Jennifer Dorie may not have won a Bikini Olympia title yet, but at just 23 years old she already has two Olympia appearances under her belt. In 2019, she finished fifth — an impressive achievement in one of the competition’s most crowded divisions.
The Canadian athlete is set to hit the stage for the first time post-Covid-19 quarantine at this weekend’s Tampa Pro, where she hopes to win a spot in the 2020 Olympia lineup.
The Olympia’s Cayden Riley sat down with Dorie for an Instagram Live interview. Here are some of the highlights, plus the full interview video below.
On the Tampa Pro and Prep in Quarantine
Again, Dorie has been in prep since she was getting ready for the Toronto Pro. She was about 10 weeks out when it was canceled, so she just maintained her shape and had a few extra cheat meals given she was 17 weeks out from Tampa.
Despite a tough prep and the change of plans, she’s excited to return to a stage that brings back great memories.
“It was the show I qualified with my first Olympia with my rookie year, so I wanted to go back and do that show again,” Dorie said. “Lots of good memories.”
She’s also worked harder than ever during this prep, but the bright side is that her hard work paid off and she was able to back off early to get in the zone for the Tampa Pro. Her goal is to win and snag her ticket to the 2020 Olympia stage.
“I always want to be ready about two weeks out,” she explained. “Then you can just relax with the cardio, focus on your posing, mentally get yourself in that zone, no stress.”
Dieting to Get Stage-Ready
Some of the most common questions competitors get revolve around dieting during prep, and Dorie takes a structured approach to her meal planning.
“I only really stick to foods that I know digest well, which is a really big thing especially in our sport — you want to control every aspect you can,” Dorie explains. “Certain things for me, like avocado or sweet potato I don’t really digest too well so I stay away from them.”
She also shared some of her staple foods:
Proteins:
Eggs
Egg whites
Chicken breast
Steak
Carbs:
Jasmine rice
Fruits
Oatmeal
Veggies:
Zucchini
Asparagus
Mushrooms
Onions
She does best on a high-carb, low-fat diet. For a short period time to speed up a prep, she’s even experimented with getting her fats pretty much exclusively from her protein choices.
During a peak week, many competitors will throw a burger or something else to get some fullness and a good pump right before a show. Dorie loads carbs and fat in the form of jasmine rice with coconut oil drizzled on top to get that full look before competing. Those are foods she knows her body reacts well to, and she doesn’t take chances ahead of a show.
In Covid-19 quarantine, it’s been tough for many to stay on track with their training. Dorie made it work with minimal equipment, including dumbbells and bands. She also got a cable pulley machine and is lucky to have a stairmaster at home, as well.
Whether you’re at home or in the gym, one of Dorie’s go-to moves is hip thrusts.
“If you have a dumbbell or a heavy band, you can put it across your hips and tuck it under your legs — any kind of weight you have to do a hip thrust with.” Dorie does around four sets of 12-15 since she’s using less weight than she would in the gym. Between sets, she takes a 60-second rest.
Within sets, she tries to hold each rep for one or two seconds at peak contraction and slow down on the negatives. At the end, she’ll do a five-second hold and some pulses.
In the gym, hip thrusts are still number one — of course, she’ll just go heavier. She also loves sumo squats with 50-90 pound dumbbells and reverse hack squats when she can get in the gym.
When it comes to training splits, Dorie trains six days a week and alternates weeks that are heavier on upper body and lower body. One week, she’ll do legs three times, but the next she might mix more upper body in and only focus on legs twice.
Her go-to cardio is the stairmaster. “I find it gives me the best look on my legs and glutes to keep them full,” she explained. “Because every step you’re taking, you can really engage your hamstrings, glutes, quads, everything.” They’re also more efficient when it comes to torching calories.
She also prefers to shoot for a calorie goal with cardio rather than a time goal. In about a 30-minute cardio session, she aims to burn around 300 calories. She uses an Apple watch to track it. At one point, she was doing two hours of cardio a day in three sessions.
On Her Role Models and Tips for New Competitors
During her NPC career, Dorie looked up to two-time bikini Olympia champ Angelica Teixeira. She counts her as a great role model and someone competitors should aspire to be like.
When she met Teixeira backstage at the 2018 Olympia, she couldn’t believe how humble and kind she was. “It’s not just to be a great athlete like that, but to be a great person — she makes everyone feel like they’re important.”
Now, Dorie is an athlete that fellow competitors can look up to, and she has some wise words for up and coming competitors.
“Definitely focus on yourself and what you can control,” she said. “Because there are so many aspects on social media, it’s so easy to get caught up and look at so and so is doing this show or so and so looks like this, and you psych yourself out.” She admits that even she’s guilty of it.
She cites abs as something that she feels she lacks and other competitors have. But in bikini, abs are far from everything.
“Don’t get caught up in looking at one single body part. Think about what your category is asking you for and are you doing everything you can to meet the demands of that category versus looking at other people,” she said. Otherwise, you’re wasting your time worrying about other people.
