Favourites Fortnight

From time to time, real life commitments make it impossible for me to give the blog the attention I would like to, and that's going to be the case for the next couple of weeks. But I don't want to leave you FMS-less while you're munching your Easter chocolate, so I've lined up a fortnight of posts of some of my favourite things. Enjoy!

6ft1swell's First Favourites Folder

Well, actually this wasn't the "first" exactly, but it's the oldest one I can find on a functioning hard drive. From the contents, I imagine that I made this collection around 2006 or 2007, and it represents, for me anyway, a sort of interesting snapshot of what and more importantly who I was most into at the time. You can probably guess which female muscle sites I was or had recently been a member of from the 32 images it contains. And I gave the folder a name, as I did all my favourites folders at the time.

GORGEOUS.









































More favourite things tomorrow...

Picture This...

Picture this. You're a regular kind of guy. You've done well enough in your professional life to set up your own business and you've made enough money to buy your own home (no mean feat in the UK in this day and age). You have your friends, your family, your hobbies. You're no Brad or Leo but you're not bad looking either. You have all your regular check-ups, you keep yourself in shape. A little grey at the temples but you do a little bit more than the requisite amount of male grooming.

You're in your late forties now. You are single, as you have been for much of your life. There have been a few women who have mattered to you, but you've never settled down. When your friends and your family ask why, you shrug and say you guess you're hard to please. And you get them off the subject as fast as you can.

What you don't tell them is that you've never settled down because you're still waiting for the right woman. And since your teens, you've wanted nothing more than a woman with muscles. What you've always wanted is a female bodybuilder.

And then, just when you'd given up hope of ever meeting one, you do. She suddenly appears at your gym. No Alina Popa, of course, but you've never seen such muscles on a woman up close (apart from at those two shows you went to all those years ago). You are immediately and overwhelmingly attracted to her. The gym becomes your second home as you spend as much time there as possible in the hope of seeing her. Every time you do, The Madness consumes you. When she's not there, you experience an intense anxiety that doesn't leave you until you do see her again.

Then, one day, she's leaving as you're arriving. Without thinking you say hello to her. She doesn't break stride, but she does give you a smile and says hi back.

Your gym time is paying off. You're looking as good as you've done for maybe twenty years. Colleagues and friends (even one or two random women) have noticed, so your confidence is way up. That initial hello has paid off handsomely. Now you have shared a post-workout drink with her on a number of occasions. You've had chats, and during these chats you've held yourself together pretty well, you think. You haven't stared, you haven't got all tongue-tied and nor have you suddenly blurted out 'I think your body is hot!' (although that's exactly what you have been thinking).

Out of the blue she asks if you'd like to give her a massage at her place after her workout. And you would. And you do. For one beautiful hour your hands explore her magnificent body. When you get it just right and she sighs in appreciation death could take you right there and nobody would ever have died so happy.

And now, tonight, in just a few hours, she's coming to yours for dinner and a movie. The wine is chilling, the cushions are fluffed. Your heart pounds with anticipation. Tonight is going to be the night. All those years of waiting and finally your dream is coming true. A real live female bodybuilder is coming over to play.

So, how do you think the night ends? What do you imagine happens next?

Now, I'm pretty sure that you readers are quite an imaginative lot. But I doubt any of you imagined that the night ends with the woman kicking you in the head, biting your hip, and scratching your face before grabbing your balls and squeezing them 'really hard' before driving herself to the nearest police station and reporting you for sexual assault. And I also doubt that you imagined that because of your actions that night you would be given a one-year suspended jail sentence and an order to do 150 hours of community service. I doubt you imagined that on top of that you would have to pay £600 costs, and I seriously doubt you imagined that as well as all the above your name would be on the sex offenders' register for the next ten years.

From the Western Morning News, March 27th:

A sex attacker picked the wrong victim when he tried to grope a woman bodybuilder who fought back and squeezed his testicles until he let go of her. Paul Heppenstall thought he was in for a romantic evening when the woman agreed to watch a horror film him next to the open fire at his Dartmoor home. He did not get the message when she told him she was not interested but he soon discovered his would-be victim was in no mood for any sexual activity. She is a regular gym user and bodybuilder who kicked him in the head, bit him on his hip, scratched his face and finally reached for his testicles, which she squeezed "really hard".

The woman then left his home and drove straight to the nearest police station to complain about him, even though it was the middle of the night.

Graphic designer Heppenstall, aged 48, was handed a suspended sentence as a judge added insult to injury at Exeter Crown Court. He denied assault by penetration and sexual assault. He was cleared of the first and found guilty of the second. Recorder Mr Martin Meeke, QC told him: "You believed the woman was willing to engage in sexual intimacy. That led you to touch her and the jury clearly thought you believed she at that stage had consented. She then made it clear she was not consenting but you went on to perform oral sex on her. Given you age, employment, and good character and the fact this was not an attack from the outset, I am able to suspend the sentence."

During the trial at Exeter Crown Court the woman, who is a regular gym user, told how she was happy to cuddle the man but fought back after he started sexual activity. She said she had made it clear she was not interested in sex and told him just hours earlier that she had no intention of letting him "get into her knickers". She said "a mist came over him" and he assaulted her as they watched the horror film and the only way she could stop him was by grabbing his testicles and squeezing "really hard".

Heppenstall said he believed the woman was attracted to him and thought she wanted to take part in sexual activity with him because he had enjoyed a naked massage session three weeks earlier. He said he tried to perform oral sex on her despite her telling him "don’t do that" when he put his hand inside her knickers. He said: "I thought she felt uncomfortable and so I very briefly tried to have oral sex. It all happened very quickly. She attacked me and kicked me in the face."

Now I want to make perfectly clear that by painting a largely fictional picture of the man and his relationship with the woman at the top of the post, I am in no way condoning his actions. Nor am I in any way trying to suggest that the woman provoked the attack. Mr Heppenstall, like any man who tries to force himself on a woman, was, of course, wrong and should be held to account for his actions according to the law.

No reasonable person would sympathise with Mr Heppenstall. As a female muscle fan I know how overwhelming The Madness can be in the presence of a muscular woman, but that doesn't make it an excuse for sexual assault. There is no excuse.

Of course it's possible that Mr Heppenstall has done this sort of thing before and has got away with it. But given the court's judgement, it's unlikely.

The woman in this case was lucky enough to be strong enough to repel him. And she was frightened enough to drive straight to a police station immediately after she had freed herself. My sympathy is completely with her.

But I do feel I can, on some level, understand how a man with, as the Recorder put it, "good character", has ended up on the sex offenders' register.

I have done questionable things in the midst of The Madness. I have followed women. On occasions I have taken pictures or video of them. You too perhaps? And consequently I can't help but feel that there is a lesson for me in Mr Heppenstall's story. And I wonder if there are others among you who feel that way too.

FBBUK: Rosie Rascal Music

Is there no end to the talents of UK female bodybuilders? Apparently not.

Lisa Cross, as reported on FMS on Sunday, is now a published author, and meanwhile, Rosanna Harte (last seen here finishing 2nd at the Arnold Amateur) aka Rosie Rascal, is currently celebrating the release of Peeping Tom, her latest collaboration with the Leeds-based producer Jamie Berry. Have a listen...



And if that brought on a bit of impromptu chair dancing (and I'm betting it did), there's plenty more of Rosie Rascal's vocal stylings to enjoy on her Soundcloud.

Enjoy!

Tube of the Week

The gorgeous Theresa Ivancik is aiming for the Pro Card in 2014. And if this is what she looks like 5½ weeks out, she should be quite a sight when she hits the stage.



Check out lots lots more of these on her You Tube channel.

Enjoy!

Muscular Calves (& 'Chopstick' Legs)

A hot humid Beijing afternoon, two skinny Chinese women turned their heads around while walking down the street. They looked stunned and said, "Oh my god! She has men's legs!" They were talking about me. To be exact, my short and muscled calves.



So begins an article that landed in the FMS inbox from the Beijing-based English language Global Times. The title is the title of this post (without the brackets).
And it's an article that was submitted by a reader, Tiara Lin.

After an opening like that, of course we read on...

I was wearing a pair of men's shorts that I had recently bought in the boys' section of Zara's children's department, which drew people's attention to my thick calf muscles, a result of a year's worth of long workouts. I don't know about you, but by this point I was starting to imagine what Tiara Lin, her calves and those shorts look like. And I was liking the sexy Asian muscle girl that my imagination was dreaming up.



But then the bubble burst and it was back to reality with a bump as Tiara reveals exactly what the effect of being told she has "men's legs" was. That was the first time and also the last time I put on those shorts. Thud.

And the comment those women made on that hot humid afternoon was not the only reason why Tiara has consigned her boy shorts to the bottom of the wardrobe. Seems like everyone she knows is making comments about her calves, and those comments are resulting from what she identifies as the Chinese preference for "chopstick legs".

Whenever I tell my friends the story, they feel sorry for me and comfort me by saying, "No worries, you look healthy." Healthy? Wait! In a country where men and women prefer ultra skinny legs, telling a Chinese woman that her legs look "healthy" is not necessarily a compliment. I believe the word they were looking for was "ample."

Many Chinese women are obsessed with white, long and skinny "chopstick legs." The Chinese are biased against muscular legs. Flip through any fashion magazines in China, and you can see digitally altered pictures of beautiful girls showing off their skinny thighs and legs. That image has been forever linked with gentility and beauty.

It gets worse. It's not only in China that "chopstick legs" are venerated. South Korea and Japan are also, according to Tiara, under their spell. And in all three countries, increasing numbers of women are undergoing calf muscle reduction surgery.



One of the clinics where this devil-work happens claims, Unfortunately many Asian women have short and muscular calves. Thus, muscle reduction surgery was first developed in Korea. For many years, efforts to reduce calves had focused on fat. But the results of liposuction were disappointing in most cases because the calf was mainly composed of muscle with little fat. By reducing the muscle bulk of Gastrocnemius muscles, the calves can be made thinner and longer.

Botox injections into the muscle will reduce its prominence for up to six months at a time. Injecting a nerve-blocking toxin will decrease the size of your calf by up to 2cm around permanently. Or, and I promise you I am not making this up, the circumference of the calf can be permanently decreased by up to 4cm by burning away the muscle fibres using a process called Radiofrequency Ablation. But none of these, this clinic claims, are as effective or as safe as partial removal of the muscle.



Tiara says that some calf reduction surgeons (henceforth "Servants of Satan") claim as much as 60% of the muscle can be removed. The remaining 40 percent of muscle tissue is said to be 'safe enough' to support daily movements like walking, standing and jumping, she writes. Her room mate is one Chinese woman considering a life minus half of her calf muscles, hilariously blaming too much exercise for her calf "problem".

That this outrage is particularly rife where there is a tendency for more women to have naturally muscular (and therefore naturally beautiful) calves only heaps irony onto the female muscle head's misery that this happens at all. Towards the end of the article Tiara says that in the West, calf implant cosmetic surgery is reportedly as common as breast enhancements, which might be expected to cheer me up. It doesn't. First of all, the thought of all those beautiful Asian calves getting sliced up is still bothering me, and secondly, if big calves are the new fashion in the West, I've seen zero evidence of it.



But in the end, Tiara makes it all alright. She's not going to sacrifice her genetics and her hard work for the sake of conformity. No chopstick legs for this Chinese girl.

I am proud of my muscled calves, she writes. This summer, I am going to put on those boy's shorts again and walk down the streets like I am a star.

Like a star? No, Tiara, you ARE a star.

And in the course of our research we came across another star. She's a Californian with Asian heritage who goes by the name beccafit4life on Tumblr. If ever there was a speech that a woman considering calf reduction surgery should have to hear before they go under the knife, it should be her take on the whole thing.

When I was growing up, I used to not like my legs, esp my calves @ all. I used to ask my parents why I couldn’t have those skinny/thin legs like the typical Asian girls. I know, what the heck was I thinking?!?! Lol. Anyway, through time I’ve learned to accept that I do have big legs & learned to embrace my uniqueness.

Plus, I came to love them even more bcuz they power me on my runs & realized how strong they are. How much “damage” I can do with these babies ;).



I no longer compare myself to anyone else & love everything about my body. You have to love yourself 1st before anything else & have to know that each of us is a unique individual. If everyone looked the same, the world would be very boring.

And there’s nothing wrong with having ONE OF A KIND body :)

Amen.

Media Watch: Anita Albrecht's BMI

A female bodybuilder was left outraged after an NHS nurse told her to lose weight and eat less, British newspaper the Mirror reported on 27th March. Anita Albrecht, who finished sixth in Miss Galaxy Universe 2012, the article continues, was told to exercise more because of her abnormally high BMI [Body Mass Index].



It seems the BMI, which has been the UK's standard way of assessing a patient's weight since the dawn of the National Health Service in the 1940s, might need a rethink. The method, developed in the first half of the nineteenth century, involves dividing your weight (in kilograms) by your height (in metres squared). The resulting number then places you somewhere along a scale from "underweight" (less than 18.5) to "morbidly obese" (40 or more). It might be a useful tool in many cases, but as it does not take into account whether the patient is carrying a lot of muscle, it's far from perfect.



Anita, who is muscular and relatively short (standing 4'11" or just about 1.50m), got a score of 29. On the BMI scale, she is "overweight". Despite Anita's protestations, the nurse flatly refused to discount the result (and furthermore rely on what she could see before her very own eyes), going on to advise her she was eating too much, and recommending more exercise and a diet of just 1,000 calories a day.



First reported in the local newspaper the Brentwood Gazette, the story - an almost perfect example of how state-run institutions fail the exceptional individual - was picked up by national media within days. Friend of the muscular woman The Daily Mail, for example, ran the story under the headline: Super Fit Personal Trainer and Champion Bodybuilder told she's OBESE by bungling NHS nurse.


Anita in 2001: I was not a happy girl, she says.

However, what every report has missed is the wonderfully ironic fact that it wasn't very long ago that Anita Albrecht was actually overweight. Rather than advising her to reduce her calorific intake, the National Health Service should be employing her and women like her to advise others about the benefits of muscle building exercise and a "clean", not a 1,000-calorie a day "starvation", diet.



You can read all about Kiwi-born Anita and her transformation on her website, and watch an interview with her (unrelated to the BMI fiasco) here.

Enjoy!

FBBUK: Devil and Disciple by Lisa Cross (Female Muscle Slave post #666)

As Iron Maiden taught us, 666 is The Number of the Beast, and by some weird coincidence (and a slight delay in posting to make sure the magic number was reached by myself) it just so happens that FMS' 666th post celebrates the publication of the debut novel by that Sexy Female Muscle Beast (and Iron Maiden) Lisa Cross.



Seems that Lisa was a frustrated writer all along (I might have guessed from the panache with which she describes those naughty clips she makes for her own website) and Devil and Disciple realises a lifelong ambition of hers. The nom de plume she has chosen is LJK Cross, though the plot doesn't sound very Potteresque. According to the blurb it is an erotically charged, gothic tale of Faustian proportions.



You can read the opening chapter for yourself on the Devil and Disciple website, and if you like it, pre-order a signed copy. And don't worry if you're not too keen to have it sent in the post, digital download is available (probably not signed). Or you could relive the days of furtive magazine purchases and wait till it comes out in the shops (it'll be available in Waterstones, WH Smith AND even Tesco in the UK).



Given the full title of the book is Devil and Disciple: The Temptation, it looks like she plans a whole series (Potter-style). She has, says the website, already started work on the sequel. Currently she is "on tour" in Europe (lucky lucky Europe) but she will be back in the UK soon to promote the book in person at Body Power Expo.



Congratulations once again to Lisa, a new IFBB pro, and now a published author.