(Female) Muscle Cars

Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel...



Or not.

The forum boards seem to be awash with pics like that of the gorgeous Stephanie Rowe (above), as muscle babes add the car to the list of places to proudly show off their hard-earned gains. It's almost become mandatory to update their social media with a flex in the gym car park, or when stuck in traffic, or while actually driving!




I wouldn't say I'm exactly bored of these kinds of pics, but there's a lot more variety (and history) to female muscle in and around cars than this new niche of pic, and our research has suggested that these flex in the car images have been around for much longer than we had expected. This week we'll be showcasing some of the best of these driver's seat selfies, and raiding the femuscle car archive for your viewing pleasure.



Buckle up!

Dressed in Muscle: Hall of Famer II

JULIETTE BERGMANN

The exotic beauty of Juliette Maria Suzanna Bergmann continues to beguile female muscle fans well over a decade since she retired. One of only three European women to have been Ms Olympia, Juliette was inducted into the (real) IFBB Hall of Fame in 2009, and given her beauty, her achievements, and enduring appeal, I think Juliette is a prime candidate for the (imaginary) FMS Hall of Fame as well.

Some of her glamorous WPW work, especially that off-the-shoulder silver dress was under consideration, and she could easily have made our 241 fest - both this gem of a pic with her bodybuilding sister Liona (top right), and an extremely elegant Juliette with Ludmila Tuboltseva made the shortlist for Tuesday's post.




The research team also came across a couple of terrific candids. Above (bottom right), Juliette shows off a lot of quad in a leopard print number, a pic we had a lot of fun coming up with a caption for. The winner: I'm Never in Such a Hurry that I Haven't Got Time to Flex. And there was also much discussion in the office regarding this candid from (I think) an Awefilms shoot below. Do you think she's just arriving at the pool or is she packed up and leaving? Either way, she couldn't help but cause a stir looking like that. We wondered how the owner of that foot reacted to such a sight.



But in the end it was this set of magazine years scans that got the Hall of Fame nod.



The beauty of the youthful Juliette. A revealing but at the same time rather classy outfit. Those weights "casually" lying around in front of her. The fact that the sofa seems to have been plonked slap bang in the middle of the free weights...



Perhaps every gym should have a sofa like this. Female bodybuilders (only!) could drape themselves over it as Juliette does here, showered and ready to go out and stop traffic again. Of course, there would need to be a photographer on hand at all times to snap all the post-workout glowing and flexing. Good promotional material for the gym. There'd be a queue to sign up that stretched around the block if a young Juliette lookalike was known to be lifting there... And I reckon I'd be in it.

Enjoy!

And check out our other Hall of Fame inductees.

Dressed in Muscle: 241

Q: What's better than a beautiful glammed up muscle woman?

A: TWO beautiful glammed up muscle women.



Welcome, one and all, to 241 Tuesday.



Physique Olympia champ Dana Linn Bailey is, unsurprisingly for the most popular muscle woman in the world (see FMS passim), a woman who other muscle women want to have their picture taken with. The also extremely well-followed Vanessa Tib (left), and Jody May (right) capture the moment. Jody was reported on one website to be "back in the gym" recently. It doesn't look to me like she ever left it.



And here's another fitspirational champ, multi-Figure Olympia winner Nicole Wilkins, looking effortlessly classy. Her perky friend is Renee West, an NPC Physique competitor who you can see more of on her Instagram and contest galleries at NPC News Online. I like being muscular and strong in appearance, I’m proud of my physique and the hard work I’ve put into it, says Renee. But sometimes I like to keep covered up. Fortunately, this was not one of those times.

SISTERS OF IRON

On the left, Physique pro Erica Blockman and her sister Sondra. This may have been taken a while ago because it seems to me Erica is the way bigger sis now - and I make it my business to watch her Instagram like a hawk. To be honest, I haven't heard much about Sondra recently, but it turns out she is still competing - NPC Bikini division. Fitness is not a destination... it is a way of life! she says. I imagine Erica's mantra replaces the word "fitness" with the word "muscle".



And on the right, the woman who calls herself Julieta Fit and her more well-known, much more fantasised about, and much much bigger sister. This seems like the sort of family snapshot you might find (minus the muscles, of course) adorning mantelpieces the world over, but I wonder if those Muscle Angels clips where Julieta touches up Oana as she flexes ever make it into the family home movie night...

NATIONAL TREASURES



Even the earrings are bigger! VSM dwarfs compatriot Raquel Hernandez Olmo in every way except that Raquel has got a bigger medal. Well, she's got the only medal in the picture. And on the right, more evidence for my theory that post-show female muscle glamour is as good as it gets. Proof on this occasion is provided by British WBFF stars Laura Madge and Su Farrell giving us a breathtaking 241 double bicep.

DOUBLE TROUBLE



What kind of dress should I wear for the photoshoot? asked Monica. Well, anything really, Colette replied. As long as it's at least two sizes too small. And on the right, a real rarity. The only existing photo that our research team could uncover in which Yvette and Brandi Mae are wearing any clothes at all.

Seriously though, really, if we just go back little to the Renne West quote about covering up for a moment, the key factor was how she was feeling and where she was going. Post-show gatherings of female bodybuilders are where the women look (and feel) their best - having just competed - and provide an atmosphere where they're at their most comfortable - as they are surrounded by the like-minded and like-muscled. Consequently, they never seem to cover up at such gatherings. It's de rigeur for the guns (and shoulders, and more often than not the chest as well) to be fully on show.



Hence the magic.




Top left, Dana Linn again, this time with Michelle Davis in her more muscular days. Top right, the sexy, sultry and volcanically smouldering Andrea Holliday and friend Dawn Hinz-Pugh look like they may have caused some serious damage that night - you know, guys so transfixed by such muscular beauty they walked/drove into/through/over stuff etc. Bottom left, Margie and Alana trade "Do my shoulders look big in this?" gags. And finally, bottom right, the halter top. Always a winner for the muscular woman, exposing the arms, shoulders and back in one - as modelled here by the great Gina Davis. And a bodybuilding days Karina Nascimento models that other great staple of the muscular woman's wardrobe - the asymmetric off-the-shoulder number [are you sure you know what you're talking about?- ed.].



Even when I did find an FBB with covered arms they weren't really covered at all. And do you also get the feeling that Toni Norman (above, with Vicky Nixon) probably lost the lace shawl thing as soon as she hit the dance floor that night?



And to finish off our post today, two favourites that double your pleasure of beautiful muscular women caught at their most devastatingly glamorous. Above, Myriam Bustamente and Heather Foster, and below, the divine Debbie Bramwell and Elena Sieple. All four just seem to epitomise what I've been rambling on about!



Enjoy!

When Wendy Met Merle

So, a man walks into a bar...



And immediately says to himself, This is the greatest bar I've ever been to.



Wendy Watson and FMS fave Merle Mohr seem to have been hanging out together quite a bit in recent months, and in the process turning whatever venue they're frequenting into the greatest ever. I'd like to think that if I was lucky enough to be out for the evening and find myself in the same place as these two glamorous muscle goddesses that I would be all cool and stuff, but I suspect however hard I tried to hold it together, I'd instantly be reduced to a tongue-tied quivering wreck.



Better enjoyed from the comfort of my own home, for sure. And I'm particularly enjoying Wendy and Merle's choices of outfit. Classy, but they're also showing off those arms, shoulders and backs to (no doubt) devastating effect wherever they may be.



Great to see Merle back and (apparently) planning to compete again. I believe she disappeared for a while due to some health problems, but she's looking as big and gorgeous as ever. Those eyes and that chest certainly haven't got any less arresting.

See Merle previously on FMS in 2011(!) in Meine Top 5 Deutsch Muskel Mädchen.



Wendy featured only last week as one of the great fat to fit transformations (in She's Not Like Everybody Else), and previously after the 2013 NPC Nationals.

Both ladies are on Instagram but you'll need to request the follow. Wendy here, Merle here. So behave yourself and you will probably get to see them the next time they get together without having to actually be there, a tongue-tied quivering wreck.

Enjoy!

August Picture Post: 241

Sexy SOPHIE ARVEBRINK & ADRIANA KUHL









Strong is the new Swedish Playmate of the Month. Or something.

Enjoy!

241: Sisters of Iron II

Twin sisters of iron Patricia Beckman and Terri McBee have, for the last five years or so, been, without question, by far the most successful natural female bodybuilders in the world in their respective divisions. Patricia, who competes in bodybuilding, has an amazing record of having won every pro show she has entered. But Terri's record in the pro figure division is only slightly less impressive: in seven pro outings she has only failed to win either her class or the overall title on one occasion.



Of Patricia, they say: Every once in a while an athlete achieves a level of supremacy that is beyond compare – Muhammed Ali, Wayne Gretsky, Tiger Woods, and Michael Jordan come to mind – and Patricia Beckman might be in that category. Rarely has an athlete put together such an impressive string of victories and so dominated the opposition in every contest as Beckman has in her short time in bodybuilding.



It's not surprising, given their respective sizes, that Patricia has been training for about twice as long as Terri, Eight years, as compared to four. In fact, Terri's first experience of bodybuilding competition was cheering on her sister - cheering her on to victory, no doubt. Patricia encouraged Terri to follow her onto the stage, but it took a while because Terri had always been painfully shy, and the thought of getting up on stage in front of a roomful of strangers made me feel sick to my stomach.



But, eventually, she did follow, choosing figure rather than bodybuilding she says because I thought that would be easier, with a full-time job, and being a wife and mother. The rest is history. Well, natural female bodybuilding history anyway.



As natural bodybuilders, their physiques are forged without the use of performance-enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids, insulin, diuretics, and human growth hormone. In addition, the many natural bodybuilding federations (IFPA, WNBF, etc.) have slightly differing lists of banned substances and/or methods of drug testing.



It isn't my place or purpose to wonder if Patricia's or Terri's success has been achieved by fair means or foul. Honestly, if they say they're natural, then as far as I'm concerned, they're natural. But inevitably, there are those who have expressed doubt on the sisters' "natural" credentials, particularly Patricia's, although these doubters don't tend to be from within the "natty" [natural bodybuilding] community.



What everyone, even those on the pro-steroid forums, does seem to agree on though, is that the sisters do have something of an unnatural advantage over their competiton: what one forum poster termed their "goddess genetics". They have some of the best genetics for females in the sport, says one natural bodybuilding journalist, referring to female bodybuilding as a sport in its entirety, whether sanctioned as natural or not.



And with the help of those exceptional genetics, these remarkable twins are taking natural female bodybuilding to new heights. Long may they reign!



Lots of clips of Patricia on YouTube, FMS recommends any of her posing routines but has a soft spot for her 2012 Musclemania performance. You can also find a fair bit of Terri there, with her 2013 Ms Pro International routine our pick of the bunch.



Dedicated to John, with thanks.

Enjoy!