FMS @RP2018: Swell Digs

Six women across three divisions (sorry Benny Boy, no "proper" FBBs today) that made quite the impression on ol' Swell during (and since) last weekend's IFBB Arizona Pro.

In the order they stepped on stage...

FITNESS

KRISTINE DUBA




We've already featured Kristine's breathless routine (see Tuesday's Tales from the Feed) but any excuse for a few more of Gene X's pictures of this bouncy blond goddess. She's been a Fitness pro for five years now, and though - amazingly - she's never won a title, Kristine has been to the Olympia twice - 8th in 2016 her best placing. She won't, sadly, be there this weekend though. Sadly for the Olympia audience that is.

FIGURE

TRACY WILLIAMS




Earlier in the week I may have been guilty of giving the impression the Figure division was a bit of a one-woman show - that woman being Cydney Gillon - but in fact there were 24 other women in the line-up. And in a division that only lets in bottoms that provide the most extreme aesthetic pleasure for the viewer, the pleasure was all mine when Tracy Williams faced the back. Probably the most ripped Figure competitor on the night, Tracy (11th) was not as loved by the judges as she was in my house.

KAREN REYES




We couldn't help but notice her in Tampa (when James Cook took a LOT of photos of her - see FMS passim) and she finished 15th on her pro debut. Here, she had enough going on to finish just outside the top 6. Karen hasn't got much attention from the female muscle lovin' community thus far, but I'm sure it won't be long before her smouldering beauty and banging Figure bod start to get much more IG monitoring.

PHYSIQUE

RESHANNA BOSWELL




Any women who starts her thirty-second "presentation" with a full frontal most muscular (even Physique-style) is fine by me, and Reshanna went on to display her obvious charms with similar gusto for the other twenty-nine seconds too. Sadly, as she finished outside the top 10, we didn't get any more of this gorgeous woman in the evening, but she's on the FMS Watch List now, so she can expect a bit of Instagram surveillance. "Bigger and better" next time, promises this mouth-watering hunk of Chicago-based muscle. A physique worthy of the biggest division of all?

DENISE CADENAS




The Physique Masters Winner, the well-enhanced Denise finished 7th in the Open class. Like Reshanna, Denise added a full frontal most muscular to her presentation, and thankfully so. It's the only angle from which the judges (and audience and 600+ live feed viewers) could see past those mighty enhancements to her (almost as) plentiful pec meat. With all that going on upstairs her posing suit was in mortal danger - note her tight, tanned, muscular glutes and what's trying to disappear between them.

AMANDA PTAK




And our last bit of diggery may be somewhat sentimental, but all the same we very much dug the fact that finally the woman formerly known as Amanda Folstad got to make her pro debut. Once (in a galaxy far far away, ie. 2011) Amanda was a young Heavyweight(!) at the NPC Nationals. Eight long years later and now an Over 35, she won her pro card at the NPC Masters Nationals earlier this year. Great to see the Viking Blond Goddess pose on a pro stage, however briefly. She had "zero expectations" on this occasion, but is determined to be back. Much to improve on! she says.

Enjoy!

Tampa: Motion

Some remarkable bodies doing some remarkable things is perhaps best to describe how NPC News Online's Tampa Fitness Backstage edit begins. Breathtaking stuff, but then there's a bit of a lull in the middle section - remarkable bodies not doing much more than listening to music and/or taking selfies. Then, quite unexpectedly, there they are - the FBB line-up about to take the stage. The big finish, you might say!



Hopefully, longer backstage edits of Figure, Physique and FBBing are to come, and hopefully too Maximum Muscle Report - who have footage of the evening show - will soon have all the FBBing and Physique routines up. For today, we've selected four that (at the time of writing) are already there, starting with LaDawn McDay.



LaDawn's 3rd place was the curious judging decision of the day. Nothing in her contest history suggested she would end up ahead of Kim Buck and Lisa Cross, so we were eager to see her routine for clues as to why this time was different. Kim Buck's routine is not, as yet, available, but we can compare 3rd place LaDawn with 4th place Lisa.



Lower down the placings, the most anticipated return to competition was Angela Salvagno's. It's a slightly odd experience to see her wearing something that she doesn't aggressively remove by the halfway stage, but we'll have to get used to it.



And we finish for today and this week with another come back Queen, and the champ on the night. Classy and poised as ever, Alina nevertheless came back with a little extra, something else - two things to be precise - we'll also just have to get used to.



Check out NPC News Online for more backstage edits (soon?), and Maximum Muscle Report for more of the FBB routines, as well as breathtaking Fitness performances.

Enjoy!

FBBUK: Emma Takes Miami

The (obviously fit but otherwise pretty unassuming) young lady waiting to board at Heathrow was excited. Can’t wait to arrive in Miami and get this weekend started, she told her 15,000+ Instagram followers. My peanut butter made it through security!



Emma Paveley (in case you didn't recognise her) kicked off an unprecedented period of British success in Fitness this time last year when she won on her pro debut in Vancouver, and subsequently became the first British woman to compete in Fitness at the Olympia since Kizzy Vaines in 2012. This year, Kate Errington - the other half of the UK's pro Fitness attack - was runner-up at the Arnolds in Ohio, then Arnold Australia champion. At the start of this month, it was Emma's turn to shine again.



And shine she did. Miami Muscle Beach Pro Fitness champion. "Goal achieved" as she put it. She'll be joining Kate in Las Vegas in September for her second Olympia.




First time round she was a bit rabbit-in-the-headlights by her own admission. A fantastic experience, but 11th was not the result she wanted. I'm going to be bringing more than last year, she promised after Miami. I'll work harder and I will be better.



Such ambition, determination, and hard work has taken her to the top of British then European amateur Fitness, and now into the ranks of the pro elite of her sport.

Why change that formula now?



We can't confirm her "battle axe" trophy (handed over by the previous year's champ, Ariel Khadr) made it through customs like the peanut butter did going out!



Congratulations - once again - to Emma!

On Instagram

Around the World: Saudi Arabia

Around the World is an occasional series celebrating the female bodybuilders of a particular country, and examining any issues peculiar to muscle women there.





The state-sponsored explosion of female-only gyms in Saudi Arabia last year was truly a seismic shift in a country where previously the involvement of women in any sporting activity was pretty much forbidden. So it was sad to hear that one of those gyms had had its licence suspended after a video filmed there and circulating on social media was accused of "promoting the gym disgracefully and breaching the kingdom’s code of conduct", according to the Saudi General Sports Authority's Chairman.

We are not going to tolerate this, he continued. The General Sports Authority asserts that it will put an end to such misdemeanours that are deemed offensive to society. All such irresponsible people will be under pursuit. Under Saudi law, publishing material through social media that is "inconsistent with public order or morality or religious values" is a crime that can get you five years plus a £500,000 fine.



The clip in question stars a woman identified as a "Tunisian kickboxer" who was - she's since been fired - a trainer at the Riyadh fitness centre performing a series of (impressively powerful) kickboxing moves, and also (apparently because this isn't in the part of the clip I've seen) doing some zumba. What's landed all concerned in such hot water though is not so much what she's doing but what she's wearing.



Saudi women can now lawfully obtain driving licences, attend sporting events (in three cities!), and access some state services without the permission of their male "guardian". Female students are even allowed to carry their mobile phones while on campus now, but wearing lycra and a singlet while working out in an all-female gym is, it seems, a clear and present danger to society. The General Sports Authority's swift response is to be applauded, tweeted a media adviser to the young, "reforming" King Salman. We are on the path to moderation, but without social breakdown, he added.



However, not all the female fitness news coming out of Saudi Arabia is so comically reactionary. In the west coast city of Jeddah "tucked away from prying eyes", 41-year-old trainer Halah Alhamrani's FlagBoxing gym – its motto "Fight Like A Girl" - offers the ladies classes in callisthenics, boxing, kickboxing, and even (whisper it!) Crossfit.



Despite (or perhaps because of) its low profile, Alhamrani's gym - relying on "word-of-mouth publicity" - achieves exactly what the state wanted these all-female gyms to achieve. A rich and prosperous country Saudi Arabia may be, but having effectively stopped female participation in any sporting activity for generations, the country now finds itself with a sedentary, obese, and diabetic female population. This not only costs the state in terms of healthcare, but is also such an epidemic that it even threatens the reformists' stated aim to have women making up a fifth of the workforce by 2030.



But as well as encouraging women to exercise for their physical well-being, FlagBoxing gym (and, I would imagine, others like it) are also enabling their members to "find their voice". On a daily basis, women who have never done sports walk into my class, some with their mothers, says Alhamrani. They walk out more confident, and the mothers say to me "Thank you for offering my daughter such an empowering feeling". Changing out of their abaya gowns in the locker room seems to transform them. They "can't wait to come back". They say being at the gym is "like going to a party".



And I suspect that this, for all their talk of public morals, is really what the authorities are so damn worried about - EMPOWERMENT. A female population fit and healthy for work is what they need; a confident, vocal, organised female population (who can punch the shiite out of their husbands) is quite possibly their worst nightmare.



More about these stories can be found on the Emirati news source The National, who reported on both FlagBoxing gym and the recent Riyadh gym closure. Also the story was covered on Emirates Woman, in the Saudi English language Al Araby, and in the British press via the Express and the Mail, and you can also watch Arab News' FlagBoxing gym report (starring Halah Alhamrani herself) on YouTube.

Well, Aloha! Jennie & More in Hawaii

First I heard of Alina Popa protégée Jennie Roosa's pro debut was when she posted these to her Instagram. And after that point I got quite excited about the prospect.

Turned out the show she (and Alina) had selected was the new (in terms of having a Female Bodybuilding class anyway) Hawaii Pro, which took place on March 10th.



Jennie is not what you'd call the most prolific social media poster, but what she did post from her prep only served to push my excitement levels almost to ticker-threatening. This was 4 weeks out!!! And then a check-in photo of her with Physique Dream Krista Dunn emerged, Jennie's perky pec pointers persuading me she was just as excited as anybody (even me) heightened my anticipation even further.



In the end, the (finally) glammed and tanned Jennie was only one of three in the Female Bodybuilding class, and with just five women competing in Physique, the show was not exactly overflowing with muscular treats. However, in both those classes and in a much better-subscribed Fitness class, treats there most certainly were.

FITNESS



That is quite a chassis on the winner Missy Terwilliger. I clocked her at the Arnolds (where, thanks to Kate Errington, I watched all the Fitness routines) and was impressed. You can check out just what she can make that chassis do here.



But the big Fitness interest of the day was Minna Pajulahti, back in the division where she started out after a break (by my reckoning) of about seven years. Check out her routine, and while you do so bear in mind that she can squat, bench press and deadlift a combined total well in excess of 500kg (well over 1,100lbs).



The judges placed her 4th.



And you can get a sense of just how big she really as from this Maximum Muscle Report interview with Mandus Buckle (for real). Now he may not be cut out for interviewing, but his presence in shot nonetheless provides a good sense of Minna's mighty scale.

PHYSIQUE



And talking of mighty scales, the aforementioned Krista Dunn was hardly dwarfed by Jennie in their check-in photo, making close inspection of her on-stage pics a must.




Krista looked every inch the two-time Olympian she is, and her incredible legs and overall "buff-momness" almost proved a winner (she was 2nd) with the judges.




The Physique class winner though was the (somewhat-less-ripped-than-Krista) Michaela Aycock, who, a week after she'd exceeded expectations at the Arnolds by placing 4th and doing some glamour work, booked her place at the Olympia.



I just had two of the most incredible weeks, she told her Instagram followers after her Ohio and Hawaii experiences. My heart is so full, and the year is still young!

BODYBUILDING



Jennie at last! But against the odds, and despite looking about as Popa as you can look without actually being Popa, she didn't take home the title on her pro debut. Instead, the very classy Nicki Chartrand claimed 2018's first Female Bodybuilding crown.



I was at the show, one (fortunate) forum member revealed afterwards. I was a little surprised by Nicki's win. She looked incredible, but Jennie looked absolutely amazing. Maybe I'm biased, or maybe that's why I'm not a judge, but yeah, I was surprised.



Clue is in the quote, no? "Biased", "not a judge" - and, you will be pleased (because you are so jealous of him), he wasn't in the front row either ("more in the middle/front"). So perhaps not the most reliable of observers. I don't want to make this a debate about the result, more a celebration, so let's just say it was a tough call because there were two absolutely amazing physiques on the stage. Nicki's was amazing, and so was Jennie's.



Four weeks' out was the last morsel she had offered, until the night before. Relaxing with my feet up, enjoying the carbs, she told us. She was wide-eyed, and so was I. That hint of glorious pec meat, that magnificent deltoid, those veins like ropes...



I'm a little disappointed with how Jennie Roosa looked compared to her progress pics from 3-4 weeks ago, moaned a forum poster before the results were in. She looks like she lost size while not really being any more ripped or in better condition.




Some people are never happy. Look at those LEGS... look at that BACK!!!



My only disappointment is that Jennie hasn't updated her Instagram since the night before. I've had to be content with scavenging some of her Awefilms and Muscle Angels work that has gone up on the boards recently. About as Popa as you can look...



Oh yeah, and watching this...


November 2017, and that's Alina giving the orders

What I've been doing while watching is between me and my conscience!

Enjoy!