Danni's For Sale

News that British Natural Bodybuilding champ Danni Theresa was offering fans the opportunity to buy any number of posing suits and other outfits from her has certainly got my imagination working. If I could have any posing suit. or indeed any item worn by an FBB, which would I choose? And once purchased, what would I do with it?



First though, Danni's offer in full.

I have several competition bikinis, including those I wore when I won the UK and World Championships. I also have micro bikinis from photoshoots I have done. They are available to buy and come with complimentary photos of me wearing them.



Any questions or special requests, send an email to: themuscleminx@gmail.com or danniterresa@gmail.com I can send the items freshly worn and unwashed if preferred, and it can be a video of me flexing while wearing the item, rather than photos. I can also buy specific items and wear them for a photoshoot, then sell them to you. You just need to let me know where I can purchase them.



Danni is obviously a muscle lady who values your custom. Sounds like she is (literally) willing to bend over backwards for you, and she's famously partial to the kind of minimal outfits that get the pulse racing. I have received a lot of emails from fans wanting to buy the extreme micro-bikinis, she notes elsewhere. They have proved (probably because of the photos that come with them!) to be very popular.



I bet they are.



Now I dare say you are aware that this revenue stream is mined by plenty of FBBs. You may even be the proud owner of a posing suit (or two or three hundred) yourself - it wasn't that long ago that a reader who owned a suit once worn by Debi Laszewski got in touch when we featured a pic of Debi and the suit in a post. Even if you are, but especially if you're not, my question is: What would your dream purchase be?



A Denise Masino posing suit - perhaps from her kinky 2004 Olympia routine, nipple imprints still intact? You could own a piece of FBB history. How about something Rachel, or Cory, or Kim, or Lenda wore? For Euro fans, how about Juliette's or Valentina's or (for UK fans surely the ultimate) Andrulla's Olympia winning suits?



I reckon if it was a return on your investment you wanted, something you could easily sell on later for a whacking profit, then you could do worse than invest in gold - advice as true in life as in FBB fandom. Denise Rutkowski's or Renne Toney's.



Rather than a posing suit, perhaps something from a legendary photoshoot - perhaps lingerie, perhaps a dress. Perhaps the remaining bits and pieces of fabric that were once a shirt ripped to shreds by Angie Salvagno, or Julie Bourassa.




For me, just about anything ever worn by Gina Davis would do nicely, but her evening routine posing suit from 2004 would be the ultimate. As would Denise Hoshor's legendary (in my house) 1998 WPW photoshoot sling bikini thing.




Ideally, I'd like to have a Gina and/or Denise clone (as they were when they wore the garb, and they'd stay like that forever!) come wearing the item as part of the deal, but failing that, muscular mannequins (modelled to the exact specifications of Gina and Denise's bodies, naturally) would be (a distant) second best. If I collected enough we could open the FMS Museum of FBB Memorabilia! More realistically(!) framing the piece with an accompanying photo plus a signed photo as she is "now" would be entirely appropriate decoration for the FMS office, even if they would need regular cleaning from all the furious tributing that would be going on during lunch breaks.



And suddenly I find myself starting to wonder what my dream Zuzana, Tazzie, Marja, Alina and Oana buys would be, and which items of a more contemporary vintage I might like to have on my office walls. I sincerely hope Danni makes a mint out of her offer, but another, unintentional result could well be a more packed than usual inbox for many of our favourite FBBs past and present. Remember to ask nicely now!

Enjoy!

And please, any suggestions you lovely readers may have for the FMS Museum of Memorabilia. What exhibits would you like to see hung in there? It's the usual email address: 6ft1swell@gmail.com, or if you prefer, the comment box below.

Denise Hoshor's Good Stuff

Denise Hoshor is certainly one woman who would have been a contender had FMS been running our Hot and Hard 100 back around the turn of the millennium.




Her contest career was brief, the highlights being the Overall title at the 1999 North Americans and 2nd place in the Heavyweight class at the Ms International the following year, but her WPW and Ray Martin videos from around that time are, even today, among their best-selling products. And when older muscle heads (like myself) compile "best ever" lists, Denise more often than not appears at or near the top.



After a 6th place (out of 7) at the 2000 Olympia, she disappeared, returning after a six-year break not as the bodybuilder of legend we remembered but as a Figure competitor. At the 2006 Tournament of Champions she failed to place and that, for the best part of a decade, was all she wrote, but far from all that was written about her.



She really was my crush in the late 90s and the early 2000s, one forum poster admitted before asking the question we all wanted to know the answer to: I wonder what happened to her. Even the guys on the muscle brah forums confessed they had gone into withdrawal after her apparent retirement from the sport. She was a freak! I always loved her look, they said, I would love to see her back as a bodybuilder.



Now Denise Hoshor really is back.




Sorry to disappoint you, but she's not back as a bodybuilder, more as a kind of buff Home Economics/Crossfit guru. Good Things In Life Are Homemade is the name of her YouTube channel, and as one forum wag has pointed out, while we've all aged in the meantime, it seems Denise, who must be well into her mid-40s by now, has not.



Denise, apart from the workout clips (of which there are currently only two, plus one about climbing a rope), will show you how to make all manner of good stuff at home - protein pancakes, sourdough bread, Greek yoghurt, pumpkin pie, banana flour cornbread, and my personal favourite, New England clam chowder. And what's more, she'll also keep you up-to-date with Drake's recovery from surgery. Drake is her dog.



Not quite what I imagined when I imagined Denise's return, but hey, I'll subscribe to her YouTube channel and watch her harvesting sweet potatoes because for all the pleasure she's given me over the years, I feel it's the very least I can do for her.

When it comes to Denise, it'll always be all good.

À la recherche du chaude et dure perdu: Denise Hoshor

REMEMBRANCE OF HOT AND HARD PAST

7. Denise Denise



This photo should, in my opinion, be the first photo inducted into the (at the time of writing, mythical) Female Muscle Hall of Fame. Today I'm looking at it and it feels as if I've never noticed the veins in her forearms before. Every time I look at the photo, it seems to stimulate my imagination in a different way. It's like I'm seeing her for the first time every time. And what a sight she is! Denise's WPW sets are the most popular of all time, so she has a reasonable claim to be the fan's favourite fbb ever, her body and her almost magical sex appeal fulfilling a kind of collective notion of perfection.




As far as I'm concerned, everything she did as a bodybuilder was magic, but two moments stand out. First, Denise in Hawaii, posing in a purple bikini and white heels in public. She's in incredible shape. Huge and chiselled from head to toe, oozing feminine sex appeal. As the crowd (of men) watching her grows, the more provocative and sexier her posing gets. The second is in a tiny segment of a GMV video (can't remember which, I bought it and threw it out so long ago now, and have never found the exact clip). She's at an Expo, strutting through the crowd in a tight, sleeveless black dress. The GMV camera person asks her to flex, and when she does, there is stunned silence from behind the camera. She flexes one last magnificent bicep, holds the pose, and looks beyond the camera. Good? she asks, raising an eyebrow. There's no reply. Whoever is holding that camera has been struck dumb. She smiles, and struts away.




And we leave this week of memories with a beautifully edited tribute to Denise, courtesy of jerrymail (who also brought us the "Denise in Hawaii" clip linked above). The title, Denise Hoshor Sexy, is as good a three-word summary as you will find.



Enjoy!


HOT and HARD 2015 LAST DAY OF VOTING IS TODAY

Obviously I'll take time zones into account, and to be honest, if you are a bit late, I'll still accept your votes (especially if you are all complimentary about the blog), but please, as soon as you can so I can start to put the posts together. Many thanks to all who have voted so far. You make the Hot and Hard 100 what it is, a thing of beauties!

Inspiration, rules and how to vote here.

Favourites Fortnight

Ever FBB

Choosing your favourite ever FBB is, as I'm sure many of you know, a bit of a hiding to nothing, but I have been asked this question a handful of times since I started the blog, so at least I do have an answer I made earlier on this one. So here goes...

I've been a female muscle head for over 25 years now. At first, this meant I bought mainstream muscle magazines to satisfy my cravings. I have my favourites from these years: Anja Langer, Michelle Andrea, Diana Dennis, Denise Rutkowski and even a young (ie. pre-surgery) Melissa Coates among them. But if I had to choose one woman from this period, it'd be Dorothy Herndon.



I can still recall the purchase of that issue of Muscle Training Illustrated which introduced Dorothy to me. The sight of her on the cover and suddenly I was dry-mouthed, trembling with excitement, frantically turning pages to see more of this vision of heart-stopping muscular beauty. Once bought, this magazine remained at or near the top of the pile for many many years after, treasured not least because there was very little of Dorothy that appeared anywhere else.



Little more has come to light since the advent of the internet, but thanks to those heroic scanners of muscle magazines, you can see pretty much all of Dorothy there ever was all at once. But better still, Dorothy's video work with WPW can now be enjoyed by all, as well as this guest posing clip from 1988. And I found that she moved like I always imagined she would - with the graceful power of a lioness.

Dorothy isn't my favourite ever, but she was pretty much my favourite of that era of female muscle lovin'. When mainstream muscle magazines gave way to Women's Physique World, there were suddenly so many more women in many different outfits (albeit only every few months - remember the torture of that wait?!), and among them were women who belong on the same level of my female muscle pantheon as Dorothy.




And then came the internet. All of those past favourites to be seen anew, and on top of that there was a whole new generation of female muscle talent available for our collective and individual viewing pleasure. More images than ever before, more videos than ever before, and it was all easier to access than ever before.




Yet more women for the pantheon.

And in that era, more or less, I first met my two all-time favourites.

GINA DAVIS



It's been a while, but FMS did pay tribute to Gina back in February 2012 (Treasures from the Archive: Gina Davis), pointing out, among other things, how much fun it is to say that your dream woman is Gina Davis and have everyone around you (secret female muscle heads excepted) assume you are talking about Geena Davis.



We also noted that Gina's relatively short competitive career left me (and many others) wanting more, and wondered if perhaps this was the secret of her enduring appeal.



And around that time, news that Gina was posting pictures of herself on social media led me to fall in love with her all over again. No longer was she the huge, ripped bodybuilder Gina, but she still has that brilliant smile, and all those years of pumping serious iron have left her with mouth-watering muscular curves.




DENISE HOSHOR



Her WPW and Ray Martin videos are still the all-time best sellers, so I doubt that I'm alone in my adoration of this Californian female muscle legend. I reckon I first saw Denise Hoshor in the WPW pic above, just one of the many unforgettable images of her of course, but especially cherished because it was the first.



As far as I'm concerned, everything she did as a bodybuilder was magic, but two stand out. First, Denise in Hawaii, posing in a purple bikini and white heels in public. She is in incredible shape. Huge and defined from head to toe, but unmistakably feminine. As the crowd (of men) watching her grows, the more provocative and sexier her posing gets. Second, in a tiny segment of a GMV video (can't remember which, I bought it and threw it out so long ago now, and have never found the exact clip). She's at an Expo, strutting through the crowd in a tight black dress. The GMV camera person asks her to flex, and when she does - biceps, shoulders, pecs, biceps again - camera person is rendered speechless. She flexes one magnificent bicep again and looks beyond the camera. Good? she asks. There's no reply. She smiles, and struts away.



For me, Denise is all about arrogance. There's the way she looks at herself in the mirror as she flexes in the pump room. And then the measured posing you can see in her routines - slow, showing every muscle in glorious detail, looking like she's loving every single second she's on that stage displaying her beautiful strong body. And then there's her knowing smile... You know I could go on and on and on...




So there you are. Gina and Denise. Denise and Gina.

Not the most original of choices, but to me that just shows I'm not alone in ranking (I said 'ranking'!) these two ultimate goddesses highly. They appear at or near the top of most all-time lists I've seen. There must be something about them...

But wait! I hear you cry. What about Alina? Shannon? Oana? Aleesha?

Well, call me old-fashioned, but I feel that if you are talking ever, all-time favourites, then you should apply a little caution when it comes to active female bodybuilders. Case in point: if you'd asked me for a top 30 all-time a couple of years ago, Fabiola Boulanger would definitely have featured. And looked what happened next.

I don't think Alina, Oana or Aleesha are about to downsize - Shannon I'm not convinced about, though it doesn't seem she'll be giving up 'bodybuilding' imminently either - but I'd rather let their careers come to their conclusions before finding them their place in the pantheon if it's all the same to you.




Final faves of the fortnight tomorrow...