FMS Hearts the WPD Olympians: Ayanna

Relax. Physique is Lightweight, Middleweight and Light-heavyweight Bodybuilding in disguise, or at least that's what it has turned out to be, despite the complaints of some of the (less muscular) Physique women themselves. And until the IFBB/NPC bigwigs do see their plans to "tone it down by 10-15%" come to fruition, that means there's lots and lots of beautiful female muscle in the division, especially when the cream gather as they did in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. Yes of course we miss the Ms O, but that didn't stop us enjoying the Physique Olympia, and all this week on FMS we're going to be paying tribute to these spectacular, muscular women.

So relax, get comfy, and enjoy!

AYANNA CARROLL: TRUE PASSION



I dislike the inconsistency. Different judges want different looks, which makes it difficult to always know what the judges will be looking for. Example, how can you tell a woman bodybuilder that she is "too hard", when being "hard" is what contributes to her condition? It can be very confusing at times.
Ayanna Carroll, Hardfitness interview, 2007


Ayanna pumps up in Vegas a few days before the show

Yep, that was Ayanna in 2007. She competed in Bodybuilding then, a young amateur lightweight. I wonder if such feelings led to her decision to turn her hand to Physique, because she started in the division as soon as it was created in 2011, and immediately won her pro card. As a lightweight, it was probably the logical move, but I can't help wondering whether Ayanna thought the judging would be more consistent in the new division, that she could be sure about what the judges would be looking for. And since her pro debut in Orlando in 2012, the judges have, to be fair, largely been consistent with Ayanna, placing her somewhere in the top five but outside the top two with only a 16th in New York in 2014 the standout incongruous placing. But Ayanna came back in 2015 to breakthrough with a win in Orlando, qualifying her for her first Olympia.



In New York (top left) in 2012, where she was 4th, and (bottom left) 5th in 2015...
And Orlando (top right) in 2014, placing 16th(!) and (bottom right) 1st in 2015

And the judges' verdict was... 14th. I'll say it again: 14th. Now, as always, I add the caveat that I am in no way qualified to comment, and I know the Olympia is "the best of the best" and all, but I ask you - can you explain to me what it was about Ayanna's best ever contest package that made the judges think she belonged in 14th?



But here's the thing. Disappointed as she undoubtedly was - I ended up in 3rd call out, she said, obviously didn't place as well as I would have liked - Ayanna still loved every single minute of the experience. I was blessed to grace the Olympia stage! she exclaimed to her Instagram followers, calling it a dream of many but the experience of only a few. After so many years of competition, Ayanna knows very well that the only judge she needs to please is herself. I am very happy with my look and the package I brought as I have only continued to get better with each showing.




The love of the process, the single-minded determination to constantly improve and push herself beyond her limits. It's not about the placings for Ayanna, it's about the results. And it has always been that way it seems. I was always physically competitive, I began doing push ups and sit ups at home at age 11, she says. This was the only way I felt I could become just as strong and athletic as the boys.



I imagine these days boys do press-ups so they can be as strong as athletic as Ayanna, or at least strong and athletic enough to get Ayanna's attention! And who wouldn't want the attention of a woman as strong, sexy and classy as Ayanna looked before the Olympia after party? Be honest champ, wrote one of her (male) Instagram admirers of the photo below, you get a lot of gawking in public with that physique don't you? Especially all dolled up... Ayanna didn't reply. Let's face it, she didn't need to. And I doubt she sought the judges' advice about improvements for next time around either.



So much fun sharing the stage with others who share your passion! she said after the show. No one else can better relate to all that it takes us to take our bodies to this level. And it's through this understanding that a greater respect, admiration and bond is created. We remember why we do this. We all personify our very own expression of beauty and we own it. No one can ever take that from us! We did the damn thing! A placement could never dictate our hard work to get to this level. We're all winners because there's only a small percentage of people in the world that can actually do what we do. We sacrifice much, getting little to nothing in return but we continue to show up. Now that's what you call true passion and love!




Now that's what I call PRIDE!



Feel the love and passion by following Ayanna on her Instagram and Facebook. And you can watch Ayanna proudly flexing her way to her first pro win in Orlando in August while she's interviewed backstage wearing a big old victory afterglow here.



Enjoy!

For C, so proud and passionate, with love and admiration

More Muscle?

In Dallas last weekend, a blast from the past took her first pro title in the Women's Physique division. She competed in NPC Bodybuilding until about 2009, and, as far as I know, has always been known by just the one name: Yasha.



The thing that struck me as I checked out the pics from the contest is that Yasha has got a lot of muscle going on right there. And as I checked out the women who finished in 2nd, 3rd, and so on, it became clear that the judges had given the title to the most muscular woman on stage. The woman who most resembled a "bodybuilder".



Have you just spat your breakfast cereal all over yourself? Are you about to send me a picture of Anne, Christine or Mmmmmonique with the subject line "This Is a Bodybuilder Fool!"? I have been spending a fair bit of time in the FMS archive recently with the so-called "old school" bodybuilders of yore, so I am prepared to accept that I may just be comparing Yasha to a somewhat outdated idea of a "bodybuilder", but I am not alone in having noticed the muscle and making that comparison.

I am so CONFUSED!!! wrote FMS fave (and Hot and Hard 100 #26) Valerie Garcia Giovanoli after the Dallas show. Congratulations to Andrea Calhoun (left, below) who just won 1st in Figure in Dallas and to Yasha who won 1st in Physique at the same show. I think both women are incredible, BUT, am I the only one confused as shit about what the IFBB wants from physique?!? Yasha would have won a pro Women's Bodybuilding competition any other year. This is not what we have come to expect from the new Women's Physique category. Am I the only one who switched over and has been pounding away at the weights without restraint, finally happy I can train the way I want without worrying I'll be 'too muscular' for Figure?



None of my training is going to allow me to compete with a female bodybuilder's physique! I am happy to see more muscle being rewarded in figure... But then that crap confuses me too!!! I am currently prepping for the Wings of Strength show in August, and now I don't even know where I fit in: Figure or Physique?

I read Valerie's rant and I thought back to last year's NPC Nationals when Valerie won her class and her pro card and how she compared with another pro card winner that day, Marcie Simmons, who had been awarded the overall title as well.



Marcie was easily more muscular than Valerie at that show, but she was also the most muscular woman in any class on that stage. She had the biggest muscles and the best conditioning, so those big muscles were also the most defined. In short, she was the most like a "bodybuilder", and this was noted at the time, both by FMS and by commentators who know much more about these things than I do.



And it's not just in the Stateside pro shows this seems to be happening. Meanwhile, as we saw yesterday, over here in Europe Cristina Goy Arellano has been packing on more muscle for this contest season. And the judges have rewarded her.



Cris wasn't the only lady at the Europeans who was displaying some serious muscle. Running her a very close second in the taller class was a woman completely new to me - the arrestingly pectacular Liudmila Goshko from Russia.



Before anyone else gets in with it, I'll say it myself: Oh my Goshko!



I often describe freakishly ripped muscle women - probabaly so often it's boring - as being all skin and muscle or some such. Well, with Liudmila, I'll take that description even further because it looks to me as if she's dispensed with the skin on those glorious pecs altogether, like she's had it surgically removed or something. So insane is the amount of detail that it's like the pro tan is applied directly onto the muscle!

Of course, it isn't all medals and wins for the more muscular Physique competitor. Though she and Liudmila muscled up the taller class, Cris ultimately lost out in the overall posedown to the less muscular (although probably better-conditioned and balanced blah blah) package of Lithuania's Alina Cepurniene.



And a random selection of some of this year's pro Physique winners on the IFBB circuit also demonstrates that while one show might throw up a winner who is more at the "bodybuilding" end of the Physique spectrum, on a different weekend in a different place, a Physique look that leans more towards Figure will get the judges' nod.




Top left is the less muscular look of Toronto Pro winner Ceaanna Kerr, and next to her we have ex-bodybuilder and new New York Pro winner Michelle Cummings. And you can check out Michelle's last outing in Women's Bodybuilding from Tampa in 2013 and see for yourself how little difference there is in her look. Then bottom left is the Orlando champion Ayanna Carroll, muscular for sure, but smoother and not as muscular as the bigger and more defined Puerto Rico Pro winner Gloria Faulls.

It's easy to see why Valerie is confused. All this inconsistent judging. Competitors not knowing what kind of package the judges at the next show will decide to give the top places to. Hang on! That sounds just like the situation in Women's Bodybuilding!!!

But there was no confusion at all at the recent NABBA Worlds because...

Drum roll...

The big girls were back!

After a one-year hiatus when it seemed NABBA had gone the way of most federations and jettisoned Women's Bodybuilding (which in NABBA-speak is Physique) at its premier event outside the UK, true bodybuilders returned to flex their muscles in those beloved NABBA-style thong posing suits in Malta last weekend.

The winner was the Czech Karolina Borkovcova (who is probably more familiar to readers under her previous guise of Karolina Holubcova). Sit back and dig the muscle as you watch Karolina's utterly glute-tasic - and winning - routine.



You can see much much more of the contest on the NABBA YouTube channel.

Enjoy!

Wings of Strength

I think there's been a misunderstanding, and I want to clear things up.

More than a few bloggers have been claiming that Jacqueline "Jay" Fuchs wants them to soap/scrub/rinse/dry her back. Well, she doesn't. It's me she wants.



Good. I feel better for that.

So much better in fact that I am prepared to show I hold no grudge whatsoever with those making misguided claims concerning the above scenario. Let's face it, Jay does have a really really wonderful back and all, exactly the kind of back you'd exchange a body part for the chance to soap up, but she isn't (thankfully) the only muscle angel with such wings of strength. And I'm not a greedy man, so to show there's no hard feelings, let's say I get to do Jay, and you can take your pick from the others...

Now, that's not such a bad deal, is it?



I mean, if I'm prepared to offer you Jill Rudison, Ms Quads Not Included herself, and all her glorious muscular detail above, you know I'm feeling generous. Jill, I'll say when she pops round for one of her bi-weekly visits to FMS HQ, Jill, I'm sorry I won't be able to check those cuts out from now on, you've had your last special massage off me, I'll say. But don't worry, [insert your name here] is going to take over, and he (or she) is quite the muscle worship artist, I'll say. And I know that he (or she) is really looking forward to getting his (or her) hands on those rhomboids of yours, I'll say.



Or how about the beautiful Russian figure competitor Olga Chestoperova? Granted, she's considerably less well-known than La Rudison, but if Olga from behind isn't rocking your boat, she was recently featured looking absolutely glorious on the mighty PumpItUp, so check that out before you ask me what else I've got on offer.



Here (left) we have another of Swell's big 2014 crushes, the recently-competed Brooke Black, in a selfie that wouldn't have looked out of place if we had posted it as part of last week's Muscle in a Dress celebration. Or if Brooke doesn't appeal (iffy reputation and all), then I'm sure the scenario on the right will. Just take a moment to put yourself in that room (behind the camera, perhaps?) and think about what happens next... And no, I don't know who they are. A Google Images search turned up "Best Guess - female muscle porn star"(!!!) which hardly narrows it down these days.



Feast your eyes on the beautiful symmetry, the insane definition, and on the big, full muscles all over the piece of female muscle art that Ayanna Carroll has created with her back. Feast your eyes as you imagine the fun you could have if tomorrow was the start of a long weekend, Ayana was in this shape, had just handed you a bottle of oil with the instruction to "use it all", and you had nothing else to do.



Ok. Some of you, I see, are still playing hardball. Well, perhaps Marthe Sundby's post-pump lat spread might make you change your mind about continuing to hold out for Jay. Look: it ain't gonna happen, pal, so give it up. I am offering you Marthe! I'd tell her to go and do her post-pump posing somewhere else. I'd tell her to go and do her post-pump posing at your place. I would do that for you, I really would.



And if you are still here, then this, I'm afraid is my final offer. Virginia, an oiled up explosion of muscle, and it's you - YOU - she wants to get top of hers undone (her fingers are a bit on the sticky side you see) so you can really get busy exploring...

Enjoy!

And a big shout out to Insane Muscle Girls for bringing the Jay pics to FMS' attention - although the ludicrous claim that Jay really wants him, rather than me, to do the soaping does detract from what is otherwise an absolutely flawless blog.

By the way, the timing of today's post, with its rather contrived title, is no coincidence. Wings of Strength (the website) should be applauded by all of us female muscle heads for their support of female bodybuilding over the last few years, and in Chicago today the latest event made possible by their sponsorship comes to a close.