A Tale of Two Ginas (And a Kristen)

There are two reasons why I got curious as to what one of my (and many others') all-time favourites was up to these days. We've only really featured her once on the blog, and that was way back in 2012, when we left her approaching her mid-40s working as a trainer in Oklahoma City. She's still got it, we reported. She still has sex appeal in spades, and rumour has it her man is a lot younger than her. I am not surprised.



Her name is Gina...

And the first reason why I started thinking about her again is that I came across a pic of the very sexy Crossfitter Kristen Graham and it struck me how much like Gina she looked - in that photo at least. Perhaps it's not the most uncanny resemblance you've ever seen, but nevertheless it had me getting onto the forums in search of recent Gina.



Just me?

Anyway, I did find some recent pics. 2017, posted during the summer and very early autumn. That "a lot younger" man doesn't feature, sadly for him, but quite a few other men do, one in particular who Gina is obviously responsible for. They may be a little closer than your average trainer-client, but I'm just assuming that, probably because I can imagine nothing better than having my body sculpted by one of the sexiest women ever to walk the Earth into the kind of body she would find impossible to resist.



Looks like it's a winning body too.

And Gina has also apparently had some success with at least one of her lady clients.



This is hardly surprising.

Her own body - she'll be 48 in November - is perhaps not quite as sexy (to me at least) as it was in, say, 2005, but that chassis makes for quite a calling card nevertheless. Gina remains one of the hottest women with muscle around, despite having been off the stage for a good few years now, notes one forum poster. She looks a lot younger than she is, which is a testament to her genetics, and her training regime and diet.



And perhaps a little of the other.

And why not? Anybody who's a fan of female muscle and on a search for a "natural look" is going to spend a lot of their time complaining. Gina hardly looked "natural" back in 2005 and nor does she now, and I am having just as much trouble keeping both of my hands above the table to type this as I did when I put together that 2012 post.



Age shall not wither her, etc.

Only make her stronger, it seems. An Alpha female is an Alpha female whatever she's doing at whatever age, and make no mistake, Gina is an Alpha and then some.



So, what was the other reason I had Gina on my mind?

Well, I am currently in the process of recruiting a new office administrator. I have ten CVs on my desk right now - the short list. One of them belongs to a young lady called Gina Davis. For real. She's not the most qualified for the job, but then again she's not the least qualified either. And you know what? I may actually be that mischievous.



In fact I totally am.

On occasion in the past I had a bit of fun telling people (if they asked) that my dream woman was Gina Davis. Without exception they assumed I was talking about Thelma from Thelma & Louise - Geena Davis - and I never corrected them. I think it might well be even more fun to say to myself, quite truthfully, that Gina Davis works for me!



I may be disappointed though.

In my head, this new Gina Davis looks a lot like Kristen Graham!

The Mighty Quinn: This Sporting Life

I started athletics at a young age, reveals Lauren in a recent interview. I was 9 years old, and I played baseball, softball, which led to school leagues and other sports, but I got into weight training when I was 14. I was a freshman in high school, I was a skinny girl, and I thought if I got bigger and stronger I'd be a better athlete.



By the time she reached the University of Illinois-Chicago, she had become a good enough track and field athlete to win the title of Newcomer of the Year in 2003, and on top of that she captained the rugby team there, which led to her playing professionally for a while (the US has pro women's rugby?! - who knew?) for the Chicago Sirens.



Sadly I don't have any pictures of Lauren powering through tackles, but during her uni time she not only played the game, she also co-authored a study into the "Effects of Strength Training and Conditioning on Female Rugby Players". I kid you not.



Then, around late 2010, Lauren moved from one oval ball game to another, and joined the Lingerie Football League. The league’s notorious pin-up girl dress code makes it prime fodder for derision from feminist pundits, noted Kriv Studios blog, but one must appreciate that many women of the Lingerie Football League not only are beautiful and sexy but fit and athletic. And they play hard. Today, Lauren Quinn begins her quest to become the next Great of the Bikini Gridiron as the hard-hitting hardbody from the Windy City takes the field as a new linebacker for the Chicago Bliss.



After one season in the LFL though, Lauren's "Bikini Gridiron" career came to an abrupt halt when a knee injury left her needing surgery and five months of physical therapy.



I had yet to discover Crossfit, or compete in the new Women's Physique Division, she says of that time, though she had already done at least one bodybuilding show, in 2005. That was a time when there were only 3 divisions for women, she says, but only one for her. Even though I wasn't "big enough", I pursued Bodybuilding because it was more ME than Figure. I was young, tiny, (120lbs) and had absolutely no clue what or how to prep for a show. But I'm proud to say it was 100% all me!



She returned to the stage in 2014, I believe, with not only the Physique Division, but also Crossfit duly discovered. Immediately she won the 2014 Badger State (ie. Wisconsin) Physique title, and the following year she was qualifying for national level contests. Obviously we'll be focusing on her Physique achievements we progress through the week, but for now, let's see how she looked at that 2014 show, shall we?

Fast forward to 4.10 if you want to see why she won.



Her Crossfit athlete page reveals Lauren has a "benchmark" Back Squat of 270lbs, a Clean & Jerk of 170, and a 370lb Deadlift. Not bad, I'm sure you'll agree, but overall, she only managed a ranking of 73rd in 2015, and 65th in 2016. That's in Illinois. Her global rank last year was 3,250th, so some way to go before she makes The Games.



Still, she wasn't exactly 100% committed to Crossfit at this time, what with her Physique shows and in 2015 there was Powerlifting as well. I am a Next Generation Powerlifting Federation state record holder! she told her IG followers in August 2015, proudly displaying her medals and certificates. What an exciting opportunity it was to compete and PR in the deadlift and bench press! Oh, and I was in between weight classes, she adds. Too fat for 148, but certainly not as fat as 165! Hahaha!



I am a good athlete and I'm very proud of that, says Lauren. Even as a skinny girl I was still somewhat athletic. I could do push-ups, pull-ups, climb the rope, I was a fast runner, so the potential was there I just had to work at developing it...



I am meant to do this.

The Mighty Quinn continues tomorrow.

Abs Week: Thick for Purpose

Crossfit is like a foreign country; they do abs differently there.



The vast majority of the women we feature on FMS, as this week, are in the Bodybuilding (small "b" if you prefer) game. An aesthetic sport (or "sport" if you must), its winners and losers are decided according to supposedly objective criteria by judges - who the fans will tell you (subjectively) hardly ever get it absolutely right.

For the women, even those at the quote unquote top, there's almost no money in it.

And the days before a contest is "peak week", a misleading name if ever there was one. Competitors are at their weakest as they stand on stage, but also their most beautiful. At the point where they compete, their muscles really are just for show.



Crossfit, though, is all about the stats. Everything is measured and documented, and there can be no argument about the winner of a heat, an event, or a competition.

There's money to be made. Lots of it. Mega money at the top, and what's more, it's actually the women who are the star attraction, their fame eclipsing that of their male counterparts by some distance. And no, I didn't just make that last bit up.

Crossit is all about performance. If you are not at your best on the day, you don't win. How many times have we seen FBBing champions not be at their best and still win? Never happens in Crossfit. Never. Every year is a year zero, there is absolutely no competitive advantage whatesoever to having done well the previous season.



As a result, Crossfit muscle serves an entirely different purpose to Bodybuilding muscle simply because it's a by-product of the training, not the end result itself. In Bodybuilding the muscle is the show. In Crossfit it's what that muscle can do.



Crossfit abs don't need to be lean and defined, they just need to be strong.



Witness the thickness necessary to be among the world's elite at in the "constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity" game (which is, in fact, what Crossfit defines itself as). Note the "functional"; note the "high intensity".



Witness the thickness and be clear about one thing - that despite all that I've said so far, Bodybuilding and Crossfit do have something in common. Both MUSCLE sports.



And you know despite all their "all about the functionality" attitude, the women of Crossfit are (thankfully) by no means averse to a little muscle exhibitionism either. Take, for instance, rising star Amanda Franden's tanned, bikini-clad selfie below. I don't think it wouldn't look out of place on an IFBB Bikini pro's Instagram feed.



Take, for instance, Greek's Crossit twins Thelma (left) and Stella (right, another rising star) Christoforou. Not a whole lot of functionality going on here, is there?



And here's Jennifer Kokk, also apparently indulging in a little navel gazing...



Was never about the bathroom selfie, says (yet another rising star) Jamie Goodwin about an, er, bathroom selfie with prominent abs (here). But hey, there are perks!

And long may she, and other the other beautiful women of Crossfit enjoy showing off those "perks", everywhere from the bathroom to the Crossfit arena. I mean, I'm no ecpert, but I'm pretty sure they don't have to train/compete in those tiny tops that show off their thickly-muscled midsections if they don't want to, do they?



But they do.

And I'm sure it diesn't hurt the women's popularity.



Our Crossfit correspondent had nothing to do with today's post, it's all my own rubbish, but his keyboard is no doubt bracing itself right now because qualifying for the 2017 Games will be coming soon. Follow the leaderboards on the Games' website.

Names in the file names of the images.

Enjoy!

Fantasy Friday

ON THE ISLAND OF THEMYSCIRA...



Who hasn't had the washed up on an island of Amazons dream?



Well, according to some sections of the media recently, we're all going to (sort of) have that dream come true if we go see Wonder Woman. The film's array of Amazon warriors, behind some of the most intense action sequences in the film, are no ordinary extras, Katie Fustich told us in The Daily Mail a few days ago. Rather, when it came time for director Patty Jenkins to select her cast, she opted to fill the island of Themyscira with real-life wrestlers, trainers, farmers, and even Olympic athletes.



And among them, the familiar face (and body) of Crossfit pin-up Brooke Ence, who plays Penthesilea. I got a call from Warner Bros. asking me if I would come in and read, she told The Huffington Post. I had no idea what it was for. It just seemed like a really great opportunity, and it literally just fell in my lap. I couldn’t say no.



The images of the Amazons in costume at their training camp on the Amalfi coast certainly brought all my teenage Amazon island fantasies rushing back, and not least those featuring the gorgeous Brooke. And her Huffington Post interview about her experience did nothing to curb my enthusiasm to see the film. It was a great realization of all the different types of strength. Everyone that was an Amazon just walked with more power. They walked with this Amazonian vibe.



It was really cool to see this whole training area, and there's not one male figure in sight, she continues. Women wrestling other women, kickboxing, doing pull-ups and practicing with spears... My fantasy's changing just a little bit - now I just want to have been there at the training camp! It sounds, and looks, a little bit like heaven!



Be warned though. The Amazon Army might not actually be in the film for quite as long as all this media attention suggests. Jenavieve Hatch, Huffington Post author, was, for one, as disappointed as any female muscle fan could be. For many viewers, she writes, Wonder Woman should have been set entirely on the women-only Amazon warrior paradise of Themyscira. It felt profoundly satisfying to watch women wield so much physical power on a humongous screen, and as the story went from Themyscira to World War I-era Western Europe, I found myself missing the women warriors...



And as for Brooke, well if you do part with your time and money and head to the local multiplex thinking you might sneak out after the Themyscira scenes, keep a close eye out for her. No one on the forums has reported actually spotting her on screen yet. Is Brooke in it much? asks one forum member. Not even for a second, comes the reply.

Guess we'll have to wait for the Director's Cut DVD.

Thanks to Crossfit correspondent Aiden for the heads-up.

Mrs Swell's Easter Surprise: If You're Happy And You Know It (Flaunt That Shit)

She isn't lacking in the motivation department or anything, but I'm constantly (well, perhaps not "constantly", but regularly) looking for women who may inspire Mrs Swell. And by "inspire", I mean inspire. Not intimidate. Ashley Losee may seem like the kind of inspirational woman who all women should be made aware of, but she's a risky strategy. That is a very high standard of muscular womanhood, and one should tread carefully lest the intended inspiration causes instead a sense of deflation. An "I could never look like that" sense of helplessness. It's a risk I'm not taking, not yet, anyway, so it's far beyond the realms of the IFBB pros that I do my searching.



And on such that search I came across this exchange...

Anonymous: People keep looking at me because I have big muscles, how do you deal with the attention?

putthatazztowork: I mean, I absolutely love the attention, haha. Looking sexy is the biggest perk to lifting weights, in my opinion... Flaunt that shit!

Anonymous sounds kind of interesting, I thought to myself. Interesting but hardly trackdownable. "putthatazztowork", however, I have just GOT to find out who she is!



Turns out she is Arianna, a Sports Performance Coach, Personal Trainer and Level 1 Crossfit Trainer from Ireland. And that magnificent, sexy attitude, well it's all there on her Tumblr, and Instagram. And she's got more than a few admirers.



Anonymous: Seriously, your butt is amazing. ❤️

putthatazztowork: I agree.



And there are many she admires. But more importantly, there's a lot of actual, properly helpful and down-to-earth advice that she gives, quite freely it seems. A truly inspirational woman. And I suspect, that while you (and I) are looking at her, our poor female muscle lovin' minds brainwashed with our daily overloads of perfect muscular female physiques, that Arianna may not appear too muscular on your (and my) computer screen, but if we walked into her gym we would be surprised how big she actually is compared to all the other women there - and probably ourselves too!


Sun's not out, guns out anyway.

She's not "perfect", but she doesn't care. It's her happiness with herself, and with her body, that I think, and more importantly what she feels, makes her so sexy.



And Mrs Swell agrees.