An accountant from Evesham has set her sights on becoming a professional bodybuilder.
Amy Mather spends her days supporting businesses with their taxes in her role as a personal tax assistant manager at firm Burgis & Bullock.
But after work, the 31-year-old heads straight to the gym to continue preparing for hir first-ever regional bodybuilding competition.
Amy believes that her passions of accounting and bodybuilding complement each other.
She said: “Bodybuilding gives you a lot of discipline and drive, and that certainly feeds into my work.
“There are undoubtedly lessons I have learned from both sides which aide the other, for example, hitting targets is a big thing for me and targets drive me to improve both in the gym and in the office.
“My colleagues are all very intrigued by the weightlifting and regularly ask questions about my training plan. I hope that it will be some form of inspiration to them to start their own health and fitness journeys.”
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She added: “I have been lifting for five years now but this will be my competition debut and I’m really excited to see what I can achieve.
“I have worked really hard to get to this point, but I know there is still some distance to go before I can become professional.
The regional qualifier will take place in June and, if successful, Amy will head to the regional championship, where she can earn a chance to compete on the national stage.
She will be competing in the Trained Figure category and is in the middle of a 20-week diet and embarking on a six-week training programme.
The programme sees Amy weightlifting five days a week, coupled with seven days a week of cardio in a 10-kilogram weighted vest.
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Amy is a key figure in Burgis & Bullock’s Stratford-upon-Avon office and specialises in personal tax, inheritance tax and working with trusts.
Trevor Day, a partner at the firm, said: “We encourage all of our staff to look after their health and wellbeing, but it is certainly unusual for someone in our profession to be targeting becoming a competition-winning bodybuilder.
“Amy’s determination and drive in her bodybuilding is something that is mirrored in her day-to-day work and she is a key leader in the team at our Stratford-upon-Avon office.
“We look forward to following her progress closely and will have our fingers crossed for the competition in June!”
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