“I love challenges and I love to push myself to my limits,” says Yellowknife athlete, Diane Marin. “Although your physique can look great, you can always aspire to do better or improve. And it’s always nice to have a goal.”
Marin, 31, was the only athlete representing the Northwest Territories at this year’s Alberta Summer Naturals bodybuilding competition.
She came third in the women’s wellness category, a new subdivision of the competition catered to women with genetically larger legs, hips and glutes. This also means that she qualifies for national-level competitions.
“There are no competitors that come from any of the three territories besides me,” she says.
“Inspiration really comes from within,” she says. “I have this understanding that my goals are my own and I never want to be like someone else.” (Photo courtesy of the Canadian Physique Alliance)
Marin has been competing on this stage for three years and noticed that because of her ancestry, she really sticks out from the competition.
Marin is half Inuit; half French and has lived in Yellowknife most of her life. Her Inuit name is ᐸᐅᖓᑦᓈᖅ (Paungatnaaq).
“I know that the way I was raised, out on the land, influenced how my lifestyle is now,” she says.
Marin was raised off grid, where she had to haul water, drill holes in the ice, cut wood, set fish nets and even gas up the generator at a young age.
She notes that her exposure to dog mushing also played a vital role in her development.
“I built a lot of skills and muscle the way that I was raised.”
Marin pictured with her first skinned wolf. (Photo courtesy of Diane Marin)
Before pursuing bodybuilding, Marin was a varsity track athlete and wrestler focused on her sport – until she fell in love with lifting.
After graduating from the University of Lethbridge with a Bachelor’s in Kinesiology, she said she needed a new challenge to pursue.
“I was finally able to appreciate, now that I wasn’t in competitive sports, this beautiful mix of athleticism, muscle, femininity and beauty” that bodybuilding brings, she says.
Being a bodybuilder is a full-time job says Marin, every day revolves around your workout schedule.
“You have to measure your food, you have to cook your food, you have to time your meals, you have to drink a certain amount of water by a certain time, you have to train with a specific intensity and really prepare yourself every day and for the next day,” says Marin. “Consistency is a big one, and you have to go to the gym when you don’t feel like it, and you have to eat when you’re full.”
Catch Marin at the Racquet Club every day at 5 p.m. (Photo courtesy of Diane Marin)
As a way to balance her strict training regiment Marin takes to the bush to recharge her batteries.
She says she spends a lot of her spare time out at her cabin, where she loves to canoe around Great Slave Lake and have bonfires alongside her dog, Loki.
“It brings me so much inner-peace, calmness and clarity, that I feel reset and like there’s equilibrium again,” she says, “it always makes me feel good to connect with the land, to connect with what’s around me and really log off of everything.”
Marin says being out on the land and in the gym
are two important aspects to her rigorous lifestyle.
(Photo courtesy of Diane Marin)
Looking ahead, Marin says she’s working towards building even more muscle mass so she can compete again in 2026, this time to compete in a pro qualifier, which would give her the chance to go all the way and compete on the national stage.
Marin notes that some are intimidated by the gym setting but she wants to encourage youth to get out of their comfort zone and try it.
Although she’s not opposed to being a coach or a mentor one day, Marin says she’s having too much fun to stop now.
“A big thing about bodybuilding is that I’ve fallen in love with the journey rather than the destination, and I think that’s the key to living a healthy lifestyle year after year.”
