Arnolds Review: The Future?

This year's Physique International saw the Arnold coronation of Shanique Grant, still unbeaten in this division ever since she moved up from Figure in the middle of her 2016 season. Runner-up Natalia Coelho is a more recent mover - she was competing in Figure up to the last Olympia, then switched - while the woman awarded the Amateur Overall Physique title (and pro card), Christelle Zarovska, also competed here (much less successfully, we should note) in one of the Figure Masters classes.


Christelle Zarovska - Figure AND Physique at the same contest!

Elsewhere among the pros, Essence Monet, Diana Schnaidt and Liz Montalbano all used to compete in Figure, and Laura Zuniga competed in both divisions during 2014 and 2015 before settling into Physique - and they are just the ladies I know about without having to check! In the amateur ranks, Class A runner-up Lina Maria Varela (who we drooled over yesterday) was also (albeit briefly) an ex-Figure competitor.


Essence Monet

The standard reaction for female muscle fans when women do move "up" (as they say) is one of delight. "Another one for the (more muscle) team" sort of thing. You never hear disappointment voiced, you never read "I wish she'd just stayed in her heels". Women moving from Figure to Physique is, by general consensus, a "good thing".



And I'm not about to disagree with that, but I do wonder whether the apparent ease with which some former Figure phenoms have risen so rapidly in Physique will have ramifications for both divisions that we all might not be so enthusiastic about.



Take the fortunes at the Arnolds recently of those women who have come to Physique from the other direction, for example. Kira Neuman was the highest placed ex-Bodybuilder, and she switched to Physique immediately after gaining her pro card at the 2012 Nationals. Geraldine Morgan, given her recent history of Physique placings, was probably delighted with 8th here, but it's taken her the best part of five years to achieve it, and she's never been remotely close to Olympia qualification.




Does this signify that rather than what we hoped for - that Physique would inevitably become a more and more muscular division - the opposite is happening and in fact a leaner, less muscular, more Figure with flexing package is what the future holds?


Natalia - the Yaxeni to Shanique's Iris?!

Relax, they tell me. You worry too much. The Arnold result was just two genetic freaks who have found the right division for themselves and are getting on with realising their scary potential. If Physique is going to be these two flexing off at Arnolds and Olympias for the next ten years (Natalia playing Yaxeni to Shanique's Iris perhaps?), what's the problem? Shanique, Natalia and successful former Figure competitors at the Olympia - Juliana Malacarne, Jennifer Taylor and Heather Grace - were just wrong in Figure, and if we are lucky enough to see all five of them on stage together in Las Vegas later in the year, it will truly be a mouth-watering feast of muscular beauty.



And, they ask me, so what if Physique becomes a kind of Figure+? It'll keep the Bodybuilders in Bodybuilding, and that division might even benefit from bigger Physique competitors moving (back) up. Imagine Katie Lee (12th at this year's Arnolds) deciding to switch to Bodybuilding! Would that be such a bad thing?!



Whatever's going to happen (and Katie Lee becoming a Bodybuilder is a very nice dream indeed), what we do know for sure is that Shanique Grant never won a pro Figure title but now has four wins out of four as a Physique competitor. Appropriately perhaps, she no longer wants to be known as "The Future" - she's "The Present" now.



Enjoy!

FMS is going to be having a break this weekend, and for good reason - votes have been counted, on Monday we begin our 2018 Hot and Hard 100 countdown!

Arnolds Review: Friday Night and Saturday Morning (with Shawn, Kai and Latorya)

The recent extreme cold and snow (aka "The Beast from the East") in the UK last week, left this female muscle fan sans wife for a few days last week, as she waited for the roads to be cleared before attempting to drive back home. Crucially, my period of solitude included the early hours of Saturday morning, so I was able to spend some quality time with the Figure, Physique and Fitness divisions at the Arnolds via the live stream.



Now, I've watched live streams of big shows before, and unless it's the Arizona Pro/Rising Phoenix, the biggest problem a female muscle fan has is that invariably the running order has alternate male and female classes, so as exciting as the Figure finals were, they were immediately followed by some men in old-fashioned posing "shorts", not the women of my Physique dreams. Bit of a passion killer those shorts.



So you are constantly revving up then getting all deflated. Make yourself a drink, maybe a snack. Rearrange the furniture, empty the washing machine. Check Instagram for new #arnoldsportsfestival uploads... And the buggers in their shorts are still up there - is it my imagination or do the chaps get longer for their "routines"?



We were in the company of "experts" Shawn Ray and Kai Greene. But it became all too apparent very quickly that you would be extremely hard-pressed to find two men from the Bodybuilding community who were less knowledgeable about the women's divisions. Whoever at MD is responsible for these things must have been aware of their presenters' limitations, and so former Ms Figure Olympia and Ms Figure International Latorya Watts had been drafted in to bring her knowledge of Fitness and Physique as well as her own Figure division to bear on the commentary for the three female finals.



Are you the kind of competitor who looks at what the other girls are doing? Shawn asked her as the Figure finalists came out. Well, I used to be... she replied.



At least she knows who the reigning Ms Figure Olympia is, which is not something Shawn or Kai can claim. As Cydney was introduced and strode across the stage as she does, Shawn (or maybe it was Kai) muttered something about the top 6. "Ms Figure Olympia..." Latorya reminded them, although that's perhaps not quite the right word - you can't really remind someone of something they don't actually know in the first place. "Well, that remains to be seen..." said Shawn/Kai, obviously under the impression that Latorya was making a prediction rather than stating a fact. Understandably, she didn't labour the point, and kept pretty quiet after that.



Kai's contribution to the female classes consisted mainly of bellowing extended monosyllabic approval when ladies who particularly appealed to him took to the stage. "WowowowoWOWWOWWOW!!!" is about as exact as I can get to his "expert commentary" on Physique's Essence Monet's arrival. If that's all you are expected to bring to the live stream commentary, I can confidently say I could do that.



And my own personal biggest bellow of the night came as Natalia Coelho performed her (short, and I've checked since and it really was shorter than all the rest of the top 10 Physique finishers') routine. Specifically it was the moment when, facing the judges, she extended one leg, bent the other, lowering herself down. A double biceps in that position (I think, I was kind of transfixed by her inner thigh), followed by a lat spread. And as she hit the latter she put both hands flat on either side of her waist...



Now either Natalia has a pair of really huge hands, or she has got the tiniest waist imaginable, because the tips of the fingers on her right hand met the tips of her fingers on her left hand, like your fingertips might do when holding a decent-sized sandwich.

WowowowoWOWWOWWOW!!!



After the Physique routines had been (seemingly) whizzed through we did at least get the pleasure of a posedown - for the best part of a minute - before the only women who actually flex their muscles were whooshed off the stage. The Arnold Festival organisers quite obviously see the Fitness routines as the main attraction on the Friday night, and they were given quite the build up, "like nothing else you'll see on this stage tonight".



To be fair, they are spectacular. The costumes, the contortions, and the (made to look effortless) feats of strength always impress, but what strikes me most every time I do watch the Fitness routines is the element of risk in some of the tumbling and acrobatics that goes on. As billed, this is unique to this division. Lose your balance while attempting a Masino-style flex on one leg and a lady might look a bit clumsy. Get a backflip wrong and there is a real danger of serious injury to the head/neck/back.



You can hear the crowd gasp on those rare occasions when a competitor goes close to hospitalising themselves, but it is a testament to the level of performance these women achieve that such disasters almost never happen. It's the speed and the height of their jumps and somesaults that more often than not takes the audience's breath away.



And after the "big show", the awards. Again, you have to sit through the male classes (or not) by the time the 212 or whatever it's called were getting their awards I was having to pace around just to stay awake. Cyd didn't win Figure, which I was a bit disappointed about, and then the clear top two in the Physique class - Shanique Grant and the impossibly small-waisted one - were separated before (as we saw yesterday) Kate Errington ended the night on a high for us British fans.



Goodnight Shawn and Kai (I think Latorya had skulked off long before the final awards were given out, and who can blame her?), it's been a night of highs and lows, of (unintentional on your part) hilarity, and gasps and cheers from my end. As always seems to be the case with Olympia and Arnold live streams - it's not been nearly as amazing as the anticipation of watching it was, but in the end, I'm glad I came.