FMS @RP2018: No Comparison?

And we finish our week at the world's premier Female Bodybuilding contest (bit belatedly today, sorry about that) with the competitor who most exceeded the pre-contest expectations. Canada's blond bombshell Nicki Chartrand was barely mentioned in the lead-up to the event (not least by me), but ultimately walked off with the (previously monopolised by Sheila Bleck) Best Poser prize, and 4th place.



We have already waxed lyrical about her performance on the day - and particularly on the night with that scintillating winning posing routine (see Tales from the Feed ) - so instead we decided we'd try to piece together the Nicki Chartrand story so far.

Unfortunately, we didn't find much to piece together.

We do, however, know how she looked back in c.2015, when she seems to be competing at regional Canadian level, as a Bodybuilder too. The research team have really struggled to find any definitive list of her contest placings from the early part of her career - which really bothers me (can you tell?) and is the main reason why today's post has gone up so tardily. Anyway, it'll have to do. Here is our first comparison.

COMPARISON #1



Nicki v.2015 and Nicki v.2018

By 2016, we do know, she was the CBBF Nationals Women's Bodybuilding champion - a title previously held by (among others) Negrita Jade, Laura Binetti, Desiree Ellis, Sophie Duquette, Autumn Raby, Nicole Ball, and Fabiola Boulanger.

Not a bad list at all.

However, and despite being a Heavyweight, it is not in Women's Bodybuilding that Nicki Chartrand makes her pro debut, but in Physique - at the 2017 Toronto Pro.

COMPARISON #2



Toronto Pro 2017 and Rising Phoenix 2018

There's so obviously too much muscle on her for IFBB Physique judges that it's almost funny imagining their faces, and within weeks Nicki debuted as a pro Bodybuilder. At the Lenda Murray/Norfolk Pro she beat the fan fave Theresa Ivancik (also on debut) and beat her well. Then she finished off 2017 with 12th place at the Rising Phoenix.



And then this year, she began her season early, at the Hawaii Pro, again in a less than numerous line-up, but up against a woman on debut who many fans were excited about seeing - Alina protégé Jennie Roosa. And the result? Nicki 1st, fan fave 2nd. Nicki could now celebrate her 2nd professional title and start prep for her second RP.

Which pretty much brings us up-to-date, but before we go, one more comparison.

The thought occurred to me while I was waiting for the Research Dept. to tell me they hadn't found much about Nicki's early career. There's something about her double biceps pose, the way she positions her long, muscle curvy legs when she hits it. Her general statuesqueness (well, it's a word now!), and I guess her colouring too, reminded me of a legend from the not-too-distant Female Bodybuilding past...

COMPARISON #3



Brigita MsO2011 and Nicki RP2018

Perhaps not a fair comparison in terms of where Nicki is right now, but instead a peek into the not-too-distant future at where Nicki has the potential to be before too long.

Just me?

Enjoy!

FMS @RP2018: #risingphoenix

A small selection from social media before, during and after...


Kristina womans the booth


Even THE Ms Olympia never won anything like this


WLTM: Shawna and friend, dressed for the show; next day, and 5th place Figure phenom Kristine Finsaas gets to stand next to the dethroned but still Most Muscular at the RP


Pauline was a bit hungry after


Jill's food porn


Welcome to our party...


After the feed: Virginia 


Wake up in the morning slaving for schmotographers


The muscle (gene) pool

Enjoy!

ROARRRRR!!!

With Shannon Rabon (-Perdikis) the Overall Bodybuilding champion (we warned you! - see FMS passim) and one of three new Female Bodybuilding pros, plus Dana Shemesh (-Meirovitch) among the 20(!) new Physique pros, this will not be the last and only time FMS pays a visit to last weekend's NPC North Americans in Pittsburgh.

However, our initial research hasn't got much further than the (always) stunning (especially so because she now competes in Physique) Lauren Martin-Stow.



There were a lot of ladies in the Physique division, but I seriously doubt any of them had as good a time on stage as Lauren. Or at least that's how she makes it seem.



Hardly the biggest, hardly the most ripped - she doesn't even look that tanned, or oiled up for that matter. But these normal prerequisites just go right out of the window when there's so much emoting going on. Just her range of expression as she performed her chest pose was surely enough to cause all sorts of mess for heads in the audience.

And as for the side triceps...



Was anyone lucky enough to have actually been there? Did she actually roar? Did it shake the auditorium to its foundations, make the building's structure unsafe? Did subsequent classes have to be held in a hastily rearranged alternative venue?



Answers on a postcard please.

And as an extra treat, here she is emoting in motion.



Enjoy!

Lauren for She Hulk! And She-Ra. And Wonder Woman...

Oh, and she was 2nd in her class. Good enough. Lauren is a pro now.

(More) Summer Lovin': Bumbum #1

Despite hot, hard and disproportionately developed competition from the likes of Suelen Bissolati and more recently Alessandra Alvez, Gracyanne Barbosa remains Brazil's bumbum #1. Heading towards 7 million Instagram followers - Suelen and Alessandra both have less than half a million, and even Eva Andressa Vieira with 4.6 million isn't in the same league - and, although not a competitive Bodybuilder, Gracyanne was in your Hot and Hard 100 for the fifth consecutive year in 2018.



Mostly, it's Gracyanne's spectacular lower body, her world-renowned bumbum and thunder thighs, that get all the attention - and rightly so. However, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed that recently as well as adding definition to her prodigious size down below, Gracyanne has also been getting bigger and more defined up top.



This is all good. As a female muscle lover, more muscle is always good. But spare a thought for Gracyanne. Suddenly nothing in her wardrobe (that isn't super stretchy) seems to fit anymore. For a while I could still do my jeans up as long as I didn't have any underwear on, she explains. But now I can't even do that. Worse still, her ever-growing body has actually destroyed a fair portion of her wardrobe. Not that anyone's complained, but it's pretty awkward when your top just rips open in public, she says. And I'm having my lingerie custom-made now because everything off-the-peg bursts at the seams as soon as I put it on. Not that her husband's complaining...



Is her love of pole fitness responsible for this growth spurt?

Or is it - notwithstanding somewhat ridiculous accusations that she is the "Queen of Fake Weights" (ie. that in her training videos the amount she seems to be shifting is just a few actual weights plus a load of 0kg "fake" ones) - simply that she trains really hard?



Whatever she's doing, it's working.



Ai karamba!

[NB: Gracyanne Barbosa had nothing to do with the making of today's post, and all quotes attributed to her are completely made up - FMS Legal]

(More) Summer Lovin': Summer of Shannon

No, not another gushing tribute to Swoon of the Year Shannon Seeley (see Summer Lovin': My Summer of Shannon). Instead, a gushing tribute to another Shannon - Rabon, or Rabon-Perdikis, or even (Rabon) Perdikis as she is known now.

Shannon, that Shannon, you may remember, had a bit of history with the female muscle lovin' community in the (very) early noughties - "the Shannon Courtney of her day" according to one forum poster - and then disappeared completely. A couple of years ago though, she came back to us, even more glorious than before... and competed in the Physique division at the Jr. USAs, with predictably disappointing and "judges said I was too big" results. We, however, were a lot less immune to Shannon's charms - both those she had retained and those she had built over the top of those familiar ones - and she smashed into your Hot and Hard 100 top 20 in 2017, and was there again this year despite not having done a show since that 2016 appearance.

Well, on August 5th at the Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Center Hotel...




She was no Physique competitor this time. Shannon - in all her suit-threatening glory - was the sole Female Bodybuilder at the NPC Stewart Fitness Championships.




More than enough woman.

And, excitingly, this is only the first of her planned shows for 2018. Very soon, Shannon will be chasing her pro card at the IFBB North Americans. And as she's an over 40 now, so limited competition, I'm fairly confident that she'll get it.

Follow her final preparations on Instagram

Read the Shannon story (up to and including 2016) on FMS passim.

(More) Summer Lovin': Sun's (Still) Out...

Kim Gutierrez

A continuation of/companion piece to our Summer Lovin' post with (almost) the same name in July. FMS proudly presents another installment of hot and hard women out and about and showing off their muscles - at times outrageously so - in the sun.

HIKE



Unidentified lady with calves

RIDE



One thing that hasn't changed about Shannon is her love of equines

GO TO WATER



Jennifer Keller

Whether it's the pool or a (real or artifical) lake, there are cooling alternatives to the beach for the terminally land-locked when the mercury rises. Having said that though, it's hard to imagine any of these bodies truly having a cooling effect on the local environment, particularly Maria Garcia emerging Bond-girl-of-my-dreams-like from the pool in a Bikini that reveals only slightly less than no Bikini at all would.



Anna Laskowska (left) and unidentified ripped beauty



Jacquelyn Hickerson



The definition of caliente?

HIT THE STREETS



Vivi Winkler

No excuse necessary, but high temperatures mean fewer clothes - the perfect chance to expose all those parts of your body you've been working so hard to perfect.



Kristina Moser



Laura Gallardo Herrero (left) and Zsoka Halasz boost tourism



Diana Schnaidt (left) and Ashley Hromyak entertain the locals

FLEX FOR FOOD



"Roxy" is the only name we have for her, unfortunately. We're pretty sure, however, that a lady as good-looking as she is, who has such thick, suckable biceps as she does, won't have later walked out of The Protein House having paid for her meal.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL TEAM



Flamengo, in case you were thinking of joining Alessandra Alvez's tribe.

KEEP US SAFE



"Misty"

Summer is not all play. Someone has to pull us out of the burning building, someone has to arrest those perps. I feel I would sleep more soundly if I knew all fire fighters and police officers were a) female, and b) carried as much muscle as these gems.



Inja Damjanovic

GET THOSE JOBS DONE



Gutters don't clear themselves, you know.

Today's late August Bank Holiday here in the UK (not Scotland) always serves to remind us that autumn chills are indeed not far away. Until then though, we hope that all our friendly neighbourhood muscle women continue to show it all off.



Frida Paulsen Stern

Enjoy!