Former Guam resident dominates Hawaii health competitors | Guam Sports activities

With two days’ lead and little preparation, Analisa Velasco-San Nicolas found herself in the midst of the competition among the elite fitness trainers who weren’t sure how she would do but were curious to see how she would measure herself.

The UFC Gym locations in Hawaii held their statewide fitness challenge on October 23rd. A few days before the event, the Honolulu gym still hadn’t hired a trainer or employee.

“It’s a pretty competitive field out here, especially on the island of Hawaii, pretty tough, lots of elite coaches. When my fitness director asked me to represent our gym, no doubt I was just like, ‘Okay, let’s just see how it goes, just see what I can do,’ ”Velasco-San Nicolas said.

Things went pretty well for Velasco-San Nicolas and she fought for first place and will now represent Hawaii in the national fitness challenge.

The UFC Gym is an extension of the UFC brand and offers exercise and fitness coaching in facilities across the country.

Velasco-San Nicolas had been a trainer at the Honolulu location for a while but hadn’t participated in the previous fitness challenges and was a little nervous when she entered the competition.

Velasco-San Nicolas said that during each practice round she relied on years of training and focused on the task at hand. The rest of the world fell away as their focus sharpened.

“I’ve done my best, so when I’m in the zone as an athlete and performing, I just zone and do it,” she said.

The competition required various exercises that tested the strength, endurance, strength and endurance of the participants. Velasco-San Nicolas did a variety of exercises, increasing the repetitions in each set or working on doing that many repetitions in a given time.

In the last round, the participants had to complete 10 exercises and they had to do 20 repetitions each.

“It started with an overhead press plate and then we took a few snapshots. Then we did a couple of side box jumps and we did wall balls, squats and we did these dummy bag slams, ”recalls Velasco-San Nicolas.

Velasco-San Nicolas completed the whole exercise in about three minutes. She had done well in the previous two rounds and after that final round she thought she was going to get a decent score, although she still didn’t know how she would fare against the other competitors.

She was the underdog on the scene and took part in the fitness challenge for the first time.

“Nobody knew me. It was my first year. And nobody really introduced themselves to me, ”she said.

At the end of the competition when the winners were announced, Velasco-San Nicolas was waiting for them to announce the third-placed entrant. Then they called out the name of the runner-up.

“I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I have the first one,” she said. “Then they called my name.”

After she was named the winner of the Fitness Challenge, other competitors introduced themselves to her. She made new friends that day and networked a lot.

“It was really nice to make my name a little bit more popular out here and just build the performance, overcome my fears and self-doubts and overcome them, it felt so good,” she said.

Velasco-San Nicolas’s parents were in the US Army and moved away from the island before she was born. When she was young, the family returned to Guam for a few years. The 29-year-old grew up playing a variety of sports, including basketball and running in athletics. She was also a dancer and cheerleader.

Later in life, she sought weightlifting and went to school for kinesiology and human anatomy, which led her to coaching and competing in the UFC Gym Fitness Challenge.

The next month for Velasco-San Nicolas is the national fitness challenge. She competes against the other state winners.

“It’s like an individualized all-eyes-on-you thing. I’ve never done that before, ”she said. “And I did it.

Velasco-San Nicolas said she was humble and honored to be recognized in the field after her win.

“Because this field is a difficult one. There are a lot of good athletes out there and it really humbled me to stand out like that. I’m really honored to be a part of something like this, ”she said.