FBBUK @Vancouver Pro 2017

With the exception of the Arctic Pro in Anchorage, Alaska, Vancouver is, I suppose, about as distant a location for British competitors in the IFBB Pro League as it's possible to find. Nevertheless, two of our pros did indeed make the long trip to one of the world's "most liveable" cities for the 8th and 9th July - one making her pro debut in the Fitness division; the other competing in the Physique division.

CARLY THORNTON
6th, Physique



Carly, as always seems to be the case, emerged from her off-season looking better than ever - seven days out and she looked ripped and ready. It's nearly two years since she became the first British Physique pro, winning her pro card just before Rosanna Harte did, and having made her debut in Toronto last year, finishing a creditable 8th in a high-class field, she arrived all smiles in Vancouver for her second pro show.




She was captured by NPC News Online beautiful and proud backstage, where she was busy making friends. This is what I love, she told her Instagram followers as she flexed with Patricia Gosselin, connecting with new friends. Her placing seems irrelevant to her, but for the record she came 6th out of 13 in a line-up packed with some of the best Canadian Physique talent such as Jodi Boam and FMS fave Zoa Linsey.



A few days later she was "making the most of the tan with a summer dress". We can't help wishing she could/would do more than one show per year, but guess we'll have to make the most of Carly in contest shape while we can. I'm already looking forward to seeing how much bigger and better this national treasure will get for next year.



EMMA PAVELEY
Winner, Fitness



From fingers crossed for her pro debut ("five years' worth of work") to I'M GOING TO THE OLYMPIA!!!! I JUST FRIGGIN' WON!!!!!! (her capitals and excamation mark count!) Emma Paveley made British female muscle history in Vancouver.



She became, quite unexpectedly I think, our first ever IFBB pro Fitness winner - and on her professional debut too. And it's not like she had a line-up lacking in pedigree to beat, either. Emma finished ahead of the considerably more experienced Sara Kovach, Ryall Graber (who won in Chicago in the same month), and Fiona Harris, all of whom have made multiple Arnold and Olympia appearances.




Sadly - for Emma as much as for us, she's promised to post something as soon as she finds it - there's nothing of her winning routine available to date, so we will have to make do with one of Emma's moves from her final pre-Vancouver practice and another of her getting the feel of the stage. If her past routines are anything to go by (she's featured on the blog many times since we first met her at the World Fitness Championships in 2014), the lack of images/footage is a real shame.



She'll definitely be on the Olympia stream though. Her dream coming true.

Congratulations to both Carly and Emma!

Ms Freaky & the Pride of Britain

Last year, two women joined the (ever swelling) ranks of the professional Women's Physique Division. Both of their stories were featured on FMS, and, as is always the case with those women who we really do our research on and really get to know, they have a more special than most place in our hearts and minds. Coincidentally, both of them have elected to make their professional debuts at the Toronto Pro next weekend, and the similarities do not end there. Both are former Figure/Bodyfitness competitors who switched to Physique for the 2015 season. Neither of them has been defeated as a Physique competitor, they have won at least their class in every show they have done.

This fact doesn't necessarily make them among the favourites for the title in Toronto, and personally I have no idea who, apart from our two stars of the day, are competing. However, looking back at the winners and line-ups of previous shows in Toronto, you don't see too many of the biggest names in the WPD on the roll of honour - Toni West won in 2013, Mindi O'Brien in 2014, and Cea Anna Kerr (who has the best record in Toronto year on year) is the defending champion. So, yes, maybe the title is there for the taking by one of our on debut undefeated as amateur heroines.

Carly Thornton, the first ever UK WPD pro. Winner of her class at the Arnold Amateur Europe just weeks after she had decided to leave Bodyfitness behind. Crowned the UKBFF British Physique champion in only her second show. Well-known, even in her pre-Physique days, for her on stage sass and her extreme vascularity. Her success has gained her over 15,000 Instagram followers, making her one of the most popular UK female competitors ever. And she's name-checked FMS on her Twitter!

Eleonora Dobrinina, Ella, former WBFF Figure competitor whose category disappeared when she was mid-prep in early 2015. She won her first three regional Physique contests and then her class and her pro card at last year's Canadian Championships, picking up a Ms Freaky award along the way (hardly surprising given the extreme conditioning she has achieved for every single one of her WPD shows so far). A social media phenomenon, she buzzes with energy, bursts with emotion.

Today, we follow Carly and Ella's respective preparations over a month-long period from around the third week of April up till the time of writing. In their own words and with the images and clips they have posted along with those words they describe and illustrate their journeys towards the biggest show of their respective careers...

APRIL 22nd, 6 weeks out

Carly: Defiantly more muscle on my glutes this year.

"Defiantly"? Did she mean "definitely"? Perhaps she was so busy looking at her muscle bunz she took her eye off what the predictive text was doing. But I kind of like the idea of those magnificent balls of muscle being "defiant"!



Ella: Quad game on point!

APRIL 24th



Carly: 5½ weeks till we fly to Toronto and I will be on stage on 4th & 5th of June. Time is flying and am getting excited and overwhelmed how quick it's coming round. I turned pro in October 2015 and have had 5 months to improve as much as I can, so I'm hoping I can bring a pro version to what I did when I was amateur.🏻🏻🏻🏻 I do what I do because I have passion and drive to be the best I can and I put all of my focus and energy into this. When you do it because you love what you do, you will always be better than before because you have that determination you need to carry on continually. 14 years on and my love for training has just increased and until it dies I will continue to be the best I can ever be.

APRIL 26th

Ella: I think I reached next level of my physique, when striations on my serratus visible and popping out without even flexing!!! (Love elevator lighting!)



And two days later Ella posts an abs flexing clip - Lots of you keep asking me about abs video flexing. I can flex every damn day, so here it is! CORE FLEX PARTY!

MAY 2nd

Carly: Triceps have improved this year, which is another area I focused on bringing up.



Ella: Starting the week from this view!!!

MAY 4th

Carly: Am I ripped yet? And along with this incredible image, a short clip of her "pinch test" for bodyfat.



Ella: I'm just killing it as if there is no tomorrow!!!



MAY 5th

Carly: I don't count sheep, I do quarter turns in my sleep. I don't think I could have gone through my routine any more times in my head while trying to sleep last night. It runs through my head like crazy coming up to a show.



Ella posts a glute flexing clip. I am very happy with what I see! she says.

MAY 6th - 7th



Carly: Bring on another week! [The most muscular] won't be a pose I do on stage though!

More's the pity!



Ella: Well hello (my face says) STRIATION! Love them! In the final 4 weeks I'm doing posing in between sets for better muscle memory!

MAY 11th - 12th

Ella: I found great lighting in my condo yoga studio!!! How I didn't notice before... or maybe I just got more ripped so I don't need to flex! Any way my routine memorized! Posing made to perfection! The rest is just keep practising without freaking out I'm not ready.



And Ella takes advantage of that lighting to make a seriously jaw-dropping clip to go with it.

Ella's still noticeably white. Carly, meanwhile is preparing for a guest posing slot at Bodypower with a coat of tan and a trip to the hairdresser's.



Carly: Little trim to tidy it up for Bodypower Expo, colour will be coming just before my pro debut so it's fresh.

Not for the last time we see that preparation involves a lot more than "just" the physique.

MAY 14th - 15th



Ella supports her client, Ash Rempel, who, "Ella style", wins the overall title at a regional show in Ontario.

And Carly shines on the Bodypower Expo stage, giving us a preview of what's to come in Toronto.



Carly: Had so much fun guest posing yesterday, the show was so well run and the stage/lighting was perfect. Can't wait to get back up there and do it all again. Really excited to represent the UK in 3 weeks time, next time is the REAL DEAL!



MAY 16th

Ella: My conditioning today after leg training. After my athlete Ash won her competition I'm more than pumped and determined to finish my prep and have fun June 4th!



No comment from Carly. But 1,000 words, as they say.



MAY 17th

Carly: Your boyfriend casually tells you to bend down to take a photo of your hamstrings because we love sick progress shots...



Jealous? Yeah, me too!

MAY 18th

Ella: Exploring my booty before bed.



Yep. Me too.

MAY 19th

No stone unturned, Carly gets a treatment.



Carly: Today at my visit with Sam @Body Alignment Clinic we did cupping. This draws the inflammation out from deep in the tissues, and increases local blood supply to the muscles and skin to bring nourishment and allow for toxins to be carried away via the lymph. We are using it as part of my prep for my pro show in Toronto. We have been prepping together for a number of weeks to really bring out muscle groups.

Ella posts two clips of herself posing in the gym. Watch one, then take a break before you watch the other is my advice. Particularly if you have a weak heart or a tendency to dehydrate or something. I'm not kidding, you can hear her trainer/training partner, whoever it is filming, just going nuts off camera!



And Carly posts a short but very sweet clip of herself owning the stage at Bodypower.

Carly: Bikini, Bodyfitness or Women's Physique, it doesn't matter what category you are, walk with confidence, walk with sass, walk like you are the winner, be proud and display that hard work with pride...

Two weeks to go from the time of writing. One by the time when you're reading this. And this time next week they'll be up there, making their pro debuts after so many weeks, months and years of hard work. Walking with confidence, walking with sass, proudly displaying all that hard work like the winners they are.

A New Golden Age? Part VII

PIU: I am only just bookmarking Instagrams and trying to catch up.

FMS: Not sure I agree with your Instagram tactics there. The joy of it is in the "Insta", wherever you are and whatever you're doing, you can keep up with what your favourite muscle goddesses are doing and thinking and - most importantly - how they're looking at that very moment. Can't recommend it highly enough - Sharlene Franken, Sierra Mangus, Theresa Ivancik, Asha Hadley... I could go on. To be honest I find it hard to remember what life was like before it!

PIU: I am sure I will get up to speed with Instagram. In one sense with the direct social media we get a more personal impression of those in the sport, perhaps more rounded. In another way the distance that the early much more selective images added to the sense of them being even more exotic, otherworldly and glamorous.



Which might almost lead me to my last choices to explain. Meral and Michelle (yet another Michelle!) from a memorable shoot in the 80s. Both still looking good today.



And Meral at least still in the business - check out her website.



FMS: Meral. Wow. Still absolutely drop dead gorgeous. Valerie Gangi is another from that era who still looks amazing. Better not to mention Denise Rutkowski though!

PIU: Fast forward to an image of two contemporary hot bodies in the gym, Carly Thornton and Corinne Ingman.



Like Meral and Andrea, they know how to present themselves, they are equally confident, proud and look the viewer straight in the eye. They may appreciate the admiration and more we fans offer them but as the financial rewards are still not that great for most, whether they compete or not, ultimately they are doing what they do because they want to, and we are eternally grateful for that!

FMS: Was going to have Carly and/or Corinne for myself until you beat me to it. Newer faces (and bods), keeping the UK's tradition of quality female muscle alive. So happy about Carly's breakthrough last year. Unexpected but richly deserved and (if you follow her Instagram!) you can see she's absolutely going to go for it as a pro.

Corinne I reckon will follow before long. She's long overdue a bit of luck as far as competitions are concerned, but in the meantime her insane conditioning has won her a legion of fans, both male and female (again, Instagram her!)



So, for my final two I thought we should include the then and now Queens of Muscle. The Weider-backed beauty who ruled in my youth, and Ms Rising Phoenix, who gets absolutely zero love from the IFBB.

Does she care? Not a bit. And I hope, I really hope, that this is where FBBing, at least pro FBBing, is going. Away from federations that don't want these women, and onto a new, fan-sponsored, athlete-led organisation that eventually brings all the Physique, Figure, Fitness women over too.

A lot of the things we've talked about - the internet, social media, and the interactiveness this makes possible between the women and the fans - makes this doable for the first time (I think) and the work of Wings of Strength to keep pro FBBing alive has shown the way.

PIU: Aside from the whims of certain internet companies or government interference, we perhaps now potentially at least, have a kind of pluralism (to borrow from political theory) from a few (print) sources to multiple centres of power (no pun intended) in a globalist online world. As you rightly suggest, if power is increasingly in the hands of the women and the fans, as individuals or groups, it can hopefully continue to adapt positively and flourish for many years to come!

And that, dear readers, is all we wrote.

Many many thanks to PumpItUp for helping me make a (yet another) dodgy idea into real posts, which, if they were half as enjoyable to read as they were to make, are not too shabby at all. As always, it's been an education to pick his brains!

Check out the UK's longest-running female muscle blog here.

Who Is Lea Pearl?

PHYSIQUE DREAMS

Today we search for Lea Pearl in the south-east of the UK with two genuine British Physique goddesses, and another woman with the potential to become the next.

Carly Thornton



What a difference a year makes. At the start of 2015 Carly decided to take the advice she was getting snd move up from Bodyfitness (Figure) to Physique. Within months she had become the first British Physique winner at the Arnold Classic Europe and the first ever Physique competitor from the UK to receive a pro card (see FMS passim for the full story). To say that she's excited about her first season as a pro is something of an understatement. In fact I'd go so far as to say her focus seems so intense it is unlikely Carly would get distracted by anything as trivial as an offer of movie stardom.



Sarah Williams


left, 2014 UKBFF Physique champ; right, added beef in 2015

Like Carly, Sarah is a UKBFF Physique champion but unlike Carly she didn't follow her 2014 win with international success - despite having all the tools to do so. Also unlike Carly, Sarah arrived in the Physique division by necessity rather than design, having previously competed in Bodybuilding. Given the amount of muscle she's carrying now, it looks like she might well be thinking of going back to that division. Awesome.



Becs Cronshaw



Once a corporate banker, rising star Becs Cronshaw now works as a fitness trainer in the heart of the City of London and is preparing for her first season in the Physique division having previously competed in Bodyfitness. I'm not the only one who believes Becs' star is on the rise. FMS Head of Research "JT" has noted a massive increase in Facebook follows for Becs over the last six months, and the female muscle lovin' forum whose first rule is... has certainly discovered her charms in recent months as well.

Definitely a name to remember.



More potential Pearls tomorrow.