Quick Stats

Name:  Christy Griffiths
Age:  21
Height: 1.53 m
Competition weight:  43 Kg
Current weight:  46 Kg
Current city:  Johannesburg, South Africa
Occupation:  Student currently studying bcom marketing and have completed 2 years of my LLB law.

How did you get into this lifestyle and into competing at such a young age?

I have always loved my sports throughout school, and once leaving school it was difficult to continue, so I decided to start at the gym to carry on staying healthy. From there I knew gym was going to be one of my passions so I continued to pursue it and get into the industry and decided to step on stage for the first time in 2012 at Body Beautiful, with the help of Lauren Leigh Porter, founder of be fit 4 life.

What do you love about it?

EVERYTHING! From sweating and pushing through the hard work at gym and all the dedication of dieting too.

“The feeling you get when climbing onto a stage is indescribable, it doesn’t matter where you get placed, at least you know that you gave it your all, and you went as far as to stand on that stage and reach your goals.”

To see results of your body changing every day is such great motivation too.

Tell us a bit about your golfing achievements:

I started playing golf at the age of 12, and this was the sport I thought would be my career. I played for the Gauteng central golf foundation, was in a golf academy, and played league  for my home club Royal JHB Kensington. I got my handicap down to a 7 and was going to go overseas and play golf for UCLA.

What do you think are some of the biggest mistakes or myths  that many girls fall prey to when starting out in the gym?

I actually love this question, many girls think that the “weights section” is for the boys, and by lifting a weight you are going to look like a massive man! This is not true!!

“By lifting weights you are helping yourself to achieve a healthy toned body.”

Many girls only want to do cardio.. And more cardio.. And many young girls think that eating 1 salad a day, and doing cardio will make them skinny; yes it will, but not healthy skinny! You will only damage yourself in the long run.

What  competitions have you competed in and you’re placings?

2012

• Body Beautiful SA | Beach Bikini | 6th (out of +- 20 girls)

2013

• IFBB Millennium Gold Plate | Beach Bikini | 1^st
• Nabba SA | Beach Bikini | 3^rd
• Miss SA Xtreme | u21 Beach Bikini | 5th
• TTT classic |  Beach Bikini | 2^nd

As of next year I will be prepping to go to the fitness bikini division. New goals as of next year.

Have you encountered any setbacks in your life which forced you to change the way you did things and how did you overcome them?

This is one of the hardest questions that I could possibly answer, but yes I have had a major setback in my life. In March 2011 my boyfriend of 2 years passed away, which was one of the most painful experiences anyone could possibly encounter, losing a loved one is world shattering and no pain in my opinion is worse than that.

“I have walked a road that some wont in their entire life, full of heart ache and hurt. After this it took a lot of time to heal and recover, as many people are very nasty in this world and are quick to blame others. Yet I picked myself up. I chose to get back up and make it a life worth living and not to regret a single day that goes by.”

It was a lesson in life that I learnt, cherish everything in your life to the fullest because you never know when it’s your last to say goodbye. This has only made me a stronger person in everything that I do and I have grown to see many things in a different point of view.

What are your future plans?

My main goal for the next few years is to be on an international stage. This is my dream and I will reach it, even if it means that I must try over and over, I will push harder and harder to achieve it and to receive my pro card. Career wise, I would love to start my own business by helping girls reach their goals and dreams in the fitness industry.

“I love helping others where I can, to see a smile on others faces is the best gift you can receive.”

Take us through an average day of yours:

• As soon as I wake up, I take a shower and make some breakfast because without my oats and egg whites I would not be able to function.
• I then get ready for varsity, and attend my lectures and eat, and between lectures I will go do some abs and 5min cardio
• Then eat again, then return to lectures.
• At about 2pm every day I then go home, eat again and make my food for the following day, do assignments and study and eat some more.
• Then at about 6 pm I go to gym and do my weight training where I do 1 muscle group a day.
• After training I eat my supper and shower and get ready for the next day,  to repeat again.

Give us a brief description of your diet pre contest and off season:

My diet doesn’t really change when I’m prepping for a show and off season.

“With my off season I just eat a lot more carbs such as pasta and rye bread, and 1 week before a show I stop eating carbs at 12 pm and drink more water in that week.”

My diet looks something like this:

1. Breakfast:

•  4 scrambled egg whites, oats and a fruit

2. Snack:

• Half a hand of almonds and pineapple or half an avocado

3. Lunch:

• Chicken salad and rice cakes

4. Snack:

• Lean biltong or dry wors

5. Supper:

• Chicken schnitzel, broccoli and sweet potato

6. Snack:

• Fat free plain yoghurt or protein shake

On Saturdays is my ‘cheat meal day’ and every Wednesday is ‘wine gums Wednesday’ so I will eat 1 roll of wine gums throughout the day.

Whats you’re favourite cheat meal?

My healthy favourite cheat meal is definitely sushi, and my unhealthy favourite cheat meal is a chicken mayo pizza.

How do you manage to balance everything in your life?

Everything is well balanced when it comes to studying and training as I don’t work at the moment, so its easy to study and train whenever I like.

“But, with socializing its difficult, as most of my friends want to go out drinking and partying, and I don’t enjoy doing that anymore I would rather be in a gym.”

So through the last year I have lost a few friends but have also gained a lot more through the fitness industry.

Do you believe in using supplements? Which supplements are most crucial to you?

I do believe in using supplements, as most of them only help your body recover.

• I use my Nutritech Protein shake especially after my work out, with my glutamine
• I normally use a pre work out before I train to give me more focus and energy
• I take bcaas

Give us a brief description of your training and on average how long do you work out for?

I train 1 body part a day during the days of the week.

1. Monday

• Legs

2. Tuesday

• Chest and abs

3. Wednesday

• Arms and calves

4. Thursday

• Shoulders and abs

5. Friday

• Back and glutes

6. Saturday

• Circuit

Depending on what day of the week it is on a Monday to Wednesday training takes me about 1 and a half hours because the gym is SO BUSY! But from Thursday – Saturday it will take me about 1 hour.

How do you measure your progress? and how often?

I used to measure my progress weekly at the beginning of the year, but I don’t do it so often anymore. I do an assessment with Catabolic before competition day and I just look at pictures to see if I have improved, or where I need to improve.

Which cardio in your opinion is better for fat loss; HIIT or long slow steady cardio?

In my opinion HIIT is a lot better, because u keep your heart rate up. I don’t do any cardio really, only 5 minutes a day.

“I believe that doing weight training with super sets is just as good as cardio. I really do not like cardio at all, when I get told to do some cardio I want to cry! I would rather do abs while watching paint dry =) haha”

How do you stay motivated to keep on training and sticking to a clean diet?

I love what I do and love training, and I know I have goals to reach. This keeps me motivated and when I see results from my clean eating, it just motivates me even more to push harder. I have recently gotten 2 sponsors on board with me Vibram Five Fingers and Shred’d clothing!! THE BEST SPONSORS EVER! I have an awesome pair of pink Vibrams that I train in, which helps me a lot more with legs now as I am targeting new areas of muscle, and I train in my Shred’d clothing which is awesome for girls. It is so comfortable. Having these sponsors keeps me motivated as well, as I try to help them as much as I can as they are helping me. Check them out on Facebook or on Twitter:

• Facebook: Vibram fivefingers South Africa | Shred’d
• Twitter: @FiveFingersSA | @ShreddSA

I have recently been chosen to join ‘THE KING BODIES’ which is a competing team that in my opinion is going to change the way people look at South African Fitness. So I have a lot of things that keep me motivated =)

What are your three favourite exercises?

1. Hyper extensions (You feel the burn straight away)

2. Bicep curls

3. Squats

Fitness models or body builders?

I like the male fitness models more than the body builders, BUT don’t get me wrong I respect the body builders as they put in a lot of time and effort to get those bodies that they have worked for, the same for the fitness models.

Favourite female fitness icons?

Locally it would be Ashleigh Frost, Michelle Van Rooyen and Cat Rademeyer. Internationally would be Andreia Brazier.

Favourite quote?

“Don’t compare yourself to others, your best competition is the one in the mirror”

Advice for all the young girls wanting to enter the fitness industry and compete?

The biggest mistake a lot of people do when starting in this industry is that they listen to a whole bunch of people. What I have learnt is that you should only listen to one person and stick with that one person. If any girls want to start out I would highly recommend contacting Cat Rademeyer from Catabolic, she only designs healthy diets that don’t put her athletes at any risk.

• Email: cat[at]catabolic.co.za

For supplements I highly recommend going to Body King Nutrition in Centurion. They always have great specials and their pricing is great.

• Contact Marco Araujo | marcokiddo[at]hotmail.com

Where can people get hold of you?

• Facebook: Christy Philippou Griffiths
• Twitter: @christyg
• Email: Christyg.info[at]gmail.com

Photography Credits

• Roger Wells Photography| RWPhoto

Christy Griffiths Gallery

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The post One on One With Marketing Student, Former Golfer And Beach Bikini Athlete Christy Griffiths appeared first on FitNish.com.

We all hope that everyone we meet and have to interact with has some sort of manners, maybe not extreme manners, where they want to help us in every possible way but I think we hope that they will at least have the courtesy to treat us well and in a decent manner.  The same goes in the gym.

There are certain things you just should not do, and certain things which you should use your initiative to do, in order to help yourself and others around you.  Some of these acts may seem so arbitrary but you will be amazed how many people do not even bother with them due to laziness or thinking they are ‘bigger’ and better than everyone else.

All it takes is a bit of manners or ‘niceness’ and initiative and we can all get along so much better and be way more efficient.  After all we all have something in common and are all in there for more or less the same reason, so let’s help each other where we can instead of acting like meat heads thinking we are too big for the game.

OK so here is a list of some of the things which I think we should and should not do within the gym environment.  If any of you have any others which you think need to be added to the list please comment below or send them to us and I’ll be glad to post them up.  Or if you have encountered these acts in YOUR gym please do share your experiences so we can all learn from it.

1. Don’t Interrupt a person in the middle of their set

If a person is using a piece of equipment which you want to use, please WAIT for him/her to finish doing their set before you go and ask them how many sets they have left.  It is extremely annoying when, in the middle of your set on an exercise, someone comes and asks you how many you have left, as it can cause you to lose focus and mess up your momentum.

2. Do not sit and stare while you wait for a piece of equipment

If you have asked someone how many sets they have left on a piece of equipment, and whatever their number left is, you decide to sit and wait for them to finish, please DO NOT sit right next to them and watch them until they finish.  It is very uncomfortable for the person and makes it harder to focus.  So rather ask them if you can use the equipment after them and ask them to let you know once they are done.  Then go and use a different machine while you wait for them.

3. Stop socializing for extreme periods between sets

Don’t hog one machine for ages while you rest in between sets for ten minutes, or talk to your buddies at the gym or on your cell phone.  You came to the gym to train, so TRAIN!

4. Ask and you shall receive 

If you want to use a certain machine and someone is using it, all you have to do is ASK them how many they have left or ask them to go in between them.  Don’t be shy.

5. Sharing is caring

We all know that most gyms get extremely busy in the afternoons, especially after five pm when everyone comes from work, and it is very difficult to find a machine to use amongst the many people.  So if you are training during this time and if someone wants to use the machine you are on, at least offer to allow him/her to use it in between your sets.  This will help that person out tremendously and maybe you can make a new friend in the process J

6. No curling in the squat rack

I think this happens so many times.  If you are doing bicep curls using the Olympic bar in the squat rack and someone asks you to move so that they can use the squat rack, to, yes SQUAT, please agree and move.  You do not need the rack to curl and they do need it to squat.

7. Always be willing to learn

Within the gym, a lot of people think they know everything and there are some people who always feel the need to give out ‘advice.’  If you are going to give out advice please feel free to do so, but do not overextend your advice, even if you really do know you are right.  There are some people who you can try to give advice to (when for instance you see them doing something terribly wrong) and they will just get angry with you and argue that they know better. 

So it is always better to offer a brief bit of advice to them and let them decide.  If they want to know more, they will ask, trust me. 

On the other hand though, there are many of us who are always willing to learn and hear different people’s opinions, so if you are very knowledgeable and experienced and someone does ask you for advice, please feel free to express your opinion so that we can all learn.

8. Focus on YOUR goals

Don’t judge the way other people do certain exercises and what weights other people use.  You never know what they are trying to achieve by doing them and what their specific goals are.  Just focus on yourself and on improving in everything you do to achieve YOUR own goals.

9. Please pack your weights back

For example, some guys after using the leg press machine and piling on the weights on both sides, will just move to the next piece of equipment and not even bother to remove ANY of the weights.  Then the next guy/girl comes along and needs to use less weight; now they must waste their time removing all those plates.  That seems somewhat unfair.  At least be courteous enough to remove some of the plates.

Or another example is when guys do drop sets with dumbbells.  They cart 4 or 5 pairs of different weighted dumbbells across the gym to use in one corner, and then once they are done they just leave them there.  Now the next person has to look all over the gym to find those weights which SHOULD be at the weight rack.  Let’s use some common sense here.

10. Most importantly be friendly to everyone in the gym

Treat others how you would want to be treated!

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The post 10 Simple Rules Of Gym Etiquette, What You Should And Shouldn’t Do At The Gym! appeared first on FitNish.com.