2009 Arnold Blog

JPodz and Craig sang this often in some of the most random places around the Arnold Classic.

You all should challenge them to a duet in an upcoming Justin.tv chat…

Two classic quotes from Craig Roberts:

‘Sweep the leg’ (1:42)

and

‘Get him a body bag’ (3:57)

Check back as we continue to add more reviews, video, and pictures from the Arnold Sports Festival Weekend. Updated Daily!

[ Get Latest Arnold Reviews, Videos & Gallery Updates Here ]

Thanks,
The Crush

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The 2009 Arnold Classic men’s finals webcast replays are available for download now.

[ Get Latest Arnold Sports Fitness Expo Updates Here ]

Thanks,
The Crush

View My BodySpace

The 2009 Ms. International, Fitness International & Figure International finals webcast replay are available for download now.

Tune in the tomorrow, Saturday, March 7th at 12:00 p.m. EST for men’s prejudging and again at 7 p.m. with a 6:30 p.m. pre-show start time for the men’s finals.
[ Watch It Here ]

Important Note:
Due to the size of these files it is possible that they will not start playing right away. You can download the file or wait a few minutes for your computer to buffer the file before clicking play.

Thanks,
The Crush

View My BodySpace

The Arnold Party With The Pros will erupt Saturday evening, March 7, 2009, at the LC Pavilion, 405 Neil Avenue, across from Nationwide Arena in the Arena District.

“Fire & Ice” is the central theme of the evening featuring fire eating performers, live music & entertainment, and an awesome array of athletes from 17 sports permeating every room at LC Pavilion and the adjoining House of Crave.

In-house screens will rebroadcast the 2009 Arnold Classic, highlight show-stopping star arrivals and live entertainers including the Terminator, Conan, the amazing Bubble Man, High-Jinks Stilt Walkers, Frank Zane & the Dave Bott Band, and Divide.

First I want to thank Bodybuilding.com for the privilege to tell their reading audience a little about Sunrider International’s participation both as a sponsor AND a competitor at the 2008 Arnold Sports Festival.

Sunrider as Sponsor

My name in John Teng and my official title at Sunrider is Sales Manager North America.  One of the main reasons Sunrider started sponsoring the Arnold Sports Festival in 2006 was to provide financial support to showcase top athletes from China.  This event would also provide a great venue to introduce the attendees to our very successful company that has been providing “Health and Wealth” to the world for over 25 years.

Sunrider was delighted this year to sponsor Zhang Jie and his teammate Lu Changliang, Junior champions from the Chinese Weightlifting Association.  Both of these amazing athletes wowed the crowds on center stage with their performances as shown below:

As the readership for Bodybuilding.com is obviously fitness oriented, I am very proud to announce that Sunrider International was also chosen as the sole nutritional supplement provider for the Israel Olympic team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  

When people ask me “What is Sunrider?” I often give them the following quick 30 second response:

• 25 years of stable financial growth
• Currently doing business in 42 countries
• Self manufacturer of over 400 exclusive products
• Own and operate over 2 million square feet of manufacturing facilities in 4 countries which house the finest pharmaceutical-grade machinery
• Opportunities to own a business system we consider to be better than a franchise.

Here are some approximate details about the newest addition to our manufacturing plants which is currently under construction near Los Angeles, CA:

• Nearly million-square feet of working space
• 150 million dollar estimated total investment
• Perimeter of the project is approximately 1 mile long
• Ribbon Cutting ceremony scheduled during our Worldwide Grand Convention in July 2008.

Sunrider as Competitor

Although I have always enjoyed bodybuilding as a hobby, I became really excited about competing in the sport because of Sunrider’s sponsorship presence at the event.  Being surrounded by thousands of athletes and fitness enthusiasts really gave me the inspiration to take my love for bodybuilding to the next level.  So last year I set a personal goal to compete in my very first amateur bodybuilding show and I took third place in the lightweight division.

A few months later I found out that my third place finish had qualified me to compete at the 2nd annual amateur bodybuilding competition during the Arnold Sports Festival!  Sunrider was already planning to send me back in 2008 as a sponsor representative anyways, so now I could also participate “on stage” instead of just watching the action from the expo floor- this was to be the perfect mix of business and pleasure!    

My exercise regimen consisted of working with a professional fitness trainer twice a week for about an hour, and then a one-hour per day work out 4 more days during the week by myself, and then resting on Sundays.  My dietary supplementation for this show came only from Sunrider’s exclusively formulated “foods” made with Sunrider’s own pharmaceutical-grade manufacturing equipment to ensure the highest quality foods.  From where I started before beginning this journey to compete as a body builder, I can enthusiastically say that I looked great and felt great on stage!  

Here is a shot of my “Archer Pose” that was taken after the prejudging competition:  

This next shot was taken of me with my exhibitor badge at the Sunrider booth after placing 5th in the amateur welterweight division.

All in all Sunrider was honored to participate both as a sponsor and as a competitor during this very special anniversary year for the Arnold Sports Festival.  More photos here:

http://sunriderintl.blogspot.com/2008/03/2008-arnold-sports-festival-was-big-hit.html

Photos courtesy of and copyright 2008 John Teng.

We went to the Arnold Classic and stayed at the Sheraton on Hutchenson St. in Columbus.  We got free passes to the Metro Fitness Gym which was one of the best gyms I have ever worked out at.

My husband and I ride skateboards and I got hurt about 5 years ago and I got lazy after that.  Once the cardio went, the diet did also.  I tried a few things to loose weight but not a lot worked.  Going to the Arnold Expo really got me fired up to do something about it.

On Friday we got up late and got there about 2.  It wasn’t very crowded and we got to meet a few UFC celebrities. We had to park about a 15 minute walk away.  We got there a little earlier on Saturday and I was surprised how many people were there.  There were a lot of booths we really liked.

This is me and Jay Cutler!

Every day we started out at the Dymatize booth to get some Froot Loops protein cereal (tastes just like the real thing!) The EAS booth was big and we got several Myoplex Lite and Delux bars there.  They made shakes with the recipies in the packages that were really good.  The best was the chocolate chip.  The best bars there were the Supreme Protein Carb Conscious Peanut Butter Crunch bars.  They were giving a lot of the snack size bars on the last day.  They were by far the best bars I’ve ever had and I’m going to get some now.

Look at all our free samples!

We also went to a booth where they were selling a machine that has electrodes that attach to your body (like your foot) that helps relieve pain.  We bought one and I really think it helps.  We had about 6 bags full between the two of us of samples.  The best day for supplement handouts was on Sunday.  We got a lot of stuff from the Muscle Milk booth and many of the booths were selling supplements at a huge discount.

We bought some Body Well Tight Curves protein for me which I really like and my husband bought some Pride protein he really likes.  All in all this was one of the best trips I have ever taken.  I think we are going to the Olympia next.  We got a lot of cool samples and I’m excited to see how much weight I loose now.

This is me and Wes Sims!

The highlight of my trip though was meeting my favorite UFC fighter Wes Sims!  That was awesome!

This year I made my first trip to the Arnold Classic in Ohio with my boyfriend rlxmuscle, aka Rudy.

I have to say it ended up being an experience that will always stay with me and was a huge motivation. I was able to meet many of the men and women that I look up to and hope to become one day.

Rudy and I left first thing in the morning around 3 a.m. two plane trips later we were in Columbus Ohio, tired but ready for the day. When we first got to the expo it was overwhelming, first we had to find it! Once into the Columbus Convention Center we headed towards the expo and caught our first glimpse of the masses of people we would be spending our weekend with.

It was amazing how many people had come to the expo. Once inside the door to the expo we saw how big it was and all the vendors, holy cow! When we finally decided which way to go, we found ourselves at the Met-RX booth where we met Peter Putnam.

Can I say, I have never met a nicer man! He actually recognized Rudy and I from our BodySpaces. We had PMed each other a couple of times on the site. After we met Peter we continued to walk around, sample shakes of who knows what (most were VERY good), pick up free samples (YAY!), and met with more pros. The first day we met Jay and Carrie Cutler, they were also amazingly nice people. Carrie even invited us up to the Jay Cutler Classic. We also met Dennis Wolf and Desmond Miller.

The second day was much busier. As soon as we into the Convention Center we saw hundreds of people. It was a sea of people all lined up for tickets; thank God we bought ours in advance! It was hard to navigate, but we managed to meet a lot of people. I met a girl from BodySpace while in line to do a VPX contest for Redline Princess. That was tons of fun. We also met our friends Roe and Lisa Person from BodySpace; they were working at the MHP booth.  While walking around the expo we also got recognized from BodySpace by a bunch of people, in OHIO! It was pretty crazy.

We met up with Fern (or msfitness) herself working at the Gaspari booth. And we caught up with Justice from American Gladiators. Taking a break outside the expo in the lobby we met poor injured Victor Martinez, who even despite having to sit out of the Arnold, seemed to be in a good mood and talked to us for a couple of minutes. We went over to the Animalpak booth after that and met up with fellow CT resident Evan Centopani, who invited us to Gold’s in New Haven.

At the Six Star booth we took a quick picture with “L-Train” Lionel Brown, who ave us the inside scoop on an upcoming DVD, telling us there will be one SOON!  In bright yellow I spotted beautiful fitness model Timea Majorova. And at the Flex booth I caught up with Jessica Paxson-Putnam, and like her husband, she was very sweet. She answered all my questions I had and gave me some great advice. Peter and Jess make the BEST couple!

Our final encounters of the second day were Lee Priest and Jamie Eason. We actually caught both of them coming out of there respective bathrooms! Even so they gladly took pictures with us. Sadly we did not make it to any of the shows, but plan on not missing them next time!

After returning to our hotel and after some MUCH needed sleep we returned for the third and final day of the Arnold. The third day was much less crowded. We were able to catch jay once again for another quick picture, and we got to meet Ronnie Coleman (YEAH BUDDYYY!) and gorgeous Marzia Prince. We were making our way past the MuscleTech booth when all of a sudden Chris Cormier jumps on the tables and pulls up Melvin Anthony to start flexing. Soon Darrem Charles, Gustavo Badell and Branch Warren are all up on the tables posing and dancing, it was truly amazing to see these men in real life having a pose down right in front of us!

After that we made our way to part of the MD booth where Monica Brant was signing. She was very sweet and made sure she took the time to talk to everyone.  After that we finally made our way to the BB.com booth, it had been mobbed all weekend! Rudy and I both got beanies and our BodySpace t-shirts from Jerome Ferguson (he is funny!) we got to meet Bob Cicherillo, got our chick magnets, and bought the War of the Worlds DVD (Bob’s DVD is awesome by the way!) before we left the expo we caught up with Brandon Curry, HUGE Trey Brewer, and Rudy’s favorite, Branch Warren! Sadly we never even saw Arnold himself, maybe next time!

Finally the Expo was ending; all the free samples, t-shirts, and advertisement cards had been handed out. VPX and BSN bags littered the floor of the expo, and everyone was ready to go home. The Arnold is an amazing experience for anyone who loves and appreciates fitness like Rudy and I do. It is great how visitors can participate in contests and meet all their favorite athletes. We can’t wait to visit again next year!!!

The Arnold Sports Festival was all I dreamed it would be: an expo as crowded as the seventh lair of hell, a funky cocktail of free stuff to get totally wired, and -to my delight- a 4th place finish in the B class of the Arnold Amateur Figure!  I’ll strike next at the Ronnie Coleman Classic in April.

When I got lost on my way back to the dressing room (despite the near hand-holding of some very handsome, large escort), I had my own crew of 17-year-old fans that took cell phone pictures with me.  What’s a girl to expect from running around a conference center in a near thong?

I learned that out trophies have a wire piece in the middle that holds the whole thing together.

I’ve also learned how to spell the word “amateur.” When I glanced down at the crack that would have severed my bronze statue’s feet from the rest of her perfectly sculpted body, I noticed I had a trophy for the “Arnold Amatuer.” I googled it just to be sure, and breathed a sigh of relief.

As we know, expos are a great time to make connections, in addition to competing or enjoying free caffeine-spiked goodies.  While at the Arnold, I met up with two men - one a best-selling fitness author and the other a prominent lawyer- who are writing a novel fitness and transformation book for men.  The authors learned about my writing through a new fitness marketing site, www.fittron.com, and recruited me to help edit and add to the nutrition tidbits in the book.  It’s an exciting opportunity–I’m looking forward to telling you all the details when it’s about to the hit the presses!

Two of my professors at Baylor also presented at the strength training summit, which is a conference held in conjunction with the sports festival put on by www.strengthpro.com.   All three of us took the same flight back to Waco, and I had the chance to pick their brains a little.    Dr. Willoughby is a stellar muscle researcher; this work significantly influences the recommendations for practical aspects of training and supplement formulations; he also does a significant amount of supplement testing.

Starting this month, I am going to review his studies on my blog and deliver practical, do-it-now tips based on Willoughby’s research.  The first blog, which is set to be posted this week, will review the Novedex XT trial done at Baylor University.  I have been perusing the forums and will address specific concerns I have seen there, including the effects of an increase of DHT, what an aromatase inhibitor does, etc.  Stay tuned!

One of my dearest friends in the biz and a straight shoot’n New Yorker, Tara Scotti shares her first encounter with 2008 Ms. Figure International Champ Gina Aliotti. It’s a rather amusing account of how she came to meet Gina. Tara then breaks down how she saw the Figure show go down. As a figure pro herself she gives you a unique perspective as she’s  "been there - done that".

2008 Arnold Recap - "Who’s Gina?"
By IFBB Figure Pro, Tara Scotti
Before I give my opinion on the Figure results for the 2008 Arnold, I wanted to preface it with the first time I actually met Gina Aliotti, the 2008 Figure International Champion.

September 23, 2006 in Anaheim California was the site of the 2006 Tournament of Champions. It was the last show of the year before the Olympia. I was coming along very nicely in my prep for the Olympia, so I decided last minute to enter the show. It was the first show of my career that my boyfriend (now husband) could not make the trip, so I was a little nervous. I woke up the morning of pre-judging, went to Jan Tana’s room to get my color, then my hair and makeup right after. When I got back to the room, I was looking at myself in the mirror in awe. Yes, I was sweating myself. Every once in a while a competitor has that moment when the pre-contest prep is going just as planned, your tan is the perfect shade, your hair is beautiful, your skin is glowing and all the planets and stars are lined up perfectly. This is what we strive for. This is when we want to step on stage. Only one other time in my career, the 2005 Olympia did I peak like this. Even though I did not place well at that contest, it was the best condition to date for me. Now here in Anaheim I at least matched that condition; maybe surpassed it. I was ecstatic. I headed over to the venue for pre judging alone in my usual get up, a Juicy Couture jump suit and a NY Yankee hat. I normally don’t talk much backstage, I just listen to my IPod and mostly keep to myself. I just want to see what the other girls look like. Even though we all play it cool backstage and greet each other warmly with smiles and kisses, we still want to size each other up. It’s the nature of competition. Anyway, it’s about 25 minutes to show time and most of the girls are warming up backstage and already in their suits. Of the 22 girls competing, I sized up 17 or 18 of them. Now I was feeling very confident. So I went outside to call my boyfriend.

The phone call went something very similar to this:
ME " Hey Babe, I am about to win my 2nd pro show”
HIM “Wow, that’s a pretty bold statement”
ME “Babe, trust me. I am peaking like I did at last year’s Olympia, and I saw almost all the girls backstage, I am not losing this show!! "
HIM “Simmer down cowboy. What about Gina Aliotti? "
ME "Who’s Gina?”
HIM “Gina Allioti, my sources in Anaheim tell me Gina is looking really good."
ME: "Who the f**k is Gina Allioti, and who the f**k are your sources?”
HIM: (laughing) Babe relax. You competed against her a few months ago in Colorado. You placed ahead of her. You don’t remember her? "
ME: "I have no idea who you are talking about. And if I already beat her, why would I lose to her now?"
HIM: “Gina is one of the new girls. She is very young, very pretty, has a great physique, flowing lines. If this kid can get her conditioning down, forget it, lights out. She is the future of Figure babe. It is what it is. Just relax. Just do your little thing on stage, and let the cards fall where they fall. You’re going to do fine, you always do.
ME: " Jesus, by the way you are talking, you sound like you are the president of her fan club. Why don’t we just break up and you can start dating her yourself."
HIM: “You know what, that’s not a bad idea. See if you can get me her number when you talk to her."
ME: (CLICK)

This jerk is trying to take the wind out of my sails. So I hung up on him and turned my phone off. So now I went from confident to shaky. My mind is starting to race. Who the f**k are his sources? Probably that nut case Isaac Hinds. Wait till I see him.

So now I am heading back to the dressing room area and there she is. I obviously didn’t see her before. I recognized her from the Colorado Pro Show a few months back. She is one of the newer girls I really didn’t know. I think I was even introduced to her for a quick minute, but there were so many new girls rising up in the figure world about this time, I just did not know who was who. She was exactly the way Dominic described her. Great lines, great symmetry, and to top it off, she was pretty. Why did this bitch have to be pretty? Why did she have to be so young? I mean this girl was born the same year I was listening to Madonna records in my bedroom back in Queens, NY. If Dominic attempted to take the wind out of my sails, seeing this Gina chick backstage did the trick. I went from confident, to shaky, to defeated. All in a 10 minute time period.

During prejudging, Gina and I were called out in first call outs in both rounds. We were also positioned next to each other. I knew the judges had us 1 and 2. Actually, I also knew the judges specifically had her 1 and me 2. While we were standing back in line watching the rest of the call outs, we were both smiling. Only her smile was sincere and mine was fake. She was genuinely happy that she is going to win her first pro show, and I was not happy I was being denied my 2nd pro victory. I knew I would be retiring soon and it would have been a great way to go out. So now I was figuring out a way to overcome this. Maybe after prejudging I could sneak into her hotel room and poor ex lax in her water. Or maybe I can invite her to lunch, kidnap her, keep her locked up in my car trunk until the show is over. She can’t win the show if she doesn’t show up to the finals, right? Ok, calm down people, I only had these thoughts for like 30, 45 seconds tops. I am standing on a stage under blaring lights, dripping orange paint off my body, I am dehydrated, and I haven’t had any water or real food in my system. Cut me a little slack. I still cant believe I have to call Dominic and tell him Gina won, and I took 2nd. I hate when he is right and I am wrong.

The finals came and Gina Aliotti won her first IFBB Pro Figure Competition deservingly. I took 2nd place and 3rd place went to another new girl I did not know, Sonia Adcock, who coincidently, was competing in her pro debut. Gina turned out to be a sweetheart. She is very nice and we always have time to chat when we run into each other.

Now onto the Arnold Figure…

Arnold Figure
As I sat in for the Figure pre-judging, you could tell there was a little more excitement in the air from previous years.  With Monica, Valerie, Jenny and Mary not in the lineup, this was definitely going to be a top 6 unlike any of the last 4 years.It was wide open at this point. I was very surprised at some of the call outs.  For the most part, the judging seemed consistent, except for a couple of surprises.

Actual Top 10
Gina Aliotti
Jennifer Gates
Amy Fry
Chasity Sloan
Sonia Adcock
Paola Almerico
Latisha Wilder          
Catherine Anderson  
Natalie Benson                                  
Krystal Richardson

Tara’s Top 10
Gina Aliotti
Jennifer Gates
Chasity Sloan
Amy Fry
Paola Almerico
Catherine Anderson
Juliana Malacarne
Sonia Adcock
Krystal Richardson                              
Latisha Wilder

Gina Aliotti has a perfect balance of muscularity and symmetry for the Figure division. Gina is THE girl to beat right now in Figure. I can’t wait to see her on the Olympia stage this year. At 23 years old, she has not yet peaked. I can only imagine Gina at her best.

This was the first time I ever laid eyes on Jennifer Gates. I was very impressed. She was put together well. Her suits looked great, overall very complete package.

I had Chasity Sloan in 3rd. Chasity is a seasoned competitor. I have been competing with Chasity since my pro debut in NY in 2004.  Chasity continued to improve over the last couple of years and I think she is at her best or near best right now.

I think the biggest surprise was the judges placed Juliana Malacarne 12th. That’s a bigger mystery to me then the tattoo’s on Lee Priests face. Juliana was the most conditioned girl on stage in Columbus and probably the most improved competitor in the last year. The judges asked her to lose some of the muscle and she did. She is still a little bit too muscular for Figure, but not enough to have her out of the top 10. This girl has crazy genetics.  If she tones it down a little bit more, she will be a top 5 competitor on the smaller shows.

I have been reading a lot about Sonia Adcock and her winning ways lately. I was looking forward to seeing her and I was expecting to be very impressed. I have to be honest; I wasn’t seeing what the judges were seeing. I did not like the cut of her 1 piece suit; it made her midsection look blocky. So I found myself mostly staring at her midsection while she was doing her quarter turns. I think she needs her suit redesigned because she did look better in the 2 piece.  But I also would like to see her with a bit more conditioned. She is very pretty; I just think she can improve significantly.

Latisha wilder is one of my favorite competitors. Like Chasity, I been on stage more times with Latisha than anyone else I think. I was always neck in neck with her. Her beating me a few times and I beating her a couple times.  This was the least conditioned I ever saw Latisha, so I had her lower than the 7th place the judges had her. Latisha has so much poise when she is on stage, it clearly shows. She walks, and does her quarter turns with a coolness that no one else has.  Her skin is perfect, she is very pretty, and is always a threat when she competes.
        
I think it was a great Figure show overall, and with the new faces, this could be the best version of the Figure Olympia to date. Stay tuned.

I’ve been meaning to post these since about 5 minutes after the men’s finals, and am now just finally getting around to it, LOL!

Here is the pro men’s scorecard and the official press release for your viewing pleasure!

Enjoy!