Article by Hans
(click on photos for larger view)
Ask most people what they think a strongwoman looks like, and they'd
probably conjure up an image in their head of a bulky, blocky looking woman– something like Bev Francis in her pre-bodybuilding days. They definitely
wouldn't imagine a woman who looks like Heather Pedigo of Indianapolis.
At 5-foot-11, Heather, Indiana's Strongest Woman 2004, has almost
runway-model-like proportions, as well a stunning smile and long blonde
hair. The 28 year-old now competes as a bodybuilder as well as a
strongwoman, which partly accounts for her esthetic body. But before taking
up bodybuilding and strongwoman shows a year ago, Heather actually used to
do beauty pageants, and was Ms. Marion County and runner-up in the Ms
Indianapolis. Her journey from beauty queen to strongwoman is one that
shatters stereotypes about both.
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From beauty pageant queen... |
Now that she has competed in both beauty pageants and bodybuilding shows,
Heather is uniquely placed to compare them. Bodybuilding shows obviously
require much more intense preparation than beauty pageants, but Heather says
competing as a bodybuilder hasn't changed the way she looks at pageants. "I
have a high respect for anyone who competes on any stage in a bathing suit!"
she laughs. The one thing about beauty pageants she definitely doesn't miss
is wearing high heels onstage. But that's not to say she didn't look good in
them. "Being six feet tall, I look like an amazon in heels!" she says.
Heather Pedigo liked muscle on women from the moment she saw her first
picture of Cory Everson. But it was her first trip to the Arnold Classic
Expo about 10 years ago that, as she puts it, "really sealed the deal."
"Seeing Monica Brant, Kim Chizevsky, Vicki Pratt and Cory Everson in person
set my wheels in motion – literally," she says. "If their butts and legs
could look like that, surely I was going to try to get mine the same way!"
Heather started working out right out of high school when she a job in a
local gym, but it wasn't serious compared to what was to come a few years
later. "I was teaching aerobics, lifting the 5 and 8 lb weights, and
thinking I was really doing something," she laughs. Her real education in
bodybuilding and nutrition when she met her husband Jon, who has been a
bodybuilder for 20 years, and encouraged her to step up her training. "I
wasted 5 years just "toning" before I realized I had good enough genetics
and an awesome work ethic to be successful at competing," she says.
Then came the World's Strongest Woman. Heather saw it on ESPN once and says
she knew she had to do it. A few years later, Heather and Jon opened a gym,
and she began to practice the events – the tire flip (her favorite), the
farmer's carry (carrying 120 lb cylinders in each hand), the hammer hold
(15lb sledge hammers held at shoulder height in each hand for time), the log
lift (clean and press a 120 lb log ) and truck pulls. As a competitor, she
won Indiana's Strongest Woman in 2004 and set the Indiana State bench press
record Bench Press, benching 215 pounds.
Heather did her first bodybuilding show in 2003, prompted by her training
partner, who had won the overall at the Ms. Indiana the year before. "If she
could do it and WIN (she won the overall that year), you could definitly
count me in for the next one!" she says. Heather won the heavyweight class
at the 2003 Ms. Indiana, and the heavyweight and overall at the Ms.
Midwestern States Heavyweight and Overall later that year.
Heather says she is a natural in front of the camera ("as my whole family
will tell you, I am a ham!"), so doing photo shoots was never a problem. But
she says the poise and presentation she had learned doing pageants helped
her when she stepped on a bodybuilding stage for the first time. "I do
believe my time on stage during pageants and the appearances required with
winning them helped me feel very comfortable onstage."
Heather says she loves almost everything about bodybuilding. "I love being
able to move heavy weights. I love the structure and discipline. I love the
camaraderie in the gym. The only thing I can say I dislike about
bodybuilding is the way I feel AFTER a contest, when my body is going back
to "normal" size and bodyfat. Mentally it is very hard on me to go from
9-10% bodyfat to 15-17%, which is common "off season" for me."
However, Heather has no plans to drop either bodybuilding or strongwoman
contests. "The strongwoman training only helps my bodybuilding and it is so
much fun," she says. "I plan to do a few local bodybuilding contests in 2005
- possible a lower level national show - and eventually qualify for World's
Strongest Woman."
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