Jeannette Pastuch is a local bodybuilding champion. The Chilliwack business owner took first place in her height category and second place in the novice division at the Leigh Brandt Muscle Classic in New Westminster on March 29.
The show marked Pastuch’s first event in a decade after she took a break from the sport in her twenties.
“The training this time was a lot more intense, which I actually enjoyed,” she said. “I loved seeing the transition of my body, and when it got to the end it was really cool, like an anatomy book in the mirror.”
When she first started bodybuilding, Pastuch placed at the regional level, then went to the provincial levels, then to the national stage just over those four shows. She felt like she’d hit a ceiling.
“I had made it to the top and then I was just kind of over it,” Pastuch recalled. “It was a lot of training within that two-year span that I did, and then I honestly thought I would never compete again.”
In the interim, she hasn’t strayed far from her bodybuilding days. Pastuch runs Savvy J Hair, a bridal hairdressing business. Over the last couple of years, she’s brought her talent to bodybuilding shows, helping competitors with their hair. That was her way back in.
“Doing hair backstage for the shows while staying fit, it kind of just re-lit that fire in me,” she said. “I figured, let’s give it another try and see what I can do now that I’m a few years older.”
Pastuch, now 34, took her training more seriously than she did in her twenties. This time, she worked with a dietitian to manage gut health, checked in with a choreographer on how to plan out her routine and, for the first time, got a coach.
She’d spotted fellow bodybuilder Brandon Chan backstage at an event and knew she wanted him to be her coach if she ever entered another competition. Chan, a certified personal trainer with a sports performance diploma, developed a plan for her.
Monday was glutes day, Tuesday was upper body push, a rest day on Wednesday, followed by hamstrings and glutes on Thursday and upper body pull on Friday and shoulders and hamstrings on Saturday, before a Sunday rest day.
But lest we think those rest days were actual days off, Pastuch noted that she was keeping busy with her training.
“Rest days were still active as my daily step goal was 10,500,” she told The Progress. “Cardio varied throughout my training but the highest it ever got was 55 minutes, six days per week which was for roughly three weeks prior to the show to lean out.”
At the outset, she checked in with Chan weekly. That became a near-daily check-in, where Chan would offer feedback on the form videos she sent him and adjust the plan based on Pastuch’s progress.
“This guy is on it, and his knowledge of the sport is apparent,” Pastuch wrote on Instagram.
The coach and training plan weren’t the only differences this time around. Pastuch said the standards for contestants have shifted over time, too.
“The sport has evolved a lot since I was competing,” she noted. “Back then, they were looking for something softer—not quite as much muscle and not quite as lean, whereas now they’re looking for a lot more definition in the muscles.”
“They want you more lean; a lot more cut.”
Pastuch said the moment you get on stage can be both fleeting and high-stress.
“You really have to try to catch yourself and enjoy the moment; it’s like a wedding and it just flies by,” she said.
“But at the same time, posing is so much work. It’s totally natural for people to just shake uncontrollably. And you’ve got all these eyes staring at you, but you try to drown them out. It’s all ‘focus on the task.’”
Pastuch is always excited to see young athletes join the sport. She said that one of the key boxes to tick for a new bodybuilder is to find an experienced, diligent coach.
“Get a proper coach who knows what they’re doing,” she said. “[Bodybuilding] can absolutely mess with your hormones, your mental game… you need a coach who will support you not just on the stage but in your diet and [by] checking in on you regularly.”
She cautions other bodybuilders on that front; stage leanness isn’t a sustainable form. Case in point, during her last show, her body’s fat percentage was down to 7 per cent. But a healthy percentage for women hovers around 20 per cent. She said bodybuilders need to be prepared for how their bodies will change once they go back to regular eating and training.
“You’re in the trenches of an extreme sport when you’re training,” she counselled. “You need to have support systems around you to check in and get you back to an everyday, healthy lifestyle.”
She also noted that sometimes, the process of training for an event can be mundane.
“It can be boring to do the same workout for five months straight. It’s absolutely not going to be fun the whole time,” said Pastuch. “Same with your meal prep eating chicken and rice every day.”
Still, she loved the process of it. “Most of it,” she said, half-jokingly checking herself.
“During training, I’m so much more productive because I’m eating the foods that my body loves and I’m exercising regularly.”
Pastuch doesn’t anticipate another 15-year gap between this show and her next. Instead, based on judges’ feedback, she’s going to build up her glutes based on the judges’ feedback before a return to the stage in 2026—this time, at an all-natural show.
She’s looking forward to undertaking another training regimen.
“I have one body, and I love seeing that our bodies are capable of so much more than we think they are.”
