The Look of Love: Abs

Natalia Kovalyova willing her six-pack into existence

There are plenty of women out there with naturally well-developed calves. Fewer women are naturally blessed with stronger and ever so slightly muscular arms. These and other women with some natural muscularity fool my female muscle radar on a regular basis. But as far as I know, there aren't any women on the planet with naturally defined six-pack abs - and please, if I'm wrong do tell me where they are).




It's not surprising there is so much navel-gazing (if you'll forgive the pun) going on in the female muscle world. Every single one of these cut and sexy women have put in hours, weeks, months and years of effort in order to achieve their magnificent midriffs. Early morning alarms, intense and painful workouts, the discipline of the diet... The sense of achievement must be immense. But not only that, a woman wouldn't even try to get a ripped midsection unless she thought it was, among other things, a sexy look.



Remember the NPC competitor on Tumblr who we quoted the other day saying how she felt so fat off-season, how she always wanted to look like she did two days before a contest? (see The Look of Love: Mirror, Mirror). Well, in our offerings today we have women who are in or around contest shape, women who are pretty much 100% happy with how their bodies, their muscles, and, in particular, their abs are looking.




Here we are again with female bodybuilders at their happiest at or around competition time (perhaps the night before not so much, but generally). And by the way some of these ladies you see here are looking at themselves and their musclelicious bellies, 'happy' may not be the most accurate word to use. It's "The Look of Love" again!





And Swell loves that look, yes I do. But with summer approaching here in the UK (not very fast, but approaching nonetheless) I'm fearing for my female muscle radar. Summer is the time of bare midriffs. Teens mostly, but the occasional woman in her twenties who thinks she has a toned tummy but doesn't are both going to soon be liable to flash the flesh in the heat of the summer. And that means more false alarms for my poor radar. Even worse, there are the women who are actually fat but just don't care letting it all hang out. No radar issue there, but I have an issue with that. What I don't see - it may be going on elsewhere my friends, but it certainly ain't going on here I can tell you - is fit and muscular ladies baring themselves in the abdominal area.



So, six-pack ladies of the world, FMS says to you, this summer, bare your magnificent midsections! Show the world your musclelicious midriffs. Let's 'ave them abs out!

[You may be thinking that the only reason I'm making this appeal is because I want (NEED!) to see more female muscle in my life. If you are, shame on you. Well, I'm not saying that's NOT a reason, but I do have more altruistic aims in mind here.]



Get them out at home and it might turn on your boyfriend (or his brother, or their Dad), but that's about as far as it goes. Get them out in the gym and you may inspire another woman. Isn't that better? Well, check this out, get them out in the street and by the law of averages you'll inspire a lot more women who have never been near a gym (or have and gave up on January 7th). They will go to the gym, seek you out for advice even. Make you feel even better about the amazing body you already feel very good about. And then there is the added bonus that the wannabes and the tubbies will be shamed into putting their inferior 'physiques' back under a layer at least. We all win.



And while you are at it, you might, from time to time, look down at your own abs with that look, that look of love. After all, we wouldn't want anybody doubting how very very good it feels to be the woman walking down the street, all eyes upon you, proud and aroused in your muscular armour, showing off the rippling results of all that physical exertion and dietary discipline, your superior shredded abs.

If I can't convince you, maybe Bella Falconi can...



"Oh look she’s got man's abs." Free yourself from labeling. It won’t make you better, not even prettier. If abs were for men, women wouldn’t be born with it or with the ability to work to achieve it. And I wear mine proudly. I sweated for it and this is the materialization of the battle 'me against my mind', which I obviously won and win everyday of my life. Weak are those who criticize. Strong are those who regardless of others’ opinion, keep working for their ideals with the right mind set: a champion’s attitude and champions don’t give up. Weakness is ugly. Abs aren’t.

Enjoy, and stay tuned for The Look of Love: Biceps coming soon!

Inspired by... Cockpuncher

It's always nice to know that someone is reading my musings, and even nicer when they actually bother to share their thoughts and/or reach out a mutually female muscle appreciating hand. So, this week on FMS, for some of the lovely readers who have been in touch (whether by email or the comment box), a whole post inspired by them as a way of saying thank you for supporting the blog.

I hope they, and you, will enjoy them.

Want to be my favourite reader? A high standard has been set. If you think you can be MORE complimentary than this, you are very very welcome to try...

Any article is a love letter for muscular women! Such a great blog you have here!

It keeps getting better and better. Your texts are as good as the wonderful pictures.

Once again, you gave us awesome articles this week.

You always have great topic ideas. Your blog keeps getting better and better.

Cockpuncher, from France, may be familiar to you from the forum boards, and will definitely be familiar to anyone who reads the comments below the posts, where the quality of his comments (in my opinion, anyway!) is matched only by the quantity.

So, as a thank you to him for all his encouragement this year, the iron daughters of Romania who rock his world (and quite possibly yours too). Cockpuncher says, My 2 favourite FBBs, Alina Popa and Elena Oana Hreapca, come from Romania. I truly believe these two are the most beautiful women in the world.



It's hard to argue with that. Who would want to?

Cockpuncher on Oana (after she was voted FMS Abs Queen)
Of course Oana is Abs Queen. Sooooo sexy!
















Cockpuncher on Alina
Sexiest woman ever! The most beautiful woman on Earth! My number 1 FBB.
I am truly in love with this amazing woman.

And I reckon the only thing better than Oana or Alina separately is Oana and Alina together, preferably touching each other...





Perhaps the only improvement we could make is to throw yet another European muscle goddess into the mix... Step forward Katka!



Joyeux Noël and a heartfelt thank you to you, Cockpuncher.

I hope this year you'll get to be this guy...



Enjoy!

Contest Candids

We'll be back to the round-up of recent contests tomorrow, but today we can catch our breath with a few candids from the shows featured over the last three days, culled from the hundreds available at Muscular Development, Flex Online, FTVideo, Bodybuilding.com, contest website of the year TEAM-ANDRO, and Lisa Cross's own Facebook page.



Another reason for thinking about the IFBB Worlds as a contest worth a visit is provided by these candids of the 'Farewell Banquet'. I'm not saying they'd let you in, but presumably there's nothing to stop you hanging around the front door or trying to get a job as one of the waiting staff. Better still, get the DJ gig. 'If you want me to play it you're gonna have to flex for it...' It does look like fun, doesn't it?



Swedes Deniz Faith (left) and Eva Lagerhorn Blom (right) both bid to get their favourite tune played. Readers will remember both these beauties competed in Bodybuilding, finishing 5th and 6th respectively. More evidence here that, as we suspected, Deniz is really gorgeous and Eva can control her face when flexing off stage about as well as she can when she's on it.



Katka Kyptova (left) digs into her pudding after her first (as far as we know) show as a Physique competitor. And the kind of glamour you expect at an event called a 'Banquet' is provided by Hungarian fitness goddess Zsuzsanna Toldi (left) and German fitness/bikini babe Valeria Ammirato. Readers who've been with FMS since 2011 (!) may remember Valeria being featured before (see Innamorato with Ammirato). At the Worlds she won the short Bikini Fitness class, and I think if I look at her in that dress and those shoes much longer I'm going to get all innamorato with her again. Zsuzsanna, by the way, didn't compete at the Worlds, so she must have been there to support her Hungarian compatriots. Or perhaps just for the free food.



From Kiev to Madrid, and (left) a picture taken moments after Lisa Cross had competed at the Arnold Classic Europe. Just got off stage and bumped into the gorgeous Olga Belyakova, World Champion, Lisa tells us. Glad I am not the only one who thinks Olga is 'gorgeous'. In case you're still undecided, another close-up of her (right) from the Arnold Expo.



It shouldn't surprise regular readers to see Lisa hanging out with the Russians. We learned that Lisa's degree was in Russian and Politics during our Arnold countdown. Lisa doesn't waste the chance to brush up her Russian with Natalia Yariz and Maria Kuzmina (above) and Valentyna Yefymchuk (below). Lisa says Valentina is such a lovely lady. We have met up a few times now and it is always a pleasure.



Finally from the Arnold Europe, here's Lisa 'having a chat' with Yeon Woo-ji, the Physique class winner, who Lisa reckons is a lovely lady and has a beautiful physique. She doesn't tell us what language they were chatting in. It wouldn't surprise me that much if Lisa had picked up a working knowledge of Korean. Amazing woman. And she wears that dress well, doesn't she?



And from Madrid, it's back in time to September in Las Vegas.

BEFORE



A ripped and veiny Valerie Gangi and a bouffed (and no, that's not a spelling mistake) Tina Chandler at the meet and greet before the show. Valerie is fondly remembered by older fans from her younger, bodybuilding days. She turned pro way back in 1995, and not only looks amazing for her age, but is a serious competitor in the Physique division, winning this year's Tampa Pro to qualify for the first ever Physique Olympia. I've already told you how I feel about Tina this week, so I'll just say it's the thought of having the opportunity to get this up-close and personal with her (and all the other top muscle goddesses) that makes me wonder whether I should blow all my air miles at once for a trip to the Olympia next year.

DURING



Mmmmmm. If this isn't the kind of scenario you've always dreamed of being a part of then you are probably here against your will. All three of the ladies here look like they're having fun. The kind of fun I'd like to be having with the lady in the middle.

AFTER

Just hang around in the Orleans Casino and you will get whiplash as the fbbs walk by.



I can only imagine that if yours truly was just 'hanging around' and spied the newly-blond Aleesha Young, glammed up to the nines with her blue blue eyes and sexy pout, suggestively toying with that bottle of beer, then 'heart failure' would probably be a more likely outcome than whiplash. What a way to go that would be!



The ultimate double date? Europe's finest, the recently retired Brigita Brezovac and Ms Olympia in waiting Alina Popa showing that female bodybuilders can be beautiful, feminine and fashionable. In pairs.

Enjoy!

Contest of the Day: IFBB Worlds

IFBB Worlds
14-15th September, Kiev

Or, to give it its full name, the IFBB Women's Bodybuilding, Fitness and Body Fitness World Amateur Championships. Not the most talked-about of contests, but fans of female muscle could do a lot worse. Apart from a few Men's Fitness classes, there were 200+ female competitors on show in a variety of divisions from Bodybuilding to Bikini Fitness, all (except Bodybuilding) divided into height classes before overall titles were decided. And there's a team contest thrown in for good measure, based on points awarded for individual results and won, incidentally, by Ukraine.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to take you through all the myriad classes and divisions that were on display in Kiev, although it is worth noting that a certain Kateřina Kyptová made her Physique debut in the taller of the two classes, finishing 2nd (is it just me or does she ALWAYS finish as runner-up no matter what contest, division or class she's entering) to the new Overall Physique World Champion, Susanna Mantila of Finland.



There's no better resource for European contests than the German übersite TEAM-ANDRO.com, so if you do want to know who won the shorter of the Physique classes or the mid-height Bikini Fitness class or who was the Overall Athletic Fitness champion, then that should be your next port of call.

Today, FMS will focus on the Bodybuilding division, for the first time at the IFBB Worlds an Open division (ie there were no weight classes). And in time-honoured tradition, we'll do it in reverse order...



Eva Lagerhorn Blom, from Sweden, possibly the world's most facially expressive poser (actually, scratch the 'possibly', she can't help herself, make it 'definitely') was given 6th place, and her compatriot, Deniz Faith, finished 5th. Deniz was completely new to me before I looked into this contest, and one of the reasons I'm glad I did. FMS will certainly be keeping our eyes peeled for her sexy Scandinavian package from now on.



In fourth, another competitor who is new to us, Elena Stasiukyniene from Lithuania, and in third, a place lower than last year but nevertheless picking up valuable points for her country in the team contest, Ukraine's Maryna Alf.



The runner-up (this time) was Jana Purdjakova of Slovakia, a woman whose competitive record in this contest is second to none. Apart from 1999 and 2009, she has competed at every IFBB Worlds since 1997 (when Peggy Schoolcraft won Jana's class!) In that time, she has won her weight class on eight occasions in all, and twice she has gone on to be the Overall winner (2010 and 2011).



But this year, Jana lost out to Russia's Olga Belyakova.



Russia's beautiful Olga Belyakova.



Information about European competitors is not always easy to come by, and unfortunately, that is the case with information about Olga, even though I've been a fan of hers ever since I first came across her a couple of years ago. What I do know is she's in her early thirties (32 on October 25th as far as I can work out). I also know she's from Russia, and that she finished 2nd earlier in the year to Branka Njegovec at the IFBB Europeans. I'm also pretty sure that she won her national title either last year or this year. And, of course, that she's now World Champion!



(I do also know that she's married. To Sergei. But I'd rather not talk about that.)



And the other thing I know about beautiful Olga Belyakova is that just a few weeks after she had won in Kiev, she competed again at the Arnold Classic Europe... in Physique! On the fan forum whose first rule is that you do not talk about it I've seen a rumour that Physique is where 'she sees her future'. Fortunately (if you have the same point of view as me), she didn't do very well at the ACE. Hopefully (again if, like me, you'd rather see more of Olga the bodybuilder) that result might make her rethink her future.



She wasn't the biggest woman on stage in Kiev. Nor was she the best conditioned. In many ways I agree with the fan who commented that 'I think the judging at the Worlds in Kiev was really strange'. On the other hand though, those are definitely World Champion legs. And sometimes the 'wrong' result is the right one. After all, it can't be a bad thing for the sport to have such a young and such a beautiful World Champion.



Check out the IFBB Worlds on the YouTube channels of Vasily Zaitsev and/or Art's Sport Vision, and visit the mighty TEAM-ANDRO website for hundreds more images.

Enjoy!