Pain and gain: Inside the world of Australia’s female body builders

GOLD COAST, Australia — The first thing that hits you is the smell.

It is a near-toxic combination of aerosol cooking oil and a dark brown, thick tanning paste that backstage assistants nickname “Vegemite” — for its resemblance to the quintessential Aussie snack.

Hundreds of muscle-bound men and women smear themselves in both substances as they prepare for a state final on Australia’s professional bodybuilding circuit. The floor is slick and greasy. Many slide their way onto the stage.

The male competitors cut impressive figures, but for the judges and crowds alike, the women are the stars — by far.

“Seventy percent of bodybuilders in our competitions are female,” said Paul Graham, head of the International Federation of Bodybuilding in Australia.

Graham has been bodybuilding since the 1960s. His proudest possession is a photograph of himself with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the pair flexing their biceps in front of Sydney Opera House in 1975.

“In the past two, three years the entire industry has just become all about the girls. It’s unbelievable,” he said.

There has been an influx of Australian women into the country’s weight rooms, working away their soft stomachs and thighs to build new figures made of solid muscle.

“Normal girls are just jealous”

Their male counterparts’ efforts pale in comparison to the female body builders' sacrifice.

Competitors in the elite figure category cut otherworldly shapes in their minuscule bejeweled bikinis; with broad, strong shoulders, almost impossibly taught bottoms and ubiquitous breast implants jutting at unlikely angles on a shelf of pectoral muscles.

“We all get the boob jobs done in Thailand,” said a bleach-blonde competitor, adjusting her dazzling pink bikini.

“It is cheaper there and they’ll go bigger with the implants than doctors in Australia would.”

When men gain muscle mass it enhances almost every aspect of their masculinity, but for women the choice to bulk up is tantamount to abdicating traditional femininity.

Most of the professional women admit they have lost their natural breasts and their menstrual cycles after taking up the sport.

While few are willing to admit their use of testosterone in the quest to be fit, the dressing (or undressing) rooms at the competition show the telltale signs; deep voices, square jaws, shadows of facial hair.

Tiny bathing suits do little to cover their clitorises, which swell to double and triple their normal size as a side effect of the male hormone.

“That is my ideal body, right there,” said a brunette competitor gesturing to the woman who would go on to win the final of the figure competition.

She only had a moment to sigh as she scarfed down a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips.

After up to 12 weeks “cutting” their figures on minimal calories, mostly from chicken and broccoli, competitors feast on candy and salty snacks minutes before going on stage, to make their veins “pop” and muscles separate.

“People might look at us like we’re crazy or we’re freaks, but look at us,” she continued, gesturing at her slickly-coated abs.

“Normal girls are just jealous of this.”

While the women look physically strong, coach Laura, whose thick frame was clothed in an almost childishly small pair of dungarees, conceded that many were at their weakest, mentally and physically, on competition day.

“They are absolutely starving and tired, in the last week they really are down to minimal calories,” she said.

“There is a lot of cattiness between girls, a lot of fights, I don’t like my girls getting caught up in the drama.”

A minute later one of the biggest girls in the contest comes running from side stage, straight to a friend’s open, bulging arms.

“I-I-I didn’t get all my poses in,” she cries, mere seconds after appearing poised and triumphant on stage.

“All of this for nothing.”

As she weeps, her fake tan and eye makeup form wet, black streaks down her face. A friend fans her off with a shoebox lid from a pair of competition-standard Lucite stripper heels.

It takes a village to build a body

Bodybuilding can be an all-consuming sport, and no competitor arrives to an event on their own.

Pale sisters and brothers pat down the dark competition-regulated tans, boyfriends yell out praise as competitors go on stage and coaches, most former champions, bark out the number of poses.

Between hours of the gym, daily posing practice, macronutrient measuring, careful meal preparation and posting regular updates to social media, bodybuilding is a lifestyle.

Backstage at the final, when asked what their full time job is, around a dozen women answer “Instagram.”

For an elite few it is possible to make tens of thousands of dollars through fitness modeling, sponsorship from supplement companies and prize money. For most competing is a costly exercise.

It is hard to pin down why so many women want to change themselves and enter the world of bodybuilding. Although they are far from conventionally attractive, the women’s muscle mass is certainly impressive, a testament to human willpower.

The best answer may come from the competitor who ran crying off stage, after her eyes dried and she went on to win her division.

“I want to be strong,” she said.

“I think it’s beautiful.”

A photo posted by Lisa Carrodus (@lisa_carrodus) on Oct 15, 2014 at 10:19pm PDT