MUSCLE! @Tampa Pro 2017

At the beginning of the month, the Tampa Pro provided the best Female Bodybuilding contest of the year prior to the Rising Phoenix. 17 women competed - the biggest line-up of the year, and - in my opinion anyway - by far the best in terms of quality. Sheila Bleck was crowned champion for the third time since 2014, with Britain's best Lisa Cross resplendent in her best ever shape runner-up for the second year in a row.



While on holiday, ol' Swell here has to admit to having spent a little more time than usual at the local hypermarket with its free wi-fi on the day after the show, drooling over the women, and Lisa in particular. The rest of the weekend was even spicier than normal for Mrs Swell. I'm sure that Lisa would approve of her effect.




This is the second year that Lisa has been under the guidance of Alina Popa, and the results are clear for all to see. One fan rocked up at the pre-show meet and greet with his video camera and found Lisa with Angela Rayburn. "Are you the famous Lisa Cross?" he asks. Poor Angela doesn't get a lot of screen time, Lisa revels in the attention. I'm frankly quite surprised how well our roving reporter handles it when she pouts and hits a double bicep. My voice would have gone up at least an octave.



Any other show this year and Lisa would have been facing the issue of how to get the big sword back through UK customs, and a lot of the forum chatter I've seen since the event has been about how she was "robbed" here. I'm not so sure. Sheila Bleck is one hard woman who is hard to beat in Tampa, where she's competed four times since 2012 (when she was runner-up to Sarah Hayes), winning on the last three occasions.



Her perfect proportions and flawless conditioning once again proved to be more than enough for the Tampa judges, and, as always, Sheila had the best evening routine.



Outside of the top two, it was a memorable pro debut for 3rd place Pauline Nelson (last seen on FMS winning that pro card in July), and in 4th Virginia Sanchez finally brought the size and conditioning from her prep and hotel room shots to the stage.




6th place Janeen Lankowski had her best day as a pro since she was 3rd (behind Sarah and Sheila) here in 2012, and Alicia Alfaro (aka Alfaro-Mesa), at her seventh attempt and her fifth in Tampa, finally cracked the top 10 and was awarded 7th.



Outside the top 10, Australia's Kahla Bullemor returned after a three-year break to provide female muscle lovers all over the globe with something to swoon over. I almost didn't recognise her to be honest - I remembered her shredded physique from 2014, but had never thought she could be as stunningly beautiful as she looked here.



Perhaps the fact that she was somewhat less shredded this time (although her legs still looked pretty damn peeled) allowed her natural gorgeousness to shine through, perhaps she's just one of those women who gets more beautiful with age. Whatever the reason, the fan search for candid pics of Kahla at the show is on, although judging by the lack of images on her Instagram that actually feature herself, that search may not prove to be fruitful. Let's hope it won't be another three years till we see her again.



Check out more clips from the show on fbbspy, and contest galleries - NPC News Online and FTVideo are my personal go-tos, though the former doesn't have anything from the evening show, it does have an extensive check-in gallery to wade through, and though the latter does have some evening stuff, it's mainly just from the awards.



More from Tampa tomorrow.

Enjoy!

21 Reasons (#20)

Due to some work commitments and Mr and Mrs Swell's now annual sojourn to the South of France (not the bit that was recently on fire, thankfully), the FMS offices are going to be closed this week, next week and the week after. Nevertheless, as always, we don't want to leave you totally FMS-less, so we've lined up 21 Reasons, one daily picture (or two or three), plus one reason why we love doing what we do, as if we were explaining it to one not so convinced of the glory of the muscular female.

Enjoy!

#20
TRANSFORMATION



I was overweight. I had an eating disorder. I was an alcoholic, a drug addict, depressed. Such stories have been told on more than one occasion here on the blog, and countless times in the world of female bodybuilding, enough times to make me think weight training should be a recommended treatment on the NHS for all of the above. But it's not just in extreme cases that the sport transforms lives - bodies and, crucially, minds. Having a muscular physique has definitely changed me on a psychological level, said Dawn Alison in 2010. It has made me confident and gives me a feeling of power and control over myself and how my body looks, feels and functions. Growing up I always seemed to be at war with my body and hating the skin I was in. It has hugely raised my levels of self-esteem, self-worth, and self-love, all of which I had little or none of prior to my involvement with bodybuilding.



Even the prior self-loathing isn't necessary - Theresa Ivancik, Shannon Courtney, Diana Schnaidt to name but three, were conventionally attractive before, in Diana's case enough to have a reasonably successful career in modelling.
Life doesn't have to have been bad before for muscles to make it so much better.

FBBUK: Pic of the Week

You may be familiar with the late, great American comedian Bill Hicks. He used to have a bit about the "ultimate TV commercial", the advert that would take the notion that "sex sells" to its logical conclusion. The commercial "they'd like to do if they could".

Watch the man in full flow here.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, our FBBUK: Pic of the Week this week isn't a brand new pic. I believe it dates from a few months ago, around the time of the Rising Phoenix. Bill Hicks is relevant because it seems to me that with this ad for her supplement company sponsors, Lisa Cross has only gone and actually made that "ultimate commercial" already!



What a woman, what a pioneer she is!

I'm sure NAPA appreciate everything she does for them.

More FBBUK, less Media Studies tomorrow!

A Good Day for... @RP2016

The 2016 Rising Phoenix was a good day for...

SHEILA BLECK (2nd, Best Poser Award)



Now this was a surprise to many, and a shock to some. For a moment, Sheila became the focus of much ire from those who felt their own personal faves were robbed. She was called a "NUT" on the forum whose first rule is... (though how this was quite relevant to the judging was not explained), where another irate poster claimed she hardly qualify [sic] as a bodybuilder... but instead would suit better in the physique division. Even her Best Poser Award was belittled - it was intimated she'd only won it because her "best friend" Melody Spetko had sponsored it via MuscleGirlzLive.


"Most muscular for my fans who simply enjoy muscle". Sheila days before RP2016

They should look at the images, see her magnificent (as ever) conditioning, the beautiful lines of her body, and her fantastic proportions. They should look at some of the comparisons. She's taller than you think, and bigger than you think when you see her with the rest of the top four. They should visit Muscle Memory and look at Sheila's contest history. The Olympia aside, she has been first or second in every pro show she has ever competed in, and she came into the Rising Phoenix off the back of a win in Tampa - the show Margie Martin warmed up for RP2015 by winning. And they should look at all of Sheila's routines they can find, routines which she routinely receives best poser awards for. And while enjoying her athletic, artistic and sensual performances, they should recall how much work Sheila has put into these few minutes, even to the point of commissioning original music for them.




Surprise? More of a surprise that she never placed higher than 4th at the Olympia.


NANCY CLARK (9th)




The 2012 Canadian Masters champion has enjoyed by far her best season as a pro, and ended it on a high by finishing 9th, one of the two women over 50 in the top 10.



As I mentioned recently during one of our RP2016 previews, I had to admit - after looking at the pics (Sheila critics take note) - that her balance and conditioning at the Toronto Pro earlier in the year were spot on, and she brought much the same qualities to the stage in Scottsdale, and looked bigger than I remember seeing her before.


Nancy signs her contract before the weekend of the show, and poses with the champ

She gave the impression both before and during the weekend that competing here was like being in a dream. To be doing what she's doing at her age is amazing. I'm rather pleased that her dream had a happy ending. She quite obviously deserves it.


KIM BUCK (6th)



I am so excited to have the opportunity to compete with some of the best female bodybuilders in the world, wrote Kim Buck, via social media for a change. What a wonderful day at all the events at the Rising Phoenix! All before the day of the show had even arrived. And that day turned out to be pretty wonderful for her too.



Most competitors have a lot of people to thank after a show, but not Kim. It's not out of a lack of gratitude, it's just that she's a regular one-woman contest prep show. Trains herself, designs and makes her own suit (and names them - for the evening she wore "Ice Blue Masterpiece"). And, on the day, she does her own hair and make-up.




And the overall package she (herself) brought to the stage in Arizona was deemed good enough to break into the top 6 by the judges, and even higher by many who witnessed the show. You looked great Kim, congratulations, wrote Melody Spetko (yes, her again) after the show. Nice and full. I had you higher. And that's exactly where Kim is aiming for next time around. It's back to the drawing board, she replied to Melody. And I don't think she meant the one she uses to design her beautiful suits on either!


IRENE ANDERSEN (8th)



Irene had finished 4th in Norfolk at the new Lenda Murray show, but, as we noted on the blog, was at her biggest and best ever at the recent Tampa Pro. After receiving one of those "special invites" soon before the Rising Phoenix, she brought that same Tampa package to Arizona, and deservedly improved on her 2015 placing of 14th.



No surprise that the woman who is the star of the documentary about the "killing of female bodybuilding" is one of Wings of Strength's most vociferous cheerleaders. Too Big for the World premieres tomorrow coincidentally, in... Beverley Hills!




Good luck to Irene and all concerned with that. And we hope the film will go on to get some distribution around the world. The production team behind it are certainly a high quality group, and the trailer looks very promising. If Too Big for the World does come to a cinema near you, I'd get out and watch it there. How often does the female muscle lovin' community get the chance to collectively gather and show support?


YAXENI ORIQUEN (5th)



You would imagine, of all the women on stage at the Rising Phoenix, that Yaxeni Oriquen would feel the absence of the Ms International and Ms Olympia the most, given her illustrious history at both shows. It's been telling that while her erstwhile nemesis Iris Kyle stepped away from the sport in 2014, Yaxeni carried on.




Her 4th place at last year's Rising Phoenix came after a year where she'd struggled with various injuries. This year, pre-qualified for RP2016 though she was, she turned up and competed in Puerto Rico, Omaha, and at the Lenda Murray Pro-Am (where she got another 1st place to add to her mighty collection), showing her support for female bodybuilding's new regime and her fellow competitors in the process. She's been in fantastic shape all year, and this show was no exception. Once again it was great to see our old friend the black posing suit fighting for its life as she hit her poses, and though she has placed higher at more illustrious shows among legendary names of the sport, she had no complaints about her placing afterwards, just compliments for the women she stood alongside and the organisers of the "best female bodybuilding show".



¡Felicidades Yaxeni, en tu 50° cumpleaños!


LISA CROSS (7th)




And last, but by no means least, our Lisa.



I always get the feeling that no one has as much fun on stage (or off for that matter) as Lisa does, and I've seen nothing before, during or since the Rising Phoenix to make me change my mind about that. But though I could go on about her pink posing suit and her obvious excitement again, instead let's put her placing into context. The last time a British female bodybuilder placed as high as this was in 2004, when Joanna Thomas came 7th in the lightweight class. To find the last time a UK FBB finished 7th in an open class, you have to go all the way back to Andrulla Blanchette in 1999.



Quite an achievement. And she was well worth it too, looking as big and hard and ripped and sexy as she's ever done, no one was complaining about the judges' verdict on Lisa. I was hoping she'd crack the top 6, but I get the feeling she likes her placing fine. "The 006 Best FBB in the World" just doesn't sound quite right, does it?