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I was asked to speak at my old college about my bodybuilding..
🕑 Added 2024-11-20 04:48:10 +0000 UTCI was asked to speak at my old college about my bodybuilding journey today. I couldn't believe how many people showed up. It was such an honor that so many people were interested in my journey and bodybuilding. There was a Q&A at the end that lasted a full hour!
Below is the notes for my speech if anyone is interested
Hi I'm Hannah Hussein
I'm an ifbb pro bodybuilder, I recently turned pro last year
I wanted to talk about my bodybuilding journey with you guys and some of the challenges I faced
My story starts in a gym (surprise)
I was around 16 when I was first introduced into weightlifting
On a cardio machine training for a triathlon when I decided to ventured into the weight area. I proceeded to do everything wrong, so wrong in fact that a trainer come up to help me. I connected to the weights immediately. Up until that point I was only familiar with endurance training and the weights felt natural to me, even though I wasn't very good at it yet, and I wasn't very strong yet
That same year I saw a bodybuilding magazine in a grocery store, and it changed my idea of beauty,(female bodybuilder on the cover) (describe magazine)
slide this was not the magazine as I can't find the original anywhere, but it was back when there was still some pretty hard-core fitness magazines*
It was the first time I had seen a woman with muscle. This was the early 2000s and everyone around me wanted to be as skinny as possible, myself included up until that point.
Anyway i brought it home
Well my Mom found it (please note she is very supportive now, but it wasnt always that way lol)
She asked if I wanted to look like that, I said of course not!! she said "good. Because that doesn't look good"
This was the first of many times I would feel discouraged from my pursuit, specifically by friends and family
So from then on I tried to hide it, but still pursued it. And of course hiding it didn't always work
So i would find throughout this journey,
I was not supported by family or friends. A lot of my friends discouraged me and would make comments about how working out would never pay off for me, and how unattractive they found it.
But I wasn't pursuing it for a payoff or for others to find me attractive.
Fast forward to when I'm an adult, I got certified to become a trainer at 18
I started working in a gym
Around age 22, people started asking me if I competed. This is the age I started to look pretty darn athletic
Keep in mind I had only seen bodybuilding in magazines at this point and didn't know a whole community existed
A friend at the gym recommended I go see a nutritionist (yes I was very dedicated to weights but highly lacked on nutrition)
That's when I met my first prep coach.
(Around 2013)
He convinced me to compete (and showed me what it was)
and preped me for my first show
I was so excited that I had found
This whole community, and an entire organization of people who shared my passion.
I got second place and qualified for nationals my very first time on stage, It was a pretty big deal to place that high at your very first show(slides)
My happiness was short lived however as I developed hypothyroidism from being lean for too long
This was my first lesson on not blindly trusting someone who calls themselves a coach
This was also when I was introduced to PEDs. As I was training to go to nationals
What I didn't know then, but what I know now is that, it was common for prep coaches to put their athletes on drugs to make it look like their protocols were working more. The more extreme they could make their athletes look the better. It's marketing for them, and it puts the athletes at risk. I didn't know this as he began to sponsor me (pay for my shows, give me free coaching)
A side note, most coaches, even good ones today, still have a hard time successfully coaching women. We have more to account for when it comes to hormones, and tend to experience side effects easier than men. Most coaches back then and even today will treat us like small men, which will always cause us issues. We also have a lot less research on the women's side of bodybuilding
So anyways
He put me on compounds I had never heard of and had no idea the side effects that came with them. That's when my voice changed. But I was still willing to push and listen to my coach to achieve my goals. I thought this was a necessary part of it
Eventually,
I had to take a break from competing to get my health back, and I doubted myself and my journey for the first time, but I didn't give up
I found a coach who helped me fix my health and got me back on stage, where I continued to place high, but he was not comfortable pushing my body to the kind of extreme that I needed to go pro
Around 2019
I then got with a coach who was able to push me. I moved up a category, to physique. this is also when I started getting sponsorships and recognized in the industry. I won first place my first time doing the physique category. (One division bigger than the category I started in)
This is when I started to meet other people in bodybuilding, when I felt like I found my community and real support. I talked to many coaches and bodybuilding judges who encouraged me to keep going, and told me I had what it takes to go as far as I wanted
but I started to sacrifice my health again with this coach, and again more unnecessary drugs were being pushed on me.
competing is not a healthy sport in any way. despite what it may look like, but it doesn't mean we HAVE to completely sacrifice our health, it's a fine line
That made me once again seek out someone who could help me reach my goal of becoming a pro
In 2022 I met my now coach who was able to get me to my goal and I went pro last year. And I was able to achieve it in a way I was happy with. And although competing is never "healthy" I did it in a way that I stayed much healthier, and I'm proud of that
I'm currently in off season but plan on
training for my pro debut sometime next year
I want to leave you with a few lessons that I learned during my journey so far;
1, if you truly want something, pursue it. Don't worry about what other people think. I know that's a little cache but it's true
2, don't blindly follow advice, in any area of your life. Asking questions doesn't not mean you're un-coachable
3, don't let set backs discourage you, they will happen if you pursue anything long enough. Learn what you can from it and move on
4, it's ok to doubt yourself sometimes, in fact that might mean you're on the right path. But when you do have doubt, remind yourself of why you started
Anyway that's my story, it's far from over but I hope you guys were able to learn something from my pursuit
