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.

Arnolds Review: FBBUK: Kate Errington

8 days' out (left), and the night before

Do you think I'm ready? Kate Errington asked her Instagram followers the day before she made her pro debut at this year's Arnold Classic. Just out of a hot bath, everything was "popping" and she most certainly looked ready. Then again, I'd thought she'd looked pretty ready at the start of her "peak week", inviting her followers to guess her bodyfat percentage. At the risk of sounding like an IFBB official, maybe she was too ready now, too lean, too ripped. Would it affect her scores to be so utterly shredded? And that depleted, would she have enough in the tank to do her routine justice?



As the first pictures of the heels and turns round went up, it was clear Kate knew what she was doing. She looked resplendent. I had her placed 1st, but then I am no judge and (you may have noticed) can be slightly biased in favour of the British ladies.



I settled down in the evening to watch the show on the Muscular Development live stream. It took a while to get to the Fitness routines, and Kate, if memory serves, was on second last. Again, she looked amazing - so amazing she was described as such by the "expert" commentary team (more about this tomorrow) - and her performance was tremendous, showcasing all her grace, her power, and her dance skills. It was quite different to the majority of the other routines, I noted, but as I haven't watched too many Fitness shows, I lacked the knowledge to assess whether this difference was a good or bad thing (and the "experts" on the commentary were no help at all).



When the time came for the awards to be dished out, I wasn't holding my breath. It was her pro debut, and she was by far the least experienced of the women on the stage. The best ever British pro Fitness result had been Kizzy Vaines' 7th places (2012 & 2013), so history wasn't on her side either. She had been in the first heels and turns call out though, but she wasn't called in 6th, or in 5th, either. She had looked awfully good in the heels and turns, I reminded myself. And that routine had been spectacular...



Then Regiane Da Silva, top 3 at the Olympia on three occasions, was announced in 4th. I'd thought 10th for Kate would have been good before the show, then 3rd went to Bethany Wagner (just the 7 Olympias). And then... "From the United Kingdom, your Fitness International runner-up on her professional debut... Kate Errington!"



WHAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?! Kate's reaction was pretty much my reaction. 2nd place was beyond my wildest expectations, she wrote afterwards. Mine too, Kate, mine too.



OK, to put this result into perspective, you must realise this is not just the best Fitness placing Britain has ever had at the Arnolds, it's also our best EVER Arnolds' result in any division, writing over Gayle Moher's 3rd place at the 1998 Ms International. And on her pro debut.



She's going to Australia for the Arnolds there next, and she'll be among the favourites to win. She may still be as unknown here in the UK as she was when she took off for Columbus, but the world of IFBB pro Fitness knows her name now for sure.


The er, day job. Or rather "night job", truth be told.

For more, see FMS passim, and Kate's Instagram

An Exhibition

"Confidence" is what the collective we usually call it.

I LOVE their CONFIDENCE! - or something similar - we gush.



Meet Carrie.



Born in New Zealand, Carrie has called New York home for the last 17 years.



She's one half of "brooklynsbonnieandclyde" on Instagram. She is (obviously) the Bonnie, and her (are you jealous?) Clyde is cameraman boyfriend Christian.



And when she isn't doing a 12-hour shift saving lives as an intensive care nurse, she's "working out and enjoying life", and a big part of the latter seems to be showing off her sexy muscular body at every possible opportunity. All over Brooklyn and beyond.



Here she is in London with big guns.



Here she is in Florence.



And here she is in Paris.

Not lacking the "confidence" we love so much, I would guess.

In fact, I'd say she is a bit beyond that even.

A full-blown Muscle Exhibitionist. And I LOVE it!



The best thing about summer is, she says, that she can walk around in "no sleeves and short shorts", giving everyone an eyeful (OK, that last bit I added, but I think it's a fair assumption) - with her arms covered up there'll be no more opportunities for "the old... 'check my nails' flex" while she waits at the till, for example. A show off supreme!

Earlier in the week when drooling over the delicious Diana Schnaidt, I said there were two reasons why I was ever so slightly jealous the bro-in-law had been seconded to NYC. Well, here's the second reason. I mean, he could be that commuter!



And the worst thing is - if that did happen to him - neck snapping round, Madness taking hold, dry-mouthed, heart racing, agog at the vision of muscle sexiness right there next to him and about to board the same train... he would probably never tell me about this intense experience he'd had, how he'd ridden the subway way past his stop, bag cunningly-placed on his lap, lost in female muscle chance encounter heaven.

I might read about it on the forums though.



Non lifters experience their first Flex Friday... says Carrie.

Might be reading about this one soon too.

She's So Shredded: Mariša Golob

On her Instagram there's a really quite disturbing image of a young, cute, feminine face photoshopped onto an undeniably muscular but somewhat chubby male body. What people think I look like when I tell them I'm a powerlifter, says Mariša Golob.

Click here at your own risk.

I did warn you it was disturbing.

Anyway, me, you and the female muscle lovin' brethren in general are all much too enlightened to have that preconception, but that doesn't mean we don't have a preconception of what a female powerlifter looks like, and it's not (I imagine) the kind of look you would expect to find in a week of posts entitled She's So Shredded.

But Mariša is not your typical powerlifter.



Her Wikipedia entry (which is extensive) calls her "the most successful and decorated female in Slovenian powerlifting history", and details the 27-year-old law student's tally of 37 gold (plus one solitary silver) medals at European and World level.

All have been won in the last five years.




Why so shredded then?

Well, I'd hoped at first that Mariša was going to start doing what our Hot and Hard 100 Top Brit Corinne Ingman does and marry a powerlifting career with a competitive Bodybuilding one, but I've found no evidence to suggest that my dream of her all tanned and oiled, glam and suited and flexing her delicious and powerful body is going to be coming true anytime soon. What I have found out though is that this, as Corinne might say, "royally peeled" look is a fairly recent development - she hasn't always looked quite like this - and is all in aid of ensuring that Mariša makes a particular weight class. She says she is "kind of diggin' these pre-competition shreds".



Swell is very much diggin' them too.

Follow Mariša on Instagram.

Abs Week: Thick for Purpose

Crossfit is like a foreign country; they do abs differently there.



The vast majority of the women we feature on FMS, as this week, are in the Bodybuilding (small "b" if you prefer) game. An aesthetic sport (or "sport" if you must), its winners and losers are decided according to supposedly objective criteria by judges - who the fans will tell you (subjectively) hardly ever get it absolutely right.

For the women, even those at the quote unquote top, there's almost no money in it.

And the days before a contest is "peak week", a misleading name if ever there was one. Competitors are at their weakest as they stand on stage, but also their most beautiful. At the point where they compete, their muscles really are just for show.



Crossfit, though, is all about the stats. Everything is measured and documented, and there can be no argument about the winner of a heat, an event, or a competition.

There's money to be made. Lots of it. Mega money at the top, and what's more, it's actually the women who are the star attraction, their fame eclipsing that of their male counterparts by some distance. And no, I didn't just make that last bit up.

Crossit is all about performance. If you are not at your best on the day, you don't win. How many times have we seen FBBing champions not be at their best and still win? Never happens in Crossfit. Never. Every year is a year zero, there is absolutely no competitive advantage whatesoever to having done well the previous season.



As a result, Crossfit muscle serves an entirely different purpose to Bodybuilding muscle simply because it's a by-product of the training, not the end result itself. In Bodybuilding the muscle is the show. In Crossfit it's what that muscle can do.



Crossfit abs don't need to be lean and defined, they just need to be strong.



Witness the thickness necessary to be among the world's elite at in the "constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity" game (which is, in fact, what Crossfit defines itself as). Note the "functional"; note the "high intensity".



Witness the thickness and be clear about one thing - that despite all that I've said so far, Bodybuilding and Crossfit do have something in common. Both MUSCLE sports.



And you know despite all their "all about the functionality" attitude, the women of Crossfit are (thankfully) by no means averse to a little muscle exhibitionism either. Take, for instance, rising star Amanda Franden's tanned, bikini-clad selfie below. I don't think it wouldn't look out of place on an IFBB Bikini pro's Instagram feed.



Take, for instance, Greek's Crossit twins Thelma (left) and Stella (right, another rising star) Christoforou. Not a whole lot of functionality going on here, is there?



And here's Jennifer Kokk, also apparently indulging in a little navel gazing...



Was never about the bathroom selfie, says (yet another rising star) Jamie Goodwin about an, er, bathroom selfie with prominent abs (here). But hey, there are perks!

And long may she, and other the other beautiful women of Crossfit enjoy showing off those "perks", everywhere from the bathroom to the Crossfit arena. I mean, I'm no ecpert, but I'm pretty sure they don't have to train/compete in those tiny tops that show off their thickly-muscled midsections if they don't want to, do they?



But they do.

And I'm sure it diesn't hurt the women's popularity.



Our Crossfit correspondent had nothing to do with today's post, it's all my own rubbish, but his keyboard is no doubt bracing itself right now because qualifying for the 2017 Games will be coming soon. Follow the leaderboards on the Games' website.

Names in the file names of the images.

Enjoy!