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

Aline Oliveira - Fitness Model and Personal Trainer

This beautiful young lady is Brazilian athlete, fitness model and personal trainer, Aline Oliveira, from Rio de Janeiro.

I know I have mentioned "abs of steel" before, but check this out...

Contest History:

IFBB Estreantes Rio 2008 - 2nd Place
Champion South American Bodyfitness IFBB 2009
Brazilian Champion 2009 IFBB
Carioca overall champion IFBB 2009
World Cup (Italy) - 10th place

Here is a video of Aline Oliveira and Mara Blindada working out.


You can find out more about Aline at her Facebook page here:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Aline-Oliveira/100000513734384

Torrie Wilson - Fitness Competitor and Fitness Model

Here is a blast from the past in a way.
Many of you may know Torrie Wilson as a female wrestler, but before Torrie ever set foot in a wrestling ring, she was a both a female fitness competitor and female fitness model.
Torrie was born on July 24, 1975 in Boise, Idaho.
Before becoming a fitness model, as she was growing up Torrie was into cheerleading, dance, and track and field.
But starting at the age of fourteen, Torrie began to suffer with anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
She started a fitness program, working out and eating six meals a day as a way to overcome this and plunged head-long into fitness.
Torrie entered her first fitness competition and placed third, then went on to win the Miss Galaxy competition in 1998.

Lisa Marie Varon, 2nd from left, Torrie Wilson far right
http://www.womenstri-fitness.com/art_wwf_wtf.htm

At that competition she met Lisa Marie Varon, another fitness competitor.
Lisa went on to become Victoria in the WWF/WWE and Tara in TNA.
The meeting in 1998 was the start of a life-long friendship.
Also in 1998, Torrie took part in the Women's Tri-Fitness Championships, and placed first in the Grace and Physique round, also doing very well in the Fitness Routine and Obstacle Course.
Lisa Marie was also a top ten finalist in that competition.

As a fitness model, Torrie appeared in several of the muscle and fitness magazines swimsuit issues, as did another one of the fitness beauties who later turned female wrestler, Trish Stratus.

IFBB professional Cristiana Casoni

This is beautiful Italian IFBB professional Cristiana Casoni.

Cristiana is 5'4 and weighs 136 pounds.
She was born on July 11th, 1968.
Cristiana has been in the fitness scene quite awhile as you can see here in her contest history.....

1997 IFBB Italian Pro Fitness, 5th place
1997 IFBB Norway Pro Fitness, 11th place
1998 IFBB Arnold Classic And Internationals, 14th place
1998 IFBB France Pro Fitness, 9th place
1998 IFBB Italian Pro Fitness, 8th place
1998 IFBB Jan Tana Pro, 16th place
1998 IFBB Fitness Olympia, 11th place
1999 IFBB Mid-West Pro Fitness, 3rd place
1999 IFBB Olympia, 12th place
2000 IFBB Rimini Pro Fitness, 6th place
2005 IFBB Toronto Pro, 5th place

And it looks like Cristiana is coming back.
Here's a clip on YouTube of Mauro Sassi training Cristiana for the Atlantic City Pro Bodybuilding 2009 (September 11-12).

Larissa Reis - IFBB Pro Fitness Competitor

This beautiful young lady is Brazilian personal trainer, nutrition consultant, fitness model and IFBB pro figure competitor Larissa Reis.
Larissa was born on May 21st, 1979 in Brasilia, Brazil.
She is five feet, five inches tall and weighs between 132 (contest) and 139 (off-season).
Her hobbies are surfing, skating, long boarding, triathlons, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Here's another one I wonder if we'll see try her hand at MMA....

I couldn't find all of her contest history, but here is what I could find....

Female Fitness Competitions:
IFBB South American championship 20?? - 1st Place
IFBB Brazilian National Champion - 2006
New York Pro - 2009 - 2nd Place
Atlantic City Pro - 2009 - 1st Place
Arnold Classic - 2010 - 6th Place Overall

Here is a video posted by DIYMUSCLE on YouTube of Larissa working out:

Yvonne Bates - Personal Trainer and Fitness Model

It's been awhile (January actually) since I did anything on the beautiful Yvonne Bates.
So here's another couple of pictures of this lovely Cambodian personal trainer, female fitness competitor and fitness model.
In these, you get some idea of her amazing abs.



Contest History:

2003 - Short Division, Gold Classic in Kansas City. 1st place, Short Division, NPC in Kansas City. 3rd place, Pro Division, WNBF World Championship in New York - 1st place
2004 - Natural American Classic in Austin, TX. 1st place,
2004 - WNBF Northeast Classic in Worcester, MA. 1st place,
2004 - Natural Caribbean Grand Prix in the Grand Cayman Islands, 2nd place,
2004 - WNBF World Championship in New York City.
2005 - WNBF Pro Natural International and 7th place at the WNBF Pro Natural Northeast Figure Championships, 2nd place
2006 - WNBF Pro Natural Caribbean Figure Championships, 2nd place
2007- WNBF Bluffs Classic Figure Championships and 4th place
2007 - Ms/Mr. International Kansas City Golds Classic


Like I said in an earlier post, you can find out more about Yvonne at her website:
http://www.yvonnebates.com/


Yvonne Bates, posted to http://asian-fitness-women.blogspot.com/, on Sept 22nd, 2009

Asian Women Wrestlers

If you check out my profile you will see that I do a lot of fitness blogs and wrestling blogs.
Now I know that pro wrestling is scripted, but you take a lot of abuse in and outside of the squared circle. And to do that day in and day out, you have to be in shape.
So I thought today I would combine by love or wrestling and my love of fitness and profile some of today's asian women wrestlers that have made an impact on the industry.
Starting out with....



Gail Kim
Gail has wrestled for the WWE, TNA and some Indy promotions before that.
Gail was always athletic and before wrestling she was into basketball, volleyball, soccer, baseball, and badminton.
She also studied kinesiology at the University of Toronto, and nutrition at Ryerson University.



Lena Yada
Another young lady that worked for the WWE is the lovely Lena Yada.
Before the WWE, Lena was the first runner-up in the 2002 Ms. Venus Swimwear International pageant, Miss Hawaiian Tropic Japan and she competed in the quarter finals of the 2007 World Title of Tandem Surfing.



Angela Fong
Angela Fong currently works for the WWE using the ring name "Savannah".
Although Angela is currently working as an interviewer, she has made great progress with her wrestling skills.



Ayako Hamada
Now know as simply "Hamada" in TNA, Ayako is the daughter of the legendary Gran Hamada.
Hamada may look a bit out of shape now, but this young lady has been wrestling since her debut in 1998.
And most of that time was in Japan and Mexico, and if you know anything about Lucha Libre or Joshi, you know wrestling is a LOT tougher there.



Su Yung
Independent female wrestler Su Yung is making quite a name for herself in Memphis Ladies Wrestling where she is the MLW Champion and 2008 Rookie of the Year.



Sumie Sakai
Sumie is another Indy wrestler that has been around quite awhile and really paid her dues.
She debuted in 1997, and is not only a pro wrestler, but an MMA fighter as well.
Before wrestling, Sumie was into Judo.



Jade Chung
Another Indy wrestler, Jade started out as a valet, but made her way into the ring.
She has worked for Border City Wrestling, IWA Mid-South, the National Wrestling Alliance, Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.


posted to http://asian-fitness-women.blogspot.com/, Sept 10th,2009

More Meriza DeGuzman

Since my last entry on IFBB figure competitor, fitness model and certified personal trainer Meriza DeGuzman, she has racked up a couple more contests.



2009 IFBB Europa Super Show & Supplement Expo- 3rd place
2009 IFBB California State Pro Figure Championships- 4th place



And Meriza also appeared in the March 2009 issue of Flex magazine.

Another thing that I didn't mention in the last write up was that besides visiting her website, you can keep up with Meriza at her MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/merizafigure

Minna Pajulahti

This beautiful young lady is Minna Pajulahti.
She is a fitness competitor, flight attendant and aerobics instructor from Finland.

You can read an interview with Minna by Kaisa Piippo here:
http://www.hardfitness.com/emagazine/issue20/minna.html

And you can see a lot more of her pictures here:
http://www.pakkotoisto.com/copper/thumbnails.php?album=169

Natalie Minh, Another Look

Here's another look at the lovely WNSO FAME Euro Fitness Model Champion, Natalie Minh.
This Vietnamese-American fitness competitor seemed pretty popular last time, so I thought another picture wouldn't hurt any.

Despite coming in 1st Place in the Ms. Bikini division at the 2008 Muscle Mania/Fitness Universe Italian Championships, winning 1st Place Fitness Model, and 2nd place Bikini Model at the 2008 FAME European Championships and 3rd Place Swimsuit in the swimsuit division at the 2008 FAME World Championships, this lady is way more than just a pretty face.
She is a a Structured Finance Analyst for a Fortune 100 financial services company, she has a a BBA with dual major in Management Information Systems and Management, a MS in Finance, and a MBA, all from the University of Michigan.
AND she was a UNIX Systems Administrator specializing in CAD/CAE environments for six years.
To paraphrase Monty Python, "She could think you under the table!".

You can see more of Natalie at her MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/motownnat

Fitness Model: Cori Nadine

If you haven't been on the interweb since the 90s, you might not know who Cori Nadine is.
Cori is a Filipino, Irish, and Navajo Indian beauty that was a staple in Muscle mags back in the 90s.
I think every swimsuit issue they put out had her in it.
Cori actually competed in a few amateur fitness and figure contests but nothing ever really came of it.
She also did some work as a personal trainer, but I don't know if she still does that or not.
The way Cori is built, she can look very soft and feminine, or very muscular and ripped when she wants to.
Cori was born on June 11, 1969 in Pasadena California.