Just on the off chance you were in the mood for a bit more Physique freakery...
Erotic and genuinely disturbing in equal measure (which makes her even more erotic, the will to go to such extremes and revel in doing so!) is what I say. You say, among other things, that she is "amazing", and "awesome", and that "she's on another level now". That you look at this picture and all you can think is "I love muscle women! WOW!!!", and that "even a train would stop to look at that". "Look how happy you are!" exclaims one of Michaela's Instagram devotees. Exactly my point. What woman in their right mind would get so much pleasure from being so disgustingly muscular?!
A chance to vote (don't worry, there's no lists of 100 women or anything!) for this month's Pic of the Month from a lovingly selected shortlist of five images.
Check them out then follow the link at the bottom to vote with a single click.
PAIGE SANDGREN: TO BE EXPLORED
Some rather racy, arty new shots of Paige on the forums recently, but we couldn't resist this good old-fashioned topless back selfie. So much to see, so much to explore...
MICHAELA AYCOCK: DRESSED UP VEINS
For the first time, Michaela has been doing a bit of glamorous schmotography work as well, and very exciting the results of that work have been. She doesn't really need any fancy lighting to bring out her freaky vascularity though. Not the tightest of dresses, and that's a good thing - if it were any tighter we'd probably spontaneously combust.
YEON WOO JHI: CELEBRITY MUSCLE
Not so much a nominee because of Yeon's physique (although those shoulders are fantastic) but more because of the sheer excitement on some of those fans' faces. This is exactly how it should be for all muscle goddesses. Adored. Idolised. Always.
ANGELICA ENBERG: DISGUSTINGLY PEELED
She's spent the best part of two years building herself up, and now it's time to reveal the results. And the results are (s)pectacular, but it's the facial expression (if you can drag your gaze up there for just a moment) that says it all: "Look what I have done to myself. I am muscle and skin and I feel AMAZING! OMG I am such a freak and I LOVE it!"
VALENTINA MISHINA: MEAT FEAST
As she's currently posting at the rate of one Hall of Famer per day, there was no doubt Valentina had to feature in our poll, but it wasn't easy to choose which pic should make the shortlist. We listened to our loins and our loins said this glute, ham and calf treat.
OK? Made your choice?
Great!
Voting is simple,CLICK HEREthen select your favourite image and click vote.
We'll post the winner next month when we invite you to vote for May's best.
First I heard of Alina Popa protégée Jennie Roosa's pro debut was when she posted these to her Instagram. And after that point I got quite excited about the prospect.
Turned out the show she (and Alina) had selected was the new (in terms of having a Female Bodybuilding class anyway) Hawaii Pro, which took place on March 10th.
Jennie is not what you'd call the most prolific social media poster, but what she did post from her prep only served to push my excitement levels almost to ticker-threatening. This was 4 weeks out!!! And then a check-in photo of her with Physique Dream Krista Dunn emerged, Jennie's perky pec pointers persuading me she was just as excited as anybody (even me) heightened my anticipation even further.
In the end, the (finally) glammed and tanned Jennie was only one of three in the Female Bodybuilding class, and with just five women competing in Physique, the show was not exactly overflowing with muscular treats. However, in both those classes and in a much better-subscribed Fitness class, treats there most certainly were.
FITNESS
That is quite a chassis on the winner Missy Terwilliger. I clocked her at the Arnolds (where, thanks to Kate Errington, I watched all the Fitness routines) and was impressed. You can check out just what she can make that chassis do here.
But the big Fitness interest of the day was Minna Pajulahti, back in the division where she started out after a break (by my reckoning) of about seven years. Check out her routine, and while you do so bear in mind that she can squat, bench press and deadlift a combined total well in excess of 500kg (well over 1,100lbs).
The judges placed her 4th.
And you can get a sense of just how big she really as from this Maximum Muscle Report interview with Mandus Buckle (for real). Now he may not be cut out for interviewing, but his presence in shot nonetheless provides a good sense of Minna's mighty scale.
PHYSIQUE
And talking of mighty scales, the aforementioned Krista Dunn was hardly dwarfed by Jennie in their check-in photo, making close inspection of her on-stage pics a must.
Krista looked every inch the two-time Olympian she is, and her incredible legs and overall "buff-momness" almost proved a winner (she was 2nd) with the judges.
The Physique class winner though was the (somewhat-less-ripped-than-Krista) Michaela Aycock, who, a week after she'd exceeded expectations at the Arnolds by placing 4th and doing some glamour work, booked her place at the Olympia.
I just had two of the most incredible weeks, she told her Instagram followers after her Ohio and Hawaii experiences. My heart is so full, and the year is still young!
BODYBUILDING
Jennie at last! But against the odds, and despite looking about as Popa as you can look without actually being Popa, she didn't take home the title on her pro debut. Instead, the very classy Nicki Chartrand claimed 2018's first Female Bodybuilding crown.
I was at the show, one (fortunate) forum member revealed afterwards. I was a little surprised by Nicki's win. She looked incredible, but Jennie looked absolutely amazing. Maybe I'm biased, or maybe that's why I'm not a judge, but yeah, I was surprised.
Clue is in the quote, no? "Biased", "not a judge" - and, you will be pleased (because you are so jealous of him), he wasn't in the front row either ("more in the middle/front"). So perhaps not the most reliable of observers. I don't want to make this a debate about the result, more a celebration, so let's just say it was a tough call because there were two absolutely amazing physiques on the stage. Nicki's was amazing, and so was Jennie's.
Four weeks' out was the last morsel she had offered, until the night before. Relaxing with my feet up, enjoying the carbs, she told us. She was wide-eyed, and so was I. That hint of glorious pec meat, that magnificent deltoid, those veins like ropes...
I'm a little disappointed with how Jennie Roosa looked compared to her progress pics from 3-4 weeks ago, moaned a forum poster before the results were in. She looks like she lost size while not really being any more ripped or in better condition.
Some people are never happy. Look at those LEGS... look at that BACK!!!
My only disappointment is that Jennie hasn't updated her Instagram since the night before. I've had to be content with scavenging some of her Awefilms and Muscle Angels work that has gone up on the boards recently. About as Popa as you can look...
Oh yeah, and watching this...
November 2017, and that's Alina giving the orders
What I've been doing while watching is between me and my conscience!
She really attacks her walk on, really announces herself - as if her body needed any announcing! She moves very elegantly between her poses, but when she hits them, she does so with 100% conviction. She really eyeballs the judges too, and watching the live stream I was able to pick up on her little calf flexes and so on, little extras that may or may not win over the judges, but certainly win over an ol' female muscle head like me.
Just outside the top 6 another gorgeous woman we've featured on the blog before went one better than she did at this event last year, and looked better than ever doing so.
Spend any amount of time enjoying her Instagram and you'll see Carly is big with the Lord. And the Lord has revealed her true mission. He has used bodybuilding to rescue me from myself and transform my mind into wanting more out of life and to not just settle for mediocrity, she revealed in the build-up to this show. Good work, big man!
At the "meet and greet" before the show & all smiles after
It's a close thing between her 4th and Bojana Vasiljevic's 5th place, but the division's result of the night just about went to Brazil's hottest IFBB Figure phenom right now.
Just two years' ago, Michele was turning pro here by winning the Overall amateur title, and since then she has most definitely shown she belongs at Figure's top table without getting into the first call out at its biggest events... until Friday March 2nd, 2018.
Last shoulder day before the Arnolds (veinzzzz!) & prepping for the Arnolds Australia this week
It wasn't just me who liked what they saw, the judges did too, and she finished ahead of more experienced (Maria Luisa Baeza Diaz, Jessica Reyes Padilla, Ivana Ivusic) and better-known (Sandra Grajales Romero) competitors to be the leader of the pack behind the three Figure legends who made up the top 3 here.
Truth be told, while I digged these three women just a tiny bit more than the others, as usual with the Figure division at such big events, all of the competitors looked utterly amazing. And thanks to NPC News Online, you can feel the Figure heat for yourself...
PHYSIQUE DREAMS
LEAH SOHN(10th)
At 47, Texas' Leah Sohn is, I imagine, inspiring and depressing in equal measure to women of a similar vintage. That's how I feel when I see the physique her (probably older) husband displays on the Instagram they share anyway. Inspired (I could look like that) and depressed (I may never look quite that good) at the same time.
She's never been to the Olympia, never placed higher than 4th in Puerto Rico in 2016, so this was a big deal for her, and watching her routine on the live stream, I was impressed by the gusto with which she performed as well as her (47-year-old!) body. Sheilahe Brown (remember her?) was Leah's posing coach for the Arnolds. Such an inspiration to me and so many others, Leah says. Sheilahe took me to new heights by using my personality and strengths to showcase and enjoy my time on stage.
NB. Before the (inspiringly and depressingly) shredded Mr Sohn made an honest woman out of her, Leah competed under the name Leah McDonald. Watch her interviewed after winning the Overall and earning her pro card at the 2015 Masters Nationals here. Competing for just over a year then, she looks absolutely stunning.
MICHAELA AYCOCK(4th)
She's SO hardcore, works unbelievably hard, lifts unimaginable weights for ridiculous numbers of reps. Her Instagram is Freakshow #1 most of the time (and I LOVE it) but despite - no - because of that, when Michaela gets glammed and tanned, she's all the more delightful for the extreme contrast with her pale, no frills Monday to Friday self.
She's even been "lured" (her word) into some glam modelling by HD Physiques - it's only taken three years for them to convince her! And we are very much looking forward to the fruits of that collaboration, especially so after the above sneaky peak.
This was a great result for Michaela, even though the big Physique guns of Heather Grace and Jennifer Taylor stayed away, and she took this package to Hawaii last weekend and won, securing her 2018 Olympia place before the clocks go forward.
MARGITA ZAMOLOVA(3rd)
Similarly, Margita Zámolová was able to maintain the muscle that gave her a top 3 placing at the Arnolds into the following week, and after winning in London (yep, for real - you didn't realise there was a pro show?!), the undisputed new Czech Physique Queen (move over Katka) will be joining Michaela in Las Vegas later in the year.
With the exception of the UK's Kate Errington in the Fitness division, no European woman placed higher here. No other European woman in Physique placed at all.
To not be from North America (or South America) and to achieve in the sport what she has achieved in the last couple of years has been nothing short of miraculous.
Here they all are, before prejudging (which it has not been easy to get pics of, so here I've made my diggings exclusively from the women who made the top 10 and thus the finals) getting oiled and pumped (and excited) before taking the stage in Columbus. Michaela gets oiled from 1.53; Margita's applicator will have you green with envy from 3.54, then (glistening) she will pump (you) up from about 6.15 and again from 7.15.
Enjoy!
Tomorrow, our final day at the Arnolds, it's the Figure to Physique trend.
