Tu Mengli in the competition

The 51st Asian Bodybuilding and Fitness Championship concluded in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia on May 20. Twenty-year-old Tu Mengli, a student at Chengdu University, was named the youngest Chinese winner of the Junior Women’s Bikini Fitness category.

However, before she won the championship, Tu underwent hellish training. Every morning, she and her teammates began training at 6 a.m. They had a packed workout schedule, including cardio, weight training, stage training and combined training of all three types. Even when she took a break, Tu couldn't really rest. She used the time to eat food and replenish her energy.

“Nobody knows better what Chengdu looks like at dawn,” Tu joked, rubbing her eyes. “The alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. every day. Only with extraordinary willpower can you get up, especially when you can still feel the pain caused by training the day before. I can’t think of a single word to fully describe it.”

Tu has a delicate figure; her waist is only 63 centimeters around. But she never diets. Quite the contrary, it's important for her to eat generous and healthy meals during training. To that end, she kept to a strict menu: red meat was forbidden, though she often ate chicken breast, prawns and fish. In order to guarantee sufficient protein and carbohydrates, she consumed 10 egg whites on a daily basis, along with vegetables and fruit.