Brains, Biceps, Beauty.. BRITTNI!

She was probably already doing some celebrating when she made our Hot and Hard 100 list for the first time at #94, but in recent weeks "Bodybuilder, Super Saiyan, Fitness Fanatic and Atheist" Brittni Kent has had other reasons to celebrate too.

1. BRAINS



Guess who's graduating! says Brittni, who, as of 9th May, is a proud Associate in Science, Health and Human Performance. But she's not finished with the books. Not just yet anyway. Now [it's] time to tackle the nutrition degree, she says.

2. BICEPS




And if you were wondering why Brittni was looking so tanned in her gown and mortarboard, then the answer was the graduation pic was taken only hours before her Physique debut at the 2015 NPC Battle of the Bodies in her native Oklahoma.




Brittni may have been top of the class at college, but she came in second in her class at the show. Still wishing I'd tried a little harder on the comp[etition] prep, she admitted beforehand. But ultimately she had no regrets. Trading the striated glutes in for straight As this semester was worth it. Judging by the photos, she certainly seems to have enjoyed herself on the stage. There will be other shows, I'm sure.




So, the competition turned out a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I met some awesome people, had a great time, and even took home a sword. I've decided, if I can manage to hold on to the 10lbs of muscle I gained, then I'm going to compete in the Oklahoma next year if I'm not in school. Next year I'm bringing the HEAT.

3. BEAUTY




Brittni has also done a handful of photo shoots in the last few months as well. Glorious as she looks, this is very new to her, and one of the most endearing qualities is her honesty when she's outside her comfort zone, and photoshoots are definitely in that category. By her own admission, being all glamorous and pouty and sultry is not something that comes naturally to her. [I] Really wish I had thought of better poses prior to showing up, she said of her October shoot (top left and bottom right)!



But she is at her most beautiful - in my opinion anyway - in a shoot she did with local (to her) photographer Lee Baxley before her graduation and when she was nearing her contest ready peak. And I'm not saying this just because these are nudes, either (although if ever there was proof of the maxim that fit women look good naked, this is it). They really are beautifully-lit photographs of a beautifully sculpted body.



And, here she is all endearingly unsure of herself again, she almost didn't make the photos public. Was conflicted on posting these, she told her Instagram followers. Happily, she decided to do so, and for all the right reasons. I'm proud of these pictures, so I won't let the opinions of others dictate my life. Lee Baxley is an amazing photographer and captured the softer side of me I had never seen before. It's like seeing myself through new eyes, and I'm glad to have had the experience.



And now the cramming and the exams and the graduation and the training and the dieting and the contest debut are over and done with, Brittni's been having herself some well-deserved R&R - a holiday with her fiancé. In Vegas. Where else?!



You can follow Brittni's Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Tumblr. Lee Baxley, as far as I can tell from his Tumblr, hasn't done anything remotely as good as the shoot he did with Brittni, but you might like to keep an eye on his work too.



Enjoy!

FBBUK@ IFBB Body Power Pro 2015

The contest that accompanies the Body Power Expo at Birmingham's NEC is not the contest for those who like their freakshow. There's no "Bodybuilding" division in sight, female or male. It's Figure only for the ladies, Physique for the boys (plus a Wheelchair division - male only). Nevertheless, there was, this year, something for the UK female muscle fan to cheer, because of the 10 Figure competitors who lined up in Birmingham, three were British.

Now that may not sound like much to celebrate, and if it's going to happen anywhere it'll be at Body Power where travel costs are at a minimum for UK entrants, but even so, it's not often that you see 3 of the UK's finest in the same division at an IFBB show.

Unfortunately, photos of the women on stage have proved hard to come by, and the few we post here are pretty much all we have found of our British gems at the contest. More photos of the event are available on the Czech (!) bodybuilding site Extrifit.

The three British women who lined up were...

LOUISE ROGERS (3rd)


Louise backstage at Body Power

The evergreen Louise followed her trip to the New York Pro in March with a third place at Body Power. She was, she reckons "a little bit too hard" at this show, which wouldn't have counted against her if I'd been one of the judges, but according to Louise was a factor "given how dark my tan was under such bright lights".



Louise is busy, busy, busy this contest season, and will be heading back across the Atlantic for the Toronto Pro Supershow on June 6th and 7th.



MARIA SCOTLAND (7th)


Maria at the NY Pro (left), and at Body Power

Probably the least familiar of the British women on show, 2014 Arnold Amateur runner-up Maria Scotland also competed with Louise at the New York Pro in March. Despite the name, Maria is from London, and as well as succeeding as a Figure competitor, she's been a qualified barrister specialising in family law since 1995.



Would you believe she'll be 45 at the end of June or that she didn't start competing until she was in her 40s? Well, believe, because she will and she didn't.



Read all about Maria in an interview with Flex Online from a couple of years ago, and you can follow her on Facebook as well. She's posted a YouTube video of the Body Power show there. I’ll be still competing in 10 years, she says. This is my life now.


Maria at the 2014 Arnold Amateur (right)

KIZZY VAINES (9th)



She's much more familiar to fans as Britain's only Fitness pro, but Kizzy - for the second year in succession - was temporarily a Figure competitor at Body Power this year.



She's been a pro for over a decade now, flying the flag for us over in the US. She even has two professional wins to her name - the 2009 and 2010 Fort Lauderdale Pro titles - and she has competed at two Olympias and four Arnold Classics. Meanwhile, in her homeland, this former professional dancer from Barnsley has received little or no recognition, except perhaps the ripple her appearance in Elisha Smith-Leverock's prize-winning short I Want Muscle made in the British media in 2011.

FMS says: Kizzy, you are a national bloody treasure.



Congratulations to Louise, Maria and Kizzy for their exploits at Body Power and FMS wishes them all the best of British luck for their next and future contests.

Enjoy!

Her Back: A Fantasy

Slowly but surely you've made your back into a thing of beauty. Once it was like all the others. One-dimensional, flat, featureless. Now there are curves, there is shape, there is detail. There is MUSCLE. It seems that every week there is a new feature for me to explore. Flex it for me. Make a muscle and bring your back to life.




Years ago, back when I was first enthralled by female bodybuilders, I used to stare for hours at the WPW "back page". Zuzanna, Denise, Lesa, Paula... I'd stare and trace the curves and lines of their intoxicating backs with my fingers, trying to imagine how the muscle would really feel. Now, as you sleep, it is your back and your muscle I lie awake and stare at. I gently trace the curves and lines of your beautiful muscles across and down and up your back. I don't have to imagine anymore, and the funny thing is it feels even better than I ever thought it would.



I've given some half-arsed back rubs in my time. I'd have barely started and I'd already be thinking how long I'd have to go before I could finish. With you, with your back, I can't wait to start, and I never want it to end. Those other backs I rubbed were all the same - soft, featureless. Yours has shape. Yours has definition and detail, mounts of muscle and valleys between. I want to explore it all. I get deep into every fibre of every one of your hard muscles. Time stops. I could do this forever.



I learn the names of every muscle. Trapezius, rhomboids, etc. I whisper sweet nothings like "I love your teres major" and "Your spinal erectors make me hard" whenever and wherever. At first it just made you giggle, but now you proudly flex whatever muscle I've mentioned, or, when you are covered up in public, you whisper back that you are, and tell me how good, how sexy it feels to do so.



You're getting so damn wide at the top you've had to throw out half your wardrobe, and at this rate the other half will be getting replaced before long as well. Sometimes I walk behind you just to admire your shape. You taper so beautifully, the width at the top making your waist look tiny in comparison. At the gym I can't wait to get you home and run my hands down your sides as you flare your lats.



You're standing in front of the mirror. "Squeeze them," you say as you spread your beautiful wings. "Squeeze them hard." I obey, and the size and the power of the muscles make me giddy. You moan as I tighten my fingers around them. I feel you flex again, resisting my grip, inviting me to press ever harder against the muscle.




And you keep on growing. And the bigger you get, the vainer you get and you spend more and more time in front of the mirror, more and more time admiring yourself. But it's not easy to see your own back, is it? You've got quite proficient at the over the shoulder selfie, but you're frustrated you can never see your back fully flexed. I'm only too happy to help. It's important to have a regular back check, and it's important to check that back in lots of different poses and from lots of different angles.



Your top was so tight in the gym today I thought - I wished - your back was going to explode right through it. My alpha female, my muscle goddess, your power was visible to all and didn't you know it, strutting around like the Queen you are. Let them stare in shock and awe. Let them see the power of your rippling muscles beneath the straining fabric of your top. Let them feel the power of your presence.




The only dresses you'll wear now are backless, and when we're out I watch other women watching you. They watch you in admiration, they watch you in envy, and they watch their own men as their own men watch you. On our winter break you stood in your bikini and flexed by the pool on the first day and no one else in the hotel looked at you again for the whole two weeks without gasping a little. I sat behind you in the canoe and you turned around and smiled at me and then peeled off your top and suddenly I was living a fantasy I never even knew I had.




You're so confident now, so comfortable in your body, so big and powerful. They want you to compete and you think you feel like you're ready. I dream all day of what it's going to feel like to be in the audience and see you up there. You dream all day of what it's going to feel like up there, the rush you'll get from being in such peak condition, all eyes upon you even as you turn away from the audience, flex with all the power you have and let them see that beautiful back of yours in all its glory.



Your curiosity gets the better of you, it's time to push your body to its limit. You tell me what I've dreamed of hearing for so so long. "Better strap yourself in," you tell me as your contest prep begins. "By all accounts this is going to be a wild, wild ride."




It's a ride I never want to get off.

Enjoy!