This Female Muscle Lovin' Life: Big Big Love

30 years, give or take - funny thing about my first sight of a female bodybuilder (Carolyn Cheshire, UK TV), I can recall almost every detail of the event, but have only the vaguest idea of when it was. I could say it's the longest relationship I've had, but perhaps my lifelong passion would be a better way of putting it. 30 years...



There have been times in my life when I've wanted to end it. Times when I've longed to be "normal". In my early 20s especially I regularly threw out all the magazines I had collected and vowed never again, but these periods of abstinence never lasted very long. A glimpse of Rachel McLish in a golden swimsuit on the cover of Female Bodybuilding, or Yolanda Hughes' rippling muscles on the cover of Women's Physique World. Off the wagon I tumbled, and the relationship was back on.



The internet brought more images and more female muscle than I had ever dreamed of into my life. As I continued to struggle with my fetish - I came across the term "sthenolagnia" around this time as well - I opened up for the first time on newsgroups and email, amazed there were so many others like me. Finally (under the influence of some super duper class A help) to very close friends and carefully selected family I confessed I liked "fit" women. The more perceptive of them had noticed the sort of "sporty" women I pursued, so they were hardly surprised. I was "out". Sort of.



In secret I indulged mightily. Paysites. Webcams. Addiction, and I knew it, although - and I can never quite explain why - I never did go down the session route. Nevertheless, change was needed, and it came after I joined a gym and got busy lifting. I'm not totally clear why, but this made me a lot more comfortable about being a female muscle head, and I started to embrace rather than fight who and how I am.



A little over five years ago - about four years after I began lifting myself - I started Female Muscle Slave. Tentatively at first, then gradually with more and more confidence and commitment. It's been an outlet for my passion, and, I would hope, a force for good in the wider perception of muscle women and those who love them. And I got married, to a woman I was, and still am, deeply in love with. My interest in the gym has led her there too, and these days her dedication puts me to shame. If nothing else, I have helped to add a little female muscle to the world through her!



In brief, this has been my female muscle lovin' life so far. 30 years, give or take, and I'm more loved up than ever. And just because it's Valentine's Day tomorrow, I thought this week I'd put together some love letters to female muscle. To my big big love.

Enjoy!

Veronica Bødtker

Between the time we ask you (as we did on 1st February) for your Hot and Hard 100 votes, and the day voting closes (reminder: 28th February this year), FMS often wonders whether we should introduce someone new to the blog for fear of influencing you lovely readers a bit too much - in a post-war Europe CIA or present-day Russia kind of way. Half of the editorial team seem to think we should completely abstain from posting anyone new, and cite Kayla Rassatti's appearance in our 2015 list, and subsequent disappearance in 2016, as evidence that an ill-timed, if beautifully illustrated and very well-written post, can have far-reaching consequences.



On the other side of the conference table, the other half of the team reckon that seeing as the intention has always been for the list to represent the hottest 100 hard women in the world now, it follows that if a hot and hard lady who has never featured on FMS before has recently caught our eye then it's not just OK, but actually our responsibility as bloggers to get her posted before voting closes (reminder: February 28th).



Possibly though, the whole argument is irrelevant. Year on year you lovely readers have voted for hot and hard women who, quite honestly, we had no idea existed. Better informed and more up-to-date than the FMS editorial team could ever hope to be, you the readers consistently introduce far more women to us than we introduce to you.




So I probably don't need to tell you to say hello to Norway's Bodyfitness champ Veronica Bødtker. I'm sure you already know that last year was Veronica's first as a competitor, and doubtless you know that she impressed, winning silver at the Europeans and coming 4th at the Worlds. And you probably also know that when Veronica's not training or posing that tight little hot and hard body of hers or showing off her strength and/or flexibilty to her Instagram followers she's a nurse. In Oslo.



She's probably already on your list.

REMINDER: just over 2 weeks left to vote for your HOT AND HARD 100 of 2017

Use the comment box below or send your list to 6ft1swell@gmail.com

Compulsory Brazilian

Every week I tell myself, no Brazilians. No "Wellness" or bumbum girls. You can do one week without a musa fitness. Come on! Be strong! You can do it. You don't need them.

But most weeks it turns out I do.



Franciely "Fran" Petersen. Rio de Janeiro. Instagram.

Maybe next week. Sigh.

She's So Kuhl

Adriana Kuhl, Swedish entrepreneur, friend of sexy Sophie, and sizzling muscle heatsress, is in the business of taking more than her fair share of topless, "hair bra", selfies. Look at all that hair. It can't all be Adriana's, can it? Of course not.



Adriana, you see, is also in the hair business, with her Stockholm salon, Wendy's Hair, and her online sales of hair extensions. So, what you're really looking at is not just a titilating female muscle selfie (I can't help myself with the puns and double entendres this evening), it's an advert for the very stuff that puts protein on Adriana's table.

And, I imagine, a very effective though not very expensive one.



Thing is, imagine the same shot by a more conventionally-bodied woman. Perhaps an equally driven entrepreneur thinking about joining Adriana in the hair business. She wants to show off her extensions, she's followed Adriana's model closely. She lets those extensions hang down, and snaps away. To her horror, what she sees is more of a hair tunic than a hair bra. She doesn't have half of Adriana's body. Literally. No boulder shoulders, no muscular back, and thus no width. No hard pecs to keep those extensions in place - no abs to show if she could get the hair away from her tummy.



Adriana has the body to wear that much hair. Our fictional unmuscular entrepreneur though would be positively drowning in it. Muscle women do it better. Again.



Adriana also flogs Brazilian gymwear - like the hair extensions, she models it herself, and she models it very nicely indeed. Join her 100,000+ followers on Instagram for more Kuhl. Her YouTube channel, Adriana Kuhl OFFICIAL, is worth a look as well...



Enjoy!

And Happy St. Valentina's Day!

My Aspen Rae

If there's a woman who slips more hair bra pictures past the IG police than Aspen Rae, I'd be surprised. Doubtless she doesn't have a body quite like Aspen's anyway.



They might not all be your "pure" one-cascade-of-locks-covering-each-orb type pics, but they are plentiful, playful, and often involve a pigtail and/or a well-placed phone.



She even does arty pop culture references...



Straight outta your television, is her description of her latest (above).



All in all there's a lot more to Aspen Rae than her adult-only "Play with Rae" website and her gorgeousness and her beautiful body. She likes a chopper for one thing.



Aspen is a helicopter pilot in training.



And, those muscles aren't just for show. Or rather they are. For shows. Contests.



She competed with moderate success in Bikini through 2015 and early 2016, but last summer she was preparing to make her Figure debut at the NPC San Francisco Championships. At the show she won every first place trophy (and big sword) it was possible for her to win - class and overall in both Novice and Open Figure.



For breakfast I'd have a glass of lemon water, lunch I'd lick an apple, dinner I would yell at myself in the mirror, is how Aspen describes herself five years ago. I was hungry, miserable, and I was a mess. I'm not that girl anymore. Today, I'm still a fucking mess but at peace with it. And with WAY BIGGER MUSCLES.

Tell me you don't heart that.



Find your Aspen on Instagram.

Hayley McNeff's Jacked Brain's Big Plan

Whatever happened to Hayley McNeff?



Once upon a time circa 2009 the then 21-year-old with a killer combination of looks, muscles and charismatic stage presence exploded across both fan and mainstream bodybuilding forums alike. She won her first two regional shows, and then went on to appear at the 2010 Team Universe, where she won her class. The following year at the same show she seemed a shadow of her former self, and then promptly disappeared.

No one seemed to have a clue what happened. I am guessing she is not competing because most young people do not realize that Bodybuilding is a MARATHON... not a sprint, was the kind of "informed" theory posted on the brah forums. Well, not long before Christmas, Hayley (who'd been posting on Twitter and Instagram this whole time, so you really didn't need to be guessing, brah) emerged to set us straight.

I am alive! I disappeared in graduate school for a while! Now my brain is jacked! I know so many school things! Bachelors in Psychology, with a minor in Sociology and Anthropology. Then 1 year in a Forensics Psychology Masters program (Psychology and the Law) and a few years in a Masters program in Professional Counseling. I still have one last internship left, then I will officially have my Masters degree. I lifted so many brain dumbells. I had to get my brain as jacked as my body had become.



However... (here's comes the good news!)

I am considering making a brief comeback to Bodybuilding, well Physique. But I would do it on my own terms, in a way that would remind everyone of how women looked in the 80s and 90s in Bodybuilding, the Golden Age, the Arnold era. I would not get shredded or try to win. But I would be representing what women looked like when Bodybuilding was mainstream. It sounds like a stellar idea to me! The UFC is mainstream now. Why can't bodybuilding be!? Let's do it!!!

I shouldn't get carried away. "I am considering", "a brief comeback".

But it's hard not to feel excited at the prospect of Hayley doing this again...



See also Hayley's contest debut, and Hayley at the 2010 Team Universe.

And Raising the Bar, a documentary featuring Hayley, is now available on YouTube.

Cindy's Before & After

One of the more momentous events in female muscle since FMS started posting in 2011 was Cindy Landolt's decision to enhance her look with 1000cc of whatever it is they put in those sacks these days. She's indulged mightily in the art of not quite showing us every square millimetre of her new friends, so it's easy to forget she was just as much of a tease when she was all about the pecs, the whole pecs and nothing but the pecs.



Enjoy!

Muscle Women Do It Better: The Hair Bra

The "hair bra" is, it seems, a thing.


Marcela Rivas

Search #hairbra on Instagram, and you'll be faced with all sorts of women letting it hang down so they can post their photo without fear of censorship. But be warned, you will also have to contemplate men who have shaved their bodies in order to fashion a bra-shaped chest rug. I tell you, for a few days after, every time I closed my eyes...


Not quite "pure" hair bras: Thaise Perichi, Cris Goy Arellano, and Daria Afanasyeva

Of course, if women are doing it, then muscle women are doing it better. We couldn't find as many examples as we had hoped for - and, as with some of the ladies today, not all of them are strictly-speaking hair bras but a combination of hand and hair - but we reckon we found enough to keep you busy for today, and for the rest of the week.


Lili Nikolaisen, and Paloma Aragao

Bikini Olympian Jessica Arevalo (below) is quite the alt. bra specialist as it happens. Variations on the hand bra or hair bra Jessica has come up with include the stole bra, the knee bra, and the frond swimsuit. Check out her Instagram for more.



Enjoy!

Sunday Sizzler

This week's sizzle comes from 41-year-old Russian Anastasia Motorina.



That's right. 41.

Unsurprisingly, she's got some social media and fan forum attention recently, and this has led to some mainstream media exposure back in her hometown of Murmansk.

Check out her VK page.