So relax, get comfy, and enjoy!
ERICA BLOCKMAN: ON FIRE
Ever since being introduced to the famous bodybuilders, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger as a child, I had fantasized myself one day being successful on stage in the bodybuilding industry and standing on the stage at the Olympia...
Erica Blockman, 2014
So here's another Olympia debutante who seemed to never stop smiling as she fulfilled a lifelong dream over the Olympia weekend. And I know this is totally subjective and all but for my money, in a field packed with beautiful women, Erica is simply the most beautiful of all, a prime candidate for what I like to call The Mavi Gioia Experiment*.
Here she is (above) preparing for a pre-Olympia photo shoot, and isn't she just breathtaking? Curiously, Erica confessed to her Instagram followers that during the shoot she felt good about her physique in this outfit because she was "showing less skin", while at the same time admitting this does sound "kind of funny".
If you consider that only a week or two before that she had proudly displayed more of her beautiful body than was absolutely necessary, then yes, for her to say she was more comfortable "showing less skin" does seem rather hard to believe. But on the other hand, in a way it is comforting to know that even a woman as gorgeous from head to toe as Erica has those moments, those days - perhaps even those weeks - when she's not feeling it. And the fact that Erica is not afraid to say so only makes her even more loveable if you ask me. Nevertheless, what's most important for Erica (and all female bodybuilders) is that however much self-doubt they might experience during their preparation, it's when the dream-fulfilling moment comes and they finally step onto the stage that they reach their absolute peak and feel ready to shine in the spotlight.
Now I (as you may have guessed) pay a fair bit of attention to how Erica is getting on, and I reckon that when she stepped onto the stage at the Olympia, she looked better than ever by some distance. And felt it. Qualifying on points rather than by winning an event hardly indicated she would finish as high as 8th. But she did, and I reckon (OK, biased but...) she looked good enough to have merited 6th or even 5th place.
Very happy with the package I brought to the big stage, she said a few days afterwards as she posted yet another of her favourite shots of herself at the O to her Instagram - the ex-firefighter sizzling in her specially designed posing suit.
And then, just a few days and a belly full of treats later, and she was not (albeit jokingly) feeling so good about herself anymore. Spent all that time in the gym for nothing, she moaned. Now I'm fat. I hate you sushi! How loveable is that?!
Enjoy!
* The Mavi Gioia Experiment involves showing a professed "female bodybuilders look like men" type two pictures of, for example, Mavi, Erica, or the (undeniably) conventionally beautiful muscle woman of your choice. The first should just be of the face of your chosen goddess. After your subject has said something along the lines of "Wow, she's absolutely gorgeous!" you show them a second picture, a full body shot this time, muscles on display. "So, they all look like men, do they?" is your line at that point. Now, I've never actually performed this experiment on anybody, but I have often imagined doing it. I'm sure though that some of you lovely readers are braver than I and I (and our other readers) would LOVE to hear about how it goes if you are!
