Fit to Print Volume 25 Issue 4 December 2016 | Page 5

P e r s o n a l Tr a i n i n g

Interview by Paul Smith

Meet Nicole Bloomer
Our Newest Personal Trainer

Nicole pushing iron

Fitness Incentive is pleased to welcome
Nicole Bloomer to our outstanding staff
of personal trainers. Nicole is an NSAMcertified personal trainer who began her
association with Fitness Incentive as a
member. She spoke recently about her
fitness journey and her goals as a
personal trainer and a competitive
bodybuilder. It was a pleasure getting to
know Nicole, and we thank her for
making time in her busy schedule for our
talk.
FI: Have you always been interested in
fitness?
NB: I was a cheerleader in high school,
and when I was 18 or 19 a family friend
who owned a gym in Hauppauge began
bringing me there with him. His trainers
at his facility loved me because they
could push me. I was receptive to being
pushed and challenged, and they
responded to that. This kind of got me
into fitness. From time to time I fell out
of it but eventually would get back into
it. About a year ago, I became interested
in the bodybuilding aspect of fitness
training. I decided that I wanted to
compete, and after a year or so of

figuring out a diet, I began to build
myself. My first competition is in nine
days in the Figure category at the NPC
Eastern USA Championships.
FI: So you have always made yourself
available to be challenged.
NB: Always! It's one of the things that
drew me to bodybuilding and
competing.
FI: How did you find out about Fitness
Incentive?
NB: I believe it was a friend who
turned me on to Fitness Incentive a
few years ago. I did the two-week trial
membership and got my mom to come
along as well, and she loved it. We
started attending all the 5:15 am
classes together, and it all kind of grew
from there. Then I started training
more and more on my own. I began
making notes on my phone about
workouts for myself, and then I’d come
to the gym and work through them. I'd
test myself to see how much of them I
could get done, see if I could do all of
it. One day a member started talking
about personal training with me.
“That's a really good idea,” I thought. I
did some research on the different
certifications, and in the end chose the
National Academy of Sports Medicine. I
completed my certification about a
year and a half ago.
FI: So you'd joined the gym as a fulltime member, and you mentioned that
you were making notes on your phone
about workouts. So you've always been
motivated to create workouts, keep
records, track progress, and so forth,
just as a personal trainer would, while
you were still training yourself
independently. But you've also trained
with Jim Cordova, correct?
NB: Yes. When I first became a
member, I bought personal training and
trained with Carol. Then after I
became certified myself and began
working as a trainer, I stopped working
with her. Eventually, though, I decided
I wanted to compete, and I selected
Jim, a trainer I knew had extensive
experience with competitive
bodybuilding. I felt I could learn a lot
from him. I had some unused sessions
left and used them to train with him.
FI: How are you working out now? Do
you still work with a trainer?
NB: Right now, I'm training myself. I do
have a coach…I'm working with Dave
Palumbo who does my diet and will
also advise me: “You need to bring this
Holidays 2016 FIT to Print

out…,” “You need to define this a little
more…”. And I do also have a posing
coach who helps me with the mindmuscle connection so that you can
contract everything. But as for the
training and the muscle groups…I've got
that down.
FI: This is your first competition. Have
you ever attended these shows before?
NB: I've been to them, yes. So I kind of
know what goes on, though I've never
been backstage. I've attended with
friends and had friends who have
competed.
FI: Training for a show is not the same as
general daily training, correct?
NB: Yes, it's quite different. By no means
could I—or anyone else, for that
matter—live like this all the time. I'd
describe the first six weeks of
competition prep as “do-able.” But the
last six, and particularly the last two,
have been grueling. A really difficult
week followed by this past week which
has been a little bit easier. Counting the
days, marking them off on the calendar.
It's very draining. Very tiring, in part
because I'm eating only enough to fuel
the workouts.
FI: Eating enough to get the work in, but
if you cross a line, you put pounds and
weight where it doesn't belong.
NB: Exactly. Everything comes down to
what you eat. A lot of protein; we
dropped carbs two weeks ago—a
transition that's been a little rough. It
takes a lot of work to do this. There's
psychology involved, I've found. The
mental part of this experience is as
challenging as anything physical. For
example, you can't tell yourself, “You
can't have that.” That kind of thinking
can set you up for failure. When you tell
yourself that you can't have something, it
almost makes you want it more. It's a job
to convince yourself that your ultimate
goal is more important than, say, that
cookie you'd really like to eat. It comes
down to recognizing balance and wanting
one thing more than you want another.
That's an example of the kind of
perspective you have to put it into. Food
is probably the most challenging thing for
anybody. I love to eat, and like most
people like good-tasting food. For those
who don't, maybe this prep work is
something for you! But the dietary
requirements are definitely a formidable
challenge to overcome.
FI: It sounds very much like the approach
athletes must take: striking a balance
between what you might want to do and
what you must do to perform at peak
level.
NB: Yes. There is a kind of delayed
gratification here.
FI: In the midst of this prep or at some

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