The most controversial female bodybuilders of today - interesting things you didn't know about them

There is no doubt that women's bodybuilding evokes a range of emotions in the public - some admire and support them, others do not understand and are offended. Read interesting facts about the female bodybuilders who are currently attracting the most attention and see what they looked like before they fell under the spell of muscle building.

Natalyia Kuznetsova

Natalyia Kuznetsova (nicknamed the Amazon) was born in 1991 in Russia. She is considered to be the world's greatest bodybuilder in terms of muscle mass, with a bulking weight of around 118 kg at 173 cm, which corresponds to a clothing size XXXL. During her adolescence, she was the target of ridicule from her classmates due to her very skinny figure. Her passion for sport was fully sparked at the age of 14 when she took up weightlifting and then powerlifting, from which she was just a step away from female bodybuilding. She is a world record holder in deadlift, bench press and armlifting, in 2018 she got her pro card at the IFBB WOS Romania Muscle Fest Amateur, and most recently she won 2nd place in women's bodybuilding at the IFBB Romania Muscle Fest Pro.

Highlights:

• 47 cm biceps circumference.
• Thigh circumference: 71 cm
• bench press 175 kg
• Deadlift: 240 kg
• squat: 280 kg
• She is childless, considers herself bisexual, is married to Vladislav Kuznetsov
• speaks openly about the use of anabolic steroids and estrogen blockers
• As of 2019, she is sponsored by 5% Nutrition (Rich Piana supplement brand)
• Her fans would love to see her take on Iris Kyle at Ms. Olympia

Iris Kyle

Iris Floyd Kyle (nicknamed The female Ronnie Coleman) was born in 1974 in Michigan, USA. She is 170 cm tall, her diet weight ranges between 68-76 kg, and she maxes out at around 82 kg in volume. During her college days she was mainly involved in basketball and softball, the turning point came when she moved to Orange Country, California, where she first joined a gym. She was captivated by a photo of Lenda Murray (multiple Ms. Olympia winner) in Muscle and Fitness magazine and decided to do whatever it took to get closer to her role model.

The first competition she won was the Long Beach Muscle Classic in 1994. She earned her pro card in 1998 at the NPC USA World Championships in Las Vegas. In 2004, she managed to beat her own role model, Lenda Murray, for the first time at Ms. Olympia. She has won a total of 10 Ms. Olympia titles, something no other female bodybuilder has been able to compete with her in.

Trivia:

• Personal best for bench press: 170 kg
• In 2000, she was disqualified from the Ms. International due to a positive test for diuretics
• Appeared in the bodybuilding documentary Generation Iron 2
• starred in Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj's music video for Swish Swish
• is childless, her longtime partner was Japanese bodybuilder Hidetada Yamagishi
• She is co-owner of Bodi cafe, which sells dietary supplements

Julia Vins

Julia Vins (nicknamed Muscle Barbie) was born in 1996, she is from Russia, she is 165 cm tall and her weight is around 65 kg. She started working out at the age of 15 to boost her confidence and improve her fitness. Building muscle and lifting heavy weights excited her, and a year later she started working with a coach who saw great potential in her when it came to competing in powerlifting competitions. In 2014, Julia appeared at the World Powerlifting Championships in Russia and shocked everyone watching the competition by breaking 3 records! Her performances were as follows: squat 180 kg, deadlift 165 kg and bench press 105 kg.

She is still on the top of the powerlifting competitions to this day, with her most recent wins including first place at the Finnish Nationals and the Rebel Power Push-Pull in 2019. Most will probably find it interesting that unlike the other women mentioned in this article, she has not lost her feminine features in her face. She has built her career on the image of a muscular barbie, with a million people following her on Instagram, so she does everything she can to maintain that look, the handy doctor surely also puts his hand to work from time to time when it comes to her appearance. The fact that she is only 24 years old certainly plays a role.

Trivia

• bench press 165 kg
• Deadlift: 192 kg
• squat: 252 kg
• biceps circumference: 38 cm
• Her role model is Natalyia Kuznetsova
• You won't see her in training or competitions without a bold make-up and cute pigtails.
• She is sponsored by the Bang Energy supplement brand
• She is childless, her partner is weightlifter Sergei

Vera Mikulcova

Czech professional bodybuilder Věra Mikulcová is definitely not to be missed in our list. Born in 1981, she is 173 cm tall, her competition weight is around 80 kg, in volume she weighs 90 kg and more. She has been obese since childhood, she started going to the gym at the age of 17, at that time she had no idea that she would one day become the most successful Czech female bodybuilder and even that was not her goal at first. She started exercising for rehabilitation and to lose weight after she injured her knee playing basketball. Weightlifting became her hobby, she was fascinated by the fact that through it one can shape and build the body in one's own image. She first tried power triathlon, but eventually decided on the bodybuilding path.

She participated in her first junior bodybuilding competition in 2001, at that time she weighed 52 kg. In the following years she competed in many other competitions, winning gold at the Moravian and Silesian Championships in 2005 and 2007 and the Czech Republic Championships in 2007. She planned to win her pro card at the 8th Arnold Classic Amateur, but her category was eventually eliminated from the competition. So she decided to take a picture of her form, applied for a pro card with the help of the relevant authorities and her application was granted. A series of competitions abroad followed, and she placed 2nd at both the 2015 and 2019 Toronto Pro Supershow. In the future she would like to participate in Ms. Olympia.

Attractions

• openly admits that she can't do without doping in professional bodybuilding, but she is against the use of banned substances in teenagers, she started using them after she reached her natural maximum
• she is childless, her long-time partner is Jana Paulátová, with whom she owns a gym Fitness factory in Jihlava
• has her own brand of dietary supplements I'm VM
• she has no shortage of offers to earn extra money in the porn industry, but she always refuses them, according to her words she prefers to earn money by training people in the gym and she does not intend to go this way, even though she would earn a lot of money and this form of earning is not unusual for female bodybuilders
• her photos and videos on the internet are not without a lot of insults, but no one has ever said that to her face and she has received mostly positive reactions and support in person
• in the Czech Republic, she says, it is difficult to find sponsorship, as women's bodybuilding does not appeal to the general public as much as, for example, hockey or football, so she pays most of the costs of competitions herself. But she is not thinking about moving abroad, she would not be able to give up the gym in Jihlava, which is like her child.

Sources of images and information: Nataliya Kuznetsova, Julia Vins, Iris Kyle, veramikulcova.cz, evolutionofbodybuilding.net,openpowerliftin.org,ifbbpro.com