Magnificent Maria Luisa Baeza Diaz (& Other Figure Phenoms) @New York Pro 2018

It wasn't that long ago - 2010 to be exact - that Cathy Lefrançois became the last Female Bodybuilding champion to be crowned at the New York Pro. Since then, however, there has been plenty of female muscle interest provided by the Physique division. Juliana Malacarne won there three times in a row between 2012 and 2014, and after Michelle Cummings had successfully moved "down" from Bodybuilding to claim the Physique crown there in 2015, Shanique Grant took over from Juliana as the Queen of New York, winning there in 2016 and winning there again last year.



Given that kind of history as the show where Women's Physique's brightest stars are born, it was disappointing to see the show's promoter(s) had ditched the class this year, although thanks to the wonderful women of Figure, it was only slightly so.



Shuffling between the two divisions seems to be a thing now. This year in New York, for example, Maria Rita Penteado - runner-up to Shanique in Physique here last year - and Liz Montalbano both made their Figure debuts. Liz had competed in Physique as recently as May 6th at the Champions of Power and Grace, less than two full weeks before she competed in New York. Doing it the other way round we find FMS swoon and Figure Olympian Jessica Reyes Padilla dipping her toe into Physique in North Carolina, then 13 days later returning to Figure and finishing runner-up in New York.



Has Physique become Figure without heels? Has Figure become Physique without flexing? Either way, the lines, or rather the physiques on show in the two divisions appear to be getting more and more similar, and despite predictions from the forum prophets of doom that Physique will get phased out in the near future, I personally prefer to point to the positives. Firstly, more muscle in Figure is - and I think we can all agree on this - most definitely for the better. And secondly, if the IFBB decides it doesn't want to have Physique, that could well mean the division ending up with FBBing under the Wings of Strength regime. Not only would I suggest that it would be more likely to flourish than disappear should that happen, it would also be the next logical step on the road towards an all-female federation free from IFBB control.

Anyway, back to New York!



A special mention for Deepika Chowdury, India's first - and only - IFBB pro. Regular readers may remember we first celebrated her back in the summer of 2016, admiring the drive that had led her to leave India to compete with the best. After a flawless record of 5 wins in five NPC shows she was awarded IFBB pro status, and made her pro debut in New York in 2016. She finished 12th, and has since been back home leading her own seminars to promote fitness among Indian women both young and old.



Under the guidance of Olympian Figure phenom Gennifer Strobo, she's also clearly been hard at it improving her physique. Just five years ago she was a molecular biologist with a fitness dream. Now, on this second visit to New York as a pro she placed 4th. But as excited as she was to have gained her first ever Olympia qualification points, Deepika is such an educator that she used her social media to explain to "all to my dear friends in India who lack the information" both how the Olympia qualification system works, and where they can find all the scorecards for IFBB pro events!



And we also think we should give a mention to the "big and very attractive" 10th place Amber Eutsey, who was competing in the fourth show of her debut pro season.



"You can't tell me this lovely lady couldn't compete in Physique," wrote one forum poster recently, echoing our earlier point about the blurring of lines between the classes, but that's not the only reason why Amber has impressed us. Great package, amazing structure, beautiful symmetry, and that's according to the Head Judge at her second pro show in Orlando! Recently, Amber caused much gnashing of teeth on the forum whose first rule is... for her Instagram comment that "if I can break you, I can't date you." In the very same post, however, she informed us that "boys with muscles, good looks, intelligence and money don't impress me... I have my own." All I will say is that the gorgeous, sexy Amber reminds this (chubby, plain, dumb and penniless) boy of a young Asha Hadley, and that's just about the biggest compliment I can give!

And so to the latest Queen of New York...



The ever classy Maria will need no introduction to most of you lovely readers given you voted in sufficient numbers for her to re-enter the Hot and Hard 100 this year at #28. What a woman SHOULD look like, reckoned one of those voters, and for once - or perhaps that should be once again - judges and fans are on the same page.



Until this show, 2018 had (apart from that Hot and Hard 100 re-entry, obviously) been quite frustrating for her apparently. 6th at the Arnolds in Ohio and Australia and 6th in Pittsburgh earlier in the month for many IFBB pros that would be a decent season, but not for Maria. "Repetitive", she called it. Changes were made to her prep, and after her "prestigious" (her word) win (New York may no longer have FBBing or Physique, but it's still one of the bigger shows to those who can compete) she felt those changes were thoroughly vindicated. I'm on cloud 9, she said afterwards. This is a show to come back to every year, and to win it is a dream come true.



Congratulations to Maria and all the Figure phenoms in New York.

Check out full results and galleries here, and incidentally, last week we brought news of actual Female Bodybuilders, particularly Maryse Manios, in action in Bari, Italy, but bemoaned the lack of contest pictures available. Well, now they've gone up on NPC News Online you can check out Maryse here, and all the results and galleries here.

Mrs Swell's Easter Surprise: India

OK, so as I said yesterday, Mrs Swell has sprung an Easter surprise for yours truly in the shape of a two-week sunshine break. Bit of a spanner in the works though because ol' Swell's passport has only gone and bloody expired. The joys of the passport office - not to mention the "fast track" fee - await me today. Anyway, as I also said yesterday, don't blame the lady if, for a while, the posts are not of the usual standard.



Today, a brief trip to India. Again.



It's not that I'm particularly interested in the country's muscle women, it's just that the size of its English language media makes it so much easier for me to keep my eye on the Indian scene than it is to keep track of developments in, for example, South Korea.

And that media is churning out female muscle stories at the moment.




Front and centre for some of that attention is, of course, Deepika Chowdhury, India's only IFBB pro. Her 7th place in the Arnold Australia last month was widely reported in the online Indian media, even as she was bemoaning how unknown she remains. I am the only Indian woman to represent the country, but not too many people seem to be even aware of this sport, said the molecular biologist from Pune.



Given that in pretty much all of the rest of the world the situation is exactly as she describes it, I reckon Deepika should think herself a bit luckier than she does. No British woman has ever had their bodybuilding triumphs - not to mention a 7th place! - reported in the national media as far as I know - at least not in a story written specifically about the contest they've competed at. Local media, yes, often, but national media coverage is unheard of. And though I'm sure it is true there is a lack of public awareness in India, the media seem to be doing all they can to rectify that.



101 India's mission, they say, is to report on "India's evolving subculture scene - people whose beliefs, values, styles, and attitudes differ from that of the prevailing culture". Expect a few more muscle women on their YouTube channel in future.

Beauty of it is, I've been pretty much following Indian FBBs for the best part of two years now, and new names, like Yashmeen Chauhan Manak, just keep popping up all the time. Similarly, nor had I come across fitness model Ankita Singh, whose muscular beauty headlines today's post, before I read about her on the female-centric and somewhat bizarrely-titled Indian news website The Ladies Finger.



Same article, and I find another new name - Karuna Waghmare, who, as you can see above, is not one of those "small b" bodybuilders. Her chest and calf muscles ripple even when she’s simply sitting across from me, gushes the article's author, Chatura Rao, who does an excellent job with it, speaking to a variety of women - including the ubiquitous Deepika Chowdhury... I touch her arm in greeting when we meet and feel the warm firm muscles, writes Rao. Read the whole piece (gushes and all) here.



A similar theme to Rao's piece can be found in a report by Delhi-based journalist Ravinder Bawa, ie. it's all about breaking down barriers in a traditionally conservative culture. Female bodybuilders in India have ignored criticism, she writes. It will take sometime before the sport becomes common among women, but until then many are overcoming milestone after milestone to make a path for others. And you can watch her report (with footage of a national-level contest including, among others, teenage sensation Europa Bhowmik - see previously on FMS) on CGTN America.

Enjoy!

And tomorrow? Who knows?

I'll probably have time to jot some ideas down at the passport office though...

Around the World: India

Around the World is an occasional series celebrating the female bodybuilders of a particular country, and examining any issues peculiar to muscle women there.



Having previously reported on two Mumbai muscle women - the trials and tribulations faced by Ashwini Waskar, and the more mainstream success of Shweta Rathore - it's with no little delight that today we bring you the news that in India, to some extent at least, times seem to be very much a-changin' when it comes to female muscle.



And one sure sign that that is happening came when Elle India featured seven "muscular women" in their May issue, announcing they were "overthrowing every feminine stereotype". Being strong is sexy, it’s empowering, claimed 23-year-old yoga instructor Natasha Noel (above left) in the article, while personal trainer and gym manager Nilparna Sen (above right) confessed that when I saw my bicep pumping for the first time, I wondered why I had ever wanted to be skinny.




The other five women included a nutritionist, a former athlete who now uses social media to change the way Indian women think about exercise, a Bikini competitor, and a make-up artist who is working towards her first Bikini competition.

And, there was MTV presenter and film actress Gurbani Judge, aka Bani J.



Of the women featured in the article, Bani had not only the best abs, but was also the most famous, the most high profile woman. Unsurprisingly then, after the issue in question had come out, it was Bani's body, Bani's muscles, that was the focus of most of the negative comments. Her response was nothing short of heroic.

I have drool-worthy abs and a muscular body by choice, and that has put me at the receiving end of so much body shaming, it’s unbelievable. India puts too much emphasis on a certain kind of a body. For a woman, thin is supposed to be good, and if there’s any deviation she hears no end of it.



Her counter-attack made quite an impression on the Indian media as far as I can tell. Before long, editorials were being written about what young women can learn from Bani's attitude and lifestyle, and how Indians more generally should start celebrating their very own strong women rather than trying to make them conform.



Whether by accident or design, Bani has suddenly become a bit of a figurehead, a spokeswoman. Fortunately, she plays that particular role rather well.

I always fight for what’s right; I don’t take anything lying down. And I wanted to be a strong person, both mentally and physically. What if I’m a woman and I have muscles? My plan was to unlock my strength - physical and mental and I am sticking to it. I love to work out. I am passionate about it. It gives me happiness, makes me feel secure and has netted me a body like no woman I know.



And while all this has been going on, back before Bani became the leader of the Indian muscle women pack, before the Elle India article, and even before FMS had brought you Ashwini Waskar and Shweta Rathore last year, one remarkable Indian woman had just got on a plane and gone and competed and won NPC Figure contests in both 2014 and 2015. She'd been so successful in fact that the IFBB had awarded her a pro card, and in May this year she made her professional Figure debut in New York.



Meet Deepika Chowdhury, India's first female IFBB pro.



Just a few years ago Deepika was doing research in molecular biology, and treating her fitness as a hobby. It's been an incredible three years, she said in an interview published earlier this year. I was doing some weights back in 2012, and around that time I visited the Sheru Classic and saw some of the best bodybuilders in the world and then I heard of the Figure category, which didn't and doesn't exist in India.



She spent 2013 preparing herself, and then took a deep breath and booked her passage to the US to compete at the NPC Battle on the Beach in Florida. It was March 29th 2014. It was a major risk of course, she says. It’s the US, and the ticket and stay aren't cheap at all, but when they announced my name as the winner, it was all worth it.






She returned to the US in 2015 and won the NPC Fort Lauderdale Cup. Then she won again at the NPC Steve Stone Metropolitan and then again at the NPC Atlantic States. Victory at the NPC Eastern USA Championships - where she left the stage to a standing ovation, apparently - gave her an amateur record of 5 contests, 5 overall wins.



Coached by Figure pro Gennifer Strobo, Deepika is now working on creating her own fitness brand and planning her route to becoming India's first ever female Olympian. But she has by no means turned her back on her own country, and is busy leading her own seminars to promote the fitness lifestyle to Indian women young and old.



Indian women are the most hard-working in the world, she says. Our success on the sporting front is a natural progression. However, we must not let negative factors and self-doubt distract us from our goals. Indian bodybuilding has been doing well of late, and I hope this will be a spur to female bodybuilders. The number currently in the country is between 10 and 20, but it is increasing. We have to take the responsibility to do well, so that people can see us and get motivated.



Here's RxMuscle's 2015 training vid and interview with her.



Follow Bani J and Deepika on Instagram.

आनंद! (as they say in Mumbai!)