Tiffany Backes | Genetic Blessings
What got you into fitness and working out?
I've always been an athlete, that's kind of where it all starts. I grew up with three older brothers. They were always very athletic, and they all wrestled. Naturally the first sport I started in was wrestling in high school. I wrestled for ten years, eventually I got old enough where they said 'okay it's not okay for a girl to wrestle anymore since you're starting to grow'. So I switched from that to gymnastics. I always did three sports throughout my life, I was always very active. I kind of ended it in to pole vaulting. I got assigned a scholarship in pole vaulting going into college and that developed into my more professional career. From there I switched over into bodybuilding, and from body building into fitness modelling. It's always been predominant, and it's always been a passion. I've always been a competitor. It all started in preschool getting beat up by my older brothers, and from there it built my drive for being athletic.
How do you find time to balance work, the gym, meal prep, etc?
That's something that I always to try to explain to people, and it blows their minds. That comes down to it being a lifestyle. When you love something, when you have a passion for something, and when you're driven to do something, you know you've got to do all the steps to get there. Obviously when you're cooking something, you can't miss half the steps and expect the cookies to still turn out the same. This is the same thing, if I want a body, or if I want to beat a certain time, I have to take all the steps it takes to get there. You make it a habit. For example, I work about 60 hours a week in one of my jobs on top of doing online training as well as travelling for my sponsors for fitness modelling. It comes down to adapting to 'knowledge is power' and so over time you fall into a pattern and it makes it easier. I know the foods I need to be eating. I know I need my proteins, I know I need my carbs, and I know I need my healthy fats. On my days off I'm buying my food, I'm buying it in bulk. I know how much I need because I'm used to eating the same amounts. I cook it all at the same time, and portion it out. That way when I'm busy other times I can just grab my meals and go. When it comes to the gym, I know my body needs rest. I don't live in the gym, but when I'm in the gym I do what I have to do, and I'm not going to waste time. I have a set plan of 'I'm going to hit this body part, and I'm going to go in and do it'. You have to be consistent and persistent.
What has been the highlight of your fitness journey, and what are your short and long term goals?
That's a hard one because I have been in the fitness industry for such a long time, there's been certain highlights that developed me into the athlete I am today. When I was younger it was proving to the world that even though I was a girl I could still wrestle with the boys and still win. Just because I was a girl, it doesn't mean I wasn't as strong. Just because I'm a girl, it doesn't mean I can't do a sport that's male dominant. I proved that if you compete hard enough you can compete with the boys. That was my highlight being able to stand on the top with the first place spot and being the only female, with the rest being boys. It was that satisfaction of knowing that you proved everyone wrong. From there to the more experienced older version of myself. I would have to say with pole vaulting, it was hitting my records. I was in a sport where I'm 5'4, and about 5'2 in college. With pole vaulting, most athletes are tall and thin and I was short and stocky. However, I was able to set records, school records, section records, conference records and go to state without a coach. It shows that if you're willing to push yourself and dedicate yourself to do it, it is capable. From there competing in bodybuilding. I did a two week prep for my first competition without a coach. I took first place in an NBC competition, nationally qualified and it was my first show and I had no idea what I was doing. More recently, my most recent highlight was moving and redeveloping after surgery I was able to receive a couple sponsorships who paid for me to go to the Olympia to represent their brand. That as an athlete is internally satisfying as you can see the development in such a short period of time.
As for short and long term goals, that one's tough. Currently I'm taking a break from competing, and working on building myself. I feel like competing's amazing if you have an internal reason to do it. For me, I've already done four. Now I need to work on myself and my business, and helping others. When I'm competing, I don't have a lot of time emotionally and mentally to invest in my clients because you're drained mentally and physically. Now I want to be able to grow myself, education and business wise. I want to be able to put that into more clients. Every client is so different and so unique. When you're working with clients you need to have the time and knowledge to improve yourself so you can benefit them all the more. For that goal going forward, in the short term it's putting myself at a maintainable physique year round. I'll put myself at 12% body fat at 145lbs. As for long-term is to continue growing my business for my clients. As an athlete, I'll continue to develop myself and grow, but with that being said it's about handing off what I've learned and grow from to other people.
Who has been your biggest role model outside the gym, and who is your biggest in?
My father because when you realize someone is willing to give any joy or happiness or time away if they can give it to someone else, that is complete selflessness at its whole. That's my role model because that's something I learned, especially in the industry I'm in where it's easy to get caught up in the attention. At the end of the day I'm out on this earth for a reason, and I'm determined to give back everything has given me and that he's blessed me with. I'm from Minnesota, so I'm used to it snowing around Christmas. We're all opening up presents and my dad is no where to be found. As a kid I despised that, it was 'dad doesn't want to spend Christmas with me' because he was out shoveling. As I got older I realized that it was that dad wanted to make sure people were getting home safe. He realized people won't be able to make it home. Now I realize it's not all about having fun and playing games, it's about being selfless and giving yourself and giving up a little bit of fun to make sure everyone is safe. I want to be able to be able to fully give myself to others even if they don't realize it at that very moment.
As for inside the gym, that's a hard one. Growing up I never really had someone when it came to sport because that wasn't my drive. My drive wasn't to compete with someone or achieve what someone else did, my was always to better myself. If my time or my height was at a certain point, my goal was to beat that. With pole vaulting, 11'3 feet was my highest in eleventh grade and in 12th grade I wanted to be at 12 feet. It was always about challenging myself and not necessarily about looking up at someone else. If someone else is capable of working that hard, so am I. That is in anything in life, whether it's fitness, whether it's financial, or in health. That was always my motive, if someone else could achieve it, I could too.
Where do your strengths lie?
Something I hallways joke about with everyone is that the things I get the most compliments on are the things I don't try to work. My legs, i don't lift heavy. I am capable of it. For the fun of it I can go and try to max out a squat to see what i can do, and I've had knee surgery and a disease in both knees. It's fun to say I can deadlift or squat 350lbs for three reps, unfortunately my legs grow at a rapid pace. I stick to 20 reps every set with light weight just to keep them defined. If I work them out more than once, maybe twice a week, they blow up and get huge. That's definitely a strong point, in addition to my biceps. I never work biceps, I actually never work anything arms. No biceps, triceps, nothing. I work my shoulders to try and keep proportional to my legs but just in the movement it works my biceps and triceps. They've grown to 14 inches and I don't even try. Those are my strengths, my biceps, my quads and calves. Those have a mind of their own.
What do you do to prepare for a competition?
A lot goes in to a competition. Now depending on where you're at and you're health will determine how much time you have to spend preparing. For my first competition I did a two week prep. That is not normal, but it's not average. I definitely couldn't do it now. It's not healthy. You do what we call a crash diet just to get your body weight down as fast as possible. Ideally when you're starting you're going to want a coach to help you to identify where your body fat is and where it needs to be to compete. From there be able to tell you 'Hey you're going to need an eight week prep, or six months or a year to prep and that's perfectly okay'. That depends on where you're starting and where you're goal is. So first you're going to find out how long you're prep is. Then you need a coach, unless you're very well off. Even myself, I would get a coach to prep because at the end of the day we need someone else to hold you responsible. It is a very mental game and you need someone else who is going to cheer you on, who is going to push you and who is going to be consistent in knowing every detail because it's a very cumbersome experience. They will give you a diet and most likely a workout routine sating you need to build your back up, you need to build your quads up. They will start telling you what you need to begin to fix. They will get you a diet, and you will get you in the habit of buying your food, cooking them how you like it, and finding a way to put your egg-whites so you like them. You're going to be eating those egg-whites a lot, you're going to want to enjoy them and not get tired of eating them over-and-over again. When it gets closer now to the competition, you're going to be down to your last week of prep. You've been working out, you've been eating your food, your food is going to start changing a little bit. It doesn't matter what you're eating, you're just happy to be done with it. You start taking out your carbs, and the last week is the hardest. It's the hardest but the most exciting because you see all the hard work you've put in. Now if you'e a female you're going to start looking at jewelry and the shoes you're going to wear on stage. You're swim suit you'll have bought and paid for. You'll be booking your hotel reservations, and you're hair and make-up appointments and tanning. You'll have to schedule a lie detector test if it's a national competition. You'll be getting food to load your body with sugar, and taking you're oil and little weights for backstage. You'll want someone to take pictures because you're a zombie until you get to eat after you get off stage. Then you finally get to stand on stage and let all of that hard work go. That's the time to shine where all your hard work finally pays off. You worked so damn hard and when you walk on stage you get to put the weeks and weeks of training on stage. No one else exists but you and your body. What you get our of that, and what you place revitalizes you for next round.
What advice would you give to someone just starting to get into the gym?
The base advice I give to everyone is don't burn yourself out. When most people start they have that motivation, which is great. They want to workout every day, but no keep it down. I want you to workout 3-4 times a week. When you workout I want you to go hard, and on those days off I want you to rest. The bottom line is your going to have make sure your getting your food in because you're going to be investing your time, don't let it go to waste. If you want supplements to start, I'm going to start very simple. Either protein and BCA's because bottom line if you're going to the gym and you food isn't right or you forget to eat, protein and BCA's are the two simple items that can help benefit that growth for you starting off if you don't have time to get your food in. BCA's and protein will help rebuild you. Don't go hard out of the blocks because most people burn themselves out after a week and then they say 'this isn't fun anymore, I don't want to do it, everything hurts'. Start the process, take progress pictures. Keep it consistent, every Monday take pictures of yourself. Weigh yourself every Monday. That's going to keep you accountable. If you lose three pounds, you don't want to see yourself regain those three pounds so it'll keep you accountable over the weekend. Keep your accountability, keep your food consistent, and keep at a level pace that you can maintain at the gym. At the end of the day it's a lifestyle, it's a goal you want to build towards. It's not the fastest one that wins the race but the most consistent one that can keep that pace the whole time.
Most girls and women shy away from working upper body because they don’t want to bulk. What advice would you give them?
As you can see from my build, I've had a lot of clients say 'I want to work my upper body, but I don't want to look like you.' I take that as a compliment though. I've worked my whole life for the body I have. I've been athletic my whole life, I've always done the most extreme in all of the sports I did. Now I'm doing bodybuilding focusing on building these muscle groups, so you don't have to worry about getting too bulky. I've been doing this my whole life, you're just starting. You're not going to wake up one morning and say 'Oh my god, I've got 16 inch arm what happened?' Talk to any guy out there. It doesn't happen. So ladies, the big thing you want to look at is it is very attractive to see a woman with a strong stature. What I mean by strong stature is't blown up vascular stature. I mean they have shoulders pulled back, they have that confident style. They can carry groceries without their arms falling off. It feels good to be asked "Can I help you carry that?' and being able to say 'No, I've got this. I'm capable of doing it'. All it's going to do is define you, unless you have a coach there drilling you, and spotting you to work specific muscle groups to grow you won't blow up. You have to try really really really hard to blow up. Look towards what you want to grow and then start really light if that's what you're concerned about. Start with 5 lb little weights, start with your body weight and just keep building. Most females goals are just to be able to do push-ups on their own. That's not going to be bulky, that's not going to blow you up. But girls, if you have muscle own it. So many guys would kill to have muscles and you should be proud of what you're genetically blessed with. Quit saying 'I want to be like a Victoria Secret model' and start saying 'Nah, I'm happy with the physique I have and I'm going work with my genetic blessings'. Some people unfortunately aren't blessed with it and they work their whole life to have half of what you do. Take that as a blessing and gift and be content with what you have.
What do you think is harder gaining muscle or losing weight?
For me personally it is losing weight, everyone is different. It comes down to genetics. I can go to the gym and gain muscle quite fast just because it's about working smarter and not harder. I know the kinds of food I need to eat, and the kinds of lifts I need to do and the amount of rest I need. That stuff I already know, that's easy. It's harder for me to lose weight because I love food and I love carbs. Turning into a zombie by taking those away is not fun for me. I'm very active, I work 12 hour shifts on my feet, and my brain and muscles need to be fast. If I take away those carbs, it affects my ability to function in my job and in my daily life. That's the hardest, that and cardio. That's going to be my go-to. Being able to do sprint cardio outside is the fastest way to lose weight but it's very tiresome. So doing a sprint workout, then going to a 12 hour shift without sitting, that's difficult. Personally, that's just me. A lot of the people I work, it's hard for them to build muscle. They're metabolism is crazy fast, they're blessed with those genetics. Like I said, take your genetics and grasp it. Just understand your body for it to grow. What works for me isn't going to work for you, isn't going to work for the next person. If I have someone who comes in who is lean, I know exactly what needs to be done to help you grow muscle. I'm jealous of that person because they can eat a cheeseburger and chipotle three times a day and still lose weight. I envy that so badly. I wish I had that, so don't take that for granted. Just find someone who is educated in that line of what you're trying to grow or educate yourself on what you need to do to fill that void of a weakness.
What was an obstacle you faced and how did you overcome it?
A short term obstacle was this past year. My life took a change when I least expected it. Long story short, I ended up moving to Miami. I had no car and my whole savings into an apartment, and I found myself walking down the road handing out applications. I got hired on the spot working 80 hours a week so I could pay for rent and food. My passion was always in fitness so any extra time I had I was always working out. I was struggling to pay rent and groceries. However I knew what I had overcome before as a high school, collegiate, and I knew I could do it again. A year later, I have sponsors, an agency and I've built my brand which was my long-term plan. I did it in a year, that's because I was determined that I wasn't going to fall short of something that was out of my control. More of that long term obstacle. That was my ACL I was determined to beat a state record. I was one day away from sections, one hour away from graduation and I blew it out. I couldn't even walk to get my diploma. That's something you dream of as a kid. Working all those years and years to get that diploma. I had crutches, and I had never been on crutches. I didn't know how to use them. I was sweating and still had my track clothes on because I went straight from practice. I had to have an ibuprofen for the pain because my knee was swollen ridiculously. From there I was determined (because I was already signed to college, and I was the only one of the kids that was signed out of the siblings to receive as a scholarship), to give it my all. So I pole vaulted on scholarship all through my college career. I was able to graduate early with my business management and marketing degree with honors. That's the summer I lost 25lbs before I started college because I learned to walk again. Now I'm keeping up with the wolves. I'm competing with the best athletes in the country, I'm going to go workout with them, and I'm going to keep up with them. My hamstring would blow out all the time because they were weak. My knees would give out on my all the time when I was trying to lift. I was so damned determined because I earned that scholarship. I was going to prove that I was there, and had the right to be there because I worked hard enough for it. It's that internal motivation. If the odds are stacked against you, if you're strong enough you can prove odds wrong. I still battle with it, because now when you talk about aesthetics and competitions. When you're on stage and compared to everyone else on stage a third of mine is gone. I'll never get it back. However, aesthetically I'm going to learn what I need to learn to be able to make sure my hamstrings match each other physically. That's difficult because I have to over train one leg and only one muscle of it. That's a fight I have to fight, and I can still blow it out at any time. I know that when and if that comes, I can deal with it.
What does your diet consist of, and if you had the power to make one junk food healthy which would it be?
I always believe in not eating the same food over and over again. When you talk about flexible dieting, I'm a fan of flexible dieting. So I don't eat chicken, rice and broccoli every meal. People always joke about that, 'You always eat salads everyday'. I like salads, but definitely don't eat them everyday. I eat beef, I love fillet mignon. Fillet mignon with some asparagus and sweet potato is perfect as long as I get my portions out. I'll do chicken, normally with brown rice, eggs, egg white omelette. The key is making it how you like it. I'll do oatmeal with protein powder. Walden Farms has been my little key. They make a bunch of products that are calorie free. They compliment all my meals, so I can have barbecue sauce with my chicken. I can put my strawberries dipped in marshmallow cream or chocolate cream that's calorie free. It's making that around your meals that's maintainable so you don't get bored of eating the same thing. As far as fish, I love fish but I ate way too much tilapia going through prep so I haven't introduced it back into my diet. I love shrimp, salmon, or any other fish. I'll eat every now and then as long as it's seasoned right. I'll eat anything, apples, berries, bananas, you can pretty much eat anything. Eat what you like, just know your portions at the end of the day. As for junk foods I'd like to make healthy. Walden Farms is one. People say 'I wish chocolate was healthy'. Well, they make something for that which can fit in the diet. Ice cream is a go-to as well. Ice cream can now be healthy because they take out all the extra sugar. Thankfully, fitness and health is becoming so widespread that pretty much everything is being made healthy. They make healthy food by using coconut and almond flour. It's being able to mix the ingredients. What makes stuff unhealthy is the artificial ingredients. The corn syrups, white flour, hydrogenated oils. It's the stuff that's unnatural and our bodies don't know what to do with it. It stores it as fat instantly because our bodies can't utilize all that sugar and extra crap so fast. That's why when we eat it we get hungry so quickly, it's because our bodies instantly store it. Our body uses it quickly and it's already looking for more food. However, when you look at healthy foods, it takes longer for them to digest.