As a new mum Alex Marjoram went to the gym to shift her baby weight. Little did she expect that would lead to her bodybuilding competitively.
She’d always kept fit, running, doing fitness classes, boot camp sessions and the like, and was active throughout her pregnancy.
But she was frustrated with the extra pounds she was carrying after son Lochie’s birth in 2016.
So she’d walk for miles with Lochie in his pram and hit the gym whenever she could.
She says: “It gave me a sense of being Alex again instead of just Mum for that hour.”
Alex, 31, who lives in Glenrothes, began lifting weights and quickly found that she was able to lift more and more.
Something clicked for her, and the routine became addictive.
“I was good at it,” she says, “I never struggled with it.”
Others at Millennium Fitness Centre, which has since closed, noticed she was good too.
“People kept coming up to me and saying you’re in really good shape, have you ever thought about competing?
What inspired Alex Marjoram to start bodybuilding
“I hadn’t but I started following pages on Instagram to see what that world was like and it really appealed to me.
“I felt like I needed a challenge so I looked into getting a fitness coach.”
Alex enrolled with an online personal trainer who led her through the process of preparing to compete as a bodybuilder.
Friends and family were surprised but supportive of her decision. Neither they nor Alex knew much about bodybuilding.
Alex, who grew up in Cupar, began with a year in gaining phase which involves eating more to build muscle.
Hard work, a strict diet and sleep
She worked so hard she was able to deadlift 130 kilograms.
The next phase involved drastically reducing her calorie intake to just over 1,000 a day. The recommended daily intake for a woman is 2,000 calories.
She says: “For going on stage you need to cut back all your fats, so I was on quite an extreme deficit to get rid of all the fat I had.
“I had to eat the right foods and be able to cut back without losing muscle.
“So my coach told me what to eat, when to eat, what to do.
“I was doing my step count, I was doing cardio every day, training every day and making sure I was still getting enough sleep.”
Getting show ready with lashes, nails and tan
A couple of weeks of carb-loading followed to refill out her muscles.
Then it was time to ensure she was show ready.
“Two days before you have to get glammed up. You’re getting your lashes done, your nails done, hair done.
“The night before you have your Ronseal tan put on. It’s horrible!
“The next morning on show day you get another layer of tan, so you are super dark.
“You couldn’t see any of my tattoos, that’s how dark it is!”
As she walked onto the stage for the Granite City Classic, run by Granite City Bodybuilding in March 2022, friends and family waved banners.
She says: “I didn’t know what to expect when I went to a show for the first time. It was totally foreign but the atmosphere was just amazing.”
But the contest didn’t go as she’d hoped.
“I didn’t do well in that one at all and I was ready to pull out of it all,” she says.
“The the next day I had a pep talk with my coach and he said ‘let’s start again, you’ll be fine’.”
A month later she was back on the stage, this time in Stewarton, Ayrshire, for the FMC Scotland championships.
She says: “I went went into the next show and came out top overall female!”
And Alex had developed a love for the bodybuilding arena.
“I would be on stage all day every day if I could,” she says.
“I love the whole world of it.
Switching on the sass
“As soon as you step onto the stage it’s like your alter ego switches on. The sass comes out, the confidence comes out.”
In the bikini category, competitors take their turn to perform the I-walk which involves four mandatory poses then vie for the judges’ attention in the pose down.
Alex no longer competes, but continues to train four or five days a week and can still lift the weights she could at peak fitness.
She also works as a personal trainer both online and at Kult Fitness in Buckhaven.
Her fitness journey and life as a working single mum inspire other women.
And she reckons it’s the determination which made her a winning bodybuilder that led her to the career which she loves.
“My dream job was a paramedic but I kept applying and applying and getting knocked back,” she says.
How Alex became a firefighter
Then she saw a recruitment advert on social media for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
“They were looking for females to apply and I thought, what’s the harm, I’ll apply.
“To my shock I got in and a year later I was at the training school at Newbridge.”
Alex joined the crew at Lochgelly Fire Station in January 2021.
She’s among four women on the station’s 50-strong crew.
She says: “I love the job, genuinely love it.
“When you’re at a job it’s go, go, go, adrenaline.
“It’s good to know you are helping people and the community and being a good role model.”
And, as a single mum, she says the work-life balance the job gives her is “incredible”.
Firefighters work two day shifts, two night shifts then have four days off.
Alex says: “I’m definitely very present for Lochie because I can do the school run.
“Then I go to the gym when he is at school.”
Most important job – being Mum
She also has the support of her own family and Lochie’s dad Reece Kelso.
Alex says she has worked hard to get where she is and provide a good life for Lochie, 7.
And she hopes that sets a good example for him.
She says: “I want to show my son that Mummy is a strong independent woman.
“That if you put your mind to something and put your heart into it you can do anything.
“He sees me always working on something or always setting myself a goal.”
Alex’s love of physical activity has definitely rubbed off on Lochie.
“He loves going swimming,” Alex says, “and going out for walks.
“He loves going up East Lomond, Largo Law, or to Maspie Den [Falkland] or the beach at Leven.
“He’s definitely an outdoors boy.”
And it sounds like he has inherited her ambition too.
“He used to say he wanted to be a firefighter like me but now he says he wants to be an astronaut!”
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