Female bodybuilder with a lot more than just aesthetics

When Carmen Brady started pumping iron 40 years ago, girls were a rare sight in a gym—especially girls who wanted to build muscle.

It didn’t take Brady, now 56, long to figure out bodybuilding was a passion. By age 18, she was working as a personal trainer and, within 10 years, she became a professional bodybuilder.

In 30 years of bodybuilding, Brady has competed in more than 40 contests and has been on the covers of fitness magazines, including Muscle & Fitness, Flex and NPC.

A mother of two, she is now a personal trainer at Gold’s Gym, 35 S. Stephanie St. in Henderson, just off Interstate 215.

Brady has been the only competitor to win both junior titles in the National Physique Committee competitions. She has competed in NPC USA since 1988 and won an NPC Masters title as well as a Masters title at the International Federation of Bodybuilders North American Championships.

Before she began her 15 years of training with bodybuilding guru Charles Glass, Brady began building a passion for pumping iron at the age of 16 and began to personal train two years later, in 1973.

“Within a couple of years, they assigned me as the head trainer. I was the teacher then, and I taught all people how to train other people,” Brady said. “I created the first water exercise classes and first floor classes.”

Brady started to train for competition eight months after the birth of her first child, Tim. With her second child, Krystal, she continued to train during her pregnancy.

“I have had leg workouts that were worse than the delivery,” Brady said.

Brady even would have the baby cradle next to her, while lifting weights at the gym. After losing her 23-year-old daughter Krystal to a motorcycle accident, Brady’s motivation was the fact that she would improve every year and have that feeling of strength. If she weren’t at the gym, she said, she probably would reorganize all of the furniture.

Aside from competing in national competitions and going through a tough loss, Brady has a love for antiques and surfing and an interest in acting.

“When I would go to travel for my shows, I would go to the antique stores there and ship stuff back home,” she said. Her antiques have been featured in Dinnerware, Pottery & More, a collector’s book by well-known dealers and 20th-century glass and ceramics authorities Joe Keller and David Ross.

She also played Starla in the 2004 movie Napoleon Dynamite.

Mixed martial arts fighter, actor and stuntman Roman Mitichyan said it’s unfortunate that there aren’t more female bodybuilders in film.

“Nobody ever sees a female bodybuilder in film, because they tend to get typecast,” Mitichyan said. “It is unfortunate, because we see male bodybuilders, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, playing a hero, but we rarely see that with the female bodybuilders.”

Although she has a large fan base in the Middle East in countries like Pakistan and Istanbul, Brady said she was not accepted in the United States, because she was a female bodybuilder.

“In early years, when they didn’t really understand,” Brady said. “There were people who would yell crazy things, because they were uneducated, and they thought you were a freak.”

Women bodybuilders are not as hyped as much as male bodybuilders are, said Jennifer Delgado, Brady’s friend and a fellow trainer at Gold’s Gym.

“I don’t think judges find as much interest in women bodybuilders as they do men bodybuilders,” Delgado said. “It varies from different organizations and competitions, too.”

“Women bodybuilders are viewed as freaks, but they do have many admirers and respect for their hard work and dedication,” Delgado said.

While having had to deal with obstacles throughout her career, according to Brady, people are more open-minded today.

“Now, everybody knows what you’re doing, and they respect you,” she said.