Tampa: Big

Irene, one week before the Tampa Pro

One of the observations I made when I wrote Monday's post last Friday (confused? read Monday's post!) concerned Irene "Too Big for the World" Andersen. Emerging from the pool, she displayed "incredible muscle mass", and looking again at the picture (below), I'm even more impressed - not least by that big, bulging, beautiful trap.



One of Wings of Strength's innovations - first in effect at last year's Rising Phoenix I believe - is that there should be, on top of the prizes for placings, a "Most Muscular" award as well. Aleesha was the first winner of it at the RP, but this season either I haven't been paying enough attention or they haven't had one at any of the previous shows in 2018. No prizes for guessing who took it home from Tampa though.



You can't please everyone, and the prize - or rather the need for the prize - has had plenty of criticism from fans of the "big is always best" variety. Admirable though there commitment to pure size is, occasions when the biggest FBB in show has been the winner are few and far between in FBBing history - IFBB FBBing history at least.



By introducing the award, WoS have at least acknowledged those FBBs who choose mass over all other considerations have a right to do so, and allowed them to go against current judging trends and still earn some prize money. I'm pretty sure Irene would have preferred the judges to award her a top 6 placing - she was 8th - but at least she was acknowledged with a prize (and she got a little share of that prize pot).



"Too Big for the World" she may be, and she's certainly "too big" for the IFBB judges. But on this occasion, Irene was just big enough to be the "Most Muscular" woman in show.



Size still matters. Especially in such a great posing suit!

Enjoy!

More from Tampa tomorrow.

Tampa: Triggers

Thirty-five beautiful, muscular Physique dreams strutted their stuff in Tampa, and luckily for the armchair fan, legendary lensman (and Annie Rivieccio co-star) James Cook was there. Well over 300 images are now up on FTVideo's free site, which in my experience involves a commitment of three plus hours if you want to check them all.

I think the reason why his work has such enduring appeal is the fact that above all he is a fan. He takes the kind of pictures others don't, capturing transitions as well as poses, for example. He also tends to go in closer than your average contest photographer, allowing us to see more detail. Vascularity lost from a more distant shot, the trickles of sweat, the hard graininess of the muscle. They are images worth taking your time to appreciate, and for the last three plus hours that's exactly what I've been doing.

The result of my efforts are these 20 individual images - my pick of his bunch.



I couldn't help but be transported to the show. I recalled the "front row fantasy" of one of C. Moore's cohorts, detailed in a post last November. A new experience, I thought, for new pros like Alyssa Isley (left) - no naked, gooning female muscle lovers at NPC shows. A veteran like Angela Debatin (right), however, has seen it all before. She might even recognise one or two of her adoring jackers, remember his favourite pose, and eyeball him just as she hits it. BANG! goes her tricep - he shoots, she scores.



I wondered, not whether, but how many involuntary explosions thirty-five Physique dreams can induce in an audience of... And then realised I had no idea. How many people attend a show like Tampa? So I checked. The venue - the Tampa Marriot Waterside claims a maximum seating capacity of 2,500. Assuming they are all sold and - as legend has it - the vast majority of punters are not there to see the women, especially not the ones with proper muscles, then perhaps a conservative estimate would put the number of genuine female muscle heads at somewhere between 5 and 10% of that, or 125 to 250 chaps with the potential for involuntary explosions.



A lone wolf, I "reasoned" (while gooning away to well over 300 images, remember), would perhaps be a bit more self-conscious in the crowd, less likely to properly lose it. A couple of heads who have travelled there together, or come from different places and met up there, however, would have been talking about the moment when the Physique ladies (the FBBs were on the night after) stepped on stage for hours (possibly days) beforehand, working themselves up into a frenzy of anticipation. It wouldn't take much to push them over the edge, I reckoned, and once your female muscle lovin' "bud" has shown his appreciation, it would be harder still to hold back yourself.




And, I continued to "reason" (with at least one hand below the keyboard), with each "bud" you add to the group, the anticipation, the excitement, and therefore the chances they would really let themselves go would increase exponentially. Three heads together would be squirming in their seats. Four would be full-on writhing, and five might find themselves so caught up in the mutual moment that their explosions wouldn't be so involuntary after all. How stringent are the public decency laws in Florida? Were there, I wondered, any heads ejected from the auditorium for showing a bit too much love to the ladies and a bit too much to the rest of their row?



Who would this head travel with? Last year I had an entirely fictional experience (see "Czech Dream") with my best online female muscle lovin' friend, and he's never given me any reason to doubt he would be my first choice. We held hands as we watched, writhed, moaned and yelled out our support of the Physique ladies in that story, and (again) I saw no reason why it would have been any different in Tampa. We'd need a lot more stamina though - there were just six women in that Czechia Pro line-up, to take on thirty-five we'd have had to start training in early February... It had never occurred to me before that a female muscle head would need to do contest prep too!



Do the ladies get as excited as we do (or would, if!)? Well, actually, perhaps even more so. Swell has been taken into the confidence of a number of IFBB pros over the course of the life of this blog, and many of them have confessed to, on occasion, getting rather worked up on stage. Once the floodgates open, apparently, it can all get a bit overwhelming they say. And different women, it seems, have different "trigger" poses. Abs and thigh is probably the most "popular" (for fairly obvious reasons - think about what they are crunching down on!), but side triceps and chest, lat spread ("I just felt so BIG so WIDE!), and - as one would hope - front double biceps have all been mentioned. So you may no longer wonder, the next time you see a competitor half-stumble as they hit a lat spread, or seem to forget their routine halfway through it and just start freestylin', why this strong, graceful woman suddenly got so clumsy.



This knowledge has certainly added an extra dimension to my contest viewing, whether via pictures or video. It makes the "erotic theatre" of a female bodybuilding show even more erotic. Looking at Sammica Cash (above, right), I was at once in awe of her vascular lats (exactly the kind of detail only Cook captures), but soon my attention turned to her eyes. Was she, I wondered, just looking down to where she was going to plant her foot, or was there more? Is the abs and thigh Sammica's "trigger" pose and she's actually bracing herself for the feeling that she knows is about to spread right through her beautiful body? Show me video and I reckon I could tell...



Unfortunately, this isn't something the women discuss much - not even among themselves if what I've been told is to be believed. And I think that's a shame, because we never stop going on about the effect they have on us, it would be nice to hear a bit more about exactly why so many of them can't get enough of being on stage.



And while the credit goes to all the thirty-five women so beautifully shot by James Cook, I leave you with my two triggers during my three-hour plus trawl. The gorgeous Essence Monet, a woman I've been watching out for ever since her Arnold's appearance earlier in the year had Kai Greene screaming "WOW!" on the live feed commentary; and the equally gorgeous Nathalee Thompson, who I'd never even heard of, let alone noticed, before this show. Check out the full 300+ images on FTVideo/Gene X Magazine here. I wonder who your triggers will be, dear reader.

Enjoy!

Tomorrow - Tampa: Biggest

Summer Lovin': Mi Hyun

On stage for the first time in a couple of years (as far as I can ascertain), Korean Physique star Jung Mi Hyun placed 8th in Vancouver at the start of this month.

Compared to her compatriot Kim Ji Hyun (see last Thursday's post), Mi Hyun gets relatively little attention from the female muscle lovin' community - perhaps partly because of that two-year hiatus, and partly because she's often transliterated as Jung Mi Hyeon, so has multiple threads on the forums instead of one big ongoing tribute.



Treats like this may go some way to endearing her to the collective "us".

So delicate, yet so beefy!

Check out Mi Hyun on Instagram

Here she is winning the Olympia Amateur Asia (and her pro card) three years ago...



즐겨!

Swell Digs: Physique Dreams

Having taken a couple of weeks off when (both amateur and pro) contests were happening all over, it's time for a bit of a catch up with just some of the dreamiest physiques from recent pro shows in North America and - new this year - Europe.

DREAMS (AND A NIGHTMARE) IN SAN MARINO



We begin at the San Marino Pro at the very beginning of June, where former Hottest Hard Woman in the World Cris Goy Arellano led a Spanish Physique 1-2-3.



Thanks to some recent work she's done with Awefilms, we need no longer wonder whether she can bounce those magnificent pecs, and for my money Cris is currently looking better than ever neck down. What is going on with the face though...

All her IG images (example left, above) seem to be in some way doctored - and are really quite scary. No less scary are those that haven't been manipulated (see above right, with amiga Paloma Parra). Physique dream, but facial nightmare.

And she used to be so gorgeous!

Anyway, the ever shredded Paloma was the 2 in the 1-2-3, with Joanna Romano 3rd.



Swell especially dug Joanna's deep dark tan - and (now) trademark groovy moves.



Had I been a judge at the San Marino Pro, Joanna would have placed first on my scorecard simply for the pleasure of watching her do this right in front of my (no doubt popping-right-out-of-their-sockets) eyes. Caliente as f***! (as they say in Spain).

THE TORONTO TWO



I don't wish to discount the rest of the (excellent) line-up in Toronto, but while Margie was steam-rolling the Bodybuilding class, there was a genuine contest in Physique, with two of the division's current finest battling it out for this prestigious title.



In the sparkly blue corner, we have the defending Toronto champ, FMS fave Eleonora "Ella" Dobrinina. Perhaps she wasn't at her most ridiculously shredded, but still a glorious sight to behold, hitting those poses with her customary thrilling abandon, as always looking as though she was having the absolute time of her life on stage.



And in the sparkly purple and gold corner, Braziian phenom Daniely "Dany" Castilho, former Physique International champ. A much more classical, toned-down poser than Ella [is ANYone quite as full on as she? - ed.], Dany oozed class from every pore with her beauty plus muscle package. I truly enjoyed being on stage with you, wrote Ella as they awaited the final verdict. I feel your fire! Dany, in turn, reminded her IG followers that Ella is "a sensational athlete". Can you feel the love?!



It almost seems irrelevant but Dany, I think rightly - just too good from the back - got the nod. However, congratulations should very much go to both of these Physique dreams for a double act of muscle and beauty which, if it didn't in fact, deserved to have the whole audience on its feet clapping and cheering and whooping and hollering (and possibly moaning and groaning as their tentpoles gushed all over the place).



[EASY! - ed.]

OMG-AHA!



And so to the following weekend and the Wings of Strength production in Omaha. Now we will be returning here to review what transpired in the Female Bodybuilding class later in the week, but for now let us focus on a Physique line-up so good that the absolutely stunning Keri Ann Heitzman not even making the top 15 (and incidentally looked as though she'd have done OK if she'd switched to FBBing).




Among many of the dreams outside the top 6, Swell dug (and swooned for) the styling and attitude of Brittany Bull (12th - good name for a muscle woman!); the sheer amount of muscle on Sara-Aude Salbot (9th, another who might consider FBBing next time?) and Brazilian goddess Ivie Rhein (7th); and last but by no means least Christina Thome and the way her posing suit rode so high up her hips.



It's always good to get a reminder of how little I really know about the sport, and in Omaha that came in the very beautiful form of Kristy Davis. Pro debut? I wondered, perhaps a veteran returning after many years away, utterly unaware of Kristy two pro shows last year, her Open and Masters class wins at the 2016 North Americans, and her years of Physique contests before that. Proper most muscular, killer abs, a jawline to die for, and if not impressed already, check out Kristy just 16 weeks before the show...



OMG-aha indeed.



Jill Diorio's world-class calves (and the rest of her, which is by no means shabby) placed 6th, and gorgeous Allison Schmohl (and her world-class peaks) was 5th.



In 4th and 3rd respectively were Robyn Mays and Valentina Mishina - two women who only need to stand there with all that definition all over their quads in order to get me reaching below the keyboard. [final warning! -ed.] Robyn is, in case you didn't know, an evergreen 45+ Masters competitor, while Valentina should be all too familiar, both as your Hot and Hard 100 high new entry this year, and a woman who was competing for the 5th time in 2018 and the 7th time since September. She really does like to punish herself (and bring joy to the female muscle lovin' world).



Runner-up on the day was a Physique dream good enough to win on most other days, that of Australia's Lee-Ann Temnyk. It always takes something special to beat her, and in Omaha that special thing turned out to be former Figure phenom Mayla Ash.




Mayla had finished a lowly 10th at the Optimum Physique Pro earlier in the year. Conditioning improvements had obviously been made and the judges (and ol' Swell here) approved. She looks so damn HARD all over but at the same time extremely feminine and glam. Like a (slightly) older and bolder Shanique. Or something.

OFF TO SUNNY SPAIN



And finally, back to Europe for the last of the early June Physique shows - the new Veronica Gallego Classic. Again, it was a Spanish 1-2-3. Cris didn't need to bother - she was probably seeing the plasic surgeon asking if anything could be done - and so veiny Paloma Parra claimed top spot this time, with Joanna Romano 3rd again.



And the not inconsiderable meat in the Parra-Romano sandwich was provided by Mirea Henriquez, the newly-carded Dutch Physique pro with the very Spanish-sounding name. Mirea has been thrilling us for a while now, not least because of her penchant for some very close-up views of her pumped and striated muscles. Her build up to this show afforded her many such opportunities, and if you want to see more of her, this gnarly abs shot is a good place to start your exploration of her Instagram.

NPC News Online has pretty extensive galleries of all the shows mentioned above, and we especially recommend their (particularly extensive) galleries from the Veronica Gallego Classic. FTVideo were also in Toronto if you want to check out the (many) pro Physique dreams at that show who didn't make it into today's (necessarily condensed) review, plus the Toronto amateurs, including (one of) Lauren Martin Stow's first foray(s) into the Physique division - well worth some female muscle lovin' time!



Enjoy!