À la recherche du chaude et dure perdu: Denise Hoshor

REMEMBRANCE OF HOT AND HARD PAST

7. Denise Denise

This photo should, in my opinion, be the first photo inducted into the (at the time of writing, mythical) Female Muscle Hall of Fame. Today I’m looking at it and it feels as if I’ve never noticed the veins in her forearms before. Every time I look at the photo, it seems to stimulate my imagination in a different way. It’s like I’m seeing her for the first time every time. And what a sight she is! Denise’s WPW sets are the most popular of all time, so she has a reasonable claim to be the fan’s favourite fbb ever, her body and her almost magical sex appeal fulfilling a kind of collective notion of perfection.

As far as I’m concerned, everything she did as a bodybuilder was magic, but two moments stand out. First, Denise in Hawaii, posing in a purple bikini and white heels in public. She’s in incredible shape. Huge and chiselled from head to toe, oozing feminine sex appeal. As the crowd (of men) watching her grows, the more provocative and sexier her posing gets. The second is in a tiny segment of a GMV video (can’t remember which, I bought it and threw it out so long ago now, and have never found the exact clip). She’s at an Expo, strutting through the crowd in a tight, sleeveless black dress. The GMV camera person asks her to flex, and when she does, there is stunned silence from behind the camera. She flexes one last magnificent bicep, holds the pose, and looks beyond the camera. Good? she asks, raising an eyebrow. There’s no reply. Whoever is holding that camera has been struck dumb. She smiles, and struts away.

And we leave this week of memories with a beautifully edited tribute to Denise, courtesy of jerrymail (who also brought us the “Denise in Hawaii” clip linked above). The title, Denise Hoshor Sexy, is as good a three-word summary as you will find.

Enjoy!

HOT and HARD 2015 LAST DAY OF VOTING IS TODAY

Obviously I’ll take time zones into account, and to be honest, if you are a bit late, I’ll still accept your votes (especially if you are all complimentary about the blog), but please, as soon as you can so I can start to put the posts together. Many thanks to all who have voted so far. You make the Hot and Hard 100 what it is, a thing of beauties!

Inspiration, rules and how to vote here.

À la recherche du chaude et dure perdu: Michelle Neil

REMEMBRANCE OF HOT AND HARD PAST

5. Dr. Feelgood

In a short, and sadly long lost, clip from around 2006, a Femflex (I think) crew is shooting contestants back stage. A vision of incredible, heart-stopping size and conditioning, her hair as golden as her tan, starts flexing for the camera. They ask her her name. Without skipping a pose, she tells them. Then, there’s a fairly long pause (these clips were generally quite chatty affairs). Off camera, a kind of awed silence for this amazing specimen, punctuated by assorted gasps and wows while she just keeps flexing, her muscles rippling, bulging, exploding. Finally, one of the crew speaks.

You sure are gonna be hard to keep out of the top three.

She looks over a thick, shredded shoulder at the offending crew member.

I’m gonna be hard to keep out of the top ONE, she says.

That was my introduction to the wondrous Dr. Michelle Neil, one of those women, one of those bodies, that seemed to arrive fully-formed. Even when she was still competing at regional level she had the ability to make experienced female muscle watchers turn to jelly – as this clip where Dave Palumbo claims to be interviewing her but just kind of drools intead will testify (scroll down a bit, it’s there).

Michelle seemed to know she was special, and that confidence – I don’t think it counts as arrogance if you really are the best – combined with her spectacular physique to make treasures of each and every one of her photo sets and video clips. I could have chosen one of her posing clips from her 2007 Nationals triumph, or some of her work with Awefilms. There’s that Femflex “Mini-Movie”, six minutes of Michelle’s muscles close-up and bulging out of a tight black dress, or an FTVideo webcam clip where she displays muscle control (pecs, abs, glutes) that still moves me to this day.

In the end, I plumped for a photo set by the often forgotten (and now gone) bodyelite.net with Michelle’s aptly elite body, you might say, packed into a little black dress – probably not so little on your average woman, but if ever there was a woman who was not average (and not just physically), Michelle was she.

Sadly, as I’m sure many of you already know, the light that burned twice as brightly burned only half as long, and Michelle gave up competing soon after she had won her pro card. She was the victim of massateric hypertrophy as (apparently) that freakishly overgrown jaw thing is known in medical circles, which is where, incidentally, you will find her now, still practising at her clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Perhaps the secret of her enduring appeal (apart from the presence, the confidence, the body, the insane muscle control etc.) is that her brief career keeps us ever keen. As one forum poster and Michelle devotee gushes, Michelle, you should be among the stars with your heavenly muscular body, especially that back, that face, those eyes of blue and golden hair! And then adds, there are two things I wish I had: photos of her workout routine and some topless shots! See? She left us wanting more.

Lawdy I am enjoying these posts even if no one else is!

Another day, another memory tomorrow…

THREE DAYS OF HOT and HARD VOTING LEFT!

Review last year’s list: 100 to 81, 80-61, 60-41, 40-21, 20-11 and the top 10 on FMS passim, or download PumpItUp’s Hot and Hard 100 2014 pdf.

Rules and how to vote here.

Spot Virginia Competition

This month’s winner reaches out and touches Virginia’s lats…

It could be you. Really. For your chance to feel Virginia up while she works, complete the following sentence in 100 words or less and send it with your name and location to spotvsmcontest@femalemuscledreamscometrue.com

I would like to be Virginia’s spotter because…

Winners will be notified by 25th February and must be available to claim their prize in person in Madrid between the 2nd and 29th March. Open to over 18s only.

Good luck!

Swell Digs: Passion FBB

If you are looking for the big girls, and I mean the really big girls on Tumblr these days, there’s only really one place where you’ll find them – with regular updates and without self-reverential snide comments anyway. Pdgde, or, as the homepage is entitled, Passion FBB, has just a single word in its description: Bodies.

It’s a description you can’t fault. Bodies is most certainly what you get. There are old school bodies (fans of Laura Binetti, for instance, should definitely explore the blog). There are bodies in the gym, veins popping, muscles pumped and swollen to their limits. There’s glamour, candids, comparisons, contests, selfies, scans… And a lot of it is stuff I haven’t seen elsewhere. Original stuff, rare stuff.

Recently, the blog has also featured the author’s own edited clips. Ten or twenty seconds edited out of a longer clip, they are sort of extended gifs. Super gifs, if you like. Examples: Sheila Bleck – here – and an unknown pair of thighs (huge) – here.

And the title, Passion FBB, too, is thoroughly appropriate. You can sense (well, I can sense it anyway) the author’s passion for these incredible specimens in the sheer variety and scope of big, bold and beautiful female muscle on display. I can’t get enough of it. It’s a wondrous collection he’s putting together. And, it’s also relatively recent (beginning last August) and a work in progress that, like the women it features, gets bigger and better with every passing day. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Go explore. Go follow.

Pdgde “Passion FBB”

Svensk Muskel: Angelica Enberg

I remember where I started. I did not look like this then.

Angelica Enberg is a figure competitor with lofty ambitions. She finished 5th in her class at this year’s Swedish Nationals, a class she describes as containing women of “brutal quality”. Her contest prep is more fraught than most because she is a type-1 diabetic and so has to constantly monitor her blood sugar levels. She likes a selfie more than most, and it is her penchant for revealing more than most in those selfies that has brought her to the attention of the female muscle lovin’ brethren. She’s just 22, and as cute as a button. And she’s the last of our svenska muskel kvinnor this week.

ANGELICA: IN HER OWN WORDS

I’ve done so many team and individual sports since the age of 9. They’ve always been a lot of fun and I’ve always been good at them. I last gave up football two years ago and subsequently bought my first gym membership, and there I began to slowly but surely build up an extreme interest. Extreme is the word!

Training is, and has been my life since I was 9, my life. It allowed me to survive my tough childhood. From being so depressed and destroyed at such a young age, through training I’ve built myself up into a strong person.

After finishing 5th at the Swedish National Championships: It was a 5th place for me! I’m satisfied. It is, after all, the Swedish National Championships!

On Dani Reardon, posted to Angelica’s Instagram: My #WCW! [Woman Crush Wednesday] I’ve been following you for a very long time and I admire your hard work. One day I will have your results. I’m chasing you!

I will tell you something… I like the attention. I do! And I’m not shy about admitting it. I think almost everyone, no matter how you market yourself, it feels good to show off what you have achieved. People feel good to be praised for what they do… You would never want to spend 15 hours a week at the gym, if you couldn’t show off what you have accomplished. I want to be able to showcase my hard work.

Sometimes people ask me, “How long time will you do this for?” and I just stand there, shake my head and say, “It is a lifetime journey.”

New goals are set. I’m definitely going to come back bigger, stronger. It takes a LOT of time to do everything clean. But it’s not impossible, and I’m gonna show you that. Time to improve.

Follow Angelica on Instagram, her Facebook fan page and/or her blog.

Njut!

Svensk Muskel: Hanna Öberg

At 1.57m (a touch over 5’1″) Hanna Öberg demonstrates that good things come in small packages, or bra saker kommer i små paket as (I believe) they say in Sweden.

A former football player, Hanna started strength training in 2008. This came to be my only hobby, and football was left on the shelf after just a year, she says. I started to keep a training diary and the gym became my refuge. Then after a few years I decided I wanted to get on the diet for real and the results started to come.

At first, Hanna competed in Athletic Fitness, which in Sweden, it seems, involves rounds where the women do chin-ups, dips and a flat-out minute on the rowing machine, as well as a ‘physique’ (posing) round. But last year she decided to switch to the Bodyfitness division, admitting to feeling “super nervous” about the prospect of having to walk on the stage in heels. T-walk… OMG! Nervous is the right word. Last year it was easier. Black bikini, barefoot, and NO T-WALK!

All the heel-walking practice paid off though. At the Luciapolken (Lucia Trophy) show in Gothenburg in December, Hanna finished 2nd in her class (the shortest!).

Last Sunday, wrote Hanna during her preparation for the contest, I put an image on Instagram five weeks after the previous image. It is precisely these kinds of contrasting images that provide as much motivation as anything to just keep doing it – the early power walks, the post-workout cardio – to see how the hard work at the gym delivers results and see how my body is changing from week to week.

Why not follow Hanna on Instagram and see for yourself?

Njut!

IK Rules, OK? VII

SHE’S A LADY

The lady with the “TOLD U SO” number plate.

IRIS SEZ…

Whatever it takes to find the real you, don’t be daunted if the rest of the world looks on in shock. Just keep on keepin’ on. Go for it.

EVERYBODY LOVES IRIS

Even the woman she has beaten into second place more times than any other!

DAT BACK DOE!

Pumping up back stage animal style… is how Iris describes the image below.

OK, OK, of course there are some effects, but really, look at that. Look closely, look long. It’s not just the insane size, the incredible detail, the height of those damn traps… It’s everything you could want in a female bodybuilder’s back. Best for last.

In contest shots it’s both the size and the detail that gets me, but some of my favourite images of Iris’ back are “from behind” candids, those where she isn’t even really flexing it at all. Her back seems to be spreading right across the Earth.

Her best, and also her favourite bodypart. SWWWOOOOON! Dat BACK doe!

KYLE BY NUMBERS

Iris’ last contest was the 2014 Ms Olympia on 19.9.14.

Her tenth win came with a winner’s cheque for $22,000.

Her competitor number for the contest was 13.

KYLE IN MOTION

IRIS KYLE 2014 Ms OLYMPIA

And here is her last ever routine…

IRIS SEZ…

I truly believe [having] fans is a privilege, and I’m honoured that each one of my fans supports me as they do. I love you. Thank you so very much for being a part of my life, my preparation… everything.
Thank you!

Olympia 2014 Review: The MUSCLE

The other day, when we profiled all five female winners at the 2014 Olympia, I may have had you spitting out your breakfast cereal by saying I was impressed, yes, impressed by the muscularity of some of the fitness and figure competitors.

MUSCLE IN FITNESS


Regiane Da Silva, Whitney Jones, Fiona Harris & Amanda Hatfield (previously Amanda Swallow – remember her?)

My surprise that there was so much muscle in the, let’s say, ‘smaller’ divisions – and note I’m not talking about the bikini girls here – has nothing to do with these women suddenly getting big, and everything to do with my own ignorance. At any other show I go straight to the female bodybuilders, spend some time with the physique women, and pay little or no attention at all to the fitness and figure contests. But this year’s Olympia was different. I’ve pretty much watched all there is to watch of the contests from bikini to bodybuilding (the women, that is – I don’t think I’m about to break the habit of a lifetime and start checking out the men!). I stand by my first impression. I haven’t changed my mind. There sure is some muscle in fitness and figure.

MUSCLE IN FIGURE


Krista Dunn, Jessica Graham, Zsuzsanna Toldi & Candice Lewis

The shame is that they don’t get to really FLEX it!

Of course the physique competitors do get to flex it, and they clearly love every minute of it. And what a thrill it is to see them in all their lean muscle glory!

MUSCLE IN PHYSIQUE


Jillian Reville, Karin Hobbs, Jacklyn Abrams & Sabrina Taylor

But having said all that, the difference in muscularity between the three divisions pales in comparison to the difference in muscularity between the physique division and the pure, unadulterated BEEF of the freaky Olympian female bodybuilders.

If watching the physique competitors flex their way through prejudging, comparisons and their delicious funky routines is a thrill, when the BIG girls come out and start hitting their compulsory poses, it’s pure female muscle lovin’ ECSTASY.

THE MUSCLE

One by one these magnificent women emerge and take their place front and centre. Just watching them walk makes me swoon as their thigh muscles ripple with every step they take. I’m instantly transfixed, instantly intoxicated. And then they start to flex…

I’ve said before that if you accept the definition of sthenolagnia as “sexual arousal from the display of strength or muscles”, then the keywords for this particular sthenolagniac are display and muscles. As a result, and much as I’ve already enjoyed the walk-on, it’s unsurprising that the moment of greatest excitement for me is when the first compulsory pose is hit – or rather, the moment just before, the moment of preparation for that first pose, the moment when my anticipation of that pose reaches its climax, and I can hear my heart pounding inside my chest. The days and weeks counting down to the Olympia have led to this. The display of the muscle is about to begin.

Some prefer the smoother, “off season” look, but from the very beginning of my female muscle slavedom I have always derived the most excitement, the greatest ecstasy, from the “contest-ready” look. Ripped, shredded, cut – whatever you want to call it – wins every time as far as I’m concerned. Every pulsating vein, every striation, every ripple of every muscle is there, fully pumped and visible in perfect detail.

And having explored the on stage experience of the female bodybuilder earlier in the year (see The Agony & the Ecstasy), FMS felt that this year we had a new level of appreciation of how the Olympian women were feeling on that stage in Las Vegas. I felt I could (unless I’m kidding myself) sense the experience they were having of being in their bodies, of being at their absolute peak – what Tanya Bunsell calls “the latent image in her mind’s eye”. This year it was more than pride that I saw in their faces, this year, as I watched them finally getting to display their work – their bodies, their muscles – the result of the agony of their contest preparation, I sensed their ecstasy.

For the first time in a while, highlights of the Olympia were (or are going to be) broadcast on nationwide TV in the USA on NBC. Now I doubt the persons responsible for the highlights show looked too hard for any narrative, any stories within the female bodybuilding division with which to grab their mainstream audience’s attention, but if they had wanted narrative, the stories were, most definitely, there.

Here was Yaxeni in her 17th (yes, SEVENTEENTH!) consecutive Ms Olympia. Here, for the first time, were more competitors from outside the USA than from within – and the majority of those, like Yaxeni, from South America. Here was Alana, making her Olympia debut and breaking into the top 5, and here was Christine, another first timer – two women whose journeys to the Vegas stage couldn’t have been more different. Here was Alina, the (STILL) uncrowned Queen, adored by the female muscle fans, adored by the female bodybuilders themselves – the current paragon of the female bodybuilder. And here was Iris, champ for the ninth year in a row and the tenth time in all…

I’ve been told that the majority of the audience at the Olympia is male and that they attend to see the men. But I would bet that all around the world there are other men, like me, like you perhaps, who, for financial reasons or reasons that are more personal (the very reasons that prevented me from watching the Olympia live, for example), have not been to and probably never will go to the Olympia or any other bodybuilding show, but who nevertheless make up an enormous audience for these magnificent women and their show, the greatest female MUSCLE show on the planet.

13th SIMONE OLIVEIRA (Bra), 12th LISA GIESBRECHT (Can)

11th CHRISTINE ENVALL (Aus), 10th MARGIE MARTIN (USA)

9th RITA BELLO (Arg), 8th JENNIFER SEDIA (USA)

7th SHEILA BLECK (USA), 6th ANNE FREITAS (Bra)

5th YAXENI ORIQUEN (Ven)

4th ALANA SHIPP (USA)

3rd DEBI LASZEWSKI (USA)

2nd ALINA POPA (Rom)

Ms OLYMPIA IRIS KYLE (USA)

Enjoy!

And you can watch these magnificent women hit their first round poses here.

Tube of the Week

What else would it be?

You’ve probably watched it more than a few times already, but we say give yourself a Friday treat and watch it all over again. Alina Popa‘s 2014 Ms Olympia routine…

And FMS‘ Olympia review begins tomorrow…

Enjoy!

Ms Olympia 2014: Christine Envall AT LAST!

The year: 1994. At a local IFBB sanctioned bodybuilding show in the Australian state of Victoria, a 21-year-old with a prodigiously developed physique takes the stage.

Three years have passed since her first appearance at the show, when she had finished third as an 18-year-old. Since then she has won local and state titles at IFBB and NABBA contests, and finished in the top six at the Australasian Championships.

This time she wins the title of “Ms Bendigo”. Her name: Christine Envall.

July 5th 2014. Four women are still standing: Lisa Giesbrecht, Juanita Blaino, Rita Bello, and Christine. This is her third show in just over a month. She was 6th in Toronto at the end of May, and finished 3rd in Omaha the following week.

If her name is called next, she will only gain a single point from this show to add to her two from Omaha. She knows three points probably won’t be enough to qualify. She will have to compete again, in Tampa in August, and attempt to add to her points tally.

Or wait another year.

But, if another name is called next, she is guaranteed 3rd. Another two points would make a total of four. And four points would be enough. Enough to get her to Vegas.

Christine hears Juanita Blaino‘s name called in fourth…

A little over-dramatic, perhaps, but sadly I wasn’t there so I hope you’ll forgive the poetic licence. The double… got the 3rd place I needed… I think should be enough for the O!!! said Christine, sounding a little unsure on her Facebook page after the show.

It was enough. No matter what happened in the final qualifying show of the year in Tampa, no one could push Christine out of the top 5 places. She was, as they say, “Olympia bound”. For sure. Brain not comprehending yet!!! she added.

Her incredulity was understandable. Getting to the Olympia is a long road for most female bodybuilders, but Christine’s road, which began in her hometown of Bendigo back in 1991, has been longer than most. It has included three NABBA World titles, and two distinct periods of competing as an IFBB pro with an ten-year break between them, punctuated by a one-night-only return to NABBA competition in 2005.

But despite being out of the limelight for the best part of a decade, she had certainly never been forgotten by the female muscle lovin’ brethren. When FMS invited readers to select their all-time Fantasy Contest line-ups a couple of years ago, Christine comfortably made the top six. When she returned to the stage last year in Toronto, the pre-contest buzz on the forums was, predictably, all about Christine’s return.

She was, after all, the original super freaky muscle woman. She was a “growth experiment fantasy made flesh”. She was a huge, rippling female muscle wonder of the world. My own personal Christine highlights would include footage and images of her at the New York Muscle Club; the occasional (and given the sheer amount of muscle on her 5’3″ frame and the gusto with which she displayed it, inevitable) posing suit malfunctions; the Awefilms clip where she “discovers” she can flex her pecs; and, best of all, the unbelievably arousing images of her bronzed, naked and ever so slightly coy.

By common consensus, then, it was good to have her back. Of course, there were comparisons with her younger self, comparisons that were not always complimentary (shorter hair, implants) but those who know about these things – those who know more than the likes of you and me, anyway – pointed to the refinements she had made to her physique and agreed Envall v.2013 was presenting the judges a much more pleasing overall look than she had left the scene with a decade earlier.

She did three shows in 2013, her best placing 7th in Chicago. She may not have been as excitingly super freaky as before – while she’d been away, all the girls had got bigger – but up close and personal with Annie Riveccio‘s camera for Muscle Angels, or even more so with her more intimate Instagram pics – Christine was still packing plenty of freaky size and freaky vascularity for the female muscle head to get excited about.

And, better yet, Christine hadn’t come out of “retirement” just to embark on one final lap of the pro circuit. She was going to be back in 2014. 40 years old, promising myself my best years are NOT behind me. Don’t sit around re-living your glory days… Get out there and start creating new ones, she told her Instagram followers.

She began with a 6th place in Toronto. No disaster that, but no Olympia qualifying points, either. Then, the following week in Omaha, she finished 3rd…

Finally, at her fifth attempt since her return to competition, she had equalled her best previous pro placing (at the South West Pro Cup in 2002), and she had Olympia points on the board. AND she had got to meet Iris Kyle backstage! What an awesome show! she commented later. It’s not every day you get to meet Ms Olympia!

Which brings us to the events in Toronto which guaranteed that this Friday, at the age of 41, the legendary and much-loved Christine Envall will make her Olympia debut.

Less than 2 weeks till the Ms O! she wrote last week. Can’t believe the workouts I’ve been having… Must be the extra motivation of the biggest show of my LIFE. It’s an understatement to say I’m looking forward to stepping on the Olympia stage…

It’s an understatement to say she has earned it.

Good luck to you, Christine!

And to whet your collective whistles at the prospect of the original super freak on stage in Vegas in a few days, Christine’s routine from this year’s Toronto Pro show.

Enjoy!