As we know, photographs capture moments in time, but the best photographs, like the best paintings, give the viewer a sense of before and after too. I think it's fair to assume that what made Dayana drop her pants and give everyone watching (and thanks to the photographer, millions of others, including me and you, dear reader) a little cadeau, is the much-discussed (among the female muscle brethren anyway) female bodybuilder arrogance and compulsion to show off the efforts of all their hard work.
So, now we're sure what happened before, what about the after?
Are the adoring fans in the audience so drawn to Dayana's body that, as one, they move hypnotised towards the stage, crushing the assembled photographers, including the one who took the shot, and while Iris and the others run off stage, Dayana remains, oblivious to everything as she admires her own muscles?
Is Iris about to join in the exhibition? Are her hands pulling her pants up, or down?
What's the woman seated in the background to the right of Dayana's bum looking at (apart from Dayana's bum)? Has she decided to give it up in the face of such muscular perfection? Or is she about to join Dayana and Iris in an impromptu three-way exhibition of shredded female muscularity?
Does Dayana take any more layers off? The lot perhaps?
What do you think happened next? What does your mind's eye see?
I started doing Aerobics when I was young. I met a local fitness competitor who had a daughter and that inspired me. My mother never worked out and this woman looked great and had a daughter who also got involved in fitness. I thought to myself, if this woman can workout and have a daughter and look this good, that is what I want to do.
Once upon a time she was Monica Wieckowski, teenage fitness competitor from Sweden. And even then, her legs were just that little bit more developed than the rest of her.
It didn’t take long before I turned into a gym rat. By the age of 14 I already had the desire to compete. Since I was tiny back then I aimed at fitness, even though it was bodybuilding that I had a passion for. I did three fitness shows in Sweden 1999. However I was too vascular and lean, and therefore didn’t place very good.
Monica Wieckowski got a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Nutrition from the University of Stockholm and moved to the USA to do her PhD, but didn’t complete it.
Another reason I chose to move to the U.S. is people here are not nearly as judgemental as they are in Sweden. Swedish people in general are very conservative. They are very judgmental about females in bodybuilding. Bodybuilding is very looked down upon. Even supplements like Creatine are considered taboo. Here you can do whatever you want and people don't condemn you for it.
Still, she wrote a book, in Swedish, ‘Functional Foods for Health and Energy Balance’, an academic book, not for popular consumption. And she got bigger, and became Monica Mollica, and got interested in web design to the extent that she started her own business, Rebel Design Studios.
I took a class on it while I was in school and I became very interested in it. I do not have any formal training other than that. I went out and bought a bunch of books on it and taught myself. I like to learn. You should see my apartment, it looks like a library!
(So the glasses are not just for effect! I’d always wondered about them.)
And as Monica was developing her mind, her body was also developing. She sculpted a highly-muscled, symmetrical physique. Her conditioning remained remarkably consistent. Though she never competed, her abs always seemed to be visible, as did the cuts in her legs, which remained her standout body part.
My diet is always the same. I eat a typical bodybuilding diet: chicken, broccoli, cottage cheese. I wouldn't look this good year round if I didn't stick to the same thing all the time. Besides, I LOVE cottage cheese and I don't know any other way to eat. No cheat foods. When I moved from home, I always had to get my own food. I never bought junk. So I never have cravings.
Monica Mollica became Monica Mowi, her website, www.mowifit.com. She remained (and remains) unavailable for sessions. Instead, she made some wrestling clips (real, not staged) and sold them via the website to her adoring fans. She filmed her training too, as well as erotic posing clips. Her fame and adoration increased.
I’m an early riser; I usually go up around 6am and head directly to the gym. For me, I have the best workouts in the morning. Then home to eat and starting my working day; as a webmaster I’m responsible for several websites, including my own, so I do a lot of web/video work. And as a dietary consultant and writer, I also spend a significant amount of time writing and reading scientific publications.
Those women who I admire and who are professional right now are in their mid 30s. I have time to do it right. I feel no pressure to jump in to a show. Besides, I don't believe I have to compete in order to be considered a bodybuilder. Bodybuilding is a lifestyle and it is the lifestyle I choose.
She has never competed, and yet I’ll bet every female muscle head knows who she is. She doesn’t do sessions, yet invites you to desire her body with her sensual posing. She is an intellectual, an author and a creative 21st-century businesswoman and at the same time the muscular dream-girl of thousands.
I follow my own path and I am very strong-willed. I've always known what I wanted and I've always pursued it. It doesn't usually fit in with everyone else, but who cares?! Who wants to be like everyone else?
I think it’s fair to say there are not too many like Monica (whatever surname she’s using!). And there are not too many with thighs like those either.
The quads, quadriceps, quadriceps extensor, or, to give it its full name, the quadriceps femoris is a muscle group - and a large one at that - that includes the four major muscles on the front of the thigh. Apparently, 'it is the great extensor muscle of the knee, forming a large fleshy mass which covers the front and sides of the femur'. In fact, quadriceps femoris means ‘four-headed muscle of the femur’ in Latin.
left:Rene Marvenright:Kashma Maharaj Kashma has already competed, taking the heavyweight class at the Arnold Amateur recently. Rene should, all being well, take her pro bow at the start of June at the Toronto Pro. So there's four four-headed muscles of the femur to watch in 2013.
The quads is, unsurprisingly, subdivided into four ‘heads’, each with its own name. And there are worse ways of getting to know the four heads than looking at pictures of female bodybuilders and their sexy, ripped thighs. It's certainly more fun than looking at anatomical diagrams, isn't it? Imagine you're a medical student. Which image would you recall more readily? Could female bodybuilders be a potential teaching aid?
left:Fabiola Boulangerright:Gillian Kovack Considerably more interesting to look at than an anatomy book.
The rectus femoris occupies the middle of the thigh. The vastus lateralis is on the outer side of the femur, and the vastus medialis (can you guess?) is on the inner thigh. The vastus intermedius is the one muscle of the quads you are unlikely to see unless you are a surgeon, as it’s under the rectus femoris. Female bodybuilding judges are only really concerned with three of the four 'quads' then. Interesting...
left:Roberta Tothright:Anne Freitas Even in their native Brazil, where most women's thighs seem to have impressive structure, muscularity and tone, Roberta and Anne's three visible heads are standouts. Coxas muito sensuais, as they say in Bahia. Probably.
All four of the quads are extensors of the knee, and come in handy if you want to walk, run, jump or squat. They can be trained by doing leg presses, squats, or, if you really want to isolate them, leg extensions are boss.
left:Lisa Giesbrechtright:Amy Sibcy
Just look at the vastus lateralises and the vastus medialises on them, he said.
To which I could only reply, And their rectus femorises ain't bad either.
More quadriceps femorises (femori? femorae? help!) tomorrow.
How else could I begin a week of Thighs? Tina Lockwood is, after all, the woman against whose thighs all others are compared. And once compared, found wanting. Simply put, there hadn't been anything like her before, and there hasn't been anything like her since.
She was my fantasy all-American girl: cute, softly spoken. Just an 'ordinary lady' with an extraordinary body, curvy and, of course f***ing hugely muscled.
(forum post)
Younger brethren might have looked at images of Tina (and I think every single one that was ever taken is out there somewhere now) and thought to themselves, That’s got to be a morph. But older brethren such as myself know. We remember Tina in her pomp. The shock and awe of seeing her for the first time was a feeling that returned every time.
That's got to be a morph! Don't you believe it.
If you are young enough to be coming across Tina for the first time, you are in for a treat. On any forum, search for Tina and if you can pull your eyes away from that body, take the time to read a few of the tributes and get a sense of just how revered she is.
No other female bodybuilder can compare to her. Yes, there has been some very attractive physique ladies over the years, but I'm telling you that in my opinion, no one compares to her, Not anyone.
(forum post)
Her career was short, but beautiful. She came like a comet, burned brightly, and was gone. And once she had gone, she stayed gone. No rumours of a comeback, no reported sightings. No one has any idea what happened to her. Vanished. And the enduring mystery only adds to her legend.
right: the last of Tina, WPW cover, September 1998 It's always sad when fbbs call time on their bodybuilding careers, especially when they have hit their best. Tina quit bodybuilding leaving us all wanting more and disappeared into the sunset.
(forum post)
You'll be wanting more than? Well, all I can do is offer this truly breathtaking clip. A clip from the days of the VHS. Days when a legend walked among us...
And so to our final post of this epic week (well, it's been bloody epic to put all these posts together, anyway - I do have a life outside this blog, you know!) highlighting just a handful of the finest women in Britain today, with the story of the 2012 NABBA Universe Trained Figure Class 1 Winner, Linda Gartside.
And I believe it's such a good story that there's no reason at all why it shouldn't be made into a movie. My screenwriting handbooks tell me you need a first act that sets up the main character, their inner need and the flaw that prevents them from achieving it. Well, Linda's story certainly has that. See what you think about this for a set-up.
Rochdale, England. The 1980s.
15-year-old Linda Gartside, like the rest of her family, has weight issues. Shy, bullied at school, she stuffs herself with crisps and sweets in secret.
Linda loved Arnold Schwarzenneger in Conan, so when her mother sees one of his books at a jumble sale, she buys it for her daughter. Linda loves it, especially the pictures of Arnold and his mighty muscles.
Linda bugs her mother to let her join a gym. As she slips into the weights room, the sight of so many strong, muscular, Arnold-like men in one place makes her gasp. So when one of them turns and looks at her, all she can do is blush and leave.
Linda and her mother struggle down the street carrying a dumbbell each.
In the garage, Linda attempts a bicep curl. She fails. She removes weight from the dumbbell and tries again. Again she can’t do it. More weight off, just one tiny plate on each end now. She picks it up again, and… success! She removes the weight from the other dumbbell and starts to curl them both, counting one… two… three… The camera pans to Arnold on the cover of the book, smiling… four… five…
Fade out.
In the second act the protagonist attempts to attain their goal, but is prevented from doing so. In the middle of the second act comes the turning point - a major event that changes the way the protagonist approaches their goal. Again, Linda's story has that.
Fast forward twenty years and on the face of it, Linda has overcome the issues that her shy, bullied, binge-eating teen self struggled with. She owns her own driving school, she’s a black belt in taekwondo, and she’s a qualified holistic therapist. She’s the mother of two children and she’s now a regular at the gym. It all seems so different.
But underneath, those issues remain. She’s still scoffing chocolates and crisps in secret. In fact, it’s her guilt about this that drives her to the gym. She still feels like an outsider, in her own words, a dumpy wallflower. And by her own admission, her anxieties over her clandestine eating and her body have meant, despite having had the children, she’s been unable to maintain a relationship.
Then, at the age of 38, Linda makes a decision that by the age of 40, she’s going to stand on stage as a competitor at a bodybuilding show. What made her decide this is unclear, but before I pitch the script in Hollywood, I’m going to have to find out.
She’d just joined a new gym at the time, maybe she met a woman there who was preparing for a contest. Perhaps that woman’s muscled-up beau was the motivation. Perhaps she came across the old book on Arnold or her rusty old dumbbells while clearing out the attic. Whatever the reason, her transformation had begun. But she was not alone. Into her life came Ken ‘Skip’ Hill, a contest prep expert from Colorado of all places (what was he doing in Rochdale?!)
Now in my mind, Ken looks and sounds exactly like Meredith Burgess in Rocky. Sadly, Mr Burgess is no longer with us, so we’ll have to find an equally gnarled character actor to play ‘Skip’. Maybe he’s ended up in Rochdale because he’s washed up, and what Linda offers him is a last chance to redeem himself.
Anyway, over the following two years, Linda Gartside, with Skip’s help, completely transformed her body. You can watch the complete transformation on her website.
So where’s the third act? In the third, and final, act, the hero (or heroine) finally overcomes all obstacles, conquers their flaw, and finally gets what they want. But hasn't Linda done that already? Well, yes and no. Because although our heroine has transformed herself, fate was about to intervene.
Four weeks before her first competition, Linda was, as usual, giving a driving lesson to a client when her car was hit from behind by a 26-tonne truck.
There’s your third act!
Now thankfully, Linda was not seriously injured, and the accident delayed her competitive debut only by four months. For the movie, I think we’ll need a more serious injury, her kids and Skip waiting for news at the hospital, hoping, praying. For dramatic effect, we’ll need doubt about Linda’s ability to ever train again, just so we can have her inspiring recovery take us to the story’s climax.
But in fact Linda took to the stage in September 2010 at the NABBA England and finished 2nd in the Trained Figure Class. Four weeks later, the dumpy wallflower was the NABBA UK Champion.
I can see it now. The kids punching the air and running onto the stage. The music rises to a crescendo. Skip, backstage, the tough guy façade finally cracked as tears of joy stream down his weathered cheeks. And Linda, finally the champion she’d first dreamed of being twenty-five years before…
I think you’ll agree that there wouldn’t be a dry eye in the house.
But that is not the end of the movie, or indeed the real story of Linda Gartside’s transformation. Sure, she had achieved her ambition to stand on the stage. But had she defeated her demons?
She certainly didn’t think so. A year after her first contest she underwent hypnotherapy and regression therapy in an effort to resolve her eating disorder. It was a success, and Linda’s greatest victory of all.
So perhaps the film shouldn’t end with her NABBA UK victory. Perhaps the story should continue with a relapse into binge eating, an ultimatum from Skip - It’s the chocolate or me, kid - before Linda starts the therapy. Then we can have the big finish set at the NABBA Universe last year.
Linda won her class there, and though she lost out on the overall title, we can leave that out of the movie, or just have her defeating Maria Kuzmina in the overall posedown anyway. After all, this is ‘based on a true story’.
But on second thoughts, we could still have a stirring finish by sticking to the truth. As Linda says herself, The best part of competing is knowing full well that I have beaten my family history of obesity.
Me and you, Linda. Your story, my words. Hollywood. What do you say?
A truly amazing story of a truly amazing woman. The best possible way to end our FBBUK week.
Visit Linda's website for more of this remarkable woman, and she also has a youtube channel with contest and training clips, as well as clips of other NABBA competitors.
