Swell Digs: Ariel Gail

I have been an athlete for as long as I can remember, says Ariel Gail. Her first sport was swimming. She started "at a very young age" and continued to race until she finished college. I was a sprinter (50 & 100 yard freestyle) as well as 100 butterfly, she says. She also competed in and won "local and state classes" in equestrianism.



Born in California, she grew up in Michigan, where she first started to lift weights. I did some "power-lifting" and was one of the strongest girls [in High School], which was hard because I wanted to be strong but the boys would make fun of me.

I continued to lift during my swim seasons in college and I looked forward to those days more than I did swimming. When I stopped swimming I really missed competing and found myself with a lot of extra time on my hands, so I began spending hours reading and looking at pictures on Bodybuilding.com.



By this time Ariel had her degree in Psychology and had moved to Colorado, where she still lives. At this point, I decided to give up being afraid and intimidated of the weight room, she says. I started to build my physique on a regular basis.



In her first two contests, local Colorado shows during 2011, she competed as a middleweight/light-heavyweight bodybuilder, winning her first ever show and placing third in her second. But as 2011 became 2012, Ariel "waited eagerly" to enter the new physique division. She finished 2nd at a regional show, and two weeks later came 7th in her class at her first national contest, the 2012 NPC North Americans.



Last year, she finished 3rd at the NPC Colorado State show, and also competed at the USAs. So far this year she has gained a runners-up spot at state level, and been awarded 9th in her class at the Jr USAs. In the past year, I have learned more than I could have ever imagined, she says. Looking ahead, I see many more years of building a physique that I've always wanted but never believed I could achieve.



The gym in Colorado where she trains is the one owned by Heather Policky/Armburst and her (former?) husband. It's a gym frequented by more than its fair share of top pros, and the very same gym where a certain Alina Popa prepares for her yearly assault on Iris Kyle's Olympia title. It's little wonder, then, that Ariel feels she's learning there. I have worked out in the gym next to pros that I used to admire from the safe space of my home in front of my computer screen, she says.




When she's not training herself or her clients (or hiking in the Rockies) Ariel is working on writing projects. The series I am working on is a collection of women's stories. All of them have set out to achieve self-confidence and personal power over their life through physical fitness and nutrition. Their stories are meant to provide hope, motivation and education so others may embark on a self-loving, self-caring journey. You can read the first two of Ariel's pieces on her blog, Becoming Complete.



You can follow Ariel on her Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages, and via her YouTube channel. And if I haven't managed to persuade you you want more of her yet, I imagine this recent preview clip from HDPhysiques might just do the trick...



Enjoy!

Tube of the Week

From the marvellous watatiwatatio, a guest posing clip from "Tokyo 2013" starring the very beautiful Japanese bodybuilder Aki Nishimoto. (At least I am pretty sure it's her. Google Translate says the name is "Nishimoto ShuNozomi" and a search under that name only brought up Aki, although I am fully aware of the limitations of my research method, so if anyone can tell me with any certainty who this is, please do!).



Remember Aki Nishimoto? She's probably best-known (to me anyway) from a set of photos by fibofoto.de from way back. Seems she is still around, and by my reckoning in her mid-40s now. Damn she looks amazing! Get proper comfy and see for yourself...



And this is by no means the only terrific clip you can find on watatiwatatio's channel. Among the many other delights are clips from the bodybuilding show at the recent Toronto Pro. I humbly suggest you pay a visit and fill your proverbial boots.

Have fun now!

Chicago 2014: Jamie Pinder's WOW Factor

Jamie Nicole Pinder has been an FMS favourite since the beginning of 2013 (see Hot Hot Heat of the Day). In three short years she had transformed herself from a "bad bikini competitor" (her own words) into the competitor to beat in Chicago. Entering this event, writes Steve Wennerstrom for RxMuscle, Jamie Pinder was arguably the odds-on favourite to defend her title. Few would have bet otherwise.



In the event, Jamie didn't win the show for a second consecutive year, finishing 2nd behind Leila Thompson (see Saturday's post). Whatever. For me, personally, there are few (if any) finer sights in the world of female muscle right now than Jamie Pinder in contest shape. Or in any kind of shape for that matter! Really. WOW!!!



Jamie, 5 weeks out (top left); 3 weeks out (top right); all made-up and ready to go do her thing (bottom left); and GLORIOUS, on stage in Chicago (bottom right)

She is, according to Steve Wennerstrom (and he's not a man who gets very carried away very often - not even remotely as often as we get all carried away here, anyway), "absolutely beautiful from head to toe", with "very few flaws". She has "well-detailed bodyparts", and there's a special mention for "her glorious quad separations".




As we have seen previously on FMS, and can see on any of her training clips from her YouTube channel, you'll know that none of the package she brings to competition (with the possible exception of her God-given looks) is the result of anything but the most intense training. Jamie is most definitely one beauty that does it like a total beast.

Here's just a tiny taste, Jamie training four weeks before Chicago...



One of her fans has written on her Facebook page, Jamie, just wanted to tell you how much you inspire me. When I don't think I have the energy to power through a leg day, I look at yours and say, "Oh hell yeah, get it done!" Thank you.




So, what do you think about calling her female fans "pinderettes"? Reckon they'd be proud to be pinderettes. Hell, why not extend the term to all Jamie-lovers male or female? I reckon I'd be proud to be a pinderette, and would say so to people who asked me (and later regret having done so). Anyway! The point I'm making here is that it's not just us red-blooded males who think that Jamie is the bomb. Really. WOW!!!



The greatest pleasure in life is doing what other people say you cannot do, says Jamie. And in that case this pinderette is going to confidently say that Jamie cannot get any better. Or hotter. Especially not in time for the Olympia. No way.




Enjoy!

Chicago 2014: Swell Digs: Pamela Slemmons

A few days ago FMS welcomed Maria Segura back to pro competition after she had taken a mere year out. Well, in the women's physique division in Chicago, the absolutely stunning Pamela Slemmons was making her competitive comeback (and her WPD debut) after not one, not two, not three, but SEVEN years away.



Steve Wennerstrom tells us that Pamela had been a long-time competitor primarily in Figure. She turned pro in 2005 after winning the overall Masters division at the IFBB North American Championships, but after a pair of unremarkable finishes at the Pittsburgh and New York Pro events in 2007 she dropped from the scene...



The problem back then, according to her old BodySpace profile (when she was known as Pamela York) was that she was carrying "too much muscle" for a figure competitor. [I] need to tone it down... she explained in 2007. Rules [for pro figure competitions] have changed and they want to see a 20% drop in muscle!!! Well I, for one, am very glad that rather than lose the muscle, Pamela flew under the radar until the WPD provided what Wennerstrom calls "more fertile ground" for her. Looking absolutely gorgeous and oozing muscular sex appeal, she was awarded 4th place in Chicago.



We hope, as Steve Wennerstrom suggests, that a top-five placing in a field like this has to be motivating as well as fulfilling because it would, I think you will agree, be a damn shame if we don't see the divine Ms Slemmons again for another seven years!



You can check out Pamela as she was in 2007, a ("too muscular") figure competitor at the Pittsburgh Pro and New York Pro, and if you want to go back even further, you can watch a 2005 video interview with her from an early issue of Hardfitness.

Enjoy!

Chicago 2014: Juanita

REASONS WHY IT'S HARD TO WRITE ABOUT JUANITA BLAINO

1. Without wishing to be too crude, it's not easy/it's impossible to type when one/both of your hands is constantly moving away from the keyboard. Not easy/impossible to type when your hands are not exactly above the table, if you get my meaning.



2. In order to write about the sizzling Juanita, I need to look at images of Juanita. And images of Juanita have a tendency, if left on the screen for too long, to melt the keys on the keyboard with their heat emissions. Replacing plastic keys with titanium ones has meant the keys no longer melt, but instead they quickly become too hot to touch, so even if hands are available (see #1), typing is only possible for short periods of time.




3. More seriously, there is very little information available about Juanita that I can relate to you. 2nd on her pro debut in Chicago last year (narrowly losing out to Mmmmonique Jones), and 6th on her Olympia debut, Juanita is, without question, one of the top female bodybuilders in the world. Yet there is no website. No Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to follow. We know she's 45 this year. We know Chicago is her hometown. We know she's a police officer, and we know she has a daughter.



So perhaps, all in all, it's better if I leave the writing about Juanita to others, and make it a cut & paste job. Also, you can check out one or the other of our previous posts about this super muscular and sensationally sexy woman (which, assuming you have a titanium keyboard, ought to be safe), and Juanita can also be found at #29 in the FMS Hot and Hard 100 (not nearly high enough for Swell's liking, as I said at the time).



THE FANS ON JUANITA

I really love her nice thick guns, but her back is outstanding... A wide, thick and massive back, one of the best in the industry. Her rear lat spread is just awesome... The IFBB need more FBBs like her: SEX APPEAL + GREAT PHYSIQUE... [In this backstage posing clip] her sweat makes the tanning oil on her body run and for some reason I'm thinking about licking rivers of chocolate and caramel, I'm sorry [you see, it's not just me who suffers!]... Juanita is enormous, look at the photo before the contest [below] where she's wearing short sleeves. Her arm is as massive as a leg!



STEVE WENNERSTROM ON JUANITA

Juanita Blaino... this impressive competitor shows a level of muscular thickness that reaches from head to toe. Hopefully, she will make a trip to Tampa in an attempt to secure another invite to Las Vegas. She has all the tools to hang with the best.




"All the tools". Nice! Personally, and with no disrepect to the three women who finished above her in Chicago, I'd have placed the divine Ms Blaino in the top 1 if I'd been one of the judges. And that's not a moan, it's a fact - with my hands shaking so, I couldn't possibly have written any other number down on my scorecard while Juanita was doing her thing! But there is, as Mr Wennerstrom points out, a possible silver lining to her 4th place in that it means she'll have to compete in Tampa to qualify for the Olympia, so we will, hopefully, be feeling the heat from the stunningly beautiful Juanita Blaino and her gloriously sexy muscles on stage again really really soon.



And we leave you today with an understandably shaky glimpse of Juanita in Chicago from a fan's point of view. Leave the sound on if you can, it's well worth hearing what the audience was saying about her while she was strutting her stuff up there.



Enjoy!