FBBUK: Danielle Osborn

We have a new champion.

In the Amateur contest at the Arnold Europe recently, rising British Bodyfitness star Danielle "Dani" Osborn won her "up to 168cm" class, and though following in the footsteps of Carly Thornton ("short" Physique, 2015) and Emma Paveley ("short" Fitness, 2016), she's the very first British Bodyfitness athlete to be a class winner there.



Congratulations Danielle!

We can't, sadly, say we know a whole lot about our new champ, but we do know that she hails from the north-east, the Middlesborough area (Wendy McCready country!) and while details of exactly which shows she has done is sketchy, particularly her early shows, we can say that ever since her career started - either in 2014 or 2015, depending on where you get your information - she's been a serial winner.



After just six months of training, Dani started competing in NABBA "Athletic Figure" (don't ask, just look!), and won British Classic title in 2014 - her very first show.



2015 saw her add the NABBA Ms Athletic title to her nascent collection, and then in 2016 she has switched to the UKBFF and Bodyfitness. One show she didn't win was in Leicester late that year, but she did finish high enough to qualify her for international competitions in 2017 so looking back now, her 3rd place there was somewhat crucial.



And the next time she pops up is in UK muscle scribe John Plummer's report from the North-east Championships in August. It seems Dani made quite an impression.

Bodyfitness champion Danielle Osborn was the day's standout female athlete, he wrote on the UKBFF's Facebook page. Her classy shape and condition immediately caught the eye in the front poses and she looked equally polished in the side and rear poses, where her back, glutes and calves were all spot on. Lots of people were talking about Osborn and she definitely looks like a British finals contender.



Turned out she was much more besides.

Quite honestly I have no idea if she'll be competing at the UKBFF British Championships this weekend, competitor lists being somewhat hard to come by and all. But I do know this. British Bodyfitness has been threatening to give us a worthy successor to Louise Rogers and Maria Scotland for some time, but never quite delivered. Danielle seems to have the coach, the genetics, and the class to succeed where others have almost succeeded. Trust FMS to be following her in future as closely as the information that floats out of the UKBFF from time to time allows.



And you can follow Danielle on Instagram.

She's So Shredded: Lindsey Angel

Close-up, uninhibited, "how did that get by the censors?" shreds from the UK's most successful Trained Figure competitor at this year's NABBA Worlds, Lindsey Angel.



Lindsey has become a shredded, thong-wearing freak in just over two years' of lifting. When they say it takes years, yes, it does, she says. But it's also possible to do this in two years, she adds, somewhat confusingly. So, two years then, and Lindsey is the living proof. I have spent my life training in a ballet school, then doing other sports and pole fitness, so they too were developing my muscles. Oh right, now I see.



Here's Lindsey's glute-tastic routine from Russia. She was 3rd in her class.



Follow her on Instagram.

Corinne & Daria's Glute-Off

OK, so we last saw Corinne Ingman guest posing some weeks before the NABBA Worlds. At the time we were salivating at the prospect of a "crispier" Corinne flexing off with WFF/NABBA Queen Daria Diossi at the NABBA Worlds. And lo, it came to pass.

First up, our 2017 Hot and Hard 100 Top Brit Corinne.



And here's Daria.



Daria won the "Pro Figure" title, Corinne placed 3rd.

You can watch the full Figure pro line-up here, and explore the NABBA YouTube channel for the amateur ladies' classes at the show, which took place in Russia this year. Next stop for Corinne (and possibly Daria as well) was the WFF Universe in Brazil - no footage yet, but you can be sure we will bring it to you as soon as we have it.

From NABBA to the Olympia

It would be easy to forget, given all the judging shenanigans and consequent outcry around the fate of Aleesha Young last weekend in Omaha, that as well as the big (but not too big, eh?) girls, the show boasted a quality Physique line-up too. Among the competitors there was Hot and Hard 100 perennial Zoa Linsey, who put in her usual classy showing; Roxanne Edwards' abs were their normal eye-popping selves; and the increasingly popular Katie Lee made her pro debut, placing 2nd.



The winner, though, was another pro debutant, considerably less heralded that Ms Lee and all the way from Perth, Australia. And while I'm sure our collective teeth will continue to gnash for some time yet at the way the placings went in the Bodybuilding class, we might take some small crumb of comfort from the fact that in Physique at least, first place went to absolutely the most shredded woman on the stage.




Lee-Anne Temnyk may be a name familiar to NABBA aficianados from her 2013 Worlds' appearance, where she won her Trained Figure class and posed down for the Overall title with fellow Aussie and eventual Overall winner Lisa Carrodus.



For her next big contest, however, Lee-Anne stepped away from NABBA and into the world of IFBB Physique. Last March in Melbourne she took first in an all-Australian line-up at the Arnold Amateur, as a result of which she was awarded her pro card.



She plumped for Omaha on the recommendation of Christine Envall, whose supplement company sponsors her, as the place to make her debut, and set about bringing her NABBA-style conditioning in for the show. One 35-hour journey (including transit and delays) later, and a winner's medal around her neck, Lee-Anne was telling Ann Titone it was "a dream come true". I still don't think it has sunk in yet, she says, in her super sexy super husky Aussie brogue. This is just amazing.



I'm very much a newcomer to the Lee-Anne party, but had I been following her Instagram as her pro debut approached, I wouldn't have needed much convincing that she would be a contender. Here was a woman who was bringing NABBA-style uber-conditioning to the IFBB Pro League. Truly she is amazing. As Ann says during the same NPC News Online interview, Lee-Anne's "striations had striations".




Not expecting to have secured her Olympia invite at her first attempt, Lee-Anne had already decided to do two shows while in the US (not really surprising given the 35 hours it took her to get there) so we'll be seeing more of the same this weekend at the Dallas Europa. It's just a shame she doesn't get to wear a thong anymore.



Enjoy!

Sarah Halkon: 2017 Ms NABBA Britain

So... I am MISS NABBA BRITAIN TRAINED FIGURE!!!!

Congratulations to Sarah Halkon, top of the thongs at the NABBA Britain.



This is not, sadly, Sarah in all her shredded thongtastic glory at last weekend's show - this being NABBA, photographers not welcome etc. - but (left) Sarah at the NABBA UK Championships last November, when she came 2nd, and the NABBA North-East Championships, which she won, a couple of weeks previous to the NABBA Britain.

However, despite the moan about the lack of images (so far, but judging by NABBA's track record I ain't holding my breath), the event was, I believe for the very first time, streamed live. so we can enjoy Sarah (#69) and all the other Trained Figure ladies. Currently only the comparisons are up, and given that NAPA (Sports Nutrition, responsible for the stream) are flogging a DVD of the event, this could well be all we get of the Trained Figure class, and/or it may not be up for long. Enjoy while you can!



Sarah hails from Hull where she runs her own Personal Training and Sports Massage business. She's been competing -as far as I can work out - since 2014. She finished 3rd in the shorter of the two Trained Figure classes at the NABBA Universe last year, and you can watch her routine from that show here. If you like a comparison, compare her now to her 2014 self here. She has certainly come far, and as the NAPA commentators noted, may well challenge for the NABBA Universe title this year if she can bring the same ultra-conditioned package to that show as she did to the British finals.

And we leave you today with one last treat - the Trained Figure comparisons from Sarah's victory at the NABBA North-East. You could swipe your Morrison's More card on that, says one of NAPA's double act of commentators, referring to the "depth" of Sarah's back. That's going to be challenging for the top spot at the Brits.



They were not wrong.



Follow the really rather gorgeous Sarah on Instagram.

Enjoy!

FBBUK: Brittany Rhodes and the BBC

Over the last few years, the number of young women in the UK taking up bodybuilding has increased dramatically. With a similar growth in interest across other forms of strength training, and weights starting to replace the treadmill as the new fitness norm, Adele Roberts wants to know why strong is now better than skinny for so many young women.

Adele, a former competitive bodybuilder, has spent 30 days following a strict diet and fitness regime in a bid to discover what it takes to become a superwoman.

Is this an empowering method for young women to take control of their bodies, or merely another fitness fad, causing women to question their natural body image? With help from personal trainers, competitive bodybuilders, doctors and dietitians, and those closest to her, Adele pushes herself to the limits to discover what she gains and loses, mentally and physically, during her month-long bodybuilding challenge.



As programme synopses go, that for Why Women Want Muscles (first broadcast on BBC Radio 1 Xtra at the beginning of December, still available to listen to/watch on the BBC iPlayer), was definitely one of the most interesting I have ever come across.

Roberts (above), as the programme reveals, had competed briefly many years ago, but is much better-known now as a BBC Radio DJ and former Big Brother contestant.



During her 30-day challenge, she gains muscle and shape, but the transformation went more than skin deep. The most important part of this transformation to me is I how feel inside, she revealed on her Instagram. I should have done it a long time ago.

Along the way, Roberts meets, among others, NABBA Toned Figure athlete Clair Willie, and is trained by UKBFF Bikini athlete Phoebe Hagan. But without doubt the star of the show - especially, as the camera absolutely loves her, in the shorter, for-TV version of the programme (Get Muscly in a Month), is another NABBA Toned Figure athlete, the 2016 NABBA Miss Toned Figure UK, Brittany Rhodes.



The 24-year-old recruitment consultant from Yorkshire only started lifting a couple of years ago because she thought she was too skinny. I was a size zero, she says. I lacked confidence. I wanted to actually have that curvy figure and that's why I got into training. I caught the bug and much to my delight it seems to be one I can’t shake.



I LOVE it. It takes a special mindset, discipline, patience, and consistency to compete. Bodybuilders are a special breed. We have goals that we are determined to reach, no matter what. This sport has taught me more about myself than any teacher, friend or family member ever could. Finally I'm a woman happy in her own skin.



Brittany uses social media to spread the pro-lifting message as loudly as anyone, and she was a keen participant in Adele Roberts' documentary, which concluded that this trend for bodybuilding among young women in the UK is much more about self-confidence, self-reliance, and empowerment than it is about muscles. I feel really privileged to be able to express my views about why women choose to bodybuild in this way, Brittany told her Instagram followers. It's time to lift women up!



Her message has got her a lot of followers, the vast majority female - I wouldn't want to be a 20-something man and read Brittany's posts every day (eg. I think we say "oh man" to express disappointment because men are so disappointing; eg. call a man by the wrong name today to remind them how unimportant they are, etc. etc.). I reckon that would have made young Swell have some kind of crisis of confidence. In fact, I'm not entirely sure it isn't giving me my own mid-life crisis of confidence now!



After competing for the first time in in 2015, last year saw Brittany take 4th place at the NABBA England and 3rd at the NABBA Universe in October, and then came NABBA UK win at the beginning of November. Everything is slowly coming together, she says, and I'll be chasing trophies in 2017. This is truly the start of an amazing journey for me and I can’t wait to see how far I can take it... I'm beyond excited!



She's part of something that has, it seems, stopped being a trend, and transformed into a full-blown movement for young British women. Seriously, if she doesn't inspire young women in the UK, young women all over the world even, to transform their bodies and find self-confidence, self-love, and the kind of inner contentment that Adele Roberts found during her 30-day challenge, then I don't know who will.

Here's Brittany at the 2016 NABBA Universe.



So, chaps... who's "beyond excited" now?

2016 Review: November

Going Up?

It actually began on the last day of October, a week of posts about female muscle in lifts/elevators. It was all Valerija Slapnik's fault, and yes, that really is her name.



At the time I was a bit down on these posts, all "I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel" type self-doubt, but now, looking back (and it's only been just over a month) I find myself rather more impressed than I thought I would be because a) I didn't actually write too much more embarrassing nonsense than I tend to do most weeks, and b) there really are some quality pictures of quality women here.





Among them, were two Brazilians whose devotion to the elevator selfie (and revealing skintight gymwear) is seemingly boundless - Suelen Bissolati (below, left) and Claudia Bonavoglia - and they each got a deserving post of their own.



We finished the week acknowledging that Erica Blockman's firefighting skills (among other reasons) would probably make her the ideal female muscle elevator emergency companion, but as we couldn't find any in-elevator snaps of the lovely Erica, we had to settle for a dream elevator date with Dani Reardon. Hard times.



We decided it was time to "reevaluate and recharge", leaving FMS readers hanging for a whole fortnight. Yes, the "elevator selfie" week had not been, we felt, our finest hour, but as well as that, Marcie Simmons, who'd been "telling it like it is" on her YouTube channel for much of the year, had given us cause for some introspection...

On Fandom



Are we a fan, or are we a schmoe? Does it matter? Is there any real distinction between the two? Does being a fan mean being a fan of the sport? What does that even mean?

And who are we anyway, us female muscle "lovers"?



Well, at the outset of our week-long riff on some of the issues raised by Marcie we did say that we would have more questions than answers, and so it proved!

We wondered about how "we" deal with public discussions of our favourite women when the mainstream media runs a female muscle story (and the story - Eleonora Dobrinina, "unidentified female bodybuilder with 0% body fat" - reminds us now of the story we featured in January - Sasha Rudenko's "concerned friends").



So, we wondered, what do you do when an office colleague shows you his phone and it's Ella and he tells you she's got 0% body fat apparently, and clearly wants you to agree with him that she's "unnatural", or "disgusting" or "manly" or whatever?



If there were any conclusions to all my yakking, they were these.

1. That I should be a lot braver the next time something like this happens to me and just proceed to "bore the pants" off whoever is asking because you know I really could go on about Ella for at least a couple of hours (before I even got started about the portrayal of muscular women in the media in more general terms).

2. Perhaps the change in perception towards "strong" women - the fact that it's slowly but surely becoming more common for women (especially young women) to not only go to the gym but also to lift weights while they're there - might also lead to a change in perception towards the men who love them. One reader was not convinced. It's true: "We" are socially awkward, weirdos, perverts; and we have mental issues. It takes some time to accept the way we are. Maybe he's right, but if I have learned anything about "us", it is that we are, just like the women we adore, not all the same.



NPC Nationals & NABBA Universe

For no reason other than I thought it would be interesting to do so (although I couldn't tell you why!) FMS decided to pair seven (FBB & WPD) women from the 2016 NPC Nationals with seven (Toned & Trained Figure) competitors from the 2016 NABBA Universe. One pair per day - a clip from the latter contest, pictures from the former.

In the few days left in November we had three of those pairs.



The legend that is Monica Brant (finishing runner-up in the Toned Figure class at the Universe) with the ever impressive FBB Heavyweight runner-up at the NPC Nationals, Pauline Nelson was our first pair. British NABBA star Lindsey Angel and fan forum WPD favourite Rachael Chaskey (3rd, Physique C) our second.

And we said goodbye to November with big girls Allison Chaidez from the Nationals, and (far too big for NABBA Figure and you have to love her for that!) Australian Aisling Hickey, who got the crowd showing their appreciation, and took Swell back to the days when the really big girls could be seen on the NABBA Universe stage.



A (brief) survey of (pre 2016 Review) FMS in December tomorrow.