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Amanda Quinlan
Amanda Quinlan
Please share something of your background and how it relates to your current interest in fitness and modeling and what motivates and or inspires you to work out, diet and compete in fitness?
I got my start in the fitness industry and modeling about 15 years ago...just kind of stumbled into it, but I think it must have been in my blood all along! I've always been in awe of comic book characters Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman, the X-Men...if they had superpowers, tight costumes with muscles bulging under them, or had some mild-mannered or bumbling alter-ego that was saving the world on the side...I was into them. I never missed The Incredible Hulk and thought Conan was cool - I just thought Lou Ferrigno and Arnold Schwarzenegger were really big actors, I had NO idea they were world class bodybuilders. I always was a tomboy and prided myself on the fact that I was always good at any sport I tried. Once I got into weight training it always seemed that anytime my life got really, really bad or I was really, depressed or I had dug myself into an emotional hole I could not get out of...weight training was something that helped focus me...gave me purpose and a goal...helped me to get my act together. But even through all of that, I never really tied it all together...it never registered to me that maybe it was something I was MEANT to do.
I loved watching competitions on ESPN2 and admired the girls in Oxygen magazine...I thought they looked amazing and I wanted to look like that. So many people in the gym asked me for tips and advice because of the way I looked and because they thought I was a trainer. I loved helping them understand more about their bodies and giving them the best advice I knew how. I was told or asked so many times about competing before I even knew anything about it. The last nudge came when I got the opportunity to meet Jenny Lynn after winning her first Olympia in 2006. She gave me that last little encouragement I needed to set my sights on doing my first show in Nov of 06 (cont. pg. 8).
Florida Fitness Photography
Florida Fitness Photography