Denise Hoshor's Good Stuff

Denise Hoshor is certainly one woman who would have been a contender had FMS been running our Hot and Hard 100 back around the turn of the millennium.




Her contest career was brief, the highlights being the Overall title at the 1999 North Americans and 2nd place in the Heavyweight class at the Ms International the following year, but her WPW and Ray Martin videos from around that time are, even today, among their best-selling products. And when older muscle heads (like myself) compile "best ever" lists, Denise more often than not appears at or near the top.



After a 6th place (out of 7) at the 2000 Olympia, she disappeared, returning after a six-year break not as the bodybuilder of legend we remembered but as a Figure competitor. At the 2006 Tournament of Champions she failed to place and that, for the best part of a decade, was all she wrote, but far from all that was written about her.



She really was my crush in the late 90s and the early 2000s, one forum poster admitted before asking the question we all wanted to know the answer to: I wonder what happened to her. Even the guys on the muscle brah forums confessed they had gone into withdrawal after her apparent retirement from the sport. She was a freak! I always loved her look, they said, I would love to see her back as a bodybuilder.



Now Denise Hoshor really is back.




Sorry to disappoint you, but she's not back as a bodybuilder, more as a kind of buff Home Economics/Crossfit guru. Good Things In Life Are Homemade is the name of her YouTube channel, and as one forum wag has pointed out, while we've all aged in the meantime, it seems Denise, who must be well into her mid-40s by now, has not.



Denise, apart from the workout clips (of which there are currently only two, plus one about climbing a rope), will show you how to make all manner of good stuff at home - protein pancakes, sourdough bread, Greek yoghurt, pumpkin pie, banana flour cornbread, and my personal favourite, New England clam chowder. And what's more, she'll also keep you up-to-date with Drake's recovery from surgery. Drake is her dog.



Not quite what I imagined when I imagined Denise's return, but hey, I'll subscribe to her YouTube channel and watch her harvesting sweet potatoes because for all the pleasure she's given me over the years, I feel it's the very least I can do for her.

When it comes to Denise, it'll always be all good.