Trying to Get a Leg Up on the Competition

Armed with plenty of exercise tips from her trainer, a Yorba Linda 15-year-old hopes her physique stands out in Miss Teen USA contest.

Jolene Felkner of Yorba Linda is a natural-born beauty. But so are all the other contestants in the Miss Teen USA competition. So what can she do to stand out in the crowd?

Leg lifts, squats, lunges, hip raises and abdominal crunches, among other exercises “about a million a day,” says the 15-year-old Miss Teen California-USA. Well, maybe not quite that many. But sometimes it seems that way to Felkner, who is following the advice of her personal trainer as she competes this week in Mobile, Ala., for the national title and a $200,000 prize package.

The beauty-pageant version of the ideal body is changing, according to Cliff Wasserbach of Laguna Niguel-based Custom Fitness, who is the official trainer for the Miss California-USA, Miss Teen California-USA and Mrs. California-USA pageants.

“Until the last few years, pageant winners have been very anorexic-looking,” Wasserbach says. “But now, the girls that are so skinny are not doing as well, because the general public has finally begun to realize that it just isn’t healthy. Now it’s important to look fit and in shape, firm, but not too muscular.”

Although they may look flawless from a distance or on television when they walk down the runway, Wasserbach says that “not all beauty contestants are in perfect shape. There are a lot who, like the rest of us, need to lose some weight and tone up.”

Felkner, who has been competing since she was 6 and was only 14 when she won the state pageant, isn’t exactly out of shape.

“For her, it’s more of a fine-tuning type of program,” Wasserbach says. “The judges are quite naturally very picky, and this is where they start telling people apart.”

Only a few of the contestants have personal trainers, and even those who do can’t bring them along for the 12 hectic days leading to the pageant itself on Friday. So before Felkner left Aug. 4 for Alabama, Wasserbach taught her a series of exercises to repeat in her hotel room during whatever spare time she can find. They both understand that may be no more than a few minutes at a time, but Wasserbach says every little bit helps.

Felkner must also deal with space restrictions. She’s sharing a hotel room with one of the other 51 contestants, which doesn’t allow room for working out with an aerobics videotape or other more traditional methods, so Wasserbach made sure that each of the exercises he recommended could be done without much moving around. For some exercises, such as squats, he suggests that Felkner hold on to a counter or sink top for balance, but for others, all she needs is room to lie down on the floor.

Some of Wasserbach’s clients work out at gyms, but many of them do their exercises at home, in the office or wherever they happen to be, using readily available materials. Books, for example, can serve as free weights.

That method often works better, he says, because they don’t have to get up and go somewhere to work out. Like Felkner, they can exercise a few minutes at a time if necessary.

With Felkner, Wasserbach is emphasizing the parts of the body that will be scrutinized most closely in the swimsuit competition.

“Most girls tend to work out the front of their bodies,” he explained, “but the judges are going to be looking at your backside.” Most of her exercises focus on the hips, thighs and buttocks.

Since she’s only 15 and most of the other state winners are 17 or 18, she says she plans to use a tried-and-true method of looking shapelier.

“A lot of contestants stuff their swimsuits,” she says. “I really don’t have much choice.”

Wasserbach is also advising Felkner about her diet.

“I never used to worry about what I ate,” she says. “But now, I try to eat healthy. I look for decent food, not just grease. I haven’t had red meat in about four months. Sometimes it’s tough, when I’m out somewhere with my friends who can eat whatever they want. But they’re very sympathetic.”

Going out to eat with friends, she says, is one of the few times when being a beauty queen makes her feel different from her peers.

“I don’t wear the crown and banner to school, and I don’t really talk about it that much,” she says. “But my friends know about it. The other day, my friends made a point of going to a place that had salads so that I could stick to my diet.”

No matter how the pageant turns out, Wasserbach says he hopes he’s giving Felkner “tools she can use for the rest of her life. That’s what’s most rewarding for me, when someone I worked with several years ago calls me up and says, ‘You know what you taught me way back when? I’m still doing it every day, and I feel great.’ ”