Arnolds Review: The Future?

This year's Physique International saw the Arnold coronation of Shanique Grant, still unbeaten in this division ever since she moved up from Figure in the middle of her 2016 season. Runner-up Natalia Coelho is a more recent mover - she was competing in Figure up to the last Olympia, then switched - while the woman awarded the Amateur Overall Physique title (and pro card), Christelle Zarovska, also competed here (much less successfully, we should note) in one of the Figure Masters classes.


Christelle Zarovska - Figure AND Physique at the same contest!

Elsewhere among the pros, Essence Monet, Diana Schnaidt and Liz Montalbano all used to compete in Figure, and Laura Zuniga competed in both divisions during 2014 and 2015 before settling into Physique - and they are just the ladies I know about without having to check! In the amateur ranks, Class A runner-up Lina Maria Varela (who we drooled over yesterday) was also (albeit briefly) an ex-Figure competitor.


Essence Monet

The standard reaction for female muscle fans when women do move "up" (as they say) is one of delight. "Another one for the (more muscle) team" sort of thing. You never hear disappointment voiced, you never read "I wish she'd just stayed in her heels". Women moving from Figure to Physique is, by general consensus, a "good thing".



And I'm not about to disagree with that, but I do wonder whether the apparent ease with which some former Figure phenoms have risen so rapidly in Physique will have ramifications for both divisions that we all might not be so enthusiastic about.



Take the fortunes at the Arnolds recently of those women who have come to Physique from the other direction, for example. Kira Neuman was the highest placed ex-Bodybuilder, and she switched to Physique immediately after gaining her pro card at the 2012 Nationals. Geraldine Morgan, given her recent history of Physique placings, was probably delighted with 8th here, but it's taken her the best part of five years to achieve it, and she's never been remotely close to Olympia qualification.




Does this signify that rather than what we hoped for - that Physique would inevitably become a more and more muscular division - the opposite is happening and in fact a leaner, less muscular, more Figure with flexing package is what the future holds?


Natalia - the Yaxeni to Shanique's Iris?!

Relax, they tell me. You worry too much. The Arnold result was just two genetic freaks who have found the right division for themselves and are getting on with realising their scary potential. If Physique is going to be these two flexing off at Arnolds and Olympias for the next ten years (Natalia playing Yaxeni to Shanique's Iris perhaps?), what's the problem? Shanique, Natalia and successful former Figure competitors at the Olympia - Juliana Malacarne, Jennifer Taylor and Heather Grace - were just wrong in Figure, and if we are lucky enough to see all five of them on stage together in Las Vegas later in the year, it will truly be a mouth-watering feast of muscular beauty.



And, they ask me, so what if Physique becomes a kind of Figure+? It'll keep the Bodybuilders in Bodybuilding, and that division might even benefit from bigger Physique competitors moving (back) up. Imagine Katie Lee (12th at this year's Arnolds) deciding to switch to Bodybuilding! Would that be such a bad thing?!



Whatever's going to happen (and Katie Lee becoming a Bodybuilder is a very nice dream indeed), what we do know for sure is that Shanique Grant never won a pro Figure title but now has four wins out of four as a Physique competitor. Appropriately perhaps, she no longer wants to be known as "The Future" - she's "The Present" now.



Enjoy!

FMS is going to be having a break this weekend, and for good reason - votes have been counted, on Monday we begin our 2018 Hot and Hard 100 countdown!

Heart Muscle

It's become our custom to get all muscle loved up in St. Valentina's Week, and it'll be more of the same this year. With the 2018 Hot and Hard 100 voting now open, there won't be too much focus on "current" (or in FMS' case more often than not "current a couple of weeks ago") female muscle so as not to unduly influence anyone's selections.



We begin this Week of LOVE with hearts.



Now we've seen this kind of heart before on FMS, and editorial were a little concerned this post would just be a rehash of a previous one focusing on the heart made by ripped hamstrings in the "moon pose" or similar. But ol' Swell has found hearts elsewhere too.



Bum hearts!



Often, though not exclusively, Brazilian.



Some, it seems, can even sweat hearts!



Whether by design (I imagine, could such a perfect heart shape be coincidental?) or (I'm much more convinced by sweaty beast Irina Derkachyova) accident.



And, best for last, an entire heart-shaped upper body!



Shanique. Who else?!

Feel the LOVE all week on FMS.

And don't forget - just 17 DAYS LEFT OF 2018 HOT AND HARD 100 VOTING

Champion of the Day: Shanique Grant

2017 IFBB Karina Nascimento Classic Physique Champion



The fact that she proclaims herself to be "The Future" and/or "The Real Fitness Beauty" suggests (to me at least) that Shanique Grant may not be the most modest of people.



Having said that though, there isn't much that she's got to be modest about.

A Figure pro at the age of 19, her first year and a bit competing as such now look positively downbeat compared to the rest of her career, even though she never failed to finish outside the top 6. Judging feedback suggested she move up a division, and when she did, at the New York Pro last year, she triumphed at her first Physique attempt. Then, just weeks before her Olympia debut, she was the victim of an attempted mugging. The knife wounds kept her sticking to her prep, and she decided if she wasn't going to be at her absolute best, the Olympia would just have to wait.



Now, in 2017, for her second Physique show she chose the recent Karina Nascimento Pro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And yes, you guessed it - another win for Shanique.



So, to recap. Thus far only two things have delayed Shanique's seemingly inevuitable rise to the top of the female muscle world: a) having "too much muscle", and b) a mad, knife-wielding maniac. Reason enough for her apparent lack of modesty. But then there's the incredible genetics, which, allied to all her hard work, have blessed her with such a uniquely proportioned physique. Wide at the top, itty bitty in the middle, and flaring out all over the place at the bottom. And she's no plain Jane either.



In fact, it's been confided to FMS by one of Shanique's erstwhile Figure rivals that she is, in the flesh, so devastatingly sexy (if you are a fan of the muscle, that is) that standing next to her on stage can bring quite the swoon over her fellow competitors. Maybe that's Shanique's secret! She's so sexy it hurts the performance of others...



Check out Shanique's presentation along with all of the Physique line-up at Karina's show. Now Rosela Joseph (who finished 2nd) stands on her head at one point in her routine, but Shanique just kind of struts on, bends her knees, poses a bit, flares her lats and thighs. Turns round, does similar. Then there's the abs and thigh. Now is it my imagination or does she not even bother really flexing those abs? Like she knows that they are by far the best in the show even when relaxed, so why try harder?

Shanique's at 5.05. Rosela stands on her head at 13.25.



She's qualified for the Olympia now. I hope she has better luck in the run-in than she did last year, and you too can make sure she's keeping safe by following her Instagram. Given her record at Physique contests till now, she might be a real contender.



And I reckon she knows it.

Congratulations Shanique! (I'm sure you are very nice really)

Muscle Queen of New York

The first of a series of posts looking at some of the most outstanding women at recent contests kicks off with the Queen of them all at the New York Pro, a first-time WPD competitor and first-time champion - Shanique "The Future" Grant.



Just two weeks previous to her triumph I'd been looking at Shanique at the Pittsburgh Pro, where she competed - as usual - in Figure. Her quad sweep, I thought, was so pronounced that it almost made her look knock-kneed. A muscle illusion. And her abs! Surely too defined for IFBB Figure judges. Possibly too defined for Physique judges these days too! When she faced the back of the stage though I was reminded what all the fuss was about. That shape - as one fellow competitor says - is "ridiculous", as in ridiculously perfect. It's the kind of shape some have a hard time accepting is real.



Since I'm "photoshopped" apparently, she said on her Instagram in the hours before she took the stage in Pittsburgh, an original and unedited (as always) update photo [left] of myself. I'll take it as a compliment!



Despite the shape, perhaps because of the muscle, it was 6th place for Shanique in Pittsburgh. But then something happened. Her trainer broke the news...

After a long time of not being able to really train legs, @fitnessbeauty crushed them today. As we prepare her to step on stage in the Women's Physique Division at the NY PRO. Training back to full tilt, and we don't have to "dumb" her potential down and train to fit into the Figure Division. We are very excited for this new endeavor.



You're excited Johnny? You should have seen how excited I was. She's going to let the muscle grow, to release her true potential. And she's going to get to flex it up there. Oh, this is going to be good... But the New York Pro was a mere two weeks away. How much could she really achieve in a fortnight? Didn't have to wait long to find out.



Judge for yourselves.




It turned out to be more than enough for the judges - they had her in the centre of the first callout and I think I'm right in saying she was never moved out of there.

And it turned out to be plenty for me too. Swoonarama!



There's what, about four months to go before the Olympia? Imagine the kind of damage she can do in that time. Now she's actually training to get bigger instead of training to stay small, training to actually put muscle onto that ridiculously, unbelievably perfect chassis of hers. Well, the mind boggles (among other things) at the prospect.



More contest action tomorrow.

Meanwhile, enjoy this. Shanique! With added Asha! Yeon Woo-jhi! And more!!!