THE FMS HOT AND HARD 100
40
CORINNE INGMAN NEW ENTRY
Powerlifter & Physique Competitor
A truly, disgustingly peeled welcome to the Hot and Hard 100 to FMS fave Corinne Ingman.
Corinne's Physique fortunes over the past ten months or so have been well-documented in these pages, most recently after her ridiculous lack of placing at the UKBFF British Championships, a weekend which "didn't go to plan at all" in her own words. It's easy to forget - especially if all you know about Corinne is what you've read on this blog! - that in her other life as a powerlifter, she is conspicuously successful. A multiple British record holder, a European and World Bench Press Champion, one of the best competitive powerlifters in the world today. If you are getting stronger, she says, you are making improvements.
She still has aspirations in the sport of powerlifting, but increasingly her goal has become a piece of the Pro Physique pie. She comes at it very much from an academic angle - a BSc in Sports Science from the UK's leading sporting university, working towards a Masters, and a PhD in Performance & Nutrition to come. And if you follow her Instagram at all, you'll know she uses this knowledge to fine-tune every aspect of her training and contest preparation.
To look at her - in this Fit Vids preview clip for instance - you'd think she was a pro already. At least, I would, like how much better does she have to look to get a result?! Surely all that power applied with all that knowledge will sooner or later get Corinne to where she wants to be.
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BROOKE WALKER NEW ENTRY
2015 NPC Jr. Nationals Overall Physique Champion, 2015 NPC Jay Cutler Classic Physique Champion
The path to Physique from Figure is fairly well-trodden, the path from Bikini to Physique missing out Figure altogether less so. Brooke Walker made that move in just five months in 2014. By June of last year she had her Physique pro card. It was a spectacular transformation. Almost overnight I was way bigger, she has said. No s**t!
It probably doesn't hurt that she's got those model looks as well. Probably doesn't hurt in terms of appeal to the judges, probably doesn't hurt when FMS readers are compiling their Hot and Hard 100 lists, and probably doesn't hurt when the major female muscle sites are wondering who to spend time with at the next big show.
From nowhere as a Bikini competitor, Brooke is everywhere. From the major schmotography sites to the female muscle-headed areas of the internet to mainstream muscle forums and media, it seems everybody loves Brooke.
Already this year in her first pro show in St. Louis she was runner-up. The Brooke Walker Express shows no signs of slowing up just yet.
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KARINA NASCIMENTO #10
IFBB Physique Pro, Promoter
Karina may not have managed to repeat her top 10 appearance on last year's list, and she may not have had such a stellar Physique Olympia in 2015 (12th) as she did in 2014 (4th), but she did put together her own show. And on 20th February 2016 the inaugural Karina Nascimento Classic kicked off this year's Olympia qualification series.
Thank you everyone for participating at my Karina Nascimento Classic 2016. Wow! I am feeling happy and proud, she wrote on her Instagram afterwards. I can't wait to do it again same place same time next year.
Like so many of our Hot and Hard 100, Karina is now in her mid-40s, an incredible advertisement for the lifting life. A professional bodybuilder who competed against Cadeau, Chepiga, Masino and Lefrançois at the 2003 Ms International (and beat two of them!), she reinvented herself as a Physique competitor a decade later with conspicuous success. You just know that whatever she's doing, she's doing it 100%.
Watch Karina giving it her all in very different circumstances at last year's Olympia, and during a Track & Field training session.
37
ARIEL GAIL NEW ENTRY
NPC Bodybuilder
Here's another woman who I had to check and double-check hadn't been on our list before. Surely she has! Actually, she hasn't.
Fantastic to see her here at last, an NPC Bodybuilder who has decided not to go back to Physique, whose goals are all about emulating the FBBs at the Rising Phoenix. I guess when you are up there in the Rockies at the Armburst gym with Alina day in day out...
And now Ariel's size and attitude is inspiring others. I love that you are just GOING FOR IT!!!! wrote one (female) Ariel fan on her Instagram lately. I really wish to be around such admirable athletes like yourself in Denver. Excited to watch you grow!
But then again Ariel has always been all about the muscle. And the display. When I first started lifting weights, this [most muscular] pose became one of my favorites mainly because of how the traps look but now I have biceps and shoulders (I did not when I first started training!) I've had many people tell me this particular pose is not "feminine" or a woman can't or shouldn't do this pose... she says. Still doing it, because I still LOVE it.
36
BRIE EUBANKS #17
IFBB Physique Pro
One word for this lady: GODDESS.
Written by "fbb_slave", it wasn't me, but it very well could have been because I agree absolutely. Sometimes it's tough to concentrate on the words in while I'm compiling these Hot and Hard 100 posts, sometimes it's really tough, and sometimes I'm typing with just the one hand. Anytime I'm typing about Brie that's how I'm typing.
This year on FMS we were typing one-handed as we reported Brie had finally won her pro card. Now it should be said that not all the women who get their pro card are what you might call overjoyed about it. After all, to be a pro... the hard work has just begun, and it's not as though all those cash bonuses come tumbling through their letterbox the next day, or ever in fact. Brie is most certainly not one of those. I was and still am beyond elated, she wrote a few days after the NPC USAs, where she finished 2nd in her class - good enough to make her an IFBB pro.
The taste of the stage is still palpable and the want to prep is rich in my veins. So I shall strike while the iron is hot!!! Now, just to decide on my first pro show... hmmm.
Perhaps reality has bitten because we haven't seen her go anywhere near a stage since. But you know she won't be able to resist "the want to prep" for long. This is, after all, the woman who confessed that her biggest mental obstacle is remembering that when the competition is done, it's okay to look like a "normal" person. It’s okay to have some body fat and not every muscle stretching itself out of my skin! And that, quite apart from the smile and the eyes (and how they both light up when she's up on stage showing it all off) is why I'm typing one-handed and why I and that other slave think she's such a goddess. She's just so damn muscle freaky!
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JULIA FÖRY NEW ENTRY
IFBB Physique Pro
Few would expect the same competitor who had finished a lowly twelfth at the Arnolds for the last two years to emerge as the victor, but that's exactly what Julia achieved here, with post-show reviewers noting the "confidence" and "charm" she had displayed on stage. (FMS, 06/04/16)
But even before her recent victory at the Arnold Amateur, there was plenty of buzz around Julia on the forum boards."I would gladly be this woman's slave" - again, nothing to do with me despite the slave angle. "A beauty", "an Amazon beauty", "a natural, breathtaking beauty" - you get the idea. "An example of a great 21st century woman", "scalding hot" with "a terrific physique".
And there was buzz beyond the forum boards too. She had, for one thing, already done some memorable work with FTVideo (the first site, I think, to have noticed her - she's in the first thirty seconds or so of the clip) and in 2015, with HerBiceps.
All the promise that created all that buzz seemed to come to fruition in Ohio in March. There's a new Swiss sensation on the female muscle block, and she's got the kind of jawline not seen since Tina Chandler was in her pomp. And that is very exciting.
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RENE CAMPBELL #19
IFBB Pro Bodybuilder
Two British women took the stage at the brand new Omaha Pro at the start of the 2015 IFBB Female Bodybuilding season. For the first time in a long time I had the feeling that either of them could do well. Lisa Cross, her "suspension" served, trained by Alina. And Rene Campbell, an IFBB Amateur World Champion, a 4th place at the 2014 Tampa Pro in her first pro outing boded very well for the year ahead.
The fortunes of Britain's top two couldn't have gone more differently. Lisa we will get to shortly. Rene (as we reported on FMS in October) finished 10th out of 11 looking a shadow of her former self, and subsequently failed to appear as scheduled in Toronto the following week. Nothing was heard until a film turned up on (of all places) The Guardian website.
During the contest, she had begun to experience "physical difficulties". Back home in the UK she was told she needed to "get rid of those muscles" for the good of her health. As she recounted the experience you could hear the pain in her voice. It was nothing short of heart-breaking.
However, not long after the film had gone up and we'd posted our downcast report, one FMS reader had some happy news. I wouldn't get too downhearted, he told us. I saw her for a session and she was on top form. Looked amazing as ever and was her usual friendly self. And maybe, just maybe Rene will be coming to the silver screen soon. We still await news of who has been cast as Lea Pearl, but perhaps without the pressures of having to compete, Rene will get the gig. She deserves a break.
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ISABELLE TURELL NEW ENTRY
IFBB Pro Bodybuilder, Fit Rock Star
Look Who's Back we said - perhaps squealed would be a better way of putting it - with delight back in May. I couldn't quite believe it was true, that Isabelle, previously last seen as long ago as the 2009 Ms International, was going to be competing again. But that was her plan, and even better than that, she did!
A 4th in Chicago and a 3rd in Tampa - both richly deserved - led to her appearance at the historic Rising Phoenix, and quite right that Isabelle - such an enduringly popular FBB (in the world of fandom at least) was there helping to make that history.
Last year I wrote of Virginia Sanchez that she always seemed less on stage than she did in her selfies. I'll say the same about Isabelle. She never looked harder than granite on her Instagram this year. Pumped up post-workout, veins like ropes running all over her beautiful muscles, abs dense and ridged for our pleasure. OK, perhaps the face is possibly showing signs of a bit of wear and tear, but isn't that the kind of commitment we're all so enamoured by? Isn't that kind of wear and tear exactly what makes you look hard at those little shorts or panties for another obvious sign of commitment to the cause?
As always, Isabelle on stage was super sexy and super flexy, pulling out her trademark double biceps splits and making audience memebers and stay at home fans alike swoon hard (I imagine, I mean it worked for me!). Great to see her back. And great to see her here in the Hot and Hard 100 for the first time.
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LISA CROSS #45
2015 IFBB Omaha Pro Bodybuilding Champion
For the first time our top Brit isn't Rene, but Lisa. And after the 2015s they both had, that's not really a surprise. Lisa's triumph in Omaha made her the first British FBB to win a pro show since Gayle Moher at the Jan Tana Pro Classic in 1999, an achievement that - as we noted on FMS - had UK FBB fans quietly (internally) celebrating up and down the country.
She is a woman with a plan. After failing to place at the Tampa Pro in 2014 she took Alina Popa out to dinner after the Ms Olympia. Lisa gushed in admiration. Alina was the greatest female physique to walk the planet, and revealed I had a wonderful evening gaining an insight into the mindset of a top IFBB Pro Athlete. The knowledge and dedication it takes to be at this level is incredible. Just under a year later and Lisa - with Alina as her coach - had won her first professional show and taken 9th at the Rising Phoenix.
She also spent 2015 having her own home gym built. All 3,000 square feet of it. It is going to be totally private, she told her fans, so get ready for some very sexy gym action. Unsurprisingly - this is Lisa - it hasn't been long in coming. Gym Rip Out, for example, has been available since February. I get so many requests for shirt ripping on cam I thought I should shoot a sexy video in the gym to show just how excited I get when I am training, reads Lisa's description.
It looks like it could be more of the same for Lisa in 2016, although she won't be defending her title in Omaha. Instead, Alina has just started her on her prep for the Tampa Pro at the beginning of August. It's the last show before this year's Rising Phoenix, so it's all or nothing qualification-wise. A high-risk strategy perhaps, but that's the plan.
31
OKSANA GRISHINA #29
2015 Fitness Olympia Champion, 2015 Arnold Classic Pro Fitness Champion, 2015 Arnold Classic Europe Pro Fitness Champion
Another year, another armful of trophies. Unbeaten now since the Arnold Classic Europe in 2013, Oksana has taken her winning streak to nine contests in a row with victories at the recent Arnold Classic and Arnold Classic Australia.
Not much to say, really. It's been more of the same. Oksana turns up, looks utterly stunning, performs a routine with her trademark blend of power, grace and artistic flair, and then does the on stage interview with the trophy at her feet.
Oh wait! There is something... like Karina Nascimento, Oksana is moving into the event promotion game. Mark your cards - June 25th, North Hollywood, El Portal Theatre. The Oksana Grishina Pole Fitness Classic! A celebration of the Pole Arts as Fitness, apparently.
It is, according to Oksana, going to be something special. I bet it is!
So, Lisa top Brit, which means no women from the UK has made the top 30.
Who has made it then?
All will be revealed this week, but for tomorrow, #30 to #21.
Enjoy!
It's crazy how low Lisa is!
ReplyDeleteWith regards to Rene, she's also posted a few times on her Facebook of late, so she seems to be doing well and it's good that she's not gone totally radio silent.