There’s an odd 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. Not like all the opposite divisions—female and male—health calls for you not solely look the half, but in addition show it in movement—excessive movement. It’s not sufficient to face there, hit some poses, and be extra spectacular than the particular person subsequent to you. No. You must 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 seemed round and puzzled, what’s subsequent?
The Lacking Bridge
All issues normally come to an finish, however need doesn’t know you’ve reached the tip 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 gained state championships. She was educating cheer everywhere in the world. However competitively, there was nowhere to go. Then in the future Mike Davies launched her to a Health present.
“I mentioned, ‘Yeah, I can do that.’”
And the remainder is historical past.
Her rise was fast, beginning along with her first newbie 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 solid into the professionals, the place the lionesses feed. Let’s simply say her success wasn’t immediate.
“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.
“Whenever you’re dwelling in it, it defines you as a human. If I took sixth or eighth… I’m eighth on the earth, and I’m upset? I’m within the Tremendous Bowl and I’m mad?”
Then come the critiques.
“You want greater shoulders, greater boobs, greater this, greater that—and naturally higher situation,” she says. “Everybody seems to be superb. Nobody is exhibiting up fats.”
There’s no telling health women they’ve to come back in tougher 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 put.”
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 another 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 harm.
Accidents?
“None.”
“I consider I used to be born for Health.”
As a bit of child, Jen did ballet, faucet, and jazz. She turned down skilled ballet at 13 as a result of she needed to cheer. She discovered early how you can stretch, how you can ice, how you can 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 harm to muscle, tendons, and connective tissue). She dieted onerous—900 to 1,200 energy a day at instances, 40 to 60 grams of carbs—however at all times stayed clear. You’ll be able to take into account Hendershott an everyday egg whites and oatmeal form of woman.
However even with such relentless self-discipline, why was there no {hardware}?
“What am I doing improper?” she remembers pondering.
After which 2005 occurred.
She gained the Arnold. She gained the Olympia—again to again. An Ohio woman successful the Arnold in her dwelling 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 every part.”
Profitable as soon as is tough.
Profitable once more because the reigning champion? Tougher.
“Making an attempt to win once more because the champ was the toughest factor I’ve ever carried out.”
However she by no means stop. She by no means walked away. Even within the wake of tragedy.
The Second No One Knew
After successful the Arnold in 2005, Hendershott received pregnant.
It resulted in a miscarriage—on an airplane.
“I nearly bled to dying,” she says quietly. “Not one flight attendant requested if I used to be okay. ‘Would you like some water?’ Nothing.”
When the airplane landed, she waited till everybody had deplaned earlier than getting up and making her method out to her husband. She by no means made it public.
“It was non-public. It was devastating.”
It may additionally have been galvanizing, as a result of 10 weeks later she gained the Olympia.
“That catapulted me into an angle I by no means had earlier than,” she says. “I needed to show to myself and to the world that I’m worthy. I’m right here. I can do that.”
In 2008 she gained the Olympia once more. In 2009 she gained 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 absolutely realized it or not—that merged cheer, dance, and physique into one thing fully new. A pure development for women who had been flipping, dancing, and performing since elementary college.
“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 method.”
And what higher method 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 largest stage. Host the first-ever cheer competitors on the Olympia. Create a feeder system into ladies’s Health.
“After they requested me, I mentioned, ‘Critically?’”
The logic is simple. Cross-promote. Convey 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 at the moment it’s simply two rounds, with extra emphasis on routine efficiency. The division has advanced, however the core stays the identical: athletic women who refuse to be carried out performing.
Hendershott sees a whole technology ready for a path ahead—and he or she’s more than pleased 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 in poor health. She cared for him for 2 years. Then she grieved for 2 extra. Then her stepfather received 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 is not only 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 at the moment with out these individuals and people experiences.”
Greater than that, it’s a blueprint for opponents who face the quite common actuality of ageing out of their sport and discovering themselves the place they assume is the tip of the highway. Effectively, it’s not; the highway simply turns. The journey continues. Ardour drives it.
Life In One Shott is on the market all over the place—Amazon, Walmart, Barnes & Noble.
