Tampa: Tease

I'm writing this last Friday, and the female muscle meat feast that is the Tampa Pro is already under way. As well as a host of other images from in and around the show, photos from the Figure and Physique prejudging are already up on NPC News Online. The line-ups in those divisions are truly immense, 35 Physique Dreams and a mind-boggling 49 Figure Phenoms. We're all going to be busy over the next few days!



I was pleased to notice a good few Figure competitors insisting on putting cheeky and/or downright brazen flexing into their presentations. Julie Mayer, who we enjoyed recently at the LA Pro, went for the cheeky tricep flex while transitioning between front and side-on poses - known in my house as "The Gillon", after Cyd, who was the first competitor I ever noticed doing this. Amber Eutsey, meanwhile, just went ahead and flexed her bicep. Boom! If it was up to me, that would automatically make her the champion. Sadly, or thankfully depending on your viewpoint, it isn't.



In the Physique division, Autumn Swansen didn't just look good after her make-up had been applied by Jamie Pinder - now there's a hotel room this boy would have liked to have been on the inside of. She looked pretty amazing on stage as well.



How the judges decide among so many women is beyond me. My brain, and possibly other parts of my body too, would simply explode under such a female muscle barrage. Would it, I wonder, be helpful to have some sort of pre-prejudging at the check-in? It might encourage fewer baggy, muscle-hiding tops and more beautiful figure-revealing dresses at least. Kendyl Seawright and Maggie Watson would have claimed an early advantage on Swell's (sticky) Figure scorecard if so.



But for all the Figure and Physique fun, Tampa has, in recent years, established itself as the greatest FBB show on earth outside of the Rising Phoenix. I'm not quite sure it's going to have the sort of line-up we've delighted in before - no Sheila Bleck, no Virginia Sanchez, for example. And apparently no Angie Salvagno either.



This was Angie, looking exciting and feeling excited a week and a half ago. Can’t wait to finally compete again after 7 years!!!! she told her IG following. Since then, however, not a peep from the normally hyper-active Angie, and as there's not a single pic of her at the athlete's meeting or check-in or anywhere else I can find, I'm assuming something has happened to stop her being at the show and I'm hoping that she's all OK.



Alina's there though - competing, not just Wings of Strength cheerleading. No doubt who Annie'll be rooting for. It's been a while since she's got her hands on Alina!



And surely the contest will be between the great uncrowned and Britain's finest (and runner-up in 2016 and 2017) Lisa Cross - a woman who never turns up to the check-in in anything less than a beautiful tight dress. It's a measure of Lisa's progress over the last few years and how far Alina's shooting star has fallen since she had her injury worries that I am talking about them as rivals for the same title, and I say that fully aware that by the time you read this it will be apparent if I have got it badly wrong!



So I cunningly distract you from the previous paragraph with the help of Irene Andersen enjoying the Florida sunshine. Such incredible muscle mass - I bet the water level fell quite considerably when Irene hauled herself out of there.

Tampa. It'll already have happened by the time you read this, but as I write it's only just begun. To say I am a little bit excited would be something of an understatement - though even I am not quite as excited as Ashley Hromyak seems to be...



Enjoy!

Pic of the Month: June

May's Pic of the Month poll turned out to be a two-lady race between Megan Elizabeth Colvin's body art, and the muscle pits of Britain's Rosie Harte.



Rosie, with 44% of the votes, came out the winner.

And so to our five June nominees.

Check them out, follow the link at the bottom, and vote with a single click.

SARAH FECHTER: MUSCLE BEAUTY



I've made no secret of my admiration for this gorgeous hunk of woman since she (belatedly) came to my attention earlier in the year (see FMS passim). Her latest (to be leaked to the forums, anyway) work with HD Physiques has done nothing to dampen my enthusiasm. Look how thick she is below the knee, the definition all over her mouth-watering midriff, those feel-me-up shoulders, and best of all those lick-this-way veins on her biceps... And on top of all that - the smile! Swooonarama!!!

ALINA POPA: NATURE'S MAJESTY



Taken, I believe, towards the end of May on the Manitou Incline in the Colorado Rockies, Alina may not yet be ready to come back and compete for the biggest titles, but there's no doubt she still adds outstanding (if not 100% "natural") beauty to any area she's in. Imagine going on a hike and being confronted with Alina in shorts, boots and sports bra on the trail! Don't know about you, but I reckon I'd float up that incline (albeit with my tongue hanging out and my eyes bulging out of their sockets) if I had Alina to follow - and if I'd already been up, I'd be only too happy to go up again.

CAIT (aka LILPOWERBUILDER): IN MY DEFENCE, YOUR HONOUR



She only started Crossfit "a few years ago", but one thing has led to another and now "Cait" is, as her Instagram moniker suggests, a Powerlifter and Bodybuilder (NPC Physique) as well as being a fitness coach. Through fitness I have found a whole new me, she says. The me that I was meant to be. Those boots and shorts were meant to be with those glutes and legs for sure. A picture old C. Moore would show to the jury?!

BRIE EUBANKS: GIFTED



Just when I thought her Brieness had consigned herself to the murkier parts of the female muscle world and I'd only ever see her now in blurry webcam and snapchat clips getting up to all sorts of naughtiness (with and without her hubby), she pops up on the forums with a reminder of just what a thoroughly gifted woman she is. For once, I'm not focusing on the muscles. I can't stop looking at it. It's just so long, so BIG!

SHANNON SEELEY: SHAPE OF A WOMAN



Having recently competed with distinction at the NPC Jr. USAs, Shannon is expected to turn pro at some stage later in the year. Meanwhile, her schmotography work (not to mention some of her topless cam treats that are appearing in those murky parts) have done plenty to bring her to front and centre of the collective female muscle lovin' consciousness. I could have chosen any of a number of classy shots of her (or indeed a still from one of those cam shows), but in the end, I found I had a very soft hard spot for this rather arty silhouette. Now that's what a woman is supposed to look like!

Tough choice or easy call?

Take your pick and vote HERE

We'll post the winner next month when we invite you to vote for July's best.

Enjoy! And thanks in advance for voting!

10 Years at the Arnold Classic: 2011

MUSCLE UP



Having been a bit thin on the ground the previous year, and now organised into just two weight classes, the Amateur Female Bodybuilders who turned up for the Arnolds in 2011 proved there was still muscle in the US and beyond. Lots of it - even if the judges managed somehow to give Lightweight class winner Marina Lemenovskaya (left) the Overall trophy instead of the Heavyweight Alevtina Goroshinskaya.



In the Lightweight class 3rd place Nathalie Falk was pleasingly hard, while runner-up Branka Njegovec showed the audience what a real woman's abs look like.



The muscle bonanza was, unsurprisingly however, mostly in the Heavyweight class, where heads in the audience must have been struggling to know where to look - at Natalia Romaschko's legs perhaps, or Roberta Toth's (no doubt) rippling muscle belly? Giuditta Magazzino was never bigger than here, and Triple Dee (aka Robin Hillis) was (and is) just BIG - but only big enough for 15th, according to the judges.



Arnold Amateur fixture Salla Kaurenen had to settle for 3rd this time, Geraldine Morgan edging her for the runner's-up spot, and well worth it as far as I can see.



And then there was Katka - approaching her (dark-haired) 2012 peak.



Was this the line-up that convinced Arnold he didn't want these women around him while they grew towards pro status?! Imagine the thunder as they all walked on...

GO FIGURE



While amateur FBBing was making a bit of a comeback at the Arnolds, the first Bikini International was taking place over at the pro show. On the plus side, women now had four divisions to choose from, although this new one was almost completely devoid of any of the hallmarks of what "bodybuilding" was widely understood to be about.

Anyway, Nicole Nagrani was the first Ms Bikini International.



While us female muscle fans do like to make fun of the Bikini division (if we acknowledge it at all), I wonder whether its introduction did indeed have positive effects on Figure. Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, this was the first year the ladies of the Figure division didn't face the indignity of the "one-piece", meaning the running order of the Figure contest as it is now was established at this point. Nicole Wilkins won for the second year in a row, carrying a little more muscle than before, and from this point on, it seems to me, this is the way Nicole, and indeed the whole division, goes. More muscle and the forging of its own, distinct from Bikini, identity.

BREAKING THROUGH



We noted yesterday that the winners of the other three female classes - Iris Kyle, Nicole Wilkins and Adele Garcia, were the then reigning Olympia champions in their respective divisions. A year later and nothing had changed (and even the runners-up in Bodybuilding and Figure stayed the same). We also noted the top 6 Bodybuilders, though in a slightly different order, hadn't altered from 2009-2010.



So Alina Popa's achievement at only her show as a pro should not go unheralded. And she didn't just break into the top 6, she smashed her way into the top 3 - by no means overshadowed by Yaxeni and Iris on the day, by no means a distant 3rd. Here is a new superstar on the rise, GMV Bodybuilding reckoned, and time proved them right.

BRITISH INTEREST?

Not this year, I'm afraid.

10 Years at the Arnold Classic: 2010

FAMILIAR RESULTS NEW & OLD

All three division winners were also the reigning Olympia champions.



Need I say anything? I imagine the contest was over as a contest the second Iris faced the back and flared her lats. Whether you see 'bumps' (aka 'distortions') on those glutes or not, whether you think Iris was the best ever or a major factor in IFBB pro Female Bodybuilding's demise, it's impossible to deny that she didn't deserve to win. Again.



Meanwhile, in the Fitness division, four-time Fitness Olympia champ and two-time Fitness International winner Adela Garcia returned to the Arnolds after a two-year break to resume normal service and continue a nine-show winning streak that had started at the 2009 Olympia and finished at her final show, the 2013 Olympia.



And then there was Nicole Wilkins. As we saw yesterday, Nicole had given Fitness a crack at the Arnolds in 2009. Here she returned to the division in which her previous best Arnolds finish had been 12th in 2008, but she was returning as the reigning Ms Olympia. Still, I should point out, needing to wear both a one-piece and a two-piece in this division, and clearly not yet needing to show much definition to win over the Figure judges, Nicole took the first of three consecutive Figure International titles.

FUTURE PHYSIQUES



I imagine the stark contrast between Nicole and Iris may have had something to do with the realisation on the part of the authorities that the women needed another division, intermediate between Figure and Bodybuilding. The creation of the Physique division is a little way down the road yet, and its Arnold bow is even further down the road, but the some of the women who would populate it would often have years of Arnolds experience behind them, and there were more than a few on stage in 2010.



And when the women came into this brand new division, they didn't only come from one direction. Zoa Linsey (top), as I'm sure you know, competed a Bodybuilder - she finished a very creditable 7th here given the competition. In the Amateur show, future Physique stars Heather Grace, Jillian Reville,and Mikaila Soto all competed in the same Figure class at the 2010 Arnolds, while Autumn Swansen (then stlll Edwards) and Minna Pajulahti both appeared in the same Amateur Fitness class.



And in Amateur Bodybuilding, the now obviously built for Physique Sherri Gray, and - though she wasn't quite finished with Bodybuilding yet - Katka Kyptova both made their Arnold debuts here and would later go on to strut their stuff in the WPD.



THE NEW BREED?



It wasn't just a case of plus ça change with Iris winning. The only difference between the 2009 and 2010 Ms International top 6 was that Yaxeni and Debi swapped places.



But down in 8th - yes, one place lower than Zoa Linsey! - Arnold audiences caught their first glimpse of Alina, who would soon join the ranks of the serious challengers to Iris' crowns, and, like Heather Policky before her, would carry the hope of a legion of fans that finally "the sport" could, at last, be about to have a new Queen.



The quality of the Amateur Bodybuilding show, however, was starting to wane. Fewer women competing (just five in each of the three classes) and much less of the quality that had so electrified audiences for its first two years. In not very competitive classes, Lisa Aranda (Lightweight) and Marina Lemenovskaya (Middleweight) were both worthy winners, but hardly looked to be about to turn pro FBBing on its head.



Happily though, Rita Bello was Overall champion. A year too late, perhaps, but at least here was a woman who was entering the pro ranks fully formed and ready to do battle. Where was the next international generation though? It wouldn't be long before the answer to that question was definitively NOT at the Arnold Amateur.

BRITISH INTEREST?

For the first time, YES!!!



Future World's Sexiest Grandmother Sharon Madderson was the first to represent Britain in Bodybuilding at the Arnolds. Sharon finished 4th (out of 5) in the Bello-dominated Heavyweight class, also behind the much bigger Salla Kauranen and Nidia Hermosillo. Enjoyed the experience though, if the pictures don't lie.



And Kizzy Vaines, who, until Emma Paveley came along, carried the pro Fitness flag for Great Britain all by herself, placed 12th after achieving some impossibly deranged body positions that doubtless had fellas in the audience licking their lips.