Gallery of Marja Kalvala

As a young girl I swam some years in competition level and succeeded quite well. I tried gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and ballet. I became interested in bodybuilding at the age of 15 years. I trained 3 years with inconstant motivation and took part on my first bodybuilding competition, Finnish National Junior Championships in lightweight division, which I won. But I was bored of training and dieting and just wanted to live normal, social life. So next 8 years I trained very unregularly. After living 3 years in Spain I returned to Finland in autumn 1993 and tried training again. It felt good and development was fast. In autumn 1994 after ten months training under my belt I decided to do a come back. After that I have competed every autumn.

My competition placings:

1984 Finnish National Junior Championships; 1st in lightweight division.
1994 Finnish National Novice Championships; 4th.
1994 Finnish National Championships; 4th in middleweight division.
1995 Finnish National Championships Qualifier; 1st.
1995 Finnish National Championships; 5th in heavyweight division.
1996 Finnish National Championships Qualifier; 1st.
1996 Finnish National Championships; 1st in middleweight division.
1997 World Championships National Qualifier; 1st.
1997 World Championships 6th in heavyweight division.
1997 Finnish National Championships; 3rd in heavyweight division.
1998 World Championships National Qualifier; 1st.
1998 World Championships 9th in heavyweight division.
1998 Finnish National Championships; 2nd in heavyweight division.

I listen to my body carefully in my training. I try to vary movements and length of sets in almost every training session. I don't do power training but try to keep my reps over range of 6 per set. I use quite lot of drop sets, forced reps and other special techniques to raise my training intensity. Thanks to my sensible training system, I have avoided injuries and training pauses. During offseason I usually train whole body once a week divided to 4 - 5 sessions. Calves and stomach I may train twice a week. I try to include 2 - 3 20 - 45 minute aerobic sessions to my training week year around. Upcoming competitions of course raise my aerobic activity. The longer you have trained the more important the nutrition is. That's why I read a lot about nutrition.

This Gallery is dedicated to the very beautiful and great looking MARJA KALVALA from Finland!