Summer Lovin': Mi Hyun

On stage for the first time in a couple of years (as far as I can ascertain), Korean Physique star Jung Mi Hyun placed 8th in Vancouver at the start of this month.

Compared to her compatriot Kim Ji Hyun (see last Thursday's post), Mi Hyun gets relatively little attention from the female muscle lovin' community - perhaps partly because of that two-year hiatus, and partly because she's often transliterated as Jung Mi Hyeon, so has multiple threads on the forums instead of one big ongoing tribute.



Treats like this may go some way to endearing her to the collective "us".

So delicate, yet so beefy!

Check out Mi Hyun on Instagram

Here she is winning the Olympia Amateur Asia (and her pro card) three years ago...



즐겨!

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!

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: Yeon Woo Ji

She is probably the sole woman featured this week who needs absolutely no introduction whatsoever to any of you lovely readers. Yeon Woo Ji cemented her place as the first Korean female muscle superstar last year with her Overall Physique victory at the Arnold Classic Europe and, of course, with her appearance at #26 in the FMS Hot and Hard 100, the only Korean and, behind Penpraghai Tiangngok, the second highest-placed Asian-born hot and hard woman on the list.



Seriously though, her rise into the IFBB pro ranks before she had turned 30, like her rise in notoriety and popularity among fans from all over the world, is, of course, mainly due to the winning package of muscularity and femininity she is able to bring to the stage - and methinks the stunning exotic beauty doesn't hurt either. But me also thinks Yeon Woo Ji's somewhat unusual (for a Korean, anyway) competitive history has also played its part in enabling her to be the first Korean woman to hit the kind of international heights that her compatriot sisters of iron have failed to reach.



The man who has to take most of the credit for transforming Yeon Woo Ji from skinny to international female muscle star is also responsible for the ring on her finger. Jong Sup Won, a bodybuilder himself, introduced her to the sport, first became her trainer, and later became her husband. And it was, I believe, his decision to compete in the USA that resulted in his wife following him as supporter and competitor, and led directly to her gaining greater exposure to the international brethren.



Her competitive career (as far as I know) began, conventionally enough, as a figure athlete and bodybuilder in Korea. But not for her the typical progression from Korean champ (which she has never been) to the IFBB Asian and then, perhaps, World Championships made by Mi Hee Yu or Lee Hyeon Joo (to name but two examples). Instead, as noted above, Yeon Woo Ji went to California with her husband in 2011.



At the 2011 NPC California State Championships she competed in Figure. Although she didn't place in that show, the wheels had been set in motion. She returned to California to compete at the Memorial Day Muscle Beach Event later in the year, won her class (OK, she was the only one in it) AND the Overall Figure title. Then, in December 2011 she was back in California again and finishing 2nd, as a bodybuilder this time, at the NPC Excalibur. By then, she had come to the attention of more than one high profile female muscle website, and suddenly she was all over the fansites.




Back in Korea in 2012 Yeon Woo Ji finished just 3rd in the national championships, but also - if the prevalance of clips out there of her appearing on Korean (and Chinese) TV is anything to go by - gained a measure of mainstream media exposure. More importantly for what followed, though, she also made the fateful decision to focus her efforts on Physique (hubby probably had something to do with that too!).



Which brings us to her triumph in Madrid last year. At the time (see Contest of the Day, November 2013) FMS reported that though we found her to be looking "sensational" in photos of the event, footage of her posing had left us a little "underwhelmed". Having revisited both in the course of putting this post together, I stand by that appraisal. I'm not saying that she didn't look as sexy as hell during her free posing routine - a dazzling vision of feminine muscularity - just that she didn't MOVE quite as sexily as hell as she had done in my imagination when I saw the contest photos. Thus, underwhelming.




But my own ignorant opinion shouldn't in any way detract from what was an undeniably incredible achievement. In winning the Arnold Europe, not only did Yeon Woo Ji become the first Korean IFBB Physique Pro, but she also entered the history books as the first Asian to win such a high profile international title.



So, what's the next move for the trailblazing Yeon Woo Ji?

Whatever it is, the female muscle fan world will be watching...



You can watch Yeon Woo Ji's Arnold Europe routine on You Tube thanks to videosmusculares, follow her on Facebook, and fill your boots with her pics and clips on Female Muscle Clips, HD Physiques, Her Biceps, Krivs Studio AND - in Madrid from last year and at her most groin-activatingly gorgeous and BIG - on Female City Flex.




And we finish both this post and our week of the country's fine female muscle with 3+ minutes of Korea's gorgeous and very first female muscle superstar. Enjoy!

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!