Motorcycle crash pushes Savannah woman to peak competitive bodybuilding form

As a part of her routine, Dionne McAffee takes acetyl L-carnitine, L-citrulline, 5 grams of branched-chain amino acids and 10 grams of essential amino acids, 5 grams of creatine, several servings of electrolytes, maca root, probiotics, a multivitamin, ionic magnesium, TUDCA, omega 3 fish oil, vitamin D, vitamin B5, alpha lipoic acid, N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), ashwagandha, indole-3-carbinol, activated charcoal, DGL (aka licorice root), small amounts human growth hormone (HGH) and testosterone, calcium, milk thistle, an adrenal support supplement, a nighttime CBD supplement, Qunol for sleep support, and CLA, which is found in dairy and meat, but which is usually derived from safflower oil when offered in pill form.

She also tends to eat little more than fish, rice, chicken, potatoes, eggs and oatmeal, plus the occasional serving of avocado or vegetables. And she drinks a gallon of water a day.

Why would anyone do this? Because Dionne McAffee is a bodybuilder.

“You have to consider your body at all times,” she said. “You can’t just go and eat whatever you want.”

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The path of most resistance

The 50-year-old McAffee had always incorporated physical fitness into her life, but until 2020 she’d never lifted weights, believing at the time that “women shouldn’t have big muscles, that weight-lifting would make you look like a man,” she said.

But when a hit-and-run motorist caused her to crash her motorcycle, leaving her with a shattered left leg and two broken wrists, she had to build back muscle simply to be able to function normally again. That, combined with the blossoming of a new relationship, led her to reconsider her exercise routines.

“Right before my accident I had met Adam (Gati, her future husband)…who has a motorcycle shop here in town,” she explained. “He just stayed with me the whole week in the hospital, took care of me, took care of everything, moved into my house afterwards, carried me up and down the stairs, everything.”

“He encouraged me, and I was really nervous at first, to push weights with my legs,” she continued. “But I talked to my orthopedic surgeon and he was like, ‘No, you’re good to go. If you break a screw it’s not a big deal; you’ve got 18 of them.”

It was difficult, McAffee admitted, but “then I started thinking, ‘How far could this go? How much muscle could I build?’”

Gati introduced her to one of her two eventual coaches, former Army Ranger and local personal trainer Jeremy Ancho. Ancho specializes in helping those who are working to overcome physical trauma, from folks like McAffee who are recovering from life-altering injuries, to Cancer survivors looking to reclaim their lives after battling the deadly disease.

He also works his clients hard.

“He’s good at pushing you beyond what you thought you could do,” she related. “The amount of muscle I’ve put on in a year is remarkable. I wouldn’t have been able to train that hard on my own. I cannot push myself past the limit of pain and keep going.”

“It’s like childbirth,” she laughed, validating the comment by noting that she has a 9-year-old son. “It’s that much pain.”

For his part, Ancho saw something special in McAffee almost immediately, whom he says is “one of the hardest [working] female athletes” he’s ever trained,. And when she approached him about seriously pursuing bodybuilding, he wasn’t surprised.

“Whenever I get a client, I pretty much break it down to them that as soon as you walk through that door, you’re mine,” Ancho explained. “You’re gonna do what I tell you to do because if not, you’re not gonna get [any] results, and this is why you’re seeking help.”

“When [McAffee and I] first started…it was more like, ‘I want to get fit, put [on] a little muscle.’ But then once she started getting into it I was like, ‘Man, this is about to get really hard.’ But when I saw the determination? Dionne will cry [during workout] sessions. And the fact that she keeps coming back for more at that age is ridiculous.”

Pushing herself and inspiring others

September marks two years since the notion of becoming a bodybuilder first entered McAfee’s mind, and during that time she’s competed in four events. For her first attempt, she came in next to last. But in the three subsequent competitions, she’s come home with second place in the bikini category each time, and that’s got her thinking bigger.

“Once you start, you want to see how far you can go,” she said. “You want to keep on improving. That’s what inspires me. There’s always the opportunity to keep improving here. The work’s not done.”

To get to the next level, McAffee has aligned herself with one of the rising stars on the international bodybuilding circuit, Aimee Delgado of FitBody Fusion. Delgado is one of the favorites to place in the top three in this years Ms. Olympia competition, the International Federation of Body Builders’ most prolific and prestigious event.

“Her passion, her drive, and her want to accomplish great things: I can feel it, because I want the same thing for myself,” Delgado told me by telephone from her home in Las Vegas. “I don’t take on a lot of athletes, but I wanted to take on Dionne. I want to work with people who have a passion for what they’re doing.”

McAffee and Delgado communicate regularly, with McAffee frequently sending pics of herself to the more accomplished bodybuilder to get feedback. The partnership has also allowed McAffee to connect with other FitBody athletes, many of whom made the trip to Charleston, South Carolina to compete alongside her at the NPC World Klash Championships.

For the time being, however, McAffee has entered the bodybuilding “off-season,” where the focus switches from being ready to imminently step on stage to building more muscle, with the goal of moving up in the standings when competition begins once more. It’s a far cry from where she started 3 1/2 years ago, coming off of a devastating leg injury, full of judgment, and without having ever lifted weights before.

“I saw some pictures on Instagram, ‘That can’t be that hard!’” McAffee laughed when recalling her first forays into bodybuilding. “But when you don’t know what you’re looking at, I guess you could say that.”

“That’s the mystery part of me that I still ask myself: ‘What is it about this that [makes me] really want to continue doing it?’ She posed rhetorically. “I wanna show everybody that it doesn’t matter: If something injures you, you can overcome that.”

Follow McAffee’s bodybuilding journey via her Instagram @dionnemcaffee. You can find Aimee Delgado and FitBody Fusion @fitnessbyaims and @fitbodyfusion respectively.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Motorcycle crash pushes Savannah woman to peak competitive bodybuilding form