Summer Lovin': Chunri

Last September, you may remember, Kim Ji-hyun (aka Chunri Kim) was struck down with a life-threatening illness just as she was looking as big, beautiful and thrillingly vascular as ever. Happily (and thanks to some swift, expert treatment), she not only survived, but was soon scheduling a return to competition in 2018.



And she made that return not in her native Korea but in Vancouver, at the "Pro Qualifier" event (held in tandem with the pro show itself) on the 7th/8th of July.




No disprespect intended to the other women in Ji-hyun's class, but incredibly (although why I am still surprised by these bizarre decisions is a mystery), this body was only considered to be good enough for 5th - even in a Canadian (ie. more female muscle friendly) show, it seems that the long arm of IFBB "law" is preventing "more muscular" Physique competitors from getting ahead in the division.

She didn't seem too upset afterwards, however.



Just hungry!

Chunri Kim on Instagram

Enjoy!

2016 Review: April

As Hot and Hard 100 voting ended and FMS got down to the business of counting them up and getting together the posts, the doyen of British female muscle blogging, Mr PumpItUp himself, did us the honour of dropping in for a lengthy chat about the possibility that we were living in a "New Golden Age" of female muscle.

But first, we still had unfinished business...

The FMS Arnold Classic Review (cont.)



We kicked off April by doffing our hats to the more mature ladies who had featured in the Physique International. Women like the Tracy Hess, who, we thought, had to be lying about her age (surely she can't be 50!) and the ever swole 45-year-old Sherri Gray. I'm a lifting Mum, says Sherri. Like a normal Mum, only much cooler.

Then we snuck backstage for some, er, cheap thrills...



To be honest, we enjoyed the Amateur section of the Arnold at least as much as the pro show, with some of the best up-and-coming Physique muscle in the world on display in each class, all beautifully photographed by Igor Kopcek for Eastlabs.

In the tallest class, won by Julia Föry, we very much enjoyed Canada's Justine Albert with all her body art (yes, you heard) and her artistic, sexy-flexy routine.



Forum favourite Hronn Sigurdardottir and FMS fave Liudmila Goshko were standouts in the medium class, Liudmila once again wowing us with those pecs of hers. A bit less bronzed than we've seen her before, I noted, and perhaps therefore a bit less ripplely in the pec department, but I'm more and more impressed by this beautiful woman every time I see her in competition. And it seems I am not alone. At the time it was clear Liudmila was going to make her debut in the Hot and Hard 100.



With 21 of the 36 Physique competitors, "up to 163cm" at the Arnold Amateur was certainly the biggest of the three classes. It was also, in my opinion at least, the best of the three classes in terms of quality with plenty of prime muscle all the way down in the placings. And in that shortest class, among the many many delights, were the abs of Allison Sinisi and Camila Rodrigues, 6th and 10th respectively.



Goodnight Ohio!

And then, after our little chat about then and now with PumpItUp, it was time to reveal who you'd voted for. Time to reveal the FMS Hot and Hard 100 for 2016...



We got as far as #41 before April ended. There were many, many new entries, one notable re-entry, and plenty of the usual suspects. Liudmila came in at #90, Nicky Foord "with a bullet" at #87, an unprecedented eight-woman tie at #74, and a certain Mr Ozzy was apoplectic to find that his beloved Anne was "only" #70.



Sandra Grajales Romero debuted at #49, Gracyanne rose again from #69 in 2015 to #48 this year, as did Zoa Linsey (#82 to #42). But Tina Nguyen surprisingly dropped from #33 to #44. And we revealed that Kim Ji-Hyun had taken over as top Korean from Yeon Woo-Ji as the female muscle world held its collective breath (in my head it did anyway) and Swell put in some shifts to get those last few posts just right before we counted down to #1 at the beginning of May... Oh the suspense!

Media Watch: Korea

[With the usual reservations about the transliteration of Korean names...]

Despite an emphasis on appearance that has fueled a $5-billion plastic surgery industry, until recently, physical fitness was not much of a priority for Korean women. Thinness was so prized that young women often steered clear of sports such as hiking and cycling, for fear they would leave them with thicker legs. But the ideal of beauty is evolving, and women's fitness has become a growth business, say purveyors of health products, from diet supplements to dumb-bells. "Women used to starve in order to lose weight, said celebrity trainer Ray Yang. "Now they exercise."


Myeong Ju-Gwon is all about the gainz

This story, picked up by FMS last week via Reuters, since repeated - verbatim - all over the place, seems to be very good news. We have known (or at least suspected) for some time that Korea was starting to punch well above its weight in terms of female muscle (see our week of Koreans from September last year). But it seems Korea is not just producing many of the most outstanding female bodybuilders in Asia but also undergoing a cultural attitude shift towards female muscle that the dreamy optimist in me imagines will result in the country becoming the Brazil of its region.


The beautiful back of Kim Yeong Ah; Kim Mi-seon flexes sexy abs on stage,
and, in the mirror, #1 Korean, Yeon Woo-Ji shows off impressively shredded legs

Are women like Yeon Woo-Ji, probably the most successful Korean female bodybuilder ever at international level, responsible for this shift? I wondered. Sadly, according to the article, "no" seems to be the answer to that question.

"Many fitness conscious Korean women are adopting as role models well-toned celebrities, from domestic K-pop girl group Sistar's Hyorin, to global figures such as U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge," said Kim Min-jeong, a professor of Global Sports Science at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. "The strength, the outer beauty of muscles, the positive attitudes and energetic images of these women have become the motivation."




Not quite what I had in mind, but though the above examples may not represent what you or I consider to be muscular, if I'm a Korean female muscle head and these so-called muscular celebrities are getting more Korean women to the gym, I am not complaining. Female bodybuilders have always been the kind of avant garde rather than the mainstream ideal of women's fitness anyway, no matter what the country, always several muscular steps ahead of current female body aspirations.


Song Naeun pumps up backstage

Nevertheless, when I see clips of Korean bodybuilding shows, I can't help being struck by the incredible production values. Take, for instance, this clip of the absolutely spectacular Kim Ji Hyun at the Korean Musclemania show from this year. I'm not saying the Rising Phoenix was amateurish, but there are aspects of the camera work, the lighting and so on apparent in this clip that make the coverage and production of that showpiece female bodybuilding event look rather amateurish in comparison.



And it only takes a small percentage of the ladies inspired by the zeitgeist for female fitness to take their interest to the next level to add up to a significant increase in the amount of female muscle in the country. And following on from there, even if only a small percentage of those women decide a bona fide muscle goddess like "Chunri" is the body idol they really want to emulate, then rock sttar productions such as this can only add to the attraction. Minimum net result? More beautiful Korean muscle.

Sounds all good to me!

Read the full article here.

한국인 of the Day: Kim Ji Hyun

HOLY SH**! What a goddess!

Oh WOW. She's beautiful.

This... Girl... kills... me WOW!

Oh... WOW. So amazingly HOT!




One word keeps cropping up again and again in forum members' reactions to coming across Kim Ji Hyun for the first time. And funnily enough, this was exactly the word that popped into my head when I first laid eyes on this rising Korean star. WOW!




I arrived late at the Kim Ji Hyun appreciation party, as did the forum members above - this year. Turns out I could have been appreciating since 2011 at least.




There was, as you can see, plenty to appreciate about her 2011 self, but whatever she has been doing since then, the results are nothing less than spectacular. Competing this year at the WBC World Body Classic and then at the WFF Universe (in a class called 'Extreme Body'!), KIm Ji Hyun is noticeably both bigger and better in 2014.




Now I'd like to be able to tell you some facts at this point, but sadly my research has turned up absolutely nothing. As I noted in a postscript to Saturday's post, this is due both to my own ignorance, and to the plethora of variant spellings and name orders these Korean goddesses have. Kim Ji Hyun, for example, is also known as Ji Hyun Kim, Ji Hyeon Kim, Kim Ji Hyeon, Chun Li Kim, and plain old Chun Li. She is on Facebook as 김춘리, which she herself transliterates as Chunri Kim, although the page's address, rather amusingly, refers to her as simply "badjihyoun"!!!



Now there's an interesting thought... that despite her utterly angelic looks, Kim Ji Hyun is naughty as... Kim Ji Hyun is a BAD girl... But back to the point, you see how the non-Korean female muscle fan is going to struggle to keep up with his favourite Korean muscle babes when he can't even be sure if he knows what their names are.




Sorry, still thinking about the glute-smacking I'd joyously give this BAD girl...



Anyway, we've already brought you a little Kim Ji Hyun this year, with a mouth-watering clip of her, razor-sharp and oozing sex appeal from the Korean Muscle & Fitness website (see Sexy Selfies, August 21st). I'm happy to report that researching this post I have come across her routine at this year's WFF Universe for you to savour, courtesy of the indispensable You Tube channel that is watatiwatatio.



Enjoy!