January 2006
Story By Mike Bogen
First, you need to talk about Kim Birtch’s face.
Sure, the body’s great. To be honest, all the bodies are great. And, if you’re a true aficionado, each is great in it’s own unique way.
But the faces … the faces also vary like … well, like faces.
Birtch has got that young face … a kid’s face, really; the face that sends you into a “huh?” when you first find out that she’s been a working nurse for eight years.
The face works. It’s so pleasant, so welcoming. It disarms you, makes you forget Birtch is a 29-year-old woman, someone who has lived.
Of course, Birtch’s outlook just might make a difference, too. Her outlook very well could explain the youthful exuberance of her face. Birtch’s emphasis of the positive is positively noteworthy.
“I was a cheerleader,” Birtch says.
Because Birtch’s outlook unquestionably comes from the inside, and not from a short skirt and pom-poms, it is a statement that really explains very little. What it does, though, is begin us on her journey.
Kim Birtch grew up in Brockville, Ont., a half-hour away from the United States border at Watertown, N.Y.. She cheered competitively in high school, as well as on the sidelines at the athletic events of her peers. She was, by her own admission, “pale, white and skinny.”
But, she had arms. And, some legs, too; from ice skating.
“I’ve always had a small waist, fairly decent sized arms and good sized legs,” Birtch says. I looked like an athlete when I was in high school. I used to get comments on my arms, and I has the nickname, ‘Powerhouse,” on my cheerleading teams.”
So there is Kim Birtch, young, strong, and at 16 years old, being asked to flex her biceps for the crowd.
Again … “huh?”
“It was my coach’s idea,” Birtch recalls. “At one show we ended our routine with me doing a double bicep. Yeah, there was a little peak.”
Birtch first started lifting weights when she got to college. Between school and work, there was not time for things like cheering, and skating that had previously kept her in shape, and she wanted to stay in shape.
“I got into training with weights in college just to get fit again as I did not have much time for sports working almost a fulltime job and going to school fulltime for nursing. So my main focus was to get toned,” Birtch says.
“When I first started, I had a pretty put-together package already from my years as a cheerleader. Being a base and having to do most of the lifting of the girls, gave me great arms. As well as the figure skating for 8 yrs also had fairly muscular legs. Of course "good genes" are everything. The muscularity and symmetry came easy for me, it’s the conditioning aspect that has always been my main focus.”
Birtch graduated from St. Lawrence College with degrees in both Medical Laboratory Technician and Nursing, and after college, in 1999, went to an outside gym. She tried aerobics first there, and didn’t care for it. Then, a friend, bodybuilder Dave Champagne, re-introduced her to weight training. He also introduced Birtch to Rhonda Quaresma.
“The first time I went to the gym was mainly to get toned. My girlfriends were going and looked great and I wanted to do the same,” Birtch says. “I would buy fitness magazines and see women with abs, and said to myself I want to look like that "strong and powerful".
But it wasn’t all fun and games.
“I remember the first leg routines at that gym,” Birtch says. “I was in agony. I didn’t like training legs, and I still don’t to this day. But, beyond that, I loved lifting and got addicted pretty quickly.
“I have always loved physical activities, so that part of the discipline has been easy. Now as for the dieting part and having to be strict, that’s always been hard for me. I love to eat, and love to eat sweets, so to give that up for months on end is always a struggle.”
After meeting Quaresma, Birtch started seriously training for muscle in 2000.
“When I met, she had competed at the Jan Tana's and looked phenomenal. I wanted to do the same thing cause I loved the look of a muscular woman. When she started to train me for my show, I loved it, and after my first competition I was hooked. I loved the feeling of being on stage and showing off what I had worked so hard for over the year.
That first competition was the 2000 Eastern Ontario Bodybuilding Championships, a Level 1 Canadian show. Birtch, who had been a 120-pounder as a cheerleader, weighed in at 135, after 12 weeks of dieting.
“I looked like a fitness competitor,” she says. “I had good abs and good arms and my legs were in shape, but not really conditioned.”
Birtch, who had trained seriously for only four months, and dieted for 12 weeks, finished second in the heavyweight class.
That began the journey. Birtch scored her first victory -- heavyweight and overall -- in the 2002 Festival City Bodybuilding Championships, and that year repeated her runner-up finish at the Eastern Ontario.
In 2004, the 5-foot-4 Birtch showed by at the Ontario Provincial Bodybuilding Championships at 148 pounds of muscle, and took second heavyweight. The following year, she reached Level 4 competition -- the Canadian Nationals -- and was seventh heavyweight in her first attempt at that caliber of competition.
Birtch missed the 2006 Canadian Nationals because of a lower back injury, but plans on hitting that show in 2007.
“I’m really into heavy muscle, and I want to come into the Canadians totally different, because no one’s really seen my since 2005,” Birtch says. “Mostly, my focus is going to be on conditioning. I’d like to compete at 155-160 pounds.”
That size, by the way, would likely give Birtch, who has already stretched the tape to 16 ½ inches around her biceps, 16-inch arms in contest shape. She likes it.
“I never get tired of being asked to flex,” she says. “I bet I get asked once a week in my travels.”
And, Birtch is strong. She’s done six reps of bench presses with 225 pounds, five squats with 315, and four reps of bicep curls with 105 pounds.
For Birtch, the journey thus far has been extremely positive, from those who have influenced her, to those who have begun to follow her career.
“My influences have been my trainer from the beginning. She was the first muscular woman I ever saw in life. She has believed in me from Day 1, and has always pushed me to believe in myself,” Birtch says. “My mother always supported me in everything I do. She’s gone to every single one of my shows to cheer me on. She has even gone as far as cooking all my meals and grocery shopping, running errands in those last weeks out (from competition).
“There are more, friends and the girls I work with,” Birtch says. “I think everyone needs people supporting and encouraging them.”
Photo Gallery of Kim Birtch
