Sports

Female Bodybuilder Got Her Start In Tap Shoes

Jefferson High School graduate Jennifer Dowd has been a competitive dancer, wrestler and bodybuilder, all before having started college.

What does your typical bodybuilder do growing up? Does competitive dance come to mind? Well in the case of Jennifer Dowd, 13 years of competitive dance is the answer.

“I was a competitive dancer for 13 years, a two-year wrestler in high school and am now taking part in the lifestyle of bodybuilding,” said Dowd, who graduated Jefferson High School this spring and will attend Arizona State University in the fall.

After receiving four concussions in less than a year, Dowd was forced to partake in non-contact activities. Things started off with a simple goal; make the 160-pound bench press club for girls at Jefferson High.

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“I was wiling to do anything to achieve that goal,” said Dowd, who now benches 180.

Jefferson football coach Joe Mattesich has been training with Dowd since wrestling season ended.

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“I started training with Coach Mattesich in the high school’s weight room after wrestling season. Coach saw the determination and motivation I had to reach my goals and decided to introduce me to bodybuilding.”

Mattesich is used to being in the training room when he runs the strength and conditioning workouts for the football team. Workouts with Dowd were just as rigorous.

“I can say without a doubt, Jen has overachieved in her workouts, conditioning and diet to become worthy of competing in such a demanding sport.”

Dowd was apprehensive at first because she didn’t want to become overly muscular.

“I thought it was a crazy idea. I had the typical image people have of bodybuilders, which is freakishly huge,” Dowd said.

After doing research and realizing that there were different classes of bodybuilding that didn’t require her to be “huge,” Dowd opened up to it.

“After I realized that I could maintain an appropriate amount of muscle in order to succeed in the sport, I figured I would give it a try. I ended up loving it.”

Each workout can last between two and four hours, and Dowd has been training under Mattesich Monday to Friday since the beginning of June. Oh … and Dowd does cardio training on her own on the weekends.

Beth Nash, an English teacher at Jefferson helped choreograph Dowd’s routines in a way that incorporated dancing and the bodybuilding poses required in her categories.

Dowd finished first in Teen Fitness and Bodybuilding at the United States Bodybuilding Foundation’s High School Fitness Championships, setting records in the high school fitness championships along the way.

Contact Rob.Heinemann@Patch.com if you have any sports related questions, ideas or leads. Know an athlete making a splash? Let us know. Follow us on twitter @PatchSportsNJ your local sports information.


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