However, come competition time at the UKBFF British Championships recently, hope for the future of female muscle within Britain's most important bodybuilding federation was provided by the triumph of the VERY muscular Sarah Williams.
Sarah had previously competed at the championships as a bodybuilder. In 2012, in fact, she had been runner-up to the smaller and considerably less muscular Rosanna Harte, and many had felt she'd been the victim of a judging travesty. Then, last year, having been a pre-contest favourite given her placing the year before, her appearance on stage apparently having forgotten to apply the pro tan was met with confusion, and, despite her size, she slipped down to fifth in the final placings.
Sarah, robbed at the UKBFF British in 2012
"Looking ghostly" - her words - in 2013
So Sarah got busy "sizing down" as they say, preparing to compete in Physique. It was a bit daunting at first, she says. But I made it simple like I always do, just started dieting a bit earlier, played with my diet a bit, and then just made sure my legs - I didn't train them the same way to get them to be proportionate to my top half.
Given that she is already more successful as a Physique competitor than she ever was as a bodybuilder, it shouldn't be too surprising that she already sounds like a true believer, that Physique was the home she had always been looking for. It [Physique posing] felt much more feminine, much more natural to me, she said after her win.
And it's good to know that being covered in rock hard muscle - she "shredded the competition" according to Flex Online - and getting that feminine feeling are not mutually exclusive. She was, by all accounts, the clear winner from the moment she stepped on stage. The only debate, writes John Plummer, centred on whether she was too muscular for women’s physique. Some felt she was a bodybuilder by another name; others felt her physique was perfectly suited to the international stage.
Thankfully, the latter of these two views won the day among the judges, and it seems likely that the theory that Sarah will be a strong representative for the UK in European competition will soon be tested. It's something I've always wanted to do, she says.
Check out Sarah's 2012 nemesis Rosanna Harte interviewing the new champ backstage after her win. Sadly, Sarah's fabulous body is all covered up, but if you like your muscle goddess' voice basso profundo, listening to Sarah will more than make up for that. And all delivered in Swell's own South London-Surrey border brogue.
Congratulations to Sarah!
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