Bodybuilding
has come up with
one of the most popular and passionate sports in present times, so much
so that even women have not been able to stay from it. Today female
body building is as much prolific a sport as it has been for men who
work tirelessly to render best aesthetic value to their bodies and
prove themselves at competitive forums.
Physique competitions for women first took place in the year 1960 with
the
Miss Physique and
Miss Americana contests. However, they were not
looked upon as more than mere bikini contests and hence didn't gain
much momentum. The first true female body building competition was the
U.S. Women's National Physique Championship, promoted by Henry McGhee
in 1978. This was followed by the second U.S. Women's National Physique
Championship in 1979 in which female pro-builders like Kay Baxter,
Marilyn Schriner and Cammie Lusko made their presence felt. ‘The Best
in the World' and ‘The Robby Robinson Classic' were among few other
titles that came up to promote female body building.
The year 1980 hailed the beginning of the first highest amateur level
competition for women when
National
Physical Committee (
NPC)
held the
contest for female body builders. However the competition which proved
to be a turning point for women in this genre was the Ms. Olympia
contest which was and still is considered to be the most prestigious
title in the sport of body building. Rachel McLish became the most
successful competitor during the early 1980's. In 1983, a new wave of
women developing more muscular physiques came into being. The
American
Federation of Women Bodybuilders was also launched during
this period
in order to cater to the growing awareness of female body builders in
America .
A name that established new standards in this genre was Cory Everson
who in 1984 won the
NPC
Nationals, defeated McLish and went on to win
Ms. Olympia title for six consecutive years and retired unbeaten
becoming the only woman to have ever achieved this. She was taken over
by Lenda Murray in 1990's which gave birth to a new era of
controversies among contestants that participated in the contests then.
The prime contests then were the Ms. Olympia and the Ms. International
titles which made news saying that judges pick up the most marketable
body rather than the best one. The IFBB's point was to make sure that
women don't become ‘too big' and that they should not lose their
feminity. The
IFBB
further went on to make many changes to female
bodybuilding by 2000 in the form of allowing myriad amateur
competitions to take place to promote the pro-rankings. The final line
of judgment that came into being for judging the female professionals
included symmetry, presentation, separations, muscularity, healthy
appearance, face, makeup, and skin tone.
Since then
female
bodybuilding titles have been bringing some great
faces and bodies to the fore-front, proving the fact that women are
reel through tasks with equal efficiency, honor and beauty!
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