Great Glootz of the 21st Century: Alina

Three down, two to go.



It seems almost rude to focus on just the one part of this body - the body that was, by general consensus between about 2011 and 2015, the body - but C. Moore can't help feeling that a post devoted solely to the glory of the Popa posterior is long overdue.



No lesser judge than Annie Rivieccio, a big fan of Alina's entirety, but a melting mess of girlie giggles in the face of Alina's twitching gloot meat, would agree. Probably.



Size, shape, quality over a period of time - all the things we've looked for in all of our Great Glootz - Alina's has in spades. Plus outrageously good control - bettered perhaps only by my soon-to-be-revealed #1 - and a penchant for choosing just the right outfits to showcase these magnificent mounds of female muscle meat. Alina had a great rear before she went stratospheric around 2011, and it has just kept on getting more and more bounteous. At her most recent contest appearance (the 2015 Rising Phoenix) while still stunning, other parts of Alina's Physique perhaps suffered a little from her long injury-enforced lay-off. That gloot meat, however, looked tastier than ever.



Here's 45 seconds of once-seen-never-forgotten Popa play.



Now, watch this.

If you still got anything left in the tank, these should finish you off nicely.




Oh Alina...

FMS@RP2017: Evergreen

Age cannot wither her...


Yaxeni, Ms International (left) and Ms Olympia 2005

She made her Olympia debut in 1998. It beggars belief that she finished tenth then, and the following year. By the end of 2003 though, she had two consecutive Ms International and two other pro titles to her name, but that, and two more pro wins in 2004, was just the prelude to the remarkable 2005 she had - Ms International for a third time and her one and only Olympia triumph, the last non-American to hold the title. She added two more Ms International wins to her CV before that, and subsequently the Olympia disappeared. She could have retired any number of times and it would have felt like she was bowing out at the top of her game, but no, she kept going. Iris sneered at the new Wings of Strength-led regime in 2015, but Yaxeni turned up at the inaugural Rising Phoenix despite having been beset with injury problems, and claimed 4th place. Then, last year, as she turned 50, she competed more often than she had done any time since 2010 - two shows (and a win at the Lenda Murray/Norfolk Pro) before taking up her pre-qualified place at the Rising Phoenix, placing 5th.


Norfolk Pro 2016

Would she call it a day now? 50 years old and nothing left to prove, guaranteed to be remembered as one of the very greatest competitive Female Bodybuilders ever. No, she probably hadn't even thought about retirement. Yaxeni was back on stage again, more than a quarter of a century since she first put on a posing suit and flexed her (probably slightly less mighty than now) muscles. And, for the first time since the 2012 Olympia, she was flexing those muscles to a place in the top 3. What a legend!



And once again she was in her trusty black posing suit. I still don't know how it has withstood being stretched to its limit by all that beautiful beef, year after year!




It's the vibe, she says of the show, the energy! We all want to be there. On the live feed she came out and for me was as exciting to watch as ever. Seriously big, seriously ripped, and seriously sexy at the age of 51, and still a serious contender for the title. She'll be 52 this time next year. I doubt I'll be writing about how much I missed her at the 2018 Rising Phoenix. More likely I'll be writing about how she made the first callout once again. And how her black posing suit continues to defy the odds.




¡Viva Yaxeni!

FMS@RP2017: 9*

You knew it was close. The contest was wide open at the outset, what with Margie having abdicated, Alina being absent, and potential dark horse Brittney O'Veal deciding to sit it out this year. The judges could go all retro and give it to Yaxeni, or all penitent and throw it Aleesha's way perhaps. Both possible, just about possible.



In the end though, it was the two pre-show favourites who were still standing after 3rd place had been announced - runner-up last year and Tampa Pro champ this Sheila Bleck, and 2015's runner-up and 2016's most-hard-done-by Helle Trevino.

And the winner is...

Behind the lectern stage right Lenda Murray looked visibly shocked. I've seen this before but never for first place, announced MC Shannon Dey. We have a tie.



You knew it was close. They'd been right at the centre of the first callout and both, in their own way, looked as good as they ever have. Sheila, all perfect conditioning, perfect proportions and perfect poses; Helle, bulkier, beefier, less-than-regulation hand gestures inviting the audience (and judges) to eye up her abs and glutes.



I was leaning towards Helle after the pre-judging. Those kinds of hand gestures and rampant muscle (s)exhibitionism go along way with me. After the evening show though, Sheila's routine, always a highlight in any show she competes in, had me wondering whether she might drive the jeep home. Either would have been a worthy champion. Both had three pro titles to their name as they waited for the announcement. Neither lives full-time in the country where they were born.



9* is what they both had on the scorecard. The * indicating the tie. When 2nd place gets $25,000 and the winner gets $60,000 and the jeep, that's a fairly big tie break, and the tie break was... the final round. The routine! I'd read it the opposite way to the judges - Sheila won in the afternoon, Helle won the whole thing in the evening.



Seeing such a big woman jump so far into the air so many times was quite a thrill. Sheila, poor Sheila looked a little shell-shocked, and I'm sure my heart wasn't the only one going out to her as she was given her sash and shit. Couldn't they, I wondered, have given it to them both? I remembered the first ever London marathon, when, with the finish line in sight, the two leaders joined hands and broke the tape as one...



And then Helle stepped forward to get her sash and sword and whatnot and I forgot all about that. I remembered Helle's 2005 injury, a herniated disc that left her unable to walk. The medical opinion was she'd never train again, let alone compete, but she wasn't having any of that. Six years later she was winning her first show back, and 8 years after her 2003 Olympia debut she was back there again. It would have been a remarkable story had it ended there, but Helle was coming back for good.




So it feels like the right woman won. Again, the Rising Phoenix has given us a champ we can (and should) all be proud of. But spare a thought for Sheila. It really was close.

Stage: Part 1

Irene Andersen a few days before the Puerto Rico Pro

As I wrote to one of you lovely readers only today, I am forever suspecting that there will come a day when my long-standing obsession with women who forge their physiques with iron will start to diminish, but continue to find that in fact the opposite is true. The more I learn about them, the deeper I go, the deeper my love grows.


Paloma Parra exploding during peak week, and on stage in Puerto Rico

Long-time readers of the blog, or those who arrive here for the first time and then check it out in depth - my blogger stats, for example, tell me someone in Japan has "discovered" FMS this week, こんにちは、いらっしゃい - may have noticed a distinct shift in the focus of the blog over the five years I have been writing FMS away from the more archivey stuff and towards the more topical (never totally topical as I always try to be at least a few days ahead in posting, otherwise it just gets too damn stressful) and that very much includes material about FBBs preparing for or performing at contests.



Shreds and skills: Jodi Boam, Toronto Pro

There are two reasons for this. First, it is just so much easier now to follow any given competitor through her prep via social media, and likewise, contest galleries go up on sites like NPC News Online pretty much within hours of the women taking to the stage. The photos are almost always good quality, and plentiful. My task is to pick the best and write a bit of entertaining blah to go with them, which might possibly involve researching past contest history and/or including a few Instagram photos. Now, five years ago that took a lot longer than it does today. Trust me on that, I know.


Why so excited to see Hanna Hallman perform? I wonder...

But secondly, and more importantly, I just don't seem to be able to get enough of contest shape female muscle and social media allows me to follow my (many) favourite competitors through their prep. I watch their bodies change, sometimes for months, as they diet down and shed their body fat. I share their excitement as the week and then the day of the contest approaches - they can't wait to be on stage, I can't wait to see them there. And then, finally, there they are, joyfully flexing and/or posing their beautifully defined muscles on stage. Make-up, hair, oil, tan... The DISPLAY.


The glamour: Ashley Losee

Registration and backstage "candids" are a big bonus, but it's when they're on stage they're at their happiest (or should be) and so am I. As a sport, Bodybuilding, and not just Female Bodybuilding/Physique and so on, lacks a certain drama, for sure. However, as a sort of erotic form of theatre with a touch of sport thrown in? Yes.


Shawna Strong, Toronto

So when I say my love of female muscle is ever-growing, what I really mean is that I am more and more obsessed with checking out reports and photos of every single contest I can find. Pouring over the images, be they of long-familiar favourites or new exciting bodies. From the big beasts down to the Figure phenoms (haven't ever got as excited about Bikini, but you never know) I am always looking out and looking up.


Odalys Ferreira, NY Pro pro debut

And a consequence of all this is I seem to be getting a tad better at picking winners. From last year, for example, Odalys Ferreira featured. She recently finished 2nd in New York - at only her second pro show. From this year and the Physique division, Jill Diorio, who secured Olympia qualification with victory in Puerto Rico just last weekend. I don't want to give any more instances, blow my own trumpet too much or jinx myself for the future, but I'm not getting any worse at spotting future champions.


She won! Jill Diorio, Puerto Rico

And yet, not once in my life have I actually been to a contest. Not once. All this pleasure, all this enjoyment is 100% vicarious. I imagine I would have the time of my life at the Rising Phoenix or (closer to home) the Arnold in Barcelona or (even closer) the NABBA Universe or (closer still) the UKBFF British, but until I actually sit in the audience at a Bodybuilding show, that's all it will ever be - just my imagination.



Meet me in St. Louis? Joanna Romano

Look out for Parts 2 and 3 later in the week.

Meanwhile, I would love to hear about your own experiences of attending contests or not attending contests but wishing you had or would or could. Please feel free to use the comment box below, or, if you'd rather, email me at 6ft1swell@gmail.com.