Kristy Hawkins


Kristy Michelle Hawkins is an American powerlifter and chemical engineer, and former professional female bodybuilder.

Early life and education

Kristy Hawkins was born and raised in Longview, Texas in 1980. In 1994, she started attending Longview High School. In 1998, she graduated from high school and started attending Texas A&M University that same year. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2002, graduating summa cum laude and with University and Foundation Honors. She earned a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology in 2005. She graduated from Caltech in 2008 with a Ph.D. in chemical engineering.

Career in chemical/biological engineering

In 1999, Hawkins worked as an intern for the Eastman Chemical Company and from 2000 to 2002 she worked again as an intern for the Solutia Inc. From November 2008 to August 8, 2013, she moved to Emeryville, California where she got a job as scientist for metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae at Amyris Inc. Starting August 19, 2013, she worked as director of yeast engineering for the company Lygos. She has since left Lygos and co-founded a chemical engineering company called Antheia.

Bodybuilding

Amateur

Hawkins has described herself as having been very heavy in elementary school. She took dance lessons and became a twirler, but says that she wasn't active enough and didn't have proper eating habits. She suffered from anorexia nervosa, which led her to starve herself. She eventually got into the gym to burn calories. At first she started with cardio and than weight training. At the age of 15 years, she got her own gym membership and went every day after school and work. The owners were hosting a competition and taught her the basics of training, nutrition, and posing. At the age of 17, she traveled with some people from her gym to Mississippi for an ANPPC show and placed 3rd in the novice women’s short class. She twice placed in the top four at the NPC Nationals. In November 2007, she won the light-heavyweight and overall at the NPC Nationals and received her IFBB pro card.

Professional

After turning professional, she attended her first professional competition, the 2008 Ms. International, where she placed 14th. In 2009, she attended her first Ms. Olympia, which she placed 7th.
When training and competing specifically for bodybuilding, she consumed 2,500–3,000 calories a day and her contest weight was around 140 pounds and roughly 165 pounds when off season. Hawkins says that she didn't really track her body-fat numbers, but mostly just went by how she looked.

Contest history

In 2011, Hawkins stepped away from professional bodybuilding and has successfully stepped into the realm of powerlifting, while maintaining a "bodybuilder" type look to her physique.
She has stated that when she was just starting this sport she managed to squat 400 pounds.

World records

DateRecord brokenClassLiftFed
08/20/16Total WRPF
11/05/16Squat SPF
11/12/17All Squats SPF
11/12/17All Totals SPF

Competition history

Personal life

Hawkins is an agnostic. She was for a time in a serious relationship with bodybuilder Branden Ray, but is now single. She currently lives in Emeryville, California.