Bhumika Sharma, hailing from Dehradun, made history by becoming the first Indian woman to win the Miss World Bodybuilding 2017 title in Venice earlier this month. The 21-year-old is the daughter of Hansa Manral Sharma, former head coach of the India Women's Weightlifting team.
She gained the highest number of points in three bodybuilding segments -- body posing, individual posing and fall category.
A total of 50 participants contested for the title and Bhumika was one of 27 Indians.
Ambitions to compete in the WWE or possibly getting into Olympic weightlifting is not her plan at the moment. For now, Bhumika is keen on making another statement in the Miss Universe Body Building Championship 2017, scheduled for December.
Bhumika could have been a shooter, had she not shifted her attention to bodybuilding years back. Under the guidance of her coach Bhupender Sharma, Bhumika steadily found her true calling.
Women's Bodybuilding in times of CrossFit
Bodybuilding, as we all are aware of, is not that big a female-dominated arena. We see posters of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone or Dwayne Johnson all over the gyms, pumping up tonnes of iron. Rarely has any woman been portrayed in one of those epic walls of fame.
Unless it's the likes of Iris Kyle, Nikki Fuller or Betty Pariso, who are mostly known across the United States of America. However with CrossFit and the motivation to stay fit as well as lean and mean on the rise, bodybuilding, for now, is not just a male-dominated arena.
Bhumika's workouts and diet patterns
The 21-year-old Indian, who is also a national-level gold medalist in Taekwondo, works out seven hours a day and maintains a strict diet, and that's commendable, to say the least.
"When I first started training I had a lot of fat on my body. There were times when people made fun of me. But once I developed clean cut muscles, less and fewer people ridiculed me," Bhumika told Times of India.
"My training schedule is packed with running and weight lifting but apart from working out diet is one of the most important factors for this sport. I count every calorie I take," she added.
