Every day you do cardio, you cook, you go training, you're in your own little bubble. And then suddenly you're standing there on stage, people are coming up and congratulating you, and you are entitled to pro card... It's just pure happiness!
"Will anyone who is NOT Czech please leave the stage..." (left to right) Hatvani, Borkovcová, and Ferenčuková
Karolina led a Czech 1-2-3 at the Arnold Amateur in Melbourne in the middle of last month, with Amazonian compatriot Alena Hatvani in 3rd, and the elegant Lenka Ferenčuková, Arnold Amateur champion in Ohio earlier in March, taking 2nd.
Having won multiple NABBA and WFF titles to gain those federations' pro cards in 2015, Karolina is, of course, no stranger to that winning feeling, but previous attempts at making her mark in the IFBB had not gone very well. Competing in Women's Bodybuilding, she was a lowly 9th at the Arnold Amateur Europe in 2012, and fared little better in her first Physique outing at the Arnold Amateur in Ohio two years later.
Even as she stood on stage in Melbourne, having trimmed 5kg of muscle from her compact frame to please the IFBB judges, she was uncertain how she would place. There were sixteen of us, and some very different physiques, she said. It was impossible to predict how the judging would go. And even before she'd landed in Australia, she'd had some ups and downs. Her prep had been as thorough as always, but she had to take time out five weeks before the show after coming down with flu.
In the event, everything turned out peachy. This is definitely the most important title I've achieved, she says, not least because that pro card will enable her to indulge her other great passion, travel, competing in parts of the world she hasn't visited yet.
Karolina's "Road to the Arnold Classic Australia" is documented on the Bodyflex Fitness YouTube channel. Czech is an even sexier language when Karolina's speaking it...
The woman formerly known as Karolina Holubcova followed up her win at the NABBA Worlds (see FMS passim) by taking the WFF Universe "Extreme Body" (ie. Bodybuilding) title in France at the end of June. Same routine as the Worlds, same thong-tastic (though different colour) posing suit. No complaints whatsoever.
You can follow Karolina's further adventures on Facebook and Instagram.
And you can also follow Karolina's prep for the NABBA Worlds on the BODYFLEX Fitness YouTube channel. Fans of "A Day in the Life of" style clips will LOVE this. Volume 1 is here, and there are two more that follow, adding up to well over half an hour's insight into this Czech muscle goddess's world. Better still, the BODYFLEX bods have actually been bothered to give the clips proper English subtitles, so you can even understand what is being said - if that's important to you!
In Dallas last weekend, a blast from the past took her first pro title in the Women's Physique division. She competed in NPC Bodybuilding until about 2009, and, as far as I know, has always been known by just the one name: Yasha.
The thing that struck me as I checked out the pics from the contest is that Yasha has got a lot of muscle going on right there. And as I checked out the women who finished in 2nd, 3rd, and so on, it became clear that the judges had given the title to the most muscular woman on stage. The woman who most resembled a "bodybuilder".
Have you just spat your breakfast cereal all over yourself? Are you about to send me a picture of Anne, Christine or Mmmmmonique with the subject line "This Is a Bodybuilder Fool!"? I have been spending a fair bit of time in the FMS archive recently with the so-called "old school" bodybuilders of yore, so I am prepared to accept that I may just be comparing Yasha to a somewhat outdated idea of a "bodybuilder", but I am not alone in having noticed the muscle and making that comparison.
I am so CONFUSED!!! wrote FMS fave (and Hot and Hard 100 #26) Valerie Garcia Giovanoli after the Dallas show. Congratulations to Andrea Calhoun (left, below) who just won 1st in Figure in Dallas and to Yasha who won 1st in Physique at the same show. I think both women are incredible, BUT, am I the only one confused as shit about what the IFBB wants from physique?!? Yasha would have won a pro Women's Bodybuilding competition any other year. This is not what we have come to expect from the new Women's Physique category. Am I the only one who switched over and has been pounding away at the weights without restraint, finally happy I can train the way I want without worrying I'll be 'too muscular' for Figure?
None of my training is going to allow me to compete with a female bodybuilder's physique! I am happy to see more muscle being rewarded in figure... But then that crap confuses me too!!! I am currently prepping for the Wings of Strength show in August, and now I don't even know where I fit in: Figure or Physique?
I read Valerie's rant and I thought back to last year's NPC Nationals when Valerie won her class and her pro card and how she compared with another pro card winner that day, Marcie Simmons, who had been awarded the overall title as well.
Marcie was easily more muscular than Valerie at that show, but she was also the most muscular woman in any class on that stage. She had the biggest muscles and the best conditioning, so those big muscles were also the most defined. In short, she was the most like a "bodybuilder", and this was noted at the time, both by FMS and by commentators who know much more about these things than I do.
And it's not just in the Stateside pro shows this seems to be happening. Meanwhile, as we saw yesterday, over here in Europe Cristina Goy Arellano has been packing on more muscle for this contest season. And the judges have rewarded her.
Cris wasn't the only lady at the Europeans who was displaying some serious muscle. Running her a very close second in the taller class was a woman completely new to me - the arrestingly pectacular Liudmila Goshko from Russia.
Before anyone else gets in with it, I'll say it myself: Oh my Goshko!
I often describe freakishly ripped muscle women - probabaly so often it's boring - as being all skin and muscle or some such. Well, with Liudmila, I'll take that description even further because it looks to me as if she's dispensed with the skin on those glorious pecs altogether, like she's had it surgically removed or something. So insane is the amount of detail that it's like the pro tan is applied directly onto the muscle!
Of course, it isn't all medals and wins for the more muscular Physique competitor. Though she and Liudmila muscled up the taller class, Cris ultimately lost out in the overall posedown to the less muscular (although probably better-conditioned and balanced blah blah) package of Lithuania's Alina Cepurniene.
And a random selection of some of this year's pro Physique winners on the IFBB circuit also demonstrates that while one show might throw up a winner who is more at the "bodybuilding" end of the Physique spectrum, on a different weekend in a different place, a Physique look that leans more towards Figure will get the judges' nod.
Top left is the less muscular look of Toronto Pro winner Ceaanna Kerr, and next to her we have ex-bodybuilder and new New York Pro winner Michelle Cummings. And you can check out Michelle's last outing in Women's Bodybuilding from Tampa in 2013 and see for yourself how little difference there is in her look. Then bottom left is the Orlando champion Ayanna Carroll, muscular for sure, but smoother and not as muscular as the bigger and more defined Puerto Rico Pro winner Gloria Faulls.
It's easy to see why Valerie is confused. All this inconsistent judging. Competitors not knowing what kind of package the judges at the next show will decide to give the top places to. Hang on! That sounds just like the situation in Women's Bodybuilding!!!
But there was no confusion at all at the recent NABBA Worlds because...
Drum roll...
The big girls were back!
After a one-year hiatus when it seemed NABBA had gone the way of most federations and jettisoned Women's Bodybuilding (which in NABBA-speak is Physique) at its premier event outside the UK, true bodybuilders returned to flex their muscles in those beloved NABBA-style thong posing suits in Malta last weekend.
The winner was the Czech Karolina Borkovcova (who is probably more familiar to readers under her previous guise of Karolina Holubcova). Sit back and dig the muscle as you watch Karolina's utterly glute-tasic - and winning - routine.
We continue our week of female muscle love with a selection of women currently residing in our favourites folder. Women who have not only built exceptional physiques, but are also strikingly (if unconventionally) beautiful. These women come from all over the world. Some will be familiar, some perhaps less so. Some are at the peak of their careers, others approaching theirs. But every single one of them will make your heart skip a beat.
Prepare to fall in love (or perhaps fall in love again) with…
MICHAELA SCHAAR Deep in the Black Forest of southern Germany is the lair ofThe Iron Witch, a woman of legendary strength and mythical beauty. Many suitors have entered her domain, but as yet none have returned to tell the tale… Seriously, she calls herself The Iron Witch, it is in fact the name of her website. Check it out and see if you don’t fall for her 15-inch biceps and those big dark eyes.
VIRGINIA SANCHEZ MASIAS We know that this is not only not a real word, but also not actually biologically possible, but with so much prime Spanish beef and so much power inside that sensational body, we have our own nickname for VSM here at FMS,La Tora, the female bull. The matador who takes her on had better be at the top of his game. Olé!
JUANITA BLAINO Pros beware. Juanita is coming! The 2012 NPC Nationals Heavyweight and Overall Champion says, I love posing. We’re not surprised. How many 43-year-olds get to show off a body like that. Without question, Juanita will be a star of the future. In all probability, the very near future.
ALEESHA Like Elvis, no surname necessary. You can say all you want about her ‘enhancements’, about how it’s spoilt her for you, about how you prefer ‘the natural look’. We ain’t listening, we're not going to debate you, we’re looking at Aleesha. And what we see is a whole lot of woman. Beautiful, curvaceous, muscular woman. She just looks so… well, juicy.
JESSICA SCOFIELD Princess of Power Like most readers of the blog (I imagine) I tend to seek my female muscle from within the bodybuilding and fitness scene, paying little or no attention to the sport of powerlifting. Well, thanks to Jessica, it’s got my attention now. Don’t be fooled by the cute smile, this woman could throw you out of your county… in your car. And she’s not just gorgeous, muscular and incredibly strong. Check out her website for more.
SUSANNA TIRPAK Stunningly beautiful, Susanna came to our attention last year at the Arnold Classic Europe. I’m quite shy in real life, says Susanna, but once I’m on stage I open up, I feel great. I love presenting my routine. If that means this stunning beauty will be showing off her genetic gifts again soon, that’s great news. Until then, there's plenty more of this Hungarian goddess and her sizzling bod on YouTube.
SKADI FREI When FMS was compiling our list of favourite examples of German womanhood last year, this prime specimen was, naturally on the list. And when the researchers started to find out about Skadi’s life outside the sport, our admiration grew exponentially. It’s uncanny how often this happens when we research these fabulous women. We find there is so much more to them than their perfect bodies, that invariably they have achieved amazing things in other parts of their lives. Which brings us to…
MARTHE SUNDBY Ever watched the Winter Olympics and admired the speed skaters’ legs? Well… Marthe swapped her blades for barbells in the mid-90s, and became national champion in 2006. She disappeared off the radar for a few years, so FMS were delighted when she returned to the stage last year to again clean up at the Norwegian championships. An exceptional sportswoman, and achingly beautiful with it. And those legs...
NANCY RICHARD 40 this year, Nancy has three kids, and the kind of Amazonian body that can take your breath away, and that’s exactly what she’s been doing since we first saw her in a backstage contest-shape interview clip last year. Dark, beautiful looks, tanned and oiled, her pumped up muscles glistening, we all fell in love right then and there. But then she spoke... French! Je suis Nancy Richard… [je swee non-see ree-shar] she said. Oh my.
KAROLINA HOLUBCOVA The latest red hot muscle babe to emerge from the Czech Republic, she’s known as ‘Cute Karolina’ and it would be churlish to say that nickname wasn’t appropriate. Five foot tall, five per cent body fat, the kind of beautiful muscle-packed girl you always wished you lived next door to. Follow her on Facebook and/or Bodyspace.
