Wolverhampton body-builder celebrates winning start to career

Nat Gill, from Finchfield, Wolverhampton, tried her hand at body-building many years involved in sporting activities and personal fitness.

The body-builder trains at Chris Jewkes Fitness on Danescourt Road, Tettenhall, and has now won numerous trophies and competed in national competitions despite only taking up the sport recently.

She said: "I had always been a sporty girl, my mother used to go the gym quite a lot and that rubbed off on me.

"I remember picking up the fitness magazines and thinking I would love to look like the girls in there, but body-building wasn't something I always had the intention of getting into."

Nat, aged 36 and a mother of three, came second in the UFE European Finals and has been a finalist at the IBFA World Championships, held in Rome in October, all within her first year as a body-builder.

Her first competitive event was an IBFA British Championship qualifying event at the Apollo Gym in Kettering, where she finished first, before going on to win at the finals in Newcastle two weeks later.

She spends around 15 hours a week on her own personal training, alongside helping others.

The highest weight she has squatted is 176lb (80kg) and in the run up to a competition, she has all of her food measured and weighed.

She will eat every two and half hours, taking in small doses of chicken and fish alongside protein shakes and between 10.5 pints to 17.5 pints (six to 10 litres) of water a day.

Nat said: "I can't believe how quickly I have adapted to a whole new sport and way of life.

"I had decided a while back I wanted to dedicate myself to one field of sports and it was Ryan Alexander, who is a body-building coach at Saxon Gym in Essington, who really made me believe I could do this.

"Winning those early competitions also gave me the confidence to push myself and move forward.

"When I sit back and take stock, it is overwhelming to see how well I have done."

Despite being a dedicated athlete from a young age, Nat admits that body-building has been a step up in terms of commitment.

In the weeks approaching a competition she will spend an hour in the gym before going home to take her children to school.

She said: "It has been hectic juggling work, family life and body-building but I definitely feel I have made the right decision.

"My family have always been supportive and when I think of what I have achieved so far, that makes it all worthwhile."