Iron Maidens

What does it take to achieve a SUPERHUMAN BODY? Lori Cohen met women sweating it out to compete as BODYBUILDERS, and discovered just how tough you have to be to take home trophies

- Lori Cohen

It’s hard to believe that just four years ago 29-year-old Lee Binks weighed only 38kg. Petite and shy as a teenager, Lee says she drifted through high school and eventually settled on becoming a make-up artist. But at only 24 she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and a roller-coaster of treatments left her depleted and at an all-time low.

Her boyfriend convinced her to start training with him. ‘I wasn’t too sure I would like training, but I resolved to give it a try,’ says Lee. ‘It was a lot of hit-and-miss at first, finding what exercises I could do safely. Our greatest concerns were avoiding injury and not pushing my body too hard.’ Her progress was slow and painful, but small achievements and milestones slowly turned into larger ones. ‘I demanded more from my body, and my body responded. Exercise became something I looked forward to.’

With money being tight, Lee converted her garage into a gym using monkey bars her boyfriend welded across the ceiling and cement weights for deadlifts and squats. Then someone suggested she enter a competition. ‘It was the furthest thing from my mind, but we agreed that I needed to face another fear of mine and get on stage,’ she says. ‘Crowds always frightened me and I certainly did not want to be judged by a roomful of people. I didn’t know what to do or expect, but I was going to try it.’

Lee entered the Nabba Jozi Classic wearing a home-made bikini, and didn’t have a posing routine prepared. ‘The other women were beautiful, curvy and had long hair.

I was short, gangly and bald. Yet somehow I came third,’ says Lee. It was a turning point and she says she embraced her ‘different’ look. ‘I realised I could stand on stage and be weird and do my little dance and trip (which I do regularly) and still be accepted.’