Taking The Helm

After a devastating car accident, Geri Helm used fitness to steer her life back on course.

- Jill Schildhouse

Geri Helm was always involved in sports, and while she never struggled with weight, she did struggle with her body composition: Helm spent a lot of time at the gym doing cardio but noticed that she never really looked any different. She decided to subscribe to Oxygen magazine and began lifting weights — and the changes began to come. “That fueled my passion for competing, which I began doing at age 42,” she says. “Although I didnt’t really have a clue what I was doing, I fell in love with the sport, the way I looked, the way people looked at me and the way it made me feel, inside and out.”

Her competitive career was off to a great start — she won the Idaho Muscle Classic masters and tall figure class in 2012 and placed top five in almost every show she entered. The sky, it seemed, was the limit.

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