Hungry for more

Pulse

Hungry for more

By Brittany Kress

WILL SHILLING PHOTO

When bright stage lights illuminate her broad smile and every rippled muscle covering her arms, legs and torso, Latisha Wilder is at the top of her game.

And she's at her finest in filth.

"We look really pretty on stage," Wilder said. "But we're very hungry and very dirty."

For the figure competitor and others competing in this weekend's Arnold Sports Festival, the constant training, months of dieting and days of practice culminate in several layers of spray tan and oils.

And while she pivots through quarter-turns on stage for the judges, Wilder's mind is focused on two things: the friends and family cheering in the audience and a Chicken Tostada Salad from the Cheesecake Factory.

Wilder, a pro figure competitor who lives in Dublin, will compete in her fourth Figure International at Veterans Memorial on Friday. It's a special date on the show schedule — she'll also compete at the Olympia Weekend in Las Vegas this fall — because watching from the Arnold audience in 1999 first triggered her interest in competing professionally.

She'd always been active. In high school, she'd run several miles on early summer mornings. She played sports in college and became a personal trainer after graduation. And she'd always been infatuated with the sport of bodybuilding, but hadn't ever taken herself to that level.

"I just wanted to see if I could do it. And I did," Wilder said. "And I just kept going."

Last year, Wilder placed fourth in the Arnold, and she hopes to break the top three this weekend. Figure competitors are judged in on-stage evaluations of their conditioning and leanness, feminine display of muscle and presentation.

She trains year-round, stepping up with two hour-long cardio sessions and weight-lifting five times a week for the 12 weeks before a show. Her diet is also limited to measured quantities of certain foods — mostly grilled, lean meats and steamed vegetables — during that time to slim down, "so all you can see is muscle and skin," Wilder said.

Still, this is normal for her, and it catches her off guard when she sees people staring at church or in the grocery store.

"I'll be like, 'What are they looking at?'" Wilder said. "And my husband will be like, 'News flash, you do not look normal!'"

February 28, 2008