Woman of the Week: FBBUK: Emily Brand

She's my current dream girl, my internet female muscle head friend tells me - he has a bit of a penchant for the younger ladies, you see. Her transformation pics are hot af!


Relax, Emily's 20 now

To be honest, I'd never heard of Lincolnshire's Emily Brand before my friend told me about her - me having a bit of a penchant for the more mature muscle ladies, you see. And, quite honestly too, I found her transformation pics more upsetting than "hot af", because her story begins with an anorexic teenager. Her weight: 5st 3lbs (just 33kg).



At 14, Emily spent a year as a child mental health in patient. The doctors tried to put me on a feeding tube, she says. I ripped it straight out. Then they tried to get me to drink these high calorie shakes and I would just sneak out of bed and tip them out the window. Though she did get well enough to return home, she soon relapsed, and at 17 she was readmitted. This time though some tough love helped her turn herself around. When you go into the unit you're not allowed weekend home visits until you've got to a certain weight, she explains. In the end, I ate my way out. I just did what I had to do to get home. I still hadn't completely overcome the psychological side of my anorexia but I was more determined to get better and I joined the gym.



It wasn't an instant cure by any means - to begin with, and despite the fact Emily plucked up the courage to enter some Bikini shows - she was, in her own words, "still trying to function on way too few calories". It was only when she met her current coach, Rob Reinaldo, that Emily truly began to overcome her illness. And he did it with a little more tough love. He said he would train me and get me into bodybuilding but he really put his foot down when it came to my eating, recalls Emily.



A year on, and she has gained 3st (almost 20kg!) of muscle - and it shows!



As a result, she's moved up a division or two in her competitive outings. Athletic Figure (or equivalent) is I believe where you will find Emily now. And the chances are she's competed at a PCA or WABBA show near you in 2018. She'd done seven by mid-August, according to the Mail Online, and "has consistently placed in the top four and been crowned champion three times". Since then, she's competed - and won - at least once more, and with the PCA British Finals not happening till October, I wouldn't be surprised if Emily got tanned and oiled for another two or three shows this year!


To the victor... (pick 'n' mix out of the trophy!)

I can't believe how much my life has changed, says Emily. It's amazing to think I was in a wheelchair just three years ago. People say that weightlifting hurts but what I put my body through with my anorexia was so painful that weightlifting is nothing...



I really love it, and I'm loving life.



Follow Emily on Instagram. Her story was first reported by Unilad, then picked up by the Mail, and also featured in The Sun. And if you do have a moment spare, perhaps a letter to your local MP, or whoever is in charge of the Department of Health in your government right now, asking them to read Emily's (or another FBB's) story and get weight training on the list of recommended treatments for anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders. It will probably fall on deaf ears, but if you don't try...



Enjoy!

ROARRRRR!!!

With Shannon Rabon (-Perdikis) the Overall Bodybuilding champion (we warned you! - see FMS passim) and one of three new Female Bodybuilding pros, plus Dana Shemesh (-Meirovitch) among the 20(!) new Physique pros, this will not be the last and only time FMS pays a visit to last weekend's NPC North Americans in Pittsburgh.

However, our initial research hasn't got much further than the (always) stunning (especially so because she now competes in Physique) Lauren Martin-Stow.



There were a lot of ladies in the Physique division, but I seriously doubt any of them had as good a time on stage as Lauren. Or at least that's how she makes it seem.



Hardly the biggest, hardly the most ripped - she doesn't even look that tanned, or oiled up for that matter. But these normal prerequisites just go right out of the window when there's so much emoting going on. Just her range of expression as she performed her chest pose was surely enough to cause all sorts of mess for heads in the audience.

And as for the side triceps...



Was anyone lucky enough to have actually been there? Did she actually roar? Did it shake the auditorium to its foundations, make the building's structure unsafe? Did subsequent classes have to be held in a hastily rearranged alternative venue?



Answers on a postcard please.

And as an extra treat, here she is emoting in motion.



Enjoy!

Lauren for She Hulk! And She-Ra. And Wonder Woman...

Oh, and she was 2nd in her class. Good enough. Lauren is a pro now.

Underrated: Tatianna Butler

A new occasional series, Underrated is not intended to be about judging decisions - if it was, we could probably run a post about every single woman who's ever competed! Instead, we aim to (re)focus on women who we think do not enjoy the prominence they deserve in the collective female muscle consciousness - someone a new recruit to the female muscle lovin' world would not necessarily come across.

UNDERRATED?



Less than 30 pics on GwM, and no more than a five-page thread on the forum whose first rule is... and the majority of those pages are taken up with more recent, post-retirement pics (more about that later). It's highly unlikely - as it is with all of the women we feature on Underrated - that you would underrate her if you know her, but with that kind of coverage, then it's also unlikely you have come across Tatianna unless you're old enough to remember her from her turn of the millennium pomp.



She was of that era when the line-ups at the USAs and the Nationals read like a list of all-time favourites compiled by some 40-something muscle head (like me). Sarah Dunlap, Heather Policky, Bonnie Priest, Gina Davis, Colette Nelson, Michelle Tuggle, Lora Ottenad, Sherry Smith... I could go on. She competed with distinction against all of them, she totally looked the part, but ultimately Tatianna - despite a couple of top 6 finishes - never placed high enough to win her pro card and compete at the very highest level. After a (thankfully) brief (and unsuccessful) dalliance with the Figure division, she would only ever get out her posing suits again for paying clients. She went "under the radar" as I believe they say on the dark side.

CAREER



If she was competing now and at her 2001-2002 peak, I'd say she would have won just about all of the IFBB shows so far in 2018, with only the Toronto Pro a possible exception. However, in her time she was just one of a thunderous cohort of soon-to-be greats and others, like her, who would have been greats in another decade.



From Baltimore, we first find her competing locally at the Eastern USA Championships in 1996 as a "novice". Four years later she is at the Atlantic States Championships earning her only class and Overall win.The year after that, at her first national level show - the NPC USAs - she makes the Heavyweight top 6, and then at the North Americans places 4th behind Lisa Aukland, Colette Nelson and Carmen Brady.



Though she undoubtedly looked great in 2001, her peak, I would say, came in 2002 at the NPC Nationals. In a Heavyweight division packed with some of the best female muscle ever (not only compared to today but also any other day) Tatianna placed 4th, a 5'9" ripped ebony Amazon showing off her genetic gifts and exceptional development in all their glistening pumped glory. In the judges' opinions, she was bettered on the day only by Sherry Smith, Alley Miesch-Nie and Overall winner Sarah Dunlap. She never reached such competitive heights again - placing 13th at the Nationals in 2003, and the less said about the return as a Figure competitor in 2005 the better.



If you haven't noticed already though, it's time to point out that as well as being a 5'9" ebony Amazon, Tatianna was (and still is, more about this later), an absolutely gorgeous woman. This muscle + beauty combo was then, as now, much in demand on the schmotography circuit, and while it's not easy to find contest pics of Tatianna, she did more than her fair share of glamour work. WPW/Ray Martin (as always) got in earlier than most, much of their work with her done while she was very much in her voluptuous (and quite frankly f***ing ginormous) off-season shape.



There was work with Physique Art (remember them?!) and others that showcased Tatianna in pretty much a "mainstream" glamour kind of way - a model who just happened to have massive muscles! Awefilms, on the other hand, tended to use her as an "action girl", beating up unfortunate/fortunate (depending on your point of view) male weaklings in mini-movies "Sista Paine" and "Gladiatrix FemMuscle Action".



She was also memorably (in my house) shot by Ivana Ford (again, remember her?!) and perhaps most memorably of all by Bill Dobbins, wearing nothing but some sand.

APPRECIATION



The day after the muscle worship episode of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends aired, I overheard four women in my office discussing the show, and particularly the Female Bodybuilders it featured. "Yuk!" was pretty much the capsule review - Louis spends most of his time talking to Maria Calo and her (short-lived) husband, you may recall. I expected nothing less, I'd been bitterly disappointed not so much by the portrayal of the world I was so fascinated by, but more the choice of subjects. They could have had Yaz Boyum, but instead we got Maria, and the fans Louis spoke to... embarrassing. But then one of the women says, "except Tatianna" and to my delight they all agreed. She was "lovely" they said, "such a sweet person", "so girly", "yes, very feminine".



And it wasn't just on British TV that Tatianna got noticed. She was a regular on those US chat shows that used to feature FBBs from time to time in a kind of "all woman" pro-female muscle way (those were the days, eh?!). Hardly surprising then that Dobbins selected Tatianna (not, note, Maria Calo) to represent his work on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno when doing publicity for his (racy) book Modern Amazons.



She was - on top of being an outstanding amateur Bodybuilder at a time when future legends were all over the NPC - an articulate, funny, stunningly beautiful, strong woman. And whatever "it" is that makes some muscle women capable of reaching out towards the mainstream and not being mocked, she had that in spades as well.




NOW



As you can see, she has still got most of those qualities today. She's still hot, one forum poster says. She's just not big anymore. Oh really?! That bicep is an illusion, is it?

Watch that (mostly cringeworthy) Louis Theroux episode in full here, or just the "Meets Fans of Female Bodybuilders" segment here. I haven't turned up any of the Jay Leno footage, so if you know where it can be found then please do get in touch.

Underrated will return.

(More) Summer Lovin': Mmmmarelize

Just the one pic today, but if you haven't come across South African Marelize Stander before, we're guessing it will spur you on to further investigation.



Hair, naels [sic] and striations is Marelize's own title for this selfie meesterstuk. This 34-year-old muscle beauty reckons she has been training for 20 years, and looking at that right royal pectus cibum, I see she hasn't had many days off in that time. Easy too to see why she recently became South Africa's national PCA Trained Figure champion.

More of Marelize's irresistibly gorgeous muscle meat on her Instagram

Enjoy!

(More) Summer Lovin': Dressed to Impress

I see the girls go by dressed in their summer clothes...



Except none of them ever look like this!









Dressed up muscle is just about - after glammed, tanned and oiled on stage muscle - my favourite thing. Not so much because of the obvious masculine (muscles) v feminine (style) juxtaposition, more I think because they just look so damn amazing. Women who don't lift can look good if they know how to accentuate their assets and cover up their faults. Women with muscle, however, look great whatever they're wearing because their entire physique is one great big asset and they literally have no faults.



Muscle women can expose as much - or indeed as little - of their beautiful bodies as they wish. Often, and quite understandably, they wish to expose a lot. Particularly beloved of female muscle heads are outfits you can see the muscle through, and for me, abdominals straining against tight fabric is the hottest hard thing of all.



Pity the women who have to grin and bear it while a glamorous muscle goddess sucks all the air out of the room and gets all the attention. If you don't want to be completely upstaged, on no account should you invite a Paige or a Marjorie to your wedding...





Ooops! Too late.

At the time of the pic, Paige's friend was still managing a smile. I do though wonder how long that lasted. Marjorie looks like she knows how her dress is going to go down at the reception. And that raised eyebrow tells me that's exactly the way she likes it.



And Paige's and Marjorie's outfits are relatively modest. Nothing see-through...



And they expose the upper but not the lower body, not both.



The fact Samantha Frost (above) has chosen to preview her dress in the gym seems to be really rubbing it in. You know how good I looked in my leggings and vest, sweating and groaning as I powered through my workout, all the boys drooling all over the place. Well look at me after my shower, glammed and dressed to impress...

Or at least that's what I imagine she's thinking!



To be the man who helps Audreana Cornilissen with her dress choice!

Does my back look big in this?

Massive, darling, but why not try that tighter, shorter one again?





Even bigger beasts are on the way, but first, proof that despite my assertion at the top of the post, muscle women can make mistakes when it comes to their outfits.



You could, as Lauren Finley clearly has done, incur the wrath of the undisputed undefeated Ms Physique Olympia and wear a slightly too-similar outfit to the party.



Or, like Suzanne Davis, you might make a slight size miscalculation.

Although to be honest, the thought of being at a party where you can witness the sight of a muscle women literally bursting out of her clothes is not an unpleasant one.

And so to the big beasts...

I honestly tried to find recent dressed up pics of as many Rising Phoenix qualifiers as possible. Know how many I actually found - recent ones? Just these two.



The ever dependable Ms Martin.



And Virginia, busting out everywhere.

What a sight!

Enjoy!