SINGAPORE – On April 26, 2025, Ms Mayda Jutahkiti stood backstage at Kreta Ayer People’s Theatre, in a sequinned red bikini on five-inch heels, her well-honed muscles gleaming under spray-tanned skin.

She had practised her bodybuilding poses to perfection over the last four months with her coach. But performing under the bright stage lights and in front of an audience was quite another thing.

“When they called my name and I first stepped on the stage, my legs turned to jelly,” she says, recalling how she walked onstage mincingly to avoid falling.

Ms Jutahkiti was not just a first-timer in the women’s bikini novice category at the Physique & Muscle War 2025 bodybuilding competition.

At age 50, the mother of two was 21 years older than her only competitor, aged 29, who went on to win in the category. She was also the only competitor in the women’s bikini masters 40+ category.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the female participants in Physique & Muscle War were aged below 35, says Ms Sabrina Ang, chief executive of Fitness Movement, which has been holding fitness modelling and bodybuilding competitions for the past 11 years.

Since 2023, she has seen a few participants above age 40, including a 60-year-old. 2025’s event had four registered female entrants across all age categories.

As more midlife women are now working out, Ms Ang hopes to see “significant growth” in the event in the next two to three years.

Ms Jutahkiti’s bodybuilding journey grew out of her frustrations with the sudden and inexplicable changes she experienced in 2023, including brain fog, mood swings, low energy, disrupted sleep and anxiety.

“It was frustrating because I’d always been able to push through challenges, but this felt different – like I was losing control of my own body and emotions, to the point where I was suffering from anxiety and mild depression,” says the managing director of public relations firm Elliot & Co. 

Ms Jutahkiti takes her surname from her Thai father, who is now a Singaporean.

After much research, she realised she was experiencing perimenopause, the sometimes tumultuous transition years before a woman’s periods stop completely.

Strength training kept coming up in her research as one of the best ways to manage her physical and mental symptoms, so the former casual gym user started hitting the weights regularly.