January Clearance! [L-N]

"Too many to feature here" is a phrase I seem to have typed a lot over the past year, referring to the vast number of women and/or images the female muscle head is faced with in these instant information times. On the upside, you never go short. The downside for the blogger is there are far too many to feature here - there I go again.

It felt wrong just to forget about the women we intended to feature at some stage during 2017 but didn't. Firstly, the fact they have come to our attention at all is the result of some pretty solid sifting by the FMS research team, and it would just be plain rude to ignore all that hard work. And secondly, it's not the case that we once thought these women were worth posting about and don't anymore - we still do.

The solution we came up with is The FMS January Clearance - we're going to feature all the women who are taking up space in the "TBC" folder on the 2017 planner. And you're getting them all together in a sort of but not really alphabetical order (you'll see what I mean). Further your enjoyment by clicking on the names.

Five beautiful bods a day for seven days. Have fun!


LAUREN RIFFEL



This year I will be fierce, promised Lauren on January 2nd. Because Strong Is Sexy.



This 22-year-old Californian has only been sharing her "fitness journey" since October (clearly this journey began some time before that) but her grand total of 62 posts already she has attracted fan attention. Those arms, yes, but also for the attitude, the desire to "inspire our fitness ladies" through embodying the "Strong Is Sexy" mantra, but also to "be the chick in the gym who motivates every guy to push harder".



Her IG moniker - strongerthanyourboyfriendd (!)


MELINDA LINDMARK



21-year-old Swedish Physique dream Melinda first came to Swell's attention back in the summer when she was coming to the attention of a good few others too. A veritable goddess, wrote one - clearly impressed - forum poster. Look at that huge veiny bicep!



And as Melinda leaned down to compete (for the first time?) at last year's Tyngre Classic, female muscle lovin' pulses were set racing, the temperature in the FMS office soared, and Swell had Melinda (showing off her delts, her back and beautiful bum) as his screensaver (for a while, you know how easily my head can get turned).



Inappropriate though it may be for a man of my advancing years to be so ga-ga for a woman so young, I DO like Melinda. A lot. And I would guess I'm only one of many who have fallen under her spell in the last six months or so. Now it's your turn.


KIMBERLY MERCER



I have to admit that the first time I saw a Kimberly Mercer selfie it took me quite some time to realise I wasn't looking at Brooke Walker. Now I would hope Kimberly would take that as a compliment, which she should. This newly-carded pro seems, just as Brooke did in 2015, to be entering the next stage of her career already displaying the kind of quality necessary to succeed among the IFBB Physique elite.



Perhaps this is because she spent the best part of two years upgrading her body from Figure (where she did well enough to compete at national level) before entering her first Physique contest. At the IFBB North Americans last year she finished runner-up in her class, good enough to get the card, but also already looking every inch the pro.



She looks pretty damn good in or out of her her (Onslow County, North Carolina First Responder) work clothes too. Evidence since her contest suggests she'll be even bigger and better when she makes that pro debut - hopefully not in another two years.

SWOOOON!!!


SUSANNE NAAMANI



Oh, she's new, I say as the FMS work experience boy plops the Susanne Naamani file down on my desk. And then he tells me that she's been around since 2010. Ugh.



I console myself with the fact that I wasn't the only one who was taken by surprise. Susanne's popularity on the forums peaked around 2011-12, and has only recently enjoyed a resurgence. Damn! She got big! notes one forum bod who knew her earlier in the decade. Damn! She is big! says another on a different forum who didn't.



As well as admiring how pleasingly big Susanne indeed is these days, I've also been catching up with her past via her blog - SUZIE - which she kept up for a couple of years. Although it does also contain stories of everyday disasters like getting locked out of her own house, it is pretty much the story of her "fitness journey". Having said that though, I doubt you'll ever read a more wildly entertaining one. She crayzee!


SHEIKHA NGUYEN



New Nguyen on the block!



A fitness and lingerie model, (amateur) IFBB Physique competitor, and personal trainer, Sheikha is based in Singapore. She is, in her own words, "here to inspire".



Now there's a rather famous picture of Sheikha having the spray tan applied (version 1 - here, version 2 - here) which I'm sure has inspired all sorts of reactions from the brethren... Meanwhile though, Sheikha posts equally impressive (if a lot less naughty) updates on her IG and Facebook on a somewhat irregular basis, and fans can also contact her on HerBicepsCams, where she's Asian Iron. A lot of them do, I'm told.


Five more muscle women for your viewing delight tomorrow!

Sweat. Sweet! (I Wanna Be Her Dog)

Excuse the perspiration, says Melissa Wee. Flexing is hard work.



I think Melissa needs to practise, practise, practise, and practise some more. Doesn't look like she's even close to getting it right yet. And if that means even more perspiration, so be it. I'm sure she'll find someone in LA willing to hold the towel.

Melissa is competing this weekend. Find out how she did, how truly, disgustingly peeled she had got during her preparation, and what she considers to be an appropriate outfit to wear to church during her peak week on her Instagram.

You'll be as jealous of that dog of hers as I am.

And, connected "in back", if otherwise totally unrelated, a sweaty gem from the FMS archive. Super Tazzie shows you her sweaty muscle bum does bent over rows with a right sweat on, poses like the arrogant goddess she is, and struts around like she owns the gym. Which she obviously does. Intoxicating Female Muscle Hall of Fame stuff.



I believe Tazzie has a pooch or two.

Haters Gonna Hate (But If They Are Gonna Hate Melissa Wee, They Should Learn to Spell)

True story. Recently made a very cool female muscle lovin' contact through a forum which is not a female muscle forum. He started up a thread called 'Girls with Muscle' which we have both been adding to, posting pics of Zsuzsanna Toldi, Chelsea Hagan, Cindy Landolt, Megan Avalon etc. Busty types. Not the hugest most shocking kind of muscle women by any means. And guess what? Thousands of views, but only the odd comment of support/suggestion, although two other guys have posted some muscle. By far the most popular type of comment bemoans the "horrific" amount of muscle on these women that "cross into butch", whose "faces look weird".

Now, if you are reading this blog you probably don't agree that Chelsea Hagan has a "weird" face, and nor would you use a word like "butch" if you were describing Cindy Landolt. However, if by the off chance you are reading this blog and you actually do think that Zsuzsanna Toldi's body is "horrific", then my question to you is this:

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

I don't mean "Why are you here?" in the philosophical, cosmic sense. I'm not asking for an explanation of your existence. What I mean is "Why, if you don't like female muscle, are you here, at a blog about female muscle?" Why visit a forum thread clearly labelled "Girls with Muscle" if you don't like girls with muscle? And why look at pictures of Melissa Wee on her Instagram or Facebook pages if you find her repulsive?

Melissa says: And this is why I deadlift.


Yes, Singapore's sexiest gets her fair share of abuse, possibly more than her fair share, and these haters are all very keen to spell out exactly why they find her so abhorrent. And that's another thing I don't understand about these types, why do they bother commenting? Why do they feel so compelled to spend their precious time sharing their negative opinions with people who quite obviously have another point of view?

It seems to me that you must really have a lot of time on your hands if you can afford to pass your time being so totally and uselessly negative. Really a LOT of time.

Posting a bigger picture because I LUB the rainbow bandage skirt!


Melissa doesn't have much time to waste. And she is certainly not going to be wasting any precious free time she does have on answering her critics, but occasionally it is satisfying to see her hit back at a particularly nasty hater. She hits back and in the process mobilises those of us who do appreciate her to send her more messages of support. The net result of Melissa being hated is Melissa getting some love.

Perhaps the negativity isn't completely useless after all!

I have about 3 and a half months to go before I step on stage. The closer I get to the date, the more excited and nervous I get. I just got home from a chesticles/ bicepraptors session followed by a 6km run. I'm pretty much too damn tired now to say anything inspiring. In fact I don't even feel very motivated today but I know that I got to do what I got to do if I want to present my very best physique come September 6th. So guess what princess, even if I don't feel like training or sticking to my diet, I still gotta suck it up and do it. Because if I don't, I can't expect to get the results that I want. I have no one to blame but myself.


Melissa's most recent response to some pointless hating was a little bit different though. You may recall that Melissa was (or is?) a primary school teacher. Well, once a teacher, always a teacher is, I believe, how the saying goes, and the poor fool who wasted his time insulting Melissa on this occasion fell foul of that teacher within her.

Someone spammed my Instagram account on more than 30 photos telling me my muscles are "descussting" and "you loose your boobs". Omg. The horror! Melissa wrote. Can you see where this is going yet, where the teacher in Melissa is taking us?

Because sometimes we need a midweek night out.


Of course, as Teacher Ms Wee points out, it's "disgusting", not "descussting" (unless they meant "discussing" - surely not?!), and although you might "loosen" something (probably not your boobs, but anyway), you don't "loose" anything, you "lose" it.

With all that time on their hands - I mean, scrawling your borderline illiterate views all over thirty pictures must take a good hour at least - you'd think that they could spend just a moment of that time checking how to spell the odd difficult or confusing word.

Spamming your feed with more progress pictures I took today. 14 weeks out. 3 and a half months. I think I'm going to freak out. I HAVE to bring a much tighter package to stage in 14 weeks. It's not a matter of whether I can but rather I MUST.


Help is at hand, however. Female Muscle Slave, in association with Melissa Wee, is delighted to invite entries for the first annual HATERS ONLY SPELLING BWEE.

Rounds will include straight up spelling, homophones and homonyms, and a freestyle round where contestants are given a microphone and get sixty seconds to score points with some grammatical, well-structured, and witty abuse while Melissa (bikini-clad, ripped and oiled) flexes her descussting muscles right in front of their faces.

GunShow


Contact 6ft1swell@gmail.com for an entry form. What have you got to loose?

Oh, and I nearly forgot. If, and only if, the idea of Melissa Wee doing a few topless pull-ups (because you make the most gains doing pull ups topless, according to Melissa) appeals to you, then make yourself comfortable before clicking here.

Please, enjoy!

Around the World: Singapore

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



FMS is only aware of two female bodybuilders from the city-state of Singapore,
Joan Liew and Melissa Wee. Today, we bring you recent news of both.

Firstly, congratulations are due to Joan, who won the Tall Physique class at the Arnold Amateur in March. I went there with the intention to win, she said. I came in second last year [as a heavyweight bodybuilder] by one point, so I changed my training and fine-tuned my weaknesses. As an athlete, you have to improve every year.


Bodybuilding: Pumping up at the Arnold 2013

For "the first lady of Singapore bodybuilding" - and the only Asian competitor at the Arnold Amateur - the win is the high point of a journey that has included four Asian bodybuilding titles. During the competition I was very calm and did not feel nervous at all. After the win, I must say I was very happy and also rather emotional, because this award is truly special to me. I have worked 20 years to get it.


Physique: Posing at the Arnold 2014

As far as we know here at FMS, Joan Liew is Singapore's most successful ever athlete, in any sport. But despite that success, she recently told Yahoo Sports Singapore of the total indifference of her country's sporting administrators towards her. I hear about sports excellence all the time. The Singapore Sports Council know who I am, I get a fair share of coverage. I’m not even asking for money. I’d appreciate some form of congratulatory message. I’m putting Singapore’s name on the international scene, at the highest level of competition. A simple message would do, she says.



On the one hand, that's hardly surprising. Where in the world do national sporting bodies give recognition to successful female bodybuilders? Certainly not here in the UK, and probably not in your country either, dear reader. On the other hand, you'd expect a small nation where so few sportsmen and women achieve international success to celebrate every international champion they have.



Nevertheless, the lack of official acknowledgement from within Singapore is not going to stop a woman like Joan. She was already so dedicated to the sport as a teenager that she actually chose which junior college to attend based on their gym facilities - and once there she trained daily and, at the school's request, also spent time whipping into shape some of the more obese students before they started their National Service (so she had already served her country in one sense before she'd even competed!)



These days the clients at the gym she co-owns with her bodybuilding mentor of those 20 years pay her to whip them into shape, though male clients do sometimes have what she calls weird requests for a bit of muscle worship. Not her thing, apparently.



Nor is settling down and getting married like her mother says she should. It almost beggars belief, but the very gorgeous Joan remains single, despite having plenty of admirers from all over the world. Her focus remains very much on spreading the weight training gospel. Women should take control of their own bodies, keep it healthy with bodybuilding, exercising regularly and a good nutrition plan, she says. When you look good, you feel good, and that is a great boost to a woman's self-confidence. Imagine the self-confidence of a woman who looks as good as Joan does!



And in another part of Singapore, Melissa Wee (FMS readers' favourite Singaporean - see Hot and Hard 100 #66) has been preparing to compete overseas for the first time.



Melissa's been having some relationship stuff to deal with in recent weeks (I'm not going into any details, but it's all out there on her Instagram and Facebook pages) so the contest prep has been something of a blessing to take her mind off her problems. It has been a pretty rough week for me. I kept myself distracted by making a lot of plans for my trip to California. I have taken a few big steps forward. 1) I signed up and paid for my competition in LA. 2) I booked & paid for my photo shoot with Natalie Minh for post contest. 3) I booked and paid for my apartment in LA where I'll be staying for 18 days before driving to Vegas. I'm really excited and I can't wait to be in the US. I really need the time to get away and this is the perfect opportunity!



That Melissa already enjoys a sizeable fan base despite never having ventured overseas to compete suggests that she won't be short of offers (either professional or personal) in the next couple of months. The Singapore Sports Council may soon find they have another internationally successful amateur female bodybuilder to ignore!



Enjoy!