Figuring out abs: pro figure competitor monica brant shares her high-rep solution for a sculpted six-pack

Muscle & Fitness, May, 2004 by Lara McGlashan

MONICA BRANT. Her name is as familiar to fitness as Joe Namath's is to football. For more than a decade, this blond bombshell has posed for hundreds of magazine covers, thousands of editorial layouts and millions of Polaroids with eager fans. Her amiable nature and easygoing personality have earned her scores of admirers of both genders, and her success in the industry has set an unparalleled standard of prolific exposure that will likely be unmatched by any other fitness femme in the future.

Monica is an indescribable success who prospered against the odds, having neither a dance nor gymnastics background when she first hit the stage. Yet she worked her way into the ranks with industrious gumption, overcoming her lack of necessary talents to become the most recognized name in the business. But eventually, the burgeoning sport outgrew the eager athlete and Monica retired from fitness in 1999.

Despite her absence from competition, Monica's popularity had continued to mushroom. And although she's the first to admit that her competitive peers outstripped her in talent, no one could match her star quality--that magnetic, irrepressible, charismatic energy that propelled her into the throes of success while drawing fans like moths to a flame. Her achievements and notoriety could certainly have made her smug and vainglorious, but instead, Monica bent to her natural geniality and cconducted herself with poise and kindness, further cementing her in the hearts of her ever-expanding fan base.

She's no braggart, but she's also no dummy. Monica has definitely used her notoriety to her advantage, expanding her professional horizons to include her own NPC-sanctioned fitness competition, Body Rock, and landing a lucrative contract with Universal Nutrition. She has become a virtual cyber-slave to her super-popular website and spends hundreds of hours filling orders, answering e-mails and chatting with fans online. She also spends half of her weekends doing appearances at competitions, trade shows and other such events.

She's a busy girl, to say the least. But as the saying goes, once an athlete, always an athlete, and although her career was rewarding beyond her wildest expectations, Monica was feeling that familiar, nagging itch--the need to compete.

RETURNING TO FORM

Enter the IFBB Professional Figure Division. Although critics of the events have anointed them "bikini shows with muscle," they were an instant success in the industry, and a virtual boon for Monica. "Figure was perfect for me because there's no routine," she says, laughing. "I was tired of having gymnastics rule my life and ruin my body, and that was a big reason I retired from fitness. I knew I could never compete with the other girls who grew up with that background, and it got harder to return each year knowing that. I was looking for a new way to challenge myself because I'm a competitor at heart, and the figure shows finally provided that outlet for me."

So Monica set foot once again on the familiar road to becoming bikini-ready, and with the help of a new coach, Kim Oddo, whipped herself into show shape in a mere nine weeks. She took the stage at the 2003 Arnold Classic Figure competition to deafening applause; the sport's biggest icon was back, and the fans were ecstatic. Monica glided onstage with her usual confidence and poise--ever polished, meticulously refined and supremely confident. But her commanding presence fell as the awards were announced and she lost to fellow fitness refugee Jenny Lynn. Monica's disappointment was glaringly obvious.

Eight months later, she again missed the mark, coming in second to Davana Medina at the 2003 Figure Olympia; two weeks after that, another disappointment came at the GNC Show of Strength. Each time her placing was announced, Monica was reputed to sport a grimace and an air of discontent both onstage and off, and people were beginning to buzz about her demeanor. Could it be that the once sweet, smiling Southern belle was becoming bitter and sporting a bit of a 'tude?

"If people think I'm being negative and have a bad attitude, then they've never been a competitor," she states simply. "If you're a competitive person, you can't always put on a big grin and say, 'Well, this is wonderful, I love being second.' I can't always be bubbly and upbeat, and maybe I do wear my emotions on my sleeve sometimes because I'm disappointed. It's frustrating to be second all the time, but really, I'm more confused about the judging."

Once again, Monica is at the forefront of a sport destined to go through some growing pains, and the rules, regulations and requirements of Figure seem to oscillate with each judging panel. "The judges said I was too soft at the Arnold, so I came in harder at the Olympia; then they said I was too hard," she relates. "Then the judges said I was too soft again at the GNC, so what are you going to do? I'm more confused about what they want me to look like than I am negative about how I'm placing. I've been at this a long time, and I've put my all into these shows, but I feel like the judges are giving me no real direction to follow, and no concrete criticism that could potentially improve my placing."