Two Chicks Tour

As two of the fitness industry’s most renowned make-up artists, Lori Fabrizio and Valeria Nova’s flawless work graces the covers and pages of Oxygen, Playboy, American Curves and many others. Working with the industry’s top photographers, they have developed dreamy portfolios featuring a wide range of looks and techniques. Now, Lori and Valeria go on tour to teach & personally demonstrate their techniques & knowledge.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Little fitness star Leilani Dixon presented a guest performance at the Fitness Universe Championships in Miami. The 13 year old is a gymnastics competitor and practices 5 days a week. Like her veteran fitness mom, Yolanda Mejia-Dixon, Leilani practices daily.  She explains, "I do gymnastics five days a week and I practice my fitness routine twice a week. I always used to watch my mom perform and practice and it looked like fun. I used to copy her moves and after awhile my mom asked me if I wanted to compete. I was excited to start working on my own fitness routines. Now, sometimes my mom copies MY moves."

Like a more seasoned competitor, food and proper nutrition plays a big role for Leilani.  "I love to eat healthy food like chicken and sweet potatoes but I also enjoy my treats here and there.

Hopefully, Leilani will bring her youthful routines to Fitness America in Las Vegas and show the veteran gals a thing or two!

Entrepreneurial Fitness

Ms. Bikini Universe Tara Arellano just released one of her new media cards. The 24 year old Albuquerque native has a series of local and national sponsors for whom she promotes their products and services. Tara also appeared on the new Hard Rock calendar and promotion campaign. Look forward to seeing Tara in Las Vegas in November.

Tara is currently a certified personal trainer and nutritionist as well as Total Body Conditioning & Boot Camp Instructor at Fitness Kicks MMA Gym in Albuquerque, NM. Tara Arellano Nutrition & Fitness and enjoys showing people how to transform their bodies and lifestyles with custom Nutrition & Strength/Conditioning programs.

Tara was a competitive gymnast, cheerleader and dancer for most of her childhood. After becoming a new mom, she competed in her first show, the 2009 Musclemania & Fitness New Mexico Championships where she won the Ms. Bikini Division.

As the reigning Fitness New Mexico Champion, she is proud to be a young, successful, Hispanic-American mother, wife and female entrepreneur that is moving forward with passion and purpose towards her goals. Tara is proud to represent young female entrepreneurs and new mothers and hopefully inspire women everywhere to move toward their goals with purpose and passion to achieve greatness in whatever they choose.

29 Going on Twenty Two

The 29 year old personal trainer, group fitness instructor, and fitness writer Sian Toal moved to London to launch Twenty Two personal training with co-founder and Model Britain 2010 runner up Jay Benedetti. Sian doesn’t spend alot of time in the gym like you might expect from a competitive fitness model champion and says that using outdoor training equipment is just as effective and a lot more fun! This
ambitious entrepreneur wants to take her person training system to the USA and Australia, but maintains a down to earth attitude with a view that all you need in life is a bit of outdoor exercise, good nutrition and a smile to be happy and prosperous!
After winning her class at the 2011 Model England,  talent scouts absolutely loved her sporty commercial look and like so many Fitness Britain athletes, she was quickly signed by MonsterSupplement.com and went on to appear at the Body Expo along with fellow sponsored athlete and Fitness England Champion Maija Kivela. Now a writer for MonsterSupplement.com’s  FitMag online health and fitness magazine, she’s building up a international fan base with a personal training clientele that has never been stronger. You can keep up to date with the latest Sian Toal happenings on her new FitnessDiva Blog coming soon to fitnessbritain.co.uk!

English Figure of the Year

Figure England Champion Vikkie Kryzanowski is personally responsible for the success of the Figure Britain show division! The 5’10’’ Scuba Diving Instructor from Dorset was the first to tell us that we had got it completely wrong when Fitness Britian management decided to axe the category earlier this year. After quickly back peddling on the internet forums and re-introducing Figure branding, Vikkie’s coach
said to us at the England Championships “Sorry about that, she’s just a Figure Girl at heart and couldn’t help it!”

Just arriving back from the Scotland Championships, show promoters saw a traditionally small category absolutely explode with new talent. One competitor commented “This isn’t a Scottish event... These girls look like they’re ready for the World Championships!” With competitors like Renata Sulekaite winning the Figure Scotland division and ready for the showdown with Vikkie at the finals, she’s certainly got the competition that she’s asked for. Vikkie has ultra lean physique, but what she lacks in size and muscularity, she has the advantage of coming back from a top 10 position at the Fitness Universe in Miami, just short of 5th place in the world by a few points in her division. With pressure of being among over 500 athletes on a world stage where everyone has a great body, her style, presentation, and the way that she knows how to work the stage with surely give Renata the challenge that she’s after.

Vikkie was recently voted Figure Girl of the Year by the Britain panel, not only because of her competitive spirit, but her commitment to the sport as a role model for women across the UK. She’s one of those girls that is always willing to help out another competitor when it comes to bikini and shoe selection, tan, or offering tips and advice. While maintaining her competitive spirit, her focus like most competitors is about the journey of self development and being the best that she can be. “I lost over 20 lbs. during the last competitive season, going from 155lbs. to 125lbs as my competition weight in Fitness Britain 2010. Over the winter from Oct 2010 to Jan 2011, I worked very hard to fill out and gained over 10 lbs. of muscle, which helped me to win the England title”, said Vikkie.

Fitness Master

As a 44-year-old mother of four from Florida, Shari Riepe thought she was too old for fitness competitions. "I just started tumbling again in the last year," she said. "I thought maybe I was too old." Shari was inspired by a 61-year-old fellow competitor at an event last summer. "She was tumbling. Maybe I'm not too old." Shari's collected hardware at several events last year, not long after moving to the area from Alaska with her family. Her latest trophy was 3rd Place at the Fitness Universe Pageant - Masters Division in Miami.

A longtime acrobatic instructor, Shari took up competitive fitness when she was 30 and pregnant with her fourth child. Since then, she has undergone five knee surgeries and has been diagnosed with a neuromuscular condition similar to muscular dystrophy, she said. But that hasn't stop her. "I take medicine as needed, but I hardly ever need it," she said. "I really like to encourage people, no matter if they have ailments, through physical condition, you can overcome them. I roll out of bed and hurt every morning. As long as I do all my stuff, I'm OK."

Shari teaches gymnastics and yoga classes and has advice for anyone wanting to take up fitness, regardless of their age. She says, "I eat a high protein, vegetable and gluten-free diet for the most part. I do cardio every morning when I wake up by running a mile outside and I lift weights three times per week at the gym for a half hour. I stay active with teaching gymnastics, yoga and kayaking. Cardio is the most important component for health and training. I hear many ladies tell me they are not motivated to exercise and I tell them to 'put your body first and make yourself exercise every day even when you don't feel like it.' That is the secret to getting and staying fit."

By Beth Jones, Florida News-Leader

Sprinting to the Finnish

At the Fitness England Pageant Championships, Maija Kivela was virtually unknown when she stepped on stage! The 25 year old Finish beauty with the face of an angel weighed in at just over 100 lbs. and had one of the most crowd pleasing performances of the day. With dance moves that were at times matching those that you would expect from a London West End performance, this girl is quickly rising to the top with one of the most stunning bodies on the competitive fitness scene.

Maija moved to London a few years ago to pursue her dream of becoming a fitness competitor and has never looked back. Now getting ready for the ESPN televised Fitness Britain Finals with a dream to compete at international events like Fitness America Championships in Las Vegas this November. Maija’s background as a performer started at age 5 with dance and fitness becoming an ever increasing lifelong passion. She said, “Ten years ago, I was only a 15 year old girl and stepped into a gym in Finland where all the fitness professionals were training. There were pictures of all the winners who were in damn good shape and they were all so serious with their training, which really impressed me. Now finally, step by step, I am getting closer to my dream!”

With the more recent European Cheerleading Championships 2nd Place title under her belt and 10 years of sculpting the perfect body, Maija is preparing for the big stage at the Fitness Britain finals on September 3-4. There’s no stopping this girl!