dvsness 
"To be satisfied with the physique I present, and to improve each season."
|
|
Archive for the 'Other' Category
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
I’ve been taking some time off from the gym, spending time with my loved ones and eating all the things I’ve been craving during prep. Now that I’ve had a little down time, I am actually getting to watch some TV for the first time in months. I feel like I’ve woken from a coma; I am catching up on all of the current events that have happened while I was consumed with my show.
Posted in Other
Thursday, September 18th, 2008
I have taken the last two days off - one for being tired after training 4 days in a row, and one for Prolab demos in the city. I’ll be going back tonight for arms, but until then, I’ll leave you with a shot from CSI Photo. This shoot was the day before the NA’s in Cleveland.
Posted in Other
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
Love him or hate him, I knew Anthony Roberts wouldn’t be off the map for too long.
Here’s his new blog:
http://blog.anthonyrobertsonline.com/
Posted in Other
Monday, August 4th, 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women with a lifetime history of migraine have less cognitive decline over time than women without migraine. It’s possible, researchers suggest, that antimigraine medications, as well as diet and behavior changes, play a role in the apparent protective effect of migraine on cognition.
Dr. Amanda Kalaydjian of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore and colleagues examined the relationship between migraine headaches and cognitive functioning in 1,448 women participating in the Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study.
They compared scores on immediate and delayed recall tests and on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) administered between 1993 and 1996 and again in 2004 and 2005. A total of 204 migraineurs and 1,244 nonmigraineurs participated.
According to the team’s report in the current issue of Neurology, migraineurs scored lower on tests of immediate and delayed memory at the beginning of the study, but their performance declined significantly less over time compared with that of the nonmigraineurs.
These associations were observed specifically in migraineurs with aura who, over 12 years, had a 26-percent and 47-percent lower word decline on the immediate and delayed recall tests, respectively, the authors report.
The effects of migraine with aura on the MMSE were restricted to individuals older than age 50. Among those younger than 50 years, migraineurs with aura declined at the same rate as those without migraine.
In a statement issued by the American Academy of Neurology, Kalaydjian said: "Some medications for migraine headaches, such as ibuprofen, which may have a protective effect on memory, may be partially responsible for our findings, but it’s unlikely to explain this association given we adjusted for this possibility in our study and the medications showed no indication of a significant protective effect."
Another factor that needs to be explored is the possibility that migraineurs may alter their diet or behavior in some way that might improve cognition. "For example, alternative treatment for migraine includes adequate sleep, as well as behavioral and relaxation techniques, and a reduction in caffeine," Kalaydjian pointed out.
"Despite these theories, it seems more likely that there may be some underlying biological mechanism, such as changes in blood vessels or underlying differences in brain activity, which results in decreased cognitive decline over time," Kalaydjian concluded. "More research is needed to fully understand how migraine affects cognition."
SOURCE: Neurology, April 24, 2007.
TP Forums
Posted in Other
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
Ronnie Coleman, who has been crowned Mr. Olympia eight times, is suing Gold’s Gym for allegedly using his muscles to lure in members.
In a lawsuit filed today in L.A. County Superior Court, Coleman claims Gold’s used a photo of him to advertise Gold’s … a photo that was plastered on posters.
Coleman is suing for misappropriation of image, invasion of privacy and unjust enrichment. He’s seeking unspecified damages and an injunction putting the kibosh on the poster.
http://www.tmz.com/2008/07/28/mr-olympia-rages-at-golds-gym/
Posted in Other
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan’s sentencing has been postponed until 8/22/08. They were scheduled to appear in court tomorrow.
Source: Muscle Phone
Posted in Other
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/ellis-girl-hecker-2088005-parents-newport
NEWPORT BEACH – A magazine photographer and his live-in fiancée are facing charges of luring a 14-year-old girl into having sex with the Newport Beach man with promises of a lucrative modeling career. The illicit relationship was uncovered by a private eye working for the girl’s parents, authorities said.
Jason Ellis, 33, who is known for his photographs that have graced the covers of Elle, Maxim and numerous muscle and fitness magazines, was charged Tuesday with three counts of lewd acts on a child, and three more counts, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The girl told authorities she was in love with Ellis.
Ellis’ fiancée, Michelle Hecker, 31, is facing charges with aiding and abetting Ellis in the crimes, and is facing the same six charges.
Hecker and Ellis both face up to seven years in state prison if convicted.
According to prosecutors, Hecker introduced the unnamed teenager to Ellis after meeting her through a common interest in horseback riding. The couple allegedly promised Ellis could help the girl with her modeling.
Beginning in Aug. 2007, Ellis courted the girl, taking her to the movies and dinner, even kissing and touching the teenager in public, according to prosecutors.
Hecker allegedly helped the relationship along, gaining the trust of the girl’s parents enough to where she would pick the teen up under the guise of going horseback riding or on some other outing. To make the cover story even more believable, Hecker allegedly had the girl dress in riding clothes.
But instead of going horseback riding, Hecker took the girl to the Fashion Island mall in Newport Beach to rendezvous with Ellis.
Hecker would then drive the girl back home, prosecutors said.
Suspicious of the relationship, the girl’s parents hired private investigator Tom Martin to follow their daughter.
The girl’s parents called Newport Beach police after Martin turned over the information he had gathered on the girl and her two adult companions, according to prosecutors.
Ellis initially fled the area after learning he was wanted in the statutory rape case, but was arrested 10 days later.
Hired by Ford Modeling Company as a photographer at the age of 17, Ellis has since garnered international attention for his "physique" photography, shooting ads for Calvin Klein and muscle building publications, according to his Web site. Majoring in photography at Arizona State University, Ellis traveled to Paris to serve as an apprentice for several of Europe’s top fashion photographers, according to Ellis’ biography posted on his Web site.
In addition to shooting numerous magazine covers and advertisements, Ellis has also directed several short films, including "My House" featuring Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler.
Ellis was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned July 18. An arrest warrant was issued for Hecker.
Anyone with additional information can contact District Attorney Investigator Tim Craig 714-347-8558.
Hardbody News alerted me to this story.
Posted in Other
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
By far, figure in the United States is the biggest division due to sheer size, as in how many women are in figure. However, there’s one thing that’s seriously missing from the sport…consistency. Picking a standard in figure is like picking out hay in a needle stack. I mean, COME ON PEOPLE!! The other two divisions (female bodybuilding and fitness) have (to me) clear constant standards that the judges judged on. Female bodybuilding is judged by bringing size and shape yet maintain their femininity, plus your posing routine can make or break you. The top two at this year’s Arnold Classic (Yaxeni Oriquen and Dayana Cadeau) resemble that to a T. Fitness has the flowing defined physique as well (obviously not as big as FBB), but the fitness routines is what will ultimately seperate the women from the girls. Jenny Hendershott, Adela Garcia, and Kim Klein seem to be what fitness should be all about, as they are highly respected by judges and fans alike. IFBB figure has…quarter turns. Yep, that’s it. Just quarter turns. Not the most exciting thing to watch, huh? Well, while it might not be the Super Bowl, I sure as hell would watch on my TV far quicker than hot dogs contest that ESPN would put on their networks. Now, I’m gonna ask a few of figure’s biggest questions to myself…
Is figure a real sport?
Well…DUH! I mean these women train for up to a year just to be in the right condition to even think about stepping on stage. These women work their a$$es off to go out there on stage, drained from carbs (carb-depleted), make sure their suits are on right, and this and that has to be perfect! I won’t get into all the details, as all figure competitors know what I’m talking about. And there are those that have the right to denounce this as a sport and say that they don’t belong in the ranks of female bodybuilding and fitness?!?! GIVE ME A BREAK, PLEASE?!?!
Will the “pro figure letter” work in the long run?
To me, this is too early to answer this question. Issac Hinds (one of the top people in the female muscle industry) mentioned that the ladies at the 2008 Pittsburgh Pro listened to the mandate and said that it was a good thing. Oh wait a minute…exactly what is the pro figure letter? Well, here’s what the meat of the letter says:
“After the first figure event for 2008, The Figure International, the IFBB Professional League wants to see less muscularity and hardness in the figure competitors. The Deltoids are too big and cut and the thigh cuts are too deep. The next IFBB professional figure event is the 2008 Pittsburgh Pro Figure to be held on May 3/2008 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Beginning with this event the judges will be marking down competitors with excessive hardness and muscular separation”
In other words, the IFBB is looking for an athletic, not too hard, & symmetrical physique, and “pretty” face. Well, too many figure skeptics, this furthers their original thoughts on the sport, by calling it nothing more than a “bonafied Hawaiian Tropic bikini contest.” And to a point, it could be true. In my honest opinion, I would have the competitors themselves determine the ideal physique or criteria that IFBB figure should be about and not leave it up to men that think they know the sport better than the actual competitors (that’s who runs the IFBB, by the way.) But I’m not a figure competitor in any way, shape, or form; I’m just a fan of the female muscle world, that’s all.
However, I asked one of my favorite figure competitors, Jennifer Gates, aka the “figure John Cena” (I’m giving her this nickname due to her rise to the top of IFBB figure. No, Jenn is not pursuing the WWE Raw superstar, as Jenn is happily married to someone else, so there! HAHA!) Anyways, here’s a tad of what she told me a while back, which makes a lot of sense if you think about it:
So, on the record I think it’s a good thing. They are asking us to look athletic and not so bodybuilderish. Which I have already learned my lesson about that. I competed in 2006 12 pounds heavier than 2007 and 2008. So I have already streamlined my look. I am happy with the way I look now…I didn’t need all that mass…I still look just as muscular at 110 than I did at 122. Plus I have better luck with fitting into jeans now.And honestly I like training for a more streamlined athletic look better….it’s not so much weights. It’s more cardio and conditioning. I run bleachers, hill sprints, sprints, long distance running, all sorts of cardio programs, bootcamp classes, you get my point. It doesn’t get boring, change it up, and I feel like an athlete.
When an actual competitor puts it all into perceptive, it’s not as bad or degrading as some make it out to be. But still, I have to see how the remaining of the 2008 season and beyond to see if this letter will bring out the best in the competitors…or just another way of keeping the competitors from bringing their best. For the record, as long as the fans are happy and, most importantly, the competitors are happy, then the “pro figure letter” will be considered a success. For now, I’m calling it a test, and after the 2008 Figure Olympia, we’ll see if this letter is a success or a failure with the people that count the most: the competitors and the fans of IFBB figure.
Does IFBB/NPC figure need a posing round?
Ohh…hmm…uhh…well, if it were me, yep. But you know what? I’m gonna get opinions from other people and see what they have to say on the matter, and I’ll get back to you on that on a later post.
Until then, I hope you have read this and be able to draw your own conclusions about IFBB/NPC figure.
http://fitgems.blogspot.com/
Posted in Other
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
Now, check it out… here is the actual SATIRE of SEX IN THE CITY.. it is the exact script but the characters of Female Bodybuilders / Fitness Athletes:
Lena Sanchez - Samantha
Colette Nelson - Carrie
Jamie Reed- Charlotte
Antonia Schmitt- Miranda
Video not found. This video has been removed at the request of the copyright owner
Posted in Other
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
NO APOLOGIES
(Muscle Elegance, Fall 1998; CURL Summer 2003)
By Charles Peeples
Her name’s not really Pamela, but since she’s an IFBB bodybuilder whose name and body you know, and since she’d rather not see her name and “clueless” in the same sentence, and since there are many others of her, Pamela will have to do. And we can keep the conversation generic as well:
Charles- “Didn’t see much of you during Jan Tana weekend…”
Pamela- “Yeah, I stayed in my room to keep my focus.”
Charles- “Did it pay off?”
Pamela- “I dunno.”
Charles- “It wouldn’t pay off. Even if you’d won. It hardly ever pays off.”
Pamela- “Huh?”
No, she didn’t meet fans, sell photos, or network with heavy-hitters. For all she cared, they weren’t even there. The contest came first. Perhaps like thousands of others she really believes that winning one of these shows is a ticket to ride. Maybe if she’d talked to Yolanda Hughes, who’s won two consecutive Ms. I’s, while taking time to meet, sell and network between events… but then even Yolanda, despite her titles and her mesmerizing performances, gets shamefully little press. The truth is this: the competitions are profitable. But not for the competitors. Especially for the women competitors, who see their whole competitive world- the contests, the prizes, the coverage- slipping into Fitness.
You compete for the thrills and agonies of competition, not for the promise of stardom or financial reward. And you’d better love it or leave it; despite your regimen, diet and drugs, you’re still comparing what your mammy and daddy gave you to what other mammies and daddies handed out. How you stack up is being decided by a well-intentioned panel whose marching orders and dispositions are as resolute as those at the White House. Except for family, friends, and a few whose livelihood depends on it, not a whole lot of people really want to watch a starved, emaciated version of you standing in a line-up comparing biceps, no matter what this Olympics prospect promises. As necessary as they may be, the contests, with their extreme demands and apparently shallow purpose have done as much to invite public ridicule as have the enlarged mandibles, distorted proportions and the whole gamut of needle-nasties.
But some might argue that contests are all we’ve got, and that’s how you get into magazines. That’s how you get famous. Well, they’re partly right. After all, the 1997 Ms. Olympia afforded Denise Masino, who was not competing, a venue to sell photos to her fans. She didn’t get into the magazines that way. But she did earn more that evening than most of the competitors, not to mention all the IFBB men in the Beacon’s lobby combined. And her admirers weren’t buying stage shots either.
So much for contests; what about the magazines? Besides Women’s Physique World and Flex’s “Power and Sizzle” layouts, who’s really celebrating female muscle in anything greater than infant portions? Faced with onslaughts of pneumatic swimsuit cuties, we’re lamenting the imminent demise of women’s bodybuilding, a keening we’ve heard since the Dunlap days. But women’s bodybuilding isn’t dead; it’s alive and well…on the Internet. It’s outright booming on the Web! And that’s giving the Powers, the Gate-keepers of bodybuilding, all kinds of heartburn.
They can’t control this medium, not its content, nor the revenues it generates. Like the Federal government, also seething at cyberspace’s challenge to its hegemony, all the Powers (read: IFBB, NPC and the Magazines) can do is pretend to ignore it. But if they were smart, they’d learn from it. And one of the first things they’d notice is the Web’s unapologetic embracing of female muscle’s sensuality.
Of course any suggestion that muscular women possess sexual allure provokes self-righteous howls from militant feminists and bodybuilding purists alike. The feminists’ agenda is a no-brainer, as they attach malevolence to any male interest. The purists are well-intentioned, as they inevitably want female muscle to succeed artistically and athletically, but in some sort of impossible vacuum, devoid of sexual potency.
A fool’s errand; even if Freud exaggerated the influence of the sexual urge on everything we do, there’s no way we can deny a primal male impulse. That impulse is driven by visual stimuli. That impulse is inexorable. And yes, that impulse spends money. So if the competitive arena has failed her, the commercial arena ignored her and the public arena scorned her, the Physically-Advanced Woman must consider that impulse.
And she has. Fed up with having her gender questioned and her sex appeal denied (even as the swimsuit models have theirs hyped), she’s exercising her options. The marketplace is huge, but not discussed in the magazines, whose coverage of female bodybuilding represents only the tip of a titanic iceberg. It’s exotic dancing, private posing, domination and “muscle worship.” It’s mixed-wrestling, “lift and carry” and those videos you see advertised back on page 256. It’s many of the top names in bodybuilding, as well as big names in corporate America. Names and money you wouldn’t believe. I contend that this market is far more highly-educated and affluent than that for the men’s sport. And most of this market does not come to the contests.
Nude photography, the sine qua non of this market, is presently its most visible aspect, thus its most controversial. We’ve already heard the howls of protest in response to Bill Dobbins’ and Robert Reiff’s superb sensual studies in “Power and Sizzle.” The most telling of these came from the young lady who complained that her husband tended to pay her less attention whenever the new “Power and Sizzle” came out. Call it praise with faint damnation. But isn’t this acknowledgment of sexual desirability overdue? The “Swimsuit Issues” have been making a killing (thus their accelerated frequency), but the female bodybuilder sees none of it. One of the muscle magazines recently trumpeted a long-sought Anja Langer successor with “Hail Jitka; Savior of Women’s Bodybuilding” on its cover and ran a nice piece on her inside. But even being a Savior apparently does not warrant a cover photo if you’re distaff and muscular; the blonde crouching here was an oft-touted Fitness Personality who’d already done the cover a few months earlier, perhaps in a crash-program to replicate Monica Brant’s ubiquity at the news-stand.
In her Bodymakers; A Cultural Anatomy of Women’s Body Building, Leslie Heywood (a self-described Third-Wave feminist) points out: “If bodybuilding industry magazines have taken on a sexualized focus that surpasses that of Playboy, it is clear that there has been a shift industry-wide from the presentation of female bodybuilders as athletes who also have a dimension of sexuality to the presentation of fitness women who are primarily sexual. In terms of how women themselves negotiate these conditions, marketability ensures that many women will construct themselves and be happy to have themselves constructed sexually since this in turn ensures their individual financial success.” Can you blame them?
Sexuality is the essence of femininity, and the desire to be presented as sexually-viable runs well into the ranks of the hard-core muscle. And why not? Is all hope for sexual desirability to be jettisioned as the price for physical advancement? Andrulla Blanchette, celebrated for her compact brawn, and Inna Uit, whose shredded glutes wowed ‘em at the last Jan Tana, have both told me recently they abhor the magazines’ focusing on female bodybuilder’s freakishness while reserving sensuous depictions for Fitness and Swimsuit women. They’re aware there’s a huge demand for them out there too, that the magazines either don’t know about or ignore. And if, in addressing this market, these women were to expand the range of acceptable muscularity, to remold the ideal even a little, wouldn’t that be a good thing? Those photos of Lenda by Bill Dobbins cross all sorts of boundaries, yet I’ve heard nothing about them but admiration and awe (and the sound of tongues hitting the floor, including my own!).
So what about nudity? Is it really a compromise of bodybuilding’s “noble” purpose? Hardly. If it celebrates physical ideals, it’s no different from all that unclad Greco-Roman statuary. It appeals to the senses, and they’re all connected. I reserve the right to be aroused by whatever arouses me. Don’t lay your low-prole condemnation on my appreciation of a nude just because you’ve yet to come to terms with your own guilt complex. As long as the focus of the work is on the physique, rather than its reproductive fixtures, it should be judged on technical and artistic merits, not on someone’s rectal-retentive moral twitch. Our obsession with concealing the “naughty bits” is ironic if you consider the comparative infrequency of sex-crimes in European societies where nudity is no big deal. Just as ironic is the “acceptability” of the Victoria Secret/Frederick’s of Hollywood apparel which screams sex while intimating that the human body’s sensual appeal depends its entanglement in gauziness, lace and synthetics. I never cared for any of that stuff because it tries too hard, strains at being sexy. Similarly, most pornography misses the mark as well in its brainless lack of subtlety. Who needs 10X gynecological magnifications?
Yet some will condemn all nude photography as porn, while lamenting the public’s antipathy for female muscle on the basis of needle-nasties. They’re entitled to this stupidity. We’re entitled to ignore them. There’s plenty of room in the spectrum of muscle presentation for everyone, from the purists to those of us depraved enough to also find female muscle supremely erotic. I say “also,” since aesthetic, athletic, historic and erotic appeal are not mutually exclusive. As soon as we can all accept this, and stop squirming, the better off we’ll all be. Including the women. Especially the women.
But don’t expect any apologies. Not from the women, nor from those of us who would present them as they’d like to be seen, be it strong, proud and heroic, or soft and beguiling. They’re owed apologies. And like Yolanda, Andrulla, and Inna -like Pamela, grimly sequestered with her rice-cakes and distilled water in her darkened hotel room, hiding from her real benefactors- they’re waiting. They’ve been waiting for a long time.
Posted in Other
|
Leave Comment