There are many athletes that make up the IFBB Pro League, but there aren’t many who make competing their full time career. A lot of competitors have other passions that they make their full-time careers. Among those professions are teachers. Three women that are well-versed in educating people in the gym and classroom are Ladawn McDay, Susanna Jacobs, and Shelace Shoemaker. All three ladies joined Alina Popa and Lenda Murray (both of whom also have teaching backgrounds) on this week’s episode of Femme Flex Friday.
McDay is an IFBB Pro Women’s Bodybuilder who was a fan long before she started competing. She won the Tampa Pro in 2020, and is coming off another victory at the 2021 Norfolk Pro. She will grace the Olympia stage for the second time when she competes in Orlando, Florida this October. She is also proud to be a longtime elementary school teacher who currently works with disabled students.
“I am a resource teacher and I work with students that have special needs,” she told the hosts. “So now I work with students at the high school level up to 12th grade. I’ve been doing that for the last four years.”
Jacobs is also a women’s bodybuilder. The majority of her almost two decade teaching career has been at the high school level. She has taught Spanish at both the high school and University levels. She got into training while also working as a competition cheerleading coach. It took joining students in training for her to realize that she still had days as an athlete ahead of her.
“I enjoyed coaching. I just felt like I still had more to do. The next thing you know I got into bodybuilding,” she explained. “It did actually stem from my time working as a coach.”
Shoemaker has been a Figure Pro since 2017. In July, she placed third at the Zhanna Rotar Classic. She has over ten years of teaching experience in elementary schools. For the last five years, she has taught at the middle school level. She knew what she wanted to do when she grew up from a very early age.
“I was definitely that little girl that lined up her dolls, and I read. We did math together. I had my little classroom in my bedroom,” she stated with a smile on her face. “It was definitely something (that) even as a little girl, I figured that’s what I would end up doing.”
The three athletes share a lot more about their backgrounds for both careers in this very intriguing discussion. Catch the full episode as well as every episode of “Femme Flex Friday” over at www.wingsofstrength.net .
