A few weeks ago we interviewed Mervine Kock, a 65 year old bodybuilder, who was preparing to participate in her first bodybuilding championship after more than 30 years. During a recent interview, she told our reporter how the competition went, what her experience was and what her future plans are after this competition.
Kock says that the championship itself was very well organized and everything went by really fast. She says that it went faster than she expected, and for this reason, she didn’t have a lot of time to warm-up like she would’ve wanted and eat what she needed to eat. “Everything went a lot faster than we thought, because you need to be well prepared before you get up on the stage”, she says.
But in general, Kock’s experience went really well and her performance was also good. She says that her poses and routine were good; even though she forgot a few poses during her performance, because of nervousness from standing in front of a large public which was loud, but on stage she had to focus to do her poses.
Kock explains that she reached the point where she was 80% without fat, and next she wants to reach 90%. Kock explains that her coach, Rene Wild, told her that it would take more weeks to reach 90% without fat, because this time it took her eight weeks, but next time it will take 10 to 12 weeks.
“Because I didn’t compete in a long time, and the body is something that once it has fat and then you go and burn all the reserves, it reaches a point that it doesn’t want to lose anymore and starts retaining the fat. This is where you have to fight the hardest”, she said.
Kock commented that she was questioned a lot on the way her coach was guiding her, because during the last week she was doing split training, training in the morning and afternoon, while keeping a very strict diet.
She said that the week before the competition, she was drinking six liters of water per day to hydrate her muscles, and as the day of the competition was approaching, the amount of water was reduced. But she points out that it’s not true that she had to avoid drinking any water. With every meal she was drinking 2oz of water, and on the last few days, she would consume a bit of carbohydrate to see how her body would react.
“I would train at 5 in the morning, go home and eat three egg whites at 8am. By 10am I would eat another three egg whites. At noon I would go to the gym for my second session of training, afterwards go home and eat 100 gram of tuna cooked in the air fryer. I wouldn’t eat anything else, and I would drink the water that was needed, and then repeat the next day. That was the process that made my body eat all the fat reserves it had, and it made me very lean until I reached 80%, and I was leaner than I even thought possible”, Kock commented.
The process to prepare for a bodybuilding competition has different phases. Kock explains that when the lines of the muscles start showing, at that point the body is charged with carbohydrates, so she began eating two spoonfuls of rice every two and a half hours with 2oz of white fish, and this way the muscles began forming through the carbohydrates. “My shoulders were more rounded, my back started getting more definition, my legs, and my abs came out really well. It’s a very difficult process, but great to go through, because it’s an experience that you go through together with your body”, she added.
Kock came out in third place during the championship, which had four participants in her category, which was Open Category. She emphasizes that she is very happy and proud of her body, and she’s thankful for the guidance she received from her coach to achieve her results.
Currently, after the competition ended, the work continues. Kock explains that right now she is on a meal plan for maintenance, because the percentage of fat in her body is not allowed to increase anymore. This is because if it increases too much, it becomes very difficult to lower it again.
Kock explains that the meal plan varies. For example, right now her coach has her on a low-carb diet, later the amount of carbohydrate is increased, then lowered again, and it keeps varying like that. Every Saturday morning Kock has to weigh herself and send this to her coach, to see how to adjust her diet every week. “I have to maintain the discipline myself too, to not go eating whatever”, she says.
Her training schedule also changed. She explains that right now, during a month he will train only four times a week, afterwards it will be five times a week, and finally she will go to three times a week in order to have more rest to allow her muscles to grow.
Kock already has plans to take part next year in the Caribbean Championship. The Caribbean Championship is an event in which all islands in the Caribbean, as well as some South American countries compete, and Kock hopes to compete in her category, Master, which is for people 60+ so that she can compete against others her own age.
