6 Pack Fitness Elite Athlete: Dana Linn Bailey, Pt. 2

The voice of Rob Bailey booms through the gym.

"C'mon! Catch your breath. Breathe."

Dana Linn Bailey is on the verge of collapse. Her quads shake and her lungs gasp for air. It's the final set of her Big Three workout and all she has left is 20 reps clean and press. "Pick that weight up. C'mon! Pick that weight up. You're almost done." This would be a stopping point for most - the point where many would just say, "Good enough." The phrase, "good enough," has never entered Dana's vocabulary. She lifts her head, focuses her eyes and reaches down for the weight. She braces herself for what's to come. Her last set is about to begin€¦ This ability to power through is what makes Dana Linn Bailey one of the most compelling and fascinating athletes in bodybuilding. Her commitment to elite performance is evident through her intense planning and preparation process. This is one of the many reasons why she is a 6 Pack Fitness Elite Athlete. How do you attack nutrition? It's all about consistency. You got to find out what works well for you. Some girls I know do better on really restricted carbs diets. Some girls do better on lower fat diets. For me, I love carbs. I eat carbs all day long, but everything else is very clean. I do more of a low-fat diet. All my meats are very clean. The only time I eat something high glycemic would be like post-workout. How does consistent dieting help your training? Staying consistent with your diet is what helps you throughout the year. That's what helped me create my body. Every year I get a little bit better and it makes my prep for shows easier. I don't have to prep very long. I usually need about 6-8 weeks to do prep instead of doing a 15-16 week prep like some people do. I couldn't do that. For many people, the lack of variety when eating clean can be boring. Dana constantly rotates through favorites like chicken, shrimp, vegetables, rice and a special recipe she developed herself, meat brownies. Yes, that's right. Meat brownies. Where did the idea for meat brownies come from? It's the dumbest, easiest thing you can make. It's just ground turkey. I do two pounds 99% and one pound of 93%, and I mush it all together with salsa and bake it in a brownie dish. Then I cut them into squares so they look like brownies. They're my favorite with some ketchup and brown rice. If you don't like what you're eating you're not going to stick to it. But I like what I'm eating and, so far, I'm sticking to it. What's your meal prep like? Some people get fancy with it, but not me. I don't have time to be fancy. I usually do it twice a week; Sunday night and then I redo it Wednesday or Thursday. On a good night, it'll take me about two hours to cook everything. I'll bake chicken on a tray with my meat brownies while I'm doing shrimp on the stove and steam all my vegetables. I'll decide what carbs I want to eat for the next couple of days. I'll make a whole bunch of brown rice or bake a whole bunch of sweet potatoes and cut them up. Really simple and easy. How does your 6 Pack Bag fit in? Organization is key in your life; if you're not organized there is no point. It's the only way to do the work and get the job done.

Thanks to her tireless work ethic and dedication to nutrition, Dana has made her ascension to superstar status look easy. Yet, the blood, sweat and tears shed in the gym and during meal prep with her 6 Pack Bag are daily reminders of the struggle behind this lifestyle. DLB can handle it, can you?

Every Monday in February, 6 Pack Fitness will be featuring a new blog on the life of Dana Linn Bailey. In the next installment, Dana Linn Bailey talks about her strenuous workout schedule, her biggest obstacles in the gym and the music that propels her through the day.