The 31-year-old used the posing seminar to tell the story of her rise to success in the athletic world, as well as coach the 25 attendees on front and back poses for bikini competitions. She worked with the women to refine their posture and improve their walking. Later, she outlined her exercise regimen and gave tanning and makeup tips.

Song’s introduction to the fitness world was as a product of the entertainment industry. Aged 20, she was on track to become a singer, and her company had her do personal training. Song remembered liking the changes she saw in her body. It wasn’t until she attended a bodybuilding competition to support her husband, Kim Kang-min, that she became amazed at the beauty of bikini athletes.

Of the various subcategories of women’s bodybuilding, Song was most drawn to bikini, as it highlights a woman’s natural curves.

“Even though bodybuilding is very male dominated, women are able to express femininity in the sport,” Song told the Post through her translator.

This year has been a pivotal one in her fitness career, achieving celebrity status in South Korea after she and her husband reached the top 20 on Netflix’s Physical 100, a competition-based reality show pitting the country’s fittest athletes against each other in gruelling physical challenges.

Then, in July, she won at the 2023 IFBB Pro Taiwan, securing a spot for the 2023 Bikini Olympia, the world’s most prestigious bodybuilding competition.

“The only time I cried on stage was my first show after I gave birth,” Song said. “But in getting called for Olympia, all the memories from training went by like a time-lapse, and I started crying on stage without even realising it.”

The win was especially meaningful for Song, who had consistently finished second in competitions for four years.

Song attributes her Olympia qualification partly to her seven-year-old daughter, one of her greatest motivations.

“Next year, my daughter will start junior school, so once she’s in school, I thought I wouldn’t have as much time to invest into weight training,” she said.

“I was so desperate [to do well] this year, so I focused on my weaknesses and developing those [weak] areas, so I could fulfil the elements I was missing, since I thought this was my last year to focus on myself.”

Becoming a mother undeniably made training and coaching tougher, forcing Song to split her time between her daughter and preparing for the next competition.

“Sometimes I give up on certain things just a little bit,” Song said during the posing seminar in Causeway Bay. “For example, sometimes I could be 100 per cent as a mum, but sometimes I’m only 80 per cent a mum, or sometimes I’m only 80 per cent a wife.”

During competition season, Song feels bad that she cannot play with her daughter as much as she would like, and uses that emotion as motivation to become a better athlete.

“I am grateful for [the time I get to train] during the season, and I treat it as my daughter’s gift to me,” Song said.

“Since now I am a mum, I want to send positive messages to all the mums out there. Usually when mums give birth, they lose control of their own life, but I want to motivate them to show they can achieve what they want to do if they really try.”

Song will compete in the Olympia for the first time in Orlando in November. Compared to competitions in South Korea, where Song is a well-known athlete, she will prepare for the Olympia without high expectations. This time around, she wants to enjoy the training process and relish in the experience of being on stage with the best bikini bodybuilders in the world.

Song’s bodybuilding career lent itself to more than just peak physique and international competitions – it opened the door for opportunities, like attending movie premieres and Physical 100.

The first of its kind for South Korea, the show brought together pro athletes of every capacity to push their bodies to the limit. From one-on-one clashes with competitors to teams of athletes pushing a 1.5 tonne boat, Song endured a completely new kind of mental and physical challenge.

“There are a lot of times when you want to give up, but the ultimate finalists won because they won against themselves,” Song said.

“Even though it seemed like people were competing against each other, at the end of the day it was actually the contestants competing against themselves.”

Despite Song’s explosion of fame and athletic success this past year, she remains modest.

“Among all the athletes I’ve worked with in the past, she is the most humble and kind,” Park Ji-eun, the Wanabez manager, told the Post.

“Even though she is at the position she is in right now [being so popular], she is really humble, and she is never over the top, and she is really considerate of other people.”

Song and her husband own a gym called Muscle Pro Gym in Incheon. She hopes for more opportunities to teach seminars and training sessions overseas and will soon begin preparing for the biggest competition of her life.

“Moving forward, I want to show that I am always progressing as an athlete, as a coach, as a mum and as a wife,” Song said, “And of course I want to show a great presentation on the stage.”