Bodybuilder Dana Linn Bailey Shares Why She Stopped Competing

The 2013 Women’s Physique Olympia champ Dana Linn Bailey is without doubt one of the hottest bodybuilders of her technology — and he or she’s maintained her sturdy following regardless of not competing on the stage since 2015.

In a current video on her YouTube channel, Bailey revealed why she stopped competing and why she believes she will be able to have a extra optimistic influence away from the game of bodybuilding. Test it out under:

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Dana Linn Bailey on Her Early Years

Within the video, Bailey says she solely began taking lifting significantly in 2005 — and by 2006, she stepped on stage for the primary time within the Figure division. By 2011, she transferred to the Girls’s Physique class.

The spotlight of her on-stage profession got here in 2013, when she received the first-ever Girls’s Physique Olympia contest. Her time on stage then got here to an finish in 2015 at the Arnold Classicthe place she was the runner-up to Juliana Malacarne in that present’s first Girls’s Physique contest. Bailey hasn’t competed on stage since.

The Psychological Toll of Contest Prep

Bailey reveals she was doing 4 to 5 exhibits a yr for a couple of years, which took a toll on her physique and thoughts.

“What lots of opponents don’t discuss, particularly after a present, is the despair that occurs after a present,” Bailey says. “You get on stage, and also you’re the most in shape you’ll ever be. You’re the leanestyou’re the toughest, and also you’re the biggest you’ll ever be. And that’s now your new notion of what’s in form.”

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She calls this the “post-show blues.” She stated that bodybuilders would instantly achieve the load again swiftly as soon as they begin consuming on a standard schedule once more.

“I knew what I regarded like on stage — it’s not bodily attainable to remain trying like that every one yr spherical,” she says. “Nonetheless, the various, a few years of dieting and getting in form and the cardio and actually weighing each single ounce of  your meals (…) it adjustments the way in which you consider meals (and) it adjustments the way in which you consider training.”

Bailey says regardless of “having a very good head on (her) shoulders,” she was nonetheless adversely affected by the years of continuous prep.

Why Dana Linn Bailey By no means Returned To Stage

Getting second place on the 2014 Olympia was what put Bailey’s retirement consideration in movement.

“I obtained second place, and I assumed my world was going to finish,” she says. “I assumed everybody would cease following me (…) (I assumed) sponsorships have been going to finish, and I wouldn’t be in magazines anymore.”

However, in line with Bailey, “nothing modified” when she obtained to her complement sales space after her contest was over. She says there was nonetheless a line of followers ready to see her.

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“I spotted, like, it doesn’t matter. It didn’t matter if I obtained first place or tenth place,” Bailey says. “(The followers) have been there for the journey as a result of I introduced everybody alongside for the journey.”

A couple of months later, when Bailey competed on the 2015 Arnold Traditional, she did so with a special mindset.

“I didn’t have that stress of being first place anymore, in order that made that prep wonderful,” she says.

As an alternative of following her earlier prep protocol, she focused on getting stronger and lifting the way in which she wished to within the lead-up to the Arnold. The top consequence was a second-place end and the belief that she doesn’t must compete as a bodybuilder to achieve the health area.

Life After Competing

Regardless of stepping away from the stage, Bailey says she’s now in the most effective form of her life, which she credit to not having to do drastic contest prepping. She now believes she will be able to contact extra lives and join with extra folks now that she’s not coping with the turbulence and time bodybuilding prep can elicit.

“I had my journey, and I used to be the most effective of the most effective. And now I can transfer on from that and maintain residing via that legacy I created however creating a special legacy,” she says. “And I believe I’m doing that in a such a good way the place I can contact extra lives; I may be concerned with extra folks. In order that’s what I’m specializing in now.”

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Featured Picture: @danalinnbailey on Instagram