Figure Phenoms (Vancouver & LA)

Q: Feast your eyes on Joanna Jean (top), and Susan Clark - but what do these two incredible (and incredibly muscular) Figure beauties have in common, do you think?





A: They both finished outside the top 10 at a recent IFBB pro contest.

The point I want to make though [and you're making it rather clumsily if I may say so - ed.] is the standard of conditioning necessary to take some of the paltry prize money in IFBB Figure shows now is insane. And, even better, the level of muscularity acceptable, even desirable in the division seems to be on the up too.

To my eyes at least.

While first FBBing and now, apparently, Physique competitors suffer the ramifications of "not-so-much-muscle-please-we're-the-IFBB" policing, the Figure ideal - embodied by the women taking top prizes at top shows - seems to be getting bigger and bigger and more and more ripped. And to prove my point - and perhaps also have the fact I am not dreaming about this confirmed in the process - here are just some of the swoonworthy Figure ladies from recent pro shows in Vancouver and Los Angeles.

BODACIOUS BOJANA



Winner in Vancouver was the always impressive Bojana Vasiljevic.

And for those still under the illusion that Figure - especially pro Figure - competitors really aren't all that muscular, ask yourself how many women you've ever seen down your local gym with abs and shoulders and arms all covered in veins like Bojana's. Ask yourself - if she did miraculously appear there - whether you really would hardly notice her, wishing there were some real FBBs at Fitness First Basildon...



So much beautifully conditioned muscle on that petite frame had proved good enough for judges in Los Angeles last year, and proved good enough for the 2018 Vancouver judges too. So this was Bojana's second pro title, and she'll be back at the Olympia for a third consecutive year in September, hoping to improve on her 2017 10th place.

PERFECT PARTS



Also from Vancouver, the superior legs of 9th place Catherine Lavoie and 6th place Martina Yebekova. Incredible, thrilling muscular development and definition.

MUSCLE BEAUTIES

When muscle women look like models...



It's always good. And especially so when they flex with such glee. "Yeah, I could have been a regular model, but I wanted MUSCLES!" they say (in my imagination).



Two such beauties graced the stage in Los Angeles - classy 2018 Hot and Hard 100 debutant Tonya Wheatfall (9th), and the statuesque Dallas McCormick (8th).

MMMMELISSA



Two women appeared at both the Vancouver and LA shows, the first we'll drool over today is Canadian beauty Melissa Bumstead. I thought she looked sensational in coming 4th at the former show, but a couple of weeks (and apparently several applications of pro tan) later in LA, Melissa turned the muscle sexy up to 11.



And she was rewarded with her second 2nd place of the season.



She's already promising to be even better in Tampa this weekend, which could be bad news for my ticker. Hopefully in Tampa there will be some cleaner mirrors...

PERFECT PARTS



Also doing well in LA was veteran Julie Mayer, whose 3rd place was as good as any placing she's had over the last few years. Amazing, sculpted, muscular legs were just about her standout feature but by no means the only thing she has going for her.



She made sure the judges got a very good look at them too, both from the front, the rear and side on. I do love the bit where they stride forward, their mighty (yeah, mighty) quads rippling and popping in their heels. There may not be a whole lot of "poses" in Figure, but to think that means there isn't any flexing going on is a mistake.

MUSCLE BEAUTIES



Azaria Glaim (right) and Maggie Watson go about their muscle and beauty businesses pretty much the same way these days, although that was not always the case. Once upon a time, you may recall, Azaria, known first as Crimson Rose then as Brooke Black, had a very lucrative career as a very naughty cam performer. Maggie, meanwhile, is a former WBFF Figure model whose past was all about the kind of not-very-muscular (and less lucrative) modelling on the fringes of the mainstream.



Their journeys took them both to the same place at the start of July though, their (very different styles of) beauty shining on the Vancouver stage. The (younger) Azaria (7th) finished a place above Maggie, who has really packed on the muscle over the last year.

BRAZILIAN THUNDER



Spot the difference?



Is it just the quality of the on stage lighting or some difference with the photography? Or was Brazilian Figure phenom Michele Da Silva Pinto - as we saw with Melissa Bumstead earlier - really just a whole lot darker and a whole lot bigger AND a whole lot more pumped, vascular and shredded in LA than she had been in Vancouver?



The - some would say inevitable - Brazilian takeover has already started happening in the Physique division. Michele, meanwhile, is leading the way with the Figure takeover now. Runner-up in Vancouver and the Winner in LA off the back of a 3rd at the Arnolds earlier in the season, and bigger and better every time, this year Michele could well be a threat to the usual Figure suspects at the Olympia. And she does like a proper pose.



"Only" Figure? Watch this.

Is Michele most likely to follow Shanique Grant and Natalia Coelho into Physique? Some of these Phenoms - Michele very much included - might have to think about dropping a bit of muscle mass and/or definition if they "step up" to the WPD!

Enjoy!

"The Best Legs in Figure" and Other Figure Phenoms @IFBB Europa Orlando 2018

When three-time IFBB pro winner, top 10 Olympian and FMS heartthrob Jessica Reyes Padilla places 10th, even allowing for judging misdemeanours, it's a fair bet she was part of a quality line-up, and so it was at the 2018 IFBB Europa Orlando.



Canada's Melissa Bumstead, Canada's gorgeous Melissa Bumstead, provided some of it. Just look at the cuts on those legs! Perhaps at some point those legs have been called "the best legs in Figure", but Melissa's were not the legs being most talked about on this occasion. Melissa will doubtless go on to win many pro titles in a long and glittering career, but here she and her legs were not winners - Melissa placed 4th.



Sadly - and this is unusual - the quality of NPC News Online's coverage did not really match the quality of the line-up, not in terms of the pictures anyway. Bit blurry they look to me. Thankfully though, this is not the only coverage of the event we have, and perhaps better still, this other coverage - courtesy of Bodybuilding and Beyond - allows us to watch all 19 women in this obviously quality line-up in motion.

Here they are, from #30 Yordana Alayon to #48 Linda Simnick.

See if you can spot "the best legs in Figure"...



Well?

The correct answer was #40, Felisha Livezey.



Not the most familiar name in the line-up by any means, Felisha hadn't previously competed since the 2016 NPC Universe but "stole the show" on her pro debut. I just decided to do this one and it worked out kinda good, she said afterwards. I'm going to the Olympia, it's so exciting... I never thought in a million years it would happen.



Now, about these "best legs in Figure". Don't be under the impression that anyone of any note was claiming this, it's just the thoughts of some random forum head, and perhaps seems, at first, to be an impossibly bold statement to make. However, what's been interesting is that since that claim was made on her behalf, plenty of other heads have chipped in on Felisha's thread not (as is customary) to mock, but to confirm.




That is an understatement, writes one. If you have an account for HerBiceps, I'd suggest you check out her videos. The way she flexes her quads are unlike anything you've seen out of a Figure competitor. Again, this seems an impossibly bold claim. I mean I've seen a LOT. But he goes on - I kid you not. Her legs are THAT insane.


Felisha in 2016

The clips they are talking about are nearly two years' old now, dating back from that NPC Universe win when she turned pro. New footage will be available on HDPhysiques "in the very near future" apparently. FMS will not be the only ones looking out for it.



You can follow Felisha on Instagram. She isn't planning to do any more shows before the Olympia, but intends to "work on some weak points" over the next few months.



She's probably not talking about those legs.

Olympia 2017: Phenomenal Figures

Watch those calves bulge! See the definition in her thighs! Feast your eyes on those ballooning lats spreading and spilling over the strings of her posing suit! A posing suit that's at least a size too small anyway... My conversion into a bit of a Figure/ Bodyfitness fan(atic) has been one of FMS' most recurring themes over the last year or so. Are these women getting more muscular - Cydney Gillon seemed to grow in the week between the Arizona Pro and the Olympia! - or was I just not paying attention before and now there's no Ms International and no Ms Olympia to obsess over, at the A and the O Figure phenoms provide a significant part of the female muscle fix I crave?

MELISSA BUMSTEAD (unplaced)




It was a couple of years ago when she won her pro card at the Canadian Nationals that this sensationally gorgeous woman first showed up on the FMS radar, and I have been hooked ever since. She had some decent finishes in 2016, but it was her win at the Lenda Murray Pro Am earlier this year that enabled her to make her Olympia debut here. I'm not going to argue with the judges about her (non-) placing. I'm just going to enjoy those abs, those shoulders, and that big, beautiful smile. A stunner.



My only issues with the Figure division have nothing to do with the ladies and everything to do with the rules they compete under. How I wish they would get to flex like the NABBA Trained Figure ladies - who they are at least as muscular, if not quite as bone-dry conditioned as. Imagine that! Even better, imagine Candice or Latorya (3rd and 2nd respectively this year) showing their beautiful muscle bums in NABBA-style posing suits, bending over à la Kay Goodwin to ensure the judges get an eyeful.

HEATHER DEES (4th)




I first remember Heather as Heather Udy from the days of Hardfitness and the Muscletease schmotography site. I knew she was still around but I had no idea she had enjoyed such success over the years. She had two 4th places at Olympias in 2012 and 2013, and though this was her first Olympia since then, she enjoyed a 2nd at the Ms International in 2015 and this year won the 3rd pro title of her career in Hawaii. I also had no idea how excitingly thick she looks these days. Like a fine wine, it seems.




Which is not to say these phenoms don't work it. Given the restrictions they have to. The power stances, the not so surreptitious tricep flexing, and when they hold their poses they tense everything (and I mean everything). On heels too, which some may say have no place on a "bodybuilding" stage, but take away the heels and those quads are not going to ripple half as much as they stride forwards to assume the front and centre position and spread their wings for their first, breathtaking compulsory pose.

SANDRA GRAJALES (9th)




9th here was an improvement on her debut placing of 14th last year, and hardly surprising. She just gets better and better. Her abs are more and more veinsexy, her lats wider and wider, those thighs more and more gorgeous, and her good hard post-workout flexes just get gooder and harder. Over the last couple of years, Sandra's development has been essential viewing for many of the brethren, myself very much included, and there's nothing to suggest this young Figure phenom's rise will do anything but continue unabated. Top 30 in your 2017 Hot and Hard 100.




Yes, I said breathtaking, because at this highest level of Figure there is, these phenoms really can have me gasping for air. Perhaps not in the same way that Margie or Helle's first compulsory does, but for me it's as if these ladies inflate, pumped up in an instant as they spread their apparently immense lats, their abs tighten, and their magnificent thoroughbred thighs flare. They go from looking well, I wouldn't say "normal", but certainly not that big to suddenly looking pretty damn freaky, pretty damn drenched in muscle. And it's that sudden, shocking transformation that is so overwhelming.

JESSICA REYES PADILLA (8th)




Like Melissa and Sandra, Jessica is one of the Class of '15. Unlike Melissa and Sandra, I am ashamed to say Jessica has never featured on FMS before now. Her look here gave me a good, hard slap and demanded it though. Some of the best abs on show, and when she walked on a power stance that was all about the power. Toronto Pro winner this year, she failed to place on her Olympia debut but clearly learned her lesson, came back shredded, and deservedly (my ill-informed opinion) took 8th place.




As I sit here trying to think of new and original ways to big up the Figure ladies I am well aware that my zeal is wasted on the so-called "hardcore" fans who have probably already left FMS today (perhaps for good?!) tut-tutting as they went - "used to be about Bodybuilders..." But I also know there are plenty of Figure/Bodyfitness fans among the readership and I'm probably wasting my time with them as well because they don't require any convincing! Thirteen of your Hot and Hard 100 in 2017 were from the Figure and equivalent division, ten of them in the top 60, and five of the ladies who graced the Olympia stage this year were among them. It's hardly surprising such stunning women are so popular with female muscle fans, or indeed with their female followers either. Beautiful and graceful, they exude confidence and strength. Muscles and femininity combined. These phenomenal figures are packing serious sex appeal.



What's not to like?



The IFBB Figure and Bodyfitness ladies still might not get to really flex those hard-earned muscles in anger on stage, but as those of you who are already following these phenoms on social media will know, these women pack a shed load of heat!




Tomorrow, we devote a whole post to our favourite 2017 Figure Olympian.

Enjoy!