At first glance, Marella Diamond is one who may be easily misunderstood, even underestimated. While she has plenty to be happy about now - three beautiful children, a successful marriage, a sought-after personal fitness practice, and three national fitness championships under her belt, what you can see from the outside doesn’t begin to tell her story or include a fraction of the obstacles she overcame to become the woman she is today. Even in the most idyllic fairy tales, there are challenges to overcome before the happy ending.
These days especially, it is easy to judge a book by its cover. To look at someone’s life as if it were their Instagram -- a series of shining moments and personal triumphs. To reduce them to a list of achievements without understanding the sheer amount of drive, struggle, and personal effort it took to get them where they are.
So, going deeper, what led a busy mother of three to begin a solo training regime that would eventually see her become a three-times world fitness champion and elite personal fitness trainer? More to the point, how did a woman who “wasn’t passionate about nutrition, fitness & training”, and who admits “took years to build up the confidence to walk into a gym wearing activewear” even get to the level where she was competing and winning?
We can never really know, but perhaps there is truth in the old saying “What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.”
Surviving Adversity.
After a botched epidural, years of yo-yo diets, a Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) diagnosis, and a son learning to cope with autism, Marella Diamond understands that champions are made of experience, commitment, and dedication.
The fact that Marella was able to pursue a career in fitness at all is a testament to her strength of will. She didn’t have an easy start, and it could have all been over before she even had the chance to begin. During childbirth eight years ago, Marella found herself at the wrong end of an epidural anaesthetic procedure gone wrong. The anaesthesiologist accidentally pierced her spinal column, leaving a hole that had her and her family concerned she may never walk again.
Looking back, Marella says, “It was without a doubt the scariest moment of my life, not knowing if I would be able to walk again, all while having a three-year-old, another at 13-months, and a newborn depending on me.” Incapacitated, Marella remembers, “My newborn was in ICU for a week because I was unable to hold him or even sit up in bed.”
After a brutal week of surgical consultations and examinations, Marella’s doctors eventually decided to attempt to repair the tear. The procedure was successful, but her recovery was slow. “The surgery healed the hole in my spine, and I was able to walk again, but I was extremely weak with a painful lower back.”
A Dangerous Path.
Despite the reprieve, Marella’s health issues didn’t end there. Still carrying the weight of the pregnancy and unable to exercise due to chronic pain, she resorted to dieting obsessively. Ironically, the iron resolve she later channelled into her competitive fitness career worked against her:
“I tried every weight loss diet known to man. I was your typical yo-yo dieter with extreme weight fluctuations but, I certainly put in the effort! I was so determined to lose weight I committed to “the shake diet” for three months and lost so much weight I became not only unhealthy physically, but mentally as well - I began to fear any weight gain.”
The Silent Daily War.
Marella Diamond became fixated on the scales, unaware that she was well on her way to developing a serious eating disorder. “It had become a silent daily war with myself. I had no control over food and found myself back at square one more often than I’d like.” She would regain and lose weight in a seemingly endless cycle.
Adding insult to injury, it was during this period she was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), an often undetected endocrine disorder. Making things even worse, it was a condition frequently linked with eating disorders, accompanied by symptoms that include hormone imbalances, anxiety, and depression, and weight gain in women of reproductive age.
Taking Control.
It wasn’t until her eldest son reached kindergarten age that Marella had a chance to sit back and take stock of what she had gone through and consider her own needs and the future:
“It sounds so silly out loud, but once I got married, had children, I lost myself for a while. I was fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home Mum for many years, and with three children, all born within five years of each other, I had my hands full with no family support. It wasn’t until my eldest child started kindergarten and my youngest was in day-care two days a week that I found myself rediscovering who I was.”
With her introspection came a well-timed moment of epiphany in the form of another mother at her son’s school. After talking about fitness, her new friend invited Marella to visit her gym and share a session with her trainer. Despite her health and body image issues, Marella took a leap of faith. “I had never walked into a gym before and found it incredibly intimidating on my own.” She recalls that her misgivings quickly evaporated, “My one day a week shared PT session turned into my friend pulling out of her sessions soon after and me continuing with the PT twice a week.”
Marella Diamond had discovered her passion. She recounts that “By the end of the year, I was training five days consistently with group classes and one PT session a week.” Her newfound love of fitness didn’t stop once she left the training floor; she became as interested in the theory behind personal fitness as the actual exercise. “I couldn’t get enough knowledge, and I loved it! I became completely hooked on reading training books at night and studying programs, and I still am.” Having discovered something that grounded her and gave her purpose, Marella decided to level up.
Getting Competitive.
Taking the next step, Marella began preparing to compete in the ICN (iCompete Natural), Australia’s largest drug-tested fitness bikini and bodybuilding organisation. A national series with international reach, the ICN holds over 50 events across Australia annually and prepares athletes to compete in international events.
Marella is clear about what motivated her to take the step. “One of the most significant benefits of competing is that it gives me focus and fitness goals. I didn’t have to compete -- I chose to.” She is equally clear about why she chose the ICN. “I chose a natural federation because the bikini division was in line with my body goals of not being too lean - I was once marked down for having over-defined abs.”
Striking a Balance.
From the very beginning, Marella worked to strike a balance between her family life and training and competition. “My family didn’t sign up for the “Hangry” Mum, and I was mindful of fitting my training and nutritional demands into my lifestyle, including taking time out to go overseas on a family ski trip. Competing never stopped me from being a mum or social, and I’m pretty proud of that.”
She had come a long way from the woman who was uncomfortable in athletic gear. “At first, I was so far out of my comfort zone. It took a whole year to convince myself to compete wearing nothing but a tiny sparkly bikini on stage. No one - not even my husband - had seen me in a bikini because I hadn’t worn one in 18 years.”
In the end, Marella’s confidence and drive paid off. After 12 weeks of solo prep, and with her husband and children cheering from the front row, she says, “I walked away placing in every division that day, including one gold and two silver.”
The rest is history; the self-trained mother of three went on to win three ICN world titles, representing Australia on the international stage in 2019.
Life is What Happens While You Make Other Plans.
Confirming the adage “life is what happens while you make other plans,” Marella’s competition victories didn’t happen in a vacuum of perfect circumstance. She experienced her share of disappointments and challenges along the way as she prepped to win. She explains that, especially in the early years, she encountered everything “from coaches letting me down with restrictive and dangerous diets to one going MIA in the run-up to a competition.”
One crisis was, unfortunately, of a much higher level of magnitude. “My youngest son was diagnosed with Global Development Delay, Autism, and ADHD. That almost crushed me emotionally, mainly because I was uneducated and didn’t understand what that meant for his future.” As she struggled to understand her son’s needs and cope with the demands of his therapy, she almost pulled out of the competition she was prepping for until she realised that “taking the time out to train was therapeutic for my mental health.”
Everything Happens for a Reason.
Despite, or perhaps because of the roadblocks and obstacles she has had to overcome, Marella remains focused on the upside. “I truly believe things happen for a reason and make us stronger people for it.” The coaches who let her down, she says, gave her the motivation to be independent and to do things her way. “Never relying on anyone for my health and nutrition forced me to study.” As a result, she points out, “I did my training and nutrition, and I won three World Titles -- it wasn’t an easy task, but it is one I’m incredibly proud of.”
Not Just a Fitness Champion.
Because of everything she has been through and all that she has learned on her journey, Marella has a wealth of experience and empathy to offer her clients. Her fitness practice is not about preparing athletes for competition but about relating and building relationships that allow women like her to take control of their lives and bodies.
“I’m not just a mum who won three world championship bodybuilding titles without a coach. That is a great accomplishment and one I’m proud of, but my clients have no desire to compete, and having a six-pack doesn’t impress them.”
Instead, Marella says, “I’m focused on helping more women live better lives through practical nutrition, mindset and fitness. I’ve experienced many of the same problems other women may be experiencing right now about their physical, mental and eating regime. What I do is not theory; it’s real, practical experience”.
What Marella Diamond brings to the table, what truly sets her apart, is her knowledge of health and fitness and her ability to relate to her clients on many levels. “I’m about providing my clients with the insights I wish I had access to when I first started my fitness journey,” she explains. Her “battles with weight loss, juggling motherhood, starting a business and getting that work/life balance right -- of turning fitness into a lifestyle (and not the other way around), and overcoming the feeling of intimidation at gyms and not knowing where to start,” all coalesce to make her uniquely qualified to support others in similar situations.
Creating a Safe Space.
True to form, Marella again turned adversity into an advantage during the COVID 19 outbreak. She was home-schooling and no longer able to train her clients at the local gym due to quarantine restrictions, so she began converting her private training space into somewhere she could share everything she had learned.
To her, it made sense to take advantage of what she saw as an opportunity to develop a safe space for women who want to make a change in their lives. “I wanted to create an environment for women to train out of that was unique and welcoming.”
She succeeded well beyond her initial expectations. “The Studio is surrounded by bushland and the sound of bellbirds, so when the double doors open up, you feel like you’re training outside in complete privacy. It is the perfect space for women who feel intimidated by crowds and large commercial gyms. The result is a functional space that is beautiful to look at and use, she says. “Most gyms have a very distinct feel and look about them with dark colours, so I wanted to create a light and bright studio.”
For Women Only.
Created for women only, The Studio is “a mix of bespoke gym pieces handmade out of solid oak wood from Germany that sit alongside some very functional equipment like the Jacob’s Ladder, squat rack, lifting platform, leg extension, and sled and battle ropes,” The result, to quote a visiting photographer, is a “Celebrities Gym” because it is so artfully put together. More appropriately, perhaps, another client calls it the “Dream Lab.”
While she has had the privilege of training personalities from the local media and even models, that isn’t Marella’s focus or a prerequisite for becoming one of her clients. “I train everyone -- inspiring grandmothers and athletes right up to local Mums who have the goal of gaining their confidence and fitness back.”
Fad-Free Fitness Training.
At heart, Marella Diamond is a traditionalist when it comes to her training programs. She doesn’t resort to fads or promise meteoric gains. “I love introducing busy women of all ages to resistance training. It improves muscle strength and tone, protects your joints from injury while increasing your muscle-to-fat ratio. So, as you gain muscle, your body burns more kilojoules.”
She focuses on teaching her clients to create and live healthy lifestyles that suit their needs. “I don’t do or promote 12-week fat loss challenges. I don’t believe in “bulking” to build strength.” She also believes that while social media has its uses can also present a less than a positive message.
“Unfortunately, we live in a world where some “Fitness Influencers” constantly promote quick fixes with detox cleanses, supplements and skinny teas. I’m a bit old school and realise that fat loss takes time, building muscle takes time, getting strong takes time, and becoming the person you want to be takes time.” She is also working hard to “kill the stigma that strength training makes women bulky and unattractive.”
Enjoying the Results of Her Efforts.
Marella Diamond provides practical, live-able fitness training programs that deliver lasting results. It seems to be working. The Studio is booked solid based on word of mouth alone. “I’ve been blessed in that way - I didn’t have to set up a website or market my studio other than on my personal Instagram page.”
As she recently posted on her Instagram, “Maybe true happiness is when we are happy with ourselves.” Marella’s journey has undoubtedly shown that success and happiness are within reach, even when they seem distant. If you are thinking of beginning your fitness journey and want help from someone who has already been there, or even if you need some inspiration, check out @marella_diamond on Instagram to help get you started.
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