Michaela of the Day

THE EARLY YEARS



She had begun training in 2013. I really fell in love and found a passion in it, she says. I just continued making goals for myself, and it has just progressed from there.



A year later she was flexing in (another!) dress, and female muscle fans on the forums were wondering who this "au natural [sic] girl-next-door" was. Progress indeed.

THE DEBUTANTE

19th July, 2015. Michaela Aycock steps onto a bodybuilding stage for the first time at the NPC Clash at the Capstone in the marvellously-named Tuscaloosa, Alabama. There are three Women's Physique competitors that day, and only one winner.



I'm no expert, and the change in the two years since is startling, particularly how her legs have developed, but here she is, not quite fully-formed perhaps, but those big peaky biceps are there, and those lats, even if we don't have an image of her back, are beautifully wide even in the front double biceps pose. As I said, only one winner.

THE 20-YEAR-OLD PRO



The following week she was in Las Vegas for the 2015 USAs. At 5'0" she competed in the shortest Physique class, the "A" class, one of eight competitors, and every one at their first national level show. With Billie Cavalier claiming the Overall title, and the likes of Chelsea Coleman, Sierra Mangus and Brie Eubanks all getting their pro cards, her triumph, and achievement, was somewhat under-reported. She was, thought Steve Wennerstrom, "the solid choice" and "showed terrific balance on her tiny frame".




I've heard her say in a more recent interview that since then others have turned pro younger than she was in July 2015, but on that day in Las Vegas, Michaela became the youngest ever Women's Physique pro of all time. By my reckoning she was just a tad over 20 years and 5 months old. The "au natural girl-next-door" was a big girl now.



EPILOGUE

And to finish today's post sort of where we started, Michaela recently revisited the show where she first began her competitive journey in Tuscaloosa, Alabama as this year's guest poser. Can't say I approve of the outfit - far too much coverage for my taste, especially of her beautiful muscle bum - but well worth a watch nonetheless.



Sadly, the bit where Michaela actually goes into the crowd didn't make Mark Mason's excellent edit, but there's some evidence it really did happen. And if you examine this grainy image closely, I reckon you can see the birth of a female muscle fan - two or three rows in front of Michaela on her left, virtually turning his head through 180°.



Welcome to the club, young fella.

Chicago 2017: FBBUK: Wendy McCready

Words can't describe how I feel right now! wrote Britain's Wendy McCready after she had followed up her 3rd place in Toronto with another in Chicago. I'm just super happy & proud, she continued, finding some words. Holy cow I'm really going!




Where Wendy is going is to Scottsdale, Arizona and the Rising Phoenix in early September. Her two 3rds mean she currently leads the points qualifying table, and with only one qualifying event left, she is guaranteed one of the qualifying places.


"Gladiator Girl" - Wendy guest posing

It's just reward for this gem of British Female Bodybuilding, 21 years after she first competed at the age of 19 at a local show in her native County Durham having originally entered the gym to improve her karate skills. I definitely didn't set out to compete as a bodybuilder, she says. I loved my martial arts & wanted to become a successful fighter. However, once I started lifting weights I enjoyed seeing my body change and get stronger. I was never just happy with lifting a certain weight, I always wanted to see if I could lift more, especially more than my training partner!


2007 - Wendy's muscle beauty captured by Juan Carlos Lopez

I then got approached by a lady who was about 15 years older than me who had competed in Figure, she continues. At the time I thought she was big but I began doing a couple of sessions with her and learnt more about training. I made it my mission to be stronger than her. I discovered Muscle & Fitness, Flex and Musclemag, so I buried myself in them and read as much as I could about training. It wasn't long before this obsession became Bodybuilding's gain and karate's loss. I decided to hang my fighting gloves up with karate and concentrate fully on my weight training.



2008 - 5th, Tampa Pro

At the 1998 EFBB British Finals, another encounter, this time with one of the greats of British Female Bodybuilding, became, according to Wendy, "a big turning point" in her career. I met Kimberley Anne Jones. I was a Lightweight at the time and she came to see me at the British finals and offered her help. I've never looked back.




2012 - 3rd, Toronto Pro

She became British champion in 2004, back in the days when that title came with a pro card, and the following year she made her first trip to the US to compete. Wendy's first top 6 finish came in her third pro show in Tampa in 2008, and before this year her only other top 3 finish was in Toronto in 2012. She never came close to getting to the Olympia as anything other than a spectator, and last year saw her give Physique a try.


Backstage in Chicago with Isabelle Turell

This year, by my reckoning Wendy's 12th as an IFBB pro, has been by far her most successful, and she'll be flying to the US once more in September to take her place among Female Bodybuilding's elite at last. If the many messages of congratulation on her Instagram from her iron sisters (British, European and North American) are anything to go by, there will be few more popular competitors on that stage.




Congratulations Wendy!

Corinne in Österreich (und anderen Orten)

Choreography by NABBA (Toned Figure) Ms World Emma Hyndman, body by WFF Worlds Extreme Body Champion Corinne Ingman. Note the spontaneous applause and whooping start just moments after the first flex of her rightly renowned glutes...



Spellbinding though I always find her, this is probably, if not the first, one of the first guest posing appearances Corinne has ever made, and she said afterwards she was happy to have received the promoter's feedback on her performance. And we can probably forgive the cameraman's temporary loss of focus at around the 1.20 mark. They were probably swooning their head off, and made a decent recovery after those few blurry seconds, though they could have gone a tad lower on the close shots.

Corinne was three weeks out from the NABBA Worlds, her next contest. We are now about a week on from her guest posing at the NABBA/WFF Austrian Championships, and her "morning squeeze" reveals ever more of her glory (see below).



With her usual understatement, Corinne describes her current situation as "nearly there". Condition has improved this week, she says. Just a little more to come off to see hams splitting and lower back a bit crisper. I'm sure I speak for all of you lovely readers when I say that I wish my woman would wish her hams would split!

The week after the NABBA Worlds - in Samara, Russia - Crispy Corinne will be off on her travels again, to the WFF Universe in Brazil. And later in the year at the beginning of October, Corinne and her (f***ing gargantuan) man, Jordan Peters, will be co-promoting a PCA show in Stoke. And she'll be at the British Powerlifting Finals in November, having qualified, somewhat nonchalantly, at the beginning of May.


Posing practice with Emma Hyndman before "hopping off" for some powerlifting

Hopped into a qualifier today, she told her Instagram followers. Just did one lift for each, and hit the minimum total I needed to qualify. Let's be clear, whatever the weight she "just did" (I'll leave you to work it out here if you have time on your hands), it would no doubt give you or I a proper hernia followed by a bit of hospital bed time.

The NABBA international President told me I will be competing in the Pro division at the Worlds in Russia off the back of the WFF Worlds win last year, Corinne tells us.
SO - straight in against my favourite EVER figure competitor, Daria Diossi...


Daria (left) and Corinne's best bits at the 2016 WFF Universe and Worlds respectively

I literally can't wait!

Me neither. That's going to be a hell of a glute-off!

Enjoy!

Mrs Swell's Easter Surprise: DIY

There was, I believe, a male guest poser as well, but Karina Nascimento didn't need to do much to get her female guest posing slot filled at the recent show which bears her name. She did it herself. Fortunately, the cameras were there. As you watch Karina in her non-regulation posing suit, think 44 years old. Think mother of three...



Enjoy!

Tube Watch

FMS picks a few of our favourite YouTube clips so far from March in the latest chapter of our (pleasingly both popular and) regular muscle in motion fest: Tube Watch.

CROSSFIT®

If Crossfit is your thing, then you have probably been a very happy bunny in the last few weeks or so, as the lady stars of the sport (ie. the real stars of the sport) have been all over the CrossFit® channel doing their Open workouts. Quite frankly, it can be a bit manic for an old female muscle head like me. Nevertheless, watching any of Iceland's "dottirs" really going at it can be an undeniably breathtaking experience, as I believe our pick of the March bunch so far aptly demonstrates. Over to you Katrin...



Phew!

For Your Consideration

If you prefer to drink in your female muscle, you might well enjoy almost nine minutes of Sandra Grajales Romero, recently in the Hot and Hard 100 Top 30 for the first time, filmed during a photoshoot for Tora Brasil. Sandra models a few different (but all equally skintight) outfits in a gym, and stills from the shoot are intercut with the footage. A less time-consuming four-minute "Making of..." edit is also available.

I WAS PRETTY EXCITED...

Please excuse the camera work, writes femcepsfan in his description of one of two clips of gorgeous Julia Föry guest posing at the 2017 IFBB Battle of Champions to appear on his channel this month. I was pretty excited, that's why it's a bit shaky.



Totally understandable. And I think he did a sterling job. Had I been the cameraman, I doubt the footage would have been watchable at all. Anyway, harsher critics than I might like to view the other, less shaky, version of Julia strutting her jawtastic stuff.

For Your Consideration

Yes, yes, you don't follow Figure, I know, BUT... perhaps you would just like to remind yourself why with a little clip of the Figure International ladies backstage at this year's Arnold Classic. Eventual winner Candice Lewis-Carter's just perfect abs after about half a minute are just one of the many highlights. I personally reckon Ivana Ivusic's fully pumped and apparently HUGE arms (@1.03 on) are most likely to stop you saying that "I don't follow..." bit any longer, but I could be wrong.

STRAIGHT UP MUSCLE SEXY

Pick of the month so far though has got to be Episode 2 of Vanessa Naesheim's Straight Up series, which will follow her prep for this year's IFBB New York Pro.



Catch up with Episode 1 here. The mouth waters (among other things) at the prospect of the episodes to come. Don't miss a thing by subscribing to Vanessa's channel.

Enjoy!

Wings of Strength to Strength

We recently praised Jake and Kristal Wood, aka Wings of Strength, for firstly saving in 2015, and then, within a year, presiding over a small but significant expansion in professional female bodybuilding. We've also recently highlighted and praised how Alina Popa (Jennie Roosa etc.) and Margie Martin (Brittney O'Veal) seem to have taken it upon themselves to ensure there is a new generation of female bodybuilders coming through to the pro ranks.


The future: Jennie Roosa (left) and Brittney O'Veal

However, for female bodybuilders outside of the US and Canada, where national level shows can provide FBBs with pro cards, the problem of how to become part of this exciting new pro FBB world remained. At the Omaha Pro this year we saw how WoS - working with Alina Popa - provided Elena Oana Hreapca with a guest posing spot partly to highlight the quality of talent that had reached the top of the amateur FBB tree in Europe (and elsewhere) and simply had nowhere left to go.



Wings of Strength Facebook page, September 24th

As I write this the world has changed just a little. I am happy to say that amateur female bodybuilders in Europe, Central and South America, Australia, Asia and the rest of the world now have an opportunity to earn an IFBB Pro Card.
This also includes Canada and the US.
Announcing that the brand new IFBB Ms. Wings International will qualify three female pro bodybuilders in 2017 - one from each of the light, middle and heavy weight divisions.
This will all take place at the IFBB Wings of Strength Chicago Pro in early July of 2017 at the Tinley Park Convention Center. The three new pros will be eligible to compete in the Chicago Pro later that same weekend.
My wife Kristal and I would like to thank IFBB Professional League President Mr. Jim Manion and IFBB President Dr. Rafael Santonja for working with Mr. Tim Gardner and myself to provide a path to a pro card that has been absent for many women around the globe. We would also like to thank Ms. Oana Hreapca of Romania for shining a light on this need during her guest appearance in Omaha in 2016. We also extend our thanks to Mr. Jack Titone along with his dear wife Ms. Ann Titone for gracefully allowing us to highlight Ms. Hreapca during their Omaha Pro Show.
We at Wings of Strength are very excited about the coming year and the direction women’s bodybuilding is going. We rise!
Best Regards,
Jake Wood

Well that is good news!

Imagine! The best amateur FBBs in the world lining up against each other.



From Europe, Oana; from South America, Flores Neide Souza Campos... I'm sold already! But as well as being an "international" event, North American women will be taking part too. That means you could see Oana and Flores and Theresa Ivancik (assuming she hasn't decided to stick with Physique permanently!) on the same stage.



I'm almost too thrilled to think of the names of other women from around the world who could compete! There must be a whole bunch of Brazilians whose names are not coming into my excited mind right now. Australians, Asians, Kashma! Kashma could be there!!! From the UK, IBFA champion Christal Cornick, or the rising young star Maz Burn now have a potential route through which to follow Lisa into the pro ranks.

And then there's the possibility of...



Who would you love to see at the 2017 Ms Wings International?
Who have I forgotten? Who would best represent your country?

And Wings of Strength have even managed to resurrect the "Ms International" name! What's next? Continental qualifying events for the IFBB Ms. Wings International?!

I can dream!

Time to watch Oana guest posing again methinks...



To remind ourselves how significant it was, of course.