Former Cougar softball player Jessica Pexton now into figure building

                Jessica Pexton has turned throwing fast balls into a different form of competition called body-building.

Pexton, who played softball at Western Nebraska Community College in 2007 and 2008, never thought she would be involved in the competitive world of bodybuilding. But things took a different turn at the University of Northern Colorado and later at a massage school in Arizona.

                “I never thought I would actually do it,” she said. “I started working out a lot more in my junior year of college and once I graduated from college I was a personal trainer for a year and met quite a few people in the gym who did competitions. I love working out and competing and the competitions sounded interesting, so I figured I would give it a try.”

                Her first competition was on March 10 in Mesa, Ariz., at the NPC Natural Western Open. The show featured divisions ranging from men’s and women’s body building to Men’s Physique and women’s figure, and included a wide range of ages from teens to older adults. Pexton competed in the Figure division and finished fifth in Figure Class E.

                “Figure is a more softer and feminine look than body building,” she said. “Body building focuses more on mass and definition; whereas figure is more about definition.”

                Pexton said each division is separated into classes based on height. Pexton, who stands at 5-foot-8, said competition is fierce.

                “Each figure class goes on stage and executes four quarter turns, in which you do four different poses while flexing your muscles and a modified or ‘relaxed’ pose in front of the judges,” she said.

                Pexton’s first love was softball while playing in Douglas, Wyo., which led her to earning a scholarship to play for Maria Winn-Ratliff at WNCC. After that, she graduated from the University of Northern Colorado, before getting certified in massage therapy in Arizona.

                Pexton said while softball and body building -- or figure building -- seem to be different, there still is that individual and team environment involved.

                “Softball is obviously a team sport where everyone's individual performance will come together to determine the success of the team,” she said. “In a figure competition you are the only one who can control your own success and what the end result will be. However, you do have a lot of support from the other competitors and trainers from the gym, so you still have the team-like environment, which I love.”

Pexton said the hardest part of staying fit is not working out, but eating healthy. She added that she does weight lifting three times a week and cardio training five times a week.

“The hardest part of training is the diet,” she said. “The exercise combined with a strict diet gives you the lean, hard physique.”

A typical weight training excursion is carefully planned out.

“Each weight training workout is divided into targeting specific muscle groups and then doing three exercises for each muscle group,” she said. “For example, Monday's are back and shoulders, so we would do 3 back exercises and 3 shoulder exercises.”

Pexton, who is planning on moving back to Douglas, Wyo., and doing massage, reflexology and cranial in April, has plans of continuing competing in Figure. She is hoping to do another competition in November 2012.

For now, she will continue to make those weekly, or daily trips, to the gym in her new sport.