Building muscle and tearing down the competition: Ansbach Army spouse racks up fitness wins

ANSBACH, Germany (Dec. 17, 2014) -- When Ginna Cortese entered her first fitness competition in October, her only goal was to make weight and step out onto the stage to compete in the newcomers division.

Instead, she won.

Cortese, a 52-year-old Army spouse, mother of two and grandmother of six, has racked up a string of successes since she started competing in fitness events. In late November, she qualified for and placed at the national level, having consistently defeated women 20 to 25 years younger in the physique category since her debut.

After her very first win in October, event officials allowed her to compete again that same day -- this time against a group of experienced competitors.

She won again.

It was only six months earlier that Cortese seriously considered competing when a personal trainer at Katterbach, Maurice Hamler, recommended that she give competition a shot.

"Maurice looked at me and says, 'You've got what it takes.' And I don't see it," she said. "He saw it in me. My husband's always seen it in me, and even my children have seen it in me. They say, 'Yeah, you can do this.' And I'm like, 'No, I can't do this.'"

After further encouragement from friends and family, she committed to trying her first competition.

Ginna's husband, 1st Sgt. Martin Cortese of the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade's Headquarters and Headquarters Company, was and still is her chief supporter. Neither Ginna nor Martin is a stranger to fitness.

"I love to run, and I've always lifted weights," Ginna said. "I've been doing this since high school -- just regular exercise and staying fit. It's our lifestyle. We eat right. We eat healthy."

Ginna said she and Martin keep fit and healthy also to set an example for their children and grandchildren. Martin has even been known to issue household challenges. When Ginna noticed her son William had been consuming too much soda, Martin challenged him to see how long they could go without soda. William made it a year and a half without it, beat everyone in the house and lost weight in the process.

Ginna's health and exercise habits shifted into high gear when she and Martin arrived to Illesheim and, for the first time since becoming an Army spouse, Ginna was unable to find a job as a respiratory therapist.

"I just thought, 'Well, I'll just sink myself into really working out,'" said Ginna. "Any time he's ever been deployed, that was my way to relieve stress -- was to go to the gym and work out. So, when we got here, I started working out a lot -- a whole lot."

But it wasn't until she made the decision to compete that she overhauled her fitness regimen.

With some expert advice and guidance from Hamler, Ginna supercharged her workouts and changed them up every five weeks. She also changed her diet, ate six times a day and drank six liters of water a day.

Next, Ginna attended a competition as a spectator.

"I went to see what it was all about and to see if I would have the nerve to do it, and I thought it was really fascinating," Ginna said. "I really thought, 'OK, I could probably do this.' So, really, I just dedicated myself."

Ginna worked out at the gym for two hours a day, lifting weights and running on the treadmill. As the competition drew nearer, she added an afternoon session. Soon after, Ginna narrowed her focus on achieving and maintaining the ideal competition height-weight ratio by even more tightly regulating her food and water intake.

During the last two to three days before an event, a competitor like Ginna may look as strong as ever, but both Martin and Ginna say this is a misconception held by those outside fitness competition circles.

"I'm weak," Ginna said. "I am just so drained. He was helping me get my shoes on right before the competition. I was so exhausted."

"To make weight," Martin explained, "you want to get rid of all your water weight so that your muscles show better. You're not at your healthiest. You're usually at your weakest. People say, 'You look great,' but you're really at your weakest point."

"So, I got there and I made weight, and I was just really excited that I made weight," Ginna said. "So then it was just a matter of getting on stage."

Eating right and getting in shape, it turns out, is only part of this type of competition. While Hamler guided Ginna through her diet and workouts, fitness trainer and R.I.P.P.E.D. instructor Alcine Gross helped Ginna develop and practice her fitness routine.

Ginna said preparing for her on-stage routine was one of her biggest challenges.

"I've done lifting competitions when we were in Alabama, but I've never done a physique competition because I'm really modest," she said. "Getting on stage is like, 'Not me, not me. I can't do that.' I told my husband about it, and he was like, 'Yeah, you could do that,' because he's so supportive.

"I figured nobody knows me, so I could mess up and it's OK," Ginna continued. "I had the nerve to do it. I had the guts to do it. So, I went out there, and I won. And I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it because I have been competing against women who have done this before."

But that isn't the end of the story. Because she won in October, event organizers invited her to a second show in November.

"I thought now, 'I've already won, so now I don't want to just make weight; now I want to place,'" Ginna said. "I'm making little goals. Now I really want to place. That's the goal. So, I did my second competition, and not only did I place, I won. And I said, 'Whoa! This is unbelievable.' I don't see myself that way. I just don't, so I was floored."

Ginna did not know until organizers later told her, but this win qualified her for the German national competition scheduled for Nov. 29. At this point her goal was to place in the Top 6.

Once again, she exceeded her own expectations, placing fifth out of 12 in her group.

One problem Ginna needed to overcome during that event -- as with the other competitions -- was the language barrier.

"I don't speak any German at all, so fortunately there were some really nice people that spoke German and English out there in the audience. They were other competitors. They were very nice to me."

Audience members and competitors in other divisions would shout out in English what the judges were asking her to do, including individual poses, as needed.

"It's overwhelming how nice they are," Ginna said. "Now, once you get to the stage, it's show time. It's game on. It's me against you. But behind the scenes, you'd be surprised at just how nice everybody is. It's incredible."

Martin said since Ginna started training in earnest for the competitions, he could not help benefit in his own health and fitness. Half-jokingly Martin calls it "contact fitness."

"There are no snacks in our house," Martin said. "We have rice, chicken, broccoli and asparagus. We eat that all the time. I've learned to like it now. I've lost about 10 to 12 pounds since we started. Now I don't even want to eat unhealthy food. I'm feeling better."

Although Martin attributes Ginna's success to her hard work and talent, Ginna said she "couldn't have done it without him."

Through encouragement and coaching, as well as using his Army medic expertise to monitor any health risks during training, Martin offered his support from the beginning, Ginna said.

"He looks at all the poses and knows which ones are my best poses, which ones I need to work on, and he's really good at fine-tuning me," she said.

"If I didn't have support from him, there's no way I could have done it," she added. "As long as I had him right by my side, I was OK. And he always told me from day one that he's proud of me no matter what, so it doesn't matter."

Ginna said she's excited to continue her competition journey into the new year. In the meantime, she's on the lookout for a photo of herself in an upcoming issue of Flex Magazine after her performance in the national competition, and she continues to train for the next event.

"The schedule hasn't come out, but I'm going to do it again," Ginna said. "Now that I know this is something that I can do and I can do well, my next goal is not to be in the top six, but to be in the top three, which means I have to be better."