Moms with muscle: B.C. women inspire through body building
Posted February 8, 2022 7:38 pm.
Last Updated February 8, 2022 7:48 pm.
Parveen Toor and Sandy Dosanjh wear many hats: mothers, daughters, friends. But the Metro Vancouver women are also competitive bodybuilders.
They say their respective fitness journeys have brought them happiness — as well as accolades and medals. Having benefited from the support of others along the way, they say it’s important for them to share their stories as a way of lifting other women up, and showing them what’s possible.
Punjabi Women’s proved many times can do anything, @PreetChandi10 first to reach South Pole @HarnaazKaur first @MissUniverseus, still South Asians not accept much women to see in bikinis competition. 2 Pbi mothers breaking barriers @OMNIpunjabi pic.twitter.com/yhqIvncdX9
— Prabhjot Kahlon (@PrabhjotKahlon) February 8, 2022
Toor, works as a coach and a nurse, and is a single mom of three. Putting in long hours in the gym meant she had to carefully plan out her days and nights — during a time when COVID meant her job had become increasingly unpredictable.
“There’s never enough time. Staying awake to check my kids’ agendas, to do home reading, and make it to all their sports. I had to plan out everything I had to have meals planned, rides planned. I think I had at least a dozen family and friends just helping me,” she told OMNI News, adding she recently had to make the difficult decision to leave her husband.
“He took a different course; a change in his life that didn’t align with my morals and values. So, he chose the path of drugs and alcohol. I couldn’t support that anymore because it was compromising my safety, the children’s safety, and our family safety.”
She says not everyone understands why she spends so much time pursuing her goal of being a competitive bodybuilder, and she’s faced some judgment.
“I think the community and just people in general, they don’t understand what it is that we do and why we do it,” Toor adds.
“It’s the same thing as anybody being a master baker. They make cupcakes, and they’re perfect, and they’re this shape and they put them in this foil. It’s the exact same thing as a bodybuilder. You have to build your muscles a certain way, display them a certain way, stand a certain way. It’s all about display, but it just so happens that that is your art. So if your art form comes in cooking, reading, writing or bodybuilding — it’s just what you like to excel in, whatever your niche is, or whatever your passion is.”
For Dosanjh, athletics and exercise weren’t really something women and girls were encouraged to pursue.
“I came from a village. I was actually born and raised in Punjab, when I was actually growing up, I was never allowed to play sports,” she says.
Dosanjh eventually met her husband, a bodybuilder, and she was inspired to work out. The first time the mom of two stepped on a treadmill, she hated it. She gave the whole thing 30 days. Fast forward to today: she’s a personal trainer and says she’s in the best place she’s ever been. Still, she also says people don’t always understand why she’s so dedicated to pursuing this goal.
“I still hear lots of stuff where they are saying, ‘What is she doing? Why is she doing this?’ What does she want to prove?’ I’m not trying to prove anything. I’m doing this for my kids.I don’t participate in putting other women down. Or talking about other women. I try not to do that. I mostly focus on myself. When I focus on myself, I feel like everything around me actually comes together and it helps me to live my life.”
