Media Watch UK: The Hull Muscle Honeyz

Some unexpectedly good New Year news landed in the FMS inbox in the first week of 2015 in the shape of an article from regional news source the Hull Daily Mail. Hull, for non-UK readers, is a city (officially Kingston-upon-Hull) on the east coast of England in the county of Yorkshire, notable to female muscle fans (up to now) only for being where FMS crush and total Muscle Honey Rebecca Maughan hails from.

However, Rebecca isn’t one of the Muscle Honeyz in the article, which is kind of what I expected when I read the headline! In fact, we learn that they are a group of 30 women from Hull on a mission to get themselves in tip-top condition this year.

The Muscle Honeyz are embarking on their fitness campaign as part of their preparation for this year’s Mr and Mrs Hull show and train at Workout Gym in Ropery Street, near Hull Arena, under the watchful eye of Mr Universe Dan Welburn.

And aiding and abetting local hero Welburn is a woman who is no stranger to winning at bodybuilding shows, 2013 Miss Yorkshire Toned Figure Becky Rowley.

Toned Figure champion Becky Rowley trains Muscle Honey Alex Greenwood (top), competing in her first show in 2013, ready to go at the Muscle Honeyz gym in Hull, and proudly holding up her substantial silverware.

Thirty of them! And they’re preparing for a show?! I couldn’t help wondering how long it would take to turn the UK into the female muscle paradise I’d always dreamed of if there were thirty women in every gym in every city all training for their first bodybuilding shows… Not very long is the answer I came up with.

But before we get too excited, fact is, as the article tells us later, not all the Muscle Honeyz are actually looking to compete. Some of us are trying to get fit and healthy, says Muscle Honey Gemma Hornby, but others are getting into bodybuilding.

Muscle Honey Gemma Hornby (left) and her woman crush, Paige Hathaway.

22 year-old Gemma, who works for the newspaper in the marketing department and on her Twitter admits having a big old woman crush on fitness model Paige Hathaway, seems to be something of an advocate for the lifestyle. Before I started training and taking care of myself, I was always sick. It felt like I was always poorly. But since I began to look after myself, my health improved so much. I’m a lot stronger physically and it’s transformed my health. I had no energy before. Now, I’m training five to six days a week, I’m eating well and I feel so much better.

Muscle Honey selfies by Gemma Hornby.

People should get involved, says Gemma. They will see a massive improvement in their lives. They’ll have more energy, they’ll feel better in themselves and it’ll be great for their health. Just give it a go. We are one big team and we’re all in it together.

Muscle Honeyz Emily (left) and Laura.

While some of the Muscle Honeyz are, like Gemma, “just giving it a go” in an effort to look and feel better, others are either would-be competitors or former competitors training for their return to the stage. Some of the Muscle Honeyz are established clients of the gym and its trainers, others have only recently joined up.

Muscle Honeyz Jenni (left), and Jo.

But what I really like about all this – apart from the ‘imagine this was happening all over the UK’ daydream – is their choice of the word MUSCLE. They’re not the Gym Honeyz, not the Hardbody Honeyz, not the Fit Honeyz. They are MUSCLE Honeyz.

And you can follow their collective adventures, marvel at their transformations, and watch them as they prepare for the Mr and Miss Hull 2015 on the Muscle Honeyz Facebook page. The show is in May. There are going to be a few “purple sisters” in their Team Muscle Honeyz purple bikinis on that stage worth watching.

I’m all over Right Move looking for property in Hull…

Enjoy!

Swell Digs: Kayla Rassatti

Despite the fact she has a dream name for fans of not very good puns – Gorgeous R-ASS-atti… I’m just looovin’ her ASSets!!!! are, believe me, two of the better ones – it’s really Kayla Rassatti‘s dream body that has really got some of the brethren excited (myself most definitely included) and set some of the boards alight with tributes.

She’s been described as ORGASMICALLY GORGEOUS!!!, with the same poster sharing later that he just couldn’t keep his hands off himself – I’m gunna have 2 go clean myself off. And while it’s not exactly my style to be as candid as that, I have to admit, I know how he (I assume he’s a ‘he’) feels. I know exactly how he feels.

I keep expecting to get all jaded, but nigh on 30 years after my first dose of The Madness, and there are still women, and Kayla is absolutely one of those women, who, on first sight, can give me the same kind of thrill I got that very first time.

You’ve probably guessed with all the quotes from other members of the brethren and all this riffin’ about myself that what I can tell you about Kayla in terms of facts is strictly limited. It amounts to her nationality (Australian), her base (the Gold Coast, Brisbane), and her division (figure). As far as I’ve been able to tell, she competed for the very first time at the Australian Amateur Grand Prix in March last year, and failed to place in a Figure “First-timers” class. After that, information has been hard to come by, but it appears that by the end of the year she had won her pro card.

Which all suggests that she might be in a hurry to make her name in the female muscle world. And the fact that her next contest will be at one of the biggest shows of them all – the Arnold Classic in a couple of months’ time – only serves to underline that.

But while her bio, her contest history, her “profile”, we might say, are all a bit sketchy, fortunately her Instagram is bounteous. And speaking as someone who has probably spent a little more time there than good doctors would recommend, I think I’m as qualified as anyone to claim that Kayla Rassatti effing LOVES muscle.

She loves muscle on her men, she loves muscle on her women, but most of all, Kayla loves her own body. As mentioned here the other day regarding Rene Marven,  it’s all in the eyes. And those eyes tell me Kayla just loves her own muscles.

A killer body, yes. Sexy pecs, sexy glutes, and sexy sexy sexy abs. But it’s what she does with it, or rather how she presents it that’s the real killer. And I reckon that’s the reason why I (and so many others) find Kayla so totally, utterly thrilling.

Sit back, relax, and ENJOY! That’s what I’m going to do, anyway…

Peaks of the Day: Kassie Kemmis

A week of peaks here at FMS begins with the casual flexing and heart-stopping beauty of Kassie Kemmis. She might not have the biggest pair you’ll ever see – or the indeed biggest pair we’ll see this week – but when I first came across this pic, my jaw was well and truly on the floor (among other things). Kassie likes the pic a lot too, it seems, because she’s chosen it for the homepage on her brand spanking new website.

And it was time for her to get that website up and running because Kassie, from the marvellous-sounding Missoula, Montana, is a brand spanking new IFBB Figure pro. She won her class at the NPC Nationals in Miami last year with just one previous competition to her name and having started training as recently as January 2013.

If you are as impressed as I am by the amount of muscle being sported in the Figure division these days and you are in the vicinity of Los Angeles in July, you might want to check out Kassie’s pro debut at the LA Pro. If you’re impressed but not near LA, well, then you will probably, like me, be following Kassie’s progress via her Instagram.

Enjoy!

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!

FBBUK: Rebecca Maughan, All Smiles

Normally, I put the clip at the end. But not today.

Watch this…

Now, if that didn’t get your female muscle lovin’ juices flowin’, you should really get yourself some medical attention because, mate, you are dead below the waist.

Rebecca Maughan. Previously on FMS in June. Just a couple of paragraphs. We tell you she’s from Hull, she was NABBA Miss Britain (Toned Figure) in 2013. She’s “very beautiful”, we say. And we predict we’ll be seeing her again. We were not wrong.

Admittedly we don’t know much more about Rebecca now but we have learned a little. That 2013 NABBA Britain win, for example, came, we now know, in her very first year of competition. 2014 has been her second, then. We’ve learned she’s got a bit of a thing for baseball caps. Not the sort that fit snugly around the top of your head. Rebecca likes a high crown, as I believe they are called. We’ve found out her supplements are provided by PhD Nutrition, and that her favourite body part to train is her glutes.

So now we can give you Rebecca’s entire contest history.

Year 1: 2013
NABBA North-East, Toned Figure, 2nd
NABBA Britain, Toned Figure, 1st
NABBA Universe, Toned Figure, 6th

Year 2: 2014
NABBA Britain, Toned Figure, 2nd
NABBA Worlds, Toned Figure, 4th
NABBA Universe, Toned Figure, no placing
NABBA UK, Athletic Figure, 1st

Notice the last contest. The new category. More muscle than Toned Figure.

2011. Rebecca is preparing to go to Ibiza. I really wanted to get toned to look good for the holiday, she says. 2012. Rebecca continues training. Well and truly bitten by the workout bug. 2013. Competition. Rebecca grows, Rebecca tones. Rebecca goes through contest prep three times. She finds she enjoys competing. She can’t stop smiling after she comes off stage. 2014. More muscle. She preps for the NABBA Universe with Sarah Hallett. Results are not so good in terms of placings. Her body has outgrown the category she started in, and she decided to give the new ‘Athletic Figure’ a try. By the end of the year she’s NABBA Miss UK.

And she can’t stop smiling…

With her looks, sponsors are queuing up. PhD Nutrition we’ve mentioned. But she’s also got a blog for Monster Supplements as a “Fitness Guru”. She also has a blog on Fresh Food Guru. Previously on FMS we reported her dream was to become a professional fitness model. Looks like it’s coming true. Another reason why she’s smiling, perhaps?

Rebecca says: I’ve always said if I can inspire 1 person to live a healthier life by exercising & eating healthy to achieve a toned figure then my job’s done. I would like to think I have helped some girls lift weights and put an end to endless cardio.

Check her Instagram, check her Facebook. Check the comments. Ignore the ones posted by guys like you and me. Don’t you agree that Rebecca has inspired considerably more than 1 person? She probably inspires five a day. Job done.

More smiles.

But most of all, FMS gets the impression that Rebecca is smiling because she’s gaining muscle. And she likes it. Loves it. Loves the body she is building, the progress she’s making. The muscle that’s growing, Check her Instagram again if you must. Check her Facebook. Go back to the beginning and watch her progress chronologically. Is it just me or is the smile getting wider and wider as she grows and grows?

2015. Year 3 in Rebecca Maughan‘s competitive career. In the first two she’s already outgrown one category and moved up to the next – and the move led to an instant success. By the end of next year I wouldn’t be surprised if I was talking about Rebecca Maughan, Trained Figure competitor. And her smile (along with her legs, her arms, her shoulders, her back…) will be even wider than now.

Today my journey for 2015 begins.
I will work 100 per cent 365 after yesterday’s win.
I will stay hungry!
Rebecca Maughan, after her 2014 NABBA UK win

Normally, I finish up my posts by encouraging you to ‘Enjoy!’. Not today.

Today I’m going to tell you how much I enjoy putting these posts together.

Researching these amazing women is a consistently rewarding experience. Finding out about the women, looking beyond their magnificent physiques and into their lives only increases my admiration and respect for them, one and all. But the more remarkable the woman, the more enjoyable it is to compile the post. Some posts are more of a pleasure to put together than others. Today’s has been one of them. In fact, I’d say that this one of the three or four most enjoyable experiences of all.

I know you’ll remember her body. I know you’ll remember her smile.

Well, research her for yourself if you are not convinced, but I’m telling you, this is one very very special young woman. Remember the name. Rebecca Maughan.

[Well, we’ve only been back for a couple of weeks but it’s time for our Christmas break. Don’t worry, there will be posts, but instead of daily posts there will be ‘Year in Review’ type stuff – Winners of 2014; our end-of-year selection of images from 2014, and our fourth annual selection of our six Women of the Year. So stay tuned. Daily posts will return in early January. Have a lovely holiday season. 6ft1Swell]

FBBUK: Exciting Times with Laura Madge

It seems to me, having done my research (of course), that there is a wave of new young British female muscle talent on the cusp of international success. Yesterday, for example, we highlighted the prodigious achievements of our 23-year-old Fitness champ Emma Paveley. Readers will already be familiar with the likes of Ria Ward and Hayley Brylewski, who have already competed in the US, and Georgina McConnell, who will surely be doing the same before long. And later in the week we will be meeting an emerging talent competing in the world of NABBA.

Exciting times.

Laura Madge is another of these emerging talents. As gorgeous and muscular as any of the women in this British new wave, it could be argued that Laura is, perhaps, our most exciting prospect of all, simply because she has, uniquely among her peers, already won an international amateur competition and achieved professional status.

Her win came in Las Vegas this August at the WBFF Worlds. Laura was crowned Diva Figure Model, achieving pro status in only her second year of competition.

True, the WBFF (World Beauty Fitness & Fashion Inc.) isn’t exactly the IFBB, but all the same, she’s now entitled to go sparkly bikini to sparkly bikini with some high calibre physiques. Emily Stirling, Anne-Marie Lassere and Louise van der Nat are all top WBFF Pro Figure competitors, as is Northern Ireland’s finest, Leslie-Ann Armstrong, who became a pro after having finished runner-up to Laura in Las Vegas.

For Laura to have gone from winning her very first show as a Bodyfitness competitor – a regional UKBFF national qualifier – to winning her pro card in a touch over twelve months is impressive stuff. I am so proud of what I have achieved in a short space of time, says Laura. And FMS, at least, thinks she damn well should be.

Her success is no doubt partly down to the fact that from the age of 5 to the age of 23, when an injury ended her career, Laura was a gymnast. Her professional and personal alliance with her fiancé Scott Leeson, himself a successful WBFF Pro, and the man who has been her coach since the beginning of her muscle journey has also been crucial – and at this point I should warn fragile egos who are going to get depressed when they see the body of the man who snags a woman like Laura that Mr Leeson features prominently (and always shirtless) on her Facebook and Instagram.

Sport and training have always been a massive part of my life since such an early age, she says, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s a lifestyle. And you wouldn’t bet against Laura’s relentless energy and competitive nature taking her to the very top of the WBFF very very soon. [I’m] Already so excited about competing at the WBFF Worlds Pro Figure next year, already working hard on my weaknesses.

So I guess this is where I have to admit that the aforementioned Mr Leeson is probably a better trainer than I could ever be, because when I look at Laura, I’m afraid I don’t see any “weaknesses” at all. And by the way, he’s also a photographer, so he gets to snap his soon-to-be missus in lingerie in their down time, don’t you just hate him?!

And we leave you today with Laura’s trailer for her work with FitVids.

Enjoy! And remember no fragile egos on her Facebook or Instagram!

Hot and Hard: Abs: 6×6

De La Soul taught us that 3 is The Magic Number, and far be it from me to contradict that, but for an old abs fan like me, 3 just won’t cut it (get it?). I need 6. At least!

And thankfully, there are more than a few wonderful women out there who agree, and who absolutely will not stop until they have achieved that perfect number.

Today, FMS brings you just 6 of those many wonderful women.

ANDREA CALHOUN

And we start today’s look at some of the most perfect abs you’ll ever see with the perfect abs of Texan Figure pro Andrea Calhoun. Hard to believe that a little over seven years ago her weight problems had become so bad they had brought on a depression. All I ate was fried food, McDonalds, and my favorite Shipley donuts, she says. I was obese. Her journey to perfect abs began when she walked into a gym and got a personal trainer, and took her to Las Vegas and her first Olympia this year.

Andrea has her own website, and you can follow her on Facebook

KRISTYN KELLI

Meet Kristyn Kelli, two times MABBA Figure champion. That’s right, MABBA. It’s not a typo, it’s the Manitoba Amateur Bodybuilding Association. She’s from Winnipeg, you see, and Winnipeg, it turns out, is in Manitoba (I guess Canadian readers and readers with a better grasp of Canadian geography than I already knew that but I’m assuming some of you didn’t). She will be defending her provincial title on May 23rd 2015 if you’re in Manitoba and want to see Kristyn and her perfect abs in action.

She’s on Instagram and Facebook

JILL DUNN

As far as I know, this is a REAL picture. This kind of abdominal perfection is, it seems, actually attainable. Such low body fat and this kind of definition is really achievable. Such bounteous ridges of perfect muscle are possible. But don’t ask me how.
Ask the owner of this jaw-dropping, groin-activating midsection. Ask Jill Dunn.

Jill Dunn IFBB Figure Pro: website, Facebook, Instagram

MARCIA FEIJO

If you were waiting for a Brazilian, your wait is over. Say Bom dia to Marcia Feijo and her perfect abs (not to mention the pretty much perfect rest of her). Like most of the women today, Marcia is a Figure competitor, which is making me wonder whether Figure competitors packing this much ripped muscle is a relatively new phenomenon or whether I just haven’t paid enough attention to the division before now. And Marcia is still an amateur, would you believe? I’ll say it again: that body you are looking at is the body of an AMATEUR FIGURE competitor. Marcia is a P.E. (Gym) teacher by day. I bet very very few boys (or girls for that matter) skip Ms Feijo’s classes.

The teacher is on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube

GRACIELLA CARVALHO

And we stay in Brazil (why leave?) with Graciella Siqueira de Carvalho (to give her her full name), a businesswoman and fitness model who, in 2011, was runner-up in the inaugural Miss Bumbum Brazil (called by some The Greatest Pageant of All Time).

Shhhh! she seems to be saying. Shut your mouth and start worshipping me!

For more, check her website and Instagram

VALERIE GARCIA

And last, but certainly not least, heartfelt congratulations to FMS fave Valerie Garcia Giovanoli, who was awarded her pro card after finishing 2nd in her Physique class at last month’s NPC Nationals. [My abs have] more nooks and crannies than an English muffin, she captioned the above photo on her Instagram one day before the contest.

Once she’d had the pro tan and the oil smeared all over them like, well, like butter on a hot crumpet (as we call those ‘English muffins’), they looked even better. And now we’ve had the ‘Before’ and the ‘During’, let’s finish with the ‘After’ – Valerie showing off (and still unable to take her eyes off) that sexy (and still utterly shredded) midriff of hers during a post-contest photo shoot for her sponsor, the one and only Hardfitness.

Enjoy!

Olympia 2014 Review: FMS Awards

Judging by the post-Olympia buzz, it’s fair to say the star of the Olympia 2014 was probably Juliana Malacarne, and all things considered it’s hard to disagree that she had the muscles, the performance and the most exciting win of the weekend.

But who else made an impression on the FMS “judges”?

It’s time to find out as, with our tongues quite clearly in our cheeks, we bring you the first (and possibly the last but you never know) FMS Ms Olympia Awards!

(and no, we couldn’t ignore Juliana either…)

The Ursula Andress Award for Best Entrance
JULIANA MALACARNE for her “Praying Mantis”

Juliana is on the right, in case you were confused.

Biggest Bulge
SIMONE OLIVEIRA

If it’s bulge you want, the NAC is where it’s at. “Classy” shows like the Olympia, where care is taken to mask that little bit extra, are not usually the best bulge hunting grounds. But Simone, in the bright pink posing suit she wore during the prejudging, made a bid to impress the judges with her fbb special. Unless it’s padding. Might be.

The “Suit You, Madam” Award for Sexiest Posing Suit
YAXENI ORIQUEN, Prejudging

The fashion this year seemed to be for bright, multi-coloured swirly patterns with plenty of sparkle, but FMS is an old school female muscle head who likes his posing suits to be of the old school style – one colour and very VERY revealing.

So, despite competition from Christine Envall‘s gold and Alana Shipp‘s blue prejudging suits, Yaxeni gets the award for squeezing her mighty muscles into her trusty old black posing suit, and once again giving us the pleasure of watching her pecs stretch the bejesus out of it and her glutes threaten to make it disappear altogether.

Perhaps one day that much-abused fabric will give up and fall apart when she hits her side chest pose. Perhaps that’s the moment when Yaxeni, with her muscle breasts bared, will finally call it a day for both her Olympia career AND her suit.

Proudest Smile
CYDNEY GILLON lights up the auditorium

We’ve noted the divine Ms Gillon’s dazzle before on FMS (see Chicago 2014: Olympia Bound), and she didn’t disappoint on her Olympia debut. From the moment she stepped onto the stage she looked happier than Pharrell Williams when he checks his bank balance, and, if anything that smile got even bigger and brighter for the finals.

We also wanted to give Cydney an award for the impressive way her posing suit thong thing became visibly tauter when she flexed her glutes, but we couldn’t think of a snappy name for the award, so let’s just take it as another kind of smile…

The Never Noticed That Before Award for New Bits
ALINA POPA

Check it out! Just below and a bit to the right of the number 10 and directly opposite that. What muscles are they? And while you are down there, you might as well peruse that area in general for new bits that emerge from and disappear into her posing suit. Anne Freitas had something similar going on down there without the kind of detail Alina has. What, I wonder, are the movements that develop those muscles?

The Andrulla Blanchette Award for Best Brit

Will hopefully have a winner next year…

Most Unexpected Flex
ALICIA COATES‘ biceps

White Men Can’t Jump, and Figure Girls Don’t Flex… unless they are Alicia Coates, who gave us the left in the prejudging and (only slightly less unexpected) the right in the finals, both with a big old Grrrrr. Oh, we DO like your style, Alicia!

The Express Yourself Award
LA’DRISSA BONIVEL

And we DO like a bit of emoting with our flexing too, and while there was plenty of that in the routines across the divisions, La’Drissa Bonivel‘s prejudging flexes were accompanied by an emote-fest that makes her a clear winner in this category.

Sadly, these still images don’t do justice to quite how expressive the la’lovely La’Drissa was, but hopefully they’ll give you a taste. Track down video if you can for the FULL emote – FMS might be able to point you in the right direction. Drop us an email.

The Cinara Polido Award for Involuntary Flexing
SIMONE OLIVEIRA‘s glutes and hamstrings

Apt that a Brazilian should win this award given it is named after one (see Cinara’s gluteal spasms from the NABBA Universe 2013). Simone didn’t have a great night at the Olympia, finishing 13th out of 13, but this is the second award she’s picked up tonight (albeit an award for something beyond her control). The pictures can’t possibly convey just how much her glutes and hamstrings were putting on their own flexing show, so you will have to take our word for it, or, alternatively, check Simone out in the prejudging here from about the eleven-minute mark. And those fast-twitching muscles didn’t stop twitching for her routine, either, so check that out too – right here.

Ms Granite Glootz Olympia (chosen by C. Moore Glootz)
ALANA SHIPP

You know C. Moore isn’t joking when he says he carefully checked every single pair in every single division before making his final choice. And a HARD choice it was. Alina Popa, Anne Freitas, Christine Envall and Ms 10x herself all made C. Moore’s short list, but in the end Alana’s sculpted bunz emerged as clear winners.

My loins are on fire, C. Moore told us. All that DETAIL, magnificent ripplage. And so TIGHT, like it’s an advantage that she’s not the biggest. All that hard gloot muscle packed into such a small area. Imagine how DENSE they must be. And Alana KNOWS they’re special, C. Moore can tell cos she spent like 90% of her routine with her glootz right up in the judges faces. If C. Moore in the front row… UNNNNGH!

The “Me Flex It Longtime” Award for the Longest Held Pose
MYRIAM CAPES

Surprisingly, it’s a Fitness competitor who we reckon held a pose for the longest. Myriam Capes, as noted yesterday, treated the audience to a big old most muscular near the end of her routine – and certainly took her time about it, winding it up before hitting it HARD, and then holding … holding… and holding some more!!!

Honestly, I believe women have given birth in less time than Myriam took over her big muscle finish, and when she was finally done the end of her routine almost seemed to be something of an afterthought. “Damn I am pumped UP! Oh, the music’s still going… well, I’ll just jump in the air and do a twist and that should do it… YEAH!”

The Diana Dennis Award for Best Bodybuilding Routine
SHEILA BLECK

Serious one this, like the “Best Film” or “Best Song” of the FMS Olympia Awards…

Alina was all grace and beautiful poses, I enjoyed Jennifer Sedia‘s funky routine a lot more than I’d imagined I would, and FMS fave Margie Martin‘s sass and size definitely got the blood pumping, but, predictably, the winner is… Sheila Bleck.

I didn’t think this was her absolute best routine, but the standards she sets herself are SO high that even so, she still had more than enough athleticiam, sensuality and artistry to make everyone else’s routine seem a little one-dimensional. If the routines were worth the amount of overall points they are in the Fitness division (66%), Sheila would have placed a LOT higher – and would have a lot more pro titles.

Watch Sheila in motion here – she’s on second after Rita Bello – though the monotone (and largely irrelevant to what we’re watching) commentary does distract (and detract) from Sheila somewhat, so you might want to turn the sound down.

The Howlin’ Wolf Award for Sexiest Routine (in any division)
SAMANTHA HILL‘s “Michael Jackson” routine

Juliana probably gave us the “Best” routine not just in the Physique division, but in any division. However, this is not an award for the “Best” routine, but the “Sexiest”, and for the FMS panel, there wasn’t a routine that came close to the unapologetically sexual energy of Samantha Hill‘s. It stank of sex. It was positively dripping in it.

To tunes including a couple of Michael Jackson numbers, Samantha didn’t so much do a routine as move around suggestively, holding her position every now and then in a kind of pose. Throughout she looked as if she wasn’t trying too hard – sort of half-heartedly mouthing some of the words of the songs, for example – which gave her an air of “this is all a bit beneath me” arrogance that had hands reaching under the table in the FMS office, and, I dare say, all over the female muscle lovin’ world.

Not for a moment would I want you to think that I think Samantha actually wasn’t trying too hard, she just had that air about her, and it slayed me. I ended up in the 3rd callout after nailing my Michael Jackson routine, she told her Instagram followers. No, I may not have placed as high as I wanted but even stepping on the Olympia stage among the top 24 women in the world is an honor and a dream come true. Don’t worry I’ll be back! And when she is, there will be even more Samantha Hill fans than there were this time around. Well, at least one! FMS‘ new crush.

Watch Samantha drip in it from 16.40 here.

Enjoy!

Media Watch I: Local

While we, and I dare say you, dear reader, are getting more than a little excited about all the magnificent female muscle that’ll be on show at this weekend’s Chicago Pro, in the town of Sapri on the south-west coast of Italy, there is another contest being held.

The Italian-based International Bodybuilding and Fitness Association (IBFA) Universe will be taking place there, and includes a female bodybuilding category (as well as Fitness, “Shape”, and the even less familiar “Miss Routine” and “Miss Fashion”).

Representing Britain at the show (in the “Shape” category) will be a 33-year-old mother and personal trainer from Nottingham called Lisa Parker, who won the Trained Figure crown at last month’s IBFA British Championships in Gateshead.

Once again, FMS is indebted to a local media source for this information, specifically the Nottingham Post, who last weekend ran a story about Lisa with the headline: Nottingham Mum and Champion Bodybuilder Shapes Up for a Universal Quest.

The article tells us, among other things, that Lisa has a two-year-old daughter, that Lisa wanted to go into bodybuilding as it was something a bit different, and that she loves getting up in front of the judges, and being picked out as one of the best.

The Post had in fact also reported the news of Lisa’s qualification for the British Championships in a brief article back in April (Miss Universe Hopeful Lisa is Over the Moon) after she had won her class at an IBFA show in the south of England.

It’s yet another example of a local media source doing a positive FBB story, being by far the best way for UK female muscle fans to keep up with their local muscle women – a phenomenon FMS noted first in a story about Rosanna Harte‘s journey to the Arnold Classic in 2013 (Rosanna Harte and Regional Love) – and with their achievements within less well-known bodybuilding federations such as the IBFA.

In just the last month, as well as Lisa’s story, NABBA figure competitor Emma Gabbott appeared in the Hull Daily Mail (My Life As a Competitive Female Bodybuilder), and the Windsor, Ascot & Eton Express brought UKBFF bodyfitness champ Yoanna Zervides to the attention of its (no doubt very posh) readership.

We learn that Emma, a 39-year-old pole dancing instructor and mother of three, has been training for two years, and although she says that I never thought I’d become good enough to be able to compete, this is her first year of doing just that, and she has qualified for the NABBA Britain to be held later in the year at her very first attempt.

Yoanna, meanwhile, is 34 and has been training at a gym in Slough for a year and a half. Bodybuilding was something I had wanted to do for ages but there were never the right circumstances, she told the Express. When I finally took it up, it was a lot of hard work and I spent the first year building my body mass up as I was quite skinny.

Both articles are, as is the case with the Nottingham Post‘s reporting of Lisa Parker‘s triumphs and as is ALWAYS the case with local media and female bodybuilding in my experience, unequivocally positive about the benefits that the lifestyle brings to the women involved. Looking at Emma’s stage pictures it’s hard to believe she is the same person who was once overweight… [Yoanna] has been working tirelessly and so on.

And, even better, both articles mention something about the growth in the number of women in the UK who are not only hitting the weights, but are going that extra bit further and taking part in bodybuilding competitions. Lots more women are taking part in bodybuilding now and I am prepping other girls to get involved in the sport, says Yoanna Zervides, while the news from Hull is even more encouraging: Today the sport of bodybuilding is attracting women in record numbers. It can be an intimidating sport, but with thousands of women competing every year, it’s one of the fasting growing athletic events in the country, the article concludes.

Very good news from the local media then. One can only hope this apparent female muscle explosion will continue to be reported so thoroughly and positively.

Our very best wishes to Lisa Parker for this weekend.

Yoanna Zervides is on Instagram.

Enjoy!