Amy Sibcy

My favourite exercise in the gym in leg training, says Amy Sibcy. During contest time I will train legs twice a week. It's not surprising, therefore, that she is famous for just that part of her body.



Amy Lynn Sibcy was born in the town of Middleton, Ohio in 1967. And that's where she still lives, with her husband, a gym owner, and her two daughters, so I think it's safe to say that she likes it there.



Her (rightly) famous legs got their start when she was growing up in modern dance, ballet, football (soccer), and cheerleading. Furthermore, her father was a gym owner, so although she claims not to have trained specifically as a bodybuilder until she was in her mid-30s, she says she started playing around with weights at the age of 14.




She won her first two contests, her local city (Cincinnati) and state (Ohio) championships, in 2004, but it would take her another seven years until, at 44, she earned her pro card despite finishing second to Janet Kaufman in the middleweight class at the 2011 NPC Masters Nationals. Since then, she has competed only once, at last year's Chicago Pro contest, where she finished 12th in a high-quality field. Hopefully, we will see her on stage again before long.



Meanwhile, we have plenty of images of Amy and her most renowned body part to keep us occupied. She has wonderfully defined and vascular legs around contest time, and much of her work for the major female muscle websites have, quite rightly, highlighted that, putting Amy in a variety of glamorous dresses and heels.



And while not very recent, her most recent work from around the time of her last contest, Chicago last summer, suggests she is in no hurry to stop those magnificent leg muscles growing ever bigger and bolder.




A real estate investor and mother-of-two, Amy is clearly more than just a dynamite pair of legs. She's simply a fantastic advert for the benefits of bodybuilding (she's now in her mid-40s, remember?). One amazing and beautiful woman with two almost unbelievably beautiful legs.




Perhaps now you want to drop by Amy's website. Enjoy!

Thighs of the Day: Know Your Thighs

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 Marven right: 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 Boulanger right: 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 Toth right: 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 Giesbrecht right: 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.

Enjoy!