There\u2019s a strange irony in women\u2019s fitness.<\/p>\n
It may be the most complete division in the IFBB as far as strength, muscle, conditioning, choreography, stage presence, and athleticism go; it is the very embodiment of the fitness movement\u2014and yet it has always lived just slightly in the shadows of its more muscular, less athletic cousins. Unlike all the other divisions\u2014male and female\u2014fitness demands you not only look the part, but also prove it in motion\u2014extreme motion. It\u2019s not enough to stand there, hit some poses, and be more impressive than the person next to you. No. You have to fly. And that\u2019s exactly why Jen Hendershott belonged on the Olympia stage.<\/p>\n
Long before she was Ms. Olympia. Long before the Arnold titles. Long before the routines that made judges sit up like the front row of a Baptist revival. She was a cheerleader\u2014a cheerleader who went through high school and college, rose to the very top of the heap, reached the zenith of her competitive career at 22, and looked around and wondered, what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n All things usually come to an end, but desire doesn\u2019t know you\u2019ve reached the end of the road.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t ready to retire from cheerleading,\u201d Hendershott shares. \u201cThat\u2019s how I found fitness.\u201d<\/p>\n Hendershott had cheered at Ohio State. She had won state championships. She was teaching cheer all over the world. But competitively, there was nowhere to go. Then one day Mike Davies introduced her to a Fitness show.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018Yeah, I can do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n And the rest is history.<\/p>\n Her rise was quick, starting with her first amateur show in 1997 at the Mike Francois Classic in Columbus. She received her pro card in 1999 at the USA Championships in Santa Monica. Then cast into the pros, where the lionesses feed. Let\u2019s just say her success wasn\u2019t instant.<\/p>\n \u201cMy first Olympia was in 2000,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t win until 2005.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s five years of being close\u2014but not close enough.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re living in it, it defines you as a human. If I took sixth or eighth\u2026 I\u2019m eighth in the world, and I\u2019m upset? I\u2019m in the Super Bowl and I\u2019m mad?\u201d<\/p>\n Then come the critiques.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need bigger shoulders, bigger boobs, bigger this, bigger that\u2014and of course better condition,\u201d she says. \u201cEveryone looks amazing. No one is showing up fat.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s no telling fitness girls they have to come in harder or better conditioned. They\u2019re always shredded.<\/p>\n \u201cYou keep working. You climb from eighth to fourth to third. You feel momentum. But the competition is fierce. None of those ladies are competing to lose. No one shows up hoping to place.\u201d<\/p>\n But fitness has an added level of danger in the power of their routines. They not only have to showcase as conditioned and complete a physique as any other division, but in that incredibly starved and depleted state, they also have to perform what amounts to an Olympic-level gymnastics routine. That element of competition has claimed many a knee, hamstring, ankle, wrist, elbow\u2026 let\u2019s just say it leaves a wake of collateral damage.<\/p>\n Injuries?<\/p>\n \u201cNone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI believe I was born for Fitness.\u201d<\/p>\n As a little kid, Jen did ballet, tap, and jazz. She turned down professional ballet at 13 because she wanted to cheer. She learned early how to stretch, how to ice, how to take care of her body.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m loyal to my body,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s why I never pushed it past what it could handle.\u201d<\/p>\n She never used diuretics to sharpen her condition (because she knew they would weaken her structure\u2014dehydration radically increases the chance of cramps or actual damage to muscle, tendons, and connective tissue). She dieted hard\u2014900 to 1,200 calories a day at times, 40 to 60 grams of carbs\u2014but always stayed clean. You can consider Hendershott a regular egg whites and oatmeal kind of girl.<\/p>\n But even with such relentless discipline, why was there no hardware?<\/p>\n \u201cWhat am I doing wrong?\u201d she remembers thinking.<\/p>\n And then 2005 happened.<\/p>\n She won the Arnold. She won the Olympia\u2014back to back. An Ohio girl winning the Arnold in her home state. Talk about being on top of the world.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a dream to be Ms. O,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd to win the Arnold, being from Ohio \u2014 that meant everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Winning once is hard.<\/p>\n Winning again as the reigning champion? Harder.<\/p>\n \u201cTrying to win again as the champ was the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n But she never quit. She never walked away. Even in the wake of tragedy.<\/p>\n After winning the Arnold in 2005, Hendershott got pregnant.<\/p>\n It ended in a miscarriage\u2014on an airplane.<\/p>\n \u201cI almost bled to death,\u201d she says quietly. \u201cNot one flight attendant asked if I was okay. \u2018Do you want some water?\u2019 Nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n When the plane landed, she waited until everyone had deplaned before getting up and making her way out to her husband. She never made it public.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was private. It was devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n It might also have been galvanizing, because 10 weeks later she won the Olympia.<\/p>\n \u201cThat catapulted me into an attitude I never had before,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted to prove to myself and to the world that I\u2019m worthy. I\u2019m here. I can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2008 she won the Olympia again. In 2009 she won the Arnold. Then she retired.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was nothing left for me to win.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe Weider and Jim Manion created a platform\u2014whether they fully realized it or not\u2014that merged cheer, dance, and physique into something entirely new. A natural progression for girls who had been flipping, dancing, and performing since elementary school.<\/p>\n \u201cI literally fell into Fitness,\u201d Jen says. \u201cBut I know there are other girls out there like me who want to keep going. We just have to show them a way.\u201d<\/p>\n And what better way than the one Jen took? Why not bring cheer to the Olympia?<\/p>\n That is exactly what the Olympia approached her to do: bring cheerleading to bodybuilding\u2019s biggest stage. Host the first-ever cheer competition at the Olympia. Create a feeder system into women\u2019s Fitness.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they asked me, I said, \u2018Seriously?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The logic is undeniable. Cross-promote. Bring college cheerleaders into the Fitness world. Welcome them before they drift away. Let them see that there is a next chapter. They don\u2019t have to hang up competing at 22.<\/p>\n \u201cI told them I\u2019ll do this,\u201d she says, \u201cbut I want a couple things. The first is that I want to give out the award for first place.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think anyone is going to say no.<\/p>\n Back in the day, Fitness was tougher and not quite as appealing to some athletes. There were four rounds including two different swimsuit rounds, one for two-piece and another for one-piece. No other division demanded as much. Since then, someone came to their senses, and today it\u2019s just two rounds, with more emphasis on routine performance. The division has evolved, but the core remains the same: athletic girls who refuse to be done performing.<\/p>\n Hendershott sees an entire generation waiting for a path forward\u2014and she\u2019s more than happy to show it to them.<\/p>\n A clever title for her new book: Life In One Shot: How I Built a Life of Passion, Purpose, and Zero Apologies.<\/a><\/em> It took 15 years to become reality. That\u2019s a long time in the book business, but not without cause.<\/p>\n After Jen retired, her father became ill. She cared for him for two years. Then she grieved for two more. Then her stepfather got sick. Then her stepmother battled leukemia. A decade of caretaking, loss, and grief.<\/p>\n \u201cA year ago my brother dropped dead of a heart attack,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s what finally pushed me. People are always going to die. Life is always going to interrupt you.\u201d<\/p>\n So she wrote. And wrote.<\/p>\n The book is not just trophies and stage lights. It contends with doubt. Frustration. Loss. Gratitude\u2014especially gratitude.<\/p>\n \u201cThe IFBB and the Olympia gave me a place to shine,\u201d she says. \u201cI would not have the life I have today without those people and those experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n More than that, it\u2019s a blueprint for competitors who face the very common reality of aging out of their sport and finding themselves where they think is the end of the road. Well, it\u2019s not; the road just turns. The journey continues. Passion drives it.<\/p>\n Life In One Shott<\/em> is available everywhere\u2014Amazon,<\/a> Walmart<\/a>, Barnes & Noble.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"IFBB](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.muscleandfitness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IFBB-Pro-Jen-Hendershot-cheerleading-beginnings.jpg?quality=86&strip=all\")
<\/div>The Missing Bridge<\/h3>\n
The Moment No One Knew<\/h3>\n
Time to Give Back<\/h3>\n
![\"IFBB](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.muscleandfitness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IFBB-Pro-Jen-Hendershot.jpg?quality=86&strip=all\")
<\/div>Life In One Shot<\/h3>\n
![\"1000082898](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.muscleandfitness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1000082898-Copy-Copy.jpg?quality=86&strip=all\")
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