Canadian Nationals 2008

Very cool.  I get to go to the pre-judging of the Nationals in Montreal this year as I'll be in Montreal on September 6.  The few guys I know who are eligible to compete are taking a pass and waiting to compete next year in Vancouver so I'll be pretty unbiased when it comes to the judging.

"Mighty" Mike Ergas

Over the last couple of blogs I've been down on bodybuilders.  I dumped on Jessie Godderz for being such a bad ambassador for the sport in pop culture and I dumped on good-guy Erik Fankhouser for giving young guys the notion that they can grow on 5 hours of sleep.

Today I'm all about the positive because of Mike Ergas.  Mike paid his dues and then some at the national level to obtain his pro card in 2006.   After four years at the national level the judges decided the crowds were right and that Mike was the best physique on stage.  Some guys might have gotten down on the sport, the powers that be, or the judges.  Not Mike, he was always smiling and not willing to point any fingers.  So award winning physique + amazing attitude made me a big fan.  Ok, the fact that in addition to the winning combination of physique and attitude he also has a wicked smile and the most pinchable cheeks on the planet didn't hurt either!

So when I got to exchange messages with Mike yesterday I was like a giggly school girl.  I'm a pretty professional, reasonable person but yesterday I felt like a groupie shouting "I've got all your albums!"  The cool thing was it was a forum where lots of Mike's fans could pester him like I was...but he was a total swell guy and responded to every message I sent him.  Cheesecake, contest plans, all-you can eat sushi, he was willing to chat about them all.  So further proof that the public perception of bodybuilders as narcissistic assholes is so very wrong.  

So I found out Mike's next contest is the one known for great lighting.  I totally want to fly down and cheer him on.  But I also realize I'm on the verge of being one of those creepy-obsessive fans who sits in the front row and screams like an idiot.  Ah who am I kidding? I've totally crossed that line already!

So thanks to Mike for being such a swell ambassador for the sport, his community and for motivating this crazy fan.

Smiling, as always!

I've become a huge fan of Fouad Abiad, who qualified for the Mr. Olympia contest last night at the Europa Supershow.  The judges probably rewarded Fouad for the things that make me a fan: his incredible conditioning, his work ethic, and his ability to completely dominate some poses.  Fouad was an impressive bodybuilder when he won the Canadian Nationals but he didn't stop at impressive, he's made amazing advances from his first pro contest (Atlantic City 06--top photo) to the Europa (bottom photo) 

Bigger, harder, and the smile makes me think maybe even happier.  I'm looking forward to hearing from Fouad's blog whether he'll compete in the Olympia this year or wait a year and compete next year.  Given how many injuries are this year in advance of the Olympia I'm thinking he'll be in Vegas this October -- which would make for one hellishly long competing season for him but you've got to strike when the iron's hot, right?

Big Brother Bodybuilder

I'd heard of Big Brother, knew it was a reality TV show but wasn't at all interested in it until this summer when I heard a natural bodybuilder was one of the contestants.  I googled the show.  Saw that Jessie was a pretty boy from Iowa.  Some BB message boards I follow debated whether he was natural or not with some funny posts like "he's shrinking by the hour" and stuff along those lines.  I thought it was in the realm of possibilities that this guy could compete at a tested show.  He was of course not on the show due to his bodybuilding credentials but due to his pretty boy looks and willingness to flex for the cameras.  As a big gay bodybuilding fan I should have been happy, right?  Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Jessie couldn't have been a worse example of a bodybuilder for the mainstream public.  Dumb insecure muscle head with a fist full of syringes is the stereotype he could have fought.  A stereotype that is so wrong.  Most of the serious guys I know have an impressive knowledge of biochemistry and physiology who are fairly humble considering their physical appearances.   If these guys have any insecurities its usually about food.  Will I get all my meals into me today?  How much sodium is in that sauce?  Etc.  Not Jessie though.  He was too busy inserting himself into the girls' scheming to worry about much else.  The girls played him like Twister.

The other thing that make Jessie a bodybuilding anomaly is his inability to shut his mouth. The guys I know tend to not have a lot to say.  The strong, massively huge, silent type. :) Jessie though dug his grave by the mouthful.

A Day in the Life of Erik Fankhouser

I like Erik Fankhouser and the image that he and his sponsors have created for him so I clicked away when a video was posted on Muscular Development showing all us wannabes a day in his less than glamorous life.  No California beaches or Cadillac Escalades for Erik, nope he's a blue collar kind of guy living with his family in hip and happening Wheeling, West Virginia.  The video has the now mandatory sequences of Erik mixing his supplements, packing his supplements and plugging his sponsors but I forgive the guy for having to play the game and pay the bills.  Erik doesn't have a trust fund and isn't a player so when you see him working his shift you like the guy.  When he talks about eating in his car because he's like a dog with a bone you like the guy.  When you see him at the park with his kid, again you like the guy.  Just a normal working guy, except he's got water buffalo calves.  

So I'm thinking he's a great role model for the youngins until the video claims he lives on 5 hours or so of sleep .  I call bullshit and bang you just blew the role model of the year award.  No way is anyone going to make gains with out a good night's sleep, every night. Sure sell the powders and pills and t-shirts and all the other stuff, ignore all the pharmacological assistance you're getting, no harm in all that BUT don't go and make it sound like the guy is some super human who can spend the same amount of time sleeping as he does working out -- in the video we see Erik do 3 cardio session, a workout and a posing session...maybe not 5 hours worth but close!  I know Animal Pak's thing is that it is for hardcore working guys but any kid out there who sees this video and then thinks that they can make progress on that kind of rest is being set up for failure.  

Moderation?

I talked to a friend last night who competed in his first contest in June.  The thing about this guy is that he's found the fountain of youth or something.  He's 50 but doesn't look like any other 50 year-old on the planet...usually grand-master competitors will have some slack skin in the midsection, not my bud, it's like he had a skin-transplant, some 30 year old is out there looking for his hide.

My bud won his class (over 45) and took 3rd in the open heavyweight division.  He looked great and continues to look great but he said no way no how is he doing another contest.  He said the 7-day-a-week cardio nearly killed him, his trainer made him eat 4lbs of tilapia 3 days out from the show, he nearly collapsed after he got off stage.  Too crazy, too extreme.

There really isn't anything moderate about bodybuilding, it's all extreme: diet, training, the supplementation.  I guess that's what makes it so great and so crazy.

2008 PBW Tampa Bay Pro

I followed this contest pretty closely after reading about Fouad Abiad's preparation for it on his blog. Great to see Fouad get some respect from the judges and make the top 5.  Also great to see Toney Freeman put together such an impressive package and take home the win.  I realize that I am such a big homo when I see Freeman pose.  Man his ass is incredible.

The Tampa Show also saw Dennis James make a very impressive showing after a long time out of competition and I was also glad to see that David Henry, winner of the under 202

Other thoughts on the show (ok granted this is just from pictures posted from the show, not a great way to get an accurate take on the show): 

- Flex Lewis lives up to the hype.  He looked like he belonged on stage and more.  His genetically gifted lower body is not overpowering his upper body at all. 

- Fouad looks freakin unbeatable when he hits a double bicep pose.

-the under 202 gives short guys of posting some wins.  Henry looked great until he was standing beside Freeman.  Then he just looked like a mini-me.  Height really isn't something guys can do much about.

- I miss Fouad's mohawk.  Apparently he's losing big chunks of his hair with the extreme contest prep but his hair at the Montreal pro just raised the bar for bodybuilding looks :)

I look at the date of my last entry and can hardly believe it.  Over a year and a half has gone by since I and everyone else thought Trey Brewer was da new thing.  His less than stellar performance at the Junior USAs means people are talking about a whole different crew of national level amateurs -- maybe just not with the same number of superlatives.

Personally it has been a good year and a half.  The winter of 07-08 was my best ever in terms of the gym.  After leaning out last summer and getting to a fairly freaky 178lbs I got up to 200lbs.  Last summer friends and strangers were all stroking my ego with comments about my vascularity and my leanness.  Then as I put on the weight I enjoyed feeling favourite shirts feeling tighter and looking a whole lot better in those clothes.  

Now 200lbs was my goal and I said if I did reach 200 I would buck up my courage and try my hand at competing this summer.  And that was my plan.  I had picked out a local natural show and had gotten lots of advice about how to prepare.  Given that leaning out in 07 had been pretty easy for me I looked forward to doing it this summer with a big life goal reached at the end of it.  

Well its less than 2 weeks from that show I was going to do.  I ditched my attempt to prepare for it back in June after a crisis of confidence.  When I started my diet I was 194lbs...reaching 200lbs had lasted for like 6 h for me and I struggled in April and May to just keep my size let alone add to it.  At the start of my diet I calculated how much weight I needed to lose based on some assumptions about my percentage of body fat, etc.  The weight came off really fast and a lot more of it came off than I thought should be there.  Looking back it may be that I just was shedding water quickly but at the time I felt like I had deluded myself into thinking I was ready to compete. I was just going to be a skinny guy in orange body paint come August and that just had zero appeal to me.  

In April I'd been to a big regional show with so much impressive talent that I was both stoked about bodybuilding and freaked at the same time.  The top 5 in pretty much each class had shredded glutes and crazy-freaky-stunning conditioning.  I was stoked because I realized that the biggest guys weren't winning but the best conditioned ones were.  That was promising to me. 

Then in May I met a guy who'd won the overall title at a provincial show.  Super-nice guy and more than willing to explain his approach to training, diet, and supplementation.  This guy's the same height as me but competes in the super-heavy weight class...and even though it was a week or 2 after his contest he was still beyond shredded.  Again I should have realized that comparing myself to him was futile and counterproductive.  He'd been super-frank about his steroid, insulin, gh and diuretic use and the guy is probably destined for a class win at Nationals some day.  But I just couldn't see myself competing in the same sport this guy was excelling at. While I was actually enjoying the early morning cardio and didn't mind the carb restrictions I was already putting in place I decided it was setting myself up for failure and maybe extreme embarrassment by competing at this stage of my progress.  I took a big break from the gym.  Ate when and what I wanted and saw a year's worth of hard earned gains go down the drain.

Well 2 months later I'm back.  Why the change?  Well I met a great guy who was a week and a half out from doing his first show.  He'd be doing the masters at provincials.  It was freakin hilarious to find out that he'd decided to do the show only 4 weeks earlier.  I went and saw him win his first show and loved the grin he had on his face the whole time he was on stage.  If he could pull it together in 4 weeks I could certainly pull it together in 12 months. 

The other thing that got me re-focused was following Fouad Abiad's blog.    I've been a fan of "Hoss" since he battled to win the Nationals.  But reading his blog gave me a new appreciation of how talent and genetics are only part of the picture.  Fouad works damn hard as well and he doesn't just walk on stage ready to compete he suffers and battles to get there.  I'm a worker too.  I can do this.