Seems like not very long since our last round-up of recent YouTube clips, but we've certainly collected more than enough to fill another post, so, we thought, why not?
WHEN A WOMAN LOVES A MUSCLE WOMAN
The girl can't help it! I do especially like the way our worshipper loses the ability to finish even the most basic sentences, and, finally, the ability to articulate words.
It's sort of comforting to know that The Madness can strike the ladies just as much as it can us fellas, although I'm more than a little jealous of how much more physical access (and free physical access at that) a woman going ga-ga over a muscle woman can get!
See also: IFBB Physique pro Sarah-Aude Salbot getting felt up by a female admirer this time last year in Miami (where - in my head - women like Sarah-Aude walking down the street wearing not very much are such a common sight the locals are immune).
WHEN A MEN LOVES A MUSCLE WOMAN
In the normal scheme of things, MuscleSportTV is not an essential watch, but one of its shows - the imaginatively named Gregg & Joe TV - hosted by Gregg (Valentino) and Joe (Pietaro) turned out to be more interesting than most. Gregg and Joe interview "Big Daddy" Chris, a New Yorker and session regular. It's a tad cruder than I would ideally like it to be, but once I had suppressed my inner prude, I found it mighty refreshing.
The interview starts at 6.52
This may not the most respectful discussion of the topic, but I like how unapologetic Chris is, his disdain for the "schmoe" label, and his love of FBBs at their most vascular, when they look like "a GPS road map", as he puts it. The fact that Joe also confesses to being a female muscle head as well but only pleasuring himself and being (rightly) jealous of Chris' experiences is another aspect of the piece I can identify with!
From the gutter to the ballet we go (perhaps feeling we need to restore FMS' highbrow credentials at this point) [you're more deluded than I thought - ed.] with Oksana Grishina going back to her conservatory roots for a collaboration with Boris Ivanov (pianist and co-director) and Konstantin Frolov. The music is not the greatest, and there's far too much fading to Boris for my liking, but there's no denying how impressive Oksana is. The 10 or so seconds after the 1.54 mark is truly breathtaking.
The error in the title (for the benefit of our non-English-speaking readers: men is plural, One Man's Dream would be correct) may, for all I know, be entirely deliberate. Perhaps the filmmakers are commenting on the fact that what we think are our individual muscle woman fantasies are actually shared collective fantasies.
Or something.
GLAMMED AND TANNED
Best Muscle Video continues to delight with its edits of individual women, both amateur and professional, at recent shows. Our pick of the recent amateur bunch are the very watchable Gisselle Cole (Figure) and Chrissy Cuellar (Physique).
Meanwhile, they have started (I hope there will be more) to put up footage from the St. Louis Pro this year, with veteran FBB turned Physique Master Candice Carr and the gorgeous Katie Lee already ready to view. Our pick of the pros from that show and from the channel recently though is Krista Dunn. Make it past the abs and thigh at 2.40 and you will have lasted longer than me [that's "highbrow"?! - ed.]
For more Euro-centric delights, Lara Tasharofi, the Austrian winner of this year's NABBA Slovakia, gives quite the glute-show, but Body-Xtreme's coverage of the Physique class at the recent German Championships is truly essential viewing. Despite their jobs depending on it, the Research Department haven't yet been able to identify the last of the posers (or indeed any of them) but whoever she is, she is very special.
Enjoy!
Showing posts with label Oksana Grishina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oksana Grishina. Show all posts
Tuesday, 15 May 2018
Friday, 23 February 2018
10 Years at the Arnold Classic: 2014
FLEXLESS IN COLUMBUS
I've stated my admiration for the women of the Figure and Fitness (and even, on occasion, the Bikini) divisions on this blog before, so this in no way reflects on them, but 2014 - for the female muscle fan at least - was a low point at the Arnolds. No Bodybuilding, and no Physique (which debuted in the pro event the following year). In other words, there was not one double biceps, or lat spread, or abs & thigh pose hit by a woman on the stage that year. Not one. Just three divisions, all involving the wearing of heels at some point. It may be "Bodybuilding" Jim Manion, but not as we know it.
Ashley Kaltwasser (a former Arnold Amateur Bikini champ), followed up her 2013 Olympia win to take her first (of three consecutive) Bikini International titles. And in Fitness, Oksana Grishina began her own, even more impressive winning streak. Starting with this event in 2014 until her retirement at the Olympia last year, Oksana competed thirteen times and on every occasion took home the winner's cheque.
In Figure though, it was more the end of an era. Candice Keene won for the third year in a row and for the last time. Unlike her Bikini and Fitness peers in 2014, she never dominated her division - she was never Ms Figure Olympia, for example. The year after this at the Arnolds, (this) Candice finished 3rd, and for the first time all three dominant forces in Figure today - (the other) Candice (Lewis-Carter), Latorya Watts and Cydney Gillon - would feature in the same line up for the first time.
MUSCLE!
If it was beef you wanted, the only place to look at the 2014 Arnolds was among the Physique amateurs, where 48 competitors demonstrated just how healthy and varied this new division could be. They included former and future Bodybuilder Silvia Matta, a future NABBA Worlds Physique (ie. Bodybuilding) champ, Karolina Holubcova, who would return to IFBB Physique again later, and a number of younger women who had never competed in a different division, among them Katie Lee.
Now this is "Bodybuilding"! There was even a disqualification! Naughty Suzy Kellner got kicked out. I don't know why, but it'd fit the theory if it was the old urine sample.
If you didn't know any better - like if, for the last few years, you'd been asleep, or frozen and brought back to life or something - you could have been forgiven for thinking, as you gazed at the impressively muscular women on stage, that you'd wandered in while the Light and/or Middleweight FBBs were up. I don't think Physique "killed" Female Bodybuilding at all - but I do think it is fair to say these women saved events like the Arnold Classic from disappearing from the female muscle fan radar altogether.
And - as with all good "Bodybuilding" shows - there was a judging controversy! The Short class and Overall winner Bruna Miyagui from Brazil was one of the least muscular women on the stage (although not without her charms), so the ever classy (and former Bodybuilder) Joan Liew had to settle for just the Tall class title.
BRITISH INTEREST?
Lots! Kizzy Vaines was again our only pro and she made the top 10 again in the Fitness division, and for the first time there was a serious British amateur contingent.
Left to right: Nikki Jenkins Robinsons was our most successful Bikini competitor - 6th, up to 160cm class. Nina Ross, who you may remember competed in Figure the previous year, was 8th, up to 166cm class; and Anita Bekus (up to 163cm) was 11th.
In Figure, Yo Lazarov finished outside the placings in her up to 160cm class; Reem Al-Bareeq and Karolina Borkova (both up to 163cm) placed 13th and 8th respectively; and the impressive Eszter Petti was 4th in the up to 166cm class.
Katalin Jasztrab went one better and finished 3rd in the over 169cm class - although technically she was still competing for Hungary then, Katalin's very much one of us now and - look at her! - we'll claim her whatever the paperwork says. Result of the day for the UK though came from the soon-to-be Figure pro Maria Scotland, who was both runner-up in her (Open) up to 166cm class and then our first ever Arnold Amateur champion when she won the up to 168cm Masters class (and was 3rd Overall).
And finally, the future of British Physique looked bright with three women flying the flag in that division. Rosanna Harte was beaten only by the Overall winner in the Short class - and that was by no means a unanimous judging decision, and in the same class, "Marea Warde", better known to us now as Ria Ward, placed 15th.
Hayley Brylewski was our sole competitor in the Tall class, and, as so often seems to be the case with Hayley in UKBFF contests at home and IFBB contests abroad, you are left wondering how such a stunning package was judged to be worthy of 13th place.
JUST 5 HOT AND HARD VOTING DAYS LEFT!
Find out how to vote here and then send them to 6ft1swell@gmail.com or use any comment box below any post. As I've said before, if you have voted using the comment box already - I have got your votes, I just haven't published them yet.
I've stated my admiration for the women of the Figure and Fitness (and even, on occasion, the Bikini) divisions on this blog before, so this in no way reflects on them, but 2014 - for the female muscle fan at least - was a low point at the Arnolds. No Bodybuilding, and no Physique (which debuted in the pro event the following year). In other words, there was not one double biceps, or lat spread, or abs & thigh pose hit by a woman on the stage that year. Not one. Just three divisions, all involving the wearing of heels at some point. It may be "Bodybuilding" Jim Manion, but not as we know it.
Ashley Kaltwasser (a former Arnold Amateur Bikini champ), followed up her 2013 Olympia win to take her first (of three consecutive) Bikini International titles. And in Fitness, Oksana Grishina began her own, even more impressive winning streak. Starting with this event in 2014 until her retirement at the Olympia last year, Oksana competed thirteen times and on every occasion took home the winner's cheque.
In Figure though, it was more the end of an era. Candice Keene won for the third year in a row and for the last time. Unlike her Bikini and Fitness peers in 2014, she never dominated her division - she was never Ms Figure Olympia, for example. The year after this at the Arnolds, (this) Candice finished 3rd, and for the first time all three dominant forces in Figure today - (the other) Candice (Lewis-Carter), Latorya Watts and Cydney Gillon - would feature in the same line up for the first time.
MUSCLE!
If it was beef you wanted, the only place to look at the 2014 Arnolds was among the Physique amateurs, where 48 competitors demonstrated just how healthy and varied this new division could be. They included former and future Bodybuilder Silvia Matta, a future NABBA Worlds Physique (ie. Bodybuilding) champ, Karolina Holubcova, who would return to IFBB Physique again later, and a number of younger women who had never competed in a different division, among them Katie Lee.
Now this is "Bodybuilding"! There was even a disqualification! Naughty Suzy Kellner got kicked out. I don't know why, but it'd fit the theory if it was the old urine sample.
If you didn't know any better - like if, for the last few years, you'd been asleep, or frozen and brought back to life or something - you could have been forgiven for thinking, as you gazed at the impressively muscular women on stage, that you'd wandered in while the Light and/or Middleweight FBBs were up. I don't think Physique "killed" Female Bodybuilding at all - but I do think it is fair to say these women saved events like the Arnold Classic from disappearing from the female muscle fan radar altogether.
And - as with all good "Bodybuilding" shows - there was a judging controversy! The Short class and Overall winner Bruna Miyagui from Brazil was one of the least muscular women on the stage (although not without her charms), so the ever classy (and former Bodybuilder) Joan Liew had to settle for just the Tall class title.
BRITISH INTEREST?
Lots! Kizzy Vaines was again our only pro and she made the top 10 again in the Fitness division, and for the first time there was a serious British amateur contingent.
Left to right: Nikki Jenkins Robinsons was our most successful Bikini competitor - 6th, up to 160cm class. Nina Ross, who you may remember competed in Figure the previous year, was 8th, up to 166cm class; and Anita Bekus (up to 163cm) was 11th.
In Figure, Yo Lazarov finished outside the placings in her up to 160cm class; Reem Al-Bareeq and Karolina Borkova (both up to 163cm) placed 13th and 8th respectively; and the impressive Eszter Petti was 4th in the up to 166cm class.
Katalin Jasztrab went one better and finished 3rd in the over 169cm class - although technically she was still competing for Hungary then, Katalin's very much one of us now and - look at her! - we'll claim her whatever the paperwork says. Result of the day for the UK though came from the soon-to-be Figure pro Maria Scotland, who was both runner-up in her (Open) up to 166cm class and then our first ever Arnold Amateur champion when she won the up to 168cm Masters class (and was 3rd Overall).
And finally, the future of British Physique looked bright with three women flying the flag in that division. Rosanna Harte was beaten only by the Overall winner in the Short class - and that was by no means a unanimous judging decision, and in the same class, "Marea Warde", better known to us now as Ria Ward, placed 15th.
Hayley Brylewski was our sole competitor in the Tall class, and, as so often seems to be the case with Hayley in UKBFF contests at home and IFBB contests abroad, you are left wondering how such a stunning package was judged to be worthy of 13th place.
JUST 5 HOT AND HARD VOTING DAYS LEFT!
Find out how to vote here and then send them to 6ft1swell@gmail.com or use any comment box below any post. As I've said before, if you have voted using the comment box already - I have got your votes, I just haven't published them yet.
Monday, 2 October 2017
Olympia 2017: Yer Ms Olympias
There was a time when there was one Ms Olympia, and she was called Cory. Or Lenda. In 1995, when Kim was Ms Olympia, the Fitness Olympia was added to the show. Eight years later, the Figure Olympia was held for the first time, and Ms Olympia was Lenda. Again. Iris reigned when Bikini made its Olympia debut in 2010, and then in 2013 the addition of the Physique Olympia meant that, for two years at least, there were five female divisions. As I'm sure you need no reminding, The Ms Olympia was last held in 2014, and since then we've had four Ms Olympias each year and yet no Ms Olympia. And the four from 2017 - two new, two recrowned - kick off our FMS Olympia week.
Let's meet them in order of their divisions' introduction.
Ms FITNESS OLYMPIA
OKSANA GRISHINA
Given that the last person to beat her in any competition was Tanji Johnson at the Arnold Classic Europe in 2013, it was hardly a surprise that for the fourth consecutive year, Oksana won. Gosh, she said afterwards, sounding as surprised as everyone else.
The Olympia is pretty much the one time I actually watch Fitness routines, and Oksana never fails to stun. She didn't reprise the spinning round the stage in a giant hoop like some kind of human gyroscope routine from the Arnold Classic earlier this year, opting for a more balletic and altogether more typically Oksana-like performance. But as much as I am always impressed by the power, grace and artistry of her routines, it's the body that really appeals, always the most muscular in the comparison round.
You wouldn't know it to look at her but she's 39 now, and still the sole Fitness competitor in your Hot and Hard 100 - up from #31 to #23 in 2017. With an Instagram following of well over a quarter of a million, she also provides the fitness inspiration to hundreds of thousands of women the world over. Pure class.
Ms FIGURE OLYMPIA
CYDNEY GILLON
!NEW CHAMPION!
I don't like to blow my own trumpet, but in March, on the occasion of the divine Ms Gillon's Hot and Hard 100 debut, ol' Swell's crystal ball was cooking with gas...
Already this year she's got between Candice Lewis-Carter and Latorya Watts to earn a silver at the Figure International. Could she be Ms Figure Olympia in 2017?
Absolutely.
I was hardly going out on a limb though. Cydney's star has been rising in the last couple of years - 3rd at last year's Olympia came at the end of a season where she had won two pro titles, this year she was 2nd at the South American Arnolds and runner-up in Ohio, and she prepared for the Olympia by winning the Arizona Pro the previous week. Her time had come, and at the age of 25, this former collegiate track athlete and junior Bodybuilder becomes the 7th different woman in 14 years to be Ms Figure Olympia.
Here she is interviewed after her win by NPC News Online's Tony Doherty and mind you don't, as I did, get hypnotised by Cyd's dancing bicep as she gesticulates. Or those yummy shoulders. Or that big gold medal slapping against her tight hard abs...
No muscle in Figure? The evidence suggests otherwise!
Ms BIKINI OLYMPIA
ANGELICA TEIXEIRA
!NEW CHAMPION!
The second of our two new Ms Olympias, and the first of two Brazilians, Angelica Teixeira had, like Cydney Gillion, been getting closer and closer to the top of her division over the last couple of years. After failing to place on her Olympia debut in 2015, she turned things around last year with two pro wins before finishing runner-up at the Olympia. This year she has swept all before her, winning at the Arnolds in Ohio and Australia before she arrived in Las Vegas and justified her billing as favourite.
She's now based in the US, but her native Brazil is where it all started. I grew up seeing all the fit women on TV all the time, and at the beaches there are so many people with amazing bodies, she says. It’s very easy to get inspired in Brazil. Just as I thought!
This was, she says, the day my dream came true. It took her 30 competitions to become the Bikini Queen, but she wasn't resting on her laurels - within a week she was on a plane to Seoul to compete at the Asia Grand Prix. Bikini contest #31.
Ms PHYSIQUE OLYMPIA
JULIANA MALACARNE
Dana Linn Bailey won the first Physique Olympia back in 2013, and since then... one winner. The challengers might have changed - Dana Linn and Tycie Coppett in 2014, Kira Neuman got close in '15, Dani and Heather Grace last year, Jennifer Taylor and Heather again this, but the now 43-year-old Juliana Malacarne remains the undisputed, undefeated (in four years, anyway) Queen of Women's Physique.
Was it close(r) this year? I wouldn't say I agreed with the judges about the placings, but then again, when it comes to Physique, that's pretty much always true, but I always say this, and I always mean it - this was the best Physique line-up I had ever seen, ever so slightly tarnished by Shanique Grant's absence (again). Fact is, no one had just the right amount of muscle and conditioning for this year's judging zeitgeist like Jules did.
And while some other multiple Ms Olympias - mentioning no names - may have outstayed their welcome, there is no sign of a backlash against this one starting any time soon. Congratulations from her peers flooded in on her Instagram, and the fan forums lit up once more for this Physique dream. In my opinion, the sexiest woman on earth, one fan wrote. Juliana is perfect from head to toe. Absolute feminine beauty! You wouldn't bet against her making it five in a row next year, would you?
We leave you today with Juliana's winning routine.
Ai karamba!
Olympia all week on FMS.
Let's meet them in order of their divisions' introduction.
Ms FITNESS OLYMPIA
OKSANA GRISHINA
Given that the last person to beat her in any competition was Tanji Johnson at the Arnold Classic Europe in 2013, it was hardly a surprise that for the fourth consecutive year, Oksana won. Gosh, she said afterwards, sounding as surprised as everyone else.
The Olympia is pretty much the one time I actually watch Fitness routines, and Oksana never fails to stun. She didn't reprise the spinning round the stage in a giant hoop like some kind of human gyroscope routine from the Arnold Classic earlier this year, opting for a more balletic and altogether more typically Oksana-like performance. But as much as I am always impressed by the power, grace and artistry of her routines, it's the body that really appeals, always the most muscular in the comparison round.
You wouldn't know it to look at her but she's 39 now, and still the sole Fitness competitor in your Hot and Hard 100 - up from #31 to #23 in 2017. With an Instagram following of well over a quarter of a million, she also provides the fitness inspiration to hundreds of thousands of women the world over. Pure class.
Ms FIGURE OLYMPIA
CYDNEY GILLON
!NEW CHAMPION!
I don't like to blow my own trumpet, but in March, on the occasion of the divine Ms Gillon's Hot and Hard 100 debut, ol' Swell's crystal ball was cooking with gas...
Already this year she's got between Candice Lewis-Carter and Latorya Watts to earn a silver at the Figure International. Could she be Ms Figure Olympia in 2017?
Absolutely.
I was hardly going out on a limb though. Cydney's star has been rising in the last couple of years - 3rd at last year's Olympia came at the end of a season where she had won two pro titles, this year she was 2nd at the South American Arnolds and runner-up in Ohio, and she prepared for the Olympia by winning the Arizona Pro the previous week. Her time had come, and at the age of 25, this former collegiate track athlete and junior Bodybuilder becomes the 7th different woman in 14 years to be Ms Figure Olympia.
Here she is interviewed after her win by NPC News Online's Tony Doherty and mind you don't, as I did, get hypnotised by Cyd's dancing bicep as she gesticulates. Or those yummy shoulders. Or that big gold medal slapping against her tight hard abs...
No muscle in Figure? The evidence suggests otherwise!
Ms BIKINI OLYMPIA
ANGELICA TEIXEIRA
!NEW CHAMPION!
The second of our two new Ms Olympias, and the first of two Brazilians, Angelica Teixeira had, like Cydney Gillion, been getting closer and closer to the top of her division over the last couple of years. After failing to place on her Olympia debut in 2015, she turned things around last year with two pro wins before finishing runner-up at the Olympia. This year she has swept all before her, winning at the Arnolds in Ohio and Australia before she arrived in Las Vegas and justified her billing as favourite.
She's now based in the US, but her native Brazil is where it all started. I grew up seeing all the fit women on TV all the time, and at the beaches there are so many people with amazing bodies, she says. It’s very easy to get inspired in Brazil. Just as I thought!
This was, she says, the day my dream came true. It took her 30 competitions to become the Bikini Queen, but she wasn't resting on her laurels - within a week she was on a plane to Seoul to compete at the Asia Grand Prix. Bikini contest #31.
Ms PHYSIQUE OLYMPIA
JULIANA MALACARNE
Dana Linn Bailey won the first Physique Olympia back in 2013, and since then... one winner. The challengers might have changed - Dana Linn and Tycie Coppett in 2014, Kira Neuman got close in '15, Dani and Heather Grace last year, Jennifer Taylor and Heather again this, but the now 43-year-old Juliana Malacarne remains the undisputed, undefeated (in four years, anyway) Queen of Women's Physique.
Was it close(r) this year? I wouldn't say I agreed with the judges about the placings, but then again, when it comes to Physique, that's pretty much always true, but I always say this, and I always mean it - this was the best Physique line-up I had ever seen, ever so slightly tarnished by Shanique Grant's absence (again). Fact is, no one had just the right amount of muscle and conditioning for this year's judging zeitgeist like Jules did.
And while some other multiple Ms Olympias - mentioning no names - may have outstayed their welcome, there is no sign of a backlash against this one starting any time soon. Congratulations from her peers flooded in on her Instagram, and the fan forums lit up once more for this Physique dream. In my opinion, the sexiest woman on earth, one fan wrote. Juliana is perfect from head to toe. Absolute feminine beauty! You wouldn't bet against her making it five in a row next year, would you?
We leave you today with Juliana's winning routine.
Ai karamba!
Olympia all week on FMS.
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