Fifty-seven-year-old Debbie Stevens just completed her fourth bodybuilding show, finishing in first place in the Masters 50+ Bikini competition at the Big Sky National Physique Committee (NPC) Bodybuilding Show in Missoula. She’s now headed to the national stage in July in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. “It seems surreal to me, to be able to be my age and do that,” said Stevens.
Stevens is a Title I K-3 para-educator at Stevensville School, where she’s been teaching for over 20 years. She started her fitness journey at 48. She said she got into bodybuilding through one of her sons. “I went through menopause at 48 and really struggled. My oldest son was just going to boot camp, I was an empty nester. My other son is a bodybuilder and he said, ‘It’s time for you to start a new chapter. I want you to come to the gym with me.’ I said I wouldn’t do it but I tried it and ended up really liking it. It really changed my life.”
Later Stevens met a competition coach, Jonathon Childress, online. “He’s 27 years old and he’s a brilliant young man and competitor,” says Stevens. “He really changed my life. He believed in me and told me that I could get to a national stage. I started working with him 10 months ago and I’m headed to a national competition in July in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.”
All the coaching is done online. Childress gives Stevens her plan and her weekly protocol for nutrition. Stevens works out at Anytime Fitness in Stevensville. She has a daily routine that includes 10,000 steps a day, “no crazy cardio.” She says she eats a fine-tuned, nutritional, balanced menu every day, and lifts weights five days a week. She lifts barbells, about 45 pounds. “I can squat 135 pounds and bench press 45-lb. dumbbells.”
Stevens is excited about the Pittsburg event. However, entry fees for each category, makeup, competition suit, tanning session, airfare, lodging, will probably will be at least $2000. There are no cash prizes, trophies only. She said she might have to set up a GoFundMe site to help raise money for the trip. Her friend and fellow competitor, Stephanie Thiele, of Thiele Fitness 406 in Stevensville, is selling t-shirts to raise money for Stevens.
“For someone who has never been athletic, and put my entire life on hold, this is the only thing I’ve really started and accomplished,” says Stevens. “I never thought this would happen.”
And advice for others: “I want women and men to not give up on their goals and dreams. You’re not too old and it’s not too late. You can still achieve amazing fitness goals. Get up. Start. Believe and achieve. Believe in yourself, you’re a lot stronger than you think you are. Do you have to step on stage? No. But you can cut 25 years off your life. Don’t give up on yourself in your golden years.”