need to get your ass smaller”.
The training and nutrition plans change every 4 weeks, depending on how much time is left until the next competitions and on what the coach thinks I should focus on. In competition week I send photos and my body weight to Bombshell every day so that changes to nutrition and training can be made on time. Shannon and the other Bombshell coaches make the decisions, are always ready to help, and are truly focused on their competitors’ success.
Coaching covers everything, from training and nutrition to the color and cut of the competition outfit and even competition makeup.
Team Bombshell
I received my first Team Bombshell training and nutrition plan in March. Although I had trained in the gym consistently before competition prep, it was more for my own enjoyment and for trying out new techniques. I get my motivation from setting goals and from building a routine and following it to achieve them, so waking up at 4 in the morning for a cardio workout and strength workouts that lasted until the middle of the night soon became more the rule than the exception. Now the rest of my life has to be organized around training and nutrition – great! Muscle soreness and mild hunger are not negative things; they mean the workout has gone as it should and that my metabolism and fat burning have been properly kick-started.
I haven’t really had to give up anything important because of my lifestyle: I always bring my own food to family events, when I go out my friends don’t offer me food, and at the cinema I always have my own snack in my bag.
At the moment it is completely normal for me to get up at 4 a.m. to go work out. Without a morning workout my body doesn’t wake up properly and I seem to lack energy all day. Physically I feel much better when I eat clean, healthy food. Almost every handbag of mine contains a fork, a spoon and minigrip bags.
When traveling, it is perfectly normal to pack a big cooler bag of meals and minigrip bags of ice so that the food stays cold even after the security check. The main criterion when choosing a hotel is always whether it has a fridge.
First competition – Lappeenranta
It was a powerful feeling to take part in Finland’s first bikini fitness competition and step onto the stage after a break of a couple of years. Meeting fellow competitors from other fitness disciplines and getting to know new people also made the competition experience very enjoyable. The goal for this competition was, of course, to make the final.
Although I took first place, I wasn’t entirely satisfied with my stage performance. The reason may have been the long break from competing, too little practice of the poses, and nerves about going on stage. Judging by the encouragement and cheering from the audience, the new sport seemed to be well received.
Only 2 weeks separate Lappeenranta from the Finnish Championships, and the goal during that time was to maintain my condition, improve my stage movement, hold on to first place, and make a few general changes, such as the darkness of the makeup.
After the Lappeenranta competition my weight started to drop, so following Shannon’s instructions I began eating 9 times a day, with carbohydrates and oil. The share of cardio training also decreased noticeably.
Bikini fitness Finnish Championships
Although the Finnish Championships were the biggest and most anticipated competition of the season, I went in with more confidence than I had going to Lappeenranta. I already knew who I was competing against and what the structure of the show looked like. I felt everything was in place: better condition, the right makeup, and my stage movement had been polished a lot as well.
My mother, who was watching competitions for the first time, had come from Kajaani, in central Finland. It was incredible how many friends came to watch the competition and cheer me on. Jenni Kukka, who helped me backstage, applied the makeup to my skin and did a brilliant finishing job. Actually, I don’t need much help; what matters is simply that everything gets done and that I can focus on getting into a good competition mindset. Together with Jenni Kuikka, we managed it all! At that point it is pointless to worry about your competition condition – if you know you have given your best, you can only be proud of yourself.
After the morning judging I was quite nervous, because I had no idea how the placings might fall. All the competitors had visibly improved since the Lappeenranta competition. I tried to take an afternoon nap (which normally worked superbly) on the massage table at my workplace, but sleep wouldn’t come, because in my mind I was trying to work out the top three.
Going up for the awards ceremony, I had butterflies in my stomach standing on stage. My heart started pounding when only the second- and first-place awards were left. When I heard Suvi Iso-Kuusela’s competitor number announced, I felt like crying. It was a magnificent feeling to win the first IFBB Finnish bikini fitness championship title in the main hall of Finlandia Hall. I had trained for 8 months for it, and it was satisfying to see the result of my work: the shiniest medal of all!
All in all, I thought the Finnish Championships were well run and well organized.
Attitudes toward bikini fitness
In the beginning, some people were a little unclear about what bikini fitness is and what the sport demands of its competitors. Watching the final of the Finnish Championships as well, the level of the competitors varied, and there were certainly different opinions. Especially before the Lappeenranta competition, some competitors seemed to have a beauty-pageant-like idea of the event, which may have negatively affected spectators’ first impressions.
For me it has been clear from the start that I am not taking part in a beauty contest but in a sports competition, which you work toward from the very beginning without a single day off. Although a lot of attention is paid to hair, face and so on, these are only part of the whole, not decisive.
I hope many new competitors come to bikini fitness and that it comes to be regarded as a serious sport. I believe that now, after the first competitions, people have a clearer picture of this sport and its requirements.
Diet
At 7:00
• 4 egg whites
• 50 g spinach
• 1.5 dl oat flakes
At 10:00
• 100 g white lean fish
• 50 g fat-free cottage cheese
• 1 rice cake
At 13:00
• 1 serving of Hera protein
• A large amount of mixed dark salad greens
• 1 tsp olive oil and balsamic
• 1 dl steamed broccoli
At 16:00
• 100 g baked chicken breast
• 1 piece of whole-grain bread
• Tomato and cucumber on top of the bread
At 19:00
• 100 g chicken breast
• ¼ grapefruit
• 1 dl peas
At 21:00
• 100 g turkey
• 1 dl green beans
• 1 dl zucchini
A selection of exercises from Anna’s training program
Monday: thighs
Superset
• Leg extension 5×15
• Leg press 5×20
• Split squat jumps 5×15
Superset
• Split squat 4x 5
• Smith machine squat, feet forward 4×10
Tuesday: shoulders and triceps
Supersets
• Dumbbell shoulder press 4×10
• Wide-grip barbell shoulder press 4×10
• Dumbbell rear raise 4x 10
Superset
• Arnold press 3×8
• Dumbbell lateral raise 3×8
Superset
• Cable triceps pushdown 3×15
• Dumbbell French press 3×10
• Dumbbell triceps kickback 3×15
Wednesday: back, biceps
Thursday: legs
Friday: chest, shoulders and glutes
Anna trains abs 2 times a week. Author: BODY-lehti”;i:83;s:15:” Anna Virmajoki”;i:43;s:23:” translated by Aire Lossmann
Source: Anna Virmajoki
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