In her 40s, Gaynor Bickley struggled to walk up the stairs. A decade later she competed at a bodybuilding show
When Gaynor Bickley was in her mid-40s, she realised that she hadn’t exercised since teenage netball classes at school. This stark realisation – and that she was so unfit she was struggling to put her socks on – led to her booking a week-long fitness bootcamp.
“I’d hit a block in my life. I had two grown up daughters, I’d been working full time and bringing them up and always put myself on the back burner. It was a mixture of being too busy and exercise not being on my mind; I didn’t focus on my health. I was at my heaviest weight of 21st, and I was struggling to get up the stairs,” the 57-year-old says.
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Bickley, who works in IT, remembers the exact moment that she knew something had to change. “I saw somebody in an Asda car park. They were struggling to push their trolley and when I looked at them, they were not old. It was their physical condition [that was making it so hard]. I stood there and thought: if I don’t sort myself out, that’s going to be me.”
She had always known that being obese could increase her risk of chronic conditions, like diabetes or cancer. But she says, she had secretly thought “it would never happen to me” but as she got older, she knew it was increasing the risk.
That bootcamp, which was 13 years ago, turned out to be a brutal turning point for Bickley’s fitness journey. It included six hours of exercise a day and if she attempted to skip a class, the staff would come and retrieve her. That week alone, she lost 10 pounds. “It switched something on in me,” she tells The i Paper.
In the decade since, Bickley has dabbled in different areas of fitness, from using the cardio machines at the gym and partaking in “body pump” classes to becoming the leader of a running club in her home county of Derbyshire.
Gaynor Bickley says the gym has given her confidence and made her feel younger (Photo: Phil Lynam/ The Boardroom Studio)
“I decided I wanted to start running and I came across a nearby club. It started with a handful of five or six people but it ended with 70 turning up each week to run with me. I was a middle-aged overweight woman and people related to me.”
Although Bickley’s fitness journey had started, and she’d lost almost five stone, she didn’t lift a weight until seven years later – aged 52. She was inspired by her ex-partner, who was preparing for a bodybuilding show – he introduced her to a coach. After seeing (and loving) the process he was going through, she decided she’d try herself, so while on holiday in Egypt she booked herself a session.
By way of motivation – and holding herself accountable – Bickley announced her weightlifting plan to her 300 Instagram followers. Within nine months, she gained more than 50,000 followers online. Most comments on her social media are positive, and hundreds of women tell Bickley that they feel inspired by her journey and have joined the gym.
In the last year, nine months of it spent on bodybuilding prep, she’s lost another five stone by eating non-processed food. Her daily meals were switched to four small portions every few hours, including yoghurt, chicken, rice and vegetables. “I have always generally liked healthy food, and always been on some sort of diet but not in the same way as a prep,” she says.
Bickley competed in November, aged 57 (Photo: Photo Arts By Jay/PCA)
Five times a week she strength trained, everyday she spent an hour on the stairmaster and walked 17,000 steps. She gave up snacking, sugar (aside from occasional fat like almond butter to support her hormones) and gave up drinking.
Her life isn’t so extreme now but her diet and training regime remains strict at five times a week weightlifting and four healthy meals per day.
Friends have struggled to understand her discipline, and why she wasn’t drinking alcohol or too busy to meet up. Her mother was also worried about the rapid weight loss.
Online, she has been trolled. “People think bodybuilding should only be for the elite,” she says. “It’s given me confidence. I no longer feel like a wallflower, I can walk into a room and hold my head up high and I feel like a different person. I’ve always gravitated to black trousers and big tops to hide myself, but now I choose bold colours and nice clothes. I feel younger.
Being in the gym as an older woman never bothered her, and she loved it from the start. “I’ve never felt out of place. It’s very male-dominated, but I’m used to working in the male-dominated world of IT so it didn’t phase me. I have had gym anxiety in the past, but bodybuilding gave me a purpose. I was doing this for me. I’m doing my thing, I don’t care who’s looking.”
Although she didn’t get a placement (first, second or third place) in her show in November, she’s continuing with her fitness journey, working on building her strength and increasing her calories, so she can compete again this year. “Overall it’s been a fantastic journey for me, and I just want to see where it takes me. This is just the beginning, not the end and the aim is to win one eventually.”