Dona Oliviera

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Dona Oliviera is a former professional female bodybuilder from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

1 Biography
2 Bodybuilding philosophy
3 Contest history
4 Reference
5 External link

[edit] Biography

Like many other women, Dona first started exercising to get in better shape. At a young age she joined a Nautilus gym and trained for twenty minutes, three times a week as she had been told. At the time she has no desire to develop the type of bodies of the female bodybuilders of her time or even compete. Dona felt that the well developed physiques of female bodybuilders were "too much". But Oliviera soon became frustrated with her exercise routines; she enjoyed the little pump she got from her training, but was disappointed with the minimal change she saw in her physique. This soon changed when Dona got a look at some bodybuilding magazines and was able to see top women bodybuilders such as Rachel McLish and Mary Roberts. While she had no intentions of training for competition purposes, Oliviera knew that she wanted more of the shape and muscle tone she saw on the photos of those magazines.

Dona began training with a powerlifter friend in his basement gym and soon saw results. Her friend also set a goal for her to compete in a local bodybuilding contest. Four months later after started training with heavy weights, Oliviera entered her first bodybuilding show and placed second. The following year she won several shows and switched to the NPC with the advise of some friends. She continued to win shows and quickly became a pro within two years. Among some her highest achievements in the sport in terms of competition: Dona won the 1984 East Coast Championships, the 1985 NPC USA Championship, and NPC World Games, the 1988 IFBB Pro World Championships, and placed 6th at the IFBB Ms. Olympia on the same year (originally she placed 7th, but received a 6th place after Tonya Knight was disqualified for lying about using Diuretics for her competition prep for the Olympia.

[edit] Bodybuilding philosophy

Oliviera's training consisted of simple compound movements with mostly free weights with few cable and machine exercises. She focused on using a combination of powerlifting exercises such as squats, bench presses, deadlifts with a lot of bodybuilding exercises such as shoulder presses, laterals raises, dumbell flyes, and barbell rows. During her competitive days she typically trained on a three day split routine (three days on, one day off) during the off-season, training up to three bodyparts per training session. During the contest season she would switch to a four day split routine (four days on, one day off) to focus on her weak points; during the contest season she would train one or two bodyparts. Dona was a strong believer in the idea that the psychological aspect of bodybuilding was just as important as the physical aspect of it and felt that goal setting was important to develop her physique.