012: More Than a Pretty Face: How Bodybuilding Allows Women to Show Off Their Strength, Dedication, and Inner Beauty with Ashley Sproat

“Bodybuilding is sexy.” —Ashley Sproat

For too long, women have been constrained by narrow gender stereotypes that define femininity solely by appearances. However, through natural bodybuilding competitions, women find an empowering platform to proudly express their strength, dedication, and multidimensional selves. By challenging conventions and redefining beauty on their own terms, these athletes encourage all women to embrace self-confidence, break barriers, and own their power.

Ashley Sproat is a natural bodybuilder who was first drawn to the sport to help overcome postpartum depression through renewed goal-setting in the gym. After seeing success in transforming her physique and mindset, she was encouraged by friends to compete naturally, an experience that has allowed her to redefine her relationship with food and fitness while empowering other women to embrace their multifaceted selves. She now looks forward to continuing her competitive journey to bring an even stronger package to the stage in the coming year.

Tune in as Sherrie and Ashley talk about the misconceptions about bodybuilding and femininity, how bodybuilding provides an opportunity for self-expression, the importance of proper nutrition coaching, the role of discipline and routine in achieving goals, and not letting setbacks derail progress.

Connect with Sherrie: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sherrie.massiakapach 

Instagram: https://instagram.com/mindbodysoul_hypnothetapist 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherrie-kapach-b5bb26243 

Email: skapach40@gmail.com 

Episode Highlights:

03:09 Bodybuilding and Femininity

07:09 Fitness Competition and Preparation

14:04 Self-Expression at Pageants  

18:35 The Power of Mindset and Discipline

23:07 Do It For Yourself

Transcript

Sherrie Kapach: Welcome to Beyond The Prep. I'm your host, Sherrie Kapach. I'd like to welcome Ashley today. Ashley, thank you for joining me.

Ashley: Thank you for having me.

Sherrie Kapach: So you competed this morning? What got you into this sport?

Ashley: I've always loved the gym. So going to the gym was big. And then I actually went through some really bad postpartum depression, and it took a lot of encouragement for getting back to the gym. And then it became a new renewed passion of mine to create more goals within going to the gym. Actually my friends, people just started asking me when I was gonna compete next. I had one friend in particular, the first one who mentioned it to me and seeded the idea. So she came and watched me today so I was like, well, people keep asking, I should just do it. It might be fun.

Sherrie Kapach: Did you know a lot about bodybuilding at that time when you're being asked? You didn't know what you're getting yourself into?

Ashley: Not exactly. I knew it was obviously a sport based on aesthetics. I know that I probably have the genetics for it. I knew if I put an effort in, I was likely going to get results. That I shouldn't try this, this might be my thing.

Sherrie Kapach: So this was your first time on stage. So what do you think of it?

Ashley: It was fun. I had a great competitor and I clicked big this morning. And then we just loved being on stage together. I stick around the afternoon to watch her in. She's doing an afternoon show again. She's awesome. We have a lot of fun. So

Sherrie Kapach: Amazing. The preparation working up to the stage, how was that for you?

Ashley: It was good, actually. I really liked it. It's expensive. That's a big, big piece of it. Secondly, not a lot of food. I never actually realized some backwards thinking, maybe ingrained in me when I was young to not eat a lot. That if I ate a lot, I was gonna get fat. That was a bad thing. So my biggest challenge when I started this prep is it felt like I had to force feed myself. And at the end of the day, I felt painfully bloated. And going to bed was painful. My gut was rock hard. I was drinking three liters of water a day. I started off with 2100 calories, which was my regular daily diet. Part of that was like 1200 to 1500, and that was normal for me my whole life without me even realizing that that was like an unhealthily low amount of calories. I'm so grateful for the process, actually. Because introducing those extra calories brought me gains that I was dying for in the gym. Like I said, I've always gone to the gym. I was plateauing and I was getting kind of upset about it. And then that was where I really truly made the final call to sign up for the show because I was like, I gotta do something because I'm getting really upset about my plateau. And maybe I just got to try something different, commit to something, get some coaching to get games. And I got some pretty serious games that I am very happy about.

Sherrie Kapach: Maybe it's like  an eye opening. You say you're so used to being at a deficit not realizing you're at a deficit, and not understanding like, I can't gain any muscle. What's going on? And then they introduce all this food now to your own good.

Ashley: Great thing is that my body has become more feminine? Hmm, interesting. I got a far more feminine physique than I had. I was very square down in a boxy shape and I thought, oh, my god, boxy hips and things as hell. I went out to bodybuilding and I realized, (inaudible), actually. So that's one big misconception. A lot of girls would say to me, I don't want to get bulky. I just want to look like you. And I was like, I deadlift 255 pounds, like a bench press at 135. I pushed serious weight, and my body became far more feminine than it ever was.

Sherrie Kapach: Wow. Yeah. Well, yeah. And they're probably like, yeah.

Ashley: Bodybuilding is sexy. I stick to the natural because I think you maintain a lot of femininity in nature. I'm 37 years old, I'm not young. So playing around with anything., with hormones in session is probably a good trick for me especially with my history of postpartum depression and things like that.

Sherrie Kapach: Yeah. Yeah. So first time on stage at 37, and loved it. Enjoy the process, everything like that. That's great. It's a great community.

Ashley: Yeah. It was awesome to meet some girls. One girl who just rocked it in a bikini. Like she was so nervous in the morning. And then you watched her as she kept doing very well. You watched her confidence girl and you just saw her giving. And it was so fun to watch that girl you get Yeah, she was amazing. And yeah, what you see on stage is what you see on stage but backstage, you see the real and you see that girl up like you see the nerves you see that? It's like, just because they went on stage and rocked it and killed it. It doesn't mean they didn't have the didn't mean they weren't nervous. Yeah.

Sherrie Kapach: Yeah. That's really interesting. The backstage in itself is another fun because no one knows what goes on back there. It's your own little community, and it's great seeing all these competitors. They're all going through the same thing you're going through so they can relate.

Ashley: Lots of girls. You can be very tired. You don't know anybody or most have the tendency to keep to themselves. Today, we created a really fun green backstage environment. It was awesome. The team had great bombshell production. Shout out to them. Jena was amazing. I had a little incident with my spray tan right after I got it. I messaged her. I was like, oh, my goodness. Can you fix me?She's absolutely a babe. They're so good.

Sherrie Kapach: They're there to accommodate and keep the stress level down.

Ashley: Absolutely. When I signed up, there was no bodybuilding category for women in the Natural. There was just your Physique Figure Bikini. I emailed her and I was like, hey, I want to compete in bodybuilding, but I want to compete in the natural show. She was excited. She was happy. She was really excited today to see some girls up in bodybuilding and bring it back to back, and we're making this extremely exciting.

Sherrie Kapach: So if someone were to come to you today and say, oh, well, and you said you have been approached and they're interested. What piece of advice would you give them? From your experience, what would you give them?

Ashley: It'd be a very personal kind of getting to know them. The first piece of advice is you have to have a coach. You got to have a coach. I have a great coach who lets me battle with them a bit. I'm a pretty strong headed person. So sometimes I do, why? Or excuse me? Why are we not dropping calories? I was plateauing at 1500. And he said, no, you're going back to 1800. And I was like, so I'm gonna increase my calories and do more cardio? Does that make any sense? I should be dropping down 1200? And he was like, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm never going to take you there because the rebound after dropping that low can be severe, and there can be complications. He was a great coach and kept me healthy. One of the compliments I got a lot this morning was they're like, you're healthy. You look good. You're not trying to not feel good. And I'm still like, it's competition day. I dried out. I was dry as can be. Good to go with all the energies because there's some misconceptions with that too. Sometimes I think having a coach who has your health in mind, keeps you strong for competition day, and I can bring back an even bigger, better package next year. I'm already ready to go on today's Freedom Day. Tomorrow's day one prep for next year.

Sherrie Kapach: That's exciting. So you have a goal to dive on stage next year.

Ashley: I'm gonna be back, and I'm gonna be nice to be up again, for sure. I'm gonna have fun. We're gonna have fun. I'm gonna pump you up. I want to be on stage next year. And don't worry, you will get big. You'll actually get more feminine.

Sherrie Kapach: Big misconception, for sure. Yeah, they don't want to bulk up. They don't want to call you a guy. I eat a lot, six meals a day.

Ashley: Even when I started 600 calories to start prepping. It's crazy to increase calories to lose weight. I will probably start eating 1200 calories a day. That was like my normal. And then we upped it to 2100 and I lost 10 pounds that month. I added 600 calories on, and it was not because I was doing too much cardio, I was actually working harder in the gym. Prior to the prep, it would actually be a casual relief to not work out as hard as I was working out. Because it was like, hey, I'm not worried about losing weight. Right now, I'm just building muscle and all that actually. I obviously lost 10 pounds of obviously fat and other things. And then I gained eight pounds of muscle back as I got my gains.

Sherrie Kapach: And you're bringing a different physique, right? Like you say in your 20, you're tightening, you're building. So you can even be the same way you were before, but it looks a completely different body shape.

Ashley: Actually last night, and the funny thing is probably for everybody, not just females. But maybe even a little more pronounced for females, your weight can really fluctuate. I would wake up in the morning and I weigh myself, then I weigh myself later in the day, pretty much consistently on a daily basis. I weighed four pounds heavier in the evening than I weighed in the morning. And last night I weighed 138.1 pounds, which was more than I've weighed this entire prep. But I drink the water. This is what everyone says. Everyone says to trust the process. Honestly, it's funny. The advice is probably the same from everybody. Get a coach, trust the process.

Sherrie Kapach: It's hard. But it always works out in the end.

Ashley: Yesterday, I'm, like, marshmallow over here and puffy. And I thought, oh, I'm gonna get killed. What am I doing here? And then finally, I pretty much peaked 30 minutes before I walked on stage.

Sherrie Kapach: I was gonna say that when you woke up, it was like?

Ashley: When I woke up it was 5:00 AM because I had hair and makeup to fix. And I hadn't cut water until about 8:00 PM last night. So it was 8:00 PM, I woke up at 5:00 AM, I was still peeing pretty much every hour at that point.

Sherrie Kapach: People watching this and whatnot that they don't know about (inaudible). Sometimes, we do pee through a cup to eliminate--

Ashley: No coffee.

Sherrie Kapach: I had one wellness in my division.

Ashley: I love the shirt. Awesome.

Sherrie Kapach: So it's a fabulous event. Yeah, and it's growing.

Ashley: Actually a lot of athletes here have traveled from all across Canada specifically because of the production of the show and how amazing it is on the other shows, and this one knocks them out of the park. The Golden Prairie Cup is world class. The money you've spent, you want this kind of production so I'm so glad I postponed it because, yeah, it's really incredible. We feel like celebrities. We got a glass of water bottle, got these shirts. We got some socks from Muscle Mafia, we got some cookies in the package, some candies. We got some universal stuff from Supplement World, Supplement King. A lot of fun. I can't even remember them all. I don't want to miss listing anyone who contributed to that.

Sherrie Kapach: To everyone that contributed.

Ashley: It makes you feel like the queen you want to like, honestly. That was another point that I thought was really fun. Part of this is, as a girl, you usually get, even on your high school graduation, you really dolled up in your wedding. And then what else? Maybe you're writing that you're part of another wedding party. That's another patient, but this is another one of those events where you get to all of that. You get tanning, hair and makeup. You get your nails done. Some of the girls are like, I don't even know how to do makeup. I've never even done makeup. Even some of the overall winners, they were like, I work for highways. I get to have it all to be the basis. And then like this is your chance to show that feminine side. You gotta go to work. You got to do that. You got to present your other version of you. This is the chance to do something a little different to express yourself in a different way, express your feminine side.

Sherrie Kapach: A previous guest on the show, and she described it as Cinderella. You get all dolled up, you go on stage. And then after midnight, you just right back. It's a great feeling walking on stage. Once you're here, you've done. So many don't make it this far.

Ashley: There's a lot of times along the way where you dug yourself a lot, and that's okay. I think what happens maybe to a lot of people is, I don't know maybe I'm speculating. Probably they have one bad day, they don't follow their diet and then they're like, I screwed it up. So no, it's not. You have one bad day, it doesn't delete your hard work. One bad day does not delete your hard work. You get to back up, you get back on it. Keep the next day. You have one buddy. You get up the next day and you do what you do, and you just keep going.

Sherrie Kapach: And the great thing about that, also having a coach. Be honest with your coach. They're gonna know. So accountability.

Ashley: You don't want to let people down, especially if they're excited about you.

Sherrie Kapach: So maybe you do like saying, just get back on your horse and carry on.

Ashley: Oh, yeah. Nobody knows. You're the only one who knows you have bad days. Nobody knows you ate cake. It's okay. You can have a day, or you ate cake on your prep and it doesn't erase all of your hard work.

Sherrie Kapach: It's a big mindset. Your mind. Going to the gym, lifting weights.

Ashley: It's often called the sport of aesthetics, but it's the sport of discipline. The sport of extreme discipline and routine. It's definitely showing that you're able to be disciplined.

Sherrie Kapach: There's a lot of distractions that can take you on a different fork in the road. Socializing gets limited. The family events can become limited. Taking your meals to your family events.

Ashley: I literally did all things during prep. I have surgery. I got off the birth control pill midway through prep so I got off birth control and re-balance my hormones. I had my cousin stay, and then I was also a bridesmaid in her wedding. And then I also went to a convention in Toronto. So I mean, to this day, it was a bit of a road trip. So I packed a cooler, and I switched gears prepping. You're going somewhere? (inaudible). You think people are gonna be mad that I'm not drinking? No, they're actually proud of you. And then you end up with a crowd supporting you more when they see how disciplined you are. And then they want to watch it. They want to follow you through. And people really support that. And then when we went to Toronto like we were driving around. We rented a car. First stop was a grocery store. But when I packed the appliances, I packed a rice cooker, a blender to get to the hotel room. I liked my shopping list. I knew what I wanted to get. Went to the grocery store, bought it and took it to the hotel room. But it's funny that the hotel room wasn't what I was used to. Usually, you get a little bit more frigid. This one was an older kind of hotel and a minibar full of all this booze. I pulled everything out. I pulled all the stuff out of the minibar and I put all my food in there. And you know, we never got charged for it. I think some hotels may charge you to take it open. Yeah, I just shoved it back in. It was annoying to have to do that when you're going on a road trip, but you're also doing it for yourself. Once you actually had more fun not drinking on this day.

Sherrie Kapach: Yeah, so exciting. So saying you did this morning, it went great.

Ashley: I got second in bodybuilding. The fabulous Lisa got first. Her conditioning was on point. Like I said, I do a lot of crazy things during my prep so I didn't quite get my conditioning down, but I have certain muscles popping out to my stage photos while I was working on them. But I was like, whoa, next year, I'm gonna hit that. You're gonna see muscles you didn't know exist.

Sherrie Kapach: And it's your first time.

Ashley: You don't know how you're gonna condition down. Once I was conditioned down. I actually realize like, oh, I probably could have competed in figure really well. I think I would give this figure to girls around for their money. I'm so glad she was up there and whatnot. That's the one part that's a bit pretty difficult about bodybuilding. I've got to figure that out a bit more for myself. Bringing the conditioning, I knew that coming into it that I didn't have to condition. But I went on stage anyway, and that's just what you got to do. It's your first show, nobody expects you to have all the things on your first show.

Sherrie Kapach: It's only the beginning.

Ashley: But on your first show, have fun on your show so you want to do it again. I had a lot of fun. And like I said, today's freedom, tomorrow's day one prep for next year.

Sherrie Kapach: On that note, we'll end it on that note because it's fabulous. So congratulations, and good luck to next year.

Ashley: Hopefully, you'll be back again.