Couple are building up to success
With early morning starts, months of training and restaurant meals completely out of the picture, it helps when your partner is into the same sport as you.
And Brendon Lawrence and Nikayla Baker’s relationship has pushed them to become two of the top body builders in the country, both taking out their categories at the recent WFF (World Fitness Federation) Pan Pacific International Body Building champs in Auckland.
They met around two years ago through body building and since then have been pushing each other to perform at their best.
‘‘It just wouldn’t work if we didn’t both do it, put it that way,’’ Baker said, as the couple sat in a side room of the Rampage Fitness gym in New Plymouth where they train.
Lawrence, 35, was the first to get into body building while Baker, 20, became interested after meeting him.
The Auckland competition was the first in which they had competed together and they said it was great to both gear up for it at the same time, as in the past it was usually one person on the special diet while the other was still able to eat what they liked.
The couple live and breathe the sport and their daily routine includes tracking their meals down to the gram as well as at least three hours of training, on top of the personal training they provide to clients and the nutrition business they run.
That work paid off with Lawrence winning the amateur men’s performance class and Baker winning the women’s amateur superbody class, which meant they were both offered ‘‘pro’’ certificates.
Baker accepted hers and went on to take second in the professional class, while Lawrence turned his down.
‘‘I still want to win an overall Mr New Zealand title,’’ he said, which would not be possible had he accepted.