Arnold Classic 2017: Physique Dreams Part 4

OK, so the other day we saw how Autumn Swansen's first attempt at performing her routine at the Physique International didn't quite go according to plan, and gave us an unusually NSFW moment. I don't mean any disrespect here, Ms Swansen, I just think FMS readers might need these (not very hi-res) caps to jog their memories.





Anyway, I'm not totally clear on the timeline here - whether Autumn patched things up (on her suit, her pride probably took a little longer to repair) and came straight back out or waited till the other women had finished before she retook the stage - but, trooper that she is, back out she came, and then finished off what she'd started.

And this time, the suit held firm.



Autumn - who was the defending champ - only placed 5th this time.

But I know whose routine I'll still remember two, five, ten years from now.

Enjoy!

Tomorrow we commence the 2017 Hot and Hard 100 countdown!!!

Obsessions New & Old: The Ultimate Obsession

I’ve lived long enough to know that it’s muscle on a woman that turns me on more than anything. I love it. Any amount of it will do, but the more muscle there is, the more defined and proportional it is, the more turned on I seem to get. I simply find muscular female physiques to be more beautiful and more sensual than any other body type.




Lovers of female muscle (myself included) seem to spend a lot of our time trying to explain what it is we love about women with muscles in a way that gentlemen who prefer blondes, or big fake tits, or older women, or Asian women, don't. We explain it to ourselves, to each other, maybe even on the odd occasion to those who deride the women we adore. And when we do, we don’t usually put very succinctly, but basically what it is all about is - for me anyway - purely and simply, is their muscles.



In the same way that many guys can’t understand what we find arousing about these amazing women, I can’t conceive what it is like to not be aroused by muscles on a woman. When others say female bodybuilders lack the curves of a conventionally sexy woman, I am genuinely confused. I too love curves on a woman, and muscle women have curves everywhere because of all their muscles. How can others not see that?! They have curves in places that most women don’t have places, making them, for my money, the most curvaceous, and therefore, the sexiest, women of all.




I love the way muscles look whether relaxed or flexed, in motion or frozen in a photographic image. If sthenolagnia is "arousal by the display of strength or muscles", then the keywords for me are "display" and "muscles". I guess that's why I love the "ripped" look. When, beneath paper-thin skin, even the fibres of the muscles show.



You know back in the days of the trip to the newsagent’s to get my female muscle fixes, I would buy the magazines so that I could masturbate while looking at the pictures of the likes of Cory, Anja etc. And I did plenty of that. Plenty. But I also remember that I would spend a lot of time between those frenetic moments in a kind of trance-like contemplation, gazing at the photos, following the contours of their muscles, all the curves on their bodies, thinking about how perfect their physiques were.



And I dreamed that one day I would actually get to touch those muscles, to follow the contours of those magnificent bodies with not just my eyes, but with my hands. To feel the hard muscle beneath the skin. I couldn’t imagine anything more arousing.



Unfortunately, I never got to touch Cory or Anja! But I have felt the muscles of dancers, gymnasts and martial artists with my own hands (hands that were shaking with the excitement of the moment) and more recently my own wife's developing body. And even despite my highly idealised expectations, I've loved it every time.




Yes, the wife. I haven't said much about her for a while on here, the reason being I hate to refuse all those requests for pictures (respectful though they were, despite one or two going a little over the top). I hate to disappoint. But anyway, yes, all those things I thought - prayed - would happen when she decided to "get in shape" have happened and/or are happening. Once she got off the cardio fixation and started actually lifting the changes she saw in her body shape meant she no longer needed my, or anyone else's, encouragement. It became addictive. Greater pride in her body equals greater confidence. More revealing gymwear, a more revealing wardrobe full stop. She feels sexier, she enjoys sex more, there's more - much more - sex. Thanks to muscle.



And she really hasn't built that much. She's not as big as even the smallest woman in today's selection of muscle goddesses. If she were, if she carries on as she is now, will I still be bothering to look at these pictures? Will I still be as addicted, as obsessed with other women's muscles as I've always been? I sincerely hope I get to find out!




Hi, I'm David. And I'm obsessed with female muscle.



Enjoy!

Obsessions New & Old: The Thrill of the New

There are those who remained utterly devoted to a single woman.



Take my virtual friend for example. As long as we've been in touch he's been putting together tribute after tribute to his favourite FBB. Sure, his head's been turned every now and then by other muscle women, but in the end he always comes back to his Yaxeni, and his devotion shows no sign of waning. Quite the opposite in fact.

And then there are those who are devoted to a type. Usually the big type.



They express their devotion on those Tumblr blogs where day after day they dutifully post pics and gifs and clips of the biggest muscle women ever for your viewing pleasure. Take Embrace the Size, for example, which actually has a lot more variety than some, and its parade of "classic" and new images of massive muscle women.



Compared to these fans, yours truly is positively fickle.

Sure I have my "favourites" from the past 30 years of female muscle lovin'. My "old school" faves, the first women who brought out the sthenolagniac in me. There's my "all-time" faves, and my "knock knock knockin' on the all-time faves' door" faves, women who are still active in the world of female bodybuilding and who will enter the "all-time" pantheon one day. Because you have to be retired to get in there you see.

My pantheon, my rules!



All pretty obsessive stuff. All my favourites compartmentalized into sub-sections. Rules about who gets to go where. I've obviously thought about this far too much, but actually it's worse than that. I hope you are sitting down because you know all these greats of the past - Anja Langer, Sharon Bruneau, Denise Hoshor, Gina Davis, Dena Westerfield, Marja Lehtonen and so on - they're not really my favourites.

My real obsession is with the new.



It's what drives me to obsessively follow what's happening in competitions at home and abroad, in federations big and small. It's what I find so addictive about following these women - usually on Instagram, sometimes on Facebook, rarely on Twitter - as they hone their physiques in preparation for an upcoming show. New everyday.



Discovering women I'd never heard of or seen before is as exciting - if not more exciting - than that. Again, obsessively checking the images of the unfamiliar name who finished 4th in Physique at an NPC state level show is something you will often find me doing, NPC News Online my preferred source. The forums too, Girls with Muscle and the one whose first rule is... are great places for discovering women you never knew existed. Fans even more obsessed with finding the next big thing are out there, and I truly appreciate that they really want to share their new discoveries with us.



A list of the women I have come across for the first time since I started the blog just over five years ago would be ridiculously long. Some of the biggest thrills I've had in those five and a bit years would include seeing Cindy Landolt (pre-enhancements), Kashma Maharaj, Shannon Courtney (now that really was a rush I'll never forget!), and Sexy Sophie Arvebrink for the first time. Aleesha, Dani Reardon, Theresa Ivancik, Cris Goy Arellano, Marthe Sundby, Margie Martin...




New, thrilling delights. New women to follow. It's what I live for.

I guess, and again I have probably thought about this a bit too much, that what I am realy after is that same thrill I once got from seeing a female bodybuilder for the first time. Carolyn Cheshire on UK TV, Anja Langer on the cover of Muscle & Fitness in my local newsagent's, the first GMV VHS I bought that had contest footage...



The rush of those moments is what I crave, the thrill of the new.

Of course it's a losing game. I'll never see a female bodybuilder for the first time again. I'll never buy a muscle magazine for the cover picture for the first time again. I'll never see footage of FBBs doing their routines for the first time again. Ever.



But sometimes, today's Instagram post by Eleonora Dobrinina, or a still from a camshow with Natalia Trukhina that turns up a Tumblr blog, or wondering what this Amanda Smith who won her class at the Canadian Nationals looks like, or coming across a thread on a forum entitled "The Incredible Cass Martin"... well, they don't quite hit the same heights as those very first experiences, but it's damn close.



And ultimately I think, this is what keeps me blogging. If all I wanted to do was write about my "old school" or "all-time" or some other group of past favourites, I - and I dare say you - would have got bored of this blog long before it reached its 5th anniversary. While I remain addicted, obsessed with chasing the thrill of the new, there will always be wonderful women - both known and as yet unknown - to write about.



And I hope you'll enjoy them with me.

Hot and Hard: FMS Approved

The FMS Quality Control Department are a tireless bunch, working 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year (they don't have to work at Christmas, but they do) to check every single image of muscular beauty that passes through the office. The team can assess between three hundred and - at peak times - three thousand images per day, ensuring that only the very best make it onto the blog for your viewing pleasure.

Today, these unsung heroes give us a peek into their work...

INNER CITY BOARDING ATTIRE





Nobody's going to see how hard you've been training if you cover it all up with loose fitting clothes. Tight is good, vests are good (for showing off those shoulders), but if you really want the sk8er bois to notice you, this is how you do it.

AT HOME SELFIES





No clothing necessary! Without question Sierra Mangus gets an A for avoiding Instagram censorship using only a hand bra, but she doesn't get top marks because the phone is already covering where she's put her hand. Great effort though.





This is how you do it. A+ for Alyssa Kiesling, eyebrow raise and all.

ON STAGE FACIALS





Smiles are fine, pouts are good, but the "THE ROAR" is GREAT.

THINGS TO DO WHEN STUCK IN TRAFFIC





FMS firmly believes that the muscular woman should never ever miss an opportunity to bring joy to the world. If the city's in gridlock, there's no reason why you shouldn't be using the time to flex, snap, and upload your hard-earned gains. Good girl!

THINGS TO DO WHEN GOING DOWN (or UP)





Self-love in an elevator. A Brazilian masterclass - left to right: Nayara Rodrigues, Roberta Zuniga, and Suelen Bissolati. Lifts may be almost as good as gyms when it comes to female muscle sightings in Brazil if the plethora of such images is anything to go by. How does anyone get anything done in that wonderful country?

HOLIDAY SNAPS





Make the men gawp. Make their wives so jealous they'll resolve to hit the gym as soon as they get home. Sexy Susanna Tirpak improves the marriages of every single couple staying at the hotel that week with a single pose. What a heroine!

WHEN THE GOIN' GETS FREAKY, THE FREAKY TURN PRO





You suffer for your art, so enjoy it when you can. Danielle Reardon drops the pants (in fact she seem to have discarded them completely) and gets the glootz out. Almost impossible to look at this picture and not feel love. Gold standard. A++

WHAT NOT TO DO ON A DATE WITH NATALIA





This was not rejected for the quality of the picture nor, indeed, for the muscle on display but for the utter stupidity of the photographer, and it's included here as a cautionary tale. Does Natalia look like she's in the mood to pose for a photograph? Never, EVER make a female bodybuilder wait for her food. In fact, never EVER prioritise anything over food. Moments later Natalia's date learned his lesson the hard way. It only hurts when he breathes now, but please, don't make the same mistake.

And finally...





Just... APPROVED. Yeah. Definitely.

Enjoy!