(More) Summer Lovin': Stalker?

Saw "Not Emma Paveley" again today (time of writing). She's still got it, but this time it wasn't quite as exciting as previously (see Woman of the Week: NOT Emma Paveley, see Street of Joy, Street of Shame). Although I did one of my silent moans, for the very first time I resisted the urge to turn around and follow her (and her "normal" friend).

Now this may be because I've discovered a bit more self-control (as if!) but more likely it's because yesterday (again, time of writing) I sighted another muscular woman, a woman that "Not Emma" - for all her impressive muscularity - simply couldn't compete with. Probably the hardest, most ripped woman I have ever seen up close, and she was properly gorgeous - in a sultry Mediterranean way - too. There was zero debate in my head yesterday, just a voice, quickly rising to a kind of hysterical crescendo. "Oh my God! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!!!". I stared, I swooned, and I turned.

As she passed me I'd noticed a fair bit - olive skin, great round deltoids, huge flowing jet black hair, bicep veins, her powerful stride. All that in what must have been well under a second - I must have been gawping like a fool! She passed, I turned. I didn't walk after her, not at first anyway, I was kind of rooted. There was her super-tight bum in skin-tight black leggings, her angular calves, and - either side of her mane of hair - rear delts and lats twitching with every move she made. I may have moaned audibly.

She powered inside one of the shops further up the road from where I was, and only then did I start to zombie-walk towards her. New Look it turned out to be, not a shop I'd usually go into, but there I was. She was walking up the escalator to the upper floor I noticed, following the hair more than anything else. I paused, noticing that apart from a couple of bored looking boyfriends, I was the only guy in the shop, and even including the bored looking boyfriends, I was probably the only person over 30.

I stepped back towards the entrance and took stock. Despite all my protestations that at times like this I am not in my right mind, I was, apparently, fully aware of what I was doing on this occasion. She had to come out sooner or later, I reasoned, wouldn't it be better to position myself across the road and wait? I could hardly be seen snapping pics in the store - an older guy caught taking pics where young women shop... "Snap Perv Nabbed in New Look" would not be an easy headline to explain to the missus.

So I waited for her to come back out of the entrance, imagining that as I waited she was in the fitting room, trying on all sorts of revealing outfits, no doubt doing a bit of posing in the mirror, maybe the sight of her beautiful muscular body getting her a bit worked up. I imagined a lot. And I waited... And I waited... And I waited...

A full twenty minutes later I couldn't resist any longer and went back in. She wasn't on the ground floor, so I took the escalator up - turns out there's menswear upstairs, who knew? I could have gone up, looked at some ties or something. Fool! And then... OH MY GOD!!! I saw there was another entrance. Superfool! She was long gone.



To me it is totally inconceivable that I could be around a woman like that and not want to get a stalk on - even if some time later a wave of guilt stopped me. So, when I see some random dude in the back of a photo such as that of Australian WBFF deity Rach White, I can't help but project all my stalker tendencies onto him.

Look! There's nobody else in the gym. In my experience, that means it's either very early, or very late. Coincidence that he's there when she's there? Coincidence he just happens to be looking up as she proudly displays her beautiful rock hard muscle body in the mirror? Coincidence my arse! He's perving on her, and I don't blame him.

And he's doing a good job at keeping his subject in sight!

But I could be wrong. Maybe he just has a busy schedule, has to work out late (or early), and though he might be having a look, he might be admiring Rach, it doesn't mean he's planning how best to position himself to snap a cheeky secret pic later.

I could be wrong...

Enjoy!

(More) Summer Lovin' continues next week.

Sunday Sizzler

A somewhat artier sizzle than usual this Sunday, courtesy of Australian Physique beauty Maia Stier, and Sydney-based sport/dance photographer David Bonnell.



These were taken soon after the Arnold Australia last year, and any would-be schmotographers might want to take careful note of David's pitch for the shoot.

It's not what you'd call a complicated approach. I told her she was a living work of art, and that we should shoot her nude in an art gallery, he says. And she said yes.

Simples!



I wonder if anybody will ever ask me what I am thinking... says Maia.



More "Maiabolical Muscle" on Instagram

Enjoy!

An Appeal for Kahla Bullemor

It seems ludicrous that such a huge, powerful, strong woman can be struck down so suddenly and completely, but after travelling to India last October on a promotional tour for a supplement company, Kahla Bullemor's health deteriorated alarmingly.


Kahla at the Tampa Pro last year

It is an honour to return to India and share my knowledge on nutrition [and] training, and passion for a sport I truly love, she wrote before she fell ill and returned to her Brisbane base with "symptoms that were consistent with flu". She sought medical help but it took over a month to confirm the diagnosis - Lyme disease.



Treatments available in her native Australia have not been entirely successful, and as she has been unable to work, she has no means by which to pay her five-figure mediacal bills. She is "in tremendous pain every day", even struggling to get out of bed. Consequently, Kahla has looked overseas for alternative, experimental treatments available, finding one in Germany that could restore her quality of life.

Unsurprisingly though, it is prohibitively expensive.



Friends of hers have set up this GoFundMe page to raise money for the treatment (and the cost of Kahla's trip to Germany). The page has been shared all over, including on female muscle fan forums, where, disappointingly, its validity was called into question.



All those "this is definitely a scam" tosspots had to do was look at Kahla's Instagram, where, on February 22nd, and despite very much preferring to "keep a very private life", she thanked her friends and all those who had donated and sent messages of love and support. The only way I can thank you, she wrote, is promise to battle this til the end and come through the other side a better person, athlete, and friend.


Kahla with friend Stacey Howard, who set up the appeal with her husband

Let's Help Get Kahla to Germany

Media Watch: Australia

Today, two recent stories from Down Under written by Daily Mail Australia's Laura House, both dutifully regurgitated verbatim in the good old Mail Online here in the UK. They concern two Figure competitors from the state of Victoria - Tiffany Conway, a 37-year-old mother of two, and Ashleigh Wilson, a 28-year-old personal trainer.


Tiffany Conway (left) and Ashleigh Wilson

I don't usually pay that much attention to what's coming out of the Mail's Australia office, but these two stories, published within a few weeks of each other, caught my attention because I think that taken together they rather nicely represent the good, the bad and the ugly of the way the mainstream media deals with female muscle stories.

Let's start with the good.



The "good" in Tiffany Conway's story, as is so often the case with mainstream female muscle reporting - and the Mail and other online resources that keep churning out such stories should be applauded for it - is triumph over adversity through weight-training. In Tiffany's case it was depression and anxiety. brought on, apparently, by such a bad diet that she weighed in at over 80kg before she decided to turn her life around in 2011. Five years later she became Victoria's Masters Figure champion.



The more I exercised and the better I ate, the better I felt about myself, Tiffany tells us in the article. That came through in my energy, and people around me started noticing that I was happier. I looked fresher, and I was just more fun to be around. The benefits to be gained from making such investment in yourself stays with you for a lifetime, and it has honestly touched every part of my life for the better.



ALL good.

We might quibble about the use of the one-size-fits-all term "Bodybuilder" in the article, we might even really get nit-picky and crticise the writer for laziness in her reporting of Tiffany winning "the IFBB competition" in 2016, but on the whole, the story is a very positive muscle message for the women of Australia, with Tiffany an excellent advocate for the lifestyle, its benefits, and for the joys of competing. For 10 years I wouldn't stand in front of anyone in a bikini let alone stand on a stage in a very small bikini in front of 400 people, she says. It was the most empowering thing.



A few weeks before though, Ashleigh Wilson's less than empowering story had appeared in the very same Mail, after the Bikini turned Figure competitor had appeared on Aussie TV's Channel Nine in a show called Operation Thailand.

Brace yourself now.



I've been competing in bodybuilding for about four years, says Ashleigh. I started off in Bikini and I went on to Figure and that's where I've stayed. Within this category they emphasise femininity - decent muscle size and condition but also amazing shape. I don't feel like I can reach that shape that they ask for because I have a flat chest.

I feel like a 20-year-old boy when I'm at the gym and I am lean. It just makes me feel like I'm not a complete woman. I hate how I don't fit clothes. I have to put padding in my sports bras just to feel a little bit womanly. Can you see where this is going?



And so, Ashleigh Wilson travels to Thailand with an Australian cosmetic tourism company, meets the surgeon, and decides to go with a D-cup. This surgery is so important because I want to look good on stage and when I'm walking down the street. I want to feel good about myself when I get up in the morning, she says.

Oh dear.



Here's the other side of the mainstream media's take on female muscle stories - the "bodybuilding left me feeling/looking like a man" angle. Hardly empowering, and in this case, hardly even about bodybuilding, because whatever the reasons for Ashleigh's decision (and I wouldn't for a minute deny her the right to have cosmetic surgery) there are women like Cydney Gillon or Natalia Coelho whose all-natural all-muscle chests demonstrate that enhancements are not necessary in order to win Figure titles. And I bet both Cydney and Natalia feel all-woman all of the time.



Despite originally getting the $3,700 augmentation to achieve her aspirations in bodybuilding, we are told, Jess has since chosen to follow a different path. "Fitness and health is still a big part of my life but getting on stage is no longer something I desire," she says. Less and less about bodybuilding all the time. I did this show to help inform people about the process of going to Thailand, Ashleigh concludes. It was the best thing I ever did and not at all was I scared because I was overseas.

Call me a cynic if you like, but I suspect Ashleigh may not have had to pay full price in exchange for such a glowing recommendation of the her surgical tourism experience.



Same journalist, same news source. One story where bodybuilding has nothing but positive effects on a woman's body image; one story where bodybuilding has such negative effects on her body image the woman turns to cosmetic surgery.

Given the respective women's ages and looks, their mainstream appeal if you like, which story do you think got more media attention, globally-speaking?

Clue: it's not the one about the transformative, empowering effects of bodybuilding.



It's the one about the tits.

From NABBA to the Olympia

It would be easy to forget, given all the judging shenanigans and consequent outcry around the fate of Aleesha Young last weekend in Omaha, that as well as the big (but not too big, eh?) girls, the show boasted a quality Physique line-up too. Among the competitors there was Hot and Hard 100 perennial Zoa Linsey, who put in her usual classy showing; Roxanne Edwards' abs were their normal eye-popping selves; and the increasingly popular Katie Lee made her pro debut, placing 2nd.



The winner, though, was another pro debutant, considerably less heralded that Ms Lee and all the way from Perth, Australia. And while I'm sure our collective teeth will continue to gnash for some time yet at the way the placings went in the Bodybuilding class, we might take some small crumb of comfort from the fact that in Physique at least, first place went to absolutely the most shredded woman on the stage.




Lee-Anne Temnyk may be a name familiar to NABBA aficianados from her 2013 Worlds' appearance, where she won her Trained Figure class and posed down for the Overall title with fellow Aussie and eventual Overall winner Lisa Carrodus.



For her next big contest, however, Lee-Anne stepped away from NABBA and into the world of IFBB Physique. Last March in Melbourne she took first in an all-Australian line-up at the Arnold Amateur, as a result of which she was awarded her pro card.



She plumped for Omaha on the recommendation of Christine Envall, whose supplement company sponsors her, as the place to make her debut, and set about bringing her NABBA-style conditioning in for the show. One 35-hour journey (including transit and delays) later, and a winner's medal around her neck, Lee-Anne was telling Ann Titone it was "a dream come true". I still don't think it has sunk in yet, she says, in her super sexy super husky Aussie brogue. This is just amazing.



I'm very much a newcomer to the Lee-Anne party, but had I been following her Instagram as her pro debut approached, I wouldn't have needed much convincing that she would be a contender. Here was a woman who was bringing NABBA-style uber-conditioning to the IFBB Pro League. Truly she is amazing. As Ann says during the same NPC News Online interview, Lee-Anne's "striations had striations".




Not expecting to have secured her Olympia invite at her first attempt, Lee-Anne had already decided to do two shows while in the US (not really surprising given the 35 hours it took her to get there) so we'll be seeing more of the same this weekend at the Dallas Europa. It's just a shame she doesn't get to wear a thong anymore.



Enjoy!

Sunday Sizzler

Today's Sizzler is Aussie WBFF Fitness Diva, Sophie Hawkes.

Sophie placed 10th at last year's WBFF event in Australia, so we can't wait till the FMS research team unearth some material of the nine women more diva than her that day.

Anyway, here's Sophie. And some sand.



Enjoy!

Woman of the Week: Elise Fargie

When ol' Swell spotted these gorgeously thick and defined abdominal ridges on one of the forums and got so excited he just had to find out who they belonged to, and the entire FMS research team were locked in the office until they came up with a name.



Minutes later Swell was introduced to Elise Fargie, national Figure champion of Australia in 2016. Huh. Once again - this is Figure muscularity. Happy days!



There are more than a few reasons to be extra impressed by Elise and the body she has built for herself, not least of which is the fact that three children had come out of her when she started training seriously at the age of 31. She's now 35, committed to living an active, healthy life, and being the best kind of role model for my children.



In those four years she's competed at seven shows, apparently, working her way up to the top of the Australian Figure tree. And as she's still an amateur (although that pro card she's chasing hardly guarantees riches), Elise has to juggle her roles as mother and Figure goddess with her career at Aussie supermarket giant Coles, where she recently got herself a promotion. Achieving all over. Somedays I love my job!!! she says.



Spare a thought for Elise's ex-husband. She didn't look like this when he was with her, and it was apparently the divorce that prompted her lifestyle change. Elise and Skye Nestler, the Masters Figure champion from the 2016 Australians, are Sydney-based divorcees on a mission. Both of us are very passionate about empowering women to be their best, even after broken marriages, says Ms Nestler. It's really character building and empowering for fit women to know that they can accomplish a goal.



Elise's "ultimate goal" is that IFBB pro card and international competition. That body looks ready to me, so I wouldn't bet against her. Doubt her poor ex would either.



Follow Elise on Instagram.