Gorgeous court curves

Like the athletes they cover, PBA courtside reporters Erika Padilla and Sel Guevara must always be in pretty good shape.

They are constantly reminded— nagged almost—by their network producers and directors who want to make sure that whoever appears in front of their cameras are hale and on the ball.

But this pair of bombshells has taken physical fitness into a totally different level, as if being drop-dead gorgeous isn’t enough.

Both former athletes, they played volleyball and basketball and joined cheerleading squads in exclusive girls’ schools. Their knowledge of various sports allows them to dissect games and talk about them on cam with amazing ease.

They are the best at what they do and that, like being delightfully attractive, didn’t happen by accident.

“I was kind of fat,” says Erika, who graced the cover of a popular men’s magazine two years ago. “I have always been on the heavy side ever since I was in grade school. I still remember all the teasing I got [from my classmates] about my big arms.

“There’s a lot of work I put in to be able to stay in shape. I started working out when I was 16, right after high school. I wanted to enter college looking the best that I could be.”

That early determination to burn calories opened doors for her. Admittedly an overweight “nerdy-nerdy” in school, a more confident Erika went on to become a courtside reporter and sports-show host for Channel 5 and a mainstay in several shows on ABS-CBN.

“My family is in politics and I was taking up Political Science at Ateneo,” says the 30-year-old. “I never imagined that I would be an artista. But I knew that I’ve always had this people-relations quality.”

Erika is now into yoga, not just the stretching kind but the serious stuff that, she describes, really defines the body. She has gotten so well with this form of yoga that she now teaches it. ( Sunday Inquirer Sports caught up with her during one of her 5:30 p.m. classes last Tuesday at Meralco gym.)

Sel played basketball in grade school at Miriam College where she was a teammate of Cat Guidaben, daughter of PBA great and former Crispa Redmanizer Abet. She kept an active yet devil-may-care lifestyle until a few years back and paid dearly for it.

“I started smoking when I was in Grade 7,” recalls the 27-year-old pre-law graduate at Ateneo. “I was trying to stay active while keeping the vice.”

Sel didn’t try to hide her smoking from anyone when she started working games in the pro league. Hoop fans would see her during the halftime break puffing away as many as three straight sticks in a corner of the playing venues before returning to work.

“And that’s what hit me,” she says. “It almost got me killed.”

Sel was admitted to the hospital a couple of days after the 2015 PBA Season after she coughed up blood and felt very weak. She was down to 88 pounds, too skinny for her own good. It was the biggest sign that something was wrong with her.

“My body just gave up because of the stress, the smoking,” she says. “I was admitted to a hospital which told me that I only had the fever. A second hospital confirmed my fears—I had pneumonia.”

It was a wake-up call. And Sel, now super fit at 120 lb, bravely responded to the challenge. After fully regaining her health, she took up weightlifting and now does cardio-training and plyometrics on the side.

“I got more competitive after that,” she says animatedly during a recent interview where she wore a black silk, two-piece dress that revealed her chiseled arms and legs. “The way I train and keep fit now is no joke.”

Erika is actually not keen on making a profession out of teaching yoga. “I just want to help impart my knowledge of yoga and, who knows, change the lives of people,” she says. “I want to get deeper in my [yoga] practice.”

As a scrawny kid, Sel had thought that in order to put on weight she needed to eat eight times a day. She realized later on that it was not the right thing to do.

“I am now a certified nutritionist,” she says proudly, adding that “several [PBA] players have come to me seeking advice on the right way to eat and be in the best shape.”

As serious with lifting weights as keeping tabs on the food she eats, Sel can now bench press 100 lb. She has built a physique that has taken her to the top three of a recent bikini body-building competition. She has also represented the country several times in international tournaments.

In the PBA where fans and basketball writers give great duos fond monickers such as Batman and Robin (for Robert Jaworski and Francis Arnaiz) and Mutt and Jeff (Benjie Paras and Ronnie Magsanoc), the Erika-Sel partnership also deserves something.

Fit and Fab? That may be apt for the pair, although it doesn’t say which one is which. After all, both Erika and Sel fit the bill perfectly.