There’s a wierd irony in ladies’s health.
It might be essentially the most full division within the IFBB so far as power, muscle, conditioning, choreography, stage presence, and athleticism go; it’s the very embodiment of the health motion—and but it has at all times lived simply barely within the shadows of its extra muscular, much less athletic cousins. In contrast to all the opposite divisions—female and male—health calls for you not solely look the half, but additionally show it in movement—excessive movement. It’s not sufficient to face there, hit some poses, and be extra spectacular than the individual subsequent to you. No. You need to fly. And that’s precisely why Jen Hendershott belonged on the Olympia stage.
Lengthy earlier than she was Ms. Olympia. Lengthy earlier than the Arnold titles. Lengthy earlier than the routines that made judges sit up just like the entrance row of a Baptist revival. She was a cheerleader—a cheerleader who went by means of highschool and faculty, rose to the very high of the heap, reached the zenith of her aggressive profession at 22, and appeared round and questioned, what’s subsequent?
The Lacking Bridge
All issues often come to an finish, however need doesn’t know you’ve reached the top of the highway.
“I wasn’t able to retire from cheerleading,” Hendershott shares. “That’s how I discovered health.”
Hendershott had cheered at Ohio State. She had received state championships. She was educating cheer all around the world. However competitively, there was nowhere to go. Then sooner or later Mike Davies launched her to a Health present.
“I stated, ‘Yeah, I can do that.’”
And the remaining is historical past.
Her rise was fast, beginning along with her first beginner present in 1997 on the Mike Francois Traditional in Columbus. She obtained her professional card in 1999 on the USA Championships in Santa Monica. Then forged into the professionals, the place the lionesses feed. Let’s simply say her success wasn’t on the spot.
“My first Olympia was in 2000,” she says. “I didn’t win till 2005.”
That’s 5 years of being shut—however not shut sufficient.
“Once you’re dwelling in it, it defines you as a human. If I took sixth or eighth… I’m eighth on this planet, and I’m upset? I’m within the Tremendous Bowl and I’m mad?”
Then come the critiques.
“You want larger shoulders, larger boobs, larger this, larger that—and naturally higher situation,” she says. “Everybody appears to be like superb. Nobody is displaying up fats.”
There’s no telling health women they’ve to return in more durable or higher conditioned. They’re at all times shredded.
“You retain working. You climb from eighth to fourth to 3rd. You are feeling momentum. However the competitors is fierce. None of these girls are competing to lose. Nobody reveals up hoping to position.”
However health has an added degree of hazard within the energy of their routines. They not solely need to showcase as conditioned and full a physique as some other division, however in that extremely starved and depleted state, additionally they need to carry out what quantities to an Olympic-level gymnastics routine. That factor of competitors has claimed many a knee, hamstring, ankle, wrist, elbow… let’s simply say it leaves a wake of collateral injury.
Accidents?
“None.”
“I imagine I used to be born for Health.”
As somewhat child, Jen did ballet, faucet, and jazz. She turned down skilled ballet at 13 as a result of she wished to cheer. She discovered early find out how to stretch, find out how to ice, find out how to handle her physique.
“I’m loyal to my physique,” she says. “That’s why I by no means pushed it previous what it may deal with.”
She by no means used diuretics to sharpen her situation (as a result of she knew they’d weaken her construction—dehydration radically will increase the possibility of cramps or precise injury to muscle, tendons, and connective tissue). She dieted arduous—900 to 1,200 energy a day at occasions, 40 to 60 grams of carbs—however at all times stayed clear. You may contemplate Hendershott a daily egg whites and oatmeal form of lady.
However even with such relentless self-discipline, why was there no {hardware}?
“What am I doing incorrect?” she remembers pondering.
After which 2005 occurred.
She received the Arnold. She received the Olympia—again to again. An Ohio lady profitable the Arnold in her residence state. Discuss being on high of the world.
“I had a dream to be Ms. O,” she says. “And to win the Arnold, being from Ohio — that meant the whole lot.”
Profitable as soon as is difficult.
Profitable once more because the reigning champion? More durable.
“Attempting to win once more because the champ was the toughest factor I’ve ever carried out.”
However she by no means give up. She by no means walked away. Even within the wake of tragedy.
The Second No One Knew
After profitable the Arnold in 2005, Hendershott acquired pregnant.
It led to a miscarriage—on an airplane.
“I nearly bled to demise,” she says quietly. “Not one flight attendant requested if I used to be okay. ‘Would you like some water?’ Nothing.”
When the aircraft landed, she waited till everybody had deplaned earlier than getting up and making her approach out to her husband. She by no means made it public.
“It was personal. It was devastating.”
It may also have been galvanizing, as a result of 10 weeks later she received the Olympia.
“That catapulted me into an angle I by no means had earlier than,” she says. “I wished to show to myself and to the world that I’m worthy. I’m right here. I can do that.”
In 2008 she received the Olympia once more. In 2009 she received the Arnold. Then she retired.
“There was nothing left for me to win.”
Time to Give Again
Joe Weider and Jim Manion created a platform—whether or not they totally realized it or not—that merged cheer, dance, and physique into one thing totally new. A pure development for ladies who had been flipping, dancing, and performing since elementary faculty.
“I actually fell into Health,” Jen says. “However I do know there are different women on the market like me who wish to maintain going. We simply have to indicate them a approach.”
And what higher approach than the one Jen took? Why not convey cheer to the Olympia?
That’s precisely what the Olympia approached her to do: convey cheerleading to bodybuilding’s greatest stage. Host the first-ever cheer competitors on the Olympia. Create a feeder system into ladies’s Health.
“After they requested me, I stated, ‘Significantly?’”
The logic is simple. Cross-promote. Carry faculty cheerleaders into the Health world. Welcome them earlier than they drift away. Allow them to see that there’s a subsequent chapter. They don’t have to hold up competing at 22.
“I informed them I’ll do that,” she says, “however I desire a couple issues. The primary is that I wish to give out the award for first place.”
I don’t assume anybody goes to say no.
Again within the day, Health was harder and never fairly as interesting to some athletes. There have been 4 rounds together with two totally different swimsuit rounds, one for two-piece and one other for one-piece. No different division demanded as a lot. Since then, somebody got here to their senses, and in the present day it’s simply two rounds, with extra emphasis on routine efficiency. The division has developed, however the core stays the identical: athletic women who refuse to be carried out performing.
Hendershott sees a whole era ready for a path ahead—and he or she’s very happy to indicate it to them.
Life In One Shot
A intelligent title for her new e book: Life In One Shot: How I Constructed a Lifetime of Ardour, Goal, and Zero Apologies. It took 15 years to turn out to be actuality. That’s a very long time within the e book enterprise, however not with out trigger.
After Jen retired, her father turned unwell. She cared for him for 2 years. Then she grieved for 2 extra. Then her stepfather acquired sick. Then her stepmother battled leukemia. A decade of caretaking, loss, and grief.
“A yr in the past my brother dropped lifeless of a coronary heart assault,” she says. “That’s what lastly pushed me. Individuals are at all times going to die. Life is at all times going to interrupt you.”
So she wrote. And wrote.
The e book isn’t just trophies and stage lights. It contends with doubt. Frustration. Loss. Gratitude—particularly gratitude.
“The IFBB and the Olympia gave me a spot to shine,” she says. “I might not have the life I’ve in the present day with out these individuals and people experiences.”
Greater than that, it’s a blueprint for opponents who face the quite common actuality of growing old out of their sport and discovering themselves the place they assume is the top of the highway. Nicely, it’s not; the highway simply turns. The journey continues. Ardour drives it.
Life In One Shott is offered in every single place—Amazon, Walmart, Barnes & Noble.