A Hawke’s Bay policing couple is making waves on the world natural bodybuilding stage.

Constables Shane Gordon and Michelle Hellyer recently returned from the World Natural Bodybuilding Champs in Canberra.

Competing professionally for the first time, Michelle took out the Pro Miss Figure world title and Shane came fourth in the Pro Men’s physique category.

It’s been an impressive rise to the top for Michelle taking the regional and national champion titles and gaining her professional card before heading to Canberra.

We were first introduced to the pair a year ago, when they spoke about their love of natural bodybuilding and goals for the future.

Now they are crushing those goals and planning on taking a couple of years off competing to build bulk before hitting the world stage – bigger, better and stronger.

Shane, pictured right competing in the Champs, says natural body building is all about diet and intense training and involves a lot of work to build muscle and bulk.

“We will have more freedom during the two-year break, but it is also a deliberate growth phase," he says.

"We’ll continue to work with a nutrition coach and personal trainer with the aim of competing multiple times internationally in the future."

Michelle says while the training and sacrifices they make to compete at an elite level are tough, she really enjoys it.

“Show day is just the icing on the cake. If you can’t enjoy the process and the sacrifices you make then it’s not worth doing."

The pair trained for seven months before competing in Canberra, all the while continuing their day jobs. Michelle is a PST Constable and recently completed her PA, while Shane has been part of a tactical dog team.

Michelle took a month off work prior to the world event in Canberra, and Shane took three weeks.

They say those final weeks before a competition are tough with extremely restricted diets and energy levels dropping.

My last set was four nights in a row and by the end of that I knew I was ready to be on leave and focus on getting to the competition,” says Shane.

With such a restrictive diet leading up to the event the pair need to follow a ‘reverse’ diet afterwards to get themselves back to normal eating and regulate their hormones.

But after looking forward to tucking into a good Christmas lunch they were back on track on Boxing Day ready to crush their new goals.

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