Have you ever wondered what a Physie Champion gets up to in the off season? What does a physie girl do when she doesn’t have her weekly class to attend?! Here is a glimpse of what Ashleigh Barry the 2019 Overall Senior Grand Champion, has been doing in her time off.

What makes physie so special for you?
Physie has always been an outlet for me, through school, the HSC, my university studies and throughout my career as a lawyer physie has been a stress relief, an opportunity to spend regular time with my friends and to stay active and fit throughout the year (including winter when it’s so tempting just to go home and sit on the lounge and watch TV!). It has also provided me with a platform to set my own goals and milestones over the years.

How has physie moulded you as a person?
Physie has taught me many valuable life lessons. I am a firm believer that to appreciate your best results and the highs, you have to have experienced the lows. Any resistance you meet with your physie goals (and life goals generally) can be challenging and can cause you to second guess your worth and talent but these are all character building. Learn from these experiences and turn them into fuel for future success. I have always attributed my confidence at work and in the court room to my experiences on the physie floor. If you can march out on the Opera House stage in front of more than 2,000 people as a 6 year old (as we then did in the 90s) I assure you, you can do anything!

 If you could go back in time, what advice and lessons learned would you had given to your “younger self”
Be patient. Success isn’t built in a day and you need to work hard for it. Nothing that is great comes easy. If you want it bad enough you will make training for it a priority, and for physie this means practicing more often than just your club classes. It means practicing at home, videoing yourself and visualising what you need to work on. It’s also easy to want to practice the routines you are good at it! But it’s the ones that you aren’t as good at that need the time and energy to be a strong performer all round!

What do you like to do in the physie break?
I love to spend the down time holidaying with my partner Simon, catching up with my physie friends for our annual Girls Day Out in January and spending the summer weekends at the beach.

What’s your favourite hobby or something that people might not know about you?
I am a self-confessed puppy addict. I have three beautiful dogs, Floyd (a pug), Boris (a staffy) and Cindy (my spoilt princess Chihuahua). If you would like to follow their adventures, you can add them on Instagram @floydandboris

How do you keep fit, healthy and flexible over the break so that you’re ready for the new year?
This year in the lead up to the end of year competitions I had a lot of help from my sister Olivia who is a personal trainer, who kicked my butt into gear and helped me get ‘comp ready’ with an 8 week physie-based training regime and nutrition plan.  So during the break I am going to make sure that I give myself the time off that I need, but also maintain a healthy level of training and nutrition to ensure a smooth transition into the new physie year in 2020. This could just mean taking a yoga class or going for a walk around the block with the dogs.  Keeping active during the break also supplements some of the bad eating habits we indulge in over the Christmas period!

Do you have a favourite personal quote you either heard or have made yourself?
My favourite quote is “Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it”.