Mother-of-two Karissa Marjason, mother of two, made the decision to compete 6 months ago.

Before her competition on April 22nd, Transcontinental reports, she had never even worn a bikini.

But Karissa’s debut at the Norwood Town Hall turned out to be something she will never forget, taking out first place in the Bikini Novice class at the iCompete Natural (ICN) Classic was hosted in Norwood Town Hall. Karissa took first place in Bikini Novice, second in Bikini Mommas and third in Bikini Open.

“I started off bodybuilding to get out of my comfort zone. I wanted to inspire other women and mothers to challenge themselves and to not be afraid of going to the gym and lifting weights.”

Karissa, age 28, works as Club Manager at Anytime Fitness – the job made it convenient to prepare for her show, training six days a week. She also commuted to Adelaide on weekends to visit coach Emma Bowman, who put her through the paces of stage movement and posing.

Karissa employed a strict diet during her prep, which involved eating six times daily. Arguably the most important change was that she stopped smoking.

The victories qualify Karissa for national competition in Sydney. She took just one day off, and is now back into a more intensive training regimen for the big stage.

“This comp I’ll have to work even harder because I’ve changed divisions to compete as a sports model. Bikini model is a softer look, whereas sports model they want you to have a bit more muscle tone and definition, so the workout regime has been upped with a lot heavier weights.”

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