The Year in Review: April

We started April, with the benefit of hindsight, rather too optimistically.

This was the last bit of good news there was about Marthe Sundby's health.



Sun is up, spring is on, life has never been better. Training light, eating clean, and trying to heal my body. I'll never give up. Stronger. Wiser. Tougher. Fighting back.

SWOON-A-RAMA

Caitlyn Terry was an early April Woman of the Week.



We couldn't help ourselves. Dry ab belly, claw hands, and a muddy brown tannnn... I love being a mud-coloured protein princess! Or, All I wanna do is get bigger and better. I just want delts the size of my heeeeaddddddd! The swoonometer "started smoking" midway through the post. As we signed off it was "actually on fire".

I, MASCHALAGNIAC



A love letter to female muscle pits.



Pits of plenty... A confluence, if you will, of muscle. A glorious meeting - perhaps meating? - of bicep, delt, lat and pec. Not so much armpits as muscle pits.

[Note: all of the images from all of the posts dating 10th April to 13th May appear to have disappeared from imagebam. No idea why. One day I may get round to uploading them them all again, but for now I've made two rar files of the pics, the first covers 10th-30th April, and you will find the link for it at the end of today's review. The link for the second (1st-13th May) will be at the bottom of tomorrow's post.]

GOODBYE JACKIE

Only April and for the second time this year we were bidding adieu to a legend.



Like many others, I fell for Jackie during my formative female muscle lovin' years, and I found images of her demonstrating her legendary flexibility, among the first of her I saw, utterly mesmerising. They, she, will stay with me as long as I live.

CHAMPIONS



After paying tribute to a former champion, we spent the remainder of that week with champions of a more recent vintage - pros and amateurs from North, South, and Central America, Asia, Australia, and Europe, including new Chinese Figure sensation Mou Cong, and ex-Figure now Physique sensation Shanique "The Future" Grant.

MRS SWELL'S EASTER SURPRISE

OK, so Mrs Swell has surprised me by booking a two-week break to the sunshine. Love her to bits, though she can at times mistake the fact that I am self-employed for being able to take time off whenever I want. Anyway, I shall be busy buying her some new outfits for the beach before we go, and then we're away, so posts may be a bit thin, or lack the usual diligence for the next couple of weeks. But don't blame the lady.

Looking back now, if what you got over the next couple of weeks was "thin" or "lacking the usual diligence" then the standards of this blog must be higher than (even) I think.

There were some real treats in there.



missxashley: So lean, so gorgeous, so totally into herself...



Excitement at Lauren Quinn's imminent return to competition.



Wish You Were Here #1: Hevumisa's first unmissable edit of the year.



Wish You Were Here #2: Much, much beef at the WoS 2017 get-together.



New Brazilian Physique sensation Ivie Rhein.

And this...



Link to rar file - all pics from original posts 10/4-30/4 plus extras - here.

The Year in Review: March

As we counted up the Hot and Hard 100 votes, life went on...

IN INDIA



We debunked the myth that Indian cricket god Sachin Tendulkar was a fan of the 2016 Ms India winner and multiple Asian championships medallist Thingbaijam Sarita Devi, but that nevertheless, "she has become a real beast," as one forum poster put it.



And reported on the first known (to us) example of state-sponsored female bodybuilding... In a corner of India so remote that the Chinese government doesn't even acknowledge parts of its most north-eastern state - Arunchal Pradesh - are, in fact, Indian territory, the "only female bodybuilder" there, Paklu Taipodia, has been making regional news recently. She travelled with her husband to meet Arunchal's Chief Minister at the end of January. Now I like this Chief Minister, Pema Khandu is his name, and that's him shaking Paklu's hand above. He is, apparently, a "keen sports enthusiast", and according to Indian media was "astounded by her sheer determination and courage". I like him a lot. "You are the embodiment of those who want to beat the odds to achieve excellence," he told her before promising "every help from the state government in future competitions at national and international level".

State assistance for female bodybuilding? Only in India!

IN THE (UK) CELEBRITY WORLD



We met, among others, actress etc. Gemma Atkinson, who British readers will know from her weekly appearances on Strictly Come Dancing. Bit of a mixed blessing it is. On the plus side, there's the skimpy costumes, on the downside, she's lost so much of the muscle she had packed on in the months preceding the show's first week. Since Stricly started both my training, and my diet especially, have been neglected. I’m eating way more than usual, training way less than usual and sleeping and resting less than usual, she explained recently. Never mind, it'll all be over before Christmas...

AND AT THE ARNOLDS



We had a British winner in the Amateur Fitness class - Kate Errington.



A Brazilian Physique double, with Priscila Cavilha winning the Amateur Overall and Daniely Castilho rather unexpectedly taking the Ms Physique International title.



And a wardrobe malfunction for the ages. Sorry Autumn, but it was GREAT!

Here's Autumn's "suit-held-firm" second go at her routine...



And then it was countdown time...

The HOT AND HARD 100


Oana, your 2017 Hottest Hard Woman in the World

For the fourth year running, you lovely lovely readers have enabled me to compile a list that, though not nearly as well-known, stands in opposition to those "Sexiest Women on Earth" type lists found in the "gentlemen's magazines", presenting an alternative vision of female beauty to the mainstream ideal. Strong and sexy.



Top of their classes: Anita Herbert (Bikini), Tina Nguyen (Figure),
the one and only Oksana Grishina (Fitness) & Cris Goy Arellano (Physique)

Out of the 100 women in our 2017 list, 47 compete in the Physique division, 26 compete in Bodybuilding, 13 in Figure, 3 in Bikini, and just one, Oksana Grishina, in Fitness, leaving 9 women who have not, so far as we know anyway, competed.



BOOM! Sarah Williams - not just top Brit in 2017, but the highest placing British bodybuilder ever on the Hot and Hard 100. BOOM! Sarah is not just the highest new entry on this year's list, but the highest Hot and Hard 100 new entry EVER!



Physique may have dominated the list overall, but there was beef to burn in the Top 10, where, as well as Sarah, you could find Selma (#4), Alina (#3), and Theresa (#2), and the outgoing and incoming Queens - Margie Martin and Helle Trevino.

We leave you today as we left you then, with your #1...



Tomorrow, Mrs Swell springs a surprise in our April review.

The Year in Review: February

HELLO AGAIN DENISE



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.

MOST SIZZLING

This week's sizzle comes from 41-year-old Russian Anastasia Motorina.



That's right. 41.

A WEEK OF HAIR BRAS

Search #hairbra on Instagram, and you'll be faced with all sorts of women letting it hang down so they can post their photo without fear of censorship. But be warned, you will also have to contemplate men who have shaved their bodies in order to fashion a bra-shaped chest rug. I tell you, for a few days after, every time I closed my eyes...



Of course, if women are doing it, then muscle women are doing it better.

AND THEN THERE WAS VALENTINE'S WEEK



Love letters to ALL the muscle ladies.





30 years, give or take - funny thing about my first sight of a female bodybuilder (Carolyn Cheshire, UK TV), I can recall almost every detail of the event, but have only the vaguest idea of when it was. I could say it's the longest relationship I've had, but perhaps my lifelong passion would be a better way of putting it. 30 years...

And we ended February re-visiting some greats of the past in a feature called...

THEN & NOW



And it wasn't depressing!



Staying in California after graduating from the Masters program at the California Institute of Technology, Kristy worked as a metabolic engineer, then as Director of a yeast engineering company. Most recently, she is one of four female partners who have set up Antheia, Inc., whose mission is "to make and fairly provide medicines to all who need them". I'm very proud of the company we are building, says Kristy.



GOODBYE NICOLE



An amazing woman, an incredible physique, reads one fan's tribute on the forums. Even if there were still as many women her size in the sport as there used to be, there would never be another like her. She was one of a kind. A true Queen of Muscle.

March - 2017's Hot and Hard 100 revealed and MORE!

The Year in Review: January

Time for a bit of reflection.

Here's the year that was on FMS - starting at the beginning...

MARJA



We kicked off 2017 with a week of Marja Lehtonen - "for no reason other than it's her 49th birthday today" (9th January). As if we needed a reason. "A thousand years from now, muscle fans will still jerk off to Marja" reckons one fan. Well, eleven months on...

NEWS FROM IRAN - AND IT AIN'T GOOD



A female bodybuilder was arrested on January 17 after she posted a "semi-nude" photograph of herself on Instagram, according to government sources, and was jailed after she was unable to pay a bail amount of 200m tomans (about $62,000).

NEWS FROM THE BBC - BETTER



She was a keen participant in Adele Roberts' documentary, which concluded that this trend for bodybuilding among young women in the UK is much more about self-confidence, self-reliance, and empowerment than it is about muscles. I feel really privileged to be able to express my views about why women choose to bodybuild in this way, Brittany told her Instagram followers. It's time to lift women up!

AND MORE GOOD NEWS - SOPHIE'S BACK

Gains have been lost and my hair is gone...



But I'm finally back on now and I'm here to stay.

WE IMAGINED A NIGHT IN FEMALE MUSCLE HEAVEN



Of course, there's much competition among the ladies to get themselves on the covers of those gossip magazines, and this year's models turned out to be the glorious Eleonora Dobrinina, who made the January cover of Heat with her big blond curls and "Snow White" see through (trust me, it was totally see through) top, and in a bit of a coup for the girl (and the office), Sara, our very own FMS intern, found herself the face (and body) of Now magazine's coverage of the event. We will all be sad to see her go, but agents haven't stopped ringing since the magazine hit the stands. Clearly this little lady is destined for bigger and better things than doing Swell's filing. Sigh.

AND FELT THE THUNDER



According to Feminiqe, there are reasons beyond thousands more male Instagram followers for women to build their quads and glutes to such bodacious proportions. They include a lower risk of heart disease and arthritic knees in old age, a stronger core, more stamina... on the dance floor, and, er, better protection from their phone falling into the toilet (due to the lack of thigh gap, you see). No really.

JANUARY TUBE WATCH HIGHLIGHT

Corinne's "peeled" arse. No contest.



Tomorrow (fairly obviously) the best of February.