My name is Gisela Arenas. You can call me "Gise". I come from the South American country Argentina, born in a city called Rio Cuarto in the province of Cordoba. I am proud of my recent achievements in the fitness world and thank my parents for teaching me the core values of life and the importance of a disciplined and healthy lifestyle.
If you put muscles on a beautiful body, you will get a beautiful body with muscles! Bill Dobbins
But my path to getting fit and healthy wasn't an easy one. I became a single mother at a young age, which required my years of working double shifts a day. I started living such an unhealthy lifestyle that I developed a stomach ulcer, and that convinced me that I needed to drastically change my lifestyle. My mom was a huge inspiration and as a former Argentine bodybuilding champion, it was she who introduced me to the fitness lifestyle and ultimately to competition. Which I think pretty much saved my life.
My mother told me about the Fit Bikini: “Baby, this category was invented for you! Bill Dobbins
I've always been a very active young girl and my parents taught me the ability to discipline myself and set positive goals. I was looking for a way to reduce stress and put some time and effort into improving my body and my life. In 2012, the bikini fitness category was just getting started. My mom told me, “Baby, this category was made for you!” So I started working out in the gym and slowly the weights began to change, develop, and my body to shape. Also, my mind was much calmer! Gradually, I began to see how all the hard work was paying off and I was very pleased with the results!
Looking good in the gym is good for me - but that doesn't mean I don't work out at full intensity. Bill Dobbins
These positive results have piqued my interest in health and wellness, and in adopting and promoting a healthier lifestyle. That's when I realized how everything is related - your mood, what you think, what you eat, how you train and how much rest you get. While I was under a lot of stress and at one point bordered on depression, training for bikini fitness changed everything.
"The training for the competition not only developed my body, it also helped me psychologically." Bill Dobbins
In addition to my workouts at the gym, I began to realize that diet and nutrition were essential to developing a superior body. But it's also important to develop the discipline necessary to put all of this knowledge into practice. And as anyone who competes can tell you, sometimes the diet part is a lot harder to manage than the exercise.
To put all of this into practice, I participated in several national bikini fitness competitions in 2012 and won the title of Argentine Master, which qualified me to participate in the Arnold Rio de Janeiro, an important competition in the world of fitness and mine first international event.
Whether figure or bikini or whatever, you still have to train like a bodybuilder. Bill Dobbins
I then represented Argentina at 4 world championships (Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and Canada).
I made it into the top 6 of the 2014 World Cup Quebec, Canada and I'm proud to be the first Argentinian bikini fitness athlete to be a World Cup finalist.
I am really very grateful for the opportunities that life as an athlete has offered me.
I was able to travel the world and get to know many different cultures.
I'm also so grateful to work with great sponsors and companies like Jan Tana and Aquapacific.
In 2018 I came to the USA to see the Mr. Olympia in Las Vegas! That vacation resulted in a decision that changed my life. I enjoyed my time in the USA and training in the fitness mecca (Gold’s Gym. Venice) so much that I made the big decision to stay.
Bill Dobbins
I have qualified as an IFBB professional and train at Gold’s Gym in Venice under the guidance of bodybuilding professional Silvio Samuel. As far as I'm concerned, there are no limits to the improvement of your body other than those imposed on you by your natural genetics. And you don't know what it is until you work hard enough and long enough to face it. So I plan to continue my career as a competitor, consultant and trainer and see how far I can go and what I can still achieve.
