Wings of Strength to Strength

We recently praised Jake and Kristal Wood, aka Wings of Strength, for firstly saving in 2015, and then, within a year, presiding over a small but significant expansion in professional female bodybuilding. We've also recently highlighted and praised how Alina Popa (Jennie Roosa etc.) and Margie Martin (Brittney O'Veal) seem to have taken it upon themselves to ensure there is a new generation of female bodybuilders coming through to the pro ranks.


The future: Jennie Roosa (left) and Brittney O'Veal

However, for female bodybuilders outside of the US and Canada, where national level shows can provide FBBs with pro cards, the problem of how to become part of this exciting new pro FBB world remained. At the Omaha Pro this year we saw how WoS - working with Alina Popa - provided Elena Oana Hreapca with a guest posing spot partly to highlight the quality of talent that had reached the top of the amateur FBB tree in Europe (and elsewhere) and simply had nowhere left to go.



Wings of Strength Facebook page, September 24th

As I write this the world has changed just a little. I am happy to say that amateur female bodybuilders in Europe, Central and South America, Australia, Asia and the rest of the world now have an opportunity to earn an IFBB Pro Card.
This also includes Canada and the US.
Announcing that the brand new IFBB Ms. Wings International will qualify three female pro bodybuilders in 2017 - one from each of the light, middle and heavy weight divisions.
This will all take place at the IFBB Wings of Strength Chicago Pro in early July of 2017 at the Tinley Park Convention Center. The three new pros will be eligible to compete in the Chicago Pro later that same weekend.
My wife Kristal and I would like to thank IFBB Professional League President Mr. Jim Manion and IFBB President Dr. Rafael Santonja for working with Mr. Tim Gardner and myself to provide a path to a pro card that has been absent for many women around the globe. We would also like to thank Ms. Oana Hreapca of Romania for shining a light on this need during her guest appearance in Omaha in 2016. We also extend our thanks to Mr. Jack Titone along with his dear wife Ms. Ann Titone for gracefully allowing us to highlight Ms. Hreapca during their Omaha Pro Show.
We at Wings of Strength are very excited about the coming year and the direction women’s bodybuilding is going. We rise!
Best Regards,
Jake Wood

Well that is good news!

Imagine! The best amateur FBBs in the world lining up against each other.



From Europe, Oana; from South America, Flores Neide Souza Campos... I'm sold already! But as well as being an "international" event, North American women will be taking part too. That means you could see Oana and Flores and Theresa Ivancik (assuming she hasn't decided to stick with Physique permanently!) on the same stage.



I'm almost too thrilled to think of the names of other women from around the world who could compete! There must be a whole bunch of Brazilians whose names are not coming into my excited mind right now. Australians, Asians, Kashma! Kashma could be there!!! From the UK, IBFA champion Christal Cornick, or the rising young star Maz Burn now have a potential route through which to follow Lisa into the pro ranks.

And then there's the possibility of...



Who would you love to see at the 2017 Ms Wings International?
Who have I forgotten? Who would best represent your country?

And Wings of Strength have even managed to resurrect the "Ms International" name! What's next? Continental qualifying events for the IFBB Ms. Wings International?!

I can dream!

Time to watch Oana guest posing again methinks...



To remind ourselves how significant it was, of course.

Size Matters: Natalia, 3 Ways

After Laura Carolan, and with apologies to the women of the smaller divisions - you know I loves ya and all - but after Laura, we couldn't just go back to normal overnight.

As a result, it's going to be big girls all week.

Size Matters was originally the collective title of a week of posts I did back in 2012. And very successful posts they were too. And by success I mean both popularity with readers and my own personal feelings. From that week A Fantasy Contest, to give one example, got more responses than any post that had gone before, and remained our most responded to post until you lovely readers started answering the call for Hot and Hard 100 votes. For another, Super Freaks is still one of my own personal favourite posts on the blog, one of the pieces of writing I am proudest of.

Time - not to mention the fact that I said pretty much all I wanted to say about size that week - prevents me from even attempting to scale the same heights again. But I can promise a lot of prime female muscle meat, because for one more week on FMS, bigger is better. This week, once again, Size Matters.

And at the risk of going too big too early in the week, we begin with the "inhuman", the "superhuman", the "freak of nature" that was your Hot and Hard 100 highest new entry at #12, the Super Freak herself, Natalia Trukhina.



She must seriously be eating steroids for breakfast - she is huge!

Not steroids, it seems, but Grow Food!



We'll borrow a food analogy for today's recent Natalia selections, seems apt somehow. So, like they do on Masterchef ("I've made carrots three ways, Greg"), we're going to see Natalia three ways today. And #1 is on webcam, in fact the webcam show (or at least the bit that could be posted on YouTube) that the "eating steroids for breakfast" comment was referring to.



That dress barely fits her like a shirt, notes our breakfast juice Tumblr poster. Her sheer girth certainly does make it scream for mercy. "Amazing FBB Webcam" indeed!

Way #2 is Natalia on stage. Not, sadly , competing - there were stories she would compete at the NAC Worlds, but this doesn't appear to have happened as far as I know. Instead, it's a guest posing slot, in Israel at their NAC national championships. It's not the most dynamic routine I've ever seen (watch some of it here), but I guess when you're Natalia, you really don't need to do much to make a big impression.



Why try harder?!



Some of the chaps look impressed anyway!



Which kind of brings us to way #3. Natalia in comparison - also from her recent Israeli sojourn - because, as one forum posting fan points out, One cannot comprehend how big she is until one sees comparisons.



Quite frankly, I am still having trouble comprehending. And breathing.

Wonder if that "dress" is still in one piece. Wonder if it made it to the end of that camshow. Surely if she keeps wolfing down that "Grow Food" then it is doomed...

More size tomorrow.

Enjoy!

From Russia Enhanced: Behemoth

Russia, as every schoolboy and schoolgirl knows, is the biggest country in the world. It covers more than one-eighth of the Earth's total inhabited land area, a consciousness-expanding 17,075,400 square kilometres (or a mere 6,592,800 square miles).

And it's going to need all of them to accommodate Natalia if she keeps growing.



But more than that, it's going to need to rescale just about everything, from sun loungers to kitchens, from clothes to armchairs. If more of its daughters follow Natalia's lead, it won't just be its land area that will seem Brobdinagian in size.



Must be morphed, they state as the latest jaw-dropping image of Natalia hits the forums. She's become, in some pics almost too exciting to look at, if you know what I mean. She's so breathtaking, madness-inducing, groin-activating. And anyone - male or female - unfortunate enough to actually be in the same photo looks so comically ordinary, so comically small in comparison with this beautiful behemoth.



Imagine, if you will, being the camera dude in the scenario below. Your job, to look at her. And take photos of what you see. Or maybe it's to look at her while you ask her questions and keep looking at her while she answers them (in that deep rich voice of hers). Why does he seem to be concentrating so hard? Your guess is as good as mine, but I would have melted into a puddle of madness on the gym floor long before I'd got any of my equipment set up, so he's to be applauded for getting as far as he has.



Imagine also being the forum meber whose work the candid below left is. Imagine you are going about your daily business and you actually spot Natalia. Stand back and snap away or go ahead and ask for a picture? I imagine I would be far too overcome with The Madness to actually consider interacting with her (or anybody else for that matter), so I would have been equally as surreptitious as our Natalia-spotting hero was. Stalker-like? Perhaps, but surely a reaction that every other female muscle head recognises.



And it doesn't look as though Natalia has any plans to stop growing. Looks as though she's just going to keep on getting more and more massive, more and more overwhelming. I tell you, they're going to need a bigger kitchen. And they're going to need clothes in a new NXL (Natalia extra large) size, and bigger fitting rooms to try them on in, and build bigger cars, which will need bigger, wider roads...



Natalia gets media in Russia it seems. The latest has her - as far as I can tell, my Russian ain't what it used to be - "entertaining" some curious prison inmates. See for yourself.

Natalia Russian TV



And she can do this!!! I can't look, I really can't.

наслаждаться!

Rolling Thunder 016-031

QUEEN OF QUADS



The Queen, and what she's all about.

NO COMPARISON



And speaking of gainz, here's the gainziest of them all right now, the Super Freak herself, Nataliya Trukhina, and a rather depressed looking companion. What do you mean you can't see him? He's small but he's not invisible! He's right there, a respectful distance to Nataliya's left. He's kneeling down, appropriately...

(KNOCKIN' ME OUT WITH THOSE) BRAZILIAN THIGHS



MARIANA DANTAS



The FMS research department had a bit of trouble with Mariana. Brazilian she most certainly is, Associate Professor of History at Ohio University she is not, although coincidentally, Professor Mariana Dantas does specialise in, among other things, the Colonial History of Latin America. Wonder if she's got any theories about how the colonial experience of Brazil has influenced the quadtacular development of the women there. Now that would definitely be a research paper well worth reading!

THIGHLIGHT

KORTNEY OLSON: THIGH SCHOOL



After her move to Australia a few years ago, Kortney became the first ever Aussie Female Arm Wrestling champ, and last year made the news in the UK for her - somewhat kontroversial - breast augmentation surgery. But these days, Kortney is all about the thighs, and has even renamed her Instagram "Thigh School".




Apparently, this new direction came about as a result of her involvement in a documentary series called Stan Lee's Superhumans. Kortney featured in an episode called High Voltage in the third season of the show and was, after "scientific testing", "officially" declared to be the Woman with the World's Deadliest Thighs.



I haven't found a site that will let me watch the show yet, but you might have more luck depending on your location. It's Stan Lee's Superhumans, season 3, episode 8, High Voltage. It was broadcast on the History channel, so I'll keep an eye out to see if it airs here again and will let you know. They do look pretty deadly though, don't they?

QUADS IN MOTION

WARNING! DANGER OF HYPNOSIS!

It's an oldie but a goodie. From back when Juliana Malacarne was just another struggling Figure competitor but could still deliver a most memorable quad shake. Actually, this is probably a big clue as to why she was so struggling back then!

CLOSE-UPs

HULDA LOPEZ



Hulda's a first for me, the first Honduran I've come across (as far as I know) on my female muscle explorations. And she's not just any Honduran muscle woman, she's the Honduran muscle woman of 2015, well, as far as the Women's Physique division is concerned. GOD I've worked so hard for these wheels! she says. Good news is, she's determined to keep on getting better. Sure as HELL the best me so far, she said after her win at her national championships last month, but still not where I want.

You can follow Hulda and her "wheels" on Facebook and Instagram, and FMS also recommends a bit of "The Queen of Honduran Bodybuilding" (as she seems to be known/call herself) in an excellent clip from (I think) a Honduran TV sports show.

KAROLINA HOLUBCOVA



The world class thighs of the Czech Republic's NABBA Worlds and WFF Universe-winning Karolina. By the looks of things before (super vascular) and after (smooth and bulbous) one or both of her triumphant competitions this year. Can't say I know which I prefer - the "turning inside out" look is stunning but then so are the bulging quads by the pool. I'd probably need to give them both a good oiling to really decide, and if the first applications weren't conclusive, another round or two might be necessary...

REMEMBER MY NAME!



FABI SUPERPODEROSA



I'll let you decide which of the three lovely brasileiras above is Ms Superpowerful, and tell you that her real surname has considerably fewer letters but still has a ring of power about it - Cid. Fabi hails from the same north-eastern part of Brazil as Rosy Silva, who we met yesterday, though she is now based in Rio, and involved in something called the "DNA Experience" - which may sound like a genetic mutation programme (with her as its most successful experiment perhaps) but actually seems to be a "normal" fitness studio. I seriously doubt that having adopted the "Superpoderosa" monniker that Fabi's a shy wallflower type. Decide for yourself on her Facebook (8,000 followers and counting) and/or Instagram (just under 5,000 followers).

And we leave you for today with...

ALEESHA



Because... why not?

Enjoy!

Woman vs Food: Feed the Beast

We warned you...



Does Natalia look like she's in the mood to pose for a photograph? Never, EVER make a female bodybuilder wait for her food. In fact, never EVER prioritise ANYTHING over food. Moments later Natalia's date learned his lesson the hard way. It only hurts when he breathes now, but please, don't make the same mistake.
FMS 22nd July 2015, "Hot and Hard: FMS Approved"

Feed the beast.



When she gets up in the middle of the night for one of her bi-hourly "snacks", be ready to get that protein on the table quick snap. This will make Nathalia very very happy.



Keep that kind of service going during the day and she'll start to look at you with more than a little love in her eyes. See? And in case you're wondering, it's all hers.



Indeed, get used to eating after her - and make it quick because you'll need to start prepping that next meal before long. However, few would doubt the pleasure to be had watching Natalia eat - all that inadvertent (or perhaps even vertent) bicep flexing as she shovels the protein into her hungry mouth. Besides, by the time all of the dishes Natalia has ordered arrive on the table there's so little room left that it's impractical for you to get your order on there too, so it's better to wait anyway. Wait your turn.



I think she's about to get medieval on that sushi.

And if you are in any doubt about whether being Natalia's chef on call 24/7 would suit you, in case you're wondering if going hungry and always getting the (considerable) bill would all be worth it - I don't expect many of you are, but just in case - well, think of those moments you'll have, there before your very eyes, right across the table from you. Those moments that'll make you forget about all the toil in the kitchen, all the hunger pangs and all the rubles you've been spending. Moments like this one...



Enjoy!