PNBA Natural Bodybuilder Kayla Rowling: How To Decide Between Flexible Dieting & A Strict Meal Plan
PNBA Pro Bikini Diva competitor Kayla Rowling on why she chooses natural bodybuilding and how she handles diet plan.
On June 25, 2022 – the INBA/PNBA World Championships is being held in Florence, Italy. It’s one of the larger competitions in the natural bodybuilding league giving amateurs a chance to go pro and also pro athletes a chance to qualify for the Natural Olympia later this year. Pro Bikini Diva competitor Kayla Rowling is one such athlete looking to earn qualification. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Kayla Rowling explains her strict diet plan as she preps for the World Championships.
In just under two weeks, Kayla Rowling will be competing against some of the best in the world for qualification to the Natural Olympia. That’s why we connected via video call to check in on Rowling’s contest prep and look back at her bodybuilding origins and why she chose to go all-natural.
Kayla Rowling started competing in 2018 – but her fitness journey came much sooner. With an initial interest in cheerleading – she would work with a trainer to help improve her routines. She clearly had talent and so her trainer suggested she consider competitive bodybuilding in the Bikini division. Rowling was initially unsure – but she decided to check out a show. Her first thought – she could do this and she could do it better than many she was seeing on stage.
This started Kayla Rowling’s journey into bodybuilding. She went through many trainers to find the perfect one – and eventually landed in the INBA/PNBA natural bodybuilding league. She now looks towards the World Championships in Florence, Italy to push towards qualifying and hopefully winning the Natural Olympia.
Why Kayla Rowling Chose Natural Bodybuilding
But how did Kayla Rowling end up choosing the all-natural tested league path? There are many untested leagues, such as the IFBB, that bring in immense popularity. For Rowling, it was about the longevity of her career and her health.
“I really value longevity. And i could just see myself becoming obsessed but not in a good way if I were to take any enhancements. Because I know that’s not sustainable long term. And I personally don’t want to look like that all of the time.”
Beyond longevity – Kayla brings up an interesting point. As an athlete, she has a competition in her to succeed. She understands enough about her own competitive nature to realize that an untested league would lead her to pushing PEDs too far in order to be on top.
This, of course, matches current discourse in the larger bodybuilding conversation regarding recent untimely deaths in the sport. Many on the inside of the sport are claiming that the doses and power of PEDs are becoming stronger – and that young athletes are taking more PEDs than ever before. Kayla Rowling avoided this issue all together by focusing on a tested league to keep her own ambitions in check.
Strict Dieting vs Flexible Dieting
Kayla Rowling also goes into detail about her diet plan mentality and how she works with her coach to improve year after year. For Rowling, she focuses on an extremely strict daily diet that only changes to accommodate for optimizations to her physique. Essentially, Rowling relies 100% on her coach to give her a meal plan and she sticks to it without deviation. Her meals are rather repetitive. But much like Jay Cutler, she prefers to focus on the results rather than the joy of eating food.
This is in stark contrast to another approach that Rowling calls flexible dieting. In this method, a bodybuilder would focus on always ensuring they hit their macros – but mixing up their meal within those limits. This helps make eating less repetitive. For some, taking the variety out of food makes it harder to stick to a diet. So flexible dieting helps stay on point.
Kayla Rowling, on the other hand, can’t allow herself to be flexible. She prefers regimented meals like military drills. This is what works for her – and she thinks the biggest struggle for new Bikini Diva athletes is figuring out which style of dieting works best for success on a personal basis.
Wrap Up
Kayla Rowling goes into much more detail about he bodybuilding origins, her training and diet routines, and her life as a natural competitor. You can watch her full interview in our GI Exclusive above. You can also make sure to catch our coverage of the INBA/PNBA World Championships on June 25th, 2022. Stay tuned!
