Paris au printemps avec Joanna Jean

So, your travelling companion wants to know why exactly you have to keep going back to the same place day after day. Surely there's more to Paris than the Eiffel Tower?



Whoever is in charge of such things really should look into recruiting this sizzling Haitian/Canadian Figure phenom and new IFBB pro to do some publicité for them.



Maybe they already have!



Joanna Jean is on Instagram (always, not just when she's à Paris).

Enjoy!

The Chance Encounter

OK, you've got 25 seconds to decide what to do and/or say.

Ready?

Go!



Come up with any bon mots?

No, me neither.

And Lola Montez was very much in slow motion right there. Real time would have given you even less chance. And let's face it, you were hardly under pressure, were you? I mean, Lola's not REALLY sashaying down the street towards you, is she? What would you do then? What, if you were indeed capable of speech at all, would you say?



I console myself with the knowledge I am not alone.

Pics and vids is one thing, says one fellow head. Seeing them right in front of you is entirely another. Sightings in the gym are most common, and while they are always awesome occasions, they are definitely the least exhilarating. Nothing compares to a chance encounter in public. Exhilarating in the extreme. Muscle ladies get my heart pumping for sure, confides another. My breath gets short and I cannot take my eyes off of them. The desire is simply overwhelming. Ah yes! The Madness. On the extremely rare occasions that I actually see a true female bodybuilder (even at the figure level) in public, it's like my body goes into red alert and I'm stuck on that moment for at least the next couple days. It's like seeing a unicorn. Well put, sir!

Unless you live in Miami or some such and it's an every day kind of thing.



Or maybe not.

A muscle woman is something I can't prep for. It's one thing seeing hundreds of gorgeous legs, chests, glutes onscreen. I could see the same woman through hundreds of different pictures, or a dozen videos. Nothing ever readies you for when you see her in the flesh. It's the difference between watching a video of a rollercoaster, and physically RIDING one. For me, just seeing one is like an epiphany, and all attempts at maintaining my gentlemanly dignity dissolve to mush as my mouth hangs open, my eyes bulge wide, my breathing gets laboured.

Perhaps we'd be better having our chance encounter elsewhere.

Public transport, perhaps?



I mean, at least the book might give us a conversation starter, and for the time being Tina's not going anywhere, so you don't have to worry about thinking that fast.

Although I'm curious how you'd start a conversation while the object of your desire (that's Melissa Wee on the left, by the way) is using said transport as a mobile gym...



All those muscles in constant motion...

Or indeed if (like "Elana", right) she is in a female-only section of the tube!

When I see a very muscular woman, which is very rare, I lose control. I'm so attracted to the bulk, shapes, veins, and muscle that my heart races. I often, if on foot, will change direction just to see if what I'm seeing is actually what I'm seeing.



Clocking those legs on the tube only to find out they belong to the new girl in HR.

Cue not-so-chance encounters on a daily (sometimes thrice-daily) basis...

The ultimate ecstasy, or the ultimate torture?!

Kicking off 2018 properly with a week of Muscle in Public on FMS.

Any stories? Comment below or send to 6ft1swell@gmail.com

Enjoy!

2018: Female Muscle's Greatest Year?

Do not adjust your set or whatever they say now. This blogger is looking forward to 2018. Yes, I too have read the research that suggests the vast majority of prehistoric women had "stronger arms than today's elite female rowers", but let's face it, they didn't spend their weekends standing on plinths in fur posing suits while male members of their tribe passed judgement on them. My reasons for optimism are several, but what it all boils down to is a greater amount of female muscle on the planet than ever before. Well, at least since women stopped having to grind grain for up to five hours a day.



GYMS

Granted, this may not be the case everywhere, but here in the UK there are unprecedented numbers of women at the gym. And we're not talking about those who take out membership in January and have stopped turning up by February, we're talking about women who work out regularly over a period of time. These so-called "Protein Princesses" are one driving force in a boom in the UK fitness industry that (according to the most recent research available) shows no signs of slowing down yet.



You can now buy protein shakes in all big supermarkets and even Poundland - just one (shocking!) example of just how mainstream working out has become for both women and men. So there is an ever increasing chance that your significant other either works out regularly or (if she doesn't do some other kind of physical activity) is thinking more and more about doing so. And if she does, you should get on it too my friend, or she may be thinking about trading you in for a guy she met at the gym...

THE MEDIA

2018 will be the FMS' seventh year, and throughout that time we have paid especially close attention to female muscle-related stories in the mainstream (English-speaking) media. Every year there have been more and more stories, and every year the slant seems more and more positive. There are women conquering eating disorders, overcoming their bullying victim past, sculpting a far better body than they ever had before they became a mother... There are women with successful careers who also compete, women with successful competitive careers (pretty much exclusively at amateur level) gaining recognition in their regional media. There are Instagram's most followed "fitspirations", there are celebrities showing off their six-packs. And there are even stories about some of the freakiest beasts of all, like Natalia Trukhina.



In December 2017 alone, we had quite a bit of Natalia, we had Polish "Fitness Barbie Twins" with their "bubble butts and sexy toned abs", and we had UK celeb Gemma Atkinson having a go at those who said she was "too muscular to dance". We also had plenty of regional stuff - in Cumbria, champion bodybuilder Tyler Jack was celebrated for her new job in car sales, and in Chester, there was the "Bodybuilding Beauty Queen Mum". More serious stuff too. Can We Please Stop Criticising Older Women for Working Out Too Much? was the headline in the Metro on the Thursday before Christmas, and in the BBC's celebration of 100 Women, the Thai woman "fighting stigma to become a bodybuilder" was none other than Penpraghai Tiangngok.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Much of this media interest derives from social media itself. Stories fall into newsrooms pretty much ready made (as we have seen previously on FMS), mainly it seems via Instagram (and not Facebook or Twitter for some reason) - noted above, the Polish "Fitness Barbie Twins" from December in the Daily Star is another classic example. Even when the story isn't about muscles per se, a great body shown off on social media works. Last year we saw how the anti-government protests in Venezuela suddenly got a lot more coverage when "Wonder Woman" Caterina Ciarcelluti became the face and body the global media picked up on for their stories. And where did they get their images of Caterina working out? Her Instagram, naturally.



But the main effect social media has had has been to take the mainstream media out of the equation. More women get more inspiration from other women's transformative stories and positive messages on Instagram than anywhere else these days. The ones who make it to the mainstream media - Brittany Rhodes, for example, who appeared in a BBC documentary - are just the most followed tip of the "fitspirational" iceberg.

CELEBRITIES

Like it or not, a lot of women pay a lot of attention to what their favourite celebrities are doing, so also on that tip are women like Davina McCall (the 50-year-old UK TV presenter who featured in the Metro story noted above) and the other fit celebs we featured on FMS last year. Even one of the Kardashians is apparently talking the weight training talk these days, and if that isn't a sign that there's a female muscle bandwagon rolling through celeb world just begging to be jumped on, I don't know what is.



And then there was 2017's LOVE advent calendar - #staystrong. No, they didn't put proper muscular women behind the virtual doors of their "seasonal online celebration of womanhood", but there is a lot of sweat and even plenty of flexing in there. Again, bandwagon jumping? Nothing wrong with that if you happen to think the bandwagon is the best looking bandwagon you have ever seen. Will it inspire? Well, it probably inspired quite a lot of messiness in teenage bedrooms and, despite the best intentions of Editor-in-Chief Katie Grand, probably not much else. But it's another sign that the world of celebrity, and even the previously size zero travesty fashion world are embracing - perhaps acknowledging is a better word but hey - that "Strong Is Sexy".

CROSSFIT

Lest we forget, other strength and muscle-building sports are available, and while that Dorian Yates "Super League" thing might have coaxed Shannon back into the free weights area, Crossfit is the biggest and (in this blog's opinion anyway) by far the best - not least because it's one of the very few sports where the top women get more attention (and more roles in blockbuster films) than the top men. And it's the most attractive to women who prefer a more functional approach to their fitness.



I don't have any actual data to go on, but personally knowing three women who have taken up Crossfit (or at least incorporated it into their training for other sport) in the last couple of years, I thought I would ask around my circle of female muscle cognoscenti. I wasn't very surprised to find that most knew at least three similar women, and then there's that one guy, well, that's why he does FMS' Crossfit stories.

So, it's all adding up. More gym membership. more media coverage, more social media inspiration, celebrity endorsement, and Crossfit's functional appeal. More muscle.



Well so what? you might be saying. How many of those gym bunnies are ever going to compete? And even if they do, they'll just be wiggling their bums in Bikini, or "Wellness" or whatever. Really, how many women are going to be inspired to build serious muscle via the media - social or otherwise - even if it's their favourite celeb showing off a bit of tummy definition on an otherwise borderline anorexic body? And as for Crossfit...

Go on, admit it, you have a major crush on Brooke Ence, don't you?



Point taken though. You're not a fan of the pastime, but "the sport".

THE SPORT

New territories

Over the last few years FMS has occasionally reported from parts of the world where "the sport" and more generally the idea of women weight training to build muscle and compete, have previously been unheard of, taboo, or even, in the extreme case of Iran, illegal. Another story that popped into our inbox in December was all about how Asian women - "Female Bodybuilders" - were "smashing gender stereotypes".



South Korea - one of those countries at the forefront of Asia's female muscle revolution - is currently producing new fan favourites at the rate of about one a week it seems. We've seen on FMS how the Indian media has been celebrating its new wave of competitively successful muscular daughters, how they have their own outspoken celebrity muscular female, and how in one state a female bodybuilder actually secured financial support from her state government so she could continue to compete internationally. Women in the Gulf states are also flocking to their (female-only) gyms in ever-increasing numbers, although they will probably never get the chance to compete (unless they have contests with an all-female judging panel and all-female audience, and there's never going to be many pictures of that floating around).



Point is, lots of women in Asia. If only a tiny minority take up weight training and only a tiny minority of them compete, that's still a lot more muscular women and a lot more female competitors in the world. And the more there are, the more that "stigma" Penpraghai and many more of her Asian iron sisters have to fight lessens, bit by bit, for the women that will follow them. A virtuous circle of ever-increasing female muscle!

Figure to Physique



After a few years of what seemed an endless sorry parade of former pro FBBs "downsizing" into the Women's Physique division (with wildly varying degrees of success), the trend now seems to be for Figure ladies to kick off their heels and flex their lovely muscles. Recently we saw Natalia Coelho's first Physique outing, as successful a Physique debut as that enjoyed by Shanique Grant in 2016.



At the IFBB's Women's World Fitness Championships last month, FMS Hot and Hard 100 heart-throb Gülüzar Tüfenk flexed in anger for the first time - and obviously enjoyed it, even if she did about as poorly as she had been doing in Bodyfitness - and FMS also spotted former Bodyfitness bomb and Czech dream Michaela Kohutová also doing Physique for the first time. In the UK and following in Carly Thornton's thundersteps, 2017's British Physique champ Donna Murphy took her time about it, but she had also previously competed in Bikini, then Bodyfitness, before last year.



These are just a few examples. You can probably add your own from your own countries or among your own favourites. Women who are refusing not to grow.

IFBB Pro Bodybuilding



It's not difficult to see the dark side. Just the other day I was watching (I think it was) the 2007 Ms International with a couple of other heads. Cathy Lefrançois, Colette Nelson, Kim Perez, Bonny Priest, Annie Rivieccio, Denise Masino, Betty Pariso, Dayana, Yaxeni, Iris, and (another title she should have won) Heather Policky... The line-up was, as one of the heads drolly pointed out, like all your Christmases on stage at once. A decade on, what hope of such a quality contest?



True enough. For all the positives to come out of the Wings of Strength takeover (a modicum of control for the women themselves, considerable prize money hikes, and most crucially, the survival of their sport), there simply aren't enough top quality FBBs still competing to make all the (few) shows essential viewing. However, every year Jake and Kristal (now just Jake apparently, but anyway) have added at least a little something, and 2018 will see potentially their most consequential additions yet.



Timed to coincide (pretty much) with the Arnold Classic in Ohio in March, the Female Bodybuilding contest at the Hawaii Pro could well become "our Ms International" in the way that the Rising Phoenix has become known among the women as "our Olympia". At the time of writing there's no sense of how many of the biggest names the show might attract, but given how so many FBBs have got behind Wings of Strength's brainchildren before, there's no reason to doubt this event could, given time, grow into something a little more significant than the other RP qualifiers. And then there's Romania.



Scheduled for late November, the Wings of Strength Romania Muscle Fest (catchy eh?) will include the first IFBB pro Female Bodybuilding contest held outside North America since... I have no idea. Anyone? Was it pre-internet? Whatever. The first outside North America for a very long time. No surprises it will be in Romania given how cosy Alina seems to be with Jake these days, and it's also to be seen just how many Europeans or women from other continents might be able to compete. We shouldn't get too excited yet, but you have to start somewhere and it's most definitely a start.



And get this - there are two more European events pencilled into the schedule (this is quite sudden - I literally just found out about this) - September, San Marino and October, Milan. Bloody hell! I need to book a flight ticket or two. For more info you should go to the IFBB 2018 Pro Schedule, Tim Gardener Productions, and (surely they will have more info soon) Wings of Strength's events page and Instagram.

I find myself even more optimistic than when I started the post!

September in San Marino anyone? October in Milan? November in Bucharest?

Regular posting will resume next Monday.

Images of 2017

Thought we'd spoil you this year.



Instead of the customary post of 20 to 30 images held together with a commentary that seeks to identify some themes from the world of female muscle in the past twelve months, we've packed up no fewer than 50 of our favourite images from this year.



And you don't have to sift through tons of text to get to them!



But, you lovely reader, that's not all. Swell has also included the 50 most popular posts of 2017 from his very own personal Tumblr - oh yes, he has a Tumblr. And there's 10 of our favourite 2017 muscle in motion moments posted on Girls with Muscle as well.



Download here, unzip (the rar file, but you'll probably want to unzip yourself too). Get comfy, relax, and enjoy. The ten preview pics here are just the tip of the thrillberg.



To all our readers, FMS wishes a very Happy Happy New Year.

We'll be back in January.

Women of the Year

For the seventh time we have chosen our Women of the Year.

The mission statement remains the same:

It's that time of year when idiot journalists and TV producers make stupid lists of The Best/Worst/Biggest/Dumbest/Most Earth-Shattering Moments/Men/Women/Songs/ Whatevers of the year. You can't turn on the TV for these shows. So I'm not going to do that. It's not a list, it's a collection. It's not the same thing at all. Really.

I've chosen six because six is the number of finalists in most bodybuilding contests (if there are at least six competitors anyway). So six it is. And they are in no particular order. They're all winners. I'm not saying they are the best bodybuilders in the world today, nor that they have been the best in the world this year. But I am saying that these six women, some new to me this year, others familiar from a year or many years before, have been on Swell's mind (and screen) rather a lot this year.

And it was also decided from the start that being an FMS Woman of the Year would be a one-time deal. So those 36 who have featured before won't be featuring again. That rules out some of the women who might spring to mind for their stellar 2017s - Helle Trevino (2012) and Aleesha Young (2014), to name but two.

With a pretty long short list to discuss our editorial panel stayed locked in a (virtual) meeting room longer than a team of Brexit negotiators before arriving at this year's final six. Those that came close included Swell's #1 Swoon of the Moment Jacquelyn Hickerson (he ain't happy about this), Pauline Nelson, gorgeous Katie Lee, and, fittingly in a warped kind of way given the year she's had, Sheila Bleck.

So, who did make it?

The FMS WOMEN of the YEAR 2017

WENDY MCCREADY: History Woman



At the start of the year you wouldn't have gambled a lot of money on Wendy achieving the best Open class result at the Olympia or Rising Phoenix of any British Female Bodybuilder ever. To be honest, at the start of the year, I wouldn't have even been very confident that she would even be at the Rising Phoenix, especially given that in 2016 we found her competing in the Physique division. But not only did she return to the stage as a Bodybuilder, not only did she gain enough qualification points for the Rising Phoenix, but she really did - in finishing 4th - place higher than any British Female Bodybuilder has ever placed in an Open class at the sport's premier event.



She's been a pro 13 years now, and previously had only placed in the top 3 once, in 2012 in Toronto, which coincidentally is where her 2017 competition season began at the end of May. This was her first show for three years, FMS reported, and surrounded by women who looked to be at least three or four times her size, her ultra-conditioned package punched well above her weight, and she finished top 3 once again.



She followed this up with another career-best 3rd place in Chicago in July, and in doing so secured her place at FBBing's top event. Words can't describe how I feel right now. Holy cow I'm really going! she gushed afterwards, apparently as surprised as anyone by the fact. And she was just as, if not even more surprised with her Rising Phoenix placing - I still can't believe it! she exclaimed afterwards. 4th in the world!!!



Female Bodybuilding may not be in the best condition ever, and the competition may not be what it was even only five years ago, but there's no denying Wendy's history-making achievement, and she couldn't be more deserving. Competing since the age of 19, British champion and IFBB pro 8 years later, and then over a decade of preparing herself in County Durham then making the trip to Atlantic City, Tampa, Chicago, and Toronto to compete against the elite of her sport. And in Scottsdale, all those years she'd spent accumulating the know-how to bring and be at her very best paid off.



She'd also made a lot of friends among her fellow competitors. It seems that among her peers there were few more popular success stories in 2017 than Wendy's. After each of her three shows this year there were many many messages of congratulation from her iron sisters (British, European and North American). And she's already enthused about the 2018 Wings of Strength contest schedule - there's no more thoughts of Physique, thankfully. For this gem of British Female Bodybuilding, the best may be yet to come.

CYDNEY GILLON: Flawless



Over the last couple of years three women - Cydney, Latorya Watts and Candice Lewis-Carter - have dominated the Figure division, occupying the top 3 spots at Arnolds and Olympias. Before this year's Olympia Cydney had numerous pro titles to her name, however the biggest titles of all had eluded her. She had demonstrated that at any given show she could finish above Candice or Latorya, but never above both of them. 3rd at the 2016 Olympia, she finished 2nd (behind Candice) at the 2017 Figure International, and then 3rd and 2nd respectively at Arnolds in Australia and Brazil.



Regular readers will know about our soft hard spot for Cyd. She was featured on the blog a couple of times even before her first pro win in Chicago three years ago, and then there was her appearance on the US version of Survivor (not a long one, sadly). We've drooled over her bum, her abs, and her killer outfits, and we've basked in the light of that dazzling smile. So we were delighted she made the Hot and Hard 100 for the first time this year, although that didn't turn out to be her 2017 high point.



Could she be Ms Figure Olympia in 2017? we wondered in her Hot and Hard 100 entry, before answering our own question in the affirmative. And when Cyd turned up at the Arizona Pro and took the Figure title the week before the Olympia, we were even more confident - mainly because we were so tardy on the Rising Phoenix review that the Olympia had already happened and we knew. Cydney Gillon had, for the first time in her career, beaten Latorya and Candice and was Ms Figure Olympia. She told the interviewers who lined up for her after her win that after the Arnolds in Australia and Brazil this year she had decided that for the Olympia she needed to be a Cydney the judges had never seen before. More balanced (did she lack it previously?), tighter (how much tighter could she get?), just better. It's not that I thought any part of my package was bad, she said, but you can always make improvements.




What that exactly entails is beyond the understanding of mortals like you and me. Check this little clip out here - it's a recovery thing, apparently - what looks like some kind of iron rod being rolled (quite vigorously) over Cydney's beautiful quads. And this is just one example of the attention to detail that it took for Cyd to make that jump from top 3 to top 1. To make herself, despite the fact that she still thinks she can make improvements, so flawless that the judges were unanimous in their decision.



Unsurprisingly, the same level of dedication she applies to her Figure career goes into other areas of her life. I have homework to do - school on Monday, she said when asked about her plans to celebrate her Olympia win. Obviously - as is the case with so many of the women we feature here - she's the kind of woman who'd succeed at whatever she chose to do. Thankfully, one of them was building a flawless physique.

JENNIFER TAYLOR's Physique Dream



Jennifer Taylor is not one for glamour selfies, as you can probably tell. Catching up on some cleaning around the gym, she tells us. Probably because of this, she's not the kind of woman who has pages and pages devoted to them on the fan forums. She does get the odd mention here and there though, usually because she's just won a contest.



She does a lot of that. Three times between winning her pro card and in 2013 and hanging up her Figure heels in 2016 she took home the winner's cheque and the big sword or whatever. She also won three Masters titles in that time. She went to two Olympias as well - unplaced in 2015, 10th in 2016. Both those times it was kind of surreal, she says. The first time... and I wanted to make sure the first time wasn't a fluke so I went again. And it was at that second Olympia that she had an idea. I was like, if I could do Physique at the Olympia, then I could die a happy woman!



Her trainer husband put a plan together, and in January she started the journey that would make that wish come true quicker than she could have possibly imagined. With Figure we had to hold back from too big, not now though, she reported in April. The body is responding well, changes happening everyday... That's Jennifer in April above on the left, and a somewhat freakier Jennifer in July on the right. Damn!




I didn't even know if I'd be competitive with these woman, said a clearly overawed Jennifer after winning the Tampa Pro - her Physique debut. By the way, are you getting that Jennifer isn't exactly overflowing with self-belief? You are? Good. The following week she won her second Physique title in San Antonio. She didn't need to compete there, she'd already qualified for the Olympia. Clearly the plan hadn't been to win in Tampa, and she was sticking with the plan. Or maybe she did San Antonio just to check Tampa hadn't been a fluke. She also didn't need to compete at the Arizona Pro the week before the Olympia, but she did. She was runner-up, but not disappointed. The line-up in Arizona represented a whole new level of competition as far as she was concerned. These girls are amazing, she said at the time. I came here to find out where I fit in in the upper-echelon of Women's Physique. That's Jennifer in Tampa on the top row, Jennifer (fitting in) in Arizona on the bottom. About seven weeks apart. DAMN!




And so to her third Olympia - her "die happy" first in the Physique division. Very much the upperest-echelon of all. And how did she do? Given her relative anonymity with fans, you may not actually know. You probably know that she didn't win - Juliana won, as Juliana does. Nobody beats Juliana at the Olympia, do they? Jennifer beat everyone else though. She beat Heather Grace (who'd beaten her in Arizona), and she beat Ms Physique International Daniely Castilho (beat her by miles). And she beat Dani, and Kira, and Sheronica and all those other women who you've heard lots about. Jennifer was runner-up. And a very uncontroversial runner-up at that. So now she and we know where she fits in in the upper-echelon - in the upper bit. The very upper bit.

EMMA PAVELEY: Britain's Fitness Olympian



INCREDIBLE, says 25-year-old Emma Paveley, reflecting on the twelve months that had passed since her win at the Arnold Classic Europe in October last year. It's pretty amazing to think that in one year I've become an Arnold Fitness Champion, won British title no.3, turned pro, won my pro debut AND been to the Olympia.



Indeed it is. Perhaps not so incredible British title no.3. There's only been one winner in that contest since 2014. Perhaps not so incredible that she won in Barcelona - she had, after all had podium finishes at European and World Championships in 2014, and had done well at the Arnold Classic Europe before. That had been coming. And so, you could argue, had her victory at the Diamond Cup event that allowed her to turn pro. Similar competition to the Arnold, similar result. But then to go to Vancouver and line up with Fiona Harris (just the five Olympias she's been to) and two-time Olympian Ryall Graber and the other six Fitness women at the show, experienced IFBB pro competitors all... and to WIN! Nobody was expecting that. Least of all Emma.



Emma became the 4th British woman to compete at the Fitness Olympia in the event's twenty-three-year history, and the first since the second of Kizzy Vaines' two appearances in 2011. It's some achievement, and the high point of a journey that began with her high school gymnastics. I was known as "the girl with the six-pack" because I had a ripped six-pack from being a gymnast, she told her local press after her win in Vancouver. I had bigger biceps than all the boys. But I used to be very ashamed of my muscles and broadness, thought it wasn’t womanly. Fortunately all that changed after her first time on stage in 2011. It made me realise that lifting weights gives you the ability to shape your body, she continued. I am now super proud to show off my shape - my great legs, my waist. I have never felt so comfortable in my own skin.



So Emma headed to Olympia for what was to be only her second show as a pro. Pinch me now! she exclaimed after seeing the official list of competitors. Can't believe I get to share the stage with these incredible ladies! With hard work and passion you really can turn your dreams into reality. Then they sink in! Fitness Olympia here I come!



She didn't manage to beat any of the big names this time round, but as we've already seen, just for her to be at the Olympia was an achievement in itself, and the fact that she moved up two whole places after she'd performed her routine suggests that she certainly has the performance skills - if not quite the body (yet) - to succeed at the highest level of her sport. And like the good Essex girl she is, she made sure her trip to Las Vegas was a memorable one for all sorts of reasons. VIP pool party? Obvs.

PAIGE SANDGREN's Growing Concern



We only featured Paige for the first time in October, and she only blew up on the forums (always way ahead of us) in July, but such has been her impact on the collective female muscle lovin' consciousness that we couldn't possibly leave her off our list. She's this year's Cass Martin if you like - a woman who has seemingly come from nowhere and is suddenly everywhere. And we're all a little bit in love with her.



In that October post we finished with an image that pretty much sums up Paige with its science and its spectacular presentation of muscle growth. Her mission is, you may recall, both to build a physique "the judges can't deny" and "to popularise science along the way". It's a before and after comparison unlike any other. In case you were wondering what an additional 40lbs of muscle (red) looks like under my skin... she explains. Left: 149lbs, 26% body fat. Right: 178lbs, 16% body fat. 2.5 year difference.



It's this kind of thing that has made the moniker "Nerd Beast", dreamt up by some forum wag, stick. The glasses, the love of science, "a very sweet, approachable girl" reckons one devotee. How he would know is not clear, but you get the idea - Paige is the shy, "A" student who you happen to get paired with. As the ice between you breaks and you become more than just classmates you find, to your delight, that beneath the chunky jumpers and lab coat is a bona fide muscle engorged beefcake...



Or perhaps it's just me who has daydreams like that? Either way, there's no denying that Paige has - whether she intended to or not - charmed the pants off the female muscle lovin' collective. Mainly though, we've fallen for her body, for her big, beefy muscles. We've fallen for her "unreal shoulders", her "beautiful strong arms", and her back - "wide enough to support a piano". See? It's not just me getting carried away. She hit the gym and it just unleashed a beast inside her, reckons one excited forum poster. She didn't just get muscular, she became A TITANIC MUSCLE MONSTER!



The way "we" talk you'd think she was a Trukhina-sized freak but in fact Paige is a much more aesthetically-pleasing NPC Physique competitor working towards her IFBB pro card - I'm not sure which competitor wouldn't want this, she says. She won her class at the NPC Midwest the week before the Nationals but didn't win the Overall (Nationals qualifying) title. She'll be back next year. If you want to do it in a healthy way, this sport isn't a sprint, it's a marathon, says Paige, promising to get her "stubborn legs" leaner for her next contest. Through the appliance of science, no doubt.

NATALIA COELHO: (Should Come with a) Health Warning



Gasping I was! And I imagine much of the audience were too. That incredible definition - too much for Figure is what I've heard said, but more than enough for me. Her legs have been (rightly) lauded ever since she first stepped onto a pro stage (regular readers may remember Swell learning the correct term to describe them was "feathered" back in 2016), and they did not disappoint here either. Then there were her abs, which looked too perfect to be true (if you told me they were painted on I'd be tempted to believe you), and that pec line, those shoulders, and when she turned around glutes that seemed to ripple from top to bottom and side to side with every move she made. Gasping I was! Gasping in awe and excitement and wonder...




Fair to say that Natalia made quite the impression on me at the Olympia. Sadly, or perhaps, happily, not everyone felt the same way. 15th in 2016, the 2017 Olympia judges didn't think she was worth a placing at all this time. When you consider she's just starting to discover how to manage her talent, said Dave Palumbo after seeing Natalia at the Olympia, it's scary to think how good she might be three years down the road. I wondered if my ticker could take a better than 2017 Natalia. Scary indeed.



And my ticker got a good workout from Natalia a lot sooner than I'd imagined it would. Just two months after her Olympia star turn, Natalia did what a lot of forum posters had thought she could do, and should do - she made her Physique debut.




It was one of those moments. Moments when - if not all - then a very significant majority of female muscle fans all turn and look in the same direction. Moments when the brethren and the judges are in complete agreement. As images of Natalia (finally) flexing her perfect physique emerged, the forums blew up. She had the same mind-blowing conditioning as she'd had in Las Vegas, but now she was in a division where that counted for her. Against some very strong competition, Natalia stole the show. First place, big sword etc. and 2018 Olympia qualification in the bag already.



If she developed herself like that for Figure, wondered one Natalia fan, what will happen in Physique now she can push on? I can't wait for that back to widen even more. Or those legs - they could be bigger but just as defined and feathery. Those abs could get deeper, with proper rippling ridges of muscle. Those shoulders could grow, those arms and pecs too... She could have veins and striations everywhere! I worry, I really do. She's 22!!! Never mind how good she might be three years down the road, it's scary how much more strain she could put on my ticker next year.

So there they are, our six choices for Women of the Year.

Too much Figure, Fitness and Physique, not enough Bodybuilding for you? Too much focus on IFBB pros and their results - which are a farce anyway? Or just right?

Comments please to 6ft1swell@gmail.com or use the comment box below.

And our final post of 2017 will be just before New Year.

Have a very Merry Christmas!