Natalie Joyce joins ‘revenge bodies’ trend

Some are looking to reinvent themselves, while others just want a challenge, but they all have one thing in common.

A sense of empowerment that comes from displaying their sculpted, tanned physiques in a bikini — the results of countless hours of training, a strict diet and immense willpower.

This week, Natalie Joyce proved looking good is the best revenge when she not only debuted her dramatic body transformation but won two medals at a local body-building competition.

Approaching her 50th birthday, the mother of four — who separated from former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce after his affair with staffer Vikki Campion — looked in the mirror and thought, “I’m not going to let someone else’s appalling behaviour derail me. So I joined the local gym, and I’ve never looked back. And I’ve always wanted to compete in a body-building comp.”

Ms Joyce, who was applauded on social media for giving “the biggest proverbial middle finger you could give” after the very public split, is among a growing number of Australian women to embrace body-building.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott’s daughter Frances, a personal trainer, has also competed as a sports model and bikini fitness model.

WA fitness model and body-building champion, Elle Blackwell, said the sport had grown “exponentially” in the seven years she had been competing.

“It’s great because it means more women are getting on the gym floor and lifting weights — when that used to be more of a thing that men did,” she said. “They all have their own beautiful stories. It’s so inspiring.”

Ms Blackwell, 37, pursued body-building when “adulting” got on top of her. “I stopped putting myself first, and I wanted to feel better. It’s done things for me like strengthen my resilience, improve my confidence, improve my strength physically and mentally and made me a happier person,” she said.

She has been placed in all 13 competitions she has entered and is now a fitness coach through Living Beauty Fitness. “We get a lot of women from different age groups who want to feel better all around, and look awesome in a pair of jeans,” she said. “We get women who are mothers, who are juggling businesses with looking after kids, and for them it’s 45 minutes to an hour and a half a day where they can do something for themselves.”

Responding to critics who say the industry is unhealthy, Ms Blackwell said: “There’s always going to be extremes in every sport, but if you find the right coach it can be really empowering. We take a holistic approach, we don’t use fat burners or excessive supplements or low-calorie diets and we encourage meditation, yoga and rest.”

Ms Blackwell said she respected Ms Joyce for turning something negative into a positive.

Lionel Chow, who co-owns Osborne Park gym Force Fitness 24/7, said interest from women in body-building had soared. “Five years ago we would see maybe one in 20 women we train look at competing and now it’s way more popular,” he said. “We’re getting ladies in their 40s and 50s looking to compete, saying ‘it’s part of my bucket list’. They want to experience the feeling of being on stage, in a bikini.”

He said the women he trained had demonstrated huge physical and mental strength, and spent several months on a fitness and diet regime to get into shape for competition.

Lizza Gebilagin, deputy editor of Women’s Health, said transformation through exercise gave women a sense of control.

Several years ago, after going through a “horrible break-up” and a death in the family, she signed up for a mixed martial arts challenge.

“For me it was the first time I backed myself, it gave me a feeling of incredible power, in the cage but also it filtered into other areas of my life,” she said.

“I find that women love that. With fitness it’s something they control, when they do something they never thought they could do ... It’s a huge sense of empowerment.”

University of WA body image law scholar Marilyn Bromberg said the focus should be on how women who underwent such transformations felt, not looked.

“If (Natalie Joyce) finds empowerment and strength in body-building, that’s her business. She’s clearly been through an emotional tsunami of epic proportions and she should do what she wants to do to try to recover,” she said. “People should do what they want with their bodies, as long as they’re healthy.”

Mr Joyce was reluctant to weigh in yesterday, saying: “I’m not even going to start going to that space ... I don’t think there are any votes in speaking about yourself.”

When pressed, he said he was also keeping fit: “I go for a swim. I’ll do that as soon as I can.”