Never Better: Rene Marven - Toronto 2013

RENE MARVEN
8th, 2013 Toronto Pro



Rene started out in Figure a decade ago, and Figure is where we have seen her most recently, at last year's Dayana Cadeau Classic (above). She was, she said, "less nervous on stage", and loved being in heels again. She was happy with her new look. Not so some of Rene's many fans, who were doubly offended that she'd dropped not one, but two divisions down. Not even another Physique class sell out! raved one such forum poster, managing to offend two divisions-worth of competitors in just seven words.



Three years earlier she had made her professional IFBB debut at the Toronto Pro, and at the time she seemed to be on a one-woman mission to bring back the supposedly outlawed "most muscular" pose to Female Bodybuilding. The judges had overlooked this indiscretion as she'd won her pro card at the Nationals in 2012 hitting the pose, and here it was again, bigger and better, this thrilling eruption of female muscle.



The Muscular Development play-by-play from the show, however, mentions the pose not once, instead complimenting Rene on her back development and her "great quads". Compare that to Real Female Bodybuilding's take on Rene's showing: Serious female muscle! Rene Marven treated fans to an eyeful of one of the best most muscular poses in the world. She didn't make the top 3 and may not have been the biggest girl on stage but as she hit the classic hardcore pose she looked magnificent!




Ironically too, given that we now know she felt much more nervous when she was posing as a female bodybuilder than as a Figure competitor, the MD commentator, Adina Zanolli, makes a point of saying that Rene's seems to "love being on stage", and I certainly get that impression too, as always with Rene on stage during her FBB years.



I wonder what her next move might be. Since pro FBBing did away with weight classes no amateur FBB from outside the Heavyweight class has made much impact in the Pro League, and Rene was a Middleweight. She is way too bulky for Figure it seems, so she might find Physique provides her with more opportunity for success, if that's what she's after. Meanwhile, happy and healthy, she continues managing Iris Kyle's Bodicafe in Las Vegas, and recent evidence suggests that no matter how hard she tries to "downsize", those biceps of hers are never going lose their thickness or peak.



Follow Rene on Instagram.

Tomorrow, we stay in Toronto for another personal best. Guess who!

Enjoy!

Peak of the Day

Is it the fact that there is another woman with a more conventionally-shaped arm in the picture? Is it the look on Rene's face (look at her eyes) that says she LOVES this kind of attention, a look that suggests she doesn't even own a top that has sleeves?

Or is it simply the damn size of that thing?!



Lawdy, what a picture!!!

You know, I'm beginning to think it's the look, the love of the attention...

Enjoy!

Omaha: A Good Day

Yes, FMS continues to milk the Omaha Pro show, and makes no apologies whatsoever for doing so. This was, in case you need reminding, the first new show on the pro female bodybuilding calendar for many years, and, even better, it was a competition where, for once, the men were mere hors d'oeuvres, the women the meat and potatoes.


The Stars of the Show

For both the Omaha show, and the Toronto Pro the week before it, I found myself, for the first time, following the show more via the social media of the women themselves than through the reporting of established bodybuilding resource sites. For Toronto, a bigger show at which the pro female bodybuilding is one of many contests, this was a choice made partly out of the desire to get the results and images etc. as fast as possible - the major sites tend to be a little tardy in putting up images and results from the FBB show. It's just not a priority for them among all the male and bikini-type classes. But such was the pleasure I took in the self-reportage from Toronto of the likes of Tonia Moore (via her Instagram) that when it came to Omaha, I chose to get my news from the women, rather than trusting the big sites to give me news of them.

Tonia Moore and Jill Rudison

The Best Comedy Double Act in Female Muscle?

What the women can give you that the major sites can't is a no-holds-barred account of their final preparations, unique backstage candids from the show, and, once the show is over, all the pigging-out they do! Granted, the images are, quite obviously, not the kind of high quality stuff that the contest photographer is capable of producing. If you want that kind of detail - photographic detail - then stay with the big sites. But if it's a different kind of detail you crave - the minutiae of a female bodybuilder's final preparations, for example, or who travels/rooms with who, or who does whose make-up and so on - then who better to be your guide than the women themselves?

Judy Gaillard

Checking in (left, via NPC News Online) and waiting for showtime (via her Facebook)

That's not to say that all of the images the women post of themselves and their fellow "Sisters of Iron" are shaky low-quality ones. Far from it. After all, if you are a female bodybuilder with the chance to have your picture taken with nine-times Ms Olympia Iris Kyle, the chances are you are going to want to make it a good 'un. And they all, without exception, seem to have grabbed the opportunity. Often more than once!



Alana Shipp, Anne Freitas, Tonia Moore and Margie Martin get starstruck

Iris was there as a guest star for the show (along with Mr Olympia Phil Heath) and was also, apparently, acting as Rene Marven's coach. However, she was, of course, generously handing out pearls of wisdom to all and sundry. Anne Freitas posted the above photo of herself and the woman she calls "The Queen" on her Instagram with a big thank you message to Iris. I will not forget your advice, she wrote.

Rene Marven, Alana Shipp and Margie Martin

Beauty, bling and smiles

Easy for Iris to show such generosity towards Anne when she's not competing against her, you might think, but this kind of camaraderie seemed to extend throughout the entire field, with all the competitors looking to be so at ease with each other. Laying back and waiting for the finals, reads the description of the above pic on Margie's Instagram, almost as if she, Rene and Alana were teammates, not rivals.



And then there was the almighty, twelve-woman posedown, the images of which reminded us of our posts from back in April, where, with the help of Tanya Bunsell's Strong and Hard Women, we identified both the physical AND spiritual highs experienced by the female bodybuilder at a contest.



We see, in the all-inclusive posedown, the women experiencing the physical and spiritual high both individually and as one, in a kind of collective peaking - although perhaps some of them are peaking just that tiny little bit more than others - for example, Rene Marven seems to be really really enjoying herself!!!



And after all that it's time to stuff your face with all the stuff you have been craving throughout your crazy contest diet. To get your glam on, to have a drink and celebrate your achievement. Today, the smile of the ever-beautiful and newly-married Helle (now Trevino, formerly Nielsen) seems to be saying, was a good day.



Enjoy!

100 Biceps: Day 5

AN OMAHA GUNSHOW

Despite Shannon Peters' absence, there was plenty for the the female muscle head to enjoy at the brand-spanking-new Omaha Pro earlier in the month. The fact that it was a mainly female show, with women's bodybuilding AND physique (compared to the chaps having just physique, whatever) was a pleasure in itself.

ANNE FREITAS: 044, 045


Two shows into the contest season, and Brazilian women are two for two. After Simone Oliveira's win in Toronto, compatriot Anne "Freaky" Freitas (and that's just my pet name for her by the way) won her second pro title in three years and in the process ensured she'll be appearing at the Olympia for the third year in a row.

AYANNA CARROLL: 046 


And even before the show kicked off, physique competitors like Ayanna Carroll (above) were demonstrating that there would be serious muscle, serious biceps, outside the bodybuilding show. Ayanna and her guns finished 5th.

JILL RUDISON: 047, 048


And in the physique class, well, you know, Swell only has eyes for Jill at the moment - even when Dani Reardon's in the line-up! You may or may not share my enthusiasm for her bicep tattoos (which is based entirely on my fantasy about the tats indicating exactly where Jill wants me to squeeze for her pleasure) but surely you can't be immune to her head/nose in the air on stage arrogance.

Incidentally, check out the new styles available at the place "Where the Pros Shop and the Jaws Drop", Quads Not Included. And all of them beautifully modelled by Jill's extraordinary, never-ending and copiously muscled legs.

But the bulk of the bulk did, of course, come in the bodybuilding show, much of it matured nicely and adorning the familiar frames of some hardcore long-time faves.

TONIA MOORE: 049, 050;
JUDY GAILLARD: 051


MELODY SPETKO: 052;
WENDY McCREADY: 053, 054

Tonia Moore pouted and preened her way to 4th place (and there is absolutely nothing wrong with pouting and preening on stage, but honestly, if you can find a picture from the contest where she isn't pouting, please let me know). Judy Gaillard scraped into the top ten, but I'll bet the moment she flexed her massive, shapely peak (above) more than one spectator felt the ecstasy. Melody Spetko, a more than reasonable candidate for the first ever President of the all-female WIFBB, finished a place higher in 9th, looking beefy and beautiful. And Britain's own Wendy McCready was 6th, her highest finish since her 3rd place in Toronto two years ago, and, as ever, she was a fine sight to behold. She's always immaculately polished in her presentation, and always covered in ripped and curvy muscle. Always a treat.

RENE MARVEN: 055, 056


And then there was Rene. She wasn't hitting the most muscular as much as we've come to expect. Bad thing. And she wasn't as ripped, or "dry" as I believe they say in the game, as we have seen her in the last couple of years either, but to be honest, I kind of like the look. I'd say she looked "juicy" if the connotations of that word were not so negative in FBI circles, so instead I'll say she looked "succulent". As well as gorgeous, and, of course, massive. Like nut-bustingly massive.

And by the way, it's Marven with an E, not Marvin as some websites have, lazily in my opinion, got into the habit of sometimes listing her. What's it cost to check?

ALANA SHIPP: 057, 058


Smaller, but perfectly-formed, first year pro Alana Shipp flexed her way to another top 6 finish after her 2nd place in Toronto. Once again, she looked as hard as the proverbial granite, and I bet there was quite a lot of hardening going on elsewhere in the auditorium whenever Alana treated the crowd to a view from the rear. Exquisite.

MARGIE MARTIN



And last, but absolutely no means least, the woman who's making my "Special Favourites" folder bulge like her jeggings do when her thighs are in them, Lady MVM herself, Margie Martin. What a sight she is! Traffic-stopping muscle, heart-stopping beauty. What more could a red-blooded man want? If I hadn't spent so much seed over these pictures while choosing them, I wouldn't be able to type right now.

[And no numbers for Margie cos we featured those super-fine guns of hers on Saturday (#013, 014) 'case you were wondering. We said 100, and we ain't gonna cheat!]

And once again, here are these magnificent women showing the world (well, OK, the bit of the world that's watching, anyway) that a mostly-female show can be a success. Granted, Margie collecting her $2,000 for second place isn't going to make millions of women want to get rich in the female muscle pro ranks, but the money is clearly not what it's all about. Check out Margie's Instagram, or Tonia Moore's, or the Instagram of any of the women who competed. See what you think they do it for.




Female bodybuilding. Still dying, apparently.

Well, not in my house. And certainly not in Omaha.

Enjoy!

Thighs of the Day: Know Your Thighs

The quads, quadriceps, quadriceps extensor, or, to give it its full name, the quadriceps femoris is a muscle group - and a large one at that - that includes the four major muscles on the front of the thigh. Apparently, 'it is the great extensor muscle of the knee, forming a large fleshy mass which covers the front and sides of the femur'. In fact, quadriceps femoris means ‘four-headed muscle of the femur’ in Latin.

left: Rene Marven right: Kashma Maharaj

Kashma has already competed, taking the heavyweight class at the Arnold Amateur recently. Rene should, all being well, take her pro bow at the start of June at the Toronto Pro. So there's four four-headed muscles of the femur to watch in 2013.

The quads is, unsurprisingly, subdivided into four ‘heads’, each with its own name. And there are worse ways of getting to know the four heads than looking at pictures of female bodybuilders and their sexy, ripped thighs. It's certainly more fun than looking at anatomical diagrams, isn't it? Imagine you're a medical student. Which image would you recall more readily? Could female bodybuilders be a potential teaching aid?



left: Fabiola Boulanger right: Gillian Kovack

Considerably more interesting to look at than an anatomy book.

The rectus femoris occupies the middle of the thigh. The vastus lateralis is on the outer side of the femur, and the vastus medialis (can you guess?) is on the inner thigh. The vastus intermedius is the one muscle of the quads you are unlikely to see unless you are a surgeon, as it’s under the rectus femoris. Female bodybuilding judges are only really concerned with three of the four 'quads' then. Interesting...

left: Roberta Toth right: Anne Freitas

Even in their native Brazil, where most women's thighs seem to have impressive structure, muscularity and tone, Roberta and Anne's three visible heads are standouts. Coxas muito sensuais, as they say in Bahia. Probably.

All four of the quads are extensors of the knee, and come in handy if you want to walk, run, jump or squat. They can be trained by doing leg presses, squats, or, if you really want to isolate them, leg extensions are boss.

left: Lisa Giesbrecht right: Amy Sibcy

Just look at the vastus lateralises and the vastus medialises on them, he said.
To which I could only reply, And their rectus femorises ain't bad either.

More quadriceps femorises (femori? femorae? help!) tomorrow.

Enjoy!