Elizabeth Smart has revealed her secret years-long bodybuilding transformation. The survivor advocate shared her fitness journey after winning the NPC Wasatch Warrior contest.

In the age of quick validation through social media, Smart chose to spend years quietly doing something that most people had no clue about. Long before getting into shape and posting the photo for her competition, she had a lot of discipline and planning backing her.

She woke up early, followed a strict diet and meal plan, and she put in five to six days a week of training.

Now, her fitness coach has shed light on what went into the transformation.

Robyn Maher, Smart's trainer, spoke to Extra and shared some insights on her regimen. "She followed a plan … a healthy meal plan all this time," Maher said. "And then … weight training most days of the week. So typically, five to six days a week focus on specific muscle groups."

The training structure is pretty usual for physique competitors at the National Physique Committee level. One has to go through split training that isolates muscle groups and is combined with a proper nutrition protocol.

Smart, 38, entered her first competition under her married name, Elizabeth Gilmour, a deliberate choice. "She wasn't looking for any attention. Just wanted to do it for herself and set that goal," Maher explained.

That first competition became four. According to Maher, Smart caught the competitive bug quickly. "She made great progress with her physique, and she kind of caught the bug a little bit," the coach said. "She said, 'I think I want to do this again, like, I've seen what I've accomplished. I feel stronger.'"

She recently finished first in the NPC Wasatch Warrior contest.

NPC bodybuilding contests measure muscle development, muscle symmetry, and condition. Getting first place in an NPC category means something – it's a consequence of months of training and preparation, not weeks.

Elizabeth Smart Is Just Getting Started

Elizabeth Smart decided to compete quietly for reasons any other woman would face when she decides to change her life. Smart went public on Tuesday. She shared a picture where she wore a navy bikini and clear heels from her fourth competition.

She had been scared, she wrote, of being "judged, not taken seriously, somehow perceived as less than or now unworthy to continue work as an advocate for all survivors." Then she connected those fears to something bigger: "This past weekend it struck me how eerily familiar these feelings and thoughts are for too many survivors."

Smart was abducted from her Salt Lake City home in 2002 at the age of 14. After her rescue nine months later, she became one of the country's most prominent advocates for survivors of sexual violence, founding the Elizabeth Smart Foundation in 2011.

Now with four competitions under her belt and a first-place trophy on the shelf, is a fifth just a matter of time?

Read more at Body Building Bros.

Written by

Proma Chatterjee

Edited by

Ashvinkumar Patil