21 Reasons (#15)

Due to some work commitments and Mr and Mrs Swell's now annual sojourn to the South of France (not the bit that was recently on fire, thankfully), the FMS offices are going to be closed this week, next week and the week after. Nevertheless, as always, we don't want to leave you totally FMS-less, so we've lined up 21 Reasons, one daily picture (or two or three), plus one reason why we love doing what we do, as if we were explaining it to one not so convinced of the glory of the muscular female.

Enjoy!

#15
THAT (NOT SO) LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA



Clearly, Theresa is finding modelling more and more exciting these days...

See also previously on FMS - A (Not So) Little Secret.

Theresa @Norfolk Pro 2017

Dreams do come true!!! Pro stage here I come!



With a "new look", and her body in its best ever shape, Theresa was, I think it's fair to say, somewhat excited about her pro debut at the recent Wings of Strength/Lenda Murray Pro in Norfolk, Virginia. And the FMS offices were pretty damn excited too. We have, after all, been following your 2017 Hot and Hard 100 runner-up as closely as any woman over the last three years or so, as has the vast majority of the female muscle lovin' world. And as we followed her trials and tribulations (so close so many times) as she inched towards that coveted pro card, we (or, at least, I) became more than a little emotionally invested in Theresa's career, sharing her disappointment and ultimately her joy at finally achieving pro status at her seventh attempt.




Her dream didn't exactly become my dream, but my dream was for her to achieve her dream. And in Norfolk, her dream (and mine) came true. Theresa - pro debut.



Second place.

Plus ça change!



On this occasion though, second was not all bad. With only Tampa to come before the Rising Phoenix line-up is finalised, Theresa's qualification points from this show guarantee her a spot in Arizona in September. And she's even more excited about that than she was about her debut. Someone please pinch me and tell me this is real! she gushed when it became clear she would make one of the qualifying spots. I'm going to Rising Pheniox! [and so excited was she, that's exactly how she typed it] This is seriously happening!!! [can you see what's she's doing with the number of exclamation marks?] I am beyond honored to be on the biggest stage of the year with all the top female bodybuilders in the world!!!! [more and more excited] Beyond Blessed!!!!!



All this competitive excitement, plus a sultry, glamorous and at times almost naked Theresa has been treating us to some previews of her forthcoming 2018 calendar.



She'll be bigger and better in Arizona, just as she has been bigger and better at every show she's done since the 2011 Jr. Nationals alerted us to her many charms.



Congratulations Theresa!

Now, about my other dream...

Extra!

Apologies for the unscheduled interruption in posting, the FMS campaign bus (like the election campaign buses currently criss-crossing the country but instead of a party logo covered in Great British FBBs past and present) had a bit of a prang. Net result is, I'm afraid, that you won't be seeing the bus again, though luckily nobody was seriously injured. However, there has been a little bit of convalescence involved.

Anyway, normal service will be resumed tomorrow, with the series of posts originally intended for the last week. For today, a little something extra - that little (or not so little) something extra FBBs bring to the party - courtesy of 2017 Hot and Hard 100 #2 Theresa Ivancik and the photography skills of Annie Rivieccio.




Enjoy!

Mrs Swell's Easter Surprise: Wish You Were Here (Part 2): WoS Muscle Mansion Weekend

A lot of beef. Looks like a female muscle all-star team.



Right now, I'm sitting on a hotel balcony overlooking the Cypriot coast. It's a balmy 25°C and it's not 10 o'clock yet. Down below, at the hotel swimming pool, my wife is lying out on a sun lounger. Her body looks great even from here, and I know when I finish this up (as well as "a few work emails") and I go down to join her, the closer I get, the better her body will look. It's all rather perfect. There's nowhere I'd rather be...



Although if you offered me a place at female bodybuilding's most exclusive get-together in exchange for my current situation, a sort of reporter on the ground kind of assignment perhaps, well, I would certainly have to think about it before I packed my bags, hightailed it to the airport, and hopped on the plane to Arizona.



I seriously doubt many other female muscle fans would be so circumspect.




The "Muscle Mansion Weekend" is a combination of business and pleasure for eight of the world's current best plus Wings of Strength spokesperson Lenda Murray, organised by Kristal and Jake Wood. And they know how to treat them right. Gifts, dinner, an evening out at the ice-hockey. Dressing up for photoshoots, a workout, and a little bit of contract signing as well it seems. A weekend of FBB wins all round.




There was reigning Ms Rising Phoenix Margie Martin, Helle Trevino, and Alina Popa. There was Aleesha Young, returning to the stage this year in Omaha, and Shawna Strong, Arizona local, scheduled to flex in anger again soon at the Toronto Pro, plus 2016 Puerto Rico champ Kim Buck. And there were two new pros, Margie protégé Brittney O'Veal, and Hot and Hard 100 runner-up, Theresa Ivancik.



Feast enough. But as well as Lenda, who still looks glorious at 55, I can't be the only one who's noticed just how much beef there is on Kristal Wood. No mean feat to make Alina's arms look insignificant. Being married to arms like Kristal's would be enough for most guys. Hulk Hogan lookalike Jake gets that and much much more besides.



To be fair though, he is 50% of 50% of the team who are slowly but surely cultivating the resurrection of professional Female Bodybuilding, so it's hard to dislike him.



Wish you were here? Perhaps the question should be "Wish you were him?"



Enjoy!

More at #musclemansion

And - bonus - recorded at the NPC Nationals last year but only recently uploaded to the Wings of Strength YouTube channel, if you've ever wondered what Theresa Ivancik sounds like, well wonder no more... (even sexier than I imagined).



SWOOOOON!!!

On Fandom: Chapter 6

A fan of the sport?



As a fan, I know that Wings of Strength "launched" the 2017 pro female bodybuilding season recently. They announced the same line-up of pro shows as 2016, plus the new open amateur contest, the Ms Wings International, which will take place the day before the Chicago Pro at the same venue, and give the winner the chance to make (I imagine) the fastest pro debut in history the very next day. Once again, the season will reach its climax in Scottsdale, Arizona at the Rising Phoenix. Lots to look forward to.



However, I also know that Margie Martin won't be defending her title there. Fortunately I’m in a position where I feel like female bodybuilding is going to last beyond me competing, she said recently in an interview with Anomaly Athletics. What I want to do is to make new female bodybuilders and to recruit - even if I have to train them myself! Well if they all turn out like her protégé Brittney O'Veal, I for one won't be complaining. And Margie also took a swing at Iris Kyle. I felt confused about why Iris was making such a hoopla, she said. After competing for a while, you should use it as a platform to elevate yourself into a position where you don’t need the prize money or the adulation. Ouch! She's not saying never again though, just not next year. Those mighty quads may yet thunder across the stage again.



And I know that Greek Goddess Anastasia Papoutsaki became IFBB Mediterranean Physique champion in Lisbon recently. And that those ex-sprinter legs of hers are finally starting to realise their full potential. And that her next stop will be the IFBB Diamond Cup in Athens this weekend and that there's a pro card on offer. As always when she's competing, I will be eagerly waiting for news of her placing.



I do this kind of thing a lot. If one of my favourite muscle women is taking the stage somewhere, I make it a priority to know how she's done as soon as I can. I can get particularly excitable when a Brit takes the stage in one of the US pro shows, or a whole bunch of British female muscle takes part in one of the big amateur shows like the Arnold Europe or the NABBA Worlds or NABBA Universe. I don't know if this makes me a "fan", but it certainly feels like it does. I certainly felt like a fan when Corinne Ingman - who time and again I have reported as having got no love at all from the judges at shows organised by a whole range of federations - finally had her day in the sun at the WFF Worlds recently. Her title? Ms Super Body. How very very apt.



This fascination, perhaps obsession, with contests doesn't mean I'm under any illusions about female muscle "sport". The subjective, and often bizarre judging; the almost total lack of drama beyond the first callout; the seemingly ever-decreasing importance of the performance aspect of routines etc. etc. There's so much that's wrong about it.



A win and a pro card at the amateur shows is by no means a passport to stardom and riches, but it's important to so many of the women to be able to say they are a pro, to be able to compete with the best of their peers. Outside the NPC and North America the women generally have far less opportunity to join the pro ranks. And yet compete they do, going through the rigours of contest prep, driven perhaps by the sheer joy of competing, by the camaraderie of their sisters of iron, or by the challenge, or the love of the sport, or by all of the above or none. This is the moment the women train for, perhaps - however amazing I or any of their myriad fans, think they look on a daily basis - the one and only time they feel truly happy with their physiques.



It was all very different in the past. In the Magazine Years, when I first felt the attraction of female muscle, contest news was weeks, perhaps months, old. I appreciated the pictures of Cory, Anja et al on stage, of course I did, but I didn't have that anticiaption for the results like I do now because it all seemed so remote. Thanks to social media (a much more immediate source of news than the federations' websites or the sites with big contest galleries, by the way) I can learn, for example, that Anastasia has won as soon as she's got backstage and taken her phone out.



What hasn't changed though is that I rarely actually witness any of the shows, either in person or (these days) on a live feed. Almost never. Yes, I watch clips if and when they are posted days or weeks later, but by then I know the outcome and it's simply not as exciting. Finding out moments after the event via Instagram that Theresa Ivancik (who we have followed on the blog for years as she's tried again and again to win a national show and become a pro) had finally won her class at the NPC Nationals last weekend was infinitely more exciting than watching her win in this clip days later.



Perhaps I'm not really a fan of the sport then, even though I follow it closely, but a fan of the competitors. A woman who never competes can, like Cass Martin who I was swooning all over the other day, interest me, but she doesn't take me on the same journey that Margie, or Anastasia, or Corinne, or Theresa have taken me. As I follow them going through what they have to go through, I emotionally engage. If they want to win, I want them to win. And I celebrate (inwardly, secretly) when they do.




And judging by the reaction to Theresa's good news in the messages on her Instagram and on the fan forums, I'm not the only one who has these feelings. Are we, to return to some of Marcie Simmons thoughts thoughts earlier in the week, "supporting" her? Are we "helping her grow as a brand"? Probably not. But it must be nice for her to get those messages of congratulations, to - perhaps - read those happy posts on a clandestine visit to "Schmoeville". Perhaps even (be still my burning heart!) she has enjoyed one of the (many) tributes we have put together for her here on FMS.



It must be nice for Theresa to know she has fans. A lot of fans. And though they might not be in the audience, or "support her financially", or even send her some words of encouragement every now and then, they are, in a sense, with her on her journey.

to be continued...