Speak it, believe it, achieve it!

Arnold Schwarzenegger is 61 years old today. Wishing the “Terminator” a very happy birthday!

“Dat’s fonny, I doan’t feel Sixty-One!”

“Oh! I hate ven I get cake on my shürt!”

“Ja, ja! Zank you for coming to my pah-ty! Dee cake is on dee vay.
Dis is AWESOME!  ”

Arnold from his bodybuilding days

P.S.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Schwarzenegger
http://www.schwarzenegger.it/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000216/
http://news.google.com/news?q=arnold+schwarzenegger
http://images.google.com/images?q=arnold+schwarzenegger

I frequent MuscleMag International’s Forum.   I’m just about the only person to do that, unfortunately. I don’t get it. The magazine has been one of my favorites since I was a teenager, but their forum is struggling. Their website is nice enough, but their forum? Ghost town. So, yeah, if anyone cares for a relatively blank canvas, register and start posting.

The following text and image originally appeared here.

Read this and tell me it’s not the funniest thing you’ve ever laid eyes on:

If not the funniest then at least, uh, very generous in its description.

“THE FASTEST GROWING” as in what exactly?

“With hundreds of members (who never post), tons of training advice (all dating back to 2004), news (that I pulled from Google), gossip and up-to-the-minute info, what else do you need?”

Well, maybe three or four other active participants.

For starters.

It’s like deli_conker* said (since deleted  - there’s your proactive behavior),

“If they don’t have things to play with then they’re not going to play here.”

And they don’t.

:(

Would you like to change things? Speak up. Please!   What would make MMI Forum a destination more appealing for you? What’s the Forum lacking? What are things you enjoy in other forums but which are unavailable here?

Fortress**, this is for you. And, of course, I’d love your feedback as well.

What are your restrictions? Is it a bandwidth thing? What’s the difference between BodySpace (Bodybuilding.com’s version of MySpace), MD Forums, Universal Nutrition’s F O R V M, and MMI Forum? Why do the first three literally have thousands of active participants and MuscleMag International,   one of the most popular bodybuilding magazines on the planet currently boast, what, two   non-employees as “active” participants?

Scott***, you’re not a MuscleMag   employee, are you?

Don’t worry, the school year will begin in a few weeks and the Forum can slide back into full-on dust collecting mode.

Maybe it’s me.****

Once September rolls around I’ll be gone and deli_conker will return along with Red*****.

P.S. Uh, just on the very slim chance that a) you’re totally bored out of your skull or b) your life doesn’t have enough of its own petty soap opera nonsense…

* deli_conker is the username of another person who had posted to the MMI Forum. He’s since vacated the forum, but he’s been gone for long absences in the past citing work, life, etc.

** Fortress is the username of another person who posts to the forum. He’s an employee of MMI as far as I know and is currently running the forum. (He stopped returning my PMs. D’OH!   I guess that should be my first clue that I’m doing something wrong.)

*** Scott is ScottWelch (another patron and his username), a person who just began posting. He’s started some interesting threads recently.

**** I was involved in a p!ssing contest with the guy who was formerly “running” the Forum but has since abdicated that responsibility. The dispute or complaint or conversaton (however people characterize it) was simple. I requested custom avatars - similar to what we have here on BodySpace. Just a pic from your PC that you offer as your “face” to whoever happens to read your posts or visit the forum. I wasn’t the only one to make that request. The one guy took offense at my lack of patience over the avatar request (or lack of response) and things went downhill from there. Long story even longer… custom avatars were granted. I got rude enough. The threads requesting and bickering about the avatars have been deleted. I’m surprised I haven’t been banned. On the other hand, I’m honestly trying to provide feedback. (No one likes constructive criticism. I know I don’t. ) I’d like the MMI Forum to grow, especially since I’m a subscriber and longtime fan of MuscleMag. Anyway, I said “Maybe it’s me.” because my negativity related to the poor (my perception) handling of a simple request may easily have driven Red and deli_conker away from the forum.

***** Red is another MMI Forum participant, but he hasn’t posted in at least a month.

In other words, I REALLY SHOULD HAVE TAKEN A PART-TIME JOB OVER THE SUMMER! HOLY H A A A A I L!

The old saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. And certainly if you’re a bodybuilding fan (or enjoy reading any sports magazine or magazine in general for that matter) then you enjoy the talents of an army of photographers. One talented photographer from back in the day was Art Zeller.

Zeller was a bodybuilder turned photographer and snapped shots of the legends - Schwarzenegger, Oliva, Draper, et al.

The man was, quite literally, a legend in the realm of physique photography. God bless Artie Zeller (1930-1999).

The Iron Man Pro is the setting each year for the Art Zeller Artistic Achievement award.

ART ZELLER ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT
Bob Gardner 2006
Albert Busek 2005
Chris Lund 2004
Leo Stern 2003
Jimmy Caruso 2002
Gene Mozee 2001
Russ Warner 2000

I’d encourage everyone to pick up a copy of West Coast Bodybuilding Scene as well as Brothers of Iron for tales of Art Zeller and other bodybuilding legends.

Dave Draper’s website has some great info as well, often mentioning Zeller.

If you’re familiar with Art Zeller, have you ever seen him without his hat?

Art Zeller on the cover of Joe Weider’s Muscle Builder Magazine, Jan. 1955 issue

Or with a head of hair for that matter. :)

I live in a town named Carlisle. They held a motorcycle festival this weekend. Lots of cool bikes and fun people.

Check out the entire gallery of bike pics if you’re a fellow motorcycle fan. :)

It’s not really a frenzy. But I’ve certainly amassed a collection of supplements.

Amerfit Nutrition DHEA 50 mg tablets
Benefiber
Body Fortress Creatine Monohydrate Powder
Body Fortress Creatine Drink Mix
Body Fortress Glutamine powder
Body Fortress Muscle & Weight Gainer
BSN N.O.-Xplode
BSN Syntha-6
CVS Vitamin B-6 100 mg
Gaspari Nutrition Novedex XT Testosterone Booster capsules
Gaspari Nutrition Plasmajet
Gaspari Nutrition SizeOn Arctic Lemon Ice
Gaspari Nutrition SuperPump250 Raspberry Lemonade
GNC Papaya Enzyme
Healthy Ideas Flax Seed Oil 1000 mg
Healthy Ideas Natural Calcium Magnesium & Zinc
MuscleTech Anator p70
MuscleTech Aplodan
MuscleTech Hydroxycut capsules
MuscleTech Leukic Hardcore
Nature Made Folic Acid 400 mcg
Nature Made Omega-3 Fish Oil 1200 mg
Nature Made Triple Flex (Glucosamine 1500 mg, Chondroitin 800 mg, MSM 750 mg – in 2 caplets) caplets
One a Day Men’s Health Formula
Optimum Nutrition BCAA 1000 mg capsules
Optimum Nutrition Casein protein powder
Rexall E 400 iu with Natural d-Alpha plus Selenium 50 mcg
Rexall Melatonin 300 mcg tablets
Rexall Milk Thistle 1000 mg
Rexall Super Chromium Picolinate 500 mcg
Rexall Time Release Niacin 250 mg
Schiff Prostate Health
Species Nutrition
Species Nutrition Arthrolyze
Species Nutrition Carbolyze Banana
Species Nutrition Carbolyze Fruit Punch
Species Nutrition Fiberlyze
Species Nutrition Isolyze why protein isolate “Vanilla Ice Cream”
Species Nutrition Somalyze
Spring Valley Co Q-10 100 mg
Spring Valley Vitamin D 800 iu
Spring Valley Korean Ginseng
Spring Valley Natural B
Target aspirin tablets 81 mg chewable tablets
Universal Animal M Stak
Universal Animal Pak
Universal Animal Pump
Universal Animal Stak 2
Vegetarian Formula Biotin 1000 mcg
Vitamin C 500 mg

I took my digital cam along to the gym. Great way to see how your form looks as well as, yeah, to get a few laughs. At least from myself. :D

And if you can’t laugh at yourself then there’s a problem, in my opinion. I definitely have reason to laugh at myself over this one. Thought I’d share. I typically don’t bother with the lockers at the gym. I’m only minutes away from Gold’s and so just jump in my car, drive to the gym, lift, and then go home to shower. I placed my wallet and cell phone on a bench by the power rack and then set up my digital camera to do my rows. Well, duh, guess I should have moved the bench out of my way before doing my sets. Yeah, there’s another video of me without my feet on the milk crate. I was banging my head in that one, too. Some people just never learn.

Here’s the text from the YouTube:

Jason Ferruggia’s program calls for bodyweight exercises as well as weight workouts. This is an exercise in his one ebook: “Pronated Inverted Row”.

I list my vids as comedy and the best part comes at 1:05 until the end. D’OH! I should have moved that bench. :)

I place all my vids in the Comedy category. I believe this one almost qualifies. Listen from 1:05 on to get a listen to my squeaky voice, too. ;)

Summer is in full force, but I recently heard someone say, "It’s almost August!" My birthday is near the end of August and that always signals the start of a new school year. I love my summers off, but am always glad to meet a new group of students when school begins. I’m an art teacher and believe that must be the very best job on earth.

A large part of my summer is spent in the gym. Here’s a YouTube of some dips. Hey, some might say it’s a dip doing some dips!

During my two previous workouts, I was able to complete only seven reps. Here I did almost eleven. I honestly believe the threat of being witnessed adds that needed motivation or oomph to finish additional reps.

So if you’re looking for more strength, get yourself an inexpensive digital camera and create a YouTube account.

Just saw the following announcement in the Company Promotion section. It’s appropriately named "Controlled Labs Search for CALENDAR GIRLS!!" Controlled Labs’ recently named Rep Extraordinaire, Laurie a.k.a. bull.dogz, is responsible for putting this together.

Here’s what she said in her BodyBlog:

“This is my baby that I’ve been working on. Everyone please take a moment to look (and let me know what you think).

Please help me spread the word! I know there are alot of ladies that want to get into modeling and I think this could be really big.”

Check out the Controlled Labs calendar contest thread, too!

Ok ladies! You’ve trained long and hard to get those bodies smokin hot and we at Controlled Labs think it’s time you showed it off. We are putting together a calendar and need 15 models. These calendars will be sold exclusively on Bodybuilding.com and all proceeds will go to The Jayden Deluca Foundation, a charity dedicated to researching heart ailments in newborns.

Entries must include:
1.) 5 different photos (different poses) sporting the Controlled Labs colors.
(White, Black, Blue, Orange, Purple, Yellow, Green, Red and Gold)

2.) Short bio about yourself (these will be in the calendars also).

Amateur (professional quality) or professional photos - professional highly recommended because of quality. These will be the actual photos going into the calendar so please make sure to have good lighting. We require the ORIGINAL copy of the photo if chosen [MAXIMUM RESOLUTION - straight from digital camera]

You can wear a bikini, lingerie or even a fitness outfit but please no nude photos.

Prizes
14 winners will receive:
1) Each model that is chosen will have their photo published in our calendar
2) Any 4 products of choice
3) CL beanie

Grand prize winner:
1) Will be the cover model
2) Any 4 products of choice
3) CL beanie

Must be 18 or older and in the US to win. (due to laws differing from country to country)

All entries must be in by August 31st, 2008!!

View at your own discretion. Nothing especially horrible but I wouldn’t want it to happen to me. In other words…

That’s going to leave a mark.

An appropriate remark for the following video. This is also a great warning against vandalism. I mean I suspect the young man wasn’t told to go kick a hole in the wall.

I’d like to preface my rant by stating that I believe each person, regardless of shape, form, or body fat percentage, deserves respect. That said, bodybuilding for me is when a person of any dimension chooses to lift weights and build some muscles. Bodybuilding competition requires those athletes to cut their body fat in order to show off all the muscle that they’ve built. The idea of feminine or masculine as it relates to bodybuilding is a failed idea. The valuable concept is that of conditioned or unconditioned. Did you cut sufficiently enough to display your muscles?

That’s right. DISGUSTED!

I’m going to write a book on this subject, but here’s the gist of it:

The announcers for Tazzie Colomb’s posing routine strayed into “the direction of women’s bodybuilding” as a topic of conversation. The one woman used “very muscular” as a pejorative term. Wtf? It is female bodybuilding, isn’t it? VERY MUSCULAR is a bad thing?

All the talk of apples and oranges and “How you think things should be” is absurd.

Let there be apples and let there be oranges. How it should be is that women of all shapes and sizes should be able to get muscles, get cut, get tan, and present all that on stage during a posing routine set to music and for the enjoyment of the athlete and those who attend the show. Period.

None of the b.s. of “You’re too muscular.”

The announcer stated, “It’s difficult to anticipate what to expect at any show.”

EXPECT SOME MUSCLES, OKAY!?

I read this quote in BodySpacer jampsifit’s one journal and think it’s applicable to my rant:

“Do not fall prey to the false belief that mastery and domination are synonymous with manliness.”
-Kent Nerburn