The body beautiful
Physique contests for women date back to the 1960s but these early "bodybuilding" competitions were no more than bikini contests. The Women's National Physique Championship, held in Ohio in 1978, is regarded as the first contest where entrants were judged solely on muscularity.
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Hard bodied honeys
Search engines feature hundreds of sites dedicated to firm female bodies, a testament to the popularity of body building women and the men who love to watch them flex. Take a peek at one of our favourite sites here
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Muscle lust
In recent years attitudes towards female bodybuilders have changed from believing the buff ladies are resisting femininity to a growing interest in these women as erotic figures. 'Muscle-worship' is now widely publicised on the internet with dvds and adult publications also fuelling passions for rock hard hotties.
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Sexy flex
And, if you want to bag yourself a muscle bound beauty the internet offers a vast range of dating websites dedicated to hooking you up with a pumped partner!
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She-ra
Open mindedness has to exist within women's bodybuilding thus it is unsurprising that one of the world's largest competitions, the World OutGames in Canada, is incredibly popular amongst gay and lesbian communitieswith over 16,000 homosexual, bisexual and transgender athletes taking part.
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Model behaviour
So high is the demand for women bodybuilders for photoshoots that the muscular ladies who make it big end up taking on a second role as a model. Pro competitor Anita Gandol created a stir by posing for Playboy in the mid-1980s, earning a one year suspension from the IFBB.
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Iron ladies
A sport riddled with controversy, in 1992 competitors in the Ms. international contest were criticised for becomming too masculine. As such the judges picked a blue eyed blonde haired beauty of comparably small proprtions as the winner of the competition as she would market the sport more effectively.
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Muscular or masculine?
In 2000 guidelines for contestant presentation were introduced. Jim Manion, chairman of the Professional Judges Committee, stated that women would be judged on healthy appearance, face, makeup, and skin tone(?!) and were to be muscular but "not to the EXTREME!".
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Gladiators, ready!
Each bodybuilding competition has slightly different categories for contestants to pick and choose from to showcase their specific talents. Some have dance and aerobic sections whilst others have Gladiator competitions whereby ladies fight it out, Russell Crowe stylee!
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Tan your hide
If you're wondering why these pumped ladies slap a treacle coloured tan all over their bodies then you'll be pleased to know it's nothing to do with an over-zealous application of St Tropez but an attention grabbing technique to cast shadows over muscles and make them appear smoother and larger.
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