FBBUK: Sarah Williams @UKBFF 2014

One of the saddest things I've read this year is the news that Female Bodybuilding had been "phased out" of UKBFF events. No Female Bodybuilding class in the regional qualifiers, no Female Bodybuilding class at the national championships. The federation that brought you the world class muscle of Lisa Cross (2010 UKBFF champion) and Rene Campbell (2011) has turned its back on British female bodybuilders.

However, come competition time at the UKBFF British Championships recently, hope for the future of female muscle within Britain's most important bodybuilding federation was provided by the triumph of the VERY muscular Sarah Williams.



Sarah had previously competed at the championships as a bodybuilder. In 2012, in fact, she had been runner-up to the smaller and considerably less muscular Rosanna Harte, and many had felt she'd been the victim of a judging travesty. Then, last year, having been a pre-contest favourite given her placing the year before, her appearance on stage apparently having forgotten to apply the pro tan was met with confusion, and, despite her size, she slipped down to fifth in the final placings.


Sarah, robbed at the UKBFF British in 2012


"Looking ghostly" - her words - in 2013

So Sarah got busy "sizing down" as they say, preparing to compete in Physique. It was a bit daunting at first, she says. But I made it simple like I always do, just started dieting a bit earlier, played with my diet a bit, and then just made sure my legs - I didn't train them the same way to get them to be proportionate to my top half.



Given that she is already more successful as a Physique competitor than she ever was as a bodybuilder, it shouldn't be too surprising that she already sounds like a true believer, that Physique was the home she had always been looking for. It [Physique posing] felt much more feminine, much more natural to me, she said after her win.

And it's good to know that being covered in rock hard muscle - she "shredded the competition" according to Flex Online - and getting that feminine feeling are not mutually exclusive. She was, by all accounts, the clear winner from the moment she stepped on stage. The only debate, writes John Plummer, centred on whether she was too muscular for women’s physique. Some felt she was a bodybuilder by another name; others felt her physique was perfectly suited to the international stage.



Thankfully, the latter of these two views won the day among the judges, and it seems likely that the theory that Sarah will be a strong representative for the UK in European competition will soon be tested. It's something I've always wanted to do, she says.

Check out Sarah's 2012 nemesis Rosanna Harte interviewing the new champ backstage after her win. Sadly, Sarah's fabulous body is all covered up, but if you like your muscle goddess' voice basso profundo, listening to Sarah will more than make up for that. And all delivered in Swell's own South London-Surrey border brogue.



Congratulations to Sarah!

Hot and Hard: Marcie Simmons IFBB Pro

Preparing for the recent NPC Nationals in Miami, Marcie Simmons had a plan. I did my research, she told RxMuscle. I looked at the people who were in the Olympia... If I come into this show looking similar, then I should be on point. It was a plan that worked. Conditioned to bits with every beautiful muscle full and defined, Marcie won both her class and the overall title, and with that, of course, her pro card.




But it's one thing to have a plan to "look similar" to the top Physique Olympians, and quite another to actually pull it off. I mean, if it were that simple, every amateur would end up looking like Dana Linn and Juliana clones, wouldn't they?




I think I'm a genetic freak. I gain muscle easy. I can eat candy and gain muscle! Marcie says, probably joking about that last bit. Or perhaps not. Her triumph at the Nationals came at only her third ever show, following a qualifier the month before and a single show in 2010 at which she was the only female competitor.



It all seems a bit too easy, but then again she does have fifteen years of powerlifting under her (weight) belt. She is as strong as she is sexy. She can squat an eye-watering 435lbs (197kg), and for her next trick is planning a deadlift of 500lbs (227kg) in order to break a state record in her Illinois home. I gain strength easy, she says. No surprise there, then. Suddenly her Instagram monniker "shehulk" makes perfect sense.



But if you spend a little time with Marcie on said Instagram, you may start to suspect that perhaps all that muscle and that crazy conditioning isn't just for the benefit of the judges, or at least, it's not only the judges who like that sort of thing. This year, if you've discovered a woman who revels in her muscularity more than Marcie seems to do then I would love to hear who it is, because if there is one thing guaranteed to get FMS' juices flowing faster than a sexy muscular woman, it's a sexy muscular woman who wants you to know how sexy she feels with all that muscle. Just like Marcie.



Whether on stage or backstage, at the gym, at home (or indeed just about anywhere she can find a mirror to admire herself in), whether she's in her posing suit, in her (revealing) gym togs, or getting glammed up for a night out (and when she does glam up, she makes damn sure there's muscle on display), Marcie's smile and Marcie's eyes don't lie. Doesn't she look like she is digging the hell out of herself? Or is it just me?



I, for one, can't wait to see Marcie presenting an even more muscular package to go with the unreal conditioning when she mixes it with the pros in 2015. Although I seriously doubt I will be enjoying it as much as Marcie will!



Next week: FBBUK on FMS

Hot and Hard: Abs: 6x6

De La Soul taught us that 3 is The Magic Number, and far be it from me to contradict that, but for an old abs fan like me, 3 just won't cut it (get it?). I need 6. At least!

And thankfully, there are more than a few wonderful women out there who agree, and who absolutely will not stop until they have achieved that perfect number.

Today, FMS brings you just 6 of those many wonderful women.


ANDREA CALHOUN

And we start today's look at some of the most perfect abs you'll ever see with the perfect abs of Texan Figure pro Andrea Calhoun. Hard to believe that a little over seven years ago her weight problems had become so bad they had brought on a depression. All I ate was fried food, McDonalds, and my favorite Shipley donuts, she says. I was obese. Her journey to perfect abs began when she walked into a gym and got a personal trainer, and took her to Las Vegas and her first Olympia this year.



Andrea has her own website, and you can follow her on Facebook


KRISTYN KELLI



Meet Kristyn Kelli, two times MABBA Figure champion. That's right, MABBA. It's not a typo, it's the Manitoba Amateur Bodybuilding Association. She's from Winnipeg, you see, and Winnipeg, it turns out, is in Manitoba (I guess Canadian readers and readers with a better grasp of Canadian geography than I already knew that but I'm assuming some of you didn't). She will be defending her provincial title on May 23rd 2015 if you're in Manitoba and want to see Kristyn and her perfect abs in action.



She's on Instagram and Facebook


JILL DUNN

As far as I know, this is a REAL picture. This kind of abdominal perfection is, it seems, actually attainable. Such low body fat and this kind of definition is really achievable. Such bounteous ridges of perfect muscle are possible. But don't ask me how.
Ask the owner of this jaw-dropping, groin-activating midsection. Ask Jill Dunn.



Jill Dunn IFBB Figure Pro: website, Facebook, Instagram


MARCIA FEIJO



If you were waiting for a Brazilian, your wait is over. Say Bom dia to Marcia Feijo and her perfect abs (not to mention the pretty much perfect rest of her). Like most of the women today, Marcia is a Figure competitor, which is making me wonder whether Figure competitors packing this much ripped muscle is a relatively new phenomenon or whether I just haven't paid enough attention to the division before now. And Marcia is still an amateur, would you believe? I'll say it again: that body you are looking at is the body of an AMATEUR FIGURE competitor. Marcia is a P.E. (Gym) teacher by day. I bet very very few boys (or girls for that matter) skip Ms Feijo's classes.



The teacher is on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube


GRACIELLA CARVALHO

And we stay in Brazil (why leave?) with Graciella Siqueira de Carvalho (to give her her full name), a businesswoman and fitness model who, in 2011, was runner-up in the inaugural Miss Bumbum Brazil (called by some The Greatest Pageant of All Time).



Shhhh! she seems to be saying. Shut your mouth and start worshipping me!

For more, check her website and Instagram


VALERIE GARCIA



And last, but certainly not least, heartfelt congratulations to FMS fave Valerie Garcia Giovanoli, who was awarded her pro card after finishing 2nd in her Physique class at last month's NPC Nationals. [My abs have] more nooks and crannies than an English muffin, she captioned the above photo on her Instagram one day before the contest.



Once she'd had the pro tan and the oil smeared all over them like, well, like butter on a hot crumpet (as we call those 'English muffins'), they looked even better. And now we've had the 'Before' and the 'During', let's finish with the 'After' - Valerie showing off (and still unable to take her eyes off) that sexy (and still utterly shredded) midriff of hers during a post-contest photo shoot for her sponsor, the one and only Hardfitness.




Enjoy!

Hot and Hard: Cristina Goy Arellano

When she first came to FMS' attention at last year's Arnold Classic Europe, Spanish Physique stunner Cristina Goy Arellano made quite an impression on our reporter. 'Caliente' or what? Swell wrote at the time. With her flowing jet black hair and (for me anyway) the best abs in her class, I think she's just divine.



Cristina was back this year in Madrid. She took home both her class (leading a Spanish 1-2-3 with Joanna Romano 2nd and Lidia Miralpeix 3rd), and overall titles. She was even bigger and, though it didn't seem possible, even sexier this year.



Cristina at the Arnold Classic Europe 2014

A few weeks later she was back in on stage again, representing her country at the IFBB World Fitness Championships in Montreal. No win on that occasion, didn't look quite as full as she had in Madrid, but 2nd in her class behind Brazil's Silvia Fraga was a more than creditable finish in her first major contest outside her native Spain.


And at the IFBB World Fitness Championships

Sadly our limited language skills mean we don't have a lot of Cristina facts at our disposal. We know she's based in Barcelona and runs a training business in partnership with bodyfitness competitor Ethel Heredia. We know she has a child, and her Facebook lists her status as "Seperated" so you can dare to dream...




But a lack of information has never stopped FMS from waxing lyrical about a muscle goddess before. So, while we may not know much about Cristina, we know what we like. And we DO like that flowing jet black hair, those big dark eyes and strong facial features. And we DO like those big beautiful muscles. We like them A LOT.



More Cristina on stage in Madrid

And if you like them a lot too, why not indulge yourself with Hemuvisa's very latest masterpiece, Women Backstage at the Arnold Classic Europe 2014? Naturally I'd thoroughly recommend watching it all, but Cristina comes in around the 4.10 mark for a solid minute and a half. There's pumping, there's posing, but I have to say that to be honest my absolute favourite part has to be when she's not doing very much except standing around, just covered with glistening, rippling, mouth-watering muscle...



Enjoy!