Champion of the Day: Adriana Bernal

2017 Olympia Amateur South America
Physique up to 163cm & Overall, and Masters Physique

In recent years, the IFBB have been swelling the international contingent of their pro ranks via Olympia Amateur and Diamond Cup events across the world. Now we could spend time lamenting how great this would have been in the days when the IFBB still had a Women's Bodybuilding class, or even speculating who might be winning these shows if that class still existed, but this is not the day (or indeed the week) for that.



Instead, let's focus on a champion. A champion from the Olympia Amateur South America, which took place in Medellin, Colombia in mid-February. The big winner from the Women's Physique Division was Colombia's own Adriana Bernal.



Now when I say "big winner", I mean it. Adriana won every gold medal she could have. Class and Overall in Open Physique, plus the trophy as the best Physique Master. And the cherry on top of all that cream was the IFBB pro card that came with her wins.



Now I'm sorry to say that I don't know a hell of a lot about Adriana, but I know I like a woman who posts images of herself looking down at her freaky, sweaty, pre-contest abs to Instagram and captions them with a single word - "Happiness". And I also know that if you click here, you'll see a montage of Adriana's progress for the years 2003-2014 that certainly left me in no doubt that pro card went to a very deserving woman.



You can watch Adriana at the 2015 South American Championships (far right as you begin, blue posing suit) and an interview with her at (I think) last year's Colombian Nationals to bring the progress montage right up to date, and you might also like to follow her on Instagram for a little extra of those freaky, sweaty abs, and more.

Felicitaciones Adriana!

Champion of the Day: Jackie Paisley 1962-2017

1987 NPC USA Heavyweight & Overall, 1989 Ms International

Jackie Paisley, one of the most beautiful and talented IFBB pro bodybuilders ever, passed away on March 17th at the age of 54, finally losing a long battle with illness.



We thought it an apt moment, as we begin a week of women who have already been crowned champions in 2017, to pay tribute to this great champion of the past.



She was from Pennsylvania originally, a cellist, educated at music conservatory and the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh before she settled in Scottsdale, Arizona after doing a joint degree in Sports Medicine and Music Performance at the state university. She was competing at national level as a bodybuilder by the mid-80s, and didn't have to wait long for her pro card, winning Heavyweight and Overall titles at the NPC USAs in 1987, first in a field of 50+.




She went on to shine very brightly, but all too briefly, as a pro. 3rd at her first Ms International in 1988, she returned the following year to finish runner-up to Tonya Knight. However, as Knight was later disqualified, Jackie is in the record books as the 1989 champion. I got the difference in prize money, she told Muscle Insider a few years ago, but never a first-place medal or certificate with my name on it.

The IFBB - ever classy!



Later in 1989 she was runner-up again at the World Pro, this time to Diana Dennis, and debuted at the Ms Olympia, finishing 4th behind only Cory Everson, Sandy Riddell, and Bev Francis. In 1990 she was runner-up at the Ms International again, and 5th at the Olympia. Women were getting much more muscular, and I didn’t have the body type or desire to, she said of her decision to call time on her FBBing career. I didn’t have a mentor then either, so things may have been different if I had, but I had a business to attend to, and a recent relationship breakdown, so I had a lack of focus. She did one final Olympia in 1991, placed 11th, and never competed again.



She was married, became a mother, and for many years afterwards, she ran a successful training business. In 2005, though, complications resulting from her breast implants began to affect her health, and the last ten years or so had been a bit of a struggle for her physically and financially, although there were times when she felt she was on the road to recovery, and at one time Jackie was quoted as saying she would like to give the Physique division a try. Sadly, she was never able to do so.



Like many other fans, I fell for Jackie during my formative female muscle lovin' years, and especially I found images of her demonstrating her legendary flexibility, among the first of her I saw, utterly mesmerising. They, she, will stay with me as long as I live.



Read Muscle Insider's full 1-on-1 with Jackie here.

Sunday Sizzler

Today's Sizzler is Aussie WBFF Fitness Diva, Sophie Hawkes.

Sophie placed 10th at last year's WBFF event in Australia, so we can't wait till the FMS research team unearth some material of the nine women more diva than her that day.

Anyway, here's Sophie. And some sand.



Enjoy!

FBBUK: SHAME!!!

In the unlikely event you haven't already heard, UKBFF Bodyfitness competitor and fitness model Diana Andrews has been in the media a bit recently. Just a little bit.



On a list of things Ms Andrews' most regrets, I imagine that her Instagram posts of March 7th rank pretty high. Her snap of a fellow gymgoer with a less than toned physique, said gymgoer's attire of inappropriate size and use of her phone while on the treadmill, and Diana's joke that she was probably ordering burgers for delivery.

The snap ranks up there with those surreptitious shots of arse cracks people take. Mild amusement, but you wouldn't want someone taking pictures of you without you knowing, would you? The joke about the burgers is so obvious, and not especially funny. Diana's Instagram has, understandably, been shut down, so I can't tell you how much hilarity among her followers those two fateful posts caused. What we do know is that when the posts were picked up by social media and soon after found their way into The Huffington Post, Diana was well on her way to becoming Public Enemy #1.



The story has made its way into the websites of publications as different as Men's Health and Good Housekeeping. It's found its way onto the radio. Even Fox News have run the story. It's gone way beyond the US and UK to every continent and many (if not every) of the world's major languages. If Diana got herself into a rocket and blasted off to Mars for a bit of peace, I get the feeling she'd be met there by Martians brandishing newspapers with her and her fellow gymgoer on the front. The news section of her website currently contains a statement from her firm of solicitors on her behalf. And when you are talking to the world through your solicitor, life is not good.



I am not going to defend Diana, but I do feel for her.

Ultimately, she brought this upon herself. She shouldn't have taken the picture, but she really shouldn't have shared it and joked about the burgers. However, the amount of online personal abuse she has received regarding her appearance (incidentally, from people who are saying how wrong it is wrong to abuse others online because of their appearance - the irony of this seems to be lost on them) has been enormous.



With all this hatred flying around, no one wants to be seen to have anything to do with her. I have no idea what's going on behind the media scenes, but the bodybuilding community has hardly rallied round. The UKBFF were quick to disown her. "Not a fully paid-up member" they were quoted as saying. Trainer Eddie Abew, who Diana has appeared with in a training video, was also quick to point out that neither he nor any of his team had anything to do with it. And every YouTube bodybuilding/fitness vlogger has been at pains to be seen to be condemning Diana in their latest offerings.



Even her apology was widely ridiculed.

So I imagine Diana is in quite a lonely place right now.



I wondered if I might find something positive about her online, you know, just to remind her there was a time before March 7th, and there will be a time when this has all blown over. And I find it I did! From Dutch website Bodybuildsters & Gespierde Vrouwen, where Diana was the subject of one of their picture tributes last March.



Beautiful looks and muscles from Great Britain! reads the translation. Diana Andrews competes in the Figure class, and as you can see, this is a gorgeous lady!

Pits of Plenty

FMS is always looking for new ways to celebrate muscle women in all their unique glory, and pictures of third place Jeannie Feldman at the very recent Karina Nascimento Pro has rekindled the flame of an idea that was first put forward at an FMS conflab some time ago, but has never made it onto the blog. Until now, that is.

Yes, my friends - and in case you weren't paying attention the clue to today's admittedly niche exploration of the muscular female body is in the title - FMS' sthenolagnia has taken what you might call a somewhat maschalagniacal turn!



Pits.

Or rather, the muscular woman's lack of them in the conventional sense.

Take Hot and Hard 100 #11 Diana Schnaidt. Where is her armpit exactly?



As far as I can see she doesn't really have one.

What she does have though is better. MUCH better. A confluence, if you will, of muscle. A glorious meeting - perhaps meating? - of bicep, delt, lat and pec.

Not so much an armpit as a muscle pit.

So, from old school to new to FMS.

From JMEGs (Just Muscular Enough Girls) to the biggest big beasts of them all...

And if they haven't waxed in there for a little while, who cares?

Biceps! Sweat! Abs & Thigh!

FMS presents PITS of PLENTY...























































Submissions on the theme most welcome!

6ft1swell@gmail.com