A WORD WITH JAN TANA

Q: There are very few pro bodybuilding competitions for women, and yours is one of the most important. What got you interested in promoting female physique contests?

Jan: Some years ago I went to a bodybuilding contest and I thought it was very poorly produced. At the same time, I thought the physiques on the women were beautiful and I felt they needed a much better showcase to show them off. So I began promoting contests myself.

Q: What do you like about the muscular female physique?

Jan: The best women bodybuilders — and the best fitness women as well — have turned their bodies into beautiful pieces of sculpture. I also admire the amount of hard work they have to put into training and dieting to look like this. That’s why I feel they need as much support from the rest of us as possible.

Q: Do you feel women’s bodybuilding doesn’t get the kind of support it deserves?

Jan: Well, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Ms. International provides a great opportunity for women bodybuilders and the IFBB’s decision to include the Ms. Olympia as part of the Olympia Weekend in Las Vegas is definitely good for the sport, but I think these competitors deserve a lot more recognition than they have been getting until now. You read a lot of negative publicity in a few of the physique magazines about women bodybuilders — a lot of which I don’t feel is deserved — and this has certainly helped prevent the sport from achieving the level of audience and sponsor interest it is capable of.

Q: But it’s true that women’s sports in general seem to take longer to develop a large audience than do the same sports for men, isn’t it?

Jan: Yes, I think so. Women’s tennis and golf lagged behind tennis and golf for men, but are now very well accepted. Womens pro basketball is only just now finding a big audience. Probably one of the few exceptions is gymnastics, where the women have a much larger audience than the men do.

Q: What about fitness?

Jan: I think fitness competition is terrific. The fitness women put on a really great show, they are tremendous athletes and they have excellent, sculpted physiques as well. Or course, fitness muscle and bodybuilding muscle are quite different — kind of apples and oranges. I admire both kinds of competitors.

Q: Some people prefer fitness because they say that the fitness physique is more like the kind of body the average woman aspires to have.

Jan: I’m sure that’s true. But it’s kind of an illusion. The average women is not going to do some training and dieting and end up looking like Monica Brant, Amy Fadhli or Kelly Ryan. I think that kind of look just SEEMS more attainable.

Q: Which is not to say that the kind of weight training and diet programs these women use can’t help other women to improve their bodies.

Jan: Heavens, no. If there is one thing that all these female physique competitors have made clear its how important exercise — particularly weight training — along with the right kind of diet is in making your body the best that it can be. That’s why all those women in Hollywood are showing up on screen and at the Oscars with hardbodies and biceps. They know a good thing when they see it. If movie stars like that look, how much more "mainstream" can you get?

Q: So this kind of training is something you think all women should do?

Jan: I think all women should be fit and healthy, and to achieve that you need a good exercise and diet program. But the kind of muscle you see on physique competitors is certainly not the way most women SHOULD look — its simply another way that some women CAN look. It’s like women can be lawyers if they want, but nobody is saying all women should be lawyers.

Q: What about the criticism that female bodybuilders have gone too far, developed too much to the extreme?

Jan: Part of that is just seeing bodies we aren’t familiar with. Back in the early 1980s, that was said about women bodybuilders who weren’t even as developed as today’s fitness women. Of course, it is possible for a bodybuilder to go too much to the extreme — gain too much mass, ruin her or his symmetry, end up too thick or blocky. That even happens in fitness. But physique is judged on the basis of aesthetic standards, so anyone who has gone too far or developed out of balance will be penalized by the judges. Look at how "extreme" Cory Everson and Lenda Murray were, but their development was symmetrical, proportionate, balanced and shapely. That’s the whole point of physique competition

Q: In other words, just having big muscles is not what it’s all about. You can have big muscles and not have a very aesthetic physique.

Jan: Exactly. Bodybuilding isn’t a beauty contest but you’re supposed to try to look as good as possible in terms of physique, definition, hair and make-up, posing and presentation and…yes…skin color. It’s not only about muscle but the total package as well.

Q: So you see a good future ahead for female physique?

Jan: I’m sure of it. The idea of women developing their bodies as a type of sculpture is brand new and a lot of people are going to need time to get used to this and to appreciate it. The public will eventually figure out that there are a variety of ways to be "feminine," and that women have a lot more potential for athleticism and muscle than we used to think they did. The women themselves are going to have to get better, but this is still a new and evolving sport so it will take time. In the meantime, I want the Jan Tana Classic to give them a place to go, somewhere they feel at home.

Jan Tana’s website is at <http://www.jantana.com>