Twin Packs: The Jakic Twins

Where?
"Germany"



Who's Bigger?
You tell me - I don't even know their names! And besides, they are more about the lean abs than the bulging muscles - "fitness", not "bodybuilding". Every other picture these two post is like an ad for Bikini Magazine, reckons (mainstream) lads' mag Mandammit. They’re the perfect embodiment of the Wrigley's "double your pleasure" jingle.



The Jakic Twins on Instagram.

Enjoy!

Twin Peaks: Aimee & Sophie Trafford

Where?
Northampton, UK.

Who's Bigger?
Aimee, who has plans to get (even more) massive and definitely wants to compete at some point. Bodybuilding is my life! she says. And she looks as though she means it.



The Trafford Twins on Instagram and Facebook.

Twins all week on FMS.

With many thanks to B for the concept.

Enjoy!

She Is...

Esther "Tete" Rodriguez Sosa on Facebook.

21st CENTURY FEMININE



Enjoy!

Incomparable

I couldn't possibly have a week of "contrast" (you had noticed, right?) without the starkest, and perhaps cruelest of them all. Show us a pictureof a female bodybuilder and we'll tell you no average woman can possibly compare. Show us a picture of a female bodybuilder and an average woman and we'll say, "I told you so."



She is, at the very least, twice the woman.

I remember her! Cathy is probably thinking. She was so nice and beautiful. She dreamed of competing and I'm sure she is now, and I'm sure she looks amazing.

But at that time, pretty though this wannabe competitor was (and yes, there's a bit of shoulder development there, she was most certainly lifting then), you don't actually notice her unless you really try because she's standing next to Cathy Lefrançois!




So much more woman. Bigger. Stronger. Oozing confidence and sex appeal.

And she doesn't even have to be that huge to look huge in comparison.



For example, I would urge those still prefacing the term Figure competitor with "only a" to look long and hard at Azaria Glaim's upper body and a long hard look at her admirer's, and then have a long hard rethink about their terms of reference.

But sometimes it's so not even close, it's ridiculous.



Poor skinny, says one forum wag. She best not try to armwrestle Carla Maria.

A bit of a thing, that, with one department of the female muscle fan club - projecting onto these pictures their fantasies of muscular goddesses physically dominating and/or humiliating the regular girls they are photographed with. She could pick her up, lift her overhead, lift her by the throat... they pant with increasing excitement.

Not my thing at all. But if Lisa sees a gap in the market she's in there quicker than you can say, Yeah Lisa! Spank that skinny girl raw! Show her who's the DOM! (pant)



It seems to me though that with so many pictures like these being taken at Expos or gyms, it's a case of the regular girls wanting to be photographed with their heroines, and for me, that's much more of a turn-on. I'm excited that they're excited about being so up close and personal with these magnificent muscular creatures.



I'd die and go to heaven if my shorts were brushing up against one of Gracyanne's boombastic thighs, or I had one of Rene's arms around me and her bicep (not to mention her muscle pit) within sniffing distance. I'd love to be faced with the dilemma of whether, having placed my hand quite reasonably - in the circumstances - at the top of one of Angela Rayburn's hard glutes, I should just go for it and squeeze...



But a decent second best would be hanging out with the woman who had got the photo with the object of our mutual admiration. Tell me again about when you were living down in Fort Worth and Delane Hart was one of the PTs at your gym...



Sometimes there's no hiding that admiration, that excitement.



Sometimes they just can't keep their hands off.



And sometimes they are living out the dream I had last night!



But I have to admit my absolute favourites of this type of comparison photo are what you might call the "inadvertent" comparison - the regular woman just happens to be in the photo. Captured, perhaps at the moment when she clocks the fact that she is in the presence of a completely different, bigger, stronger, sexier, superior female...



And once you've seen that photo, you can project that moment onto any photo where your (actually chubbier than) average woman is in range. Whether she's just laid eyes on or is just about to lay eyes on Claudia's Bonavoglia's physical perfection, what's certain is she's going to leave that beach feeling differently about her own body.



Crushed? Inspired?

We would hope for the latter, that the outcome would be an increase in the sum total of female muscle in the world. Perhaps she might even have left the beach and gone on, like Cathy's friend at the start of today's post, to dream of competing, and having a body that could inspire more women to do exactly the same as she has done.

Become incomparable.



Readers' persobnal favourites from this genre would be gratefully received.

Get in touch - 6ft1swell@gmail.com

Vive la Différence!

Spot the difference.



Well?

Clue: look down.

This is Edilma "Dee" Vasconcelos, winner of both the Figure (left, in case you hadn't noticed the heels) and Physique titles at the NPC Midwest Championships in April this year. Physique is my favourite division because I love old school posing, says the Brazilian. Not that I don't like Figure, she adds. It's so classy too. I tried both!


"Vascularconcelos" - a quad worthy of Figure, or Physique?

One way of looking at this - and Dee is by no means the only woman to have doubled up in this NPC season so far - is as a damning indictment of the NPC/IFBB's obsessive "downsizing". Physique has become nothing more than Figure without the heels.

And it's true, there are Physique competitors who look as though they would do well - better even - in the Figure division. But there are also those who wouldn't look out of place in a Female Bodybuilding line-up, albeit an amateur, light-heavyweight one.



Take two of the Physique competitors from the recent St. Louis Pro. On the left, Emily Bethany, who placed 9th. Emily had been a Figure competitor before switching to Physique in 2015 and gaining her pro card. On the right, the considerably bigger Amanda Slinker, who was 5th. Most of Amanda's career has been in the Physique division, but last year she moved "up" to Light-heavyweight Bodybuilding for the IFBB North Americans, won her over 35 class and was able to turn pro as a result.



You might recognise Amanda better with her previous hairdo.

This - if you want to put a negative slant on it - disparity, or - more positively - breadth of the Physique division makes it what it is. You could call it a curse - how are the women supposed to know whether the Figure end or the Light-heavyweight Bodybuilding end of the scale will curry favour with the judges at any given contest? But you could also call it a blessing, as it allows in both Figure women who want to add a little more muscle and smaller Bodybuilders who are unlikely to succeed in the most Heavyweight environment of them all, the IFBB Pro Female Bodybuilding ranks.


Ashley Weimer @NPC Jr. Nationals - v.2014 Figure & v.2016 Physique

Shanique Grant and Diana Schnaidt are two of the best-known examples of Figure women who have recently made the transition to the Physique division - in Shanique's case with stunning success - but they are just two of many. Ashley Weimer, who also competed in St. Louis, and finished 4th, is another. And don't forget that once upon a time a certain Juliana Malacarne was a fair to middling Figure competitor...




And coming the other way are Angela Debatin, Sherri Gray, Geraldine Morgan, and Zoa Linsey - all previously competitive Bodybuilders, all competing in the Physique division in 2017. The three Ks, [since when? - ed.] Katka Kyptova, Karolina Borkovcova and Kira Neuman have decided, more or less recently, to seek their competitive fortunes in Physique, and even a former Ms Olympia, Valentina Chepiga, has spent the autumn of her competitive career there.



So, to go back to the earlier question about what the judges are looking for, I'd say that based on the evidence of the three IFBB pro winners so far this year, the answer is, not surprisingly, neither extreme but rather somewhere in the middle. Shanique, Sheronica and Candrea were not the biggest, nor the smallest among their respective line-ups in Fort Lauderdale, Charlotte, and St. Louis. Shanique was definitely the best conditioned for her win, but then few achieve her freakish level of muscular definition. Sheronica has been better conditioned, perhaps the softer look was deliberate, and Candrea seems to have trimmed her muscle down a bit. So, are we any clearer?!




Perhaps not, but one thing is plain - like the Figure division, and very much unlike Female Bodybuilding, the pro Physique ranks are constantly being swelled by up-and-coming talent from the amateur NPC shows in the US. Laurel Fredette (winning the recent NPC North Carolina Championships), will be just one of the fresh talents to look out for in the Physique division at the national level shows to come this year.




At the end of the month, finally, Female Bodybuilding returns in Toronto, the last of the IFBB Pro divisions to begin its competitive season. Physique is not the same, but while we wait, I could think of worse ways to spend the time than following Joanna Romano, or Hanna Hallman, or Nicole O'Neal, or Margita Zamolova.



Or discovering the likes of Laurel.