FBBUK: The Transformation of Linda Gartside

And so to our final post of this epic week (well, it's been bloody epic to put all these posts together, anyway - I do have a life outside this blog, you know!) highlighting just a handful of the finest women in Britain today, with the story of the 2012 NABBA Universe Trained Figure Class 1 Winner, Linda Gartside.



And I believe it's such a good story that there's no reason at all why it shouldn't be made into a movie. My screenwriting handbooks tell me you need a first act that sets up the main character, their inner need and the flaw that prevents them from achieving it. Well, Linda's story certainly has that. See what you think about this for a set-up.

Rochdale, England. The 1980s.

15-year-old Linda Gartside, like the rest of her family, has weight issues. Shy, bullied at school, she stuffs herself with crisps and sweets in secret.

Linda loved Arnold Schwarzenneger in Conan, so when her mother sees one of his books at a jumble sale, she buys it for her daughter. Linda loves it, especially the pictures of Arnold and his mighty muscles.

Linda bugs her mother to let her join a gym. As she slips into the weights room, the sight of so many strong, muscular, Arnold-like men in one place makes her gasp. So when one of them turns and looks at her, all she can do is blush and leave.

Linda and her mother struggle down the street carrying a dumbbell each.

In the garage, Linda attempts a bicep curl. She fails. She removes weight from the dumbbell and tries again. Again she can’t do it. More weight off, just one tiny plate on each end now. She picks it up again, and… success! She removes the weight from the other dumbbell and starts to curl them both, counting one… two… three… The camera pans to Arnold on the cover of the book, smiling… four… five…

Fade out.



In the second act the protagonist attempts to attain their goal, but is prevented from doing so. In the middle of the second act comes the turning point - a major event that changes the way the protagonist approaches their goal. Again, Linda's story has that.

Fast forward twenty years and on the face of it, Linda has overcome the issues that her shy, bullied, binge-eating teen self struggled with. She owns her own driving school, she’s a black belt in taekwondo, and she’s a qualified holistic therapist. She’s the mother of two children and she’s now a regular at the gym. It all seems so different.

But underneath, those issues remain. She’s still scoffing chocolates and crisps in secret. In fact, it’s her guilt about this that drives her to the gym. She still feels like an outsider, in her own words, a dumpy wallflower. And by her own admission, her anxieties over her clandestine eating and her body have meant, despite having had the children, she’s been unable to maintain a relationship.

Then, at the age of 38, Linda makes a decision that by the age of 40, she’s going to stand on stage as a competitor at a bodybuilding show. What made her decide this is unclear, but before I pitch the script in Hollywood, I’m going to have to find out.

She’d just joined a new gym at the time, maybe she met a woman there who was preparing for a contest. Perhaps that woman’s muscled-up beau was the motivation. Perhaps she came across the old book on Arnold or her rusty old dumbbells while clearing out the attic. Whatever the reason, her transformation had begun. But she was not alone. Into her life came Ken ‘Skip’ Hill, a contest prep expert from Colorado of all places (what was he doing in Rochdale?!)

Now in my mind, Ken looks and sounds exactly like Meredith Burgess in Rocky. Sadly, Mr Burgess is no longer with us, so we’ll have to find an equally gnarled character actor to play ‘Skip’. Maybe he’s ended up in Rochdale because he’s washed up, and what Linda offers him is a last chance to redeem himself.

Anyway, over the following two years, Linda Gartside, with Skip’s help, completely transformed her body. You can watch the complete transformation on her website.



So where’s the third act? In the third, and final, act, the hero (or heroine) finally overcomes all obstacles, conquers their flaw, and finally gets what they want. But hasn't Linda done that already? Well, yes and no. Because although our heroine has transformed herself, fate was about to intervene.

Four weeks before her first competition, Linda was, as usual, giving a driving lesson to a client when her car was hit from behind by a 26-tonne truck.

There’s your third act!

Now thankfully, Linda was not seriously injured, and the accident delayed her competitive debut only by four months. For the movie, I think we’ll need a more serious injury, her kids and Skip waiting for news at the hospital, hoping, praying. For dramatic effect, we’ll need doubt about Linda’s ability to ever train again, just so we can have her inspiring recovery take us to the story’s climax.

But in fact Linda took to the stage in September 2010 at the NABBA England and finished 2nd in the Trained Figure Class. Four weeks later, the dumpy wallflower was the NABBA UK Champion.

I can see it now. The kids punching the air and running onto the stage. The music rises to a crescendo. Skip, backstage, the tough guy façade finally cracked as tears of joy stream down his weathered cheeks. And Linda, finally the champion she’d first dreamed of being twenty-five years before…

I think you’ll agree that there wouldn’t be a dry eye in the house.

But that is not the end of the movie, or indeed the real story of Linda Gartside’s transformation. Sure, she had achieved her ambition to stand on the stage. But had she defeated her demons?

She certainly didn’t think so. A year after her first contest she underwent hypnotherapy and regression therapy in an effort to resolve her eating disorder. It was a success, and Linda’s greatest victory of all.

So perhaps the film shouldn’t end with her NABBA UK victory. Perhaps the story should continue with a relapse into binge eating, an ultimatum from Skip - It’s the chocolate or me, kid - before Linda starts the therapy. Then we can have the big finish set at the NABBA Universe last year.



Linda won her class there, and though she lost out on the overall title, we can leave that out of the movie, or just have her defeating Maria Kuzmina in the overall posedown anyway. After all, this is ‘based on a true story’.




But on second thoughts, we could still have a stirring finish by sticking to the truth. As Linda says herself, The best part of competing is knowing full well that I have beaten my family history of obesity.

Me and you, Linda. Your story, my words. Hollywood. What do you say?







A truly amazing story of a truly amazing woman. The best possible way to end our FBBUK week.



Visit Linda's website for more of this remarkable woman, and she also has a youtube channel with contest and training clips, as well as clips of other NABBA competitors.

FBBUK: The Marsh Effect: Results?

The Story So Far...

Autumn 2010: much-derided celebrity boob-job Jodie Marsh crawls out of the Z-list dustbin and announces she's taken up bodybuilding. Some pictures of her flexing appear in the national press.
October 2011: Jodie unleashes her new muscles onto the British media - national newspapers, daytime TV - you name it, she's on it. A documentary about her bodybuilding journey airs.
January 2012: First evidence that Jodie's transformation has inspired women to take up the sport appears and is documented by Female Muscle Slave.
June 2012: A second documentary, Brawn in the USA, is aired in Britain, following Jodie as she competes in, and wins, a show in California. More positive press for her and the sport.



So what can we say now, about a year after we first reported on what we call 'The Marsh Effect'? Has the influence of Jodie's inspirational story started to wane, or is it burning brighter than ever?

We've been keeping a close eye on all things Jodie for the last six months or so, and well, we don't want to get too carried away, but I think it's fair to say that we have more than enough evidence to state that not only is The Marsh Effect real, but also that it has already produced some amazing results. It doesn't seem possible given the fact that the first of her two documentaries for DMAX only aired around fifteen months ago, but a woman inspired to take up the sport by that first round of publicity for Jodie Marsh as a bodybuilder has stood on the stage at the NABBA Universe.



After watching Jodie Marsh Brawn in the USA a while back she inspired me to join the gym and get 'hench'!
(bodybuilding.com forum member)

I’m not aiming for a body-building competition anytime soon but I would like to lose weight, tone up and find those abs which I know are in there somewhere (*prods belly*) so I’ve bitten that damn bullet and joined the gym. I’ve been through every fad diet, lost and re-gained weight countless times but never stuck to anything for longer than two weeks. Unfortunately I don’t think I’m alone in this endless cycle of misery so I’m going to do something about it, once and for all. Believe it or not (and please hold the gasps of horror) I have taken my inspiration from Jodie Marsh.
(TV presenter's blog)

The workouts have been tough, I won’t lie. They have left me feeling like I’ve never done any proper exercise in my life. I’m throwing sand bags around and lifting 70kg… the kind of exercises I thought should be left to Jodie Marsh, but my body feels great and I can already see a difference.
(journalist and broadcaster's blog)



The above quotes are absolutely typical of the kind of thing that turns up in your inbox when you set a google alert for 'Jodie Marsh +' (I know, we spare no expense in our hunt for information!). I included the third as an example of how, though she's not always explicitly mentioned as an inspiration per se, she is by far the most name-checked female bodybuilder in this country by women who are writing about beginning to lift weights in the gym and adjusting their diets accordingly.

And it's not just in my inbox that evidence of The Marsh Effect has turned up. Swell is delighted to report the evidence of his own eyes and ears. I know someone inspired by Jodie Marsh to take up weight training and start mixing up protein shakes.

I'm not about to post pictures of her on this blog - well, not unless she sends me some, and I'm not about to ask her to do that because that would be weird - she's a friend, an ex-colleague and because of her Marsh-inspired fitness regime (and you'll just have to take my word for this) she's looking about 100 times better now than she was about six months ago, feeling about 200 times better and her self-esteem and confidence have gone through the roof.

Meanwhile, viewers of the Active Channel in the UK may have already come across another Marsh-inspired story of transformation. In October 2011, an overweight mother-of-three called Rachel Turner was watching the UK daytime show This Morning...



I saw Jodie Marsh, she was giving an interview about her bodybuilding. That was my eureka moment. That was it, I would become a competitive bodybuilder. Clearly not one to do things by half, Rachel not only took up the same sport as Jodie, she actually called Jodie's then-trainer, Tim Sharp.



The following January (2012), having only been training with Tim for a little over a month, she made the decision to compete in the NABBA South-East contest that April. Rachel not only made it onto that stage, she finished second in the Toned Figure class and consequently qualified for the NABBA Britain in June. She finished 3rd, thus qualifying for the NABBA Universe.



In November, almost exactly a year after beginning her training with Tim Sharp, Rachel Turner stood on the stage in Southport and made the top six. And ultimately, it was all because she had seen Jodie Marsh and her muscles on daytime TV. If you need a better illustration of what The Marsh Effect has achieved, I don't know where you will find it.





So, if we return to the question posed at the start, I believe it's impossible to deny that Jodie Marsh is the most influential female bodybuilder in the UK today. In fact, I think we can go further than that, because she's almost certainly the most influential ever. She's far from being the biggest, the most successful, or by any conventional criteria the best female bodybuilder Britain has produced, but in terms of promoting the sport and inspiring her fellow women, there's no arguing with the fact that it's Jodie who has got the results.



See more of Rachel here, and read her story on her website.

You can catch up with the previous posts relating to Jodie Marsh that you might have missed here.

FBBUK: Sharon Madderson

Last weekend, Rosanna Harte flew the flag for the UK at the Arnold Amateur, but who was the first British woman to be invited to compete there?

Given the title of the post today, it probably won’t surprise you to find that the answer to that question is Sharon Madderson, who appeared there in 2010 and finished 4th (one place higher than a certain Katerina Kyptova) in a very competitive heavyweight field that was won by the Argentinian femuscle beast Rita Bello.


left: Arnold Amateur 2010; right: Chicago Pro 2012

That appearance was probably the pinnacle of her career (so far), and despite her disappointing placing in her most recent competitive outing at the Chicago Pro last year, I think it’s fair to say that Sharon can claim to be the most successful British female bodybuilder of the last 15 years.



Like Georgina McConnell, Sharon hails from the north-east of England, but unlike Georgina (and Kate Austin), who from a very young age wanted to be muscular, she didn’t take up the sport until she was 30, admitting she had paid little attention to her body until then. And it wasn’t a female bodybuilder who inspired her, but rather the men she saw once she had entered the gym.

I was truly amazed at what they could do with their bodies. I knew then that this was for me. After a short while I began to notice and feel the difference my efforts were making to my body, this incredible feeling helped to motivated me further.



One of the men at the gym was her future husband, Graham, and with his guidance, Sharon began to train to compete, making her debut in 1999 in a local competition as a figure competitor. She won that contest and later in the year became EFBB Miss Figure UK. The following year she was NABBA Miss North Britain, finished 4th at NABBA Britain and 2nd in the Figure class at the Miss International.

After a three-year break she returned to the stage, this time as a bodybuilder, winning the 2003 EFBB Miss North East overall title and finishing runner-up at the EFBB British Championships, before going on to the NABBA Universe and finishing 7th. Another three-year break, and she was back in action, now a heavyweight, as overall winner at the UKBFF Midlands, which she followed up with the UKBFF British title. Then another three-year break and she reappears at the 2009 IFBB European Championships and finishes 6th, which brings us up to 2010 and the 4th place at the Arnold Amateur.




But why all these breaks? Why, every time Sharon seemed to be on the cusp of an international breakthrough did she take three years away from competition?

Well, FMS can only speculate on the reason, but it’s certainly not because of the grind of training and diet. I thoroughly enjoy the contest preparation and the preparations before the show, she says. Perhaps then the reason is a more practical one, because Sharon has three children, and now two grandchildren.



Nevertheless, a pretty impressive CV for a UK bodybuilder. A long career, with plenty of success both at home, in Europe and ultimately in the US. In spite of the stop-start nature of her career, I can’t think of a female bodybuilder active today in the UK who can boast of such achievements. And anyway, are contest finishes the only measure of female muscle success? After all, how many 47-year-olds, indeed how many grandmothers, do you know who look this good?




We leave you today with a clip of Sharon from a UK TV appearance in 2009. If you don’t want to watch the whole thing (and there’s no reason why you should) Sharon appears from the 3.27 mark. Check out the presenter’s face after Sharon flexes her pecs for him – do you think we have another secret female muscle lover at the BBC?



Enjoy!

FBBUK: NABBA Women Do It In Thongs

Today, a selection of some of Female Muscle Slave’s favourite British NABBA contestants, and some NABBA trivia that may or may not surprise or interest you.

NABBA women compete in Toned Figure, Trained Figure (divided into two classes, dependent on height, at bigger shows) and Physique classes. The Physique class (the equivalent to the Bodybuilding class at NPC shows in the US) is, sadly, appearing less and less frequently, and for the last two years has disappeared from NABBA's longest-running international showcase, the NABBA Universe. However, there's still plenty of female muscle talent to admire, and NABBA women are always very tanned and very cut. Oh, and don't forget that all these women have day jobs. And they do it in thongs.

Nicola Bentham (Toned Figure)
2012 Miss Britain, Miss World and Miss Universe


She won every contest she entered last year, but there’s surprisingly little information about the lovely Nicola. We do know that 2012 was only her second year of competing, making her achievement all the more stunning.



Did you know...?
NABBA was formed in 1950, making it the oldest bodybuilding organisation in the world. The first Miss Universe, Elizabeth Lamb of England, was crowned in 1966. In 1986, separate Figure and Physique classes were introduced for women for the first time.

Jody Shuttleworth (Trained Figure)
2012 Miss England, 3rd Miss Universe Trained Class 1



Jody, originally from Bradford in Yorkshire, works with vulnerable children and families, a job so demanding that she initially started training simply to relieve the stress. That was 15 years ago, and she eventually started to compete in 2007. I am a shy person, particularly in front of large groups of people, she says. But this hasn't stopped her winning Trained Figure titles at the 2007 NAC Britain (her first ever contest), 2009 NABBA UK, and 2010 NABBA Britain, in addition to being the reigning Miss England.



Did you know…?
The current Miss Universe is Maria Kuzmina from Russia, the Figure Miss World is Lesley-Ann Armstrong from Northern Ireland, and the Physique Miss World is everybody’s favourite eight-pack goddess, Elena Oana Hreapca from Romania.

Sarah Hallett (Trained Figure)
2012 Miss Wales, 2nd Miss Britain Trained Class 1, 4th Miss World Trained Class 1



Despite being Miss Wales, finishing runner-up at NABBA Britain and her respectable finish at the NABBA Worlds, Sarah is determined to make an even better showing this year. I'm super-motivated [for 2013], she says, so all I can say is look out! I certainly will. And as you watch her routine from the NABBA Wales below, and appreciate her charismatic stage presence, you might like to think about the fact that Sarah is a firefighter.



Did you know…?
Christine Envall was NABBA Miss World three times, in 1997, 1998 and 2000. Giovanna Rosa of Italy won NABBA Miss Universe Figure four times in a row, from 1999 to 2002.

Sally Knights (Toned Figure)
2012 2nd Miss Britain, 3rd Miss Universe


Sally began bodybuilding just two years ago when her ex-boyfriend (who had been a competitive bodybuilder himself), told her she didn't have the bottle to do it. When someone tells me I can’t do something, it makes me even more determined, says the 35-year-old hairdresser who, like Jody Shuttleworth, comes from Bradford. My clients get really into it, watching my body change each time they come for an appointment.



Did you know…?
The global umbrella organisation NABBA International was formed in 1984, after which the World Championships started. It’s headquarters are in Melbourne, Australia.

Nicola Goodwill (Trained Figure)
2012 2nd Miss North-East Britain Trained Class 1, 3rd Miss Britain Trained Class 1


Time to reignite (excuse the pun) those muscle woman-firefighter fantasies, because that's what Nicola Goodwill does for a day job in Selby, Yorkshire (another woman from Yorkshire!). In fact, it's a job she has always wanted to do, first applying at 18, but having to wait until two years ago to make it through the selection process. Now 30, a tattoo on her left arm reads: Firefighters walk where the devil dances.



Did you know…?
Marie-Laure Mahabir was the first NABBA Physique Miss World, in 1986. Other winners include Deborah Compton (1993), Anja Timmer (1999) and Rahel Ruch (2007).

Cheryl Steele (Trained Figure)
2012 Miss Britain Trained Class 2, 3rd Miss World Trained Class 2


We found information on Cheryl hard to come by, but thanks to Muscle Memory we learned that she was NABBA Miss England and Miss UK in 2011. And we also know she is the wife of Dave Steele, himself a successful NABBA competitor in the Masters over 50 class. The couple that trains together...



Did you know…?
Notable Miss Universes include Erika Mes in 1980, Bernie Price from the UK in 1992, Andrea Izard (1994), Patricia Veldmann (1997), and last, but certainly not least, in 2007, Alina Popa.

Find out where your regional NABBA show will be happening in 2013 on the NABBA UK website. For other countries, the standard web address for NABBA organisations seems to be www.nabba.+your country's domain.

Enjoy!