À la recherche du chaude et dure perdu: Zuzana Korinkova

REMEMBRANCE OF HOT AND HARD PAST

2. Oh Zuzana

I’d scan the shelves for new issues then take my chance to furtively leaf through the pages when there was no one else near me, no one who could see what I was looking at, because if anyone did, they’d see what a weirdo I was. Waiting, again, until there was no one at the cash register, unable to look the shop owner in the eye, I’d pay (my hands trembling with excitement) and stuff the magazine into my bag as fast as I could. Relief! The hard part over, my heart pounding inside my chest, I’d rush back home to secretly enjoy the pictures of the amazing women within my precious cargo.

It’s a scenario apparently familiar to countless fans of female muscle who grew up at the time when a trip to the newsagent’s was the only way to get your fix.

I would have been in my late teens when I saw these images of Zuzana. They’re images I spent hour upon hour with. So much muscle, so much detail to enjoy. Her meaty, booming bicep; her freaky, granite glutes; triceps whose striations have striations…

Many years later the internet allowed me to enjoy Zuzana in motion, both on and off stage, and the excitement was barely less intense. Whether it was the younger, leaner Zuzana or the later jaw-droppingly huge Zuzana of so many WPW clips, she was a fascinating, beguiling combination of muscle and beauty. Little wonder she is one of very few women who almost every female muscle lover has on their all-time list.

See another UK female muscle fan’s recollection of these Zuzana images on FMS’ Shared History of Female Muscle Fandom page in the piece entitled The Newsagent’s.

And we leave you today with an edited clip of Zuzana’s legendary white lingerie shoot.

Enjoy!

Another trip down female muscle memory lane tomorrow…

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!

Dani Reardon Temporarily Becomes the Most Famous Female Bodybuilder on the Planet (But Everything Seems to Be OK Now)

It is (I imagine) unlikely that news of FMS heartthrob Dani Reardon‘s arrest in Florida in the week leading up to the Olympia passed you by. If you didn’t hear about it in your own local or national media, there’s been plenty of chatter on the forums…

Temporarily, Dani became the most famous female bodybuilder in the world – or at least the English-speaking world anyway. You and I and every other man or woman interested in the sport knew who Dani was long before the 15th September, when the story broke in the USA, but by the 17th, when the story had reached Australia and New Zealand via the UK (and all points in between no doubt), more people knew Dani than Iris, Alina, Juliana, Dana Linn and all the other Olympia contestants put together.

COPS: FEMALE BODYBUILDER WENT ON RAMPAGE, KICKED IN CAR WINDSHIELD reads the headline on the Breaking News USA website – the first report of the incident, published on the afternoon of 15th September, reproduced here in full:

A female bodybuilder has been accused of going on a drunken rampage in California.

Police say 24 year old Dani Reardon (full name: Danielle Reardon) kicked in the windshield of her boyfriend’s pickup truck during a fight. Reardon reportedly reeked of alcohol and has been charged with resisting arrest and battery (domestic violence) in Orange County courts.

The police report says police received complaints that Reardon was hitting a man and screaming at him while attending a party. She was found inside a Ford F-150, kicking the dashboard and eventually the windshield.

Her live-in boyfriend Ian Schofield hard a red mark behind his left ear and on his neck and a scrape on his right knee. He told cops, “She tackled me and hit me in the face.” But he refused to press charges.

And this, essentially, with the incident correctly relocated to Florida, and less of the “rampage”, was the report that went around the online news source world.

Details about Dani and her career were added here and there, with the prize for absolutely the most bizarre detail going to the Orlando Sentinel, whose report post-dated the Breaking News USA piece by a couple of hours. Their piece informs us that according to one NPC judge, Danielle has very pretty lines [but] she needs to improve her conditioning at the next level as though the readers were all saying to themselves, “Yes, she’s in trouble, but how can she get higher placings at her contests?”

The original Breaking News article was accompanied by Dani looking more than a little dishevelled and forlorn in her mugshot (bit of a shock for a Brit that – the fact that your arrest photo can be seen by all and sundry, it would most definitely never happen here), but the main image (below) showed her all smiles and striations.

By the time the story reached New York on the morning of the 16th, there were now two images of Dani at her best to accompany that of Dani at her lowest.

And as the story sailed across the Atlantic and reached our shores here, more and more images of the gorgeous Ms Reardon were added, so by the time the Daily Mail reported the story on the night of the 16th, there were five of the best to enjoy.

And a You Tube preview clip from TanyaFitness!

On the afternoon of the 17th September, Australian online news sources had the story on their pages. And, yes, you guessed it, they now had even more pictures of Dani, and relatively little text. Newscom.au outdid everybody with SEVEN images of Dani and her beautiful bod illustrating just over 100 words about her and her arrest.

We’ve seen in the past on FMS how female bodybuilder stories need a “female bodybuilders are freaks” angle to be interesting to the wider media – how the FBB subject was “turned into a man” by taking steroids or, how her muscles make it hard/impossible to find a man, for example. But with Dani’s story, well, neither of these angles is going to work, so essentially what the story boiled down to was not so much “young female bodybuilder turns violent after drinking” but rather “really really really good-looking young female bodybuilder turns violent after drinking”.

Call me a cynic if you will, but it seems to me that this is what the reporting of Dani’s story ended up being about, and became more and more about as it travelled around the world. There was basically nothing to write about here – young woman gets drunk and does something stupid is hardly news. However, the editors weren’t going to miss the chance of putting this gorgeous young woman onto their pages. Consequently, there were more and more images and less and less text every time.

And so, for a few days at least, and while she was going through a tough time no doubt, Danielle Reardon was the most famous female bodybuilder in the world.

By the 18th September the (non-) story had ceased to be a story, and the mainstream media forgot all about Dani again, as, I imagine, did most of those who had never heard of Dani before. Meanwhile, she had received “positive vibes” from friends, fans, supporters and her family, and she seems to have made it up with her beau.

She couldn’t do much about the traffic she found herself stuck in the day before I compiled this post, but she at least used the time to take her first lot of selfies since the incident, and post them on her Instagram, which can only be good news.

And her line of gym wear got some free publicity as well.

It’s name? Kausa Rukus. HA!

Enjoy!

Ms Olympia 2014: The Line-up

It’s September. Time for the BIG show. This Friday, the 35th Ms Olympia takes place in Las Vegas. Your appetite probably doesn’t need much whetting, but for the last two years FMS has previewed what remains (for now anyway) the premier female bodybuilding event of the year with some sort of week-long countdown. In 2012 it was a celebration of every previous Ms Olympia winner, and last year we compiled profiles of the 2013 competitors for your (and our) viewing pleasure.

We’ve decided to count down to 2014’s prime female muscle meat exhibition with a bit of both – some history AND a preview of this year’s line-up (with particular focus on three of the women who will be making their Olympia debuts on Friday).

And MORE besides!

Today, it’s the line-up.

Those of you who keep an eye on such things will have noticed that among the automatic qualifiers a certain Brigita Brezovac is listed, as a result of her 5th place finish at last year’s Ms O, after which she announced her retirement from competition. Now I’m sure we would all be absolutely delighted if Brigita made a surprise comeback on Friday, but judging by her latest Instagram offerings, great as she looks in her beloved pink, she hardly looks like she’s preparing for a bodybuilding contest.

Point is, if I know she’s retired then you probably know too, and so would anybody else who cares to or NEEDS to know – the organisers of the Ms Olympia, for example.

Why is this important? you might ask. Well, instead of having one less competitor on the stage, the woman with the next highest number of points from her finishes at this year’s IFBB pro shows could have taken Brigita’s place. Or, the automatic qualification place could have been given to the next highest-placed finisher at last year’s Ms Olympia. The former alternative would, I reckon, have given us the pleasure of seeing Mmmmonique Jones this Friday; the latter, Juanita Blaino.

I don’t know whether Mmmmonique or Juanita feel like they’ve been cheated out of a place at the Olympia, but I feel I’m being cheated of the opportunity to see at least one of two of the best FBBs in the world take their place alongside the rest of the elite.

Here endeth the rant.

The last thing I want to do is spend the week moaning about the shortcomings of the IFBB and its minions re: female bodybuilding (God knows I’d need more than a week for that). This week is a celebration, so, let the celebrations commence…

YOUR 2014 Ms OLYMPIA LINE-UP

(all 13 when it should be 14 of them!)

RITA BELLO

Argentina, Winner Chicago Pro 2014

SHEILA BLECK

USA, Winner Tampa Pro 2014

CHRISTINE ENVALL

Australia, 3rd Omaha Pro 2014 & Chicago Pro 2014

ANNE FREITAS

Brazil, Winner Omaha Pro 2014

LISA GIESBRECHT

Canada, Runner-up Chicago Pro 2014

MARGIE MARTIN

USA, Runner-up Omaha Pro 2014

SIMONE OLIVEIRA

Brazil, Winner Toronto Pro 2014

YAXENI ORIQUEN

Venezuela, 4th Ms Olympia 2013

JENNIFER SEDIA

USA, Runner-up Tampa Pro 2014

ALANA SHIPP

USA, Runner-up Toronto Pro 2014

DEBI LASZEWSKI

USA, 3rd Ms Olympia 2013

ALINA POPA

Switzerland, Runner-up Ms Olympia 2013

IRIS KYLE

USA, Winner Ms Olympia 2013

Now if that doesn’t get you excited about the impending festival of prime female muscle meat that is the Ms Olympia 2014, I don’t think anything will.

I just wish there were 14 of them…

August Picture Post: Sexy Selfies

The final installment of our August Picture Post…

Mercedes Ciprut
Fitness Freak, ciprut on Instagram

From Vancouver, Mercedes describes herself as an “Energizer Bunny”, so you can use your own imagination on that one. Her exotic looks and sexy muscles are currently causing a bit of a stir among the female muscle lovin’ brethren on Tumblr.

Massiel “Massy” Indhira Arias
Celebrity Trainer, mankofit on Instagram

More exotic looks and sexy muscles from “Mankofit”, a Dominican-born NYC-based personal trainer who is on a mission. One day I hope to be the influence of a new generation of trainers that teaches people a lifestyle instead of a quick fix to a summer bikini body, she says. And it’s hardly surprising given that she originally started working out as a way of battling depression that she’s such an advocate, describing exercise as the highlight of my life. Check out her website for more.

Josee Gallant
Physique Athlete turned Crossfitter, josee_gallant on Instagram

A bit of a serial selfie taker is Josee. I don’t need much to be happy, she says. A good workout, a good pump, a mirror, good lighting, and voilà! Frankly, FMS thinks it is actually a bit of a shame that she’s been devoting herself to Crossfit since June-ish given that she has such potential as a physique competitor (see below), but at least she’s still flexing for her cameraphone on a pleasingly regular basis. She seems to have a different look every day, but she’s always muscular and gorgeous.

Robin Dee
Heavyweight Bodybuilder, robintripledee on Instagram

Every ounce of her [200+lbs pure muscle body] is sexy, writes one forum poster. Her shoulders are wider than a barn door, and I am not sure I have seen an FBB that is sexier than Robin in tight clothes. She is the queen of selfies, and that is no small compliment! She has a gorgeous body, and she shows it like she knows it.

Michelle Lewin
IFBB Pro Bikini, michelle_lewin on Instagram

I love to sweat like a maniac, says Michelle, as reported by UK “newspaper” the Daily Star just over a week ago. Seems the woman they call “La Cuerpa” is something of a rising star not only among the brethren, but also with the wider public as a result of the kind of mainstream media interest that only a bikini model can generate these days. But fear not, bikini girls can be just as freaky as the big girls, even if it is in a slightly different way. There’s nothing more motivating than when you find a new vein, she says. Nice! Oh, and you’ll be upset to know the Instagram account that we’ve linked here contains ONLY her lingerie and bikini photos. Sorry.

Juliana Malacarne
IFBB Pro Physique, julesfit10 on Instagram

The woman FMS readers voted the 4th hottest hard woman in the world (and the #1 Brazilian) is, like a fine wine, getting better (ie. hotter and harder) as she ages. This post-workout delight is by no means the sexiest recent selfie we could find of La Malacarne, but we thought if we DID post the sexiest one, you wouldn’t make it to the end of today’s post and consequently held it back.That’s how much we care.

Georgina McConnell
UKBFF Physique Competitor, geeeorgina_1993 on Instagram

Photo dated 21st August. Oh my!

BONUS!

Josee Gallant oozes muscular sex appeal all over the place during her routine at the 2013 New Brunswick Provincial Bodybuilding Championships before she started her venture into the world of Crossfit training. Don’t you agree that while there’s nothing wrong at all with Crossfit, Josee should probably give physique another go?

Enjoy!

Trish Swander: Past and Present

Trish Swander. A name from the past. From the days when getting my female muscle fix involved furtive purchases of Women’s Physique World magazine. There she is. One of three cover girls from issue 64, December 1998. And on the inside, more of Trish all tanned and shredded in that silver bikini. Not the kind of images you forget in a hurry.

So when I saw that “Trish Swander” was listed as having finished 4th in the Physique Division at the NPC USAs, well, I don’t mind telling you, I got a little bit excited.

A click later and there she was. Trish Swander. A name from the past right here in the present and looking pretty much as she had done back in 1998, despite the fact that we are talking 16 years later and by my reckoning she is in her late 40s. If you are looking for a woman to use as your advertisement for the benefits of the sport of female bodybuilding, you could do a hell of a lot worse than choose Trish.

In fact, I soon discovered, the USAs was not Trish’s big comeback. That had happened about a month earlier at the Adele Garcia Classic in Pflugerville, Texas. And a triumphant return to the stage it was too, with Trish taking home the trophy.

Well, Trish posted on her Facebook page at the beginning of March, I never in a million years thought these words would ever roll off my tongue again, but here it goes… I AM 16 WEEKS OUT!!!!!!!! The last time she had been counting down to a contest was in 2001. The contest was the North Texas and Southwest USA, and Trish, competing as a heavyweight bodybuilder, won her class and the overall title. And, as befits such a huge trophy, she received it from none other than Betty Pariso (below, left).

Her journey to muscle, though, had begun a good fifteen years before that when, as a teenager, she had met and later married her trainer (then and now) David Swander. By the time she started competing in the late 90s, both as a bodybuilder and as a powerlifter, Trish was already in her early 30s, and a mother of two. She was sometimes compared to Rachel McLish, partly because they were both born in the Texas town of Harlingen, but also because of her more mainstream, more feminine muscular aesthetic at a time when the truly huge, Iris, Heather Foster, and Theresa Bostick, were winning national amateur titles and swelling the pro ranks.

And Trish still has a very clear idea about the aesthetic she wants to have in her new career as a Physique competitor. I am thrilled to have placed 4th at the USA, she says, but a little disappointed that the judges favored the less conditioned girls. These ladies had great bodies, I just prefer the leaner, more defined look for myself.

Good news is, we won’t have to wait very long to see that lean, defined look again. As much as I would have loved to have won the USA title, Trish told her Facebook followers after the USAs, I will not waste a minute of my time dwelling on it. No one said earning a pro card would be easy or even fair. I have more work to do to prepare for another shot at it next month at the North Americans in Pittsburgh.

Seems this name from the past is determined to make a name for herself in the present.

Enjoy!

Aleesha (v Aleesha)

We’ll be dipping in and out of last weekend’s 2014 NPC USAs all week here at FMS, and what better way to start than the Overall champ: new IFBB pro Aleesha Young.

I seriously doubt Aleesha needs any introduction. This was her first competition since she finished 8th in the heavyweight class at the same show in 2011, but her “work” in the intervening period is as well-known as that of possibly any female bodybuilder (amateur or pro). Pics and clips from, among others, Muscle Fantasies and Muscle Angels, as well as those from her own website, change hands faster than dirty pictures in a boys’ school playground, as do fans’ recordings of her naughty webcam shows. In addition, (judging purely by what I see on my Tumblr feed) I reckon Aleesha must be one of the most “giffed” fbbs in the world, with the majority of those many gifs focusing on her staggering pec bounce. She is simply “Aleesha”. No surname necessary.

Aleesha says: I was born in Salt Lake City on Nov 10th 1984. I started to develop muscle at a very early age. By age 5, boys were teasing me about my biceps. I come from a very athletic family and was always supported and encouraged by my parents. I excelled at softball and cheerleading and received a college scholarship. I tried my hand at basketball and soccer but was a bit too aggressive for these sports.

During high school I was approached by the coach to train in the gym with the football team, to motivate them to work harder. I always wanted to be a petite girl and did not enjoy being muscular. In fact I despised it to the point that I became vegetarian and started running many miles a day just to lose muscle.

This strategy obviously did not work and I made a conscious effort to embrace and accept my body. At age 15 I began training with my Dad at the gym and within one year I could squat 405lbs. It definitely took some convincing to get me on stage, but my father – who is also a bodybuilder and encouraged me to follow in his footsteps – wouldn’t allow me to not try it at least once. And I must admit it only took one time of being on that stage and going through that process before I was hooked.

That first contest was the 2007 NPC Utah Open, not only Aleesha’s first taste of competition, but also her first victory. Despite fracturing her humerus (the long bone that runs from the shoulder to the elbow – ouch!), she competed nationally for the first time at the NPC USAs in 2008, finishing 15th (Sheila Bleck won the Overall title that year – Diana Tinnelle, Elena Seiple, and Rita Rae also got pro cards). Aleesha returned to the USAs the following year, and, in an admittedly smaller field, came 7th (Overall winner Angela Salvagno, with Akila Pervis the other pro card recipient).

Aleesha triumphs at the NPC All South 2010

Aleesha didn’t do a national show in 2010, but did win the NPC All South – until last weekend, her only other victory since that very first state show in Utah, and her first with a, let’s say, “enhanced” look. She was back at the USAs in 2011 displaying even greater enhancements, and finished 8th behind Overall and Heavyweight champ Robyn Mentgen (Judy Gaillard was the other pro card winner).

And between then and now? Well, there’s the work I mentioned above; her mortgage/real estate business has, I believe, started up again after having suffered during the economic downturn; she has remained with the same man (almost unbelievable that ONE man can satisfy Aleesha – good work fella!); and, news which may be as surprising to you as it was to me, she has become a mother!

There are those within the female muscle lovin’ brethren who say that Aleesha is a “cartoon-version” female bodybuilder, her enhancements “ridiculous”, her look “a joke”. For others, Aleesha is simply one of the sexiest women in the world. She is “awesome”, “a phenom”, “the future”. Personally, I am firmly in the latter camp – Aleesha was one of my all-time 20 Fantasy Contest picks back in 2012, and her decision to go blond since then (not always a winner in my book) hasn’t changed my mind about her in the slightest! She is, for me, an absolutely stunningly beautiful woman with the sexiest, curviest, juiciest-looking muscularity around today.

But although she may divide opinion, it’s safe to say that by common consent (of those in the know not just us fanboys), last weekend’s show was over as a contest the moment Aleesha walked onto the stage. It’s not often, even in these times of smaller (as in number) line-ups for female bodybuilding, that that happens. She was head and shoulders (and arms and back and legs…) above the other competitors.

Will Aleesha go the way of Sarah Hayes and too many other national show winners of recent times and all but disappear now she has her pro status? I sincerely hope not. I’m praying she is going to be like last year’s USA champ, Margie Martin, and make a big noise in the pro shows next year. But whatever happens next in the Aleesha (no surname necessary) story, her status with the majority of the female muscle lovin’ brethren is guaranteed to be legendary for many many years to come.

And to finish, a bit of fun – the Aleesha v Aleesha of the title of today’s post. I can take no credit for the idea at all, and am shamelessly ripping off a bit of inspiration from “timmon”, a forum member at the forum whose first rule is you do not talk about it. “Timmon” posted Aleesha from the 2011 USAs v Aleesha 2014 there, so how about a variation on the theme – a pre-enhanced Aleesha from five years ago (finishing 7th remember) next to the triumphant (enhanced blond) Aleesha from last weekend?

Watch an interview with Aleesha after her win from RxMuscle.

Follow the further adventures of Aleesha on Twitter.

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!