Career
She competed from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s. Like many other women, Dona first started exercising to get in better shape. At a young age she joined a Nautilus gym and trained for twenty minutes, three times a week as she had been told.
At the time she has no desire to develop the type of bodies of the female bodybuilders of her time or even compete.
Dona felt that the well developed physiques of female bodybuilders were "too much". But Oliveira soon became frustrated with her exercise routines.
She enjoyed the little pump she got from her training, but was disappointed with the minimal change she saw in her physique. This soon changed when Dona got a look at some bodybuilding magazines and was able to see top women bodybuilders such as Rachel McLish and Mary Roberts.
While she had no intentions of training for competition purposes, Oliveira knew that she wanted more of the shape and muscle tone she saw on the photos of those magazines.
Saul also set a goal for her to compete in a local bodybuilding contest. Four months later after she started training with heavy weights, Oliveira entered her first bodybuilding show and placed second. Oliveira"s training consisted of simple compound movements with mostly free weights with few cable and machine exercises.
She focused on a combination of powerlifting exercises such as squats, bench presses, and deadlifts with bodybuilding exercises such as shoulder presses, laterals raises, dumbbell flyes, and barbell rows.
During her competitive days she typically trained on a three-day split routine (three days on, one day off) during the off-season, training up to three bodyparts per training session. During the contest season she would switch to a four-day split routine (four days on, one day off) to focus on her weak points.
During the contest season she would train one or two bodyparts. Dona was a strong believer in the idea that the psychological aspect of bodybuilding was just as important as the physical aspect of it, and felt that goal setting was important to develop her physique.
1983 Amateur Athletic Union Massachusetts State Championships - 1st
1984 Non-Player Character East Coast Championships - 1st
1984 Non-Player Character Nationals - 4th (MW)
1985 Non-Player Character United States of America Championship - 1st (MW & Overall)
1985 IFBB World Games - 1st
1985 IFBBMs.
Olympia - 17th
1986 IFBB Pro World Championships - 9th
1986 IFBB Mississippi Olympia - 17th
1988 IFBB Pro World Championships - 1st
1988 IFBB Mississippi Olympia - 6th
1989 IFBB Mississippi
Olympia - 12th
1990 IFBB Mississippi
Olympia - 16th
2007 Non-Player Character Southern States-Figure Class A-5th.
