Heather Dees

I was born and raised in Salt Lake City and have lived there my whole life. I was first introduced to the Sport of Figure in August of 2007. I had never heard of Figure before but was tired of running being my only form of exercise and wanted to see a change in my physique. I had run 6 Half Marathons all over Utah and saw little to no changes to my physique. A friend at a gym I was working out at told me I had a good structure and should compete in a Figure Show. I was not immediately enthusiastic about standing on stage in a bikini and getting judged by a panel of judges in front of an audience, especially because I hated my legs and would never even wear shorts. I told my friend Jake at first that it didn't sound like figure competition was my thing... but then I thought about it for the next few days and thought it might possibly give me the changes I was hoping for in my body, whether I would actually step on stage or not was undecided. I found Jake at the gym the next day and told him I was actually interested in doing a show and would love to meet his trainer to get started. Jake told me his trainer was coming into the gym that night to work out and he would introduce us. Later that night was the first time I had met Justin Dees. He was a Certified Personal trainer that worked with NASM and Apex, studied exercise physiology at Arizona State University and the University of Utah, had been training people for 15 years, and was a National Level NPC bodybuilder himself. I knew instantly that this guy knew what he was doing and was very professional about it. I started training with Justin the next day at his own gym and haven't stopped since. He trained me from the begining of September 2007 till my first show which was the NPC Utah Classic in March 2008. There, I won the Overall title in Figure and was hooked! I believe once I started seeing changes to my physique the fear of wearing a Bikini in front of people slowly disappeared. I love my legs now and definitely walk around healthier, happier and confident.