Woman of the Week: Amanda Machado

Every time I lift it's just as intense and spiritual as the best night of sex I ever had.
Amanda Machado



The first sight of Amanda Machado we can remember was late last year. She wasn't, as you can see above, wearing much more than a coat of Protan. Oh, how we swooned!



Turns out, however, that Amanda doesn't have to wearing nothing to have her effect on us. Fully-clothed will do equally as well. Now perhaps that's because we know, and she knows we know - note the smirk, you'll be seeing a lot of that - what's underneath that classy outfit, but also because of what we she wants us to read while we look at her smirking in her suit: I just love bossy women, she writes. I could be around them all day. To me, "bossy" is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody's passionate and engaged and ambitious - willing to do all it takes to learn and grow.

We swoon again. She's so ALPHA!



Since trailblazers Larissa Reis and Monica Martin left home and relocated to the US, there's been a steady stream of Brazilian muscle women who have followed in their thundersteps. Amanda has been in the US for seventeen years, and - so far - she's one of the more successful, not just in the sport, but also - unsurprisingly - in life as well.



Having settled in Los Angeles, she's a manager at Otium - a restaurant whose dishes have "elegant rusticity", according to their website. A classy place, worthy of Amanda - until she outgrows it anyway. She reads books like Conscious Capitalism, she goes to the opera, and she's currently developing her own thing - Mind of Athletes, though I have to admit exactly what her mission is with it is ever so slightly beyond me.



AND she has a physique to die for.

To be frank, I've decided that the only thing preventing Amanda from being my perfect woman is her location relative to me, and I'm devising a plan to rectify that by firstly retraining as a chef, opening my own (acclaimed) restaurant, and then moving heaven and earth to tempt her to manage it. (I was joking when I started that sentence but now I've finished it I'm rather curious how feasible that actually is.)



Bodybuilding is not my life, says Amanda. It is part of my life. And as [with] everything I commit to do; it has to be consistent, challenging, rewarding, and fun.



Since she started competing in the US last year, she's done three shows and won three times. She won her class at the NPC Ferrigno Legacy Championships last November, and won again at the MuscleContest Excalibur the following month. Her goal for 2018 was a pro card, though of course - this is Amanda Machado - it went a bit deeper than that: The professional card is symbolic, she explains. The idea here is not only to achieve professional level status, but to take the body and mind to such an extreme of discipline and dedication that I can achieve anything I set my mind on.



As if these Alpha brasileiras needed any help, the NPC are now bringing the pro cards to them! And for her first contest of 2018, Amanda's mind was set on a return to her homeland - check it out, on top of everything else she's the coolest/hottest vaqueira imaginable! - and last weekend's NPC MuscleContest Brazil pro qualifier in São Paulo.




It may not surprise you to hear - given all we've learned about Amanda today - that she is now an IFBB pro. Just another step on her road to total world domination.



Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm about to swoon all over the place.

Get your own on here and with Amanda's (intense) Instagram. Divertir-se!

Summer Lovin': Baywatch?

Once, we fantasised about making a female muscle beach map of the world, sticking our pins in places where muscular beauties had been spotted on the sand or in the surf...



And I still think it's one of our better ideas!



Who among us hasn't headed to the beach on the first day of our holiday bursting with anticipation, utterly convinced this year will be the year when we finally lay our towel within sight of the muscle woman of our dreams, only to drag our (slightly burned) bums back to the airport two weeks' later, our fantasies still unfulfilled?



Knowing which beaches have been female muscle hotspots in the recent past would surely boost both your chances of sighting the unicorn and the local economy - female muscle lovers being well-known for their extravagant spending habits and all.



And so, my lovely readers, I appeal to you once again!



FMS is desperately seeking 1. nerd to make the map, and 2. spotters to send in reports of sightings (pictures would be appreciated but we'll take your word for it - after all, stashing a camera in your budgie smugglers is not the easiest thing in the world).



On reflection, perhaps a world map would be a monumental waste of time - entirely blank except for extreme concentrations in Florida, California, and Brazil. Perhaps we actually need to have three maps - one each for the coasts of those states?



Empty when I arrived, within an hour the beach was absolutely rammed!

The bit where I was anyway...



Much more of Anita Herbert's "Beachercize" here.

Enjoy your holidays! May your female muscle lovin' dreams all come true!

Summer Lovin': Lola

As usual, FMS will be shutting up the office for a couple of weeks and enjoying a bit of beach-based downtime. As usual, we've endeavoured not to leave you completely female muscle free during this time, and this summer holiday's offerings we have called Summer Lovin'. Because it's summer, and it's a selection of clips/pics we love.

Setting the bar ridiculously high on Day 1, it's IFBB Figure Pro Lola Montez*.



All too brief, I'm sure you'll agree, but memorable nonetheless. FMS loves the way her eyes widen in the last couple of seconds, fully aware of the effect she is having on the viewer. She almost seems to be saying, I see you. And I see what I have done to you.

More of this sort of thing on Lola's Instagram.

More Summer Lovin' tomorrow...

* On the (fairly likely) chance this clip gets taken down by the YouTube police, you can find it here on Lola's IG, and also (looped so she never stops!) on GwM here. Enjoy!

The Sexhibitionists: 3 from the East

While none of the women (one Russian, one Latvian, one Ukrainian) featured today are quite in the class of (yesterday's featured woman) Nahla Monroe, they all have a penchant for exposing more than usual when at their contest ready most ripped.

I don't have anything to go on except my own intuition, but I imagine that urge to expose is not uncommon among competitive female bodybuilders as they near or reach their "peak" physique, and quite right too. They may be as prone as any other woman (or, in these more body-conscious times, man) to self-doubt and dissatisfaction with their bodies at other times, but when the time comes to peel away the body fat and reveal their muscles, they don't just look - they also feel - beautiful.

Anyway, here are our three for today.

Follow the links for more on each of these Eastern delights.

ALINA ISIDOROVA



Powerlifting, kickboxing, Bodybuilding... If it involves strength, Latvian Alina probably does it. She also runs Healthy Girls, a collective that that puts on events and promotes the benefits of strength training for women and girls in her native Riga.



She doesn't seem to mind jumping out of planes either.

Think of her as a Latvian Action Woman. See her Facebook for more.

IRYNA KOZLOVA



An IFBB and WBPF competitor, Iryna has won World and European titles in Bodybuilding, Physique, and Figure (or equivalent classes) over a period of some years (and if that sounds a bit vague it's because it is - I haven't, sadly, been able to find much detail about her contest history). What I can say is that she's been at it for over five years, and there are lots of pics of her, with and without heels, arms raised in victory at unspecified contests, and clips of her on WBPF TV that are - in my opinion - essential viewing. Here she is in glorious HD in 2016 at the WBPF Worlds, for example.



She wasn't always such a bold social media poster, but - pleasingly - the more time passes, the more she refines her body, the more of it she seems to want to show off.




The stories that microwave could tell...

Iryna on Instagram

MARIA TARASOVA



This will be the Russian then...

Maria Tarasova, former NABBA World champion, probably exemplifies my little get-ripped-get-clothes-off theory better than any of the other women featured today, perhaps better than most women full stop. By off-season she is the angel-faced Maria, the girl-next-door at the gym; but by contest time she is a bona fide ripped freak.



She could do with cleaning her mirror.

If you need any help with that, Maria...



The one on the right - been keeping it in the "Special Favourites" folder.

Maria has a private IG but isn't (in my experience) too picky about who she lets in. Plenty of her on GwM if she does decline though, and you can also watch her doing her thing at the NABBA Universe here, and the NABBA Worlds here - both from 2015.

Enjoy!

The Return of the Latin Bomb

WARNING!

Those averse to tattoos on their muscle ladies should come back tomorrow

In the early 2000s, "Latin Bomb" Vivianna Requena gained many plaudits from both the female muscle lovin' community and the wider bodybuilding world. What a package! exclaimed Curtis Schultz for Bodybuilding.com back in 2004. Exotic good looks, a striking muscle bod, and Latino charisma written all over her. Vivianna is a bona fide contender for a national level bodybuilding title and a pro card.



She was, at the time, winning titles as a Lightweight Bodybuilder - her Jr. USA class in 2002, the New Jersey Championships in 2003 - but was (and probably is still) best known to female muscle heads for her appearance in (and on the cover of) Muscle Elegance in April 2002. I love being a sex symbol! she said at the time. Transforming myself from a shy nerd to being on the cover of Muscle Elegance makes me feel like a Ms Olympia winner! I am very proud of what I have accomplished so far.



Soon after that Bodybuilding.com article in 2004 though, Vivianna completely disappeared off the radar. She'd just got engaged, but her husband-to-be then (and he's still her husband) was by no means averse to her muscles - they'd met at a show in Rhode Island - nor her penchant for letting us all get a look at her beautiful body in all its naked glory. He is very proud, she told Schultz. He likes to say that the only thing that the guys can do is look at me, but he has the real thing every night.



Well, Vivianna (McAuliffe since her wedding to that lucky - and level-headed - fella) is back. And once again, she is a bona fide contender for a national level title, this time in the Physique division. At the NPC Dennis James Classic in Mesa, Arizona on 26th May she won a two-woman WPD Physique class. It qualified her for a show where pro cards are dished out. Her next stop will be the North Americans at the end of August.



She'll be 50 by the time the North Americans roll around, and she's still chasing that pro dream. Still not shy about showing herself off either. I am a bodybuilder, she says. I want people to see that even with ripped hard muscles a woman can still be sexy and pretty - at the gym, on stage, or even while just at a party. Take a look at me!



Posts on her Instagram in the lead up to her show made their way onto the forums and had many in the female muscle lovin' community doing just that. Of course there was the usual nonsense - What are competition rules regarding tattoos? one hysteric wanted to know. How can a judge tell muscular definition from where they are sitting if a competitor has so many tattoos? The vast majority though were more impressed, and (along with the love from the wider community) Vivianna found herself reconnected with her noughties fan base again. Thank you all for your good luck wishes, messages and texts, she wrote the day before her contest. I’m overwhelmed.



After the show she took a well-earned holiday with her daughter, which pretty much clears up any questions you might have about what she's been doing all these years.



The woman who we once knew as the Latin Bomb is back then. More than a little more muscular than before as far as I can tell, and considerably more inked, but otherwise pretty much where she was before she became "a badass mom", ie. due that pro card. Someone asked 'What now,Viv?' she told her (growing ranks of) Instagram followers after her win. I said, 'Now it's time to train double beast for the North Americans!



Yikes! Can't wait to watch Vivianna going "double beast".

(As well as looking forward to more amusement courtesy of the anti-tat brigade!)



Enjoy!