Kim Hollis’ physique is doing more to improve the image of the British police than any multi-million pound advertising campaign. We catch up with the rapidly rising British bodyfitness star.
The British police force has hardly enjoyed a reputation for fitness in recent years. There seems to have been a steady stream of news about how overweight officers have become, or how some fleet-footed knucklehead has given one the slip. You could be forgiven for thinking the average copper spends more time eating chocolate and crisps than fighting crime.
But if your faith in the physical prowess of our boys and girls in blue is beginning to wane, Kim Hollis’ slender form might restore it. Kim, 29, could hardly conform less to traditional perceptions of a super-fit police officer: she is just 5’ 5” tall, weighs a mere 121 pounds and is almost painfully shy. But she is certainly one of the fittest officers in the land and definitely the shapeliest.
Last year, Kim entered her first bodyfitness competition, the UKBFF’s North-East Championships, and won. The following month she lined up against 21 women at the UK Championships and finished fifth – a remarkable performance for a novice. Her hard body is the perfect riposte to allegations that the police have gone soft.
Not that Kim would see it that way. In a sport full of people who are often, understandably, pleased with how they look and not exactly lacking in self-confidence she is something of a rarity. She doesn’t boast, doesn’t put down her rivals and looks embarrassed at any compliments flung her way. In fact, she doesn’t even think she’s any good at all. “I just think I’m crap,” she says bluntly. “I still do. I can’t understand why people like me.” Her perception, however, is beginning to change thanks to her decision last year to conquer her fears and compete. “It has done a lot for my confidence,” she added.
Kim’s lack of self-belief is one of the reasons why her talent lay dormant for so long. Like many overnight sensations, she spent a long time preparing for her moment – almost ten years, in fact. Body sculpting always takes time but Kim might have started sooner and got to where she is quicker had she been more confident. “I have always loved body-building,” she says. “I used to watch the World’s Strongest Man and look out for the Olympia results. Even when I was a little girl I always admired muscular physiques. I have always been a bit of a tomboy.”
She always preferred rough and tumble activities. “Anything the lads were doing, I tended to do,” she says. She did Thai boxing for a while but when she discovered the weights room at the gym there was only one winner. She was 19 at the time and it would be nine more years before she got on stage. “For some people it comes easily but for me it doesn’t,” she admits. “It took a long time.”
Kim doesn’t build muscle easily and initially she didn’t train seriously enough. She was also hampered by her lack of self-belief. Three years ago she ramped things up. “Until then my training was a bit on and off,” she says. She gradually acquired her distinctive upper-body v-taper and pleasing muscular shape but even then she still didn’t think she was good enough to compete.
“It was somebody else who told me I was ready to do a competition diet and to take the challenge on and have a bit of confidence in myself,” she says. “If it wasn’t for that I would have probably just kept saying ‘oh well, maybe I will do it next year.’ But you can’t wait forever.”
The person nudging Kim towards the stage was none other than Rachael Grice, winner of the Miss Universe trained figure category in 2008. Rachael was an early bloomer who reached the summit of her sport in her early twenties before retiring to run Bodyworks Gym in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, with her boyfriend Shane Copley. It was Kim’s good fortune to train at a gym owned by experience to see her potential and the knowledge to nurture it. It’s often the way that people only compete when they are near other people that already good physiques are never seen on stage simply due to a lack of knowledge on how to go about it.
Kim had followed Rachael’s progress from novice competitor to best in the world so Rachael commanded her total respect. “I remember seeing her in her first competition,” she recalls. When she started training at her gym they became friends and then trainer/client. Rachael isn’t an overbearing mentor. “She doesn’t have anything to do with my training but she helps with my diet and contest preparation,” says Kim. “She also helps with little important things like hair and make-up but more than anything she has got me in the right frame of mind.”
Despite Rachael’s support one thing above all else terrified Kim in the run-up to Leeds: standing on stage in a bikini. She hated the idea of being nearly naked in front of a row of judges. “I was the kind of person who never wore anything other than baggy clothes,” she says. “I was always covered up. Wearing a bikini in front of other people was one of the hardest things I have ever done but when I got up there it was great.”
Kim was up against six other women at Leeds Town Hall. As it was her local show she had a fair bit of support. “A lot of guys at the gym came down,” she says. “I think a few of them thought bodyfitness was just a bit of fluff but they loved it and I think it made them think about it a bit differently.”
Although there were some well-conditioned athletes in the bodyfitness class Kim’s tight, shapely lines prevailed. Her success was the cue for all kinds of well-worn police-themed jokes about her being an arresting sight and the strong arm of the law.
Her victory was picked up by the local media but true to form this endearingly bashful character played it down, saying she had a bit of chocolate to celebrate before going home to scrub off her fake tan and have an early night. The next day she was back at work at Selby police station.
Kim, who became a police officer seven years ago, says colleagues like to wind her up by leaving cakes and sweets in her in-tray when she is dieting. “They don’t really understand it but they are very supportive,” she says.
Winning her regional show qualified Kim for the biggest event of the year – the UK Championships in Nottingham. Suddenly she was pumping up backstage with people whose careers she had followed through magazines like this. “I’ve been to a lot of bodybuilding shows, including the UK finals, and it was daunting being there but the girls were all lovely,” she says. “Some of the girls, like Maxine Cook and Jayne Tingle, I have seen before and admired their physiques. To get on stage with them was fantastic.”
The weekend started well and then got better. Kim was among the top ten women who were selected to come back for the second day and then made the cut for the top six, before eventually placing fifth. “I was just glad to be at the finals and was made up to come back for the top ten,” she says. “To get in the top six was a bonus.”
Looking back, she takes immense satisfaction at the impact competing has had on her life. In the space of a few character-building months she went from baggy-clothed tomboy with stage fright to someone who enjoyed being on stage in high heels and a bikini. She hasn’t exactly conquered her stage fright but she feels much less anxious and wants to do it again. “I’m very happy and pleased with myself for doing it,” she grins.
She had a definite game plan after Nottingham. “I have got to make a lot of improvements,” she says. “Generally I’m happy with my upper body but I’d like to get a bit more muscle on my back; I need to improve my mid-section in a big way and I also need to improve the shape of my glutes and hamstrings.”
Kim, who eats six or seven meals a day, hopes to be back on stage to defend her title at the North-East Championships on October 2nd at Leeds Town Hall. “More than anything I would like to do the Leeds show again because that’s my home area,” she says. “I really loved doing that show; the Town Hall is a great venue. I’m in Leeds most days and competing there meant all my friends could be there.”
Bodyfitness was created less than ten years ago as a less extreme alternative to bodybuilding for women who like to train with weights. It’s all about shape and tone rather than bulk and striations. Over-muscularity is marked down. Kim was among the more slender bodyfitness competitors last year so the introduction of the new bikini division for an even softer look might have appealed. But she would prefer to beef herself up a bit than lose her hard-earned muscles. “Bikini is not for me,” she adds. “I’m not a girlie girl. Bodyfitness is where I want to be right now.”
She admits she’d “like to go back to Nottingham and win and maybe compete modesty “But I’m just starting. I haven’t got any dizzy heights of ambition. I’m doing it for enjoyment so I just want to do as well as I can.” She’s already done a lot better than she gives herself credit for.
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