When the first Covid-19 lockdown ended, Riley Powell had cabin fever, so she went straight to her local gym and joined up. She never thought that, two years later, she would be up on stage, wearing three layers of spray tan, and winning her first body building competition.

In mid-2020, like much of the country, Riley was keen to get out of her home. After eight weeks of lockdown, both her physical and mental health had taken a toll. She was depressed and was suffering with anxiety and PTSD. ‘During lockdown, I realised I wanted something different. Where I was at was not a good place. My diabetes was up the wazoo. My weight was absolutely horrible, and I just wasn’t happy.’

Riley says that, when she first started at the gym, it was not even about weight loss. It was just about helping her mental health. For the first three months, she would go in and walk on the treadmill with her headphones on, not talk to anyone, and just ignore the world.

Riley now works at that same gym, in her home town of Katikati, where she is studying via an apprenticeship to be a personal trainer.

The mother of two was diagnosed with type 1 at 14. She says she doesn’t have a lot of memory about it because it was traumatic and she almost died. ‘My mother took me to the doctor because, in 48 hours, I’d gone grey and opened up with sores all over my body. So sick. The doctor said, “Don’t even wait for an ambulance. Take her straight up to hospital.”

‘Because I was hallucinating and a complete mess, they thought I had overdosed on drugs of some sort. So they were treating me for a drug overdose first before treating it as diabetic ketoacidosis.’

Riley spent two and half weeks in ICU. ‘They said the blood gases in my blood were some of the highest they’d ever seen in a living person. My body pulled a real stunt.’

The months after being diagnosed brought about a lot of tears for the young teen. She had difficulty understanding why this had happened to her. ‘I had gone from living a normal teenage life to having to check my blood sugar and stab myself with needles. To this day, I’m still scared of needles – I’ll vomit. But I’m ok injecting myself now. I have no issue with that.’

Training

It was a trainer at the gym who suggested she get off the treadmill and try something new. That’s when Riley started picking up weights. And from there she says she fell in love. ‘It was a love of muscles. I wanted those muscles. I didn’t want to lose all the weight and be this skinny little thing. I wanted to be strong. I wanted to be proud.’

The owner of the gym suggested Riley join an existing group of body builders. ‘She said, “I think you’ll be good at this. Let’s do it.”’ Riley didn’t think twice about accepting the offer.

She likes to train a lot more than is required. ‘I enjoy it and have fun doing it. So as long as I’m not injuring myself then I’m happy to do as many hours as I can.’ Riley likes to train six days a week, and a two-hour workout is her average. Currently, she’s not doing any cardio as she’s in the ‘bulking phase’, leading up to next year’s competitions.

As opposed to building strength, ‘hypertrophy training’ focuses on building the size of the muscles.

‘If I was doing a squat with a barbell, I’d start with doing 12 squats, at a very low weight, just to get warmed up. Then I’d work up to five sets of eight reps, increasing the weight with every go. That’s where the majority of the muscle growth happens.’

The purpose of the lifting training is to increase muscle mass, but Riley’s strength is well and truly there as well. Many bodybuilders are tremendously strong, although not as strong as the best powerlifters.

‘My squats sit at about 80 kilos on by back and my body weight is 60 kilos, so I can lift about 40% over my body weight in squats. It’s amazing what you can do. There’s also a hip thrust where I can do 120kg. I’ve got a friend next to me who can do 150–160 kilos. It’s all technical movements. I can pick up lots, but everyday lifting, nah, don’t get me to help you shift house.’

With technical lifting, there are proper supports in place. This means that the lifter always has safety within their movements. They also have the skill and practice to know exactly how to hold their body to safely perform each movement.

‘With everyday lifting, you don’t know what the weight of it is. Then there’s the random shape of it which makes it unstable, so you’re not sure how to place your body.’

Dawn phenomenon

Riley gets up to train at 2.55am in the weekdays, and 4.30am in weekends. That timing might be unthinkable for most of us, but she finds it a perfect time of day. It gives her time to fit in her training and then be back at home to get her kids ready for their day.

Another reason Riley likes to train so early is to make good use of her ‘dawn phenomenon’. Sometimes known as the ‘dawn effect’, it is a natural increase in blood sugar levels that takes place in the early morning, often between 2am and 8am. Instead of taking her normal insulin correction, Riley chooses instead to get up and do her cardio, which lowers her blood sugar.

Riley wears a CGM and a pump.

She only started using one when she was pregnant with her second child, seven years ago, when she discovered she had lost all hypo awareness. ‘I wouldn’t recommend finger pricking alone when body building. It’s not sustainable. Every 15 minutes, throughout the day, you would be testing to make sure you’re staying on track. This is because insulin, also being a growth hormone, works against you.’

Competition

Months of work lead up to each body building competition. As well as the muscle training, there are also many hours of practice dedicated to learning and perfecting the poses. Riley says it is a very vain game as you stand in front of the mirror, looking for your best angles. Luckily, in her gym there is a wealth of current and retired body builders to learn from and practice with.

Riley wasn’t sure how her diabetes would perform on the day of the competition, so she entered the Novice Shape category in last year’s National Amateur Body Building Association competition (NABBA). This category is about having nice looking muscles but without big definition and striation.

Riley says the mental strain of the game is hard on anyone, let alone someone living with diabetes. With the physical, you simply go to the gym and do your workout. But the mental part involves keeping an eye on the diabetes, wondering what the blood sugar is doing, and worrying, ‘what happens if something goes wrong?’ Riley had that happen on the day of her competition. ‘About 10 minutes before I was due on stage, my sugars spiked up from 6 to 17. Because of that, my body went into shaking mode and I was there on stage, shaking. But I made it through, and I didn’t fall on my face.’

In her first competition – and only two years after taking her first steps onto a treadmill – Riley was thrilled to come in at third place. She kept her CGM and pump kit on, wearing them with pride throughout the competition.

Success

After two or so years of hard work, Riley’s mental and physical health has done a complete turnaround. A full 18 years after being diagnosed, and with the help of the national lockdowns, she has grown to understand her body, her mind, and her diabetes.

Riley’s future is looking positive as she continues to enter body building competitions. This year, she will become qualified in Personal Training, Exercise and Fitness through Te Mahi Ako and hopes to start her own personal training business. She says she will also continue working with the Graham Dingle Foundation as a mentor for Project K kids.

As Riley says, ‘I joined the gym, thinking I probably wouldn’t stick to it and then met the most amazing bunch of people who would never let me leave.’