Athlete Profile: IFBB Ivana Sarisska

Ivana is IFBB Body Fitness competitor, national champion and personal coach. She was working as a coach in Australia and Dubai, UAE. Both of her parents had rather muscular physique and she was naturally attracted to power sports since childhood.

One of the stars of contemporary European Body Fitness scene, Ivana is co-author of Musqle.com’The Ultimate Body Transformation with Ivana and Boro series.

When did you start to train? I started to train 11 years ago.

What’s your favorite training method? I prefer heavy and intensive training style. 3 days training, 1 day rest (1. Back and triceps, 2. Legs and shoulders, 3. Pectorals, biceps, abdominals).

What’s the most common mistake, in your opinion, that people do in their training or diet? Wrong technique of exercises, wrong breathing, wrong division of muscle groups in the training days. As for diet, most common mistakes are not enough proteins or too much of them, lack of water, lack of dietary fibers, vitamins and minerals.

What’s your favorite exercise? One-leg squat with jump

Are you training in cycles? Do you have periods with no training during the year? I have bulking phase with few reps and heavy weights, then shaping phase and cutting phase. All phases come with a very rigorous diet. After the competition I have a regeneration phase with maximum rest I can afford.

What is (in a few words) your diet in various phases of your training? My diet is very high in proteins – 3 grams per 1 kg of body weight. In my cutting phase I completely avoid carbs, I only eat fish meat and some vitamins and minerals.