My Story

Photo credit NPC NEWSONLINE.com

Tracy Falkenthal – IFBB Women’s Physique & Figure Pro

The beginning: I had just gone through a divorce and was burying myself in Buffalo wings, blue cheese and a bottle of wine every night. I was always fit from rowing crew since high school. This was the first time that I had lost sight of my fitness and nutrition. I was in a dark place. At the time I was a firefighter which demanded an extremely high level of fitness and I wasn’t there. When I met my husband, who is also a firefighter (Fire Chief) he bought me a gym membership and that’s what got me started again. I stopped drinking and went to a gym that was across the street from my firehouse where the owner and my eventual coach SIMI TUFUNGA who was a bodybuilder. He encouraged me to step on stage and the rest is history.

Tracy Falkenthal IFBB PRO card win at 2016 NPC Team Universe

I am a huge advocate of eating whole foods and stick to the Whole30 (Book: Food Freedom Forever) on and off-season. It’s the perfect lifestyle and I don’t have to modify anything for contest prep other than peak week. I love not using supplements and only eating real food. I am a clean, natural athlete and don’t believe in artificial results by using drugs or supplements. Green tea is my pre-workout.

I have tried the Atkins diet, low-carb diet, carb cycling, keto diet, Jennie Craig, weight watchers, low-fat diet, vegan, Isagenix cleanse, Master Cleanse. It’s funny to list all of that. They all worked but nothing was sustainable for life. The whole 30 is completely sustainable and balanced with my lifestyle during contest prep and after the show. It doesn’t make my hormones take a nosedive like everything else does and my weight stays stable. It keeps me & my family happy. I love being able to sit down at the table with my family and eat the same thing. This lifestyle allows for that.

Training: Every season is different depending on my body composition. I am planning to bring in a substantial amount more muscle this season so my cardio will be mixed in with my weight training sessions. I do weights at the beginning of my session and finish it off with 15 to 20 minutes of cardio. I work a five day split covering all body parts w/major focus on glutes/hamstrings, delts/back which are my weak areas. On a separate day or maybe two, depending on my body composition, I might do HIIT training fasted. HIIT is more about releasing the serotonin and is more fun to me than steady-state. It’s more of a mentally stimulating activity and is great for incinerated fat. I have to be careful with fasted HIIT because it will burn through my muscle if I’m not careful.

Building self-confidence: I would practice my routine in the Costco parking lot in a bikini and heels to gain more confidence in stepping on stage. I would also practice in front of people at the gym that I didn’t know so that I would have eyes on me that I wasn’t familiar with. Once I was in an airport on my way to nationals and had to send my progress pictures to my coach. I had to make it happen so I put my suit and heels on and practiced in the airport bathroom. That was a major confidence builder because all of the women in that bathroom were out of shape and throwing me daggers with their eyes. They were not happy that I was doing that but it was a public restroom and I had to get it done.

I am an IFBB Women’s Physique & Figure Pro. At my last show, Toronto pro supershow I realized how much smaller I was than everyone else back there. It was good for me to remember my commitment to what I am doing. I step on stage to show my clients of Tracy’s Body Werks LLC that I am still in shape at 51 and I am representing the natural athlete who still actively competes as an IFBB PRO athlete. In my world a natural athlete is quite a bit smaller than the other athletes.

Being an athlete helps me to stay centered and grounded with my fitness, nutrition and family life. I love the focus I have when representing who I am to my company Tracy’s Body Werks and my clients, competitors and sponsored athletes.

Future plans: Sponsoring athletes and promoting a natural clean way of life that is sustainable and healthy is the ongoing goal for Tracy’s Body Werks LLC. I promote athletes who live this lifestyle and will continue to live this lifestyle forever.
I am a personal trainer, health coach and bodybuilder.

Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/tracyfalkenthalifbbpro
Website: http://www.tracyfalkenthal.com
Email: tracy19@mac.com