Is this Britain's strongest woman?

IT'S an all-too-familiar scenario. A group of women sit eating their lunches, complaining that however much they diet, the weight doesn't seem to shift. As they swallow down their low fat food, they gaze longingly at the skinny girl's lunchbox, overflowing with cakes and biscuits. "You're so lucky," someone says. "I wish I was like you."

Most young women would take this as a compliment, revelling in their ability to stay slim without even trying. But when people said it to Elaine Bell, it provoked the opposite reaction. "I was sick of being skinny so I thought, 'I'm going to go to the gym to put some weight on,' and that's what I did," she says.

When she first started working out, Elaine, from Peterlee, weighed 8st 4lb, not disproportionate to her 5ft 3in frame. Yet she describes herself as "a proper mouse", lacking not only in bulk but also in confidence. Nine months after enrolling at the gym, she went to watch her first bodybuilding show, and was instantly hooked. "I thought, 'I really want to do that,'" she says. "I trained hard for the following year then entered my first bodybuilding competition in April 1994."

Standing on the stage, showing off her sculpted body to the judges, Elaine felt a sense of pride in herself she would never have thought possible. When she won, she was euphoric, and that year, she went on to enter five more competitions.

By now, she had built up a densely muscled physique and to maintain it, she developed a strict exercise and nutrition programme. Over the past ten years since she started bodybuilding, this has become integral to her preparation for competitions and consequently, to her life. "I eat eight high protein meals a day," she says. "It works out as about 24 egg whites, four to six chicken breasts, one to two tins of tuna, baked potatoes and fruit. It's very bland and tasteless but I know it does me good so I do it."

Elaine restricts herself to this diet, which she supplements with vitamins and protein drinks, for 20 weeks before a competition. She says she has become so used to it that it hardly changes, even when she's not competing, and when she does lapse from it, she finds sugar too sweet and salt too salty. But she admits that it can be hard to maintain. "I crave everything, even just a slice of bread. I'm only eating protein and not getting carbohydrates, so I end up light-headed and don't sleep properly," she says.

When preparing for a competition, Elaine, 39, will typically be at the gym for 3am. She'll do 50 minutes of cardiovascular work, returning in the evening for weight training. In bodybuilding, judges look for the "cut" or "ripped" look, where muscles show clearly through minimal body fat, so that is what she aims for. They also like good overall condition and body symmetry; a small waist and nice shaped back and prominent veins - Elaine accentuates hers by "pumping up" backstage at competitions. It's an extreme look, emphasised by a photograph of her fleshless, sinewy back, and she says the downside is having skin no thicker than tissue paper.

Over the years, Elaine's dedication has paid off, making her three times British heavyweight champion and three times middleweight champion. But after taking a year out, she has now transferred her energies to strong woman competitions. "Last year, I got a phone call where I trained asking would I like to do Britain's strongest woman," she says. "I only had three weeks' training and I ended up tearing a bicep but I was determined to do it. I came second in the British and third in the UK competition."

Elaine says she loved pushing herself to her physical limits in the competitions, which she has entered again this year, while admitting that they are "a bit mad", requiring her to lift a garden shed full of concrete slabs, pull a Jeep and flip a tyre. This time, she has the luxury of her own gym to train in after fulfilling a long-held ambition by opening Bodytalk Health and Fitness, in Shotton Colliery, in January.

Next year, Elaine hopes to devote herself to the gym full-time, building on its success to further expand it. But in the meantime, she continues to work as a training officer for the manufacturing firm TRW in Peterlee, her employer for the past 16 years. She admits to attracting odd looks from trainees encountering her for the first time but says that generally, her colleagues are supportive. "I'm always getting offered arm wrestles at work. A lot of people ask for advice about how to emphasise their chest or shoulders," she says.

Elaine says she attracts the same benign interest from the wider public, with people staring at her in a bikini on holiday. While she's confident in competitions, with the bright lights and adrenaline, she is otherwise naturally shy, so avoids drawing attention to herself. She speaks softly and resists showing her body, preferring to train when the gym is quiet.

Although she's aware that her bulk may intimidate people, she says that when they get to know her, they soon relax, and it's telling that about 70 per cent of Bodytalk's members are women. "I think people think that bodybuilders are really aggressive but they are often sensitive and just hiding behind their bodies," she says.

Elaine's own sensitivity is reflected in the way she runs the gym. While the desire may be alien to her, she recognises that most women want to lose weight, and is more than happy to help them do this. She understands that they don't want to build muscle, and has positioned her machines to allow maximum privacy while exercising.

Yet there's no escaping the fact that whatever feminine traits she has, Elaine's physical presence is distinctly masculine. With her 15-and-a-half-inch biceps, short hair and solid powerhouse of a body, it can hardly be otherwise. At first, I find her appearance slightly disconcerting, contradicting, as it does, my ingrained notions of femininity. I imagine that despite what she has told me, it must be a barrier and wonder how her family, in particular, has come to terms with her bodybuilding. "My dad's old-fashioned and thinks women should be doing womanly things but he's proud of me," she says. "My mum comes in the gym on a Friday and runs the hoover round but if she sees me training, she panics."

Despite its unconventionality and while knowing that she won't always be able to maintain it, she is happy with her body. She doesn't spend hours in front of the mirror and, like everyone, has insecurities, but generally, she's content with the way she looks.

"There are still things I would like to change but I'm much happier now than in the past," she says.

l Britain's Strongest Woman takes place in Kent today, while the UK's Strongest Woman, which will be televised, takes place in Ireland on June 26.