Iron Maiden – Anna Victoria

Anna Victoria – The Shredder, Toner, and Sculptor

Anna Victoria is everything you could ever ask for in a female fitness athlete plus much more. Her 1.2 million followers on Instagram are proof of her popularity and establishes her as an online fitness celebrity.

Victoria grew up in a small town in Southern California. She didn’t start as a fitness enthusiast and remembers cringing at people who spent hours working out and prepping meals.

Through her teen years, Anna was eating microwavable, packaged, processed, and fast food. Her bad eating habits led to a series of health problems, and she ended up in an emergency room at one point.

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INSTA VS REALITY ? can I be honest with you guys? My favorite part of what I do is all the work that goes on *behind the scenes*. I love taking pictures and filming workout videos for you all (especially workout videos!! ?) but I loooove strategizing, planning, creating a product, a service, and helping customers. . You guys would think I’m crazy if you knew how much I LOVE customer service ? I worked in customer service (in corporate jobs) from 16-23 years old, and I LOVED it. I got genuine joy out of helping people, even if it was through re-stocking the shelves at the my first job at 16 years old so people could easily find the products they need (you guys I have issues ??) . But this is why I LOVE what I do now – helping you girls!! Every day I get to go to work and brainstorm, create and implement ideas that will better help you on your journey and help you connect with the community. I haven’t talked much about the business side of everything I do, and if you would like me to talk about it more, I will! While I love sharing fitness tips and workout videos, I’m just as passionate about encouraging women to go into business, entrepreneurship, and continue breaking glass ceilings. . You girls know I rarely do collabs, and that’s because I want when I do a collab, I want you to know I really believe in it. Soooo I’m excited to share about my collab with @WeWork! ? Moving my office into a WeWork has been a huge game changer for my team, our productivity (ahem except for the Root Beer floats and Mimosas ??) and to be able to connect with other #girlbosses. . If you’re interested in checking a WeWork office out, head to the link below for more info ? So what about you girls? Where do you work? Remote / At home / In an office? Comment below and let me know ? #thefutureisfemale #fbggirls www.we.co/anna

A post shared by Anna Victoria (@annavictoria) on Jun 11, 2019 at 5:55pm PDT

Her unhealthy lifestyle came to an end when she met Luca (now her husband). Luca encouraged Anna to start her transformation, and she heeded to his advice after realizing how eating healthy food was changing her body for the better.

Beginning Of The Fit Lifestyle

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You’re stronger than you think. Coming from someone who used to strongly dislike not only fitness, but the fitness industry entirely. Growing up, it seemed like it was all pure vanity, and that people acted like they were better than you if they worked out and ate healthy and you didn’t. I felt like it wasn’t a very welcoming place and I got a very “you can’t sit with us vibe”. . Fast forward a few years when I started having health problems and I needed to start taking care of my body, otherwise my health problems would become chronic and irreversible. And within a few months of my fitness journey I realized all those years I was wrong – fitness is about so much more than vanity. It’s about feeling empowered and strong not only physically, but mentally, emotionally, and about taking care of your health preventatively. . This journey often times starts purely physical for most, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I will help you get your dream bod if you let me! ?? But you have to be willing to step outside your comfort zone and get comfortable with being uncomfortable. There’s a certain level of awareness required to be successful on this journey so you can call yourself out on your own BS and realize when you can do better, and then do it, no questions asked. I will help you with all those things but I also want to help you focus on the mental and emotional side too because that’s largely what will pull you through when times get tough. And that’s what FBG is about ? . Usually the only promo I run all year is Black Friday, but I decided to do a semi-annual Black Friday type sale ? Use promocode BACKONTRACK to get up to a total of 50% off the @fitbodyapp for life and join the #fbgcommunity! . Promo available through the link in my bio only and you can enter the code at checkout ? Remember, you’re stronger than you think and you CAN do this!! And myself and all the other #fbggirls will be there to cheer you on every step of the way! www.annavictoria.com/fitbodyapp

A post shared by Anna Victoria (@annavictoria) on Apr 18, 2019 at 9:08am PDT

It was in 2012 that Anna decided to start her fitness journey after moving to China for studies. She made the most of her free time in college by researching about health and fitness.

Anna started a fitness Instagram account to keep herself accountable where she started sharing inspirational quotes and her transformation pictures. “I pretty much threw myself into my fitness journey,” she said.

Soon after starting her fitness journey, Victoria realized that her biggest struggles were always psychological. Off the many things, she had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that she needed to hone in on her calories and macros.

With Knowledge Comes Power

Anna finally decided to look into the diet (calorie and macros-counting) part of fitness after she briefly hit a plateau and wasn’t seeing the desired results. On scrutinizing her diet, Victoria realized that her fat intake was too high, and her carb consumption too low. Fixing these two problems had a big positive impact on her muscular development.

Anna had to find a balance between cross-training and lifting weights to help reach an optimal fitness level. She regularly shares her workouts on her Instagram so that her followers can get the same results as her.

After going through the ups and downs in her transformation, Anna wants people to realize that no fitness journey is linear. She urges her followers to focus on their progress and work equally on their minds and body.

The Dream Girl Next Door

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Let’s talk ABS ‼️ and what you need to do to get abs and SEE those abs. . Commonly asked question: Do you need to do ab exercises in order to get abs? The answer is no. You don’t NEED to do traditional ab focused workouts in order to get abs. If you know how to engage and use your core/abs properly during your strength workouts, you can build abs just by using and engaging your core during strength based moves alone . Aside from that, no matter how many traditional OR non-traditional ab workouts you do, whether you can see them or not depends on a few things. First is: genetics!! Do you have a naturally lean tummy? If so, A. Lucky you ? and B. you probably don’t need to do as much cardio in order to reveal those abs and you just need to focus on building core strength. (And eat properly to assist in building that muscle) . If you DON’T have a naturally lean tummy (like me) then that saying “abs are built in the gym and revealed in the kitchen” applies to you. Bummer, I know!! And in our case, often times belly fat is the last to go and the first to come back. It is what it is! ?‍♀️ The more you fight against it, the more you push back reaching your goals. So focusing on strength workouts, properly engaging your core, doing cardio (not more than strength training though) AND keeping your meals/macros in check is what needs to be at the top of your (fitness) priority list. . While as you girls know, I do not believe abs are everything, not one bit. But there also isn’t anything wrong with having physical goals *as long as you aren’t putting your mental and emotional health on the back burner* in order to achieve those goals. . This is just the surface of this week’s #fbgbodylove newsletter topic! I will be doing an insta live tomorrow at 8:30am PST to go over strengthening your core and more. Comment any questions you have on this topic below so I can answer them, and I’ll chat with you girls tomorrow morning!! ☺️? #fitbodyapp www.annavictoria.com/fitbodyapp

A post shared by Anna Victoria (@annavictoria) on Aug 12, 2018 at 7:48pm PDT

Anna has one of the most picturesque Instagram profiles. Her photos range from gym photos, workout videos, beautiful landscapes to her in her bridal gown. We need to mention that she rocks each photo like a boss.

Victoria has a fitness app and is widely known for her killer fit body guide workouts and pretty smoothie bowls. We wish Anna the best for her future endeavors and are sure she’s up for some great things.

Who is your gym crush? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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*Header image courtesy of Instagram