In the UK media, The Mail runs a story about Russian bodybuilder Aleksandra "Sasha" Rudenko, pictures of whom were reported to have "shocked followers in social media". Apparently, "fans claim her shock of grey hair is a sign she's destroying her body", but FMS is rather impressed, especially with Sasha's lovely legs.
Remember this story. It will be relevant later in the year.
Such model looks, and at the same time she's so into making her body more and more freakily muscular. It's an addiction for her, a fetish almost, or even in fact. Her VK and Instagram name is "sadistka" with a 666 at either end. For Valentina, it seems, pain really is pleasure, because pain means muscle and muscle means pleasure.
I was at the competition where the controversy took place. She was reminded of the right poses several times. She looked really pissed off at the stage most of the time. After the results she did not raise the trophy, and left the stage very swiftly. Cannot recall whether she left the trophy. No respect for other competitors, judges or the audience. Her body looked good (too much muscle for physique, rightly placed at the bottom) but her attitude sucked totally. ("ummelvirta", FMS reader)
FMS begins its "IG stalk" of Melissa Lesage, aka Miss Beast. A woman who gets so disgustingly ripped she even disgusts herself. Last summer when I was shredded peeled & nasty, she says, I loved every last second of it! YES my liver, kidneys, and heart took a hit but did I DIE??! NOPE! And being a nurse, she would know.
If you want a laugh, says FMS, just look up some of the other million or so woman who dare to call themselves "Miss Beast" and compare. I'll tell you, there's barely a muscle between them, not to mention a damaged vital organ.
I doubt it's a loaded question, not "How did you qualify?" but a genuine enquiry from an amateur keen to become a pro herself. I'll come to the Arnold Classic Europe hoping to qualify, Maria adds hopefully, putting her faith in the more conventional, traditional route of winning a top level international competition first.
Now I don't want anyone to get the impression that we don't adore Natalya here at FMS. We do, and we are genuinely delighted she's going to be a pro this year. I mean, look at her. Look at her towering over that poor fella there, at her knowing smile (a smile we know so well) as she checks him/herself out in the mirror. So ALPHA.
The pic might well have the same caption as another post of Natalya's does.
But you don't get to be a pro for being able to make all the boys go weak at the knees and break out in a cold sweat, nor for breaking the thermostat in every gym you walk into simply through the heat your big muscle sexy body emits. As far as I know, anyway. They are definitely a massive bonus for us fans but I don't recall pro cards ever having been handed out just for having these kinds of superpowers before.
Natalya does seem to have that little bit more female muscle superpower than most, or at least that's the impression I get - and I'm not the only one feeling that superpower. There is no one place that your eye can settle on when you look at her, writes one overwhelmed fan. Her hair, her eyes, her breasts, her arms, her abs, her attitude. It's an accomplishment when a model does more than simply creating beautiful muscle but also manifests an unusual and unique image overall. She's done that.
And she seems to be that little bit more aware of her own power, of the effect she has on us poor, overwhelmed slaves to the religion. It's there in what our fan above referred to as her "attitude", it's there in the smirk as she towers over the little fella in the gym pic, it's there when on a whim she runs her own Facebook competition and makes the first prize is a free fifteen-minute Skype session with the goddess herself.
I'm quite sure she's not the only female bodybuilder who knows what she does to us, but Natalya is definitely one of those who wants us to know she knows. On her VK page there's plenty of fan art of Natalya in all kinds of styles and with Natalya in all kinds of guises, but she also posts plenty of other female muscle art, and her choices suggest she revels in her big muscle sexy otherness, her female muscle superpowers.
Fan favourites are not always the most successful when it comes to competition though. And when Natalya last competed, she was so displeased with the judges that she got herself suspended from whatever federation it was. After the results had been announced and the trophies, medals and flowers handed out, as the other competitors did the usual post-awards poses, Natalya just left the stage leaving her trophy on it.
Or, in another version of the story I've read, she actually kind of "threw down" or "dropped" her trophy in front of the judges as she left. There may be footage of this somewhere, but I haven't been able to find it, so I can't be sure exactly what happened, but whichever version of the tale you want to go with, it's hardly the kind of on stage behaviour the IFBB usually rewards by inviting the culprit into the pro ranks.
Maybe Manion really really dislikes the federation Natalya was suspended from and wanted to cock a snook at them. Maybe he's just a really big fan. Maybe Manion and the IFBB see in Natalya the same star quality we (and she) see and he just wants to get as much of that star quality into female bodybuilding as he can, in order to "save" it...
OK, not that any of those reasons are very likely, but that last one is really unlikely, I grant you, even though it would be the best reason for awarding a pro card ever!
