January Clearance! [L-N]

"Too many to feature here" is a phrase I seem to have typed a lot over the past year, referring to the vast number of women and/or images the female muscle head is faced with in these instant information times. On the upside, you never go short. The downside for the blogger is there are far too many to feature here - there I go again.

It felt wrong just to forget about the women we intended to feature at some stage during 2017 but didn't. Firstly, the fact they have come to our attention at all is the result of some pretty solid sifting by the FMS research team, and it would just be plain rude to ignore all that hard work. And secondly, it's not the case that we once thought these women were worth posting about and don't anymore - we still do.

The solution we came up with is The FMS January Clearance - we're going to feature all the women who are taking up space in the "TBC" folder on the 2017 planner. And you're getting them all together in a sort of but not really alphabetical order (you'll see what I mean). Further your enjoyment by clicking on the names.

Five beautiful bods a day for seven days. Have fun!


LAUREN RIFFEL



This year I will be fierce, promised Lauren on January 2nd. Because Strong Is Sexy.



This 22-year-old Californian has only been sharing her "fitness journey" since October (clearly this journey began some time before that) but her grand total of 62 posts already she has attracted fan attention. Those arms, yes, but also for the attitude, the desire to "inspire our fitness ladies" through embodying the "Strong Is Sexy" mantra, but also to "be the chick in the gym who motivates every guy to push harder".



Her IG moniker - strongerthanyourboyfriendd (!)


MELINDA LINDMARK



21-year-old Swedish Physique dream Melinda first came to Swell's attention back in the summer when she was coming to the attention of a good few others too. A veritable goddess, wrote one - clearly impressed - forum poster. Look at that huge veiny bicep!



And as Melinda leaned down to compete (for the first time?) at last year's Tyngre Classic, female muscle lovin' pulses were set racing, the temperature in the FMS office soared, and Swell had Melinda (showing off her delts, her back and beautiful bum) as his screensaver (for a while, you know how easily my head can get turned).



Inappropriate though it may be for a man of my advancing years to be so ga-ga for a woman so young, I DO like Melinda. A lot. And I would guess I'm only one of many who have fallen under her spell in the last six months or so. Now it's your turn.


KIMBERLY MERCER



I have to admit that the first time I saw a Kimberly Mercer selfie it took me quite some time to realise I wasn't looking at Brooke Walker. Now I would hope Kimberly would take that as a compliment, which she should. This newly-carded pro seems, just as Brooke did in 2015, to be entering the next stage of her career already displaying the kind of quality necessary to succeed among the IFBB Physique elite.



Perhaps this is because she spent the best part of two years upgrading her body from Figure (where she did well enough to compete at national level) before entering her first Physique contest. At the IFBB North Americans last year she finished runner-up in her class, good enough to get the card, but also already looking every inch the pro.



She looks pretty damn good in or out of her her (Onslow County, North Carolina First Responder) work clothes too. Evidence since her contest suggests she'll be even bigger and better when she makes that pro debut - hopefully not in another two years.

SWOOOON!!!


SUSANNE NAAMANI



Oh, she's new, I say as the FMS work experience boy plops the Susanne Naamani file down on my desk. And then he tells me that she's been around since 2010. Ugh.



I console myself with the fact that I wasn't the only one who was taken by surprise. Susanne's popularity on the forums peaked around 2011-12, and has only recently enjoyed a resurgence. Damn! She got big! notes one forum bod who knew her earlier in the decade. Damn! She is big! says another on a different forum who didn't.



As well as admiring how pleasingly big Susanne indeed is these days, I've also been catching up with her past via her blog - SUZIE - which she kept up for a couple of years. Although it does also contain stories of everyday disasters like getting locked out of her own house, it is pretty much the story of her "fitness journey". Having said that though, I doubt you'll ever read a more wildly entertaining one. She crayzee!


SHEIKHA NGUYEN



New Nguyen on the block!



A fitness and lingerie model, (amateur) IFBB Physique competitor, and personal trainer, Sheikha is based in Singapore. She is, in her own words, "here to inspire".



Now there's a rather famous picture of Sheikha having the spray tan applied (version 1 - here, version 2 - here) which I'm sure has inspired all sorts of reactions from the brethren... Meanwhile though, Sheikha posts equally impressive (if a lot less naughty) updates on her IG and Facebook on a somewhat irregular basis, and fans can also contact her on HerBicepsCams, where she's Asian Iron. A lot of them do, I'm told.


Five more muscle women for your viewing delight tomorrow!

January Clearance! [I-K]

"Too many to feature here" is a phrase I seem to have typed a lot over the past year, referring to the vast number of women and/or images the female muscle head is faced with in these instant information times. On the upside, you never go short. The downside for the blogger is there are far too many to feature here - there I go again.

It felt wrong just to forget about the women we intended to feature at some stage during 2017 but didn't. Firstly, the fact they have come to our attention at all is the result of some pretty solid sifting by the FMS research team, and it would just be plain rude to ignore all that hard work. And secondly, it's not the case that we once thought these women were worth posting about and don't anymore - we still do.

The solution we came up with is The FMS January Clearance - we're going to feature all the women who are taking up space in the "TBC" folder on the 2017 planner. And you're getting them all together in a sort of but not really alphabetical order (you'll see what I mean). Further your enjoyment by clicking on the names.

Five beautiful bods a day for seven days. Have fun!


IPEK ALTUN



She might be much less famous than some of her countrywomen, but Turkey's #1 Bodyfitness competitor is the most successful of all of them, and has earned everything she gets. She did (at least, I mean these are just the ones we know about) 5 international contests in 2017 - her best results (again, this is what we know, which may not be all) were silver medals at the Diamond Cup in Rome and the Olympia Amateur in Spain - and finished 3rd in the 2017 IFBB Bodyfitness rankings.



A striking beauty, Ipek seems to be a hard trainer - those pec veins don't just appear, do they? - and she also seems to know what she's doing with other kinds of meat.



What's not to like?!

Not to be confused with another Ipek with muscles, WBFF Fitness Pro Ipek Yildirim.


IVANA DVORAKOVA



Some ladies' social media is, for all the pictures of their beautiful bodies, a bit samey, a bit bland. Not so Ivana Dvorakova's. Caption for the above - "This flat won't clean itself!" Check her out - you might well end up, like me, thinking this Czech domestic goddess is, on top of the beautiful body, probably quite a lot of fun to hang out with.



31-year-old Ivana did, until 2017, compete in Bodyfitness, but last year she refused not to grow and (like so many women currently) switched to the Physique division. A 3rd place at the late season Diamond Cup in Milan was her reward. And pizza, obvs.



Reminds me of Jackie Hague a bit - which is certainly not a bad thing!


JENNIFER ULLMER



From Germany, Jennifer has been one of the top Junior Bodyfitness competitors in Europe over the last couple of years, and she also won at senior level for the first time in 2017 - becoming national champion. But it's not been for her contest results but for her other (obvious) charms that she's come to the attention of the fan forums.



The collective we especially like her pecs.



Give her a leading role in a new primetime series! demands one excitable Ullmerette. She is awesome - beautiful, confident, and carries her muscle so naturally. Exactly what a leading lady should look like. And she probably wouldn't have too much trouble fending off the unwanted advances of horny producers either - exactly the kind of skill leading ladies have been sadly lacking over the years, more's the pity.


OLESYA GOMBERGER KACHUR



A Russian FBB who styles herself as "She Hulk" and isn't Natalya Trukhina or Kuznetsova? Guess we can safely assume Olesya isn't easily intimidated.



Maybe she thinks she's safe down in her so-south-it-is-almost-Georgia base. Maybe she's already done a deal with Natalya - "You be "She-Beast", I'll be "She-Hulk".



And you can probably guess from this nonsense that I don't know much info about Olesya, but I know what I like, and that beautiful body covered only in tape is it.

Not to be confused with Alessy Kochura, Russian Bodyfitness phenom, who, let's face it, was a mere typo away from actually being one of your five-a-day today.


KRISTEN NUN



Not that I'm complaining - what a bull! - but does anyone have any photos of her that are not taken in the gym with Kristen wearing her baseball cap backwards?



No, as was pointed out to the forum poster, they don't. And nor do they know much about Kristen either, other than that that gym's in Kansas, and that she usually wears vests that are black. Some diligent research by the FMS team has, however, shown that she also owns others that are purple, grey, white, and even pink! But such mystery hasn't stopped (perhaps it's actually encouraged) the fascination the female muscle lovin' brethren have quickly developed for this undeniable meat feast for the eyes.



Only other thing we can tell you is she likes to do a bit of shooting, often with (what to my "no-guns-please-we're-British" eyes looks like) pretty specialised weaponry. Perhaps she's not giving much away because she can't... Or she'd have to kill us.

January Clearance! [E-H]

"Too many to feature here" is a phrase I seem to have typed a lot over the past year, referring to the vast number of women and/or images the female muscle head is faced with in these instant information times. On the upside, you never go short. The downside for the blogger is there are far too many to feature here - there I go again.

It felt wrong just to forget about the women we intended to feature at some stage during 2017 but didn't. Firstly, the fact they have come to our attention at all is the result of some pretty solid sifting by the FMS research team, and it would just be plain rude to ignore all that hard work. And secondly, it's not the case that we once thought these women were worth posting about and don't anymore - we still do.

The solution we came up with is The FMS January Clearance - we're going to feature all the women who are taking up space in the "TBC" folder on the 2017 planner. And you're getting them all together in a sort of but not really alphabetical order (you'll see what I mean). Further your enjoyment by clicking on the names.

Five beautiful bods a day for seven days. Have fun!


CHRISTINA ELENI



We don't often dip our nosy beaks into the (admittedly) glamorous WBFF, so when we do feature a lady from that world, she's usually come to our attention because she's caused something of a stir on the fan forums. Christina is no an exception to that rule.



Beautiful, Australian, and a WBFF Fitness Pro. The next Rach White?


SVETLANA FISKOVA



Not all bad news for Russian sport in 2017 - at the IFBB World Championships in Biarritz in December, both Physique classes were won by a Russian women, as were 3 of the 4 Bodyfitness classes. And in the latter division, it was the (Russian) up to 163cm class winner Svetlana Fiskova who was crowned Overall World Champion.



Not hard on the eye, is she?



Svetlana was also the Overall champ at the Arnold Amateur in 2016, and, surprisingly (because she really doesn't look it to me) is 35. As well as her Instagram, she post (often stunning) pics (and words of wisdom) on her VK page on an almost daily basis.


BRITTANY "FLEX" WATTS



A little more contest action, but this time from an IFBB Physique pro. Brittany won her pro card at the Jr USAs in 2016, and made her pro debut last May at the IFBB Orlando Europa, where she finished 6th in a line-up packed with more experienced women.



Check out the trailer for a documentary short following Brittany's prep for that show (and much more I imagine) on Vimeo. Haven't found anywhere where it's available in its entirety without a sign up involving divulging credit card details, so keep your eye out for when it does turn up. Looks like it might give some truly fascinating insights.



Wonder why they call her "Flex"...


MICHELLE GAVIN



She's competed just twice - at the same New England show in 2016 and 2017 - but she's already got 25,000+ Instagram followers, and a legion of female muscle lovin' fans drooling over her girl-next-door looks and the "unique" shape of those bicep peaks.



She says she's a 4'11" ball of muscle. And I believe her.



2018's Paige Sandgren? You heard it here first!


JULIA HUNTER



And on the West coast of the USA, 8 inches taller, but with even less contest Physique experience, California's Julia Hunter - although she's already done "major site" photoshoots - is probably the most recent collective "find" we'll feature this week.



She won her debut contest - the NPC Tournament of Champions (a somewhat misleading name, given the standard) - but it's not for her contest shots that the collective has sat up and taken notice but her penchant for making (sometimes very) short but nonetheless attention-grabbing clips of her fine budding Physique bod.



Maybe 2018's Paige Sandgren?!


Five more beauties tomorrow.