IK Rules, OK? III

EVERYBODY LOVES IRIS

Inspiration in Asia. Above, Joan Liew (left) and Tram Nguyen (right) show the love – as the message on Iris’ vest in the pic with Tram invites them to do! Below, Xin Li Cao compares guns with a smoulderingly sexy Ms Olympia, Las Vegas, 2007.

KYLED HARD FACT OF THE DAY

In 2008, Iris appeared on the American version of the show Wipeout. She broke “several ribs” in the process, and was repeatedly referred to as “he” by one of the show’s hosts. When the popularity of the episode led the producers to invite Iris to appear again, she declined. Only partly because of the possibility of another injury!

The episode is available on YouTube, but UK viewers (like me) can’t watch it!

SHE’S A LADY

I’m pretty certain I’ve posted this gem of a pic before on FMS at some point in the past, because I LOVE Iris in this pic. A gorgeous muscular woman in a gorgeous dress.

IRIS SEZ…

When I train for contest I vision being in a cage restricted to
THREE TOOLS: the gym, my proper nutrients and adequate rest.

KYLE BY NUMBERS

In her career as a pro, Iris competed in thirty shows. But just two were neither the Ms International nor the Ms Olympia. In 1999, she finished 2nd at the World Pro Championships (Laura Binetti was the champ), and in 2002 Yaxeni Oriquen beat Iris to the heavyweight title at the Show of Strength Pro Championships.

DEM DELTS DOE!

Look at her delts! Unbelievable!
Kim Chizevsky on commentary, 2002 Ms Olympia Finals

I’ve watched a few contest clips of Iris over the past week or so, and it’s noticeable how often the first thing the commentators tend to go focus on is Iris’ incredible shoulders.

Whether flexed or relaxed (as they are in the pic of Iris with Vera Mikulcova, above) and no matter what shape she is in, the bulk and curves of her delts never fail to be less than breathtaking, so it’s no surprise they are the first thing commentators mention.

And it wouldn’t be any surprise if looking at Iris’ pumped up delts in the selfies below made you get a right big swoon on, because that’s what they do to me – especially the pic on the right where her mighty muscle is bulging right out of her T. WOW!

KYLE IN MOTION

FBB EBONY vs IRIS KYLE – 2014

Other than the fact that Iris Kyle is indeed in the clip, the title is completely misleading. She isn’t wrestling any “FBB Ebony” here. Her opponent (which is also a misleading term, because this is hardly a contest) is male and very very white. Furthermore, there is no way this is from 2014 (although it was uploaded this year!).

However, it’s inaccurate title doesn’t mean it isn’t worth watching!

I had no idea Iris did this sort of thing, but she was clearly enjoying herself…

More IK tomorrow, OK?

Around the World: Myanmar

Around the World will be an occasional series celebrating the female bodybuilders of a particular country, and examining any issues peculiar to muscle women there.

Imagine you finally get yourself off to a bodybuilding show. You sit through all the male classes with everything appearing to be quite normal, but as the female contestants take to the stage, your excitement quickly turns to horror. All of them are wearing shorts and vests. And not very short shorts and not very revealing vests at that! Sure, they strike a few poses, but having most of their physique covered, the range of poses worth doing is somewhat limited – no abs and thigh because, well, you can’t even see their abs. They do their lat spreads and you have to imagine the muscle beneath their modest vests. Something’s very very wrong here, you think to yourself…

Well, that’s exactly what you’d see if you happened to be in Rangoon and decided to rock up at a bodybuilding show – very very little of the women indeed!

However, for those women on the stage, the not very short shorts and the not very revealing vests represent something of a triumph. Yes, that’s right, a TRIUMPH!

If you’d been at that show in Rangoon before 2012, you would have seen even less. No posing. No muscle. You would have simply seen the “female bodybuilders” parading across the stage in their “longyi”, the traditional attire for Myanmar women.

This state of affairs had existed from 1948, when Myanmar gained its independence, right up until just two years ago, when the shorts and vest revolution took place, and women like Myanmar’s most successful international female bodybuilder, Aye Aye Soe (pics), were finally allowed to show some (if not all) the muscle.

Abroad, women have been taking part in bodybuilding contests for a long time, she says. But here we were only allowed to join in 2012. It’s quite late if you compare it with other countries. We have to work hard to keep up with them. “Quite late”?! Gentlemen, I think we need look no further for the Understatement of the Year…

Nevertheless, the late start hasn’t stopped Aye Aye picking up medals in south-east Asian competitions over the past couple of years. And, as the contests are outside Myanmar, she gets to wear a posing suit while doing so. The 24-year-old only started lifting weights four years ago after she had graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering. I worked as a clerk at the Myanmar Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Federation, she says. There, a [male] bodybuilder encouraged me to join the sport. When female bodybuilders get older, they still have a beautiful body and they still look like young women. I gradually grew interested in it. Her biggest success so far was winning something called the “Women’s Athletic Physique contest” in Singapore last month. I feel satisfied, she says. The success represents Myanmar.

The interest in bodybuilding here [among women] is not very high. Women are afraid that they will have bigger muscles and will no longer be feminine. It’s quite strange or alarming for some people here to see a female bodybuilder.

She estimates that currently there are maybe “a few dozen” female bodybuilders in the whole of the country, so we must see pretty much all of them in a 20-minute piece from Channel News Asia. The reporting style may not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s certainly the clearest picture you’ll get of muscle women in Myanmar.

Apart from the early shock of the shorts/vest contest, the biggest jaw drop for me comes when we meet journalist Mya Kay Khine of the Myanmar Times. Mya Kay has been writing about her female muscle compatriots. I thought it was an important thing to write about, she says. Look out for the moment she reveals her true feelings though, about female bodybuilders and her take on gender equality in Myanmar in general. It is like listening to a voice from the past. The DISTANT past. Like the pre-electricity past. Even things I don’t like can be newsworthy, she says. Indeed.

WATCH THE REPORT HERE.

I usually sign off by saying “Enjoy!”, but in the circumstances perhaps “Support!” would be a better exhortation in this case. Support, however remotely. A good start might be to send Aye Aye Soe a message on her Facebook page.

There’s plenty of reason to congratulate her.

Swell Digs: Ariel Gail

I have been an athlete for as long as I can remember, says Ariel Gail. Her first sport was swimming. She started “at a very young age” and continued to race until she finished college. I was a sprinter (50 & 100 yard freestyle) as well as 100 butterfly, she says. She also competed in and won “local and state classes” in equestrianism.

Born in California, she grew up in Michigan, where she first started to lift weights. I did some “power-lifting” and was one of the strongest girls [in High School], which was hard because I wanted to be strong but the boys would make fun of me.

I continued to lift during my swim seasons in college and I looked forward to those days more than I did swimming. When I stopped swimming I really missed competing and found myself with a lot of extra time on my hands, so I began spending hours reading and looking at pictures on Bodybuilding.com.

By this time Ariel had her degree in Psychology and had moved to Colorado, where she still lives. At this point, I decided to give up being afraid and intimidated of the weight room, she says. I started to build my physique on a regular basis.

In her first two contests, local Colorado shows during 2011, she competed as a middleweight/light-heavyweight bodybuilder, winning her first ever show and placing third in her second. But as 2011 became 2012, Ariel “waited eagerly” to enter the new physique division. She finished 2nd at a regional show, and two weeks later came 7th in her class at her first national contest, the 2012 NPC North Americans.

Last year, she finished 3rd at the NPC Colorado State show, and also competed at the USAs. So far this year she has gained a runners-up spot at state level, and been awarded 9th in her class at the Jr USAs. In the past year, I have learned more than I could have ever imagined, she says. Looking ahead, I see many more years of building a physique that I’ve always wanted but never believed I could achieve.

The gym in Colorado where she trains is the one owned by Heather Policky/Armburst and her (former?) husband. It’s a gym frequented by more than its fair share of top pros, and the very same gym where a certain Alina Popa prepares for her yearly assault on Iris Kyle’s Olympia title. It’s little wonder, then, that Ariel feels she’s learning there. I have worked out in the gym next to pros that I used to admire from the safe space of my home in front of my computer screen, she says.

When she’s not training herself or her clients (or hiking in the Rockies) Ariel is working on writing projects. The series I am working on is a collection of women’s stories. All of them have set out to achieve self-confidence and personal power over their life through physical fitness and nutrition. Their stories are meant to provide hope, motivation and education so others may embark on a self-loving, self-caring journey. You can read the first two of Ariel’s pieces on her blog, Becoming Complete.

You can follow Ariel on her Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages, and via her YouTube channel. And if I haven’t managed to persuade you you want more of her yet, I imagine this recent preview clip from HDPhysiques might just do the trick…

Enjoy!

Tube of the Week

From the marvellous watatiwatatio, a guest posing clip from “Tokyo 2013” starring the very beautiful Japanese bodybuilder Aki Nishimoto. (At least I am pretty sure it’s her. Google Translate says the name is “Nishimoto ShuNozomi” and a search under that name only brought up Aki, although I am fully aware of the limitations of my research method, so if anyone can tell me with any certainty who this is, please do!).

Remember Aki Nishimoto? She’s probably best-known (to me anyway) from a set of photos by fibofoto.de from way back. Seems she is still around, and by my reckoning in her mid-40s now. Damn she looks amazing! Get proper comfy and see for yourself…

And this is by no means the only terrific clip you can find on watatiwatatio’s channel. Among the many other delights are clips from the bodybuilding show at the recent Toronto Pro. I humbly suggest you pay a visit and fill your proverbial boots.

Have fun now!

Chicago 2014: Jamie Pinder’s WOW Factor

Jamie Nicole Pinder has been an FMS favourite since the beginning of 2013 (see Hot Hot Heat of the Day). In three short years she had transformed herself from a “bad bikini competitor” (her own words) into the competitor to beat in Chicago. Entering this event, writes Steve Wennerstrom for RxMuscle, Jamie Pinder was arguably the odds-on favourite to defend her title. Few would have bet otherwise.

In the event, Jamie didn’t win the show for a second consecutive year, finishing 2nd behind Leila Thompson (see Saturday’s post). Whatever. For me, personally, there are few (if any) finer sights in the world of female muscle right now than Jamie Pinder in contest shape. Or in any kind of shape for that matter! Really. WOW!!!

Jamie, 5 weeks out (top left); 3 weeks out (top right); all made-up and ready to go do her thing (bottom left); and GLORIOUS, on stage in Chicago (bottom right)

She is, according to Steve Wennerstrom (and he’s not a man who gets very carried away very often – not even remotely as often as we get all carried away here, anyway), “absolutely beautiful from head to toe”, with “very few flaws”. She has “well-detailed bodyparts”, and there’s a special mention for “her glorious quad separations”.

As we have seen previously on FMS, and can see on any of her training clips from her YouTube channel, you’ll know that none of the package she brings to competition (with the possible exception of her God-given looks) is the result of anything but the most intense training. Jamie is most definitely one beauty that does it like a total beast.

Here’s just a tiny taste, Jamie training four weeks before Chicago…

One of her fans has written on her Facebook page, Jamie, just wanted to tell you how much you inspire me. When I don’t think I have the energy to power through a leg day, I look at yours and say, “Oh hell yeah, get it done!” Thank you.

So, what do you think about calling her female fans “pinderettes”? Reckon they’d be proud to be pinderettes. Hell, why not extend the term to all Jamie-lovers male or female? I reckon I’d be proud to be a pinderette, and would say so to people who asked me (and later regret having done so). Anyway! The point I’m making here is that it’s not just us red-blooded males who think that Jamie is the bomb. Really. WOW!!!

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what other people say you cannot do, says Jamie. And in that case this pinderette is going to confidently say that Jamie cannot get any better. Or hotter. Especially not in time for the Olympia. No way.

Enjoy!

Muscle in a Dress of the Day: Andrea

Currently competing under her maiden name (“Morisse”) and residing in the lower placings in the Physique class at an NPC show near you, FMS would prefer to remember Andrea Thiel at her sexiest. Her fabric-stretching, super-curvaceous, pumped, magnificent, muscular best. Well, wouldn’t you prefer that too?!

If you haven’t seen her new look (and to be honest, she does still look pretty amazing) and are curious to do so, you can see a gallery of her competing (in a posing suit, not a dress) at last year’s NPC Nationals on RxMuscle and/or NPC News Online.

Enjoy!

Karen’s XTC

In the course of putting together The Agony & the Ecstasy, FMS came across an image that so perfectly illustrates our point that we felt compelled to give it its own post.

The woman is Karen Smith. We know she is Canadian, and thanks to the all-knowing Muscle Memory, we were able to establish that it was taken during her routine at the Canadian Nationals in 1995. Karen was crowned the lightweight champion.

We know that in the same year she competed at the NPC North American Championships and finished 5th as a middleweight. She also appeared in WPW around that time. What happened after 1995 to Karen Smith, nobody seems to know.

If it’s a biography of Karen Smith you’re after, sorry to disappoint you. But, thanks to Karen and the photographer responsible, what we do have is a snapshot of her on stage that epitomises our pet theory (of the week!). It’s so perfect, in fact, that if we had to give the photo a title, it’d be something like “The Ecstasy of the Female Bodybuilder”.

Take a good long look for yourself.

There’s no rush… Muscular beauty like this needs time to be appreciated. Her left shoulder (right as you look) curves out so beautifully, the muscle full and pumped. The pose ripples through her left pec muscle (right as you look), and what a joy her old school nothing-but-muscle chest is to behold! Look at the tendon at the top of her thigh, so pronounced as she flexes hard onto her right leg, flaring her glistening quad…

You probably don’t need me to tell you where to look!

What I’m looking at is a woman in absolutely the best condition she can be in, but whether I think she is actually perfect or not is besides the point. What is important is what Karen thought, and especially what Karen was feeling on that stage in 1995.

The image, it seems to me, shows that Karen has fully realised what Tanya Bunsell calls ‘the latent image in her mind’s eye’, the vision she has of her body at its most perfect.

And how does it feel to realise that image?

She’s smiling, her nostrils are flaring. Her eyes are closed.

I think we are looking at Karen’s moment of ultimate ecstasy…

And whatever she did before or after that moment in 1995, at least we know that this (clearly) talented female bodybuilder had her moment. And thanks to the photographer, Karen’s moment has been caught forever. Forever in ecstasy.

Unfortunately, there’s no footage that we know of of Karen at this show, but you can watch her routine from the North Americans. She’s not in quite the same peak shape (only strengthening our argument that the Canadians was her peak), but at least you can get a feeling for her considerable stage presence for sure. She’s on from 0.38 for about thirty glorious seconds in this round-up of the winners on YouTube.

And if by some bizarre chance Karen Smith is out there somewhere today and is an FMS reader (and don’t laugh, you’d be surprised by some of the women who do read us, I’m sure) then please, Karen, we would absolutely love to have you get in touch and tell us how we’ve got it all completely wrong about what you were feeling in this picture…

All our Karen Smith archive

Dedicated, with thanks, to C

FMS in 2014

It’s been a while, and it’s good to be back. It’s not that I don’t love you, but even an obsessive like me needs to get away every once in a while and take a breather, and that’s just what I’ve been doing. And by the way, I’m sure it’s not that you don’t love me, but there has been a NOTICEABLE hike in the number of page views on the blog since the beginning of the year. What are you trying to tell me?!

Anyway, as I was saying, getting away from the blog for a while provided the opportunity for a bit of reflection. Towards the end of last year I had started to find the formula of daily posts grouped into weekly themes a bit, well, formulaic. Sometimes I felt the formula worked well, at other times, not so well, and the sheer effort of trying to think up original weekly themes became a bit of a burden.

However, I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so there still will be the occasional weekly theme, but it will no longer be the norm. Rest assured though, I’ll still be posting something every day as far as is possible, and I’ve still got plenty to say about the magnificent muscular women who, a quarter of a century after I first saw Carolyn Cheshire on British TV, continue to rock my world.

And if there’s a better way to kick off the year than Patricia Beckman‘s rear delts in all their fibrous muscular glory then please do get in touch and let me know what it is. One thing that does remain the same is the email address: 6ft1swell@gmail.com

I’m looking forward to hearing from readers old and new.

6ft1swell

Getting Bigger All the Time: Kristine Mele @NPC Nationals 2013

There are times when I check out the photo galleries of a recent contest, and I come across a competitor and think to myself, ‘Why on earth have I never heard of her before?’ Checking the contest galleries for the 2013 NPC Nationals, I had just such a moment when I came across the woman who finished 3rd in the heavyweight class.

Her name: Kristine Mele.

Kristine preparing for the 2013 Nationals

I really have no excuse for not knowing about this Florida muscle mom, she’s been around since 2010. And it’s good to know, in these dark times when barely a week goes by without news of yet another of your favourite bodybuilders ‘switching down’ to physique, there is a woman very much going in the opposite direction. Since her contest debut (as far as I know) in 2010, Kristine has been getting bigger all the time.

Firstly, as a figure competitor she won a local show in Florida and at the 2010 NPC Europa Show of Champions (top left) came 6th in both the ‘medium’ and ‘masters 30+’ classes. By the following year she was finishing 16th as a physique competitor at the Jr USAs (top right), and also competed as middleweight bodybuilder at the Nationals. Onwards and upwards, and last year she finished 3rd (behind winner Kira Neuman and runner-up Karen Choat) at the Nationals (bottom left), this time as a light-heavy. And this year, bigger and better still, 3rd place again (bottom right), now a heavyweight.

The body she brought to the Nationals this year has made quite an impression, and not just on yer man Swell here. A much more qualified commentator than I was blown away with Kristine as she came on stage in Fort Lauderdale. HOLY SHIT! She looks nuts. Not missing any bodyparts. Great quad shot. Side tricep nice. Good back shots. Hams and glutes could still be a hair tighter but she looks amazing! Personally, I think her delts are her best bits but what do I know? And big blue eyes too!

Kristine, who is based in Orlando, describes herself as a wife, mother & full-time Bad Ass! Of her experience at the Nationals she is proud to have stood massive shoulder to massive shoulder next to some amazing competitors. Now, better late than never, she is well and truly on the FMS radar, we’ll be keeping a very close eye on the very very gorgeous Kristine as her bigger and better journey continues.

You might like to keep an eye on her too. Kristine is on Facebook and Instagram.

Enjoy!

Brit Freak

She’s already won the UKBFF Kent Classic this year, and she’s one of the favourites to succeed Rosanna Harte as British champion later this month. Christal Cornick is definitely a British female bodybuilder on the up. And to say she’s excited about the upcoming UK championships is the understatement of the century. It’s now time to get shredded, solid muscles and veins popping for the UKBFF British Finals, she posted at the end of August, 7 weeks out and counting. September 11th, and now it’s 5 and a half weeks until the UKBFF British Finals – I can’t wait to hit the stage again. And the countdown has continued. The most recent message she had posted at the time of writing was Just 18 days left until I’m back on the UKBFF British Finals stage. Very excited, can’t wait to have fun in front of such a huge audience.

The above image of Christal in near as dammit contest shape was posted to her Facebook with the message: So I couldn’t sleep last night, & found myself taking pix in the early hours of the morning! Haha xCx

And while she doesn’t always post pics of herself taken during the middle of the night, she does love to keep all her followers up to date with how her body is doing. In some detail. From Facebook again, I can see veins on my quads through my trousers, she let us know on 14th July. On September 3rd: Pumped up glutes – they feel solid!!! Great for some Muscle Dance – glutey popping, pec bouncing, ab rippling, bicep flexing xCx

She seems to delight in her freakiness, and she KNOWS what her fans want. Other Christal Facebook gems include My Shoulder veins – for those who like that hehe xCx (attached to pic below left);  and Anyone else get this sweaty after cardio??:) or is it just me? Hmm lol xCx (unsurprisingly accompanying the sweat-fest image below right).

I can’t help feeling that Christal can’t help herself. She seems almost compelled to show her pumped-up self off. I absolutely LOVE this kind of thing. When an FBB is this confident, and enjoys displaying her pumped-up body with such obvious delight, well, I just can’t help myself either. It is, literally, intoxicating. I get high off her.

Since July, Christal has also been on Twitter, so she’s been able to raise Swell’s temperature via not one, but two social media. Mercy! Exhibit A…

My veins when relaxin 😜who wants to lick em lol @FLEX_Magazine @IronCandy12 @ironmanmagazine @TheBeefMagUK pic.twitter.com/HJIXcUv2xI
— Christal Cornick (@ChristalFBB) September 30, 2013

To which I guess the only possible answer is ‘ME! ME! MEEEEEEE!’

And she doesn’t even need to post an image to get my motor running, not when she tweets things like this at half past four IN THE AFTERNOON…

I’m home, im naked and im staying naked!! Lol
— Christal Cornick (@ChristalFBB) September 27, 2013

The UKBFF Champs are this weekend. I can’t wait to see just how freakily lean and vascular Christal gets almost as much as she can’t wait to show her body off on stage (and fingers crossed to her Facebook and Twitter followers too!)

Christal Cornick website; Facebook; Twitter; YouTube

We will continue getting our freak on tomorrow. Yeah!