- December 16, 2025
Christy Bennett, 36, will compete in her first bodybuilding show Oct. 5, at the Ormond Beach Performing Arts Center.
BY MIKE CAVALIERE | ASSOCIATE EDITOR
She was almost about to quit. The five-times-a-week workouts, the dieting, the discipline — it just got to be too much, while also juggling a full-time job, raising two daughters and coaching the cheerleading squad.
But then Christy Bennett’s husband talked her down.
“You’ve given up everything for the girls and I,” he told her. “It’s time for you to finish.”
And so she did. On Oct. 5, Christy Bennett will compete in the bikini portion of her first bodybuilding show. She’s 36 years old. And for the past eight weeks, she’s been training. Hard.
“I’m not a risk-taker,” she said, a few days before the show. “That’s not me. So this is big for me. This is really out of my comfort zone.”
She’s never been a gym rat, she added, but she does enjoy working out. So when she saw an ad for promoter Bill Mora’s Natural Bodybuilding and Figure show, she thought, "Why not?"
After that, it was all egg whites, veggies and protein. It was free weights and sweat.
It was hardcore carb cravings.
“It’s become a full-time job just to (train),” she said. “But the nutrition’s been the hard part.”
After the show Saturday, Bennett already has a plan — two words: Olive Garden. Pasta. Croutoned salad. Oh, and they have this chocolate mousse cake, she says.
Oh man.
Although Bennett wasn’t nervous about the show mid-week, she figured she’d be “shaking like a leaf” the day of and the night before. But she has to remind herself: Displaying her body onstage might seem awkward, but it’s also the climax of all the work she’s done. It’s the reward for all the “blood, sweat and tears.”
“You have to look at the body and remember you’re turning it into art,” she said.
Flex for it
Prejudging for promoter Bill Mora’s Saturday, Oct. 5, Natural Bodybuilding and Figure show is 10 a.m., with the show at 4 p.m. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Warrior Beach Retreat, a nonprofit that helps wounded veterans in Florida, and Florida Tour de Force, which helps the families of fallen Florida police officers.
Competitors in the show must also be drug-free for seven years, take a polygraph and, if they win, a urine test.
Tickets are $40 for a full day ($30 for law enforcement with a badge). Kids under 10 get in for $15. Vendor space is still available.
Mora is also the owner of Muscle Shop Nutrition, at 144 N. Nova Road. Tickets can be bought at the store or at the door.
The shop will be hosting a meeting next week for possible bodybuilders to sponsor, as well, and Mora plans to offer a free Competition 101 seminar soon for people who want to try a competition but are not sure where to start.
Call 872-5040.
