- Barbie Thomas, 37, lost both her arms aged two from an electric shock
- She has been competing as a bodybuilder, in Phoenix, Arizona, since 2000
- The stay-at-home mother trains every day around caring for her two sons
- She is now setting her sights on acting roles in Hollywood films
A mother who lost both her arms from an electric shock as a toddler has found a love of bodybuilding.
Barbie
Thomas, 37, has been competing against able bodied women in
bodybuilding for over a decade after a youth crammed full of dance,
soccer and swimming competitions.
The
mother of two says there is little she cannot do. She shrugs off the
amount of effort it takes to compete as a body builder and just like any
other family, she says raising her two teenage sons is hard work.
.
Barbie Thomas, centre, lost both her arms aged two and has been competing as a body builder for ten years
But anything that could
prove challenging makes her work even harder to achieve it, because she
says her biggest inspiration is being told she can't do something.
Speaking to the Huffington Post,
she said: 'Someone once told me that you know you can never win, and to
this day those words light a fire under me like you would not believe.
Because when someone tells me I can't do something I will bust my buns
to prove them wrong.'
Mrs Thomas lost both her arms
when they were burnt to the bone by an electric shock when she climbed
up onto a transformer and grabbed the wires with both hands.
She
was aged just two and her mother was distraught, but almost immediately
young Mrs Thomas learnt to adapt, holding out her legs to hug her
mother.
Mrs Thomas, pictured in the 2012 Natural Western
Regional Championships, says she has only ever won when she was the
only person in the competition
Drive: Mrs Thomas says her disability does not
stop her from doing most things, in fact when someone says she can't do
something, she is more determined to do it
Every day, the stay-at-home mother, who has recently gone through a divorce, goes to the gym to train.
She
does cardio in the morning followed by a routine of either weights,
dance, track training, lunges and leg exercises and of course,
practicing her competition routine.
In
her next competition, she plans to being out a new move to wow the
judges, a complete flip. But, according to the news service, she's
promised her mother not to do any tumbles, since this is how she has
previously hurt her knee.
Reliant on her legs and feet, Mrs Thomas says she dresses and prepares herself like any other person without any help.
Given
her disability, you might expect she would get extra help for her sons,
aged 13 and 17, around the house, but she tells the Huffington Post:
'They're teenage boys. I still have a hard time getting them to do
chores.'
Ambitious: She is now setting her sights on acting parts in Hollywood
In addition to her gym work, Mrs Thomas does some modelling and is now setting her sights on some film parts.
She
told the newspaper she was offered a part in the Steven Spielberg film
A.I. but had to turn it down because she was pregnant. She said limbless
actors were often used in Hollywood films where people are dismembered.
The inspirational mother is also giving motivational speeches to help others achieve their goals.
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