Amateur Week @NPC Jr. Nationals

There was a grand total of only 14 Physique competitors at the recent NPC Jr. Nationals. This, compared with 22 in 2017, 28 the year before, and over 40 in 2015, might indicate that it will not be long before the WPD goes where the FBBing division at this show went in 2013 - off the bill. However, and much to my delight, what the Physique line-up lacked in quantity, it more than made up for it in quality.

We saw the Overall winner - the gorgeous Jessica Booker Williams - on Tuesday. Today, it's the best of the rest plus some news about one of the more well-loved competitors which (if you haven't already heard about it) is liable to have you punching the air with joy - or at least that's what happens in my experience.




Among the many beauties who left without pro cards were she-hulk Teneacia Smith (top left) and Amanda Martin - who looked good from the front but even better from the rear. Blond beauty Jessica Uthe surely has the thickness to nail her pro card at some point this year if she comes in with better conditioning, and then there was the very appropriately named Gentry Manley - not that Gentry is very manly herself, you understand, it's just a great name for any muscle woman to have!



One woman who did leave with a pro card and a big beaming smile was D class winner Alyssa Isley, whose glutes alone were probably worth the price of admission.



I woke up this morning still in shock, Alyssa wrote the morning after, before asking the question that many a new pro must ask themselves? Now what, what is next?



Even more shredz on the glutes, perhaps Alyssa? Just a suggestion.




And then there was the other Alyssa - Kiessling - bringing her own unique style to the stage, posing like a dude of yore, and going home a pro after winning the A class.

Here she is, "ready to bring back that pro status to room 2533!"



This is what I loved most about the weekend, she said afterwards. Posing to some music with my best friends watching and hyping me up. Vibessss man. Vibes.



More than a little crazy (in a good way), and certainly at least as crazy about female muscle as the most vehement among us, I don't ever see her stopping. The self-styled "Classical Queen" will be lighting up stages for years to come. Pro stages.

And so to the C class, where it was "buff" v "beef", a "nugget" v "nuggette", and former FMS Woman of the Week, the beautiful Destinee Bruch fulfilled her destinee.




It's time to relax, recover, eat a lot of food and have a lot of fun, "Miss Buff Nugget" told her Instagram followers, and while we didn't get to see so much of the relaxing and recovering, she did give us some eating, and seemed to be having a lot of fun doing so!



Destinee's victory, however, left C class rival Paige "Beefnuggette" Sandgren feeling rather deflated, which coincidentally is how she had been feeling at the start of the week before the show - Bloated, flat, tired, blah blah blah... although she looked absolutely sensational both then and at the end of her week in her red posing suit.






"Reflecting on the show and judging feedback", Paige came to a decision.

Get ready for the air punching thing... Since I’ve already come this far, she wrote. I’ll be doing another show in 3 more weeks to try again for my pro card... but this time, it’s in a division I think will better suit my thicker-then-a-snicker shape and size.



Need a translation? Paige will be competing in Bodybuilding now. Watch out for the Ms Wings International Classic, July 1st, Chicago. This feels right, is Paige's current take on her preparation. If things go well we could be seeing her at this year's Rising Phoenix.



Imagine!

Woman of the Week: Destinee Bruch

When the shirt you want is on sale but they only have smalls, but you have a medium upper body and a small waistline so you just get the small and show the guns - Bam!



Destinee Bruch (pronounced "Broo" as far as I know) pretty much passed the female muscle lovin' world by in her previous incarnation as a Figure competitor a couple of years ago, but with Instagram posts like the one above and a new Physique division body that's heading for the Jr. Nationals this weekend, she's really grabbed our collective attention now. Grabbed it by the throat. The tighter the sleeves, the weaker the knees! as one weak-kneed new member of the Destinee fan club puts it.



Once upon a time not so long ago, however, Destinee was neither Figure or Physique but, in her own words, "a train wreck of a girl". How long her transformation from two packs of hair extensions to six-pack and triceps extensions has taken I'm not completely sure, but she's "very glad to be the woman on the right - she's a beast!"



And this beast muscled her way into first place just over a month ago on her Physique debut at the NPC Mike Francois Classic in Ohio. And this was not one of those two competitors in a line-up, one of them looks like they know that you are supposed to diet and apply tan before a show pushovers. Destinee beat off much more experienced women like Tracy Smith, Michelle Grissom and Lisa Janusz (who has since been an NPC Physique winner herself) to claim the title and book her Jr. Nationals' berth.




And looks as though she enjoyed every second of it. Been here since 8 and I'm just now about to go up! It stinks that Women's Physique is always last... OK, so maybe not every second. But it's been a great show, so many awesome competitors. What an insane feeling being up there, truly life changing. I'm hungry for more.



And that's what we love to hear.



Now thus far I haven't said a damn thing about the tats, partly because so much has already been said. There's a very nice body hidden somewhere under that artwork, and so on. Well, I think if you really can't see Destinee's beautiful muscles because of the "artwork" then you should probably go to Specsavers. Or clean your screen. Or maybe you should just look at one of the other thousands of muscle women on the site where you left your comment and not bother with it next time. And besides, there's no hiding those epic shoulder curves no matter what she covers them with.



I have this insane dream, this dream to get my pro card, she says. My chance is just days away. It seems impossible but I'm going to give it everything I have.



She's going to run into (a previous WoW) Alyssa Kiessling in Chicago. Miss Buff Nugget (as Destinee calls herself) v. The Classical Queen. Print the poster now! More seriously, it's good to know, in a week where we've had a bit of a blow, that - in Women's Physique at least, the future remains bright and will continue to do so as long as there are young beasts like Destinee and Alyssa so committed to being better and bigger.



New fave, great build and beautiful, reads a comment I related to much much more than the twat's I quoted above. Spectacular! Just look at all those muscles!



Oh, I am. I AM!