SirenSongWoman
Cathlete
In all the years' this festival has been held in my hometown this is the first time I've ever been. It started 20 years ago as a bodybuilding competition in a small auditorium but has since morphed into this huge monolithic event taking up our convention center, our hockey arena, and that little auditorium - with vendors for every conceivable sports product (Protein powders/bars, muscle-building enhancers, exercise equipment, clothes and jewelry), demonstrations of martial arts, gymnastics, table tennis (!) and, of course power lifting and body building. I felt like a fish out of water because I am completely foreign to professional body building. Evidently, there were tons of famous FIGURES because lots of very buff people were autographing photos and books and were getting their pictures taken with visitors. As I understand it, The Arnold is the biggest bodybuilding-focused sports event in the nation and I could see why. Since I come to this forum a lot I obviously care about fitness but I spent most of my time in the vendor area, since the rest of it was pretty much over my head, though I did see a bit of a power lifting competition where one guy lifted a loaded barbell over his head and I got confused. I saw the number flash and it was something like 170+. I thought that didn't sound like That much but in POUNDS it was close to 400. Okay, THAT sounds like a lot.... The vendor area was crammed with loads of folks claiming they have The Best protein powder, etc. I got two really cute silver necklaces, one featuring a little dumbbell, the other with a tiny weight plate; nabbed some protein bars, and met Tosca Reno. I know some people here had some less than kind things to say about Tosca but she was an absolute doll. Everyone wanted to talk with her (and Robert Kennedy) so I didn't have much time. I just told her that clean eating has changed my life (it HAS!) and that whenever I crave a candy bar now I eat vegetables and nuts till the craving passes (she laughed at that). When I told her how much weight I lost and that the weight training was really re-forming me (that's where I told her about Cathe and Cathe.com) she high-five'd me. One woman asked her about her kids (it was very loud in there and hard to hear) and I thought she said something about having three kids, the eldest 22. Then she lifted her top, showed us her abs and said "They all came out of HERE." Ya'll, That Woman is F.I.T.. Her abs are rock solid, as are her arms. Still, in that environment, nearly everyone was rock solid. In my life I have never seen so many HOT MEN in one location! And I don't mean the celebrity bodybuilders (who are a bit over-the-top, circus-y for my taste) but the guys just walking around. Yum. And the women everywhere were tiny, compact, and pure muscle. I recall reading a while back in Oxygen that the bodybuilding community is small and everybody knows everything about everybody else. I definitely got that vibe, watching them interact with one another.
What has always driven me nuts about bodybuilders, from a distance, is the emphasis on a kind of 1970's falseness. I was doubly bothered seeing these people up close. My whole life I've always been pale. Growing up, I was a dishwater blonde and people used to remark on my paleness - which stopped after I became a "red"head (being red makes paleness okay, apparently). I've always thought that, when it comes to skin color, we should all embrace what we are (be proud of your paleness, blackness, etc.) and be proud of our unique beauty, whatever we are. I guess I've always rejected tanning as trying to be what one isn't, long before the danger of tanning became known. The question I'd love answered by the bodybuilding community, but which never will be is this: You work so hard to make your body into a work of perfect art, then you lay in a tanning bed, destroying your skin and greatly enhancing your risk of malignant melanoma. Why? Of course, then someone would have to explain steroids, I suppose... More than anything, I think the people who do this would look way hotter if their skin didn't make them look like something you'd buy at Sofa Express (i.e., leather), and I wish they'd cut out the obviously-fake fingernails and over-processed hair. Still, these people have the most amazing hard bodies I've ever seen. I hope when the festival comes NEXT year I'll be fit enough I won't feel like an alien there. Just thought I'd share the experience with you all
What has always driven me nuts about bodybuilders, from a distance, is the emphasis on a kind of 1970's falseness. I was doubly bothered seeing these people up close. My whole life I've always been pale. Growing up, I was a dishwater blonde and people used to remark on my paleness - which stopped after I became a "red"head (being red makes paleness okay, apparently). I've always thought that, when it comes to skin color, we should all embrace what we are (be proud of your paleness, blackness, etc.) and be proud of our unique beauty, whatever we are. I guess I've always rejected tanning as trying to be what one isn't, long before the danger of tanning became known. The question I'd love answered by the bodybuilding community, but which never will be is this: You work so hard to make your body into a work of perfect art, then you lay in a tanning bed, destroying your skin and greatly enhancing your risk of malignant melanoma. Why? Of course, then someone would have to explain steroids, I suppose... More than anything, I think the people who do this would look way hotter if their skin didn't make them look like something you'd buy at Sofa Express (i.e., leather), and I wish they'd cut out the obviously-fake fingernails and over-processed hair. Still, these people have the most amazing hard bodies I've ever seen. I hope when the festival comes NEXT year I'll be fit enough I won't feel like an alien there. Just thought I'd share the experience with you all
