Mr. and Ms. Ball State Bodybuilding Competition
Winners: Michael McAllister and Ashley Farley
The bodybuilders of the 2014 Mr. and Ms. Ball State made an entrance. The orchestra pit lifted the competitors up while music surged on a background of purple lights.
David Pearson, host and associate professor of exercise science, welcomed the 12 competitors and applauded their physiques Wednesday.
“To compete in a bodybuilding competition, you’ve already won,” Pearson said.
For the competitors, winning and competing meant a complete lifestyle change, said Sernarra Archie, a first-time competitor and graduate student in wellness.
“You may only be in the gym an hour, hour and a half, two hours,” Archie said. “But when your friends are like, ‘Hey, do you want to grab a drink?’ You go, ‘Um ... no.’”
Body type and metabolism are big factors in a bodybuilder’s diet. Ashley Farley, a junior human resources major, can eat high carbs, while fellow competitor, Anika Matsenko, a graduate in actuarial science, limits herself to as little as 30 grams of carbs a day. For her, an English muffin or two small apples would be the entire day’s worth of carbs.
“This is my first competition ever,” Matsenko said. “I do a lot of research. It’s like a full time job. If I’m not at the gym, I’m researching. I’m seeing what I can eat, what I can’t eat. What I can and cannot do.”
The female competitors face stereotypes and approach the sport with confidence.
“I’m just not intimidated,” Farley said. “I don’t mind going to the weight room and going ‘roar’ with the guys. I just enjoy lifting weights so much that it doesn’t bother me.”
For Valeri Lemons, a junior exercise science major, competition finds its way to the gym.
“It’s a confidence boost to get your self in the same position as the guys,” she said. “I feel like it has really evolved as a female sport.”
That gender equality was not represented by the crowd’s noise, though. During the female competition, the crowd was timid. When the male competitors took the stage, the crowd was boisterous.
Farley said the crowd was quiet, but only this year. She and Lemons both compete in the National Physique Committee’s contests.
“The women are treated completely equal, in my opinion, if not more,” Farley said. “If you’re in a bodybuilding environment, you don’t feel left out at all.”
Even with the quiet crowd, the female competitors said the quiet didn’t bother them.
“My athletic background — track — it’s very individual,” Archie said. “You train and you compete for yourself because it’s just you when you compete.”
Michael McAllister, a senior exercise science major, and Farley took home the titles of Mr. and Ms. Ball State.
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