Back  |  Email to a Friend  |  Print  |   Send in Your Comment

'I've got no arms- but I love bodybuilding!'

High-kicking and somersaulting across the stage, Barb Guerra flexes the muscles of her perfectly toned body.
The Texan mum-of-two regularly competes in bodybuilding contests – running, swimming and working out with weights six days a week to keep in shape. Incredibly, she does this despite having no arms, having lost them both in a horrific accident as a toddler.

“I believe you can do anything you set your mind to,” says Barb, 32, who’s been competing for five years. “You have to focus on the positive and never pity yourself. People tell me I’m an inspiration, but I just see myself as normal.”

Barb was just two when, while playing with friends outside her home, she climbed on top of a nearby electricity generator.  “I can’t remember anything about it,” she says. “But apparently I grabbed at some electric wires above the generator.

“Electricity entered my body through my hands and exited through my legs – I’ve still got scars from the burns on my legs.

“My arms were burned through to the bone – they were like charcoal and had to be amputated at the shoulders. I’ve got nothing at all on my left side, and just a tiny bit on my right side, which I call my ‘nub.’”

Doctors warned Barb’s mother Pat, now 52, that her daughter would almost certainly die – and that even if she did survive, she would be mentally disabled. Fortunately, Barb proved them wrong.

“My mother told me that she was terrified I wouldn’t manage without arms,” says Barb. “But after a week in hospital, she walked into my room and I stretched out my legs to cuddle her.”

Ever since, Barb has got through life by using her legs and feet in the same way as most people use their arms and hands.  “I’ve tried prosthetic limbs,” she says. “But I find it much easier using my legs. Because I was so young when I lost my arms, I adapted really fast and soon I could do pretty much anything with my feet – including eating, writing and even playing the piano.”

But her appearance led to bullying. “Kids always pick on something different, and when I was younger they would push me over. The taunts continued as I got older, but I was lucky that I had a small group of friends who supported me,” she says.

Barb’s parents also encouraged her, though her dad, Ben, 54, was more protective. “Mum wanted me to be independent and made me realise there was nothing I couldn’t do,” she says.

“When I said I wanted to swim, she found a coach to teach me. Later on, she encouraged me to drive – using my feet!

“She taught me to be ingenious. Now I don’t need help with anything – apart from squeezing into my tiny bodybuilding outfits!”

When she went to college to study occupational therapy, Barb really came out of her shell, and it was there that she met her first husband, Mark. “We married at 19 and I had a baby a year later,” she says. “I found the idea of being a mum daunting – but only for the same reasons as other women. I didn’t know how I’d cope with a baby relying on me 24/7.”

But as soon as Jordan, now 12, was born, Barb found ways to manage. “I could feed and dress him and change his nappies easily with my feet. The most difficult thing was bathing him, as they’re so slippery when they’re really little,” she says.

Barb went on to have Jared, now eight, four years later, but sadly she and Mark grew apart and split up. “At 24, I was suddenly a single mum of two, but I coped with my parents’ help,” she says.

Brave Barb not only coped, she decided to take up a new hobby – bodybuilding. “I was always into fitness – running and aerobics classes,” says Barb. “Then I started looking at fitness magazines for nutrition tips and I loved all the photographs of bodybuilders. I wanted to look like them.”

Barb began lifting weights with her legs and undertook gruelling cardio exercise sessions six days a week. Then, in 2002, she decided that she wanted to compete. “I rang up the organiser of a bodybuilding competition and asked him if I could take part,” recalls Barb. “He said I could, then added: ‘But you know you’ll never win.’

“That just made me more determined than ever to do well,” she says. “I started working out for at least four hours a day in the gym and ate a special high-protein diet. “The first time I competed was in July 2003. I was terrified before I went on stage – shaking and feeling sick. The stares from the other competitors didn’t help, either.

“But once I went on, and was flexing my muscles and doing my routine, I loved it. I was tanned and oiled up, just like everyone else. I could sense the audience doing double takes as they realised I didn’t have arms.

“I came last, but I did well and felt proud of myself,” she says. “I’ve come last every time I’ve competed, but I’ve set myself the target of doing better at my routine every time – and I’ve managed that.

“I used to be so shy about my body when I was being bullied. Now getting stared at for the right reason makes me feel so empowered.”

Barb has competed in 11 competitions so far, and her next one is in spring 2009. And she’s got the support of her fiancé, Quinton, who she met at a bodybuilding event two years ago. “I’ve been through a lot, but I’ve got two wonderful boys, a great fiancé and a hobby I love. So I say I’m lucky.”

By Mel Fallowfield