Olympia 2017: That Katie Lee etc.

Female Bodybuilders still go to the Olympia shock!

Nicky Chartrand (above) was just one of many so-called "proper" FBBs who convened (with the rest of the muscle world) on Vegas for the event, including the newly-crowned Queen herself. If the pictures of Helle with friends (considered and rejected by the editorial team) are anything to go by, she had a lot of friends there.



I should say I did argue that you only really get the sense of how big Helle is when pictured with friend, but I was outvoted and I'm not bitter. Besides, we have Katie Lee's many many interviews with various Olympian women to illustrate just how much a really big girl can be bigger than, say, a pretty big girl like Heather Dees.



See what I mean?

For a significant number of fans, these (usually pretty dull truth be told) interviews conducted by Katie were the highlight of their vicarious Olympia experience, and I must say if you turn the sound down and just watch Katie (or Heather, but I recommend Katie), specifically her arm, the 2 minutes 36 seconds just flies by.

And here's another "proper" FBB. Too big for this world, but not for the Olympia.



I'm thinking I should know who the other woman in this picture is, and I'm also wondering whether she is having her picture taken with Irene or Irene's having her picture taken with her, if you see what I mean. Irene certainly looks excited.

And also in that category...



The too-tatted-for-some Cammie Spindel I know. But who's her (at least equally impressive - and much-less-tatted) friend? Perhaps this one is a bit easier to work out seeing as Cammie has a pass and her friend has a bag. If Cammie's friend is indeed a punter, then she is one very impressive punter. You could almost say Katie-like...

Our second installment of the divine Ms Lee and her massive, hypnotic arms sees Kaite (dwarfing and) catching up with another Figure Olympian, Wendy Fortino, who it must be said is a lot more entertaining than most female muscle interviewees.



And so to our award for the woman most about the Olympia...

I think it's fair to say it would be easier to count the women Esther "Tete" Rodriguez Sosa (see FMS passim) didn't get a picture with than those that she did. Our "Tete" selection includes "proper" FBB Janeen Lankowski, fellow Mexican Sandra Grajales Romero, pro Bikini's sole Hot and Hard 100 rep Yarishna, Las Vegas businesswoman Larissa Reis, and the one and only last Ms Olympia.




But it's not just at the Expo where the muscle is at, but everywhere. Or so it seems.



You could probably get a serious swoon on just using the lifts and walking around the hotel(s), stalking the corridors... Who the sizzlers above are I do not know (again, feel like I should, certainly wish I did) but there's no mistaking a glammed up Karina.



And for our third (and last) Katie interview, we move up a division to Physique, and the "super ripped" Jodi Boam. On this occasion, Jodi really is worth listening to ("I get to flex in Physique, that I love"), and you may not just want to watch Katie.



And finally, the award for the place most FMS staffers would have liked to have been during the Olympia goes to the swimming pool where Singapore's finest Melissa Wee was (really really) showing off (almost all) her very Christian yet sinfully sexy bod.



Forgive me Father for what I am about to do...

Back Beauty

BACK POOL (Part 1)

If you've got it, you should really flaunt it.



Azaria knows, Azaria does.

BACK BEEF


Alicia Bell

There certainly is a lot to take in on these women, noted a fella who contacted me recently asking to be "initiated" into the world of female muscle lovin' (for real!). Most women it's just tits and ass, but these women have so much more going on...

He was, apparently, a fast learner. Or maybe he was just learning from the best?

BACK PLAY FOR TODAY

UNSUSPECTING WEDDING GUEST

(turning to a guest sitting next to him)
See the muscles on that bridesmaid? Looks like a bloke in a dress.

SWELL

I KNOW... She's hot.

UNSUSPECTING WEDDING GUEST

Huh? You... like that?

SWELL

Oh I do. I really do. You know what lats are?

(UNSUSPECTING WEDDING GUEST nods)

SWELL

(con't)

Well, there's nothing sexier than a woman whose lats hang over the back of her dress. Right, darling?

MRS SWELL

Oh yessss. So wide, so powerful. I would LOVE to have a back like that.

SWELL

You will, baby. You will.

MRS SWELL

I am getting so turned on looking at her...

UNSUSPECTING WEDDING GUEST

(taking his plus 1 by the arm)

Come on, darling. Let's go and sit somewhere else.

MRS SWELL

Guess they don't lift.

SWELL

Guess so. And I guess we are going to be back in our room while everyone else is having their starter.

MRS SWELL

Mmmm. Wonder if I can persuade her to join us later.

(A huge thought bubble appears above SWELL's head)

SWELL

(his thoughts, in the bubble)

That's why I married you.

Not a true story. Just what flashed through my head while I was looking at these sexy (and as yet unidentified) lats spilling over the sides of that dress. Among other things.

BACK POOL (Part 2)

If you've got it, you should really flaunt it.



Like, really flaunt it. Don't just prance around in the pool with all your muscles, give 'em a show, this is Back Pool after all! [UK readers may get that, the rest of you... probably not] Show 'em what you can do with those muscles, show 'em those beautiful muscles in motion - even if a pull-up is a tad easier in water. You're so damn Alpha!

DOUBLE BACK DOUBLE BICEPS



Jodi Boam and Pearl Binder - backs to savour (ie. salivate all over) at the Vancouver Pro this year. Pearl is currently topping my (unofficial) What-you-doing-in-Physique-you-a-BODYBUILDER-lady list. Seriously. Get back to where you once belonged Ms 2016 CBBF Nationals Overall Masters Bodybuilding champ.

I ask you!

BACK ROOM



I'm going to need a bigger bathroom, thinks the spreading Tonya Hickey.

She's So Shredded: Jodi Boam

I LOVE contest season. Muscles at their sharpest, veins at their thickest. The pre-contest pumps. Striated pecs, striated glutes. The backstage shenanigans. Glistening tanned, oiled bodies pumping up. Muscles at their best, at their most beautiful.



That's me, not Jodi, saying that, but I get the feeling she loves contest season too.



And this season, it's been a pleasure watching her prepare her gorgeous body with her usual dedication and precision, and a pleasure seeing the images of her competing. First, it was Toronto, a show she had previously won back in 2012. This time around she finished 3rd, for the first time since the year she won that title, in Fitness.



Hotel room shenanigans ahoy!



More recently, in Vancouver, she won the Physique class and booked her place at her first Physique Olympia and her first Olympia since her Fitness appearance in 2012.



The lines between the different divisions may continue to blur, but there was nothing less than razor-sharp about Jodi's muscles before, during or after either of her shows.



I'm honestly speechless, mind-blown and overwhelmed, she wrote after her victory. I came into this show with zero expectations, I just wanted a new challenge for myself. Not once did I ever think I'd be leaving saying I've made it to the OLYMPIA!!!




So that's one more contest for me (and Jodi) to look forward to this year.



Ka-Boam!

Oh Canada! Jodi Boam

You might not expect Jodi Boam to have too much in common with Janeen Lankowski, but both began as gymnasts who reached national level, both had their gymnastics careers ended by injury, and both consequently took the discipline and dedication they had learned while competing in that sport into fitness.
The same drive for success that served me well for gymnastics has stuck with me, Jodi has said. I won my division at my very first show when I was 19 years old, then the following year, I placed fifth on my very first time hitting the national stage. I knew there was no quitting until I reached the top and in August 2010, at age 23, I earned my pro card. She was, at the time, Canada's youngest IFBB pro.



In 2011, her first year as a pro, she won in Toronto and went to the Olympia. The following year she won in Pittsburgh and again in Toronto and went to the Olympia for the second time. This sport fits my personality so perfectly, she said.



But just as with her gymnastics career, her fitness career was ended by injury. In late 2012, she was practising her moves. I landed crooked and the whole knee just kind of snapped, she says. Despite surgery, three years on the knee had still not recovered to the point where it would be able to withstand the demands of a fitness routine.



In the meantime, Jodi expanded her personal training business, building her own brand, KA-BOAM, with it's very own purpose built "prep house" training facility. According to her website blurb, she can help with everything from your basic weight loss to competition prep, and posing and choreography for your routine. Whatever the goal, I love helping others achieve and succeed, she says.



But though helping others might be one of her passions, her biggest passion remained competition. Being onstage is a ton of fun, and the adrenaline rush is unbelievable! she says. It’s the best possible feeling to hear the crowd, see the judges and know your extreme hard work is paying off. She decided to move into Physique, and nearly three years after her knee injury, she made her WPD debut in Vancouver last year.




We don't have the time to pay too much attention to what's happening in the Fitness division here at FMS - if you'd care to become our Fitness correspondent please get in touch - but when Jodi started adding more muscle to her 5'2" frame after her injury, we couldn't help but sit up and take notice. We first featured her here back in May 2014, stretching the definition of what a T-shirt is to include her in our Ts of the Day series.



What a difference a couple of years' training for Physique has made!



As I was saying to a (virtual) friend the other day, definition goes a long way with me. Sure, Jodi is never going to be the biggest woman in a Physique line-up, but lawdy she comes in in fantastic shape. And Toronto 2016 was no exception. In fact Jodi was probably in her best shape ever, and she looked like she felt she was too.



No wonder some of her peers are prepared to part with their money to have her help them fine tune their physiques in the final weeks of their own prep. And it's not just the conditioning. From the hair and the make-up and the tan to the (still fairly stressful on that knee I would imagine - careful Jodi!) routine, her package was pure class.



She's become a real beauty as well (if I may get all gooey for one last time this week), her younger, elfin-like prettiness blossoming into something altogether more womanly and stunning. She's strong, she's sexy, she runs her own successful business. Quite the role model for your 21st century daughters, and the latest of this fan's favourite Canadian women of iron. AND (have you noticed?) no WPD chest pose for Jodi. For her, in all her tanned, ripped vascular glory, it's the PROPER side chest.



KA-BOAM!


And finally, that 100 Canadian Muscle Goddesses list in full.

Top to bottom and left to right: Dawn Alison, Kim Birtch, Carmen Tocheniuk, CeaAnna Kerr, Michelle Russell, Tatiana Anderson, Mary Lynn MacKenzie, Jen Reece, Emily Zelinka, Melody Spetko, Louise St. Pierre, Roseanne Desmarais (Blackburn) 1975-2010, Astrid Falconi, Jill St. Laurent, Rhonda Lee Quaresma, Carmen Unger, Cassie Liberatore, Debbie Leung, Kat Sartor, Danielle Ruban, Sue Ling Yip, Amelie Bourget, Heather Manuel, Helen Bouchard, Laura Binetti, Wendy Lindquist, Trina Gillis, Sheila Burgess, Autumn Raby, Athena Signakis, Sophie Duquette, Laura Creavalle, Deanna Panting, Amanda Aivaliotis, Sheri McKnight, Steph Park, Jennifer Jewell, Joanne Williams, Maria Mikola, Nicole Ball, Sandra Blackie, Rita Dyutco, Leah Johnson, Tracy Beckham, Laura Carolan, Melissa Bumstead, Jodi Michaels, Nathalee Thompson, Nancy Richard, Nancy Clark, Marnie Holley, Emilija Martic, Johanna Dejager, Cynthia Benoit, Tamara Qureshi, Tananarive McGowan, Macey Boudreau, Marnie Power, Nadia Nardi, Negrita Jayde 1958-2009, Colette Guimond, Kailash Persaud, Pam Howard, Karen Smith, Eleonora Dobrinina, Sharon Mould, Wendy McMaster, Desiree Ellis, Gillian Kovack, Shawn Tan, Fabiola Boulanger, Melissa Coates, Christine Roth, Zoa Linsey, Robin Hillis, Mona Poursaleh, Iris Swatuk, Lisa Arksey, Jody Wald, Cindy Phillips, Shelly Yakimchuk, Melanie Noel, Aleisha Hart, Antonia Grady, Fiona Harris, Michelle Krack, Lisa Bavington, Tara Silzer, Myriam Capes, Jamie Senuk, Joy Nichols, Lisa Giesbrecht, Lyris Cappelle, Azaria Glaim aka Brooke Black, Emmanuelle Ethier, Mindi O'Brien, Sharon Bruneau, Julie Bourassa, Dayana Cadeau, and Cathy Lefrançois.

Thank you Canada!

Woman vs Food: She Eats

I sometimes wonder whether female bodybuilders become female bodybuilders just so they can eat like a female bodybuilder. It seems no other women on the planet outside the catering industry itself spend as much time thinking, talking or writing about food as female bodybuilders do. And when they're not doing that they're cooking it.



And eating. Even my wife's woefully obese former colleague (the kind of woman who seeps under the armrest when she's sitting next to you on a plane) doesn't eat as much as a female bodybuilder does - and trust me, this woman eats a LOT.



But on top of that, female bodybuilders fantasise about food. A comfort eater like my wife's fat friend has fantasies too, but whereas she satisfies her cravings as soon as she can, the female bodybuilder has to be disciplined about it. And it's in that waiting time - counting down the hours to the next cheat meal, or (most disciplined of all) dieting before competition - that their cravings reach levels no comfort eater has ever abstained long enough to experience. Consequently - when it's time for her cheat meal, or when the competition is over - satisfying that craving is, well, rather satisfying.



And the more pleasurable the food seems, the more the female bodybuilder's subconscious associates food with pleasure, and so it continues. Lots of eating, a little cheating, extreme dieting, and then the reward of whole right side of the menu.



Do I know what I'm talking about? Of course I don't! But one look at Jodi Boam's reaction to that somewhat humble burger and chips and you know I'm right. Have you ever seen a woman look so happy, so ecstatic to be eating something so simple? I wouldn't be at all surprised if she's having a full-on foodgasm right there, the smell of it alone setting off joyful KA-BOAMs big and small that are spreading all over her beautiful, peaking body... Have another look. A good look. Don't you see that?



So does food hold the key to the female bodybuilder's heart? Perhaps it does. Cook me food, buy me food, bring me food or BE food is what they say. But we actually do have evidence in this clip starring Rene Campbell that - even if you won't necessarily win her heart - being prepared to carry her shopping and having a few skills in the kitchen will, at the very least, buy you some time with a female bodybuilder.



I doubt Rene shares her "soup gone a bit wrong", which is even better news for the dude who measures her cabbage. I doubt any female bodybuilders share. With all that attention they pay to what they eat (or, in Rene's case, drink) and how much of it they eat (or drink), nicking something off her plate is, I imagine, very verboten.



Go ahead, she's saying. Make my day.



We're gonna need a bigger kitchen...



Dry cereal?! For me?! I LOVE you!!!



Woman vs Food all week on FMS.

Enjoy!