ALL HAIL THE QUEEN LENDA MURRAY

8-time Ms. Olympia Lenda Murray is still going strong as an advocate and role model spreading her wings of strength for women bodybuilders.

No one single female has had more impact on the sport of women’s bodybuilding then the Legendary 8 -time Ms. Olympia and Bodybuilding icon, Lenda Murray.

Even with eight Olympia titles, decades of disciplined training, entrepreneurship and personal challenges behind her, it is now, at 58, that she feels most powerful and has come into her own.

Working with Phoenix-based Wings of Strength, Lenda is an advocate for female bodybuilders. She cohosts Femme Flex Friday, where she interviews women competitors of all categories and highlights their experiences on stage and off – from posing and pay equity to relationships and clothes shopping for exceptional bodies. She feels more relaxed, more present than ever before. She is fighting for recognition for these athletes, and modelling what a healthy transition to a non-competitive and fulfilling life looks like.

Born and raised in Detroit, MI, Lenda attended West Michigan University. “I had two goals,” Lenda remembers. “One was to graduate,” (which she did in 1984, with a BSc Major in Psychology and two Minors in Practical Writing and Accounting). “The second was to be a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader.”

Lenda cheered at the varsity level for four years and also for the Michigan Panthers in now defunct USFL. When she made it through one of the Dallas cheerleading cuts, the troupe’s coach advised her to slim down before the next round, so she joined Detroit’s Powerhouse Gym not to bulk up but to lean down through cardio and light conditioning. It quickly became clear that she was destined for something else.

“At that point in time, there were very few women in the gym,” Lenda says. “I didn’t have a coach, but I was athletic, independent, disciplined. I made friends with bodybuilders and one of the pros at the gym, Ron Love, said: ‘You’re trying to do something your body doesn’t want to do. Your gift is bodybuilding.’ And that made me feel good.”The rest is history!

These days, Lenda starts her mornings with meditation. “It’s important to sit still, to know how to listen. I know when I’m in alignment and vibrating at a certain level. I understand how much power I have through that. The Lenda I am today is much more powerful than the Lenda I was when I was in my 20s and winning the Olympia.”

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