AS MS FIGURE AUSTRALIA, ROSA-MARIA ROMERO KNOWS THAT A HARD BODY INVOLVES TAKING A HARD LINE WITH LIFTING WEIGHTS, AND AN EVEN TOUGHER ONE WITH THE CARBS.

Rosa-Maria Romero (Rose to her mates) has an impressive body – and it’s just as impressive as her body of work. The IFBB Figure Pro has won the Ms Figure Australia title three times and is the highest ever placed Aussie female at the IFBB World Champs, thanks to her fourth in Spain last year. Oh yes, and along with her equally impressive fiancé, Sam, she’s also the reigning Aussie mixed-pairs champ. With her spanking new pro card tucked into her posing bikini, this year Rose is heading stateside to join the pro circuit by competing at the Pittsburgh and California Pros in May and the Colorado Pro in June. If all goes well, by September she should be applying the fake tan for the big one – the Figure Olympia in Vegas. However, between then and now, there’ll be a lot of cardio, a lot of lifting weights and very little variety in her diet.

JUST ANOTHER DAY

“Because I’ve got two kids and work as a trainer and a part-time international air hostess, my training hours change week by week. But I train six days a week, in the gym and cardio.

“I usually get up at 5.30am and get my cardio work-out out of the way – 30-45 minutes of high intensity on a stepper machine at home on an empty stomach; you get a better result that way.

in Sydney around 1pm, and train from 45mins to two hours, depending on the body part and what I need to work on. I’ll train one body part each session, though I split legs, because it’s such a big muscle group. So Monday I might do shoulders. Tuesday, chest. Wednesday, triceps and biceps. Thursday, back. Friday, quads. And hamstrings on Saturday.”

CUTTING IT

“I cut up for a comp in 12 weeks, training six days a week. In the off-season, I won’t do much cardio, just 30 minutes on the stepper three times a week to keep everything moving. But when I’m dieting for a comp, cardio is big; to strip down you up the cardio and cut out the carbs – a lot of protein and supplements. It’s very intense and your body becomes very tired. I’ll drop from around 63kg to a competition weight of 53kg.

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