Pro/Am Contests Blog

Stop by the JR USA page for videos and coverage of the show. I broke down how I saw the show and did a few videos in between shooting the show.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/2008_jr_usa_review.htm

I had a wonderful time at the Jr USA.  I was in the best shape ever.  I had give 100%. When I saw the other girls I knew I stood out.  My first thoughts were I either got first or last place.  I was harder than most the other girls.  I was lucky to place as high as I did.  I got feedback from judges that I was too hard.  That is good news.  It is an easy fix.  I can do softer.  That will be easier, cheaper, and less stress. I am looking forward to the next show.  The judges are right.  In the long run this will be what is best for me and the sport.  I have been first and I have been last in shows.  I have never regretted competing.  It is always a learning experience.  I can help pass on to others. I what direction to take.  

My husband, Mike Horn, IFBB pro was a special guest poser.  He won the show last year.  He got to go onstage with our son, Steel.  They had the crowd jumping up and down on their feet.  They even had the judges smiling after a long hard day.  

My mom was there to see me compete for the first time at a national show.  Thanks for all your help mom.  Thank you everyone at the gym, Brad, Dennis, Kayley and all the clients for your support.  Thank you clients Johnny Sanders for your support and David for the transporation up there. Thank you George for all your help and advice.  It was good to see friends like Danielle Kiefer, Bree Mash, Tanji Johnson, Shannon M, Tres Bennett, Tracey,  And meet new friends like Amy Kempfer.  

HOPE TO SEE EVERYONE AT THE NPC STEEL WORLD BODYBUILDING, FITNESS AND FIGURE CHAMPIONSHIPS ON MAY 31st IN MOBILE, ALABAMA.  WWW.NPCSTEELWORLD.COM! 

PR girl Jenny Lewis ROCKED the stage at the NPC Junior USA’s last weekend in South Carolina. She took 6th place in her one piece, then stunned the judges in her two piece, earning her second place in that round. Overall Jenny placed 4th! Jenny is now training for Junior Nationals in June, and is sure to start the stage on fire again!  You go girl!

Congrats to our NPC Southern Colorado competitors, Nanci, Shawna, Cori, and Shelly! Shawna took 2nd place in the open B class, Cori placed 3rd in the open C class, Nanci placed 3rd in the Masters class, and Shelly placed first in the Masters Class, also in the C class open, Nanci placed 4th, and Shelly placed first.  Then Shelly came back around to win the Overall, and we took 1st as a team!!

Good job girls, let’s make this a summer to remember!

Check out the final results and picture galleries from the 2008 NPC Junior USA Championships right here on Bodybuilding.com:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/2008_jrusa_rev.htm

Kudos to Isaac Hinds for the great photos!

I’m heading out in the morning for the 2008 NPC JR USA contest in Charleston, SC. The weigh-in/height check takes place tomorrow with prejudging starting on Saturday. Three new IFBB pros will be crowned on Saturday night… 2 in Figure and 1 in Fitness. Tres Bennett does a great job with the promotion of this show and it is certain to be a great start to the national level shows in the NPC.

I’m serving as "official NPC photographer" for this event. Photos will be available for purchase next week from this event. We’ll be putting a few photos of every competitor up here on bodybuilding.com this weekend. Sunday morning I will be photographing the three new IFBB pros for hardbody.com and FLEXonline.com as well as the photos will run in NPC NEWS magazine. I’ll post up a few shots from the shoot here as well.

Check back throughout the weekend for updates and if you want to be the first to receive the results of who the new pros are you can do so by signing up at www.MusclePhone.com. There is no charge to sign up and no cost to you as long as you have unlimited text messaging, if you don’t it counts towards your text message plan as any text would do.

The 2008 NPC Ronnie Coleman Classic was my first competition ever, and was definitely the best experience of my life!

I placed 2nd in my class (Figure A) and will now be competing in the Junior USA’s on May 17th, 2008 in South Carolina.  I’m definitely hooked!!

Last year at this time, I was preparing for my first show in Oklahoma.  As part of my prep, I decided to head to Dallas to watch the Europa, as I never seen a show before.

While attending the expo, I was approached by one of the show’s expeditors who asked if I would be doing the amateur show the next day.  I explained I had never seen a show, but was preparing for my first one to be 3 weeks later in Oklahoma.  After a lengthy conversation, he somehow managed to talk me into registering for the NPC show - for the next day!!

It turned out to be an unbelievable experience.  I was so unprepared and had no idea what I was doing, but managed to place 2nd in my class.  I was definitely hooked and ready to work even harder for the show in Oklahoma.  Turns out I liked competing so much, I did a total of 4 shows within 10 weeks and won 3 overall titles.

For 2007, I placed 6th at the Arnold Amateur, won the overall at the Ronnie Coleman, won my class at Jr. USAs and earned a pro card at Jr. Nationals!!  Here are some of my stats and photos so far.

All this in a short 10 months from even deciding I’d give competing a try.  Now, one year later, I’m headed back to the Europa, but this time as a pro.  It will be my pro debut and I can’t wait.  I already feel like I’ve achieved so much in so little time!

As I think back to last year on competition day, I have to laugh at how unprepared I was; my suits didn’t fit, I didn’t know how to pose, I put on make-up as if I was going out for the day, I hadn’t followed a strict diet, I’d never worked with a trainer or nutritionist, and was basically winging everything.  I never would have thought only a year later I’d be on the pro stage.

So, if you’ve ever asked yourself, "Should I try competing?", I would definitely say, "give it a try!"  All it takes is hard work, dedication, lots of sweat, and determination.  Anything is possible, but you have to put your best effort forward and go for it.

We posted a few videos on the main 2007 JR USA page however we have more videos! Check out more videos with World Class Emcee Lonnie Teper and a variety of others…

Valerie Haines & Paola Almerico are the two newest IFBB Figure Pros, winning their classes and the coveted pro cards in Charleston, SC last month. Lonnie and I caught up with the two after the show.

Check it out Here!

L to the Swami, that’s not Salami, Train Teper breaks it down after the show on his thoughts of his first trip the South Carolina.

Check out the video here.

Swami chats with Overall Men’s Bodybuilder Winner, Mike Horn and his wife who is also a figure competitor.

Check out the Horn video here.

LT talks with NPC show Promoter Tres Bennett & his family after the show:

Check out the video here.

At the end of the evening LT and I caught up with two of the rising stars in the NPC figure ranks at the hotel lobby. They were grabbing food and LT chatted it up with them. Who are they? Huong Arcinas and Erin Heath of course!

Check out this comedic video here.

I arrived in Charleston, SC on Friday morning for Junior USA’s.  I went to the mandatory meeting and found out that I have shrunk 1 full inch - apparently I am now 5?7? (it is amazing how much my height has gone up and down this past year at different competitions!!)  It didn’t matter, though, because the tallest height class was 5?6? and above.  It was there that I discovered there were about 135 girls competing in 6 height classes…it was then that the nerves did kick in.  I thought I had heard from someone that JR USA’s was not going to be that big of a show, so to get there and hear 135 girls were competing, in SIX classes, and that mine was the largest (26 girls in my class), well it was all a little overwhelming for someone who’s only ever done 2 shows.  

We were due at the convention center at 9 for the mandatory meeting and instructions for the day and the show.  I believe our class went out 4th of the 6 classes, as they moved some of the groups around to accommodate crossovers from fitness, and we first hit the stage around noon.  It was an extremely long morning, with prejudging lasting for 5 or 6 hours.  I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to judge a show of this size – 135 girls in 6 height classes in figure alone, plus men’s and women’s bodybuilding,  and fitness competitors, it must be crazy.  There were so many great physiques there that I would have loved to have been able to sit in the audience and see some of the show.

We went out in our 1-piece first and we were told they were looking for symmetry and not taking conditioning into consideration, yet.  At this point we were also told the “thumb rule” – which is when posing to make sure that we were not flared so much that our thumbs could not touch our legs.  Once on stage, girls were also repeatedly instructed by the judges to “relax,” “stop flexing your legs,” “relax your shoulders,” “stop flexing so hard,” and “arms down.”  I was a little surprised by these comments.  The 2-piece was up next.  Here are a couple of pictures of me and a few of the other girls in our 2-piece during prejudging:

All of the girls were invited back for the night show and here are a couple more pictures from that evening:  

I have to admit that this was a difficult weekend for me.  On the one hand, I was very proud to be among such amazing competitors on the national stage, especially considering that this is only my third show ever and that I have only trained to compete in figure for 10 months.  However, on the other hand, I did not fare very well on my first national stage.  I am fiercely competitive and I hate losing - at anything!  I don’t mean to say it was difficult because I didn’t ‘win’ the show, I just mean it was difficult because I didn’t even get looked at.  The good thing that has come out of all of this is that I have definitely discovered there are improvements that need to be made.  I learned a lot about competing and about myself.  I did get out muscled in some aspects, although, I wouldn’t say I was out conditioned.  Also, my legs did not look over powering like they had in my previous competitions, which made me happy.  One of my goals now is to start working on even bigger shoulders and more back development.  I have definite plans for the off season as well….MORE GLUTES!!! It was hard for me, but I am ready to get back down to business and start to improve on my weaknesses.  On the whole, it was a great experience – although humbling – and I’m looking forward to competing again in 6 weeks at JR Nationals in Chicago more than ever.

Wow, what an exciting weekend!  I just returned from Charleston, SC and the Junior USA Figure Championships!  There were a record number of girls (women) at this event and all of them came with beautiful physiques and friendly attitudes!

This was my first national competition and it was a wonderful experience!  I met a lot of great women and the promoters did a great job of making the athletes feel special and appreciated!  It was inspiring to see the top women in each height class - I can’t wait for my next competition!  Special thanks to my trainer, IFBB Pro Carla Sanchez and my teammates Anna Laratta and Kristine Reinking and the rest of the Performance Ready Team!

NPC competitor and model, Liza Kampstra provided the funniest and most unexpected move in Charleston. Most figure competitors walk out and curtsy and wave. Not Liza - she pounded her chest and gave a point. It was a nice move to break up the ordinary same old same old. Liza is a beautiful woman, who is also a mother. Look for her to do better off stage in fitness modeling than on stage - she has a stunning look.

More women should come up with their own signature figure moves.

Branch Warren guest posed at this year’s show and was looking very thick.  How will Branch do this year competing?

WW

Check out the preliminary results at:

http://contest.bodybuilding.com/contestresults.php?compid=2236

More will be added throughout the show as they are being called out.  Refresh the page for updates in all the various categories!

WW

Here is a mini-gallery of pictures from the pre-judging held a few hours ago:

http://contest.bodybuilding.com/galleries/contestgallery.php?competitionid=2236&typeid=1

More will be added throughout the day.

WW

Be sure to check the blog throughout the day for JR. USA updates.  Pre-judging pics will be ready in a few hours.

For full coverage, check out:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/2007npcusa_main.htm

WW

LT rolled into town last night and was josen for some grub. LT showed me the newest IRONMAN Mag which has our fellow "expert" Yogi in headlines. The crew at IRONMAN also featured my web site as well as my client’s Monica Guerra. Thanks for the feature.

The weather was perfect and before we could make it outside LT was stopped in the lobby by a couple of guys looking for trouble. George Farrah and Peter Putnam put their dukes up with the Swami, at least this time LT and Peter didn’t kiss. (There were photos in Ironman magazine with them posing for a kiss - lovely I know)

Tres Bennett was running around keeping things in order and took a minute to pose with his emcee before taking care of more business.

Finally, after LT was making the rounds in the lobby we ventured off into the night for some food. We found it nearby at La Hacienda Mexican Restauarante. LT was sporting his Do Ho shirt and the chicas at the front desk were amused by the wiley Californian. LT had his dance’n shoes on and couldn’t stop himself…

I had the biggest Margarita on the face of the planet, enjoyed a great dinner and LT even picked up the tab. Most guys are running when the check comes but not the Swami. We arrived back to the hotel where one of last year’s top Team Universe competitor’s Andrea Ferry was waiting for some late night food. She was a friendly little lass despite being hungry and tired. The swami had her showing of her ab work in between getting financial planning advice from the pro hopeful.

The night ended with LT giving his room key to the guy working the snack shop in the hotel. SAY WHAT? LOL!

Ah what a night. It’s time for prejudging!