Meet One Of The Strongest Couples In The World

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You won’t find them on the cover of Us Weekly but engaged couple and extreme bodybuilders Don Akim and Rosanna Beckett are the It couple of the muscle world.

The couple, who lives in Lowestoft, Suffolk, have been dating for almost nine years since they met at a nightclub, but only been seriously body building for four months. In that time, they’ve won a total of three trophies at the Miami Pro World Champions held in April in Hertfordshire, England, beating out more than 200 contestants. They’re the first couple to win world championship honors at the same bodybuilding event—Don won two awards for male Muscle Model class and the male Fitness Model category and Rosanna won for Ms. Bikini tall class B category.

“Although we’ve always been into fitness, we didn’t look like this when we met,” Akim told Yahoo! Shine. “We only started really training when we entered the world champions.” Beckett stumbledacross the competition one day when she was looking online for a new “bikini body” diet. Upon seeing the contestants’ toned bodies, she spontaneously entered herself and her fiance.

When the couple aren’t busy with their day jobs (Beckett, 33, is a dancer and Akim, 43, is a seaman) they’re putting in time at the time, working out 5-6 times per week. During each workout, which lasts 3 hours, they tackle a different body part. Beckett told Yahoo! Shine: “For example, one day, we work on our legs for two hours straight and then spend the last hour doing cardio such as running, rowing, and lots of interval training.”

And all that exercise requires a hefty diet of five or six high-protein, low-carb meals per day. “For breakfast we eat oatmeal with a banana and a scoop of protein powder, or an oat biscuit with peanut butter. A few hours later, we’ll cook a large batch of salmon, steamed vegetables, brown rice, and sweet potatoes. We eat half and save the other portion for a second lunch later. Dinner is similar but we’ll substitute skinless chicken for fish.” Save for a few scoops of Haagen Daz ice cream when they’re not training, dessert is off-limits and the two motivate each other to stay on course.

Beckett and Akim also keep their 5-year-old daughter active by making sure she gets enough play time outside and Akim even assigns her spotter duties by having her sit on his back while he does push-ups.

Would the couple be content if one of them went soft? “Of course I would still find him attractive if he wasn’t big and strong,” says Beckett. “But those muscles are sexy.”

Yahoo