Over 500 competitors from various walks of life and fitness backgrounds will converge on Bellevue’s Meyedenbauer Center Friday for the 31st annual Emerald Cup, the only NPC tour bodybuilding event in the Greater Seattle area.
While many of the men’s categories will be populated by the expected larger-than-life physiques, AmyJae Springer and Danena McCants will be out to show that on the women’s side, appearances can be deceiving.
Springer may not immediately stand out among the usually hulked-up bodies, but if history is any indication, she will still leave a mark. Despite standing only 5-foot-2, Springer began boxing at age 19 and currently has a 4-2 mark in the ring. Of all the things she has learned and affirmed about herself through fighting (she has also been in a pair of kickboxing bouts), perhaps the most important is her response to adversity.
“My whole persona changes in the ring,” Springer said. “I’ll pick up a spider and set it outside instead of killing it. But once I get hit, my reaction is to come back full force.”
And that truth extends beyond the ropes as well.
After working as a personal trainer at a studio in Bellevue with over 150 clients and eventually becoming manager, Springer was blindsided when the owner decided to shut the doors with only a few weeks notice. With her passion for curbing obesity in mind, Springer knew she had to find a way to remain in the industry and provide training for dozens of clients that would be without a place to exercise.
“I went to back after bank and got declined every time,” Springer said. “Even my dad turned me down.”
While she said her father was completely supportive of the idea to begin a new studio, Springer said he had concerns about his 20-something daughter plunging her entire net worth into a business with the economy still unstable.
Eventually, she gathered her business proposal and turned to her grandfather.
“He had his lawyer and accountant there to take a look and they were all really impressed,” Springer said. With financing secured, Springer and many of the trainers from her former gym began the project of renovating the space for Extreme Fitness Studios. Located in the Symetra Building in the former YMCA suite, Extreme Fitness has around 65 clients from teens to the elderly.
McCants, who lived in Arkansas until moving to the Pacific Northwest seven years ago, was an athlete throughout her youth and played basketball through her first year of college.
But when she stepped away from the game, old eating habits began to get the better of her and lay the foundation for a lengthy struggle with obesity.
After moving to the Pacific Northwest, McCants gained upwards of 40 pounds and soon found herself a nearly unrecognizable version of the woman she once knew.
Weighing 331 pounds and with her confidence waning, McCants decided on lap band surgery to kickstart the weight loss process.
One hundred pounds later, she still had nearly 43 percent body fat and was looking for inspiration for the overhaul she knew her life needed.
“I had a dream about running a marathon,” McCants said. “The very next day, I was catering an event with a man running his first marathon. So I started asking questions.”
She lost enough weight in the seven months leading up to the race to cut another 13 percent body fat and was finally beginning to again feel like the vibrant, passionate individual she was before obesity insidiously overtook her life.
“It’s a process, not just a diet,”said McCants, who lives in Kirkland and works at The Parlor in Bellevue. “You have to love yourself first.”
Emerald Cup is hosted by Kirkland-based Craig Productions, a promotions organization that began operating bodybuilding events 31 years ago. Brad Craig, who operates the business with his wife Elaine, said giving women like Springer and McCants an outlet for their love of fitness or forum to promote health and wellness is their motivation for putting on the show.
“It’s tremendously rewarding for us to see someone reach their goals,” Craig said. “There will be people who have lost 200 pounds, overcame bulimia and emotional stress, that is the reason we love doing this.”
