Went to the Arnold

Off Topic
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Some random thoughts (and if you went, tell us what you thought about it):

-When I saw Kevin Levrone, I honestly thought it was his younger brother. With his trendy jeans, trendy jacket and messenger bag, he looked like an NYU grad student. He looked like a regular guy who
goes to the gym to stay in shape but doesn’t want to get too “big”

-Rich Gaspari and Lee Labrada are still in very good shape but like Levrone, tiny compared to what they used to be.

-Very disappointed Biotest wasn’t there, I was really looking forward to seeing their booth and meeting their reps. There’s only a few brands I am loyal to and Biotest is one. Why weren’t you there?

-Most people there were there for free stuff - its not worth going for free stuff. Go for the competitions and to meet some celebrities and to be around people who live a fitness lifestyle.

  • I’m not a bbing fan, at least not modern bbing, but I went to the Arnold pre-judging anyway since I was there and since its a prestigious show. I’m glad I went so I know first-hand what its like. IMO and the opinion of my friends, no way Martinez deserved it.

-I was disappointed that the bbers didn’t perform their routines at the pre-judging. Apparently they only do it at the evening show.

-Its hard for me to really tell today’s bbers apart, their physiques are very similar. Stars from the past were all unique. Take a picture of a 60s-70s stars, cut off the head , and I could recognize almost all of them. These guys, no way

-Vince Taylor looks great at 50

-Markus Ruhl’s delts are so enormous it looks like he’s wearing shoulder pads

-I’ve never seen more gut-sucking and imaginary lat syndrome in my life than I did at the Arnold expo

-a lot of MMA fans there, almost as many as bbing fans

-I couldn’t believe how nice and friendly Wanderlei Silva and Phil Baroni were. Thanks Fizogen!

-Why is a D-level “celebrity” like chuck zito still around? And why didn’t you fight in the UFC chuckie? I thought Dana WHite offered you a contract. What, you didn’t want to embarass Matt Hughes and ruin his career? Poser.

-I found it depressing that people spend so much time, money, sweat, tears, energy, possible kidney/liver damage, focus and passion on bodybuilding COMPETITIONS. To work so hard, make all those sacrifices to be onstage for only 10 minutes and whether you win or lose depends on someone else’s opinion. Who may not vote for you anyway for political reasons.

-Also, whether you win or lose depends on the whims of your digestive system and on the carbs you eat hours/minutes before you get onstage

-And you won’t make any money

-I felt bad for my friend’s buddy who we traveled to the show with. He’s been trying for YEARS to get his pro card , only to get sick one year, injured another, and this year…well, what happened was at 2 am he was shredded, at 7 am he was still looking great, but by the time 9am rolled around, he had flattened out. He’d been dieting since July !

-Not one testosterone t-shirt to be seen

-Columbus is a nice little city, nice people, good bars (except for Brothers) and cute girls. Much better than that toilet of a city known as Cincinnati.

-UFC 68 was great live, but that’s subject for another thread

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Man, i was there, proudly wearing my T-Nation shirt. I was also about 20 feet from the stage when Kevin Levrone was talking. I thought Marunde, Lee Priest, and Bill Grant were all really nice. The didnt mind taking a minute to talk when they had free time.

–JB

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[quote]Sonny S wrote:
good commentary
[/quote]

I think Levrone is just focused on an acting career right now. I don’t even think he is making music with his band lately. At least I haven’t read anything about it.

You’re right, it does suck that someone could diet down for that long only to have their body go in the wrong direction at the last minute. All of that could be avoided if they quit expecting guys to be as shredded as humanly possibly for a show instead of slightly smoother physiques of 30 years ago. I doubt things will ever go back to that though.

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[quote]WS4JB wrote:
Man, i was there, proudly wearing my T-Nation shirt. I was also about 20 feet from the stage when Kevin Levrone was talking. I thought Marunde, Lee Priest, and Bill Grant were all really nice. The didnt mind taking a minute to talk when they had free time.

–JB[/quote]

Marunde was great doing the Strongman commentary, on Friday, did you see that? He is an enormous man, very tall for a strongman competitor.

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did you see any powerlifing?

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I did, its just insane the amount of weight those guys move. The thing that amazes me is how limited the range of motion is though, but i guess thats part of their goal

And yeah, im by no means short, and Marunde just dwarfs me.

–JB

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Hey, Sonny!

Thanks for the insights!

I love Female Bodybuilding…but my understanding is that at the “Olympia” and the “ASC” you see a LOT of the scary “She-Beast” (in addition to all the Hotties!)

Did you run into any that had you almost running for the exits?

(I forgot who posted it…but supposedly the COST of those booths have become REDICULOUS; with very little return for all the time and effort).

Thanks!

Mufasa

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I’d venture a guess that a vendors permit and space at an event like that would be many tens of thousands of dollars.

Probably not worth it.

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Nice report. I went in 01. Seems like things have not changed.

I was shocked at the number of hotties in Colombus. It was a very clean city, too.

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I went, saw the hotties, saw the she-trolls, saw the bench press comps (awesome) saw the strongman, saw the celebrities all in all it was a great time, alittle too crowded to really enjoy myself but still good. The UFC was definately the highlight of my trip and that includes visits to a couple of the titty bars around columbus.

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Good to see Marunde. I used to think there was no more American hopefuls after Johnny Perry died until Marunde came along.

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Brad, Phil Phister?
Is Marunde injured?

I want to go to the Arnold someday. Do you recommend it? Did you see any strongman or powerlifting? Was Jamie Eason there?

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I went as well. I was there for about 5 hours and saw a worthwhile amount of stuff.

I saw the

  1. body building comp
  2. strong man event stuff
  3. MMA all over(breaking boards/etc, kickboxing, boxing, karate, swords… so forth)
  4. arm wrestling
  5. bench press comp.
  6. tons of hotties - T&A everywhere…
  7. boys/girls gymnastics
  8. some girls powerlifting(clean and jerk 175lbs)

all of the “sales” type stuff was in the main area, took some pics with hotties/woman BB’s.

didn’t see Biotest there :frowning: sadface

my biggest complaint about the event was the main area was wayy over-crowded. It sucked walking around in the main room. Had to shuffle a lot. Hard to mingle with the hotties or talk about the supps. at all with so many fricken people. They sold too many tickets(bastards). Also, finding water fountains = impossible.

All in all it was worth it for sure, since I attend OSU, it was not even a 10 min drive. It woulda been twice as good if it wasn’t so crowded. Fucken place reminded me of a picture of the N.O. stadium after Katrina hit, everyone just sitting around on the walls, no where to sit, hard to find water(dehydrated), overcrowded… just reminded me of it, it wasn’t nearly as bad obv.

Shane

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Yes, definitely saw some she beasts! The worst one was at the pre-judging: little Catholic school girl uniform miniskirt, fishnet stockings with all kinds of designs weaved onto them, heavy boots with metal plates attached, and thighs like Tom Platz. Ewwwww…

I was actually surprised how many buff ladies were there.

My friend decided not to get a table because it was I believe around 2 gs, and he wasn’t going to sell much of his product. He considered getting one just for visibility but then decided his marketing costs were best directed elsewhere.

Most people seemed to be there for freebies or competitions.

[quote]Mufasa wrote:
I love Female Bodybuilding…but my understanding is that at the “Olympia” and the “ASC” you see a LOT of the scary “She-Beast” (in addition to all the Hotties!)

Did you run into any that had you almost running for the exits?

(I forgot who posted it…but supposedly the COST of those booths have become REDICULOUS; with very little return for all the time and effort).

Thanks!

Mufasa[/quote]