Isabelle Turell
by Hans
May
2005 - When Isabelle Turell stepped onstage at the 2004 Nationals in Dallas a month
after her 25th birthday, it was one of the most eagerly awaited
national-level debuts by any female bodybuilder in a long time.
Ever since winning the heavyweight and overall at the Excalibur in
California a year earlier, fans of women’s bodybuilding had been touting the
girl from Orlando, Fla., as a future pro. She had incredible mass and
thickness for her age, she was aesthetic, with an awesome v-taper, and, as
anyone could see from the contest photos, she clearly knew had the ability
to get in phenomenal shape.
Unfortunately, Isabelle’s prep didn’t go as well as she had hoped, and at
5-foot-4, she finally came in at 170 pounds (compared to 140 for the
Excalibur 12 months earlier), and placed ninth in the heavyweights. “If I
would have been on course and did what I had to do, I think I would have
came in a lot better,” she says. “I was mad at myself but it’s a learning
lesson. It made me stronger and wiser, and gives me motivation to train hard
and bring in the best condition I can at to my next show.”
With the experience and the extra motivation she gained in Dallas, look out
for Isabelle to be challenging for a top five spot at a national level show
in 2005. “She should do great,” says veteran heavyweight Lora Ottenad, who
competed with Isabelle at Nationals. “She is plenty big, she just needs a
bit more detail and to be harder, but that all comes with time.”
Isabelle Selena Turell grew up in Tampa, where she played a lot of sports in
high school, including nine years of competitive soccer until torn knee
ligaments ended her career. She also played softball and volleyball, ran
track, and wrestled. But although she was athletic, she didn’t like the look
of bodybuilders. “I really wasn’t a fan,” she says.
Her attitude to bodybuilding changed when she was 20 years-old. She was in a
relationship with a guy who constantly put her down, telling her she was a
loser, that she would never be anything. One day, something inside her just
clicked. “I don’t know what happened,” she says. “At that point just I
wanted to do something that I never done before.” She called her friend
Sonia Howe, a bodybuilder, and started lifting. “All I could hear in my head
was my ex-boyfriend calling me names,” she says. “I just wanted to prove to
my self that I can achieve anything that I put my mind and heart into,” she
says. She now says that it was “the biggest and best change of my life.”
In June 2000 – just two months after starting training - Isabelle did her
first show, the Orlando Muscle Classic, which happened to be promoted by
Sonia. Weighing in at 121 pounds (she was 164 when she started training),
the 20 year-old took first in the middleweights and tied for the overall.
Isabelle spent the next three years putting on size, and by the middle of
2003 she decided she was ready to do a national qualifier. The only one left
that year was the Excalibur in California. Isabelle knew it would be a tough
show, but decided to give it a try. She exceeded all her expectations by
winning the heavyweight and overall. The day before, she had found herself
doing in Bill Dobbins’s studio in LA for a photo shoot. “I was like, ‘I
can't believe my eyes,’ she says. “’I am here with Bill, who has shot so
many wonderful bodybuilders.’ I was like, Omigod.’”
Although she didn’t place as high as she had hoped at Nationals, Isabelle
says it was a great experience. “I met so many wonderful people,” she says.“All the girls were wonderful backstage.” Isabelle was also impressed at the
intensity of the women competing at this level. “You can tell how bad they
want it,” she says. She now plans to do the USA in Las Vegas in July,
possibly even as a light-heavyweight, and says she plans to be more“refined”, with more separation and detail in her shoulders and arms. “I am
going to bring back the shape I had at the Excalibur,” she says. Eventually,
Isabelle says, she would love to turn pro and compete at the Arnold Classic
one day (Arnold, along with former Ms Olympia Kim Chizevsky, is one of
Isabelle’s two role models).
Alongside competing as a national-level bodybuilder, Isabelle is currently a
full-time forensics student and hopes eventually to be a forensic
psychologist. She is also in the process of opening a gym and nutrition
store in Orlando. Whether she’s at the gym or at the mall, Isabelle gets the
usual stares and comments that most female bodybuilders get, which she says
she just ignores. “I just focus on the positive,” she says. She loves the
attention that goes with being a bodybuilder and loves being able to wear
things that are revealing and not feel insecure about it. But the best part
of being a female bodybuilder, she says, is the reactions she gets not from
adults but from kids - like her 10 year-old sister Erica, who she says is in
love with her physique. “It puts a big smile on my face when a child looks
at me in amazement and says, ‘Wow! Look at those muscles!’”
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