{"id":9287,"date":"2015-03-31T18:53:07","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T18:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/?p=9287"},"modified":"2015-03-31T18:53:07","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T18:53:07","slug":"strong-is-the-new-skinny-female-bodybuildings-dynamic-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/?p=9287","title":{"rendered":"Strong is the new Skinny: female bodybuilding\u2019s dynamic rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cassandra Minors is competing in her first bodybuilding competition. Before hitting the stage at the Ontario Physique Association\u2019s Ottawa Championships\u2014sponsored by health-products giant GNC and held at Algonguin College on Nov. 1, 2014\u2014Cassandra is wandering the theatre\u2019s crowded lobby, chatting with fellow bodybuilding competitors and stopping to check out a few of the fitness-themed merchant booths. The lobby is abuzz with excitement, and filled with both spectators and competitors alike. The female competitors are distinguishable by their sprayed-on russet tans, carefully applied stage makeup, and manicured nails, but, surprisingly, not by their physical size.<\/p>\n

Sporting her own deep, fake tan, a smiling Minors is covering her sparkly purple bikini with a black satin bathrobe, blazoned on the back with rhinestones spelling out \u201cBeauty & Beast\u201d. While displaying an impressively defined and muscular physique, Minors doesn\u2019t exactly fit the stereotypically bulky, pumped-up physiques that may come associated with bodybuilding.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Well toned Figure competitor Cassandra Minors at the Ottawa competition in November. [Photo courtesy of Cassandra Minors]<\/figcaption><\/figure>Bodybuilding wasn\u2019t always on Minors\u2019s radar: She has Instagram to thank for kick-starting her fitness journey. In late 2013, Minors noticed an acquaintance frequently posting about fitness and dieting on the popular photo-sharing app. \u201cI messaged her on Instagram one day and asked, \u2018Can I come to the gym with you?\u2019\u201d Minors recalls. After months of shared training, that acquaintance convinced Minors to start preparing for the November competition.<\/p>\n

Minors\u2019s experience exemplifies two trends prominent within the female bodybuilding industry today: the inclusion of more competition categories that cater to women with less-muscular physiques than traditional female bodybuilders, and the power of social media to promote this sport and lifestyle. Together, these two factors can be credited with fuelling the explosive rise in popularity that female-bodybuilding contests have experienced over the past decade.<\/p>\n

Bikini madness<\/h2>\n

The International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) is the sport\u2019s largest governing body. As one IFBB article stated, \u201cBodybuilding history accelerates quickly from the beginning of this year: every next event breaks the record of participation!\u201d The 2014 European Championships is cited as just one record-breaking example, with 783 competitors participating. The Bikini division proved the most popular: 189 women out of the 394 females competing did so in the Bikini division.<\/p>\n

Bikini is the most recent example of a new category that contradicts the stereotypical image of bulky, masculine women competing in the Bodybuilding division. In 2002, the IFBB implemented the Figure, or \u201cBody-fitness,\u201d division for women who wanted to build less muscle mass and maintain a more feminine silhouette. The IFBB took one step further in 2011 with the addition of the Bikini division, which requires women to build significantly less muscle mass and, according to the IFBB, calls for its competitors\u2019 appearances to be \u201csimilar to that of models.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2018It\u2019s like a beauty pageant with muscles.\u2019 \u2013 competitor Cassandra Minors<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, the competition organization World Beauty Fitness & Fashion (WBFF) uses different names to categorize its female divisions: Diva Figure Model, Diva Fitness Model and Diva Bikini Model. And it\u2019s strayed even farther from the steroid-enhanced stereotype by adding a new division for 2015, called Commercial Model.<\/p>\n

These divisions have one other common factor distinguishing them from the original stereotype: Women aren\u2019t judged solely on their muscle size, but on their hair, makeup, stage presence, symmetry and femininity, as well. \u201cIt\u2019s like a beauty pageant with muscles,\u201d explains Minors.<\/p>\n

The traditional female bodybuilding division \u201cis slowly phasing out,\u201d explains IFBB Pro Natalie Waples. Ottawa-based Waples is an IFBB professional athlete in both the Figure and Bikini divisions. She competes at an international level, against other pros, since earning her pro status card at the 2008 IFBB North American Figure Championships. She says these new divisions were added because they \u201cappeal to a more attainable and marketable physique.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IFBB<\/a>
IFBB Pro Natalie Waples (second from right<\/em>) poses with fellow competitors after placing third in the 2011 California Pro.
[Photo \u00a9Ron Avidan]<\/figcaption><\/figure>The new categories seem to have done their job. Jamie Bell began competing in the WBFF\u2019s Fitness Model division in 2011, after following a friend\u2019s competition preparation over Facebook. Bell thought if her friend could do it, so could she. \u201cMy first show, I competed on the stage against six other women. My latest show, two years later, I was onstage next to 25,\u201d she says. Bell says she believes the industry has undergone a \u201chuge growth spurt\u201d over the past few years.<\/p>\n

The social media cycle<\/h2>\n

As the sport\u2019s popularity grows, so does its social media presence. Competitors are well known for chronicling their journeys on their social media accounts. Instagram was launched in October of 2010, just before the Bikini division was implemented; since then, Instagram has become a space for current and aspiring competitors to interact and follow each other\u2019s preparations, often through a series of fitness-themed hashtags accompanying their photos. One Instagram search of the popular hashtag #Fitspiration yielded over 3.5 million results, while #BikiniCompetitor displayed over 300,000 hits, and 12.8 million posts mentioned #Bodybuilding. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether social media\u2019s impact is purely positive (see sidebar).<\/p>\n

Minors\u2019s bodybuilding campaign started with Instagram, and she says the social media service continues to play a major role in her lifestyle-and-fitness journey as she looks ahead to more competitions. She says posting pictures helps her keep track of her own progress.<\/p>\n

Since sending that fateful \u201cCan I come to the gym with you?\u201d Instagram message over a year ago, Minors has lost 40 pounds and placed sixth in her first Figure competition. \u201cSo many people are coming to me and asking what I do, how I did it, and how they can do it,\u201d she says. She\u2019s grown used to strangers reaching out to her through social media: telling her that following her Instagram account encourages them to live a healthier life. \u201cI like [posting Instagram photos] because it motivates people,\u201d Minors says. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have people from all across the world say, \u2018Wow, you inspire me to do something.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Field of dreams. Judges score competitors at the 2012 Hong Kong Bodybuilding Championships. [Photo \u00a9 istolethetv. Retrieved from Flickr under creative commons licensing: https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/legalcode]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They may be lean, muscular and in shape, but today\u2019s female bodybuilders are breaking the stereotype of bulky, muscular physiques seen in past decades. Female bodybuilding competitions have witnessed an unprecedented rise in popularity in recent years: it seems new divisions calling for less muscle mass, and social media, may be the culprits. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":9623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9287"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10515,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9287\/revisions\/10515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}