ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 16, 1996 TAG: 9602160011
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: TERESA OGLE SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
After the fans leave behind basketball and Cassell Coliseum on Saturday, Johnna Carter will take the stage in nearby Burruss Auditorium.
There, she'll flex and pose as part of the New River Valley Classic, a showcase for bodybuilding and sculpting.
The show will be held from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 and are being sold at the Weight Club at University Mall and at the door.
Carter, the 1995 Amateur Athletic Union Ms. Junior America, was raised in rural Snowville.
Now she lives in Blacksburg, and she's excited about appearing on stage there in front of her family, friends and her husband, Curtis, an avid bodybuilder and trainer.
It is Curtis Carter who has encouraged her and motivated her - and prepared her for her first competition.
Johnna Carter started working out in 1990 to lose the weight she had gained while pregnant with her daughter, Ashley.
At 5 feet 1 inch tall, Carter says the extra weight made her feel uncomfortable.
By 1991, she was power lifting, working on the muscles in her legs. Eventually, that led her to body sculpting.
"I got into the challenge and enjoyed watching my body changing through stages," she said recently. "It's interesting, because you never know it all. Something's always changing as your body matures and develops."
Carter says muscles get better with age; when they're older, they're denser.
"I still find myself looking in the mirror and thinking, 'Gosh, I never knew I could look like this,'" she said.
When she's not pumped up, Carter appears fit and trim.
Part of that comes from her workouts, part from a strict, healthy diet.
She's hoping that when her family members see her perform, they'll will gain a new understanding of her, why she devotes so much time to her sport, and why she turns away from unhealthy meals.
"Going to the gym is like going to work," Carter says. Her paycheck is fitness.
Carter knows a lot about work.
She wakes up at 3:15 a.m. to get in a workout on her stationary bike before going to Volvo GM where she bolts down seats in truck cabs on an assembly line. Her job involves a lot of bending and moving up and down.
"I don't let myself slow down," she says. "When I get home from work, I go straight to the gym. I can't stop and think, because then I just want to sit down on the couch for a moment and I stay there."
You have to be confident to pose in front of an audience, Carter says. And she is.
Carter, who turns 34 in June, won her first bodybuilding show back in 1992.
She's placed in every competition she has entered, both in bodybuilding and in "dead lifting."
She will compete for the Amateur Athletic Union championship in November.
After that, she says, she plans to become a personal trainer.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Johnna Carter will flew and pose as part of the Newby CNBRiver Classic.