BRUNSWICK

I think just about everyone has had the thought at least one time in their life that they want to get in shape. It’s something that the large majority of us struggle with, either getting the proper amount of exercise that we need or even developing the motivation to start.

For Brunswick native Lynn Miller, all of this and more has occurred, but hard work and dedication has brought her to the highest level of fitness … a bodybuilder. For the 50-year old, bodybuilding has become one of the main focal points of her life over the last 10 years, leading her most recently to a fourth-place finish in her first ever world championship competition in Boston on Nov. 15.

Miller first got interested in the fitness world while working in the salon/spa at Will Smith’s BETTER U fitness center in Brunswick and never turned back.

“In 2001 is when I first started training with Will,” Miller said. “I have always been into fitness, but never to that level. He had been competing overseas in Europe for years before that, so he had the experience. He told me that I had the potential and I thought it was a good goal to work toward.”

We’ve all heard it though from ourselves, family members and friends, the infamous “I’m actually going to do it this time” when it comes to getting in shape, but Miller said Smith’s teaching and her own selfmotivation helped her sustain this lifestyle.

“Having Will to train me, he’s an inspiration, he’s very good at what he does,” she said. “I knew that he could take me to that level (of bodybuilding). You have to have the drive and the desire yourself and I’ve always had that. I like the discipline of the whole thing. I like the hard work and I love the training. I think a lot of this is self-motivation that you have within you. You either have it or you don’t.”

“There are times where she didn’t have it and she didn’t believe,” Smith said of Miller’s motivation to keep going. “People don’t know how far they can go if they haven’t seen it that way. I was a world champion and I got sick and she had to see me go back on that path again, I had to go along with her and as she started getting a little better I said ‘see, your rivals are right there.’ I always tell her to train so that your idols become rivals.

“When she realized one day, ‘I’m just as good as they are,’ I told her ‘I’ve been telling you this’ and that’s when it clicked in. I asked her what she wanted to do and she said ‘let’s go for it.’”

Early competitions

Much like anything else, Miller’s road to bodybuilding success happened through several competitions throughout the State of Maine, and when she won her first amateur competition two years ago, she received her “pro card,” allowing her to finally work toward qualifying for the world championship.

“There are a lot of ups and downs,” Miller said of her fitness journey. “I’ve certainly done some shows where I have finished in last place and I was really disappointed in myself. It’s hard to get yourself to the point where you want to keep working out, because you feel like you’re never going to get there.”

“My trainer told me that as long as you continue to get better … that’s where the competition begins is with yourself,” Smith said. “Every time she finishes with a show I applaud her and then I wait about two weeks and then I take those pictures and pick her apart and say ‘how can we make this better.’ It’s like taking a Mustang and turning it into a Shelby. Each time I want to upgrade.”

Since Miller has only been training for the past 10 years, she feels that she has a lot of room to grow, whereas other women she competes against have been training much longer, reaching the peak of their ability.

Her first world championship was through the World Natural Bodybuilding Federation, a competition that holds a strict drug testing procedure to make sure no performance enhancing drugs of any kind are used.

Going up against 30 women from 14 different countries, she was able to pull out a top-five finish, giving her an experience she’ll always remember.

“For me, the hardest part about competing is the mental part of it without getting all scared and nervous before I go out on stage,” she said. “Going into this one I had to look at it like it was any other competition, I couldn’t look at it like I was there with women from all over the world. When I’m getting ready, I have to stick to myself and not look at any of the other women because you can get a little psyched out.”

“I think you feel more happiness and enthusiasm than they do,” Smith said of watching his clients gain success. “On the other hand it’s like you always knew. Last year I told her that she was going to place top-five at the world’s. People thought I was just saying that, but it’s almost like a builder can tell you ‘I’m building this, this is what it’s going to look like when I’m done.’

“I knew what her body was going to look like, I could see it, I’ve been there before. If you just follow it we can do that and when she did it I said ‘I knew you could, I told you so.’ It’s not something that came as a surprise, it was going to come in time. But, in the end I was happy to see her smile and see her feel good with that medal around her neck.”

Bodybuilding has become a phenomenon that many may not understand, oftentimes casting a negative light on the sport. However, for Miller who has three kids and works a full-time job, this lifestyle has been about feeling good about herself and her body, not about building a large muscle structure as Smith’s training philosophy is about.

“ She’s taking care of herself and her body is showing what she does,” he said. “ If you neglect your body it’s going to show that too. People have to understand that if you go in, if you run or exercise and take care of yourself, in time your body will show what it can do. It’s just reaping what you sow.”

For Miller, her professional bodybuilding career is in the early stages, but her one goal will always surround the idea of being and staying healthy.

“ The training is just empowering,” Miller said. “It makes you feel strong, you feel fit. It’s not about turning into a hulk. You don’t want to do that, you just want to be strong.”

JACOB OUELLETTE is a sports writer for The Times Record. He can be reached at jouellette@timesrecord.com