Childhood, education, early career
Anna Kurkurina was born on August 25, 1966 in the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region. The future absolute world champion in powerlifting was not athletic as a child, but she studied well. The girl graduated from school with a medal. Afterwards, she entered the university’s biology department, receiving a diploma in zoology. For some time, Anna had the opportunity to work as a teacher at a school in Nikolaevsk by assignment. “I had to live somewhere, only they provided me with a corner in the hostel,” Anna shared in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets.
It was the time of teaching that was the only period when Kurkurina wore high-heeled shoes. She never liked this. But Anna was not destined to realize her potential at school. She dreamed of working with animals.
Recipes
Protein cocktail
Ingredients:
- 250 ml milk;
- 100 ml yogurt;
- 2 squirrels;
- 2 tbsp. l. oatmeal;
- 1 tbsp. l. honey. Preparation:
Place all ingredients in a blender and bring to a smooth consistency. All! Such a nutritious and complete dish will help out when it’s time to eat, but there is absolutely no time to prepare.
Baked chicken
Ingredients:
- 400 grams of poultry fillet or breast;
- 150-200 grams of cheese;
- 2 tomatoes;
- 2 medium onions;
- 2 heads of garlic;
- Seasonings (mixture of herbs, paprika, turmeric), pepper and salt to taste.
Preparation:
Chicken meat must be beaten, salted, grated with garlic and placed in a baking dish. Top with chopped onions and diced tomatoes. The dish is placed in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 15 minutes. Afterwards, you need to remove the meat, sprinkle with grated cheese and place in the oven for another 7-10 minutes.
Unusual appearance
Since childhood, Anna had short hair, to which her mother sometimes attached bows. The girl was embarrassed either by her crooked legs, or by her pear-shaped figure. Yes, yes, now it’s hard to believe, but in her youth Anna Kurkurina was a fragile girl, weighed 56 kg, had narrow shoulders, and her pelvis was two sizes larger than her top. The girl always liked male figures with a narrow pelvis and broad shoulders. In order to transform her figure into exactly this, she first went to master gymnastics and aerobics, and realizing that something more decisive was needed, she went to a harsh rocking chair, where she began to train with representatives of the opposite sex. The body began to acquire masculine features, while losing feminine ones.
Champion's Diet
Anna Kurkurina talks about proper nutrition for weight loss at every workout. The athlete is not a fan of strict diets and cutting calories to a very low amount. Anna supports the idea of fractional nutrition, including all vital micro and macroelements. The athlete insists on paying special attention to proteins, because “proteins” are the material for building muscle fibers. In turn, carbohydrates, especially fast ones, turn into fats.
Most nutritionists recommend starting your day with cereals, while Anya strongly advises postponing the iconic ones until lunchtime.
The daily diet for weight loss, compiled by an athlete for one day, is approximately as follows:
- Breakfast: scrambled eggs with cherry tomatoes, unsweetened tea;
- Lunch: favorite fruit;
- Lunch: buckwheat porridge with chicken chop, vegetable salad;
- Afternoon snack: a portion of low-fat cottage cheese;
- Dinner: baked sea bass, a glass of kefir.
If you can’t eat a full meal, you need to organize a proper snack with a protein shake, cottage cheese, kefir or any fruit. If one of the meals is completely ignored, the brain sends a signal to the body to store fat reserves in case of a “hunger strike.” This is why people who cut their diet to 1,000 calories a day or less do not lose weight.
One of Kurkurina’s main rules: “At least an hour should pass between training and eating.”
Achievements in sports
Soon Anna was helping her coach create programs, then teaching classes herself, and in 1998 she opened her own sports club.
After forty, Kurkurina comes to powerlifting, deciding to prove to herself and the world that nothing is impossible.
“...There was a program on TV and there was a girl there - the strongest on earth, but for me it just clicked, I didn’t understand?! At 40, it seems like you need to retire, but I just want to start living! And so I thought and decided to become the strongest woman on earth...”
Anna did not leave the gym. I worked out several times a day. After 2 years, she received the title of the strongest woman on the planet. In 2008, 2010 and 2012, Anna Kurkurina became the absolute world champion in powerlifting (a powerlifting event that requires the athlete to squat with a barbell, lift the barbell off the platform and lift the barbell from a prone position).
Over the course of 6 years, Kurkurina received more than 50 awards. True, for the sake of sporting achievements I had to forget about women's appearance.
Training and family
Anna Kurkurina, whose biography, it would seem, is already known to everyone, may surprise some once again. Not everyone knows that the Iron Lady values family ties; she is a loving mother, but almost nothing is known about the child’s father. The boy himself can often be seen at his mother’s training sessions; the world champion knows how important it is to accustom children to sports from a young age. By the way, he is not the only child in her classes - often mothers come with their children, Anna even shows with their examples how you can study in pairs with kids. Social networks are filled with photographs and videos of people who change their body and their lifestyle with a trainer from Nikolaevsk. It is not difficult to notice that these are ordinary people, they are engaged, first of all, for themselves, for their health. Moreover, Anna herself says that most of these people have health problems, but their perseverance admires her:
My girls at 50-60 years old work better than their daughters and granddaughters, who are either unbearable or too self-pitying.
Coaching work
Kurkurina has been coaching for more than 20 years. She organizes professional master classes and seminars for trainers. Anna has also released a number of CDs with the “Do It Yourself!” training complex.
Kurkurina conducts training in fitness clubs using a unique method. Classes are aimed at working all muscles and drying the body. Anna takes on women who are not at all familiar with sports; she certainly feels the excitement of proving to her students that they are capable of much. The complex is mainly intended for women. Kurkurina calls for making sports a lifestyle, and not waiting for quick results.
Kurkurina came to YouTube in 2010. For almost 10 years now, Anna has been running her own channel, where she also publishes her workouts. According to Kurkurina, exercising at home or on the street is no less effective than visiting a sports club.
The athlete also often appears as an expert on television programs and communicates with journalists.
Conflict with the mayor
The championship title is not a reason for idleness. To this day, Anna continues to train and train. But her life is not limited to sports. In addition to direct training, group and personal, the champion did not abandon her channel on Youtube; she more than once became a guest in various television studios in different cities. Nikolaevsk also does not go unnoticed. Although there are not entirely joyful events happening there for the female hero. In 2017, a surprisingly unpleasant story broke. The mayor of Nikolaevsk intended to expel the athlete from the city entrusted to him. Stating that the world celebrity did not have a residence permit, the city mayor Senkevich wanted to send her to her historical homeland, Donbass.
The athlete, who has lived in this city since the last century, naturally opposed this turn of affairs. Anna Kurkurina's biography is rich in various trials. And this time she had to test not the strength of her body, but the power of her spirit. The officials were not stopped either by the merits of Anna, whose name the city is deservedly proud of, or by the explanation that she spends a lot of money on charity, helping children with cerebral palsy syndrome and autistic children, so she does not have the opportunity to satisfy the financial requirements of the administration and buy her own housing. Kurkurina, naturally, published a description of this situation on the Internet, and her fans were outraged by what was happening.
After that, the mayor called Anna, offering to resolve the issue. Senkevich stopped the court's decision to deprive the owner of the dorm room, and further attempts to evict the iron lady from the city stopped. The unpleasant story left a bitter aftertaste in my soul. Anna, when communicating with foreign colleagues, is ashamed to admit that, despite all her regalia, she does not receive any help from the state. It's good that at least they don't interfere.
Woman in a man's image
Anna Kurkurina admitted that she can spend hours choosing clothes in a store. Her wardrobe contains many stylish and expensive suits from famous brands, including trouser suits, of course. She was forced to wear a dress only at school. However, the strongest woman spends most of her time in the gym. By the way, Anya buys clothes in men's stores, although underwear is bought in women's stores. Hence the male image.
Kurkurina does not wear a bra. Her muscles are so pumped up and her figure is so masculine that a delicate piece of clothing would look ridiculous on Anna.
On the street, Kurkurina is addressed as a man, but Anna does not react to this.
“If they ask me in transport: “Man, give way to a woman,” I will silently give in. If in the store they say: “Man, take your change,” I silently take it and leave. Why explain anything? I don't react to such things, I don't care.
Varvara Akulova
The 23-year-old girl literally showed extraordinary abilities from the cradle. At the age of one, Varya did handstands, at one and a half years old she did somersaults, and at three she performed acrobatic routines with her parents. And at four, she took up powerlifting.
When the mother of the future strongest woman became pregnant, her husband began to make plans about how great he and his son would perform in the circus - but a girl was born. It dawned on Yuri that with the right approach, the girl could also become good, and he began to train her. The very first lessons showed that the baby’s limbs were much stronger than those of some of her peers. While the baby was lying in the cradle, small weights were tied to her arms and legs. When the girl began to crawl, the load was increased. Varya inherited the legendary strength of the Akulovs. The ancestors of the family became famous in their service at the court of Catherine the Great. And while other girls were peacefully playing with dolls, Varya Akulova was lifting heavy barbells.
Of course, the doctors were concerned about such physical stress on the little girl’s bones, but tests showed that Varya was in excellent physical shape and could boast of excellent health. At the age of six, the girl, holding a weight in her hands, carried her very difficult father on her back. For a long time, parents were accused of child abuse - the girl did not go to school and, earning money in the circus, was the breadwinner of the family.
At the age of eight, the girl first entered the Guinness Book of Records. Then she, who weighed 40 kg, was able to lift a load weighing a hundredweight. Six years later, she conquered a load of 300 kg, which was four times her weight at that time.
Anthropometric data possessed by the strongest woman in the world at the age of 16 years:
- Weight – 68
- Height – 1 m 68 cm
- Chest – 1 m 02 cm
- Biceps – 0.31 m
- Hip – 0.59 m
- Waist – 0.75 m
Despite the strength hidden in the body of this young girl, she has retained her femininity and does not stand out in any other way from other weight-watchers of her age. She does not take any supplements and all her strength is the result of hard work and daily training.
Personal life
In previous interviews, answering questions about her personal life, Anna said that she did not feel the need for a strong male shoulder and was sure that she would not be able to meet a man who would win her heart. Not so long ago, Kurkurina seemed to realize her unconventional orientation, introducing her chosen one Elena Serbulina and her son to the public. There were a lot of photos online of the family spending time together, pictures from vacations.
Subsequently, the strongest woman regretted it. She faced people's gossip, especially after she broke up with Elena.
Now, judging by the photographs, Anna Kurkurina again has a close person in her personal life, although she does not comment on this.
Interesting facts from life
The athlete is on good terms with powerlifter Anna Turaeva. Together they decided to abandon femininity and fashion themselves into men.
Anna does not wear women's clothing. According to her, dresses, skirts and shoes with heels do not suit a professional athlete. Her favorite clothes are sportswear and a business suit, which, by the way, suits her very well.
A woman broke the world bench press record at age 48. She was able to show a result of 145 kilograms in the 75 kg weight category. Such indicators cause envy even among many male bodybuilders.
Anna still loves animals very much. She regularly visits zoos. On her social media pages you can find many photos of her and animals.
Anna Kurkurina now
In her most recent photographs, Anya looks exactly like a man. She still smiles cheerfully.
Today, when both athletes and amateurs are deprived of the opportunity to exercise in the gym, Anna posts motivating workouts on her channel that can easily be performed in an apartment without special equipment. Both have more time for themselves. Therefore, subscribers are grateful to Kurkurina, as reported in the comments.
Anna also helps sick children, and she manages to restore some. She has a long history of developing individual programs for people with certain disabilities or illnesses.
Well, our portrait of Anna Kurkurina is almost complete. She is a completely different personality from others, ambiguous, but certainly strong, brave, extraordinary, deserving of respect.
Female athlete training principles
Anna Kurkurina's training is based on the following principles:
- It's never too late to start playing sports. It doesn’t matter how old a person is, 20 or 50. The main thing is a burning desire to achieve a beautiful and powerful body.
- Before training, you need to warm up well. Without a warm-up, training will have no meaning.
- The burning sensation is the main indicator that you are doing everything right. If you want to achieve the desired result quickly, you need to plow.
- Rest during the approach is strictly prohibited. You cannot stay at the bottom point for too long, as this will reduce the effectiveness of the workout.
- It doesn't matter what your goal is, gain muscle mass or dry out your body. The main condition for success is regularity. You can't skip workouts.
- Exercises are selected individually. If an exercise is not suitable for a person, it is necessary to find a suitable one and perform it.
