IFBB Pro Danielle Delikat Interview

Photo Credits:
Photo 1: Jeff Binns
Photo 2: Day Ray
Photos 3-5: RX Muscle



Danielle Delikat is one of, for lack of a better term, the coolest people in the fitness industry. Always polite, and everyone has nothing but positive things to say about her. As far as Danielle the fitness competitor..... also amazing. She showed that when at the recent North Americans she won her class, won the overall and was awarded her pro card. Danielle has always had amazing legs, but she brought in a package this year that showed she had been doing a lot of work as her whole physique qualified as amazing. Danielle is proof that with hard work, good things come to good people.

Q: Can you talk about how you got started in the gym?
A: I was always pretty active growing up. I was in gymnastics, so working out was just a lifestyle, just being fit and everything. When you are younger you don't think you are being fit, you are just doing gymnastics. As I got older and graduated high school I did some coaching. I didn't go to the gym very much, I had a membership and went twice a week to do some ab exercises and run on the treadmill like every other woman. In 2008 after my divorce I decided I wanted to be that girl who when they walked in a room everyone was like "oh my God", you know what I mean haha. Someone mentioned bodybuilding.com to me, and I read article after article after article. I made up my own diet and worked out and was in the gym every day. Someone came up to me and asked what I was training so hard for. I started to question why I was training so hard, so I started looking into competitions and everything. I met Jeff Binns and he having been a photographer in the industry knew a lot about the different divisions and everything. He showed me videos Erin Riley and I fell in love, I was hooked, I knew I could do that. He put me in contact with Tracey Greenwood and she prepped me for my first fitness show. The rest is history.


Q: Some people I interview say that after the first show, competing becomes an addiction, was that the case with you?
A: I don't know if it's an addiction. I think more the workout and thrill of it. I'm totally different. The moment I walked off stage after the first show I was like "I am never ever stressing myself out like that again. I am never doing this again". Sure enough, two or three weeks later I was back up on stage haha. It gets in your skin and you set new goals and know you can be better each time.

Q: You started this year doing the Midwest Open, was that just to get a warm-up show in?
A: Not only that. I was doing a new routine and needed to do that routine at least once on stage. Even more so, I needed to qualify. They changed the qualifications from two years to one year. Unless you place top five in a National show, you need to qualify for a National show. I had taken off a year and a half from Jr. Nationals in 2010. I needed to know I could balance a full load at school and prep at the same time. You know how prep goes, it wares you out emotionally, mentally, physically, to the point everything else gets watered down. Now I feel I have it balanced. It was a great show. That show had a new pro fitness component to it. I wanted to support that and make it out. To support the fact Jack Titone was adding that to that show. I have a lot of respect for him trying to keep fitness alive.


Q: At a show like that does it upset you to see so few girls doing fitness?
A: At that particular show there were three girls. I always like to see people go out and try it. If they say they have wanted to do it, you gotta train for it and do it once. It is unlike anything else, to showcase how you look, your strength, your personality. It's pretty cool. It is growing though. Even though there were only three girls, if you look at shows this year, even on a National stage, The Pittsburgh Pro, there were so many fitness girls, it was phenomenal. The talent is so much deeper than it used to be. Girls aren't just showing up and shaking their booty, they are bringing it. This past year it has grown immensely. Where I think it is getting weaker is the pro level. You see the same girl on stage from show to show to show. They wonder why the same ones win, it is cause they are sowing up. There are so many pros and they keep taking away pro shows, only five shows outside of the Arnold and Olympia. I think those pros need to come out of the wood work, they are the ones who are gonna keep it alive.

Q: Going into North Americans, a lot of people thought you would get your pro card, did you think it was possible?
A: I had a different mind-set this time. I was willing to go to very length to do everything by the book. I wanted to not hear it was my make-up or my suit or my routine. I paid everybody to do everything. I was professionally choreographed, I worked side by side with a local trainer so I was held accountable, I had someone do my diet, my music professionally cut, my hair and make-up done by the best, that way it was stress free but it worked wonders for my confidence. I knew I looked my best in every facet and didn't take short-cuts. I knew I could do it, but you never know who else will show up. I didn't want to stand on stage and think the girl next to me trained harder than me. I kept that in my mind every day in the gym.

Q: When you realized you were getting your pro card, what went through your head?
A: Nothing haha. It was nothing. I stood up there and was like "wow, what do I do". If you look at the video my eyes are looking right and left and all-around, "who do I look at, what do I do". You could feel everyone stare. It was exciting and uncomfortable at the same time. I couldn't believe it, it felt like a dream.

Q: For the pro stage, where can you improve?
A: I would like to put on some more muscle. You don't have to be huge but carry enough to be proportioned and have a certain shape and look. Continue to train like I have been. This prep I didn't do bodybuilding training, didn't do a split, it was upper body, lower body and a lot of Olympic style lifts, different dynamic moves, three reps for eight sets starting at sixty percent, a minute and half rest in between. The point was to work on my power and explosiveness so when I did the routine it was effortless. We did everything outside of the box and I had a lot more fun. I knew the workout would be different each day and I was excited to see what I was doing each day.

Q: You have some of the best legs in the fitness division, when you do a typical leg day,a re there any specific exercises you like to do?
A: I found a new love for squatting. I really love deadlifts because it is a complex thing and works everything, lats, back, hamstrings, glutes, my ego haha. I love leg extensions because you really see the muscle working and I really like that. It gets the little lines and cuts in your quads. I have a new found love for leg day. I am enjoying it a lot more.

Q: Does being a pro carry any more responsibility as far as how you interact with people?
A: I don't know. I feel like there is a lot of competitors who are pros without having the title. It is how you conduct yourself and who you can inspire. If you go online and share your successes it should be to motivate other people, inspire other people. Fitness takes so many forms. To share your journey publicly whether you carry a pro title or not, you should always inspire people to be the best they can be. Being a pro, it certainly gives you the credential. It is a stepping-stone. If you are out there doing it and living it, people will listen, practice what you preach.

Q: When you are in the gym, do you get a lot of the attention or stares from people?
A: I think it is true for every girl, a lot of corporate gyms, I wont name specific names, you go in and have every walk of life and half are talking and socializing and trying to get your attention or interrupting in the middle of a set. The gym I train at now, City Athletic Club here in Vegas is the best experience I have had in a gym. Everyone is focused on what they came to do. No ones interrupts, everyone is there to be fit, do what they came for. The energy is amazing. I am fortunate to have found that facility. I will never go anywhere else. It is my second home.

Q: In public, do you dress to cover-up and avoid attention or proud of it and showing it off?
A: You will never see me in shorts, not happening. Tank-tops, love tank-tops, especially when I am lean, it feels good when you look your best. I don't show my stomach either, I don't do bathing suits and don't usually hang out by the pool. I am pants and a tank-top girl haha.

Q: If you can spend one day training with any person you have never trained with before, who would it be?
A: Wow, that is such a good question. Outside of my own trainer who I have unexplainable respect for, you always wanna train with the best. I would love to train with Adela (Garcia). She has a lot of great insight. Adela or Tina Durkin, they are the two I would love.


Q: Anyone you want to thank?
A: Carol Semple, she choreographed my routine. Holly Nicholson, she did my diet. Marilyn Spatola from Liquid Sun Rayz, Laura Richards from Suit Yourself Suits, my gym, the City Athletic Club. I have save two important people for last, Kanoa Montgomery, my trainer and Jeff Binns my boyfriend. He loves me unconditionally no matter what crazy state of mind I am in or how much of a brat I become during prep haha.