BODYBUILDER! The A-Z of HUGE: F

OK, so having spent the best part of two years waiting for me to get from D to E, it's taken less than a month to go from E to F, today's installemnt of The A-Z of HUGE, our non-comprehensive "alphabetical collection of gloriously BIG female muscle". As always, if you think I've overlooked someone or something relevant, please do get in touch via email (6ft1swell@gmail.com). Bev was in the Bs, just so you know.

The A-Z of HUGE

F is for...

FABI



This year, Fabiola Boulanger joined the pro ranks, her victory at the Canadian Championships no surprise as her body has been a thing of wonder for the last couple of years. There are few women in the sport now (and not that many women in the sport ever) who have the ‘total package’. Fabiola is most definitely one of them. She is covered, top to bottom, with the kind of bulging, rippling muscularity that I am more used to seeing in female muscle art than on real female bodybuilders themselves. She’s like a fantasy superheroine. A sight to set a female muscle addict’s heart racing.
FMS, Women of the Year 2011



And you know the rest. Fabi never competed as a pro FBB, instead taking a couple of years off before returning, that fantasy body "downsized", in the Physique division (not the only big beast who'll feature today who followed that particular path).

FANNIE BARRIOS (1964-2005)



With Yaxeni and Betty, Fannie Barrios flew the Venezuelan female muscle flag at the Olympia in the early 2000s. She was the "Lightweight" of the three, but you wouldn't know it to look at her in her prime. Fannie was very much still competing when she died, of an apparent stroke, while helping out backstage at an NPC show in 2005.

FEMPOWER



I was born in Poland in 1982, says Fempower artist "Tigersan". I started to develop a crush on muscular women at about 12, and later decided THIS is what I want to do when I grow up - take photos of female bodybuilders, and create art involving the same subject. At 21, he emigrated to the US and gradually made his dream come true.



Some of the best and most popular female muscle art there is - I can't be the only fan who has their favourite Tigersan character (Switch in case you're interested). Fempower is still going strong after many, many years, and you can see some of Tigersan's most recent work in his regularly updated Deviant Art gallery.

HEATHER FOSTER



Amazing body, big, wide and so so thick, reads one fan's tribute to this Caribbean great. Those biceps to me were among the best of all time. Few would disagree. For all her (many) charms, it is probably those mighty peaks for which Heather, whose career spanned almost two decades before her final show in 2011, will be remembered.



For more, check out Ultimate Muscle's Heather tribute.

FREAK(S), FREAKY



Defined as "physically abnormal" persons (or animals, or plants, by the way), on one level, ALL female bodybuilders, and the big girls especially, are "freaks", with us fans glorifying them for just that, their "abnormal", exceptional, sculpted physiques.




For many, it's a case of the freakier (ie. the more abnormal), the better. So for female muscle fans, "freak" has come to mean something like "abnormal even for a female bodybuilder"! It's also often used to describe women with, among other things, abnormal strength or vascularity, a woman with extreme conditioning, or indeed one who has a particular muscle or set of muscles that she has developed above and beyond those of her peers - as in "I just loved Heather's freaky legs", for example.



And then there's the other, more modern usage - "a person who likes to do kinky shit in bed or have sex a lot", the Urban Dictionary tells us. Again, we'd like to believe that applies to all female bodybuilders, but even if it's not the case, there has been many a big girl over the years who has mined the "freak pound" (us), flaunted this type of freakiness, and has amassed a not inconsiderable fortune as a result of doing so.




Not easy to choose a handful of images to represent female muscle in all its fantastic freakishness, by the way, so apologies if I have omitted your personal favourite freaky photographs. Any submissions from you lovely readers would be more than welcome. I'll put them together and we can have a(nother) Freak Week on the blog.

ANNE FREITAS



And talking of freaks... I always thought she looked other-wordly, like an alien from a more female muscle planet had come amongst us. Not so much the size of her (though by the end of her Bodybuilding career she packed as much muscle per square inch onto her diminutive frame as any competitor she went up against) as her shape and conditioning. The striated glutes, the separation on her quads, and that super freaky Christmas tree lower back thing. And even her face, so strange - yet so appealing.



Such a uniquely freaky look led to Anne being the object of some serious love from the female muscle lovin' community, as one man's experience of the effect her 2014 Olympia package had on him illustrates. I quickly went online to check if there were any vids or pics of the event... And they were all available!!! I immediately looked at them, of course, but I had to go back to work, so I only looked at what was most important to me: Anne's ass! And, oh boy, it was really, really difficult not to wank immediately but I had to wait... (Ozzy, My Olympia, FMS October 2014).




Like Fabi, Anne competes in Physique now, and she still looks pretty freaky. She's been pretty successful too, although not quite as successful as she was as a Bodybuilder. She won IFBB pro Bodybuilding titles in Harford in 2012 and Omaha in 2014 and graced the last three ms Olympias, finishing 8th, 9th, and (in 2014 with that "ass") 6th.

JAY FUCHS



Big, intense, and (given her kickboxing background) carrying more than a hint of danger about her, Jay is pretty much a hardcore female muscle fan's dream. Deadly but sexy! as one points out. You certainly wouldn't want to mess with her, and if she wanted to have her way with you I guess the only thing you could do would be to just give in and hope you'd survive with enough strength left to get yourself to A&E.




More seriously, Jay will be back in action again in Tampa the weekend after this, and while she isn't one of the big favourites, she's always there or thereabouts at the pro shows - top 5 and Best Poser in Tampa two years ago, winning last year in Chicago.

Nikki FULLER



Nikki, whose career ran from the late '80s to the late '90s, was the star of one of the most iconic images in Female Bodybuilding history, the cover of Bill Dobbins' game-changing The Women. Less well-known, perhaps, is the story of how that metal "bikini" came into being. The idea came to me one night about midnight, Nikki recounted in 2012. I did not let the image slip out of my mind, and went to the only store open that late and bought whatever materials I could find to immediately begin sculpting the shapes my imagination was demanding I design. With some pie tins, electrical tape and automotive dent filler, I sat down and made the molds for the silver (aluminum) pieces. I found a couple of long necklaces at Nordstrom's that later became the chains that held the pieces in place. I believe this is one of my greatest achievements.



Nikki Fuller was as big, beautiful and sexy as almost any other pro female bodybuilder, Dobbins reckons - and he should know, he's seen a few.

Again, sorry if I have glaringly omitted a favourite of yours, whether a woman or an aspect of the female muscle lovin' experience. Could have had Fantasy here, and probably should have had Flexing, for example. However, this has always been intended to be a work in progress that can always be updated later. So, if you've any gripes (or words of praise, they are always nice to get!) please do get in touch.

Suggestions for G also very welcome!

BODYBUILDER! The A-Z of HUGE: E

After almost two years, FMS finally gets round to the next installment of The A-Z of HUGE, "an alphabetical collection of gloriously BIG female muscle". The idea was that once it had gone full alphabet it would start up again, adding new appropriately large muscularity and/or those who had been forgotten first time around. That still stands, though getting from D to E has taken so long that myself (and many of you lovely readers) might have gone to the big post-contest party in the sky by the time we reach Z and start over. Anyway, here are your Es, and if you think I've overlooked someone or something relevant, please do get in touch via email (6ft1swell@gmail.com).

The A-Z of HUGE

E is for...

ELENA (Oana Hreapca)



The IFBB's newest pro (more about what happened in Chicago next week on FMS) has been setting off swoons since the early 2000s, but only last weekend did she compete in the US for the first time. Titles under her belt around her legendary abdominals include the NABBA Worlds in 2012 and the WABBA International Hercules Olympia in 2015, as well as those voted for by FMS Readers, who made her the Queen of Abs Queens in 2013, and, more recently, the Hottest Hard Woman in the World.



She is perfect, says one of the (literally) thousands who have bothered to type their tributes to her on the forums over the years. Muscles... muscles everywhere.



And, despite having been a competitive bodybuilder for over a decade now, she probably hasn't yet reached her peak. Over the last year or so, under the guidance of compatriot Alina Popa (see A-Z of HUGE: A), Elena is, it seems, getting bigger and better with every passing week. How much more of this Goddess can we take?


ELENA (Seiple-Perticari)



The other Elena in our selection today was a Lightweight, a Middleweight, and a Light-heavyweight in that order, and stopped competing as a Bodybuilder almost a decade ago. She remains a fan favourite though, especially among heads of a certain age, and even if she was never the huge Heavyweight, she makes our encyclopedia for those big big biceps alone. With the exception of a 4th place at the NPC Nationals in 2004, Elena managed to finish in the top 3 of her class at every national-level show she did between 2000 and 2008, only finally winning her class at her last Nationals, but never getting her pro card. And you know she is still an absolute stunner in her mid-40s.




ESTEFANIA



Between Amelia and Vilma and now Virginia, the biggest thing to come from Spain was Estefania Saura Moya, and I did not know this until I started compiling the post, but she is back in 2017 - runner-up to the perennial winner Monia Gioiosa recently at the NAC Worlds - looking, as most of women seem to do at NAC shows, big and freaky. Want to see a pic of Estefania making a man very happy? Click here.



You didn't think it was going to be something else, did you?!

OK, so that's it for E. Not exactly a bumper crop, but not all letters are going to be equal, are they? C has proved the most popular of the posts so far so you might like to check that one out, and in case you were wondering, that's where you'll find Christine Envall - should have saved her for E, shouldn't I? But you can check them all out at once by clicking on the "A-Z of Huge" label right there at the very bottom of the post.

Once again, please do get in touch if you think I have forgotten a muscle (one that can be visibly flexed, anyway) or a big girl whose first or family name begin with E.

Next up, and hopefully not in 2019, it'll be F.

BODYBUILDER! The A-Z of Huge: D

Finally this week, the next installment of The A-Z of HUGE. As always, please remember this is a work in progress, and if you feel I've left out someone or something, please do get in touch (comment box or email) and let me know, and I'll be sure to include her/it when the time to update this particular letter rolls around again.

The A-Z of HUGE

D is for...


The "DARK SIDE"



The deviant world of muscle worship sprung into the limelight 10 years ago through TV documentaries such as ‘Muscle Worship - Hidden Lives’, ‘Super-Size She’ and Louis Theroux’s ‘Weird Weekends’. At the same time, the subculture has flourished on the internet through blogs and websites dedicated to muscle goddesses, pictures and DVD sales and webcams, argued to provide female bodybuilders with the necessary income to survive... Are female bodybuilders simply sexual commodities to satisfy male fantasies? Or, can muscle worship celebrations be positive self–affirmations for these women, which at the same time subvert traditional notions of gender?
Tanya Bunsell, Strong and Hard Women




Some people argue that it’s bringing bodybuilding into disrepute. As far as I’m concerned, it’s putting bodybuilding on a pedestal, making it available to people who would never consider attending an actual show. It’s a huge industry, and it allows me to spend 99% of my time totally focused on my career. The IFBB would probably have less of a problem with it if they were making money from it themselves.
Lisa Cross



The thrills are just knowing how turned on your body is making somebody else, having your body and your muscles appreciated for what they are, being the one who is in control and has the power over the other person... Most of my sessions have been incredibly sexual, both as an intense form of foreplay before more happened, and also where the worship has been the sex, or taken the place of actual sex. It’s often times a more intense sexual experience than the actual sex itself.
Anonymous, quoted in Strong and Hard Women


DAYANA



Lately, I've been more and more impressed with Dayana Cadeau. Dayana has the most sensuous and voluptuous physique in bodybuilding, as well as one of the most beautiful faces. The only problem I've had is getting my photos of Dayana published in magazines. She has such tremendous fullness to her muscles that people tend to think she is much bigger than she is, which tends to turn off publishers and art directors. However, at the 2003 Ms. Olympia Dayana was only 127lbs., if you can believe it. So although she is getting the kind of recognition she deserves from the judges, I think she's still a bit "too good" for the publications.
Bill Dobbins




In the days when there were weight classes, Dayana - as the above quote illustrates - seemed to be the biggest lightweight bodybuilder of them all. And the most successful. Dayana won the Lightweight class at two Ms Internationals and one Ms Olympia. Even after the different classes were done away with, she was twice Ms International runner-up and twice Ms Olympia runner-up, beaten only by Iris Kyle every time.




When people see me in the street they love my physique and find me attractive - both men and women. People can see that "WOW! Those women have muscles but they are beautiful as well" and that's why Bill Dobbins kept using me as an example for women's bodybuilding being sexy, sensual and pretty AND with nice muscle.
Dayana Cadeau


and DELTS



The deltoid muscle is the muscle forming the rounded contour of the shoulder. The deltoid originates in three distinct sets of fibres, often referred to as "heads". The anterior or clavicular fibres arise from most of the anterior border and upper surface of the lateral third of the clavicle. The anterior origin lies adjacent to the lateral fibres of the pectoralis major muscle as do the end tendons of both muscles. These muscle fibres are closely related and only a small chiasmatic space, through which the cephalic vein passes, prevents the two muscles from forming a continuous muscle mass. The anterior deltoid are commonly called "front delts" for short. Lateral or acromial fibres arise from the superior surface of the acromion process of the scapula. They are commonly called lateral deltoid. This muscle is also called middle delts, outer delts, or "side delts" for short. Posterior or spinal fibres arise from the lower lip of the posterior border of the spine of the scapula are commonly called posterior deltoid or rear deltoid ("rear delts" for short).
Wikipedia




We all know what a great pair of shoulders looks like, but whereas when I was sourcing images for Biceps or Back my biggest problem was which images to choose from the (literally) thousands on offer, with Delts the problem has been finding images that "just" focus on the shoulders. Often the best shoulder pictures are those where the shoulders are unflexed and your muscle goddess is in a tank top or tube top or hot little black dress, rather like this recently posted one of gorgeous Lisa Giesbrecht. Otherwise, images of great shoulders tend to also be images of great arms, and/or a great back as well, and it's images like these that in the end have made the final cut.



And that is probably as it should be. As the very pinnacle of the V-taper so beloved of FBBs, judges and fans alike, the shoulders have a lot of responsibility, aesthetically-speaking, but it's always a case of the sum of the shoulders and the other parts. There's no compulsory pose just for the shoulders themselves, but without great shoulders her lat spread or side triceps or side chest or double biceps won't amount to much.



So there's an argument that the shoulders are perhaps the most important muscles of them all, framing the rest of the physique - or at least the upper body anyway. Curious then that as well as not having their own pose, I rarely recall seeing a shoulder "measurement". We all like to read many inches her biceps are, how big her chest is, her quads and her calves are, and how tiny her waist. And the tape measure certainly gets strung across her lats, but for some reason, not across her shoulders.




Again, sorry if I have glaringly omitted a favourite FBB of yours, or an aspect of the female muscle lovin' experience. I was a bit pushed for time on this one, but as I said in the intro, this is intended to be a work that can be updated ad infinitum. So, if you've any suggestions for future updates or the next letter in the alphabet - fairly obviously it's "E" - please comment below or email 6ft1swell@gmail.com

The A-Z of HUGE will return soon.

Enjoy!