Fitness Lady- Margi Faze

Fitness Females - Margi Faze

This gorgeous young lady is stay at home mom of three AND fitness model Margi Faze from Nevada.
Yes, you read that right...mother of three!
Every now and then I get to do an entry on one of these fitness beauties that is really inspirational, and this is one of those times.
Marge didn't start on her path of becoming a fitness model until she was thirty five.
And that was after her three kids were born.
I think this may be the first lady I have done a write up on here whose transformation story is so amazing that the Washington Times interviewed her about it.



Margi's goal wasn't to go into fitness modeling, or become a female fitness competitor.
She just wanted to get in shape.
But look at her now.
I would say that she more than succeeded.
She recently won her class at the Miss Bikini America contest and she won the Body for Life Grand Master Championship.


Margi is a perfect example that you can do anything you set your mind to.

If you want to keep up with this fitness beauty, you can check out her MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/margifaze
Her Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/MargiFaze
Or her Twitter:
http://twitter.com/SoBe919

Yvonne Bates, Another Look

I thought today we'd take another look at the lovely and fit Yvonne Bates.
As I mentioned in a previous post, Yvonne is a Cambodian Female Fitness Competitor and Fitness Model.
And she is also a personal trainer at Scott Fitness 24 Hour Exercise Clubs.

Jennifer Nicole Lee

The beautiful Jennifer Nicole Lee is a Fitness Expert, Lifestyle Consultant, Fitness Model, devoted wife and mother.
She is drop dead gorgeous.
And she is also an inspiration.
To improve her physical and mental health and become more active with her children, Jennifer began a fitness program and nutrition program and lost 70 pounds.
Her goal was to lose weight and enter a bikini contest.
Jennifer surpassed her goal and one year later was crowned Miss Bikini America 2005!
She's appeared on Oprah, Inside Edition and E! featured her as one of the "Top 20 hottest women of the web".

Kavvy Sonhos

kavvy sonhos fitness model
This lovely young lady is Kavvy Sonhos.
Kavvy is a Professional Fitness Model and NPC National Figure Competitor.
She is also a a certified fitness trainer, licensed massage therapist and nutritionist.
AND she held a World Record in Deadlift Powerlifting.
Kavvy is of Brazilian and Latino descent.
She has competed in:
2008 Sunshine Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 1st place.
2008 NPC National Bodybuilding & Figure Championships, 6th place.

Female Fitness Models and Female Fitness Competitors

There is a difference between being a female fitness model and being a female fitness competitor.
Not all women that are fitness competitors are fitness models, and not all fitness models are fitness competitors.
Did that make any sense?
Female fitness competitions are competitions that stress muscle tone over muscle size.
Muscle size is important in female bodybuilding which is a whole 'nother subject.
Female fitness competitions kinda resemble Miss America pageants, without the singing.
Contestants..sorry..I mean competitors... wear swimsuits and high heeled shoes and come out for the judges, doing half turns and quarter turns to show off their physiques.
They have to look lean and ripped, but not too ripped.
That is where the contest diet comes into play, but there are a growing number of fitness competitors that stay at "contest weight" all the time now by watching their diet and workouts carefully.
Anyway, they are judged on their appearance and also they come back out for an aerobic, dance or gymnastic routine.
If you notice, a lot of fitness competitors are former gymnasts and personal trainers, so that's right up their alleys.

Two of the biggest professional fitness contests are the Fitness Olympia (created in 1995) and the Fitness International (created in 1997).
Both are run by the International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) and doing well enough in amateur competitions to get your IFBB Pro Card is a big deal.
Interestingly, one woman has won the most Fitness Olympias (four) and Fitness Internationals (four also) and that is Susie Curry who by the way, becoming a fitness model, started out in gymnastics.

Now to be a fitness model, you dont have to be a fitness competitor, although that can help you to get your name out there.
A lot of the popular fitness models of the 1990s never set foot on a stage.
The 2000s changed that a bit with the increasing popularity of the internet.
Fans would see a beautiful fitness model and look her up online and see that she actually hadn't competed anywhere.
That kinda lowers their rep.
"Okay, she's hot, but what has she actually done?"

Back in the 90s, Muscle Magazines started running their own "Swimsuit Issues" like the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue and moved many of the fitness competitors (and female bodybuilders depending on the magazine) from the stage to posing for their cameras.

Here are a few famous fitness models that made the transition...

Torrie Wilson

Torrie Wilson

Yes before Torrie Wilson was in the WCW and was a WWE Diva, she was a fitness competitor.
She was Miss Galaxy in 1998.
You can follow Torrie on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/#!/torrie11

Amy Fadhli

Amy Fadhli

I never understood why Amy Fadhli wasn't more popular than she was. As far as a fitness model and fitness competitor, I thought she pretty much had it all.
Besides being a competitor and doing more magazine appearances than you can shake a stick at, Amy also appeared in a few films, the most notable being "The Scorpion King".
And more importantly (if you're a comic book fan) she appeared in the short film, "The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special".
In addition to winning a lot of bikini and swimsuit contests, Amy was the 1996 Fitness America National Champion.

Krisztina Sereny

Krisztina Sereny

Krisztina Sereny is a female fitness competitor from Budapest, Hungary.
As a fitness model she has appeared in a ton of magazines.
She took first place at the 1998 IFBB Hungarian Cup, the 1999 IFBB Austrian International Championship, the 1999 IFBB Hungarian Cup and the 2004 WABBA European Championship.

Jenny Lynn

Jenny Lynn

Jenny Lynn is an IFBB professional figure competitor.
She came in first place at the 2003 Figure International, the 2003 Pittsburgh Pro Figure, the 2003 Show of Strength Pro Championship, the 2004 Figure International, the 2004 Show of Strength Pro Championship, the 2005 Sacramento Pro Championships, the 2005 San Francisco Pro Championships, the 2006 Pittsburgh Pro Figure and the 2006 Figure Olympia.

Monica Brant

Monica Brant

Monica has been in a ton of contests during her career, including first place wins at the 1991 Fitness USA Preliminary, 1994 Fitness USA Preliminary, 1995 IFBB Jan Tana Pro Fitness and the 1998 IFBB Fitness Olympia.

Trish Stratus, Fitness Model

Of course you associate the name Trish Stratus with the WWE.
She was the WWF/WWE Women's Wrestling Champion 7 times.
But before she was a professional wrestler or television personality, Trish was a sought after fitness model.
When Trish was growing up in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, she wanted to become a doctor.
It looked like Trish was getting her wish when she became a pre-med student at York University in Toronto, Ontario.
Things looked good for her medical career until a faculty strike by YUFA in 1997 that lasted seven weeks, effectively shutting the college down.
Since Trish couldn't go to school, she got a job in World Gym, and was approached by Scott Able (who has trained over 300 bodybuilding and figure champions) to do a modeling job for a supplement line.
This lead to her catching the eye of Bob Kennedy, and being contracted to work for the Musclemag International fitness magazine from 1997 to 1999.
Trish became one of the world's most sought after fitness models, and wound up appearing on the cover of over 20 international fitness publications.
One of Trish's most remembered projects from her fitness period was the infamous The Dream Team calendar with fellow fitness model Stacey Lynn.

Juliana Malacarne - IFBB Figure Pro

I did a write up on IFBB Figure Pro Juliana Malacarne last year on my other fitness women blog, but I wanted to do an update on her here.
Juliana is of Italian heritage, but was born in Brazil.
And like many of the other female fitness beauties that I do write up on here, she is multi-talented.
She's not only a fitness pro, but a female personal trainer, nutritionist and female fitness model.

Female Fitness Competitions:
2006 IFBB Europa Super Show - NP
2007 IFBB Pittsburgh Pro Figure Championships - NP
2007 IFBB California Pro Figure Championships - 13th place
2007 IFBB Colorado Pro/Am Classic Bodybuilding And Figure Contest - NP
2008 IFBB Arnold Classic Bodybuilding, Fitness And Figure Contest - 12th place
2008 IFBB New York Pro Figure - 13th place
2008 IFBB Atlantic City Pro - 4th place
2009 IFBB Arnold Classic - 13th place
2009 IFBB New York Pro Figure - 10th place



You can find out more about Juliana at her MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/julianamalacarne

And here is a clip of Juliana working out at a gym posted by dcerbi on YouTube

Sondra Hopkins

Sondra Hopkins is a personal trainer, NPC figure competitor and she owns the Fit Life Studio in Boerne, Texas.
Contest history:
West Texas Classic 2008 Masters - 1st Place
Ronnie Coleman Classic 2008 - Masters 4th Place
Ronnie Coleman Classic 2008 - D Class 8th Place
NPC Rock Fitness Extravaganza 2008 - Masters - 1st Place
NPC Rock Fitness Extravaganza 2008 - Figure B - 2nd Place
NPC Texas State Championships - 4th Figure D

Melissa Merritt

This sleek and muscled 25 year old from Austin, Texas is Melissa Merritt.
Melissa won the Figure Overall title in Las Vegas at the Fitness America World Championships on November 21, 2008.
Melissa just ran a Fitness Bootcamp with fellow fitness stars Abby Marie and Brenda Mikalajunas.
Abby Marie is also being trained by Melissa.