Virtue in VICE

Today you have some reading to do, dear - er - reader.

The article first appeared in the UK edition of VICE, but has become better known since appearing on its US sister site. And as articles about the subject that are, at least in part, about "us", it's as good as anything I've read since Tanya Bunsell's seminal Strong and Hard Women. Yes, there is a bit of laziness on the part of author Lucas Oakeley - we are all "schmoes", the use of the word "goddess" to describe desirable women is not the exclusive domain of the female muscle lovin' community, and surely these days it's camshows, rather than the more "traditional" sessions, that are really the most "lucrative" way for a Female Bodybuilder to spend her time. However, and here's the acid test, I finished the article and felt informed. Especially interesting (to me) was a large chunk of the "fascination with muscular women is not new" section, as well as the extended Skype interview with HerBiceps overlord Michael Eckstut.

It's a long read - the fact that it appears in the VICE "Long Reads" section is a clue - but as I say, well worth the effort. I'd be interested to hear your own reactions (via the comment box below or by emailing me direct: 6ft1swell@gmail.com).

INSIDE THE LUCRATIVE WORLD OF FEMALE MUSCLE WORSHIP

Save the Date (Part 1)

In just over three weeks from now, the greatest female muscle show on Earth will be getting under way in Scottsdale, Arizona. This will be the fourth running of the contest the ladies themselves call "our Olympia", and - of Wings of Strength's own pre-show blurb is to be believed - the first to which no "special invites" will be handed out.

The reason for no invites, as far as I can tell, is that the line-up is already "stacked". Although not 100% confirmed as a line-up, with twenty-four women already qualified from placing high at last year's RP, winning a pro show in 2018, or earning four or more qualifying points, the show promises to be the biggest, best RP to date.

So I'm getting the preview in early...

HELLE TREVINO



The reigning Queen of Female Bodybuilding has done her bit at WoS booths during the course of 2018, but otherwise she's been fairly low profile - and that's just the way she likes it. Helle is not the biggest fan of the likes of us - who can blame her?! - so rather than Instagram, her YouTube channel is the place to go if you want to see the kind of shape. Watch her destroy (male and female) training partners in clips with names such as Funny Chest Workout, Building Massive Legs and Monster Calves & Shoulders.



Though the champ, she probably isn't the favourite, but discount her at your peril - she's never turned up for the Rising Phoenix in less than immaculate condition, has only been out of the top two once, and deserved better than her 4th two years ago.

LE DUE ITALIANE



For the first time since the days of Claudias Profanter and Montemaggi, two Italians will strut their stuff at the world's premier female muscle show. Barbara Carita and Cristina Franzoso were the sole FBBs on show at the new-look San Marino Pro in June. Barbara earned her pro card the day before then outmuscled her veteran compatriot. Cristina, however, picked up four qualifying points for 2nd as a result, and added to the four she'd already got at the Galaxy Pro a couple of weeks earlier, she flew to the top of the points table, and has been there ever since.

MUSCLEDOLL



Also getting her RP qualification in early was Maryse Manios, winner of that Galaxy Pro in Bari, Italy. She regally dominates... A true MASSIVE MATURE MUSCLE QUEEN! proclaimed one of her many devotees on the forums after her victory, but 5th in Toronto (out of 7) was probably a better reflection of where Maryse truly is in the grand scheme of IFBB Pro Female Bodybuilding these days. Highly unlikely that she, or either of our two Italians will make the placings, but they all deserve their place.

JACQUELINE "JAY" FUCHS



Another Euro muscle legend, however, is - particularly if current form (see above) is maintained - going to be in the mix for a automatic qualification for next year. Jay's 3rd in Chicago was met with consternation by her band of merry men, but they (and she) didn't have to wait long before she was handed a big (first place) sword.



To me she never looks quite as breathtaking on stage as she does off it (not the only woman I could say that of), but a week after the Chicago show, Jay was crowned at the Lenda Murray Pro in Norfolk, and most recently placed 5th in Tampa in the best line-up of 2018 so far. She was 12th in her one and only RP appearance (last year), she could well break into the top 10 this time. Loyal fans will be hoping for even more.

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE



Over 55 as long ago as 2014, Patricia "Patty" Corbett just made it to the show on points, as did the equally long-serving (but a good ten years younger) Angela Rayburn - who of course has been to the RP before. Expect wardrobe malfunctions and a big bulge from Patty, that signature pose and a big bulge from Angela...



Tara Silzer, meanwhile, with not quite as many years behind her as Patty and Angela, spent the first couple of years of her pro career slumming it in Physique, but a decision this year to "go big" has paid off handsomely. She was immediately into the prize money as runner-up to Jay in Norfolk, and now she's prepping for Arizona.

FBBUK



With no Lisa Cross this year - her 4th in Tampa wasn't enough (and wasn't right as far as I'm concerned either!) - British fans will be hoping that 2017's surprise RP package Wendy McCready can repeat the trick. Like Queen Helle, Wendy tends to keep a pretty low social media profile, but one thing we can say is that she's rather excited about going back again this year. Just under 7 weeks until the greatest female bodybuilder competition in the world! she wrote just over a month ago. My MONDAY, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday MOTIVATION!!!

NICKI CHARTRAND



Whacky hair days notwithstanding, Nicki Chartrand is, I think, one of the shrewder operators in the WoS schedule game. Consequently, she's one of the bigger success stories of the last couple of years, apparently coming from nowhere to last year's Rising Phoenix (invite) and then her first pro win (Hawaii) at the start of this season.



"Nicki! What's your secret?" is, she says, a question she gets asked a lot. Maybe I DO have a few tricks up my sleeve, she says - not that she wears sleeves much, and who can blame her? But despite promising a new website where all will be told, so far those tricks are staying put. 12th on her RP debut, she'll probably do better than expected.

YER MS. INTERNATIONAL



Crashing back into the collective consciousness in Chicago this year, the woman formerly known as Susanna (Bet You Can't Keep Your) Hand(s Above the Table) won the Ms International Classic in Chicago under her married name of Susanna Jacobs. Who is this woman? I, and I imagine many like me wondered as we clicked on her name at the Maximum Muscle Report gallery. Oh! It's her... we sighed, swooning, before reliving what we always used to do when Susanna was in her pomp.



Susanna had nailed the conditioning like never before - good enough to place 4th the next day at the pro show - and although, yes, there's clearly been a bit of facial work, her eyes still have that same smouldering intensity when she wants to turn it on.

SADLY NOT JOINING US



Jennie Roosa, qualified on points thanks to her runner's-up finish behind Nicki Chartrand in Hawaii, won't, unfortunately, be making her RP debut this year. Jennie and her fella are expecting their first child, and we wish them well. I do hope this Alina-trained phenom will be back one day, but fear that day won't be anytime soon.

Our RP preview will conclude later this week.

The Year in Review: September

A WEEK WITH MICHAELA



From her earliest public displays of muscle, FMS told the story of Michaela Aycock's career and her (ultimately unsuccessful) attempts to qualify for a second Olympia.



I started following Michaela properly around the beginning of 2016, and my female muscle diary for April tells me she often took my breath away, literally making me gasp. "Absolutely incredible to think she has only just tuned 21," I wrote at the time. "The way her lats bulge over the top of her vest makes me swoon as I dream of squeezing them hard, feeling the hard muscle. No give, like warm steel or rock or something." I was clearly slightly out of my mind for her then. Understandably so.



As Michaela was waiting to board the plane to Las Vegas [for the 2016 Olympia], this is how she passed the time. Not since the vascular pomp of Lisa Giesbrecht maybe five, six years ago have we seen anything quite like this. Jaw to the floor stuff.



"Nothing quite like the thrill of show weekend," she says. "Gosh I love this stuff!" Michaela (left) at the 2017 Tampa Pro, and the 2017 Hurricane Pro. Her best ever package ("product" she calls it) but she just missed out on a Physique Olympia spot.

BACK BEAUTY



Having one of my periodic periods of back obsession lately, I wrote by way of introduction to Back Beauty, a week of some of the finest, meatiest backs both past and present. This woman - new IFBB pro Sammica Cash - may be responsible.



They say that bodybuilding shows (female and male) are won "from the back", so it stands to reason that all great champions past and present have, out of necessity, superior back muscle development. Consequently, the conversation about the FBB with the "Best Back Ever" has never proved an easy one for fans to resolve.



After extensive (and for once I am not being ironic when I say that) research, there are some FBBs who always tend to be in the "Best Back Ever" conversation, and so FMS has compiled a sort of poll of polls Top 9 all-time female muscle backs.



Paula Suzuki - hers or Lenda's would be #1 according to our research.

THE BEEF AND THE BEAUTY



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.



We couldn't have begun our review of this year's Rising Phoenix anywhere else. The epic battle for the title was - on the (free!) live feed - genuinely exciting and, to the very end, impossible to call. 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.



The Head Judge - who has the deciding vote when there's a tie - went for Helle. I felt for Sheila (what a way to lose!) but also felt it was the right choice. 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.




After an up and down season for IFBB pro Female Bodybuilding, the 2017 Rising Phoenix was, I think, a pretty much unqualified success. With a line-up of 23 women there were more competitors than ever - you have to go back to the 90s to find a Ms Olympia with that many - and while it's never been easier to qualify for the world's premier professional Female Bodybuilding competition, this didn't mean that the quality of muscle on display was lower than at previous RPs. Quite the opposite.



And, lest we forgot, we paused to remind ourselves the Arizona Pro is more than the Rising Phoenix: the only all-division all-female pro show there is. And this year both the Figure (Cydney Gillon) and Physique (Heather Grace) champions would go on to shine at the Olympia the following week - in Cydney's case, very brightly indeed.



Back at the RP, Aleesha won the "Most Muscular Award" and we paid tribute to "Evergreen" Yaxeni Oriquen, still fabulous at over 50, still stretching that black posing suit to its limits, and Virginia Sanchez, who topped off her best ever year with a top 6 place that guarantees her an automatic invite for next year's event.



For UK fans it was a treat to see, for the first time in 16 years, more than one British female muscle goddess at the sport's premier contest, and for Wendy McCready... This was the best result by a British woman since Andrulla was 2nd in the Lightweight class in 2001. And if you're talking about an Open class, well, Lisa, at last year's Rising Phoenix, and Andrulla, at the Ms Olympia in 1999, were the best ever placed Brits. They both placed 7th. So now the British record belongs to Wendy.

MARTHE SUNDBY 1975-2017

Marthe died on 12th September.



Watching Marthe struggle, and ultimately give in to the inevitable and meet her end with grace has been moving. There was always a part of me thinking that she was such a remarkable woman that she would, in the end, beat it, but it was not to be. I didn't know her - though I did send her some messages of love and support during her illness, and she replied very sweetly to some - but she has touched me as few other muscle women have. Her death was hardly unexpected, but it has hit me hard.



She believed in a lot of things... "I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles..." But she didn't get one.



We will miss her.

FMS@RP2017: The Beef & the Beauty

After an up and down season for IFBB pro Female Bodybuilding, the 2017 Rising Phoenix was, I think, a pretty much unqualified success. With a line-up of 23 women there were more competitors than ever - you have to go back to the 90s to find a Ms Olympia with that many - and while it's never been easier to qualify for the world's premier professional Female Bodybuilding competition, this didn't mean that the quality of muscle on display was lower than at previous RPs. Quite the opposite in fact, with, and this is just my opinion, only a handful of the ladies below their very best.







Watching the free live feed was an absolute joy. I had the luxury of an empty house and believe me, I did what every self-respecting female muscle fan would have done and indulged in pretty much the whole damn show - Bikini included! The Rising Phoenix was, as it should be, the unrivalled highlight and I don't mind admitting that the sight of personal faves like Theresa Ivancik and Elena Oana Hreapca had me swooning all over the place. Even the callouts - never my favourite bit, they do go on - had pockets of excitement as Britain's own Lisa Cross flexed her way inwards during the third, and the top two were called out again by the judges for a one-on-one battle royale.



It was also a big plus that among the veterans were newer pros. Theresa, Elena, Pauline Nelson, and Nicki Chartrand were all making their Rising Phoenix debuts in the first season as IFBB pros - in Pauline's case just a couple of months after she'd got her pro card. Only Nicki, the 2016 Canadians champ and winner on her pro debut in Norfolk, placed, but it's crucial that there is a constant supply of high quality women to keep Female Bodybuilding healthy. Sometimes it's hard to think where they will come from (few NPC events, even at national level, have an FBB class) but the cream, it seems, keeps rising - and with Brittney O'Veal and Jennie Roosa potentially to come in 2018, it doesn't seem as though we're going to run out of FBBs for a while.



As far as the show itself is concerned, it's been one of the most refreshing features of all three RPs that without Iris there has been little predictability to the outcomes, and this year was the most dramatic. Even up to the final moments there was no way of knowing who'd won, and it was genuinely exiting to watch, there was suspense and excitement, as there should be in sport. And as it was the first time I watched live I got the full force of the evening show - video presentations and all. These "introductions", made by the women themselves, make each routine more of an event, something sadly lacking at any other show you care to mention. Not all were winners - Irene Andersen's was the trailer for her film, for example - but here, at last, the women are not just given time for their routines, but each has their very own build-up of their own design, and there's even prize money for the best - Silvia Matta's in case you were wondering.







I think having the feed free this year was a genius move, and I would bet that the worldwide audience for the Rising Phoenix was much much bigger than in previous years when a fee needed to be paid. I was lucky in being able to see the whole thing, and given the circumstances I had found myself in, I probably would have coughed up a modest amount. But the fella catching snippets of the prejudging then waiting for the missus to go to bed before watching the evening show with the sound down probably wouldn't, and the majority of female muscle fans fall into the latter category. As a consequence, more of the show was seen by more of the people who wanted to see it, and there's more talk about it - and for once, it's informed. The collective "we" seem to me to be feeling more enthused about "the sport", and that can't be a bad thing.



What I and others have noticed though is the apparent complete absence of Kristal Wood while her (soon to be ex-) husband Jake was lauded before the FBB evening routines - stood up and took a bow to the applause he did. The guy who did the bigging up made no mention of Kristal at all, and intriguingly it was Alina Popa who stepped in as his sidekick when presentation time came. Apart from feeling sorry for Kristal in that she seems to have been sidelined so summarily and so quickly, only time will tell whether Jake can steer the ship more or less effectively without her. Bodybuilding organisations with one man (plus cronies) in control have a mixed history, after all.



The only other slight downer I can find is, and again I am sorry to say this out loud but it needs to be said, were the Kim Buck-designed tracksuits given out to all the RP ladies. Now, I'm no fashion expert but I know what I like and I think Kim may have hit upon the only thing I've ever seen a muscular female wear that didn't make her look sexy. Perhaps that was her true intention. If so, she really really succeeded.



Jake's (and Kristal's) original intention was that FBBs would have not only a stage to compete on and prize money that reflected their efforts, but also that they'd be treated and feel like stars. Every one of those aims has been realised, particularly at the Rising Phoenix. Tribute after tribute was paid by the women on their social media - to the organisers, and to their peers - some of them coining the phrase "our Olympia".



What's most important is that they keep feeling like this, and that as many FBBs as possible, not just the ones who compete at this annual love-in, feel the same way - the pre-show shenanigans on Kristal Wood's Facebook revealed that not all of the "iron sisters" feel very sisterly towards their peers. There are still issues that need to be sorted out, not least how FBBing outside North America might survive. But for now, Jake can look back on a season of ups and downs that very much finished on an up, with the beef and beauty of these sensational women showcased with some style.



Let's end with a pep talk from our new Queen:

I am so happy that I won this title this weekend, and I want EVERYBODY to feel they won too. I want to be the best possible ambassador for Female Bodybuilding I possibly can, and together we will elevate our sport through teamwork and support. We all have our part to play. We're coming in stronger numbers each year, and we will continue to do so. On all levels: WE ARE ON THE RISE BIG TIME!



For the first time in a long time, I'm more convinced than not that she's right.



Miss the evening show? Download/view here.