Sunday Showdown

One of our alternatives to the Sunday Sizzler, the Sunday Showdown brings you two women, famed for a particular body part, going head-to head. Although to be fair...

Only one of the women in today's showdown is famed for her calves. The other, while having absolutely gorgeous and very respectable (ie. lickable) calves, can't really make it a contest. Then again, can anyone compete with Jill Diorio in the calf department?



I think not.



Diana Schnaidt - whose (respectable, lickable) calves are next to Jill's - is, however, rather an Amazon in the (generally) 5'5"-or-less world of elite female muscle. And so to redress the balance slightly, here's she is towering over Lady Calves and Melanie Horton (though not Buddha, obviously) during their post-show night out in Omaha.



We'll call it a draw on the biceps or we'll have to find something Melanie wins at. That dude though - Mr. Diorio I believe - is definitely winning at life. Definitely!

Diana Schnaidt's Optimum Physique

As well as being a good day for winner Tome Ameko, the Optimum Classic Pro was also a good day for 4th place Diana Schnaidt, by far the best result she's had this year.



But as impressive as these stage shots are, you only really get a sense of just how Amazonian Diana is when you see her next to the other first callout ladies - even compared to the pretty damn Amazonian Valentina Mishina, Diana looks large.



But best of all would be to see Diana up-close and personal. Perhaps going through her compulsory (and some not strictly encouraged) poses in her hotel room before she thundered up onto the stage. All those gorgeous muscles right there in yer face.

Something like this perhaps...



Best Muscle Video - the name gets more accurate with every new clip they post.

Diana in New York

My bro-in-law is about to start a secondment in the Big Apple. One of two main reasons why I am ever so slightly jealous is the increased chance this provides him of running into (perhaps literally, he does actually run) the divine Diana Schnaidt.



Glorious whether glammed up or showing of her sexy, hard and veiny body in more functional attire, here she is in and under New York during the last year or so.



Bulging calves, and ballistic shoulders and biceps all looking especially yummy.



Diana on Instagram.

21 Reasons (#20)

Due to some work commitments and Mr and Mrs Swell's now annual sojourn to the South of France (not the bit that was recently on fire, thankfully), the FMS offices are going to be closed this week, next week and the week after. Nevertheless, as always, we don't want to leave you totally FMS-less, so we've lined up 21 Reasons, one daily picture (or two or three), plus one reason why we love doing what we do, as if we were explaining it to one not so convinced of the glory of the muscular female.

Enjoy!

#20
TRANSFORMATION



I was overweight. I had an eating disorder. I was an alcoholic, a drug addict, depressed. Such stories have been told on more than one occasion here on the blog, and countless times in the world of female bodybuilding, enough times to make me think weight training should be a recommended treatment on the NHS for all of the above. But it's not just in extreme cases that the sport transforms lives - bodies and, crucially, minds. Having a muscular physique has definitely changed me on a psychological level, said Dawn Alison in 2010. It has made me confident and gives me a feeling of power and control over myself and how my body looks, feels and functions. Growing up I always seemed to be at war with my body and hating the skin I was in. It has hugely raised my levels of self-esteem, self-worth, and self-love, all of which I had little or none of prior to my involvement with bodybuilding.



Even the prior self-loathing isn't necessary - Theresa Ivancik, Shannon Courtney, Diana Schnaidt to name but three, were conventionally attractive before, in Diana's case enough to have a reasonably successful career in modelling.
Life doesn't have to have been bad before for muscles to make it so much better.

Chicago 2017: Physique Dreams

From top left, clockwise: Reville, Reid, Swansen & Smith

As we saw yesterday, Hanna Hallman may have moved on to bigger and better things, but there was still plenty to enjoy in the Women's Physique Division, not least the gorgeousness of Jillian Reville (15th) and Jenna Reid (3rd), perennial FMS fave Susan Smith (4th), and the Olympia-bound winner Autumn Swansen.

It was a long line-up. 27 women in total. Big on muscle, big on quality.

FMS was not, luckily for all concerned, judging, and nor (as we are totally, utterly unqualified to do so) are we judging now. However, we have picked a "Top 5 Swoons".

Here they are in all their Physique dreaminess...

LAUREN QUINN




Long time no see, Lauren. It must be all of, well, about two weeks since you won your pro card at the Jr Nationals, and you just couldn't wait to use it, could you?




I am not complaining. I do LOVE that chest.

Lauren was "unplaced" in case you're interested, as was our second Physique Dream.

KATIE LEE




How the judges can ignore Katie's considerable charms - the rear bicep peak alone would have me spoiling my scorecard - is quite beyond me, but ignore them, to some extent, is what they did. I thought Katie looked as good as she has ever done. They thought she wasn't even worth the top 15. Sign of a quality field? Sign of the times?




Katie thanked her fellow competitors for making the weekend "so memorable and fun" afterwards. She also thanked the promoter. She didn't thank the judges. Looking forward to improving and continuing to change lives by sharing my journey, she also said. Not sure sharing your journey has quite changed my life, Katie, but I've certainly spent probably a bit too much of it following your journey - and will continue to do so as long as you keep looking as tanned, hard and muscle sexy as this.

ALLISON SCHMOHL




Schmoes who hate tats and implants LOVE Allison, and they are not the only schmoes in the Schmohl fan club who go all schmingly for the "SERIOUS muscle" (not my capitals) she has packed on since winning her pro card at the 2015 Jr USAs.




All Allison had to schmow for it [stop it now - ed.] before Chicago this year was a 13th at last year's San Antonio Pro. And a lot of fans. From the depths of my heart, writes one such Schmolette, thank you Allison for incarnating perfection. Who can resist that schmile? [seriously, you need to stop doing that now - ed.]

PALOMA PARRA




Looking as gnarly and hard as ever (ie. damn hard and gnarly) "The Veins from Spain", aka Paloma Parra, continued an excellent year with a 7th place here. Paloma also competed in the Masters Physique class, where she placed 6th, slightly odd because it meant she placed below women she had finished above in the Open class. Unless, that is, you are an IFBB judge I suppose, in which case it no doubt makes perfect sense.




Her back is out of this world, reckons one recent forum poster. I reckon she's all other-worldly. Now over 50 and still flaunting her own uniquely freaky, vascular sex appeal, Paloma was the only Women's Physique competitor from outside North America.

DIANA SCHNAIDT




Diana, your Hot and Hard 100 #11 for 2017, continues, in the words of Hanna Hallman, to "inch her way ever closer to the Olympia". Her qualification points for finishing 2nd here probably represent more of a leap than a shuffle in that direction, she now sits in joint third place in the table, and it is the top 3 who will qualify.




Another month, another show, another improvement for the tireless Diana. Her not overly-muscular, super-ripped, model-looks package may just have hit the WPD judging zeitgeist on the nose - as it did here with the Chicago judges - at just the right time for her to get her a place at the Olympia. She's certainly not getting any worse. Those abs and glutes alone make her FMS' #1 Chicago Physique Dream.

Check out more of these Physique Dreams, and more here.