Igor Kopcek @UKBFF British 2017

It's absolutely unprecedented! Krish Kataria (centre, 1st), Livia Melo (right, 2nd), and
Zulmira Woodrow (left, 3rd) flex their muscles after the up to 163cm Bikini class awards

Yes yes YES! It's absolutely unprecedented, and most welcome - FMS' favourite female muscle contest lensman, Eastlabs' Igor Kopcek, was at the recent UKBFF British Championships doing what he does so well. For once, I am able to put together a report on the show where my problem is not where to find images without big f*** off watermarks saying DO NOT F***ING COPY all over them, but how to choose which of the 2,799(!) images of the female classes to include. I've been in heaven for the last few hours, and I don't mind admitting it. Mr Kopcek, I doff my chapeau to you, sir!


Jo Griffiths, 6th, Masters Bodyfitness

Of course, I'm still going to have whine about the paucity of information available regarding the results. Were it not for John Plummer's excellent reports on the UKBFF Facebook page (I ask you, what kind of federation has its results released via Facebook by a third party?), I'd know even less than the top six in each class that I do know.




Many of the winners and high finishers from Nottingham (the show's now traditional setting) were those who had competed and in many cases done so well for Britain in Barcelona at the Arnold Classic Europe a few weeks before. Sandra Mackie became Britain's first ever "Wellness" Queen, and Marta Mila the new Junior Bikini champ. Connie Slyziut won her second consecutive Junior Bodyfitness title, and Samantha Forbes the up to 163cm Bodyfitness class before being crowned Overall winner too.




However, Danielle Osborn, Britain's big Bodyfitness winner in Barcelona, didn't fare quite so well. In the over 163cm Bodyfitness class, she placed only 3rd. Now I've got nothing against class winner Anna Banks, good on her, but if any of the UKBFF Bodyfitness judges would like to get in touch and explain to FMS exactly why it is that the woman on the right beats the woman on the left, I promise I will be all ears.



There was a tense few days after the photos from the Saturday had gone up on Eastlabs before Sunday's were added. Tense because Women's Physique was the sole female event on the Sunday. Had Igor just come for the Wellness and Bikini bums and flown home early? I wondered. Thankfully, the answer was no, and while he took more photos of just bums (and I mean "just", whole frame = a bum) in the Wellness and Bikini classes than all of the Physique division put together, by the following Wednesday, our Linda and her UKBFF Physique sisters had been added to the gallery. Phew!


Physique Dreams: FMS fave Hayley Brylewski (left), and Anita Tryc (6th)

And talking of bums... Linda had a bit of an issue on and off stage. I couldn’t contract my quads or lower back, and I was shaking like a shitting dog, she explains. People have said it was because I was posing too hard and nerves, but no, it was my ASS. It had locked up and trapped my nerves in my back and legs. And despite the pain and the "locked up" glutes, and her inability to flex her quads or lower back properly, and the "shaking like a shitting dog" (don't you just LOVE her!) she still placed 3rd!



The contest marked the UKBFF British debut of the current NABBA Trained Figure Ms Universe Emma Gormley. Like Linda before her, Emma has made the switch to Women's Physique from the most venerable federation of them all. A lot less peeled, and somewhat more covered in the bum area than she was when she won last November, she placed 5th here in her first UKBFF national level appearance.



4th in the Physique class was UKBFF vet Ade Bishop, who FMS knew of (thanks only to Mr Kopcek and Eastlabs) from international contests such as the Arnold Europe and various Diamond Cups over the last couple of years. This was Ade in by far her best ever shape, and she was perhaps a bit unlucky not to be rewarded with a top 3 placing.


Ade Bishop (left, 4th), and Andrea Corbett (right, 2nd)

A lot happier - probably the happiest woman on stage even though she didn't win - was runner-up Andrea Corbett, another UK Physique trooper in European contests who rarely gets placed near the top. Again, nothing against Andrea, congratulations to her, but while I've got the UKBFF judge on the line educating me about the Bodyfitness criteria, perhaps they could also fill me in as to why Andrea finished above Ade.



And the winner was...

Tune in tomorrow for a dose of serious star quality.



Isn't it a shame we - and more importantly all the wonderful UKBFF British ladies - have had to wait until 2017 to get top-notch, comprehensive, and freely available photo coverage? I can't help wishing Igor had been there in 2014 to see your Hot and Hard 100 #5 Sarah Williams win the Physique title, or Ria Ward the year before that, or he'd been there back in 2011 to see Rene Campbell become the UK's Queen of Muscle, or indeed the year before that, when Rene was runner-up to Lisa Cross... [seriously? 2,799 photos and you're still not satisfied? tut tut - ed.]

Full galleries here. Enjoy! It may be the one and only time...

FBBUK: The Retransformation of Linda Gartside

Linda the NABBA Champion - note the smile.

A long long time ago, well, four years ago, FMS brought you The Transformation of Linda Gartside, the story of how a binge-eating teenager with a love of Arnold became NABBA Ms Universe 2012. Like Rocky in Rochdale but with an FBB protagonist.

It's one of my personal favourite posts, not least because it's one and only comment is from the woman herself. She read it. And she liked it. And she said I was "very kind".

The swoon lasted weeks as I recall.



Now, fast forward from that 2012 NABBA Universe moment to 2017. The girl who was too embarrassed to join a gym and instead worked out with dumbbells in her garage as Arnold looked on from the cover of his book is about to go on stage at his event and perform under his banner. Her "soul dream", she calls it, is about to come true.

She's 47.




Since switching to the UKBFF and the Physique division, Linda has progressed slowly but surely upwards. She was 3rd at the British Championships in 2014, but 6th the following year. However, she followed that disappointment with 2nd (behind Rosanna Harte, who got the pro card) at the British Olympia Amateur the following week. Last year she competed at the British Championships again, and placed 2nd again, then at the IFBB Diamond Cup in Liverpool a week later, she was 3rd.

Was she happy?



In a word, no.

I had forgotten who I was, and why I competed, she told her Instagram followers after she'd returned from Barcelona. I was lost in a race, leaving "me" behind.


"A post show rack of ribs causes gains n veins". Hell yes!

"Me" has a name. The name she uses on social media, the name she signed on the bottom of my 2013 post (with an x - weeks that swoon lasted, I tell you) - Linny.



Linny had been lost for some time, continues Rochdale's finest, the Arnold Classic Europe was where I found "me" again. The moment I gave up the chase for winning, I regained my inner freedom, and found my happiness. Once I stopped chasing, Linny caught up, and now I have found the "me" that I lost five years ago.



There she is, then. October 2017, the REtransformation of Linda Gartside into the woman she was when we last met her. She has a good man beside her now, two grown up children, and they all came to Barcelona to cheer her on and were all, as Linda tells it, integral in persuading her she was good enough to compete. You see she doesn't seem quite to have lost that teenage girl who was so overwhelmed when she first walked into a gym and turned and ran home. And why should she? That girl was Linny too. And though it's completely irrelevant, she has two new silver medals - for 2nds in both the up to 163cam and the Masters classes to add to what must be the biggest collection of her silver and bronze in British Female Bodybuilding!



More importantly, she says "the smile is back".

It's so good to see her happy.

Congratulations Linda!

FBBUK: Linda & Fay Win in the North

Congratulations are in order to two of FMS' favourite UK muscle ladies, both already winners in 2016.

LINDA GARTSIDE
Winner, Women's Physique UKBFF North-west Championships 2016



Linda booked her place at the British finals later in the year with her (I think I'm right in saying) first ever win at the UKBFF North-west Championships. And apart from all the other reasons to celebrate, she was especially chuffed to have been awarded the trophy by none other than IFBB Pro Wendy McCready, who guest posed at the show.



First time I saw Wendy McCready in Evolution [gym] I was in awe and didn't dare speak to her, Linda said afterwards. Now many years later we are good friends, and to be awarded the trophy by a Lady I have admired since the day I started lifting properly is something I will cherish.



All in all, Linda "had the best day", and if anyone deserves to have a bumper year, then it's her. After such a successful time as a NABBA athlete (see previously on FMS) she's had little success in terms of placings within the UKBFF, but has never even come close to resting on her former laurels. She tirelessly continues to refine and improve her physique year on year.



I know my own weaknesses, she says, I embrace challenging myself, I know I have more in me, I know I will beat the old me. I can easily look in the mirror and smile because there is so much more to give.



As always, actual concrete news of the show is hard to come by. I have no idea, for example, how many women there were in the Physique division at the show (I would bet not many) but eagle-eyed readers may have spotted a familiar face (and body) to Linda's right there. Presumably, given that she is on Linda's left, she was runner-up on this occasion.

FAY ELLIS
Winner, Athletic Figure NABBA North-east Championships 2016

But Fay Ellis (aka Fay Simone, see previously on FMS), didn't have to wait long after the Warrington show for her first win of the year.



Again, not a lot of news about this other than what I have gleaned from Fay's own Instagram feed, but she definitely won, and with her victory she qualified for the NABBA Britain finals, which take place in the last weekend of May.



Footage from international NABBA shows generally turns up on YouTube, domestic shows not so much, but the FMS research team are on it, and if any of Fay's routine does turn up, we'll be sure to let you know.

Congratulations again to our Northern muscle beauties!

Enjoy!

Who Is Lea Pearl?

MUSCLE MUMS

Apart from the two very obvious British pro female bodybuilders - who we shall be seeing at the final audition tomorrow - when I read that Lea Pearl is not only a champion bodybuilder but also a mother, two names immediately sprang to mind...

Linda Gartside




Rochdale's sexiest driving instructor and former NABBA Ms Universe has already had her life story turned into a movie script. Well, sort of. The Transformation of Linda Gartside is one of FMS' own favourite posts, and still one of our all-time most popular. If Linda does happen to be cast as Lea Pearl and the film gains an audience, there's a sequel - or more likely a prequel - ready to go into production right there!




Jackie Hague




And we find our second muscle mum just down the road from Linda in Blackpool. Jackie Hague's blend of unapologetic muscle sexiness and undeniably feminine beauty has gained her regional titles and a legion of (male and female) fans over the last few years - yours truly very much included. She could write some of her own dialogue too. Take this little speech, adapted from one of Jackie's very own Instagram posts...

Look around! How many people even look like I do? Or put that much work in? Or give a shit about their bodies and health? Very few! But I stand out in the crowd.
I can look at my body in the mirror and say "F***ing hell yeah!!!"




Tomorrow in our final audition, the "Big Two".