(Source) “Barbie Thomas lost both her arms at the age of 2. She was playing outside her Texas apartment complex and climbed onto a transformer, grabbling on to the wires. The electric current traveled through her little body, from her hands out her feet, burning her arms to the bone.

“They were like charcoal,” she writes in her biography on her website, Fitness Unarmed “They were completely dead and had to be amputated at the shoulders.”

No one expected Thomas to live. But today, at 37, she has accomplished what was once regarded as the impossible: Thomas is a competitive body builder and model.

“I thank God I am alive,” said Thomas, who now lives in Phoenix with her two sons, aged 13 and 17. She uses her shoulders as arms, which her children call her “nubs.”

Barbie Thomas does not miss leg day at the gym, which I guess is pretty crucial when you don’t have arms. This is obviously an inspiring story but is this legal? I have to imagine there is nothing in the bodybuilding rulebook that states you must have arms, but come on. Every other competitor has to make sure their entire physique is perfect. Not Barbie Thomas. Abs and legs. That’s it. Contestant #3 doesn’t have toned biceps? Barbie Thomas doesn’t have any biceps. Either way, good for you Barbie. All is fair in love and armless bodybuilding.

– Ryan

P.S. The fact that a woman with no arms is in better shape than me really ruined my day.