NO SWEAT : 48-Year-Old Body Builder Serves as Role Model, Inspiration for Youngsters to Keep Pace

When June Schneider entered her first body-building competition two years ago, she expected most of the competitors to be young. She didn’t, however, think they’d be younger than her children.

But even after seeing the juvenile, muscular bodies she was up against, she slipped into a postage-stamp bikini, covered the rest of her body with oil and mounted the stage of the Great Body America competition in Whittier.

“I had no business being there,” Schneider said, laughing. “I had been lifting for only six months and wasn’t prepared for it.”

She placed last among five competitors, but it didn’t discourage her. It only inspired her to spend more time in the gym pumping iron to get the sturdy, muscular physique she has today.

“I wondered how so many women could be in such good shape and I didn’t know about it,” Schneider said. “So I wanted to get it going.”

Big deal, you may say. There are a lot of fit bodies in Southern California, especially in Manhattan Beach where Schneider has lived most of her life.

She is not, however, your average beach blonde who paces the sand in a string bikini and draws howls and hollers.

Schneider could be the mother of most California girls and not just because she’s blonde and tanned. She is 48 but doesn’t look it and has three children ranging from 27 to 20.

The 5-foot-6 body builder has a gym in her home where she trains eight hours a week to maintain her figure, which has only 8% body fat.

The room is decorated with several trophies and exercise posters, including a color photo of her idol Corinna Everson, four-time Ms. Olympia.

The trophies are for a second place in the California Gold Cup in Huntington Beach for the novice division, the Muscle Classic in Anaheim and the California State Women’s Masters, which she swept in 1987.

The Masters was the first contest in which Schneider didn’t have to compete against 20-year-olds. She was still 13 years older than most opponents because it was a 35-and-older category.

Smiling, Schneider recalled one of her first competitions: “I was beaten by a 17-year old. She was the cutest thing. She still used braces.”

Schneider has a good attitude about her age. It doesn’t make her feel decrepit that she’s constantly surrounded by youth.

“I guess I am the oldest,” she said, laughing. “I think it’s neat. I chuckle about it.” She even thinks it’s funny when students in her weight-lifting and chemistry classes at Shery High, a continuation school in Torrance, tell her she’s ancient.

“One day they asked, ‘How old are you, Mrs. Schneider?’ And when I told them they said, ‘Wow! That’s old. That’s almost 50, Mrs. Schneider.’

“But they see I have muscle and that’s what they respect.”

Her students aren’t the only ones that look up to her. So does Management at King Harbor Sport Center in Redondo Beach.

The health club recently launched an advertising campaign that pictures Schneider flexing in her bikini. The ad reads: “It’s easy to look good in your 20s. But will you look this good in your 40s?”

It’s been effective, according to owner Maryann Carroll-Guthrie.

“She’s our star,” said Carroll-Guthrie. “She’s a mature woman with an excellent educational background in physiology, yet she’s a walking example of what exercise can do for you.”

Schneider, who attended UCLA to become a personal fitness trainer, is also the aerobic director at King Harbor Center and her advanced classes are popular.

“The best thing,” said Carroll-Guthrie, “is that she’s not a 21-year-old bouncy little-girl cheerleader type. Our members like that.”

Schneider played on the women’s beach volleyball circuit for almost 10 years in the ‘70s, was an avid runner and has won several amateur cycling titles. Schneider also coached high school and junior college volleyball for 20 years. Assignments included West Torrance High and West L. A. College.

“She’s always had a tremendous amount of energy,” said her husband, Bill, “and she has a tremendous amount of self-discipline and motivation.

“If you come to our house at night, I’m usually home alone having dinner with the dog.”

That’s because she is a personal fitness trainer, teaches four aerobic classes a week and volunteers to conduct workouts just about anywhere.

Last year she supervised a body-building contest and exercise class at the California Institution for Women, a maximum security prison in Frontera.

“Why not?” Schneider said. “It was a very interesting experience, especially when all the doors lock behind you and you know the hard-core women are in there.”

Schneider will try just about anything for the sake of exercise.

“I have only one life to live,” she said, “and I don’t want to be lying on a couch when I’m 55 saying, ‘God, I wish I would have lifted weights, entered a bike race or body-building contest.’ Then it’s too late.”