Gym Bodz: Retro

Today, the magic door takes us back in time to some seriously retro gym bodz...


Female muscle pioneer and Robert Mapplethorpe muse 'Lady' Lisa Lyon.
And some bloke.


Gladys Portugues, long long before she was Mrs van Damme.


Cory Everson, circa 1984 apparently. As always it is only through the heroic efforts of the scan masters that me and you get to enjoy these images. I'd never seen this picture of the nascent female muscle great before I stumbled across it recently. This must be how archaeologists feel when they show each other their latest finds.


Lori Bowen, the Pumping Iron II poster girl.


Beautiful Mary Roberts had two top three finishes at the Ms Olympia - she was 3rd in 1984 and runner-up to Cory Everson in 1985, when she also won the IFBB World Professional title. Check out her considerable on stage aura here.


Laura Combes (1954-1989) and Rachel McLish in outfits that could only be from the early 80s, when shorts were pulled up high. Laura competed at the 1981 and 1982 Olympias, finishing 4th and 6th respectively. She was the author of Winning Women's Bodybuilding, which must have been one of the first books of its kind. You can see Laura at the 1981 IFBB Worlds here.

Deborah Diana 

 

Women of Iron, released the year before Pumping Iron II, and in some ways a superior film, focused on Deborah and Carla Dunlap. Watch Deborah's posing routine at the 1981 USA Championships, which she won, here.


A little Scandinavian retro courtesy of Lisser Frost-Larsen and Inger Zetterquist. Lisser appeared in Pumping Iron II and went on to edit a fitness magazine in her native Denmark. Inger was European and World Amateur Champion in 1983, when she finished 3rd at the Olympia.


Anita Gandol was famously suspended by the IFBB for the duration of the 1984 contest season. Her crime? Posing in Playboy. She continued to compete well into the 90s, and was the first Utopia Entertainment model.


Clare Furr, 1984 USA champion, and 1986 Olympia runner-up is somewhat under-rated, in my opinion, or perhaps under-remembered would be a better description. Images like the one on the right demonstrate why.


A little more retro Cory, and Diana Dennis heating up the room with a friend. Did women really used to wear outfits like that and do donkey calf raises while other people were in the gym?!!


And last but by no means least, the first female bodybuilder I ever saw, UK female muscle pioneer Carolyn Cheshire. The first British woman to compete at the Olympia, her best finish was 7th in 1983. She also authored Body Chic, and co-authored Body Dynamics, both of which are available at knock-down prices on ebay. Carolyn still offers personal training via her website.

And if you're still in the mood for more retro gymmery, this clip of Mrs van Damme (and Lisser Frost-Larsen) from Pumping Iron II will bring a smile to your face.
Or something.



Watch the whole movie here.

Enjoy!

Gym Bodz: She Squats

Squat leg day. The day where fat cries loudly and my muscles almost match. The day where I lay my pride and all my faith on the table and find out just how strong I really am. The day where I find a stronger me. The day where I push a little harder, farther, faster. The day where I break down every last bit of my efforts exhaust my body and will power…..and keep pushing! It’s the day I find out who I truly am and what I’m truly made of...
Tumblr post





Squats seem to be the 'in' exercise. From the 30-day squat challenge, which has its very own Tumblr tag, to the "She Squats Bro" T-shirts for the woman who squats in your life (also with a Tumblr), to the "Yeah, She Squats" Facebook page (over 600,000 likes and counting), for the man who loves women who squat, this is seemingly the dawning of a golden age.





It's all good (especially when to hot muscle babes help each other out) although I wonder if one of our lovely readers would adapt the motivational image below...



And add another panel to the right of the image that says something along the lines of lots and lots and lots of heavy squats and you can have a truly awe-inspiring behind...




left to right and top to beautiful bottom: Kellner and Salvagno; Palmell and Landolt; Campbell and Martin

Enjoy!

Gym Bodz: Through the Magic Door

Am I the only guy who daydreams that when I arrive at the gym this evening I'll get changed, and then go through some kind of magic door into a world where my ultimate fantasies come true, and be greeted by this kind of scenario?

If there were women even remotely like this at my gym, I'd never be out of there, but I doubt I'd get much done. The only women I ever see in the weights room at the local are the girlfriends of guys with names like Jacek, Andrzej and Macek (guys who are friendly, but are also big enough to make me think that if I ever decided to go down the anabolics route, they'd probably be able to point me in the right direction) and even then the girls only cross over from the cardio side of the room to talk to their musclebound boyfriends. Attractive and slim though they are, I've never seen one of them (they're probably called Kasia, Marta and Ola) lift anything.

And although Jacek & co. do throw the big weights down and roar a bit sometimes, which can be somewhat distracting, the fact there is not even one remotely muscular woman around is a good thing because it means I can get on with my workout without distractions. And that, after all, is why I'm there. But it doesn't stop me dreaming.


I'm through that magic door again, and suddenly I'm in another world and I'm drooling over the body in the fetchingly retro shorts and knee-high socks who's doing her hero curls while I'm trying to make out that I'm watching the TV that's conveniently situated just behind her...


And behind this magic door the lady on the left here (great abs but clearly not far along her journey to muscle) daydreams about becoming and being a muscular goddess like Stina Telhammer (right), who, of course, is well aware of the admiring looks she's getting. I watch the girl eyeing Stina, and I watch Stina enjoying the attention.






Sometimes the magic door takes me where the truly big girls are. I watch their muscles swell, muscles traversed by cord-like veins, muscles that glisten with their sweat. I hear them grunt, groan, scream with effort and ecstasy. And sometimes, when their workout is done they stand before me fully-pumped and look me in the eye. And their smile lets me know that they're about to take off that vest and treat me to a posing display right there in the gym....

The magic door can take me anywhere. On the left, it takes me to work out with Nikki Jackson, a woman whose sexual appetite is known to be so voracious that men run screaming when she enters the weights room. Not Swell, though. Swell's quite ready to help Nikki work off, in any way she sees fit, every last bit of her excess energy...

And, on the right, we seem to have come through the magic door and found one of the wonders of the female muscle world making our eyes pop out of their sockets. Fortunately, we have a bib with us, so we're not going to drool all over ourselves...

But good though the magic door undoubtedly is, it hasn't brought me here.
Not yet anyway...


Welcome to Gym Bodz Week on FMS. Enjoy!