FMS@RP2017: 9*

You knew it was close. The contest was wide open at the outset, what with Margie having abdicated, Alina being absent, and potential dark horse Brittney O'Veal deciding to sit it out this year. The judges could go all retro and give it to Yaxeni, or all penitent and throw it Aleesha's way perhaps. Both possible, just about possible.



In the end though, it was the two pre-show favourites who were still standing after 3rd place had been announced - runner-up last year and Tampa Pro champ this Sheila Bleck, and 2015's runner-up and 2016's most-hard-done-by Helle Trevino.

And the winner is...

Behind the lectern stage right Lenda Murray looked visibly shocked. I've seen this before but never for first place, announced MC Shannon Dey. We have a tie.



You knew it was close. They'd been right at the centre of the first callout and both, in their own way, looked as good as they ever have. Sheila, all perfect conditioning, perfect proportions and perfect poses; Helle, bulkier, beefier, less-than-regulation hand gestures inviting the audience (and judges) to eye up her abs and glutes.



I was leaning towards Helle after the pre-judging. Those kinds of hand gestures and rampant muscle (s)exhibitionism go along way with me. After the evening show though, Sheila's routine, always a highlight in any show she competes in, had me wondering whether she might drive the jeep home. Either would have been a worthy champion. Both had three pro titles to their name as they waited for the announcement. Neither lives full-time in the country where they were born.



9* is what they both had on the scorecard. The * indicating the tie. When 2nd place gets $25,000 and the winner gets $60,000 and the jeep, that's a fairly big tie break, and the tie break was... the final round. The routine! I'd read it the opposite way to the judges - Sheila won in the afternoon, Helle won the whole thing in the evening.



Seeing such a big woman jump so far into the air so many times was quite a thrill. Sheila, poor Sheila looked a little shell-shocked, and I'm sure my heart wasn't the only one going out to her as she was given her sash and shit. Couldn't they, I wondered, have given it to them both? I remembered the first ever London marathon, when, with the finish line in sight, the two leaders joined hands and broke the tape as one...



And then Helle stepped forward to get her sash and sword and whatnot and I forgot all about that. I remembered Helle's 2005 injury, a herniated disc that left her unable to walk. The medical opinion was she'd never train again, let alone compete, but she wasn't having any of that. Six years later she was winning her first show back, and 8 years after her 2003 Olympia debut she was back there again. It would have been a remarkable story had it ended there, but Helle was coming back for good.




So it feels like the right woman won. Again, the Rising Phoenix has given us a champ we can (and should) all be proud of. But spare a thought for Sheila. It really was close.

Meat Feast: Helle Trevino @RP2016

The problem with doing a preview and a review, the editor said as I passed him the file of images I had selected for this post, is that you end up writing about the same woman just a few days after you've just written... Faced with the first of those images his voice tailed of and his eyes widened. Good Lord! He was barley audible, as though the exclamation had been made by his breath. Look at her... Magnificent...



Easy then to convince the editor that "Beastqueen" Helle Trevino deserved another post to herself so soon after she'd gone 50:50 with Alana Shipp in Contenders? but harder for one of the RP judges to convince him (or me, or what seems to be a majority of fans who've commented on the subject) that 4th was the right placing for her.


Helle, front & centre - 2nd callout

The picture of the second callout and the short clip of the first on the WoS Facebook page were among the very first images I saw of the show last weekend. I noted that Helle appeared in both, which I found a little confusing as it led me to conclude that she was not going to do better than 4th. Images of Helle in the run-up to RP2016 as well as comments that were being made by fans at the show on various muscle and female muscle forums had led me to expect she could expect better.



Helle is in BEASTMODE! Looks like her best shape ever!

DAMN!!!! Helle looks amazing!!!!

Helle is looking really good in my opinion. Amazing condition.

Just give her the check, title to the jeep, the trophy & call it a day.

Now I'm not saying these chaps (and chapesses, at least one of them is a chapess - see if you can guess which one?!) are any more qualified as judges than I am, I'm just making the point that there was a general belief that Helle was, at first sight, at least in contention for the crown. And when that was nixed as the results came through...

There is no f***ing way Helle got 4th place!!!! etc. etc.




Helle made damn sure she was front and centre during the posedown. By that stage, I would imagine, she knew she wasn't going to repeat her runner's-up placing from last year - but she was determined to give the fans, and the judges, a right eyeful of her magnificent physique before the news became official. See Margie slapping Helle's beefy hamstrings and feeling up her mighty quads towards the end of the clip.

Margie knows quality muscle meat when she sees it.

(And if you play the clip at quarter speed, it lasts the best part of four minutes!)



She's been quiet on social media since the show - she wasn't last year, which suggests to me that she is, perhaps, feeling a tad deflated, though I imagine it will take a lot longer to actually deflate those incredible muscles! The only thing she's posted since she was in her hotel room after pre-judging is a stage shot of her in what has become a bit of a signature pose and the message to her followers to "always reach for the stars".



If, after a week or so perhaps, she still needs cheering up she should just look at the (few) images by Muscle Photography and the (many) others by FTVideo of herself on stage in Scottsdale. I keep saying "magnificent" because, just as it did to my editor, it's the word that keeps coming to me when I look at those images. She is a veritable meat feast for the eyes. Everywhere you look - and it's hard to know where to start and where to look next - you see nothing but great slabs of prime female muscle.



Sometimes I come across pictures of women at contests past and marvel at their magnificent bodies. I don't care where they placed, not immediately anyway, I just want to collect as many images of them from that show as I can. And many years from now I expect a female muscle fan of the future will come across one of these pictures of Helle at RP2016 and do exactly the same. And they won't care where she placed in this show either, they'll just begin a frenzied search for more more more...



I can't help feeling that the second chapter of Helle's career hasn't quite reached its peak just yet, I wrote in that recent RP2016 preview post, and that if anyone other than Margie is capable of upsetting the expected coronation of Alina Popa, then it's the lady from Sønderborg. Well, like many of my predictions, that's not exactly what came to pass. But at least I was right about one thing - before this show we hadn't seen the second chapter Helle at her peak. I would like to think we still haven't.



Magnificent!

Editor's note: Some confusion surrounds the advertising of a pre-Rising Phoenix show with Helle on RxMuscle. FMS have been asked to notify its readers that the advertisement in question was not for a competition whose winner would be co-habiting with Helle Trevino, but rather a show that presented an interview with Helle that had not been previously recorded. Those who have sent "entries" to RxMuscle for this non-existent competition will not be receiving a response.



A silly mistake, but easily made.

Fun @FIBO

A lot has happened in the world of female muscle in the 5 years (yes, FMS turned 5 on May 1st) of this blog's existence (I don't suggest you go back and look at those early posts, by the way). A case in point, you could say the female muscle world in microcosm, might be found if we compare Germany's spring time muscle fest in Cologne, FIBO, in 2011 and 2016.

In 2011, Helle Nielsen returned to the stage after an injury-enforced break of eight years to win the Female Bodybuilding title at the FIBO Power Pro show. Skadi Frei was the runner-up, and the field included legendary Cathy Lefrançois, the mighty Daniela Sell, and Italian beauties Giusy Caputo and Claudia Partenza.



Helle Neilsen, FIBO Power Pro 2011

It's not just Helle's surname that has changed. There's no Female Bodybuilding at FIBO now - professional or otherwise. In fact there's no pro show at all. There is some amateur competition, a FIBO Power Bikini Cup, and something called "Miss FIBO Power Beauty", which I'm not even going to attempt to categorise.

Times have indeed changed.

Over the last few years though, FMS has been vicariously enjoying the big (I think I'm right in saying easily Europe's largest) Expo through the heroic video work of Hevumisa, who, since 2011 has been editing his FIBO Expo footage into the immensely enjoyable clips we see on his YouTube channel. And once again he was there, seeking out the muscle. Not finding lots of it, to be sure, but nevertheless who is the frizzy-haired goddess posing from about the four-minute mark?



Great work once again.

But this year, the Expo was not the only place the FBB fan could find female muscle - and lots of it - in Cologne during the FIBO event, because it was here that following their event in Paris at the end of January, the second "Daily FBB Show" had been organised.



The line-up did not include such stellar names as Margie Martin and Virginia Sanchez - both of whom had been in Paris - but as at the first show there was the mighty Anna Khudayarov (above, along with Laurence Prévot from France). There was Amazonian Maria Wattel, and, along with others and tying this all in nicely, one of those competitors from FIBO 2011, Claudia Partenza.



Times have indeed changed. And for one female muscle fan who made the trip to Cologne and attended the show, times have changed for the better.

It's every FBB fans dream. To see muscle ladies up close and personal, posing, performing feats of power and strength. Some fans head to contests (which now are very few), but the shows where they see their favourite FBBs all oiled up posing on stage are great but you are always left wanting more. And what if you could go to a show where there are no rules about how big the women can get?

This is where Daily Fbb Show comes in... you get to feel and touch the amazing bulging muscles, they want you to! They will get that shyness out of you! You get 3 hours of unrivalled VIP access. Talk with FBBs, have a drink and even a cheat meal with some of the most beautiful women on the planet!!!

Of course you are going to be nervous at first, but from the beginning when you mingle with other fans you feel the buzz, then the show starts and you just can't wipe the smile off your face.



This show will go from strength to strength, predicts this fan. Daily FBB seem to have covered all the bases. This show belongs to us the fans, we get to decide how it goes. Privacy is treated seriously and you will not be filmed or photographed if you don't want to. Price? 3 hours plus for approx $300 for the show of your dreams - if that's not value for money I don't know what is. I was seriously impressed, met and mingled with amazing FBBs, and had good discussions. A lot of us are secret admirers, believe me it is great to meet fellow fans.




Now I imagine that the cynic inside you is, right now, wondering whether this review is 100% kosher, but even if it isn't, the type of show Daily FBB are organising is clearly fulfilling the desires of some fans. For others, nothing will ever replace the thrill of the contest (lights, oil, and all) but I'll say it once again, times have changed.



This is the future for fans, concludes our reviewer. And I like it!

Next stop for Daily FBB is Barcelona - maybe our Hot and Hard 100 Winner will be there?!

And we leave you with a preview clip from Daily FBB of its footage from the Cologne show.



It's near as dammit $20 a month to join their site, with fifteen minutes of free webcam with none other than Elena Oana Hreapca as a joining bonus. The amount of content is growing at an impressive rate, and it's all quite unique and fan-driven.

Enjoy!

Rising Phoenix 2015: The Muscle II

And our journey through the 2015 Rising Phoenix continues towards its quadgasmic crescendo tomorrow with four of the five women who posed off with eventual winner Margie Martin in that first callout for comparisons (see Tuesday's post).

As almost never happens at female bodybuilding shows, the consensus of both the fans and the (more qualified or not) commentators from the mainstream bodybuilding sites was that the judges (with only Christine Envall's placing, down in 10th when many had her 6th or 7th, seen as disappointing) got it more or less spot on.



And talking of getting it spot on - I'm sure you'll need no reminding that, without exception, ol' Swell here tipped every single one of the top five to do well in FMS' pre-event preview. No need to thank/congratulate me but maybe I'm getting better at this. [Or luckier? Now get on with the MUSCLE, will you? - ed.]

5. ALANA SHIPP



With her trademark razor-sharp conditioning and glutes that hypnotise, her Worshippfulness once again made it impossible for the judges to ignore her. In fact, according to Steve Wennerstrom, since winning the NPC Metropolitan in New York City in 2013, Shipp has never placed outside the top five of any contest she has entered. That includes all five shows in her professional career. It's an amazing record, especially when you consider her less-than-heavyweight stature.




Even a cursory perusal of her Instagram will show you that Alana off-season is quite a different creature to the shredded beast she becomes at competition time, every single one of her beautiful muscles beautifully defined. I don't know whether she sheds her outer layers relatively effortlessly, but that's the impression I get. Anyway, whatever she does in the build-up to her contests, it works - for the judges and for me!




From being overweight and working out for the first time to the Ms Olympia in three and a half years. From Ms Fitness Israel to the first callout at the Ms O in two... (FMS' Women of the Year 2014). And she's already qualified (I presume) for next year's big show. "The Talented Ms Ripped" looks set to stay at the top for at least one more year - and you wouldn't bet against her staying there for many years to come.

4. YAXENI ORIQUEN




In her 21st year as a professional bodybuilder, at her 51st professional show, and a month before she turned 49, Yaxeni not only maintained her standing in the female muscle elite, she actually improved on her 5th place at the last Ms O. And this was despite having struggled to regain her leg size after she'd had knee surgery this year. Probably I will get 4th place, she said after prejudging. And she wasn't wrong.




The Rising Phoenix had an unmistakable "dawn of a new era" feel, but it wouldn't have been the same without her, and Yaxeni - for all her years of experience - seemed as excited as anyone to be present at this historic moment. Biggest show ever, she called it. I'm so happy for this opportunity to raise [the profile] of woman's bodybuilding.




She remains a wondrous sight, her pecs and rear double biceps are - for me at least - especially swoonworthy, but her entire 5'8" frame is covered in some of the most magnificent mature muscle meat that has ever been built. Will she be back next year on the cusp of her 50th birthday for pro show #52? I sincerely hope so. Viva Yaxeni!

3. DEBI LASZEWSKI



She's the woman who our old friend El Mariachi calls "spermalicious" (and she doesn't mind). She may be the best female bodybuilder to have never (yet) won a pro show (I had no idea, did you know that?) And at the Rising Phoenix 2015 she finished in third place... AGAIN... the beauty and very very sexy muscles of Debi Laszewski.




Yes, it was very much a case of new show, but same old (second) bridesmaid placing for Debi. Proud of my 3rd place at a tough show, said Debi afterwards, although she was perhaps a tad irked at coming so near and yet so far all over again, as a later post on her Instagram revealed. I feel it was close!!! she commented, posting a picture of herself and the top two in the final confirmation round. Some commentators had her as the winner on their play-by-play reports. Close she most definitely was.




With two decades as a top-level amateur and pro bodybuilder, says Steve Wennerstrom, Laszewski still exudes all the qualities she had from the beginning - dense, deeply separated, cultivated muscularity, all surrounded by a striking stage presence that blended so well with her mesmerizing posing performances. And I imagine Debi will be bringing exactly the same qualities this time next year.

2. HELLE TREVINO



She may not be Ms Rising Phoenix yet, and the Best Poser award also went elsewhere, but if there had been an award for the most improved bodybuilder on that stage, then Helle would surely have won it. Not that she was ever unremarkable, but even in the weeks since her victory in Chicago at the start of July she seemed to have grown and refined her physique into a bigger, more beautiful and utterly breathtaking package.




What is even more amazing though is the fact that Helle is competing at all. Ten years after an injury that threatened not just her bodybuilding career but her entire way of life, her return to lifting at all defied all medical expectations. Her comeback as a competitive bodybuilder was even more unlikely. But the fact that she is now a pro show winner and was in serious contention (right up until the last pose was done) for the most prestigious title in the sport is her greatest achievement. So far...




According to one lucky fan who attended the show, Helle sought out the judges afterwards. Not in anger (I have the greatest respect for the IFBB judges, she says) but to ask about the specific improvements she needs to make in order to go one better next year. Given the epic improvements she has already made in the last year, you wouldn't bet against her crowning her comeback in 2016 with the title.

And the winner...

See you tomorrow!

[Oh that's a great cliffhanger. The suspense is killing me... NOT. - ed.]

You can read more about Helle's comeback on FMS passim here and here.