Meet Newmarket and Stanton female bodybuilders proving empowerment can start at the gym

Bodybuilding – it may seem male dominated, but there are women stepping into the sport and redefining what it means to be feminine.

As fitness continues to boom, women are increasingly deciding to break the mould and carve out strong bodies for themselves.

Among them is 40-year-old Sara Louise Nelson, from Stanton, a newcomer to the sport who will be entering her first competition in July.

She began her bodybuilding journey during lockdown as a way to fight arthritis and osteoporosis, which runs in her family.

She said: “Because it was lockdown I didn’t have to go into a gym. The thought of going into a gym always scared me because I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing. So I learned a lot of it at home and used resistance bands.

“When the gyms opened for a short period, I went back.

“I just fell in love with it, especially as I was seeing my body changing more. I just found a real passion for it and it has massively helped me with my mental health over the last couple of years.

“As a woman, it’s really empowering.”

Sara, who used to struggle with food having previously been a size 16-18, wanted to take it a step further and compete in shows to prove that anything is possible.

“I was turning 40 and it’s more to prove to myself that it’s mind over matter and that we can do anything when we put our mind to it,” she added.

“For a long time I would get ‘why do you go to the gym so much?’ or ‘why do you train so much – what’s the purpose?’ It’s been good for me to have a goal and a focus.”

Now Sara is counting down the weeks and preparing for her PCA First Timers show on July 2 in Birmingham.

“I’m nervous, but I’m also really excited. The one thing I’m more nervous about is the posing.

“It’s a slow process, but the weeks are going by faster and faster. It’s just making sure I regularly check in with my coach and do my pictures and my measurements.”

Someone who knows all too well what it takes to be a bodybuilder is 44-year-old Sara Harley, from Newmarket, who has dedicated 11 years to the sport. She is a Wellness IFBB Pro.

At age 32/33, she was inspired to begin her bodybuilding journey after watching Jodie Marsh on TV competing in a show. At the time Sara was working in horseracing and weighed 44kg.

“It was just a case of not liking how I looked. If I wore a dress, I felt I had no curves. I was just straight up and down. I was a skinny little bean pole.

“When I watched the TV show, I’d never seen anything like it. I just assumed bodybuilding was a case of getting massive. It got me interested in finding out more about it.”

From there Sara joined her local gym and after six months was already competing.

“I finished third in my first one.

“It was quite cool just going on stage. I didn’t have much confidence about how I looked.

“I got there really early and registered early so I was the first one to walk out on stage and I hadn’t practiced anything. I went out in front of the crowd and the judges not having a clue what I was doing posing wise and so I was throwing some quite strange poses.

“It weirdly gave me more confidence. I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams that I would be doing that. I stepped off stage and that was it – the bug was caught and I wanted to do it properly and improve.”

From there, Sara found a particular passion for the wellness class which is a division that requires women to have more muscular legs compared to their upper body. She competed in her first pro show in November and is currently in her off season, preparing for a series of shows next year.

A daily routine for Sara typically consists of cardio in the morning, followed by posing. She then trains at the gym and will on average do four hours there. In the weeks leading up to a competition, Sara will increase her cardio.

“As you get closer to being stage lean your body fights against you – it doesn’t want to be that lean,” she added.

“It’s not a very healthy place to be. You feel tired all the time, you lack energy and sometimes you feel you lack strength in the gym.

“It just gets harder and harder. It’s a very personal challenge.”

Aside from the physical preparation, female bodybuilders must also glamorise themselves for the show.

“It’s a very expensive sport,” she added.

“You’ve got your bikini and your tan – I’m very lucky because I have a bikini sponsor that makes all my bikinis for me, but plenty of people don’t. Just a bikini is £400. Then there’s also hair and makeup and the shoes.”

When Sara is not training at the gym or competing in shows, she is busy working her four jobs. She does personal coaching at Asgard Fitness, the same gym where she trains, as well as working for Rae Guest Racing on a self-employed basis. She also works for IRT, a horse transport company, from around August to February and does driving for Tesco in the evenings four days a week.

To those thinking about giving bodybuilding a try, Sara said: “It’s a really good sport to get into. Once you’ve done a show you’ll want to do it again because the personal challenge is so rewarding.”

Sara’s next steps are to continue to improve and hopefully push to compete in the Olympia. And she doesn’t have any plans to quit bodybuilding.

She said: “My ultimate goal would be to compete in the Olympia – that would be amazing.

“I was going to stop the year I got my pro card. I got to stage where I thought ‘I’ve done it so many times, I’m not going to win my pro card. I might as well give up.’ But that’s diet brain talking. When you get to the end of your show and you don’t do well, you’re so low on energy and your mood can be a bit low – it’s very easy to get dragged down.

“I’ve given myself this year to improve, then I can do my four or five shows next year and then if nothing comes of that I’ll be 45 next year so I think I’ll be thinking about giving it up then.

“But only the stage. I wouldn’t give up bodybuilding because I really love the training. For me training helps in so many other ways. It just makes me feel good about myself.”