Laura Moore – Shay: Talented IFBB Pro (1 episode)
The fitness industry is riddled with misinformation and clickbait-inspired videos that could be borderline damaging to newbies. To add to this, fitness is an everchanging topic, meaning there is a different trend every couple of years. And so, dedicated pros and coaches like Laura Moore-Shay are needed in this space. I interviewed this talented and intelligent human on my podcast.
Laura Moore-Shay is a jack of all trades, and she has managed to master them all. She’s a full-time project manager who moonlights as an International Federation of Body Building (IFBB) bikini Pro and she has a podcast called Bikini Things.
We all have different starts to our journeys. Often, people get a lightbulb moment where they decide, “Hey, I’m going to do this.” Laura’s light-bulb moment came the year before she started graduate school. Did I mention she also has a master’s degree?
She started competing in 2017.
She realized that she had become what she called ‘skinny fat’ and decided to start her weight-training journey. Laura later became a group exercise instructor while doing her master’s degree at Indiana University. “I really fell in love with weight training. I saw my body change, and suddenly, I could eat more and still look good,” she tells me.
She met two competitive weight trainers during her time as an instructor, and that sparked her interest in bikini competitions. Owing to a demanding job, she couldn’t pursue her bodybuilding dream.
Laura Moore Shay Competing IFBB Bikni Pro
While Laura describes her first year of competing as a lot of fun, it took a while to get the hang of things. She placed last in her class in the open category. But this did not discourage her. “I took a break because I was just so skinny at that time. I am six feet tall, so I looked like a string bean up there,” she remembers.
By the Fall, she had made progress. Reminiscing about her early days, she says, “ I felt like I was really looking good. At the next competition, I got second place out of two. And so, I just felt like a loser. The next show I did picked up my confidence because I placed third in a group of 15 girls.”
The result helped Laura realize her potential. She has since turned Pro, meaning she focuses more on her training, posing, and diet. “That’s how you become successful. That’s how you become better at something. If you don’t put the work in, you can’t expect to have the results, especially if you have big goals,” she says.
During the pandemic, Laura started coaching women who want to take part in bikini competitions. What started as prepping her girlfriend for a challenge led to several referrals that have seen her prep ten girls at a time.
“There are a lot of bad bikini coaches out there. So, a part of me wants to prevent that from happening and prevent these poor girls from starving themselves and doing hours of cardio a day when they don’t need to,” Laura tells me.
As an avid listener to various podcasts, Laura realized that podcasting was a possibility for her. Hence, her podcast – Bikini Things – was born. While inspired by bikini competitions, Laura has broadened the podcast to cover fitness from a woman’s perspective. She often interviews other members of the fitness community and fellow IFBB pros.
She says, “Podcasts are a great way to learn things and engage your mind. So, after listening to practically thousands of podcasts, I thought I could do one on bikini competitions, which I am so passionate about.”
Bikini Things is Laura’s way of exploring ideas and talking with people about different topics.
You can find Laura online on Laura Moore-Shay (YouTube), Laura_IFBBPro (Instagram), Bikini things (podcast website).
If you want to learn more about me check out my site Zacklymanpodcast.com
If you want to check out more interview blog posts click here.
Another great guest episode is Mary Kate Wiles