Amateur of the Week: Jayne Tingle

Keep going, the caption reads, no matter how you feel.



There may be other women who personify the "amateur" in British female muscle quite as gloriously as Wigan's Jayne Tingle, but right now, I can't think of any who do.

She's been at it for some time - as long ago as 2007 she was the NABBA British Toned Figure champion - 13 years chipping away, as she puts it, a single mother personal trainer clearly doing it for the love. She hasn't exclusively competed at NABBA shows - she has, for example, appeared at the Arnold Amateur and Amateur Olympia, and at UKBFF British and IFBB European Championships in the past. But NABBA is the place she seems to be most at home, and the place where she gets the most love. However, she has never got as much love before as she has had from the NABBA judges this year.

She started her competitive season at the NABBA North-west, lining up in the Athletic Figure class - a bit more muscular than Toned, not as muscular as Trained.



And from there, she went on to the NABBA Britain.

Now, unlike some other federations where you get the judges telling you you were in the wrong class after you've competed, in NABBA, you are placed in one of the classes before you get on stage. And so, at the Britain this year, Jayne turned up expecting to feature in the Athletic class again, but was told she had to compete in Trained instead.

I was in absolute awe at every girl, Jayne said of the competition she suddenly found herself up against. I wondered how I could measure up to any of them.



You can probably guess what happened next...

11 years after she'd won the British Toned title, Jayne was now the British Trained champ. OMG, was her (understandable) reaction. Did I get moved from Athletic to Trained and win?! Lots of bitching, she confided. Sorry to those I've upset.



Nice of her to say that, but she probably wasn't very sorry. And anyway, in her decade and then some of competing, Jayne seems to have made a lot more friends than enemies. There were plenty of smiling faces ready to celebrate with her.

Next stop, the Worlds, and once again she arrived thinking "athletic"...



Time for me to accept I am more muscular than I realise! she said after once again the judges had moved her up to the more muscular class. I am actually hench!



Hench enough to place 4th anyway. People said I'd be a laughing stock internationally at Trained Figure - clearly NABBA (or is it Bodybuilding generally?) is a bitchier world than I would like to imagine! - If this is a laughing stock, she continued, defiantly, I'm rolling with it! 15 stacked girls, best line-up in a good while. I am so over the moon.



And ironically, none of this might have happened this year.

I wasn't going to compete 'cause I wasn't in a good place, she told her Instagram followers recently. Some mental abuse floored me, and I lost a lot of weight. But I needed something, so from January I put food in as I was struggling to eat from stress. Then I decided to try to aim for a show just to keep myself focused...



And last weekend, she did one more - the IFBB pro qualifying event in Coventry. She only won her class, and came within a few points of actually ending the year with a pro card, but ultimately the Overall title went elsewhere. This year is definitely my year! she concludes, despite the near miss. Feels great being in a good place again.



Long may that feeling continue.