12th Annual FitGems Awards (BREAKOUT FEMALE BODYBUILDER OF THE YEAR RUNOFF)

For the first time in our Awards history, we have a three-way tie. Kayla Brucen, Sarah Christopher, and Christyn Bisson each received 19% of the total votes. We left it up to you on Instagram to see what we need to do and by a majority vote of 59% to 41%, we will be doing a one-day runoff! Vote for either of these three in the poll below to determine who wins 2020 Breakout Amateur Female Bodybuilder of the Year. Good luck ladies! 

12th Annual FitGems Nation Ballot

2020 was quite the year. Some good, a lot bad, and a WHOLE LOT of WTF. but we made it through (THANK GOD), and now it's time to FINALLY vote in the 12th Annual FitGems Awards! You will be able to vote daily until February 1st with results annnounced at some point afterwards. A few categories have been modified and some have been omitted due to everything that happened this year. A big category I left out this year is Promoter of the Year because if you were able to do a show in 2020, consider yourself a winner no matter what! You can say this for a lot of things but the fact that promoters even dediced to even HAVE shows in 2020 despite everything going on should be commended for that. 

Also this year, I've dediced to take a page from our good friends over at Promoting Real Woman and do a Competitor's Choice for 2020. Send the name of your favorite competitor from 2020 and a show they competed in (for verification purposes) to fitgemsnation@gmail.com. YOU MUST BE A CURRENT COMPETITOR TO VOTE AND I'LL BE ACCEPTING VOTES BY EMAIL ONLY AND YOU CAN ONLY VOTE ONCE (NOT ONCE A DAY...JUST ONCE). When you vote, please provide your name and a show you competed in for 2020 so I can verify that you are a competitor. If I can't verify your vote, YOUR VOTE WILL NOT COUNT. 

Here's the following Competitor's Choice categories:

Pro Female Bodybuilder
Pro Women's Physique Competitor
Pro Fitness Competitor
Pro Figure Competitor
Pro Bikini Competitor
Pro Wellness Competitor
Amateur Female Bodybuilder
Amateur Women's Physique Competitor
Amateur Fitness Competitot
Amateur Figure Competitor
Amateur Bikini Competitor
Amateur Wellness Competitor

Here's the regular ballot for everything else!

FitGems Nation Woman of the Year for 2020 has already been determined and this year, there was no brainer on who's getting this at all. But you will have to wait until this Monday (January 25) to find out who it is. We want our reveal to be done right, and I think this might be the most popular winner (or WINNERS...hint-hint) to date. So for the first time ever, the FitGems Nation Woman of the Year will be announced BEFORE the rest of the awards. 

Here's to a successful and FAR BETTER 2021 and best of luck to all the FitGems Awards nominees!

The Fittest Female WWE Superstar of All Time Is...

 All summer long, we hosted a tournament with 64 of the fittest women to ever grace WWE. Ranging from the most muscular to the comic-book heroine looks, from Crossfitters to fitness champions, it was an amazing tournament from start to finish with surprising upsets throughout in the quest to crown the Fittest Female WWE Superstar of All Time.

After weeks and weeks of voting, we have finally been able to crown a winner. Congratulations to Lita on winning our tournament and being named the Fittest Female WWE Superstar of All Time! She beat Mandy Rose by ONE VOTE. When one looks at her physique and focuses on her fitness level, it's not hard to see why. To do what she had done in WWE, you have to have an extreme level of fitness to pull off her moveset, including her world famous moonsaults. In the consoulation round (which was just as tight), Chyna defeated Naomi to claim third place. 

So the final results are as followed:

Winner: Lita
Runner-up: Mandy Rose
3rd Place: Chyna
4th Place: Naomi

Congrats to Lita, Mandy, Chyna (R.I.P), and Naomi on making it as far as you did and to all the women that made the tournament, thank you all for inspiring the WWE Universe and beyond, not just in the ring but in the gym as well. We hope to do more fun tournaments like this down the line. Hope you all enjoyed this one! 

#FittestFemaleWWESuperstarEver FINALS and CONSOLATION ROUND

Earlier this summer, we began a tournament to crown the Fittest Female WWE Superstar of All Time. It was hard but we were able to select who we felt were the 64 fittest women in WWE history (thus far). There were some suprises and upsets throughout the tournament, but now we have made it to the Finals of our tournament. 

On one side, you have Mandy Rose, a former WBFF Bikini World Champion who has brought a physique  to WWE that is not only pleasing to the eyes of many in the WWE Universe but has a lot of power behind it that most men WISHED they had. On the other side, you have Lita, who is known for her rebel style and attitude in the ring, but behind her in-ring attire lies a strong, asthetic physique in her own right that wowed fans in various bikini productions in WWE. One of these two will be crowned the Fittest Female WWE Superstar of All Time. Old school vs new school. The Queen of Xtreme vs God's Greatest Creation. Who takes the title?!

Also, we have a third-place consolation battle between Chyna (the most muscular competitor in the tournament) and Naomi (who may be the best pure athlete in WWE today, male or female). Who will take third place? 

Both polls will go on until Midnight Eastern time this Friday. To everyone that has voted and been part of this event, we can't thank you enough for your support. We hope to do more things like this in the future. Best of luck to the remaining competitors! 

Meghan Santa Barbara...The Next Big Thing in the IFBB?!

Every man and woman who enters the female muscle world IMHO deserves the upmost respect. They put in the time and dedication to create the best physiques on the planet. But like anything else...there is always that one person that catches your eye and you go "that person has IT." You can't train for IT, you can't eat IT, you can't fake IT. You either have IT...or you don't. This past weekend, at the Tampa Pro, a potentially former IFBB figure competitor who has gained a pretty good following over the past year (her Instagram following has grown tremendously since the event) showed us that IT factor.

Meghan Santa Barbara was one of 25 figure competitors who competed at the Tampa Pro, the first show for the IFBB Figure division since the pandemic and the first since the 2020 Figure International. Those that have been following her on Instagram for the past year couldn't believe the kind of physique she was bringing to her first show. We were among those people. We personally felt that she could have placed in the top three easily in her first pro show, at WORST top five. And for her followers, it was easy to come up with this conclusion. 

Despite her placing, she stole the show at the Tampa Pro over the weekend
Photo credit: NPC News Online

Like all IFBB competitors, you need to win a pro card in the NPC in order to become an IFBB Pro. Meghan won her pro card in 2018 at the NPC Jr. Nationals by winning the F class. Prior to that, she competed in the 2017 NPC Philadelphia Classic, cleaning house winning Figure Class C, Figure Novice, and Figure True Novice, as well as winning her class (Class D) in the 2017 NPC Pittsburgh Championships. Her only loss in her amateur career was a 5th place finish at the 2017 NPC Jr. Nationals (the show she would end up winning a year later). To say there were high hopes for Meghan as a pro would be an understatement. But rather than go face first into the pros, she purposely decided to not compete in 2019 so she can put on the right amount of muscle, conditioning, and shape to make sure she was 100% ready to compete with the best in the industry. 

2018 NPC Jr. Nationals Figure Class F Winner
Photo Credit: NPC News Online

In 2019, fans of Meghan witnessed one of the most incredible muscle transformations we have personally ever seen from a figure competitor. Her size, shape, and conditioning was unheard of for someone who had yet to step on a IFBB Figure stage. It almost made you question if this was really her first time competing in the IFBB. Despite everything that happened this year (we ALL know about that, don't we), the Tampa Pro happened and her pro debut happened...and unfortunately, things didn't go like many had hoped as she ended up with the dreaded 16th place tie among 10 other competitors. I'm sorry, but the physique she brought over the weekend was NOT a 16th place physique. Even Stevie Wonder could see that.

Of course, after the Tampa Pro, many went to Instagram giving Meghan their congrats on her pro debut, expressed their disappointment in the placement, and not suprisingly, suggested that she should give women's physique a shot instead. At first, she felt a bit offensive about that, and we can understand why when you have been putting in the work for the division you have been wanting to compete in your entire career. But on Monday, apparently she had a change of heart and did some soul searching as she announced that she's seriously considering women's physique in 2021 with a photo of her hitting a few manatory poses. Our honest opinion...she probably would have won the Tampa Pro Women's Physique show had she entered there with her look over the weekend. HOWEVER, she will give figure one more shot in four weeks at the Savannah Pro Show. What happens there will determine where she goes in the future.

When we look at her physique and her journey, she gives us vibes of three different people: Juliana Malacarne, Shanique Grant, and Natalia Coelho...three of the best women's physique competitors of all time...and three women who were just too much for figure. These three loved figure like Meghan but they needed to step out of their comfort zone in order to be successful in the IFBB, and boy did they ever! Juliana became the poster woman for women's physique, winning the inargual Women's Physique International and won the Physique Olympia 4 times. Shanique has won every women's physique show she's ever competed in (including 2 Women's Physique Olympias and 1 Women's Physique International). Natalia is a 2x and current Women's Physique International champion and is among the favorite in every single contest she's been in since joining the division. Meghan is now in that same boat as them with a once-in-a-lifetime physique that will only get better going forward and could go down as an all-time great when it's all said and done, despite where she ends up competing. With her ballerina background, don't be suprised to see some graceful majestic posing should she end up doing women's physique. If you could buy stock on a compeitor, we personally would recommend buying it on one Meghan Santa Barbara. It will be a worthy investment. Trust us on this. 

Juliana Malacarne...Shanique Grant...Natalia Coelho...Meghan Santa Barbara?! We shall soon see!
Photo credit: Her Instagram

For more on Meghan, make sure to follow her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/meghan_scoobyprep. Also don't forget to check out her personal training page on Scooby Prep at https://scoobyprep.com/pages/meghan-santa-barbara. 

#FittestFemaleWWESuperstarEver: FINAL FOUR

For the first time in the entire tournament, we didn't need a runoff! Congratulations to the Final Four: Mandy Rose, Naomi, Lita, and Chyna. The winners of these matches will move on to the Championship next week while the losers will meet in a consolation match next week for 3rd place. Voting ends this Friday at MIDNIGHT instead of 10pm this time. 

Mandy Rose vs Naomi

Lita vs Chyna

#FittestFemaleWWESuperstarEver Tournament: Elite Eight

Congratulations Trish Stratus on winning the runoff over the weekend. Now we're into the Elite Eight, where we have what many view as a real-life dream match between The Queen of Queens and God's Greatest Creation!


Trish Stratus vs Mandy Rose

Nikki Bella vs Naomi

AJ Lee vs Lita

Chyna vs Maryse

To view the bracket as it is right now, click here. Voting ends this Friday at 10pm Eastern Time. Good luck to those still in the tournament!

#FittestFemaleWWESuperstarEver: Sweet 16 Runoff

Congratulations to those advancing to the Elite Eight in our #FittestFemaleWWESuperstarEver tournament!

Mandy Rose

Nikki Bella

Naomi

AJ Lee

Lita

Chyna

Maryse

Due to a tie, there will be a run-off between Trish Stratus and Sasha Banks until midnight Eastern Standard Time tonight with the winner advancing to the Elite Eight!

#FittestFemaleWWESuperstarEver Tournament: Sweet 16 Voting

Congratulations Naomi on winning the runoff over the weekend and advancing to the Round of 16. The Sweet 16 matchups are as follows:

Trish Stratus vs Sasha Banks

Mandy Rose vs Jacqueline

Nikki Bella vs Bianca Belair

Santana Garrett vs Naomi

Tori vs AJ Lee

Dana Brooke vs Lita

Beth Phoenix vs Chyna

Carmella vs Maryse

To view the actual bracket, click here. Voting for this round goes to this FRIDAY at 10pm Eastern time (once Smackdown goes off the air).

#FittestFemaleWWESuperstarEver Round of 32 Runoff

Congratulations to those that made the Sweet 16 in the #FittestFemaleWWESuperstarEver tournament:

Trish Stratus
Sasha Banks
Mandy Rose
Jacqueline
Nikki Bella
Bianca Belair
Santana Garrett
Tori
AJ Lee
Dana Brooke
Lita
Beth Phoenix
Chyna
Carmella
Maryse

Due to many ties in the original voting deadline, we extended the voting for the Round of 32. Because of that, we were able to take care of all the ties from earlier EXCEPT FOR ONE. Until Midnight Eastern Time tonight, you can vote in our runoff poll between Charly Caruso and Naomi. The winner moves on to the Sweet 16 which begins on Monday.

#FittestFemaleWWESuperstarEver Round of 32 Voting

Congratulations to all those that advanced to the Round of 32 in the Fittest Female WWE Superstar of All Time Tournament! Voting in this round is now open and will end  this Wednesday at 10pm Eastern Time.

Peyton Royce

vs

Trish Stratus

Zelina Vega

vs

Sasha Banks

Toni Storm

vs

Mandy Rose

Jacqueline

vs

Liv Morgan

Nikki Bella

vs

Ivory

Eve Torres

vs

Bianca Belair

Santana Garrett

vs

Sonya Deville

Charly Caruso

vs

Naomi

Tori

vs

Jamie Keyes

AJ Lee

vs

Torrie Wilson

Dana Brooke

vs

Shaniqua

Lita

vs

Christy Hemme

Lacey Evans

vs

Beth Phoenix

Alexa Bliss

vs

Chyna

Carmella

vs

Tiffany

Terri Runnels

vs






Maryse