Bega's Michelle Martin is a national champion and now ranked worldwide.
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The 53-year-old recently topped the grade at the NBA National Pro-Am Bodybuilding Championships in Sydney.
In a division of competitors as young as 35, Martin blew away the competition in the physique category and was named national champion. She backed up the result with a second place result overall.
The results earned her a call up to test her mettle against the professionals and she still clinched third place.
Martin said she was ecstatic with the result and followed up the competition with an entry to the ICN World Championships in Melbourne last week.
She is now world ranked after finishing fifth in the international competition.
Martin trains by correspondence under International Federation of Bodybuilding [IFBB] pro Rose Black out of Dubbo, while she has the diet on lockdown working as a nutritionist herself.
"I'm a nutritionist so I'm on top of the diet," Martin says with a laugh.
"I'm constantly in touch with Rose via Facebook and Skype so I just train at Velocity in Bega and do my set workouts there."
Martin said she started bodybuilding three years ago after her 50th birthday.
"I had been 106 kilos and before my birthday I had lost heaps of weight and started training," she said.
"I had always loved watching bodybuilding - a fit body is a good looking body - and once I discovered how well I could build muscle I thought 'I should give this a go'."
Ever since taking up the sport three years ago she's never looked back, but didn't ever expect to find herself among the best competitors in the world either.
Martin said she had a great support network from her family with her husband, two daughters and four grandkids all supportive of her bodybuilding and regularly travelling to watch her compete.
Her sights are now firmly set on being competitive to have a crack at the Arnold Classic in Melbourne in 2020.
"I'm straight back into an 18-week prep for the Arnold Classic," Martin said.
"I need to grow a bit more and get a bit leaner."
Hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, Martin said she had been previously as a spectator, but the chance to compete and potentially meet Arnold was "bucket list stuff".
"That's the ultimate goal," she beams.
The Classic is an IFBB event and Martin said it would also be great to compete and see her coach in action at the same competition.
