Banbury bodybuilders put it all on the line

Kate Warner and her partner in and out of the gym, Pip Simcoe, will be entering the competitive world of Pure Elite fitness and muscle model competition on April 1 at the Margate Winter Gardens.

This will be the first such competition for the pair and both have specific ambitions and motivations for entering.

Kate, 29, is no stranger to competition, having boxed at amateur level for Banbury boxing clubs, but preparing for the Pure Elite event has reached a different level of intensity.

Kate said: “I’ve been training since the first week in October. I train every day now, twice a day. We do our cardio in the morning and the weights in the evening.”

Kate is entering the ‘Tattooed Muscle’ and ‘Bikini’ categories and in addition to training, competitors have to follow a strict diet in order to excel.

Kate said: “I haven’t had chocolate since October, no chocolate, no pizza no crisps no nothing. I can’t wait for that bag of crisps.”

As the competition gets closer the eating habits of competitors ventures into the bizarre.

Kate said: “At the minute I drink seven litres of water a day, then four days before the competition you come down and for 24 hours before the competition no food or water.

“You’re allowed a glass of wine and Haribo for the sugar, it pops your veins out.

She added: “Starting from next week we have four meals. We have 80 grams of fish and 80 grams of asparagus and that is it. That’s for two weeks solid and that is your breakfast as well.”

Kate hopes to become a fitness model and her competitive nature means that only a win will be good enough.

Pip’s motivation to enter has been his transformation from overweight and shapeless to a lean mean gym rat.

He is entering the ‘Body Transformation’ category and pictures of him, some three stones heavier, will be shown to the audience before he proudly displays his new physique.

Pip, 28, said: “I had no shape, was flat everywhere and had a stomach.

“I’ve never had any muscle in my life, I’ve never had abs.”

He too has been training since October and hopes to compete again in the future possibly in the mens ‘Tattooed Muscle’ category.

Pip said: “I just wanted to see if I could do it and it might sound daft but I wanted to make my mum and dad proud.”

The pair have been training at Fit4less in Grimsbury guided by fellow competitor Ian Rowley and have been given one piece of advice they’ve embraced more than any other.

Pip said: “Don’t go insane. Literally we will be sat there at night time and our conversation will be ‘what are you going to eat when it’s over’?

He added: “The day after the competition we fly to Benidorm and I said to Kate ‘I’ll be in the pool with a cheeseburger in one hand and a beer in the other.”