Amanda Dunbar

by Hans - July 2003
Photography by James Cook

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Backstage at the Junior Nationals in Rosemont, Ill. Amanda Dunbar is sitting on a bench in a t-shirt and sweat pants, chewing candy, with a huge bronze trophy at her feet. She has just placed third in the middleweight class in her first national-level contest. But although it's just minutes since she stepped off the stage, Amanda is already talking about her next show.

"Next time I'm gonna be a heavyweight," says Amanda, who at 132 pounds just made the middleweight class at the Junior Nationals. "I'm going to put on 10 to 15 pounds of muscle and come back next year as a heavyweight."

The 23 year-old Amanda was the revelation of the 2003 Junior Nationals. Although she did not win the middleweights, she had the best shape and structure in a class in which the top two were 10 years older than her. In razor-sharp condition at 5-foot-4 and 132 pounds, with a spectacular v-shaped upper body, a tiny waist and beautiful lines, the buzz around the show was that here was a star of the future.

But as well as her beautiful shape and structure, Amanda has one other thing going for her: drive. She lives, eats, breathes and sleeps bodybuilding. She wants nothing more than to turn pro. So it's not surprising to hear her plan her next move within minutes of getting backstage.

"If I'm going to turn pro, I have to turn pro as a heavyweight, not a middleweight," she tells me a few days after the show from her home in Fort Myers, Fla. "I don't want to have to be small and be a middleweight, I want to be a lot bigger and be a heavyweight. If I can keep my waistline and put on some more size, my shape will really show."

Amanda Dunbar was born in Connecticut and moved to Cape Coral with her family when she was 10. She did gymnastics from the age of 4, reaching level 10. But even as a kid, Amanda wanted to be big. She remembers watching American Gladiators in the mid-eighties and being mesmerized by women like 'Ice' and 'Gold'. She had no idea they were bodybuilders; she just liked the way they looked. "I'd be like, 'That is what I want to look like,'" she says. "That's probably where it first started. They weren't that big actually, but they were very cut and they had round shoulders you could just see the muscle. Even then I just thought it was awesome to look at."

At 15, Amanda started weight training with her gymnastics coach, Beverly DiRenzo, to improve her strength. By the time she was 16, Amanda was benching 210 and wanted to go heavier, but that was the last thing Beverly wanted her to do. "I wanted to lift really, really heavy," Amanda says. "But they told me, "You can't because you'll get too big. You can't be a big gymnast."

Then, at the age of 16, Amanda broke her ankle. She needed five surgeries over the next four years to correct the problem, including a cartilage transplant from knee to ankle. She was on crutches for nearly a year, and put on around 30 pounds. "I went from doing gymnastics six days a week for at least four or five hours a day to being almost sedentary," she says. "I didn't know what to do with myself." As a result of the injury, she also had to turn down college scholarships that already been offered. "It was just a depressing time," she says.

The injury ended Amanda's gymnastics career, but it also kickstarted a new career in bodybuilding. At the age of 19, weighing 160 pounds, Amanda got back in the gym, and was enjoying being able to train the way she wanted for the first time. Shortly afterwards, she saw her old gymnastics teacher, Beverly DiRenzo, for the first time in a while. To Amanda's amazement, Beverly, who had been 5-foot-7 and 105 pounds, had decided to get big. "I walked in and I was like 'Omigod!" Amanda says. "She had put on, like, 20 pounds since the last time I'd seen her." Beverley took off her shirt and started posing, and Amanda decided there and then she wanted to be a bodybuilder herself. "I was like, 'Omigod, there's no way you're going to be bigger than me!'" Amanda remembers. "That was the day I knew I'm doing it."

Amanda did her first show, the Junior Florida, two years later in 2001 and won the middleweight and overall. She won the middleweights at the Southeastern USA later that year, and then took second in the Southern States last August. At the Junior Nationals, she was in her best shape ever. "I've put on 10 pounds of stage weight since my last show, which is great," she says. "There was a big difference in thickness and muscle maturity. Last year I overdieted. This year I held all my size, more or less, and looked a ton bigger onstage."

Amanda's plan now is to take time off, put on the size she'll need to be competitive as a heavyweight, and compete at the 2004 Nationals - "if I can wait that long." At the Southern States last August Amanda weighed in at 123. Just ten months later at Junior Nationals, she was in razor-sharp condition at 132 and thinks she probably stepped on stage at about 139 or so. As a heavyweight, she says, she would probably weigh-in at around 142 and carb up to 145 onstage. But Amanda is typically confident that she get there by the fall of 2004. "If I can put on ten pounds in ten months, I can definitely put on ten pounds in a year and a half," she says.

Amanda is lucky to have some great people around her: her boyfriend Mike; Elena Seiple, who was in Chicago to help Amanda through her first national-level show; and British pro Joanna Thomas, who sometimes trains with Amanda in Florida. And of course there is Beverly DiRenzo, who is now a national-level heavyweight herself.

At just 23 in a sport in which most women peak in their mid-thirties, Amanda's future looks bright. "Every year I can only get better," she says. "The more time I do it, the harder my muscles will get and the more defined I will be on stage and off-season too. I love it."

AMANDA ON: The judging at the 2003 Jr Nats: "The other two girls were a lot older and a lot harder. It's a big difference when you're comparing a 23 year-old with someone who's that much older. Their muscles look so much better than mine. I was happy. I think they judged it fairly well. One of judges gave me a first place vote, which is kinda scary." Her dreams: "My ultimate goal is to be 150 on stage. To walk around with a body that a pro has would be amazing - to know you look good and just be huge and shredded. I love that look. That's what I liked about Kim Chizevsky. I want shredded, but I think you can have shredded and still be feminine." Elena Seiple: "She was the biggest help and I owe her so much for being there. She was there my entire contest prep. Every single day when I was stressing out she was there to calm me down and make me feel like I didn't have anything to worry about. She knew I was right on track, but I didn't. She's very smart." Getting stared at: "I don't like it too much. Mostly I cover up, unless I'm in contest shape and I'm at a show or something. I don't like it. If you're going to stare, then at least say something. But just staring I cannot handle. At shows it's fine, because everyone there's to look at you, and that's the whole point of it you look good and you're there to celebrate it. But around town I don't like it, because people don't accept you for what you are." Competing as a heavyweight: "It's going to be a hard class. There's so many amateur women out there that are just so good - like Heather Policky. She is amazing, her legs are amazing, her whole body is awesome. There are so many women out there that have been doing it for years and all deserve a pro card. It's going to be a lot tougher than the middleweights."

 

Amanda's E-mail address is AJgilly3@yahoo.com
(Please be aware that Amanda is very busy and may not be able to respond to your e-mai!l)

Also, be sure to visit Amanda's website at www.amandad.com