Guardsman is a champion bodybuilder

Staff Sgt. Diane Singh

Staff Sgt. Diane Singh added another bodybuilding award to her collection April 3 by winning her category at the National Physique Committee’s Last Frontier State Fitness, Figure and Bodybuilding Championships in Anchorage, Alaska.

The Alaska Army National Guard soldier will next compete in the Emerald Cup April 16 in Seattle, the sixth largest bodybuilding competition in the world and the largest in the United States. There she will face more than 200 females in the figure category, which focuses more on muscle tone and symmetry instead of the muscle building itself.

When she’s not sculpting her muscles, Singh is a non-commissioned officer in the Alaska Guard’s Drug Demand Reduction Program, which helps educate the public on the hazards of illegal drugs and alcohol.

Singh trained for a year for the Last Frontier competition.

“Serving in the Alaska National Guard gave me an advantage because as a Guardsman I need to be in good physical condition, and that helped when I started lifting weights,” she said. “I feel like I’m showing people that soldiers have discipline, practice good health and are physically fit.”

To prepare for the competition, Singh worked out six times a week and planned ahead all her meals.

Her last two bodybuilding awards were also for the figure category – the National Physique Committee Crystal Cup 2009 and Alaska’s Bodybuilding Fitness and Figure 21st Annual Pro AM Natural.

Singh is “always very motivated to work hard, so with her carrying it over to the bodybuilding world, it puts the National Guard in a very positive light,” said Chief Master Sgt. Charles E. Sears, administrator of the Drug Demand Reduction Program. “All of us in the office support her and think that she is doing something great.”