In the name of research, I have occasion to follow and enjoy the social media of many a female bodybuilder, and when, as with today's British muscle goddess Ami King, I come across a new name, it's to their Facebook/Instagram/Twitter that I go first.
Now I'm not complaining, just saying, but 99% of these are pretty much the same. Progress pics, daily - sometime twice or thrice daily. There's often also many pictures of food, and then there's the odd motivational quote or nod to a fellow female bodybuilder or their pet and/or partner "just chillin" and so on, but in the main what female bodybuilders post are selfies and pictures of themselves and their muscles.
But Ami King's is, to put it mildly, a bit different. She posts some images of herself (thankfully) but the vast majority of posts she makes (to her Facebook page in particular) are more about the causes she champions than herself and her body.
First off, veganism. Now I don't know this for sure, but judging by some of the forum threads on mainstream bodybuilding sites with titles like 'Are there any vegan bodybuilders?', I imagine there aren't too many vegan bodybuilders male or female, and I certainly don't know of any who are as successful as Ami, nor, to my knowledge, are there any who are nearly as passionate or vocal about it as she is.
Ami is also a deeply passionate animal welfare activist. Just today (at the time of writing) she has shared a link urging us all to boycott Air France - "the only airline still shipping animals to their death in laboratories". A couple of days ago it was the fact that those big black furry hats the Buckingham Palace guardsmen wear are only produced with the skin and fur of real (and consequently now dead) bears.
Just two examples of what I've been shocked to learn since I started following Ami.
A large part of her activism involves charity organisations like Rescue Aid for Animals, Pounds for Poundies, Paws2Rescue and "Death Row Dawgs" at Grindhouse Muscle, which sells a unique clothing line to fund dog rescues around the globe.
And then there is her politics. Anti-capitalism, anti-globalisation - you bet Ami King understands the relationship between the damage being done to the steel industry in her native Redcar and the red carpet activities at The Palace yesterday...
Ami King is also a promoter of her sport in a "think global act local" way as well, of bodybuilding events such as the forthcoming Kai Greene seminar at the Iron Asylum gym in Redcar, and, with her collaborator-in-chief Mick Millington (Grindhouse Muscle), the IBFA Mr and Ms Teeside, which took place in Middlesborough in May.
Perhaps you skimmed through most of that, perhaps you just scrolled from the first to the second picture. Nothing wrong with that, but there is a lot more to Ami King than (the considerable amount that) meets the eye, and it simply would have been misleading of me to present her to you without giving you a taste of that lot more.
Anyway, when she's competing, Amy is competing in the NABBA Trained Figure category, and as I said earlier, she's been pretty successful over the last couple of years, winning the NABBA Ms UK title in 2014, and finishing runner-up to the very saucy Sarah Mura (see FMS passim) at this year's NABBA Britain finals.
Here's her winning routine from last year.
And you can also view the posedown and the awards here.
Follow Ami's causes on her Facebook page, and for a less harrowing, but also less thought-provoking ride, she's also on Instagram - where you can find a higher percentage of Ami pics as well as lots of pics of her French bulldog puppy!
Enjoy!
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