Underrated: Juanita Blaino

A new occasional series, Underrated is not intended to be about judging decisions - if it was, we could probably run a post about every single woman who's ever competed! Instead, we aim to (re)focus on women who we think do not enjoy the prominence they deserve in the collective female muscle consciousness - someone a new recruit to the female muscle lovin' world would not necessarily come across.

UNDERRATED?



If you know her, it's highly unlikely you would underrate her. The combination of size and sexy Juanita brought to the stage made her one of the outstanding competitive Female Bodybuilders of the first part of this decade. And that's not just my opinion - this "powerful goddess of muscle" is none other than Margie Martin's all-time favourite, and few would disagree with her that it's high time Juanita rose again.



The fact that she's become so (relatively) unknown so quickly since her retirement is largely down to Juanita herself. She's retired most effectively! Like, say, her more famous admirer or - as another example - Iris Kyle, Juanita has social media but unlike them she hardly ever posts. When she does, it's hardly ever a picture of herself, and on those rare occasions when it is, it's hardly ever a current picture of herself.



Consequently, the well of "new" Juanita material dried up almost as soon as she stopped competing in 2014. With nothing new to add, her forum threads and GWM page have largely stagnated, kept alive only by rumour and occasional "look what I found when I was cleaning out my hard drive" images from Juanita's pomp.

CAREER


Juanita Malone, pre-1994

The period of her career for which she is known runs from 2010 to 2014. However, and this has only recently, thanks to some serious FBB archaeology by a well-known forum poster, come to light, Juanita Malone (as she was then) can be found competing in the early 90s, and at the NPC USAs in 1994 she shared the stage with (among other Heavyweights) Annie Rivieccio, Rozann Keyser, and Suzan Kaminga.


Nationals, 2010

After a break of some 15 or so years, she returned to competition in 2010, lining up at the Masters Nationals, the North Americans (in the 35+ Masters class), and the Nationals, where she was the Heavyweight runner-up to Amber Defrancesco.



Champion - Nationals, 2012

Two years later and Juanita was back at the Nationals, and this time there was no denying her. After winning the Heavyweight class, she saw off Kira Neuman and Rene Marven in the posedown to be crowned Overall champion, and new IFBB pro.



Olympia, 2013

On her pro debut in Chicago the following year she placed 2nd (to Mmmmonique Jones), and though she failed to place in Tampa a month later, those runner's-up qualifying points were enough (just) to get her to her one and only Olympia. There (in possibly her best ever shape and in a posing suit that bordered dangerously - and thrillingly - close to a thong) she placed above Mmmmonique - 6th out of 12. It took legends to beat her, and only Kyle, Popa, Laszewski, Oriquen and Brezovac did.



This period also brought us the majority of the non-contest Juanita material we can still enjoy today. She worked with HerBiceps, briefly - but gloriously - with Female Muscle Clips, and most memorably with Muscle Angels. As we look back now we can see that even then there were signs that Juanita was not 100% happy at putting herself out there (as they say), with much of the Muscle Angels' material listed not under her name but the alias "Massive Muscle". Nevertheless, this moniker seemed completely appropriate to me. I had fallen massively for Juanita's muscles, and I wasn't alone.



The following March (2014), FMS readers voted her into the top 30 of our inaugural Hot and Hard 100 poll. As the 2014 contest season got under way, she seemed a serious contender, and my female muscle notebook of the time reveals I was as excited about seeing Juanita again as I was about seeing anyone. Had her time come?


Tampa, 2014

2014. however, didn't quite live up to the promise of her debut pro season. 4th this time in Chicago, she did better in Tampa than she had done the previous year, but 7th there was nowhere near enough. The last ever Ms Olympia took place without her.

APPRECIATION



First of all, and make no mistake about this, Juanita was (and may well still be) massive. You really only get a true sense of her overwhelming scale when you see her next to other, undeniably huge, women. As well as being a bit taller than both Iris and Mmmmonique, Juanita (at the very least) matches both of them for sheer arm size. Imagine her strength! a 2015 forum poster gasps. I do - and I imagine it is incredible. Chicago crims restrained by Officer Blaino, don't, I imagine, ever forget it!


Chicago, 2014

Most importantly though, Juanita simply "oozed sex appeal", and while this does come across in photos, you really have to see her move on stage to fully understand just how sexy she was, and what a huge influence she was on Margie Martin. Even if Juanita was never quite as aggressively, in-yer-face sexy as her most decorated devotee, the more that Margie took from Juanita's playbook, the more successful she became.



My favourite clips of hers would have to be the first set she did with Muscle Angels as "Massive Muscle" - hotel room setting, small white bikini, just flexing hard and slow while the camera catches all her ripples and striations in close-up detail. Perhaps even more thrilling though was Female Muscle Clips' shooting of Juanita in dress and heels. 30 minutes which, if you are lucky enough to enjoy, stay with you long after.

NOW?

Rumours only. Still a big and beautiful girl, apparently, but not planning to come back - at least not as a Bodybuilder. According to one forum poster, Juanita told him in an email that she's "downsizing in the near future", a decision that, in his words is "more personal than political". She said she's "tired of not being able to buy regular clothes", he continues, "tired of carrying so much weight around". The muscle mass is that serious! That was last October, and nothing since then suggests Juanita's return is imminent - whatever size she is going to be if she does indeed return to competition.

I do believe that last bit about serious muscle mass though...

Enjoy!

One-Armed Wonders: A Legend Is Back (In the Gym)

Not bad for 6 weeks of training, and being retired from competing (no training for 10 months and I am 51!). Ready for clients soon - figured I should start before the clients.



51 or not, with one flex of her mighty bicep, she looks just like her old self.



Tampa in 2012 was the last time we saw her "stuff of legends" biceps flexed on stage, the end of a five-year pro career. After first competing in the late 1990s, she won her pro card in 2007 at the Masters Nationals. She went to just one Olympia, and had just one top 3 pro finish in her 12 pro shows. Looks to me as if - at 51 - she might, in this much less competitive time for FBBs, do rather better if she wanted to put on the suit again.



I'm getting ahead of myself though. As amazing as she looks, all 51-year-old Debbie Bramwell is for now is back in the gym, news which, quite by coincidence, we learned at a time we were planning a week of biceps. Time to get into the archives...



We found that Debbie must have been one of the more photographed women of her time. Back in those days we had money to burn on memberships, so the Debbie archive bulges like the peaks on her "wide and long" biceps, all dazzling smile, luscious hair and hard, muscular, vascular and darkly-tanned physique in lingerie, in posing suits, in string bikinis, and (personal faves) in heels and a variety of sexy, revealing dresses.



She really was photographed by them all, from Awefilms to the Valkyrie, from HerBiceps to Muscle Angels via WPW, FT Video, and Tom Nine. Dan Ray and Bill Dobbins both shot her multiple times, and her career coincided with the boom in free contest pictures, so we've literally got hundreds of those to treasure as well.



With her hairstylist background and sculpted physique, she embodied her own take on the appeal of the muscular female body. I personally feel that women bodybuilders are the sexiest woman, Debbie said in 2009. Nothing like a shapely, strong physique and beautiful lines. What's more feminine than that? Fans never seemed to get tired of her. Even last year she was still getting Hot and Hard 100 votes, a testament to her enduring appeal despite the fact that the surgeon responsible for the last phase of her enhancements was (and probably still is) top of every female muscle fans blacklist.



From the first time you see those biceps flex, you're sold. So thick and long, with their beautiful rising peaks. The hard ball of vascular muscle in her forearm, her meaty, bulbous tricep almost mirroring its more famous cousin below. And that vein, that cord-like vein running along the base of her bicep and into her muscle pit...



Anyone who knows the sport knows your arms are among the best, Promoting Real Women put it to her in 2010. Would you consider them your best feature? They certainly aren't the biggest out there, she replied. But they do have a unique shape.



Debbie Bramwell, still fabulous at 51. Check out her Instagram for more, and while it's still up (can't believe it's lasted this long) you can also check out her legendary She Muscle arm training clip here. On top of everything else, that sexy, sexy voice!



Enjoy!

One-Armed Wonders: WPW Legends

Truth be told, it was the women in Muscle & Fitness, Flex and Musclemag that set me on the path towards the raving female muscle head I am today. The majority of women who featured in Women's Physique World way back when I personally didn't discover until I got a dial-up and hopefully typed the magazine's name into the search field.

In memory of that moment the motherlode was revealed to me, a selection of five (I think not at all controversial) bicep legends from that time. Women who may not have been among my very first female muscle discoveries - even if a couple of them do go very very way back indeed - but who certainly did their bit to seal the deal.

SUSAN MYERS



She has no weak spots on her, says the commentator over Sue's 1988 Jr. Nationals winning routine. She's well-balanced, she appears to be thick all over, she's ripped, she has great skin tone, she poses well, and on top of that she's really pretty.



Sue was, indeed, much more than "just" her biceps, but the lure of those arms, those thick, bulging biceps in particular, has stood the test of female muscle lovin' time for myself, and many many others. Sue's baseball biceps are addictive, warns one.



Proceed with caution then to this WPW official preview. And you can also watch a much later Sue featuring on that Montel show (or one of them anyway) in the 1990s, before heading back to her 1988 routine (plus breathless backstage interview).

If I'd found better pics of Susan, by the way, you'd be looking at them.

PHYLLIS PADUR



She was, I believe, in the late 1980s only briefly a competitor who was in the WPW spotlight, but like Sue Myers, Phyllis Padur still gets talked about (by geezers like me, of a certain age!) when "Best Biceps Ever"-type conversations are had, and also when a more contemporary muscle woman's biceps jog the memory - I recall Michelle Gavin's beauties being referred to as Padur-like peaks, for example.



Phyllis' nickname was "Funky Peaks"!

CHRISTA BAUCH



A prolific subject for the WPW and Ray Martin lenses, a few years ago, Christa was still, well into her 60s, more muscular than she had any right to be and receiving offers from men less than half her age. In her 1980s-90s pomp, she was hot and hard all over, but I had a particular hard spot for her biceps, especially when they were threatening to burst right through the fabric of whatever classy outfit she happened to be wearing.



Personal faves include the dress with the sheer sleeves - Christa applying lipstick at one point, the kind of thing Ray Martin did so well, taking you into the FBB boudoir - and the white dress, apparently painted on - I may be misremembering but I swear you can see her abs through it! But any time spent with Christa was good time, including probably more hours than is healthy playing "Dress Me Up!" on her website.



Christa competed twice at the Olympia in the 90s, but you can go way back to the late 1980s (and the glory days of Eurosport) with this routine. There's also an offical WPW preview to enjoy here. When you've stopped playing at dressing her up that is.

JOAN LAUTH



Like Phyllis, Joan is still lauded on the forums by those who remember her bringing something truly unique to the late '80s female muscle lovin' world. Her biceps are not so much the greatest split-peaks of all time, more like the only biceps in history that grew extra biceps on top of them. Her peaks have nice peaks! a newer fan exclaims.



Back in 2013, it was rumoured that the (then) 48-year-old was thinking of competing again - and she still had plenty of muscle to show off. Around that time she was also a vocal critic of the IFBB's "plans to kill" Female Bodybuilding, penning an open letter to the IFBB bigwigs that accused them of trying to "send Female Bodybuilding back to the Stone Age". Joan knows - she was there, at the same high school as Cory Everson!



"Joan of Arms" was the title of her first WPW feature. Wennerstrom, as usual, nailed it.

MICHELE MAROLDO



But, if I had to choose just one pair of biceps from that discovering-WPW-on-the-internet era, I would have to choose this pair. I don't recall the exact moment my eyes bulged out of their sockets while a dial-up image of these "otherworldly" arms loaded line by line, but I'm pretty sure they bulged good (and weren't the only things bulging).



Remember the WPW clip of her being measured at 18 inches? And then the guy rubs oil all over it! writes one forum poster. Well, actually it's a Ray Martin production (oil rubbing was generally not done by anyone but the ladies themselves in the WPW clips). Not sure they were 18 either, looks more like 17 to me, but hey, how could I forget?!




She'd been training for a good ten years before she even started competing in the late 1990s - 5'4" and chiselled, according to the WPW blurb. Michele has the best biceps and triceps in the history of the sport. And they've seen a few! A picture of Michele "now" back circulated the forums a couple of years ago. Not such a meat feast as she was back then - how could she be? - but OMG her bicep was still thrilling, still "otherworldly".



Enjoy!