BB - General

With this year's IFBB New York Pro just days away I thought it was time I finally caught up with one of the sports favorite female bodybuilders, Debbie Bramwell. Currently on view In the Iron Asylum , Debbie has made significant improvements to her physique since the last time we saw her on stage and conventional wisdom says she should place very highly come May 8th.  While I will leave the predictions to the more qualified experts, I will dare to say that, in my humble opinion, Debbie will crack the top 5!

Short of authoring an entire book on the subject of outstanding lightweight bodybuilders, the following should be considered as, at the very least, a spirited effort to salute a cross-section those women who have left a mark on the sport of women's bodybuilding while laboring under the perceived disadvantages due to their physical stature.

In a sport that has, for the most part, long rewarded the look of those contestants who are larger than life, lightweights have endured a struggle for recognition as each decade in the sport's history has passed.

I've known Brandi Leaf since she was barely 18 years old. She always hung her head down and walked behind her boyfriend. She was quiet, shy, and had no idea how beautiful she was. She fell into the shadows of her beauty pageant older sister and her super-confident bodybuilding boyfriend. People always commented on her natural beauty and "cute figure" while she was the front-desk girl at the gym. Her experiences in figure, fitness, bodybuilding and now bikini, has given her more confidence and some terrific insights that she's chosen to share, exclusively, with Rx Muscle!

Swedish Siren, Marika Johansson may have been absent from the competition stage for a while but she has been far from absent from the bodybuilding scene. The wife of bodybuilding.com editor Kris Gethin, Marika has been working on projects for the site and attending to her growing list of personal training clients. Currently considering a return to competition I decided it was time to take a closer look at this bodybuilding Amazon and find out what drew her into the sport, how she met Kris, and exactly what her plans for the future are....

From her days as a competitive dancer and her work as a personal trainer and aerobics instructor through to her competitive career in both figure and bikini, Elise has always brought a strong and burning ambition to her pursuits.

Possessing a gift for turning her passions into professions, Elise is now carving out quite a name for herself as a make-up artist and stylist on the competition circuit.

Before anyone gets their undies all in a twist, rest assured I have no desire to push women's bodybuilding towards pageantry status.  But such was not the case back in 1982 when the Miss (yes, Miss) Olympia event (which was held at the Playboy Club Casino in Atlantic City) was being unmistakably touted as a "Pageant".

I was reminded of this moment in the history of women's bodybuilding when I recently found the original copy of what was to be the "script" used by the emcee for the 1982 Miss Olympia. It was a script that would thankfully never see the light of day.

Elena Seiple earned her IFBB Pro Card by winning the light heavyweight class at the 2008 NPC Nationals.  Since then, she's been missing in action and the bodybuilding world has wondered where she's been and what she's been up to.  I tracked down the extremely busy Seiple and found out a few interesting updates.  Read on!

When Yaxeni Oriquen took to the stage at the Phoenix Pro accompanied by Marilyn Manson's menacing rendition of the Eurhythmics' ‘Sweet Dreams' there was little doubt in anyone's mind that the former Ms Olympia was back and ready to reclaim her crown!

Prowling the stage like a panther she sent an eerie chill of anticipation through the crowd...if this was just the start of her return what would she bring to the competition come the final showdown?

The fact that she walked away with first place that night was no surprise and as she prepares herself to do battle at this weekend's Arnold Classic I thought it was time to get to know this ‘warrior queen' a little better...

Over the years the sport of women's bodybuilding has been put under the microscope more times than the influenza virus. The questions have always centered on what exactly motivates a woman to enhance her muscularity to its genetic maximum rather than align herself to the cosmetic blueprint laid down by a mostly narrow-minded section of society.

In this article I have decided to throw aside the ‘why?' and focus my attention on the benefits of such a pursuit. To this end I have chosen some of our most outspoken athletes and asked them the questions we really want answered....the questions that explore areas of sexuality and empowerment and how enhancing development on a physical plane can have a profound effect on confidence, self awareness and relationship with ones sexuality.

In a majority of dictionaries, the definition of the word ‘genetics' is pretty simplistic.  The Oxford edition uses just one word to define it: inherited. Funk & Wagnalls tells us genetics "....deal with the interaction of the genes in producing the similarities and differences between individuals".  And Webster's definition of genetics is described as "the origin of something".   Any way you care to slice it, the understanding is, in general, that genetics are the basics of a beginning.

In virtually all sports, genetics play a pivotal role in determining an athlete's potential success and the suitability to a given athletic endeavor. If you are 7-2 and weigh 240 pounds, chances are your future won't be in powerlifting.  And conversely, if you happen to be 5-6, 240 pounds, the likelihood of playing center on a college basketball team is highly unlikely.

Continuing my series looking at some of the women competing in the rapidly approaching IFBB Phoenix Pro, I thought I would take a closer look at the ever popular Dr. Dena Westerfield.

Over the years Dena has built up quite a following and looks set to become one of those women who will be remembered for their part in promoting the sport we love so much.  However, there is so much more to Dena than the woman we see on stage as I so amazingly found while chatting with her recently....

As the anticipation builds toward the yea'rs first IFBB Pro show in Phoenix, I thought I would take a closer look at one of the front runners in the women's bodybuilding division. Betty Pariso is pretty much a legend when it comes to women's bodybuilding. Her competitive life has spanned decades and her accolades would fill out this article without me even having to ask a single question.

However, rather than simply talk about her achievements in the sport (since I am sure most of you are aware of them anyway) I wanted to get to know a little more about the woman behind the physique, starting with her life before she entered the gym....