| Name: Amanda Dunbar
Born: April 21, 1980 (29 years old)
Weight: Contest - 135 lbs, Offseason – 162
lbs
Height: 5'4
Status: Single
Occupation: Full time Physical Therapist
Assistant, Personal Trainer, and Nutrition advisor
Eyes: Hazel
Hair: Dark brown
Interests: Spending time with my family/close
friends, gymnastics, helping people, traveling, keeping
in shape, being healthy.
A
bit more...
I've always been athletic throughout my life. I started
training as a
gymnast at the age of 4 and had to retire from the sport at 17.
I
competed as a national level gymnast and my ultimate plan was to
go to
college on a full scholarship for gymnastics but had a career ending
injury and had to turn down all scholarship offers. I had
fractured/dislocated my ankle in approx. 20 places and so far I've
had 5
surgeries to correct the problem, including a cartilage transplant
from
knee to ankle.
After having to quit gymnastics, I needed something that would
keep me
fit. I was used to training in gymnastics 6 days per week and was
now
starting to gain weight from being in a cast/crutches for almost
a year,
nevermind the lack of exercise. I decided it was time to get back
in the
gym and start lifting again. Once I started seeing real progress,
I
decided I wanted to train for my first bodybuilding show.
I competed in my first bodybuilding competition at 21 and was very
pleased how I looked on stage. I dieted/trained myself for that
competition which was probably the hardest thing I've ever had
to do. It
took so much time and dedication, not just for training/cardio,
to
figure out how my body works and responds to different foods/diets.
Once
I saw what I looked like on stage at my first show, I realized
how much I
had accomplished and how much I really loved bodybuilding.
I did
my first bodybuilding show in Sept. 2001 and turned professional
in July 2005. In 2006, I decided to take the year off due
to graduating from college. I moved from Florida to Georgia
eventually got licensed to practice Physical Therapy in
Georgia. I now work as a Physical Therapist Assistant in
a skilled nursing facility, as well as in the Home Health
environment. I love my job... I've been through a lot in
the last few years that have completely changed my life
in so many ways, but my family continues to be first in
my life and I am so blessed to have them.
BODYBUILDING:
Status: IFBB Professional Bodybuilder
Began training: 1995 at 15 years old
Best body part: abs, waistline, V-taper, overall symmetry
Favorite exercises: Preacher curls, Hammer curls, and basically any tricep exercise.
Least favorite exercises: Any ab exercise and anything having to do with a hard leg workout!!
CONTEST
HISTORY:
- 2005 USA Championships, 1 st place
LHW and Overall (weight 135) qualifying for
Professional status
- 2004 Jr. Nationals, 2 nd LHW
(weight 135)
- 2003 Jr. Nationals, 3 rd MW
(weight 132)
- 2002 Southern States, 2 nd MW
(weight 123)
- 2001 Southeastern USA , 1 st MW
(weight 125)
- 2001 Jr. Florida , 1 st MW
and Overall (weight 126)
Music: R & B, Hip-Hop, Dance, Rap,
Top 40, country, and 80's music
Foods: Donuts, Cheeseburgers, Chicken caeser
salads, and ice cream! mmmm
TV shows: Pastor Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer,
The X-Files, anything gymnastics related, So You Think You
Can Dance.
Best friends: Colette Nelson, Mimi Jabalee,
Sherri Enos, and of course my mom!
TRAINING:
I do
not have a specific WAY I train, but the easiest way for
me to describe it is that I have found that its not the
weight you push or the amount of reps you do; muscle growth
comes from pushing yourself to absolute muscle failure so
that the muscle is broken down and has to repair/rebuild
itself. As long as you train like that, give yourself amble
recovery time, and eat properly, you WILL GROW.
PRECONTEST
CARDIO:
This depends primarily on how strict my diet is. When I
am on my diet 100%, my cardio before a show gets up to about
1.5-2 hrs/day x 7 days/week.
OFFSEASON
CARDIO:
Approximately 30-45 minutes per day, 5 x per week.
DIET:
PRECONTEST FOODS:
Protein: Steak (eye of round), chicken, Isopure shakes, and occasionally
ground turkey
Carbs: Oatmeal, brown rice, potatoes, and grits
OFFSEAON DIET:
This for me is constantly changing. In the past I have been very
lenient to what I eat in the offseason. In years prior, I would
make sure I got in at least 200 grams of protein per day but
then I’d eat anything else I wanted to throughout the day
if I was craving it. It definitely helped in giving me the extra
calories I needed to grow, but it didn’t help in keeping
me as lean as I wanted to be year round.
I am trying to teach myself how to eat cleaner
year round. I want to eat closer to a contest diet
year round, just with bigger portion sizes. I am
at the point in my life that I do not want to have
HUGE offseasons anymore and my goal is to try and keep abs year
round. This will be a big accomplishment if I can do it and the
only way to do that is if I stay on a clean diet and have “occasional” cheats,
not everyday like in the past. This is also to help bring the marketability
back to the sport and be a better representation of what a true
female bodybuilder looks like, IN SHAPE.
Amanda
Dunbar Facebook Page
Amanda Dunbar
MySpace Page
Amanda
Dunbar Official Website |
