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Women Bodybuilders You Need to Know About

When we think of bodybuilding, we typically do not picture a woman. But when we do that, we are sorely mistaken and surely missing out on some amazing physiques. Typically, women do not want to work out with heavy weights and excess strength training for fear of looking “too big” or “too manly,” but the lovely ladies on this list sure know how to sculpt a six pack while still looking feminine.

From bodybuilding professional legends to Instagram models, these are the women you need to know in the bodybuilding world from the past and the present. The women on this list worked hard in the gym and in the kitchen to sculpt their dream bodies, and many even overcame psychological problems with eating disorders and body image issues. These women deserve a round of applause for all of the hard work that they have put into their bodies over the years.

Dana Linn Bailey

Dana Linn Bailey

Bailey will be the first to tell you that her accomplishments in competitions and her career mean nothing compared to how proud she is to have overcome her own body image issues, which she struggled with for a long time. Since then, she has become the first Ms. Physique Olympia and the first IFBB physique pro, owns her own gym and clothing line, and she has been featured in several magazines. She now runs a fitness website to inspire people on their fitness journeys.

(Image via Instagram)

Guusje Van Geel

Guusje Van Geel
Van Geel grew up as a gymnast and dancer, and later in life began weight lifting and sculpting her dream body. She is known for her social media presence with an Instagram page of over 400,000 followers and a fitness YouTube channel of nearly six thousand followers.
(Image via Instagram)

Denise Masino

Denise Masino

Masino’s bodybuilding career lasted from 1994-2007. Her biggest win was in 2003 when she claimed first place in the Night of Champions competition in both the Lightweight and Overall categories. She also had a career as a model and was also voted the “Sexiest Bodybuilder Alive” by Iron Man magazine.

(Image via Pinterest)

Linda Durbesson

Linda Durbesson

Durbesson is not a bodybuilder for competitions, but instead, she trains because it is what she loves to do as a personal trainer who also has an Instagram following of over one million. She is French and moved to the United States to be with her then-boyfriend, and now still lives in the States to continue her career as an athlete.

(Image via Instagram)

Brooke Holladay Ence

Brooke Holladay Ence

Ence is a bodybuilder, fitness model, and CrossFit athlete and trainer. She has competed in several CrossFit competitions and has even come out with some first, second, and third place titles. She follows a strict fitness and nutrition regimen, and because of that, has a physique even most men could only dream of having.

(Image via Pinterest)

Rachel Livia Elizondo McLish

Rachel Livia Elizondo McLish

McLish is a retired bodybuilder and has also appeared in a couple of movies and has authored a couple of books. From her story, it looks like she didn’t always think about becoming a bodybuilder, although fitness was important to her. She was encouraged by her fitness club business partner to join bodybuilding competitions, and in her only four-year career, she never placed lower than third in the competitions and even won the first competition she ever entered.

(Image via Pinterest)

Gladys Portugues

Gladys Portugues

McLish actually inspired Portugues to become a bodybuilder. When Portugues was in college, she saw McLish’s many victories and wanted to start a muscle training regimen herself. While she did not quite amass the same fame as McLish, she still consistently placed in the top 10 at the Ms. Olympia competition.

(Image via Pinterest)

Oksana Grishina

Oksana Grishina

Grishina is a retired gymnast and current bodybuilding fitness competitor. Her career began in the early 2000s and is still competing even in 2020. She has won several first and second place titles in her professional career, and looks great! In her forties, she doesn’t look a day over 25.

(Image via Instagram)

Chyna

Chyna

Chyna, also known by her birth name Joan Marie Laurer, was a professional wrestler, model, bodybuilder and author. She made her debut in 1995, and her career lasted until she retired in 2011. Chyna was renowned for being “the most dominant female competitor of all time,” according to the WWE, and her legacy will last a long time. Sadly, in 2016 she passed away from an accidental drug overdose at the age of 46.

(Image via Pinterest)

Krystal Lavenne

Krystal Lavenne

While Lavenne may have been on the bodybuilding stage before, she now would rather be known for her acting and modeling. She still maintains her very muscular and athletic physique, as you can see on her Instagram with 25,000 followers, but she would rather build up her IMDB page than her competition wins.

(Image via Instagram)

Rachel Cammon

Rachel Cammon
Cammon is an IFBB figure professional and figure coach. She is open on her Instagram about struggling with eating disorders in the past, and now she trains to build the muscle on her body for her ideal figure rather than treating her body unwell. The International Federation of Bodybuilding does not take their professional level lightly, so she really had to work hard to get there.
(Image via Instagram)

Lisa Marie Varon

Lisa Marie Varon

Lisa Marie Varon, also known by her ring names of Victoria or Tara, is a retired professional wrestler, fitness competitor and bodybuilder. She began her career in wrestling and bodybuilding in 2000 and officially retired in 2019. Varon has held several Champion wrestling titles and was pushed by none other than Chyna to pursue her career as a wrestler.

(Image via Pinterest)

Erica Cordie

Erica Cordie

Cordie is a natural bodybuilder, which means she stays away from using performance-enhancing drugs. She first got into bodybuilding when she was young. Cordie loved to ski, but when she was 17, she blew out her knee so badly that she could never ski again. Through her physical therapy in rehabilitation for her injury, Cordie fell in love with muscle training, which led her to later enter into bodybuilding competitions.

(Image via Instagram)

Eva Andressa

Eva Andressa

Andressa is a Brazilian fitness competitor and model. She is known for winning and placing high in several of the most popular competitions in Brazil and for her modeling for different fitness brands and magazines. She is recognized mostly now through her Instagram page where she has a following of six million people.

(Image via Instagram)

Marianna Komlos

Marianna Komlos

Marianna Komlos’s bodybuilding and wrestling careers only lasted about a year each, but she gained a lot of recognition for her beauty and strength. She even won a couple of champion titles. Komlos tragically passed away from breast cancer at the age of 35 in 2004.

(Image via Pinterest)

Larissa Reis

Larissa Reis

Reis is a bodybuilder and model from Brazil. She is also a businesswoman and owns her own restaurants in the United States. She has competed and placed highly in several competitions throughout her career in Brazil and in the United States. She was even chosen as a Playboy Playmate. Reis is now married, a mother to young children, and has chosen to focus more on being a nutrition coach, as shown on her Instagram page with over half a million followers.

(Image via Pinterest)

Heidi Vuorela

Heidi Vuorela

Vuorela is a bodybuilder that is best known for being one of the hottest female bodybuilders out there. She has nearly 80,000 followers on Instagram and biceps that could maybe even make the Rock jealous. She is also a mother of two children, Hugo and Wilma.

(Image via Instagram)

Rebekka Lynn Armstrong

Rebekka Lynn Armstrong

Armstrong is a fitting last name for a bodybuilder and wrestler, and it isn’t even her stage name! Armstrong was a professional bodybuilder from 2004 to 2009 and was the Playboy Playmate of the Month in September of 1986. In September of 1994, she came out as HIV-positive in that month’s issue of The Advocate. Since then, she has done her best to bring awareness to AIDS through multiple campaigns.

(Image via Pinterest)

Sara Piana

Sara Piana

Sara Piana is an Icelandic bodybuilder, mostly known for her marriage to Rich Piana and the drama of their relationship rather than winning competitions herself. The two were married in 2015 at the Mr. Olympia competition. Drama surrounding Rich accusing Sara of only marrying him for a green card, and Sara accusing Rich of lying led to her growing fame. Unfortunately Rich died in 2017, and Sara posted that she was saddened by his death.

(Image via Instagram)

Jodie Marsh

Jodie Marsh

Marsh is another natural bodybuilder, as well as a media personality, columnist and model. She has appeared in a number of reality TV shows, including her own Totally Jodie Marsh. Although she is more known for her media presence, she has competed as a bodybuilder and won the INBF Bodybuilding Championships in Los Angeles in June 2012.

(Image via Wikipedia)

Rasa von Werder

Rasa von Werder

Von Werder is an interesting combination of stripper, bodybuilder and evangelist. She has won the title of Miss Nude Universe and has competed professionally as a bodybuilder. Her evangelism comes from her beliefs in a matriarchal religion which takes common feminism to a whole different level. She has even published books on the topic.

(Image via Pinterest)

Debi Laszewski

Debi Laszewski

Laszewski had a long bodybuilding career from 1994 to 2015. She has placed highly at the majority of her competitions and has even won two championships as the overall winner. Even though she has not placed as high as she would like in several other of her competitions, she is still considered the third-best in IFBB Pro Women’s Bodybuilding ranking.

(Image via Wikipedia)

Nikki Fuller

Nikki Fuller
Nikki Fuller had a bodybuilding career of nearly 11 years. At her peak, she stood 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighed 200 pounds. She won several championships during that time and became an actress once she decided to retire. From 2001 to 2004, she even ventured into the world of professional wrestling.
(Image via Wikipedia)

Anne Marie Lasserre

Anne Marie Lasserre
Lasserre is an Australian bodybuilder and fitness icon. She began her career in the early 2000s and has won several Australian competitions and even the NABBA Universe Figure title in 2009. She has produced fitness DVDs and on Instagram shares fitness tips and motivation for other people as into fitness as she is.
(Image via YouTube)

Renee Enos

Renee Enos

Like several other women on this list, Enos struggled with body image and eating disorders before bodybuilding helped her find the confidence she needed to overcome those issues. She now boasts over half a million followers on Instagram and an insane physique that she achieved naturally through hard work in fitness and dieting.

(Image via Instagram)

Jane Mukami

Jane Mukami

Mukami wasn’t always a perfectly fit bodybuilder. She is very open on her website and Instagram about her struggles with weight and her consideration of getting liposuction back in 2011, that was until she finally found her perfect personal trainer that helped her get her dream body without the need of liposuction. This inspired her to enter bodybuilding and fitness competitions, and in 2014, she launched her fitness and inspiration website and now has almost 70,000 followers on Instagram.

(Image via Instagram)

Bakhar Nabieva

Bakhar Nabieva

Nabieva is an Azerbaijani bodybuilder with three million followers on Instagram. She lifts weights and builds her body for her bikini competitions, but she is currently not training for any specific competitions. She does not like the strict diet and exercise regimen required to win those competitions, but she is clearly still training as evident by the revealing pictures she shares on Instagram.

(Image via Instagram)

Jennifer Rish

Jennifer Rish

Rish grew up with a focus on health and fitness from her parents. She eventually became a registered nurse, which only encouraged her healthy habits more. Rish did gymnastics and danced when she was young, but slowly began lifting and gaining muscle. In 2008, she competed in two fitness, figure and bodybuilding competitions.

(Image via Facebook)

Nicole Bass-Fuchs

Nicole Bass-Fuchs

Nicole Bass began her career as a bodybuilder in 1985 and continued until 1997. She won several bodybuilding championships throughout her career. Once she retired from bodybuilding, she became a professional wrestler until she retired in 2000. Not only was she a bodybuilder and wrestler, she was also an actress and had some guest appearances on several soap operas. Bass sadly died in 2017 at the age of 52 from a heart attack.

(Image via Pinterest)

Moorea Wolfe

Moorea Wolfe

Wolfe grew up doing intense gymnastics practices and competitions from the moment she could walk to when she was forced to quit because of a back injury. Since her childhood was focused on fitness and competitions, she wanted to continue that interest and start training for fitness and bodybuilding competitions.

(Image via Pinterest)