scals
03-07-11, 5:10 pm
Man, it’s hard to believe that this was my third Arnold Classic. Each time the experience gets better and better. It goes without question that it is the most humbling experience one can have. Thousands of people walking around including pro bodybuilders, powerlifters, and strongmen/women. It makes realize that your grind is nowhere near coming to an end, and you need to stay the course if you wanna achieve your goals. This is the second straight year I’ve had the opportunity to work the Cage. I’ll tell ya, it’s a great time. Meeting the athletes, reps, and others that work for the company and put the faces to the names is awesome. Here’s my recap of the weekend.
Thursday. I got to Columbus early to attend the Amateur Bikini pre-judging, as I had a great friend compete in the show. I arrived at 430pm or so, and went straight to the gym and trained back. 9 weeks out, gotta make sure the training gets done lol. After that I headed over to the Veteran’s Memorial Arena. I found myself a seat and watched the fitness and bikini pre-judging. I’ve got to say, all of these girls are amazing. The hard work and dedication is definitely inspiring. After that, I went into the lobby and saw Dave Palumbo. We shot the shit for a few minutes and I left. I got back to the hotel and ate my remaining two meals and went to bed.
Friday. What a day! I got to the Cage and got my hat, shirt, and sweatshirt, and went to work. Standing next to me were the two Bens (Rice and Seath). Two awesome guys. Definitely had a blast with those two throughout the weekend, talking training and just normal everyday stuff. J Dawg was also over there chillin with us. The booth was packed all morning. People buying things like crazy. Got to see Big Al and Wycked. Both of those dudes are gigantic. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Al since 07, but this was the first time I had seen Van Wyck in person. Dude is enormous, and nice as could be. Ran into Wrath too. The nicest and easiest to talk to guy in the world. Down to earth, and willing to share anything with you. I spoke to him about my prep, and he gave me his opinion of things and was a huge help. I definitely encourage anyone to talk to Wrath about all things bodybuilding; he’s REAL. Also got to see my boys from Jersey C.Coronato, Aggression, G Diesel and Enforcer. Great to see these guys as always. ChaseBrowning, Ghost, Phil, Razor, smoothballer, Danny, and the rest of the crew were on hand as well. Good to see all of them. Ghost greeted me with a nurple. Secretly, it felt good lol. HIGA and Rage were also on hand. Friday night, I trained with calves and abs at Metro. Was supposed to do shoulders, but with the Bench Your BW for reps on Saturday morning, I didn’t wanna do anything to take away from what I was going to bring to the event. Cool thing about Friday night was C.Coronato doing some big time deads. 555 for a single. A nice PR for him. Congrats C! I also had the pleasure of talking shop with Big Al, Bobby Fields, Tiny Meeker, and Sam Byrd. Great dudes! Afterwards B Con and myself made it back to the hotel, ate, and crashed. We had a busy day the next morning.
Saturday. Bench your BodyWeight. I’ll admit I was nervous about it. I’m not much of a bencher, so I didn’t know what to expect. So, rocking my SportPharma tee, I stepped on the scale and it read 200.6. So I was going to lift 200. Downed some Rage and I was ready to go. Felt good warming up, and I asked to go first. Knocked out 20 reps. I was definitely happy with that. Next up was Aggression, weighing 210. Likewise he knocked out 20 reps. B Con next, also lifting 210. My boy knocked out a nice 25 reps. Then came C.Coronato. He put 215 on the bar and hit 25 reps as well. After all the talk and hype, it ended in a 45-45 tie. It was a great event between four friends, and glad it went down like that. I think naturalguy was surprised that the Jersey Boys didn’t knock us out though hahaha. After the event, went back to the booth and worked the Cage a lil more. I had the pleasure of sweet talking the girl at the CRONS booth and getting free protein bar samples for the crew working lol. It was a good time, and the fellas liked the bars. After a long day at the expo, we headed out to the ABC. I trained chest with B Con, since we still had a pump from the morning. Worked some calves with J Dawg, Oscar, and Aggression. We got our ABC tees after the event, and took the group picture. Afterwards did some posing practice and went home and crashed.
Sunday. Got to the booth and was instantly enraged. I walk up and Oscar is yelling at me, as to where I was last night. I told him I went to the ABC and left. He was laughing saying that he didn’t have my number, and he scored two VIP tickets to the after party, and wanted me to go. I was crushed lol. Beautiful women, party with the pros, and mostly importantly MIDGET WRESTLING was missed. We rectified the problem and exchanged numbers, so this would never happen again! Skibas crew in the Cage was sick. Great lifting as usual from these guys and gal. Simply amazing. Then Evan made his appearance at the Cage. I was lucky enough to be handing him the posters that everyone wanted signed lol. We got to talk a lil bit. Really happy for Evan. First place in the Flex Pro, 4th at the Arnold, and the man is starting a new family. That’s great, and I wish him nothing but the best. Next up was my SportPharma brother T.Kemble vs Big Al standing military 135 for reps. Both men very impressive with Tek getting 31 and Al 35. Those are big numbers. Shortly after that I met a girl that was looking for G Diesel and Evan. I was able to find Evan and have him sign a poster for her. She managed to find G herself and get her picture. She was very appreciative and a nice girl. After that it was time to say goodbye. I needed to get on the road. I said my farewells and road off into the sunset back to Virginia. Until next year, or the Olympia!
Scals
Thursday. I got to Columbus early to attend the Amateur Bikini pre-judging, as I had a great friend compete in the show. I arrived at 430pm or so, and went straight to the gym and trained back. 9 weeks out, gotta make sure the training gets done lol. After that I headed over to the Veteran’s Memorial Arena. I found myself a seat and watched the fitness and bikini pre-judging. I’ve got to say, all of these girls are amazing. The hard work and dedication is definitely inspiring. After that, I went into the lobby and saw Dave Palumbo. We shot the shit for a few minutes and I left. I got back to the hotel and ate my remaining two meals and went to bed.
Friday. What a day! I got to the Cage and got my hat, shirt, and sweatshirt, and went to work. Standing next to me were the two Bens (Rice and Seath). Two awesome guys. Definitely had a blast with those two throughout the weekend, talking training and just normal everyday stuff. J Dawg was also over there chillin with us. The booth was packed all morning. People buying things like crazy. Got to see Big Al and Wycked. Both of those dudes are gigantic. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Al since 07, but this was the first time I had seen Van Wyck in person. Dude is enormous, and nice as could be. Ran into Wrath too. The nicest and easiest to talk to guy in the world. Down to earth, and willing to share anything with you. I spoke to him about my prep, and he gave me his opinion of things and was a huge help. I definitely encourage anyone to talk to Wrath about all things bodybuilding; he’s REAL. Also got to see my boys from Jersey C.Coronato, Aggression, G Diesel and Enforcer. Great to see these guys as always. ChaseBrowning, Ghost, Phil, Razor, smoothballer, Danny, and the rest of the crew were on hand as well. Good to see all of them. Ghost greeted me with a nurple. Secretly, it felt good lol. HIGA and Rage were also on hand. Friday night, I trained with calves and abs at Metro. Was supposed to do shoulders, but with the Bench Your BW for reps on Saturday morning, I didn’t wanna do anything to take away from what I was going to bring to the event. Cool thing about Friday night was C.Coronato doing some big time deads. 555 for a single. A nice PR for him. Congrats C! I also had the pleasure of talking shop with Big Al, Bobby Fields, Tiny Meeker, and Sam Byrd. Great dudes! Afterwards B Con and myself made it back to the hotel, ate, and crashed. We had a busy day the next morning.
Saturday. Bench your BodyWeight. I’ll admit I was nervous about it. I’m not much of a bencher, so I didn’t know what to expect. So, rocking my SportPharma tee, I stepped on the scale and it read 200.6. So I was going to lift 200. Downed some Rage and I was ready to go. Felt good warming up, and I asked to go first. Knocked out 20 reps. I was definitely happy with that. Next up was Aggression, weighing 210. Likewise he knocked out 20 reps. B Con next, also lifting 210. My boy knocked out a nice 25 reps. Then came C.Coronato. He put 215 on the bar and hit 25 reps as well. After all the talk and hype, it ended in a 45-45 tie. It was a great event between four friends, and glad it went down like that. I think naturalguy was surprised that the Jersey Boys didn’t knock us out though hahaha. After the event, went back to the booth and worked the Cage a lil more. I had the pleasure of sweet talking the girl at the CRONS booth and getting free protein bar samples for the crew working lol. It was a good time, and the fellas liked the bars. After a long day at the expo, we headed out to the ABC. I trained chest with B Con, since we still had a pump from the morning. Worked some calves with J Dawg, Oscar, and Aggression. We got our ABC tees after the event, and took the group picture. Afterwards did some posing practice and went home and crashed.
Sunday. Got to the booth and was instantly enraged. I walk up and Oscar is yelling at me, as to where I was last night. I told him I went to the ABC and left. He was laughing saying that he didn’t have my number, and he scored two VIP tickets to the after party, and wanted me to go. I was crushed lol. Beautiful women, party with the pros, and mostly importantly MIDGET WRESTLING was missed. We rectified the problem and exchanged numbers, so this would never happen again! Skibas crew in the Cage was sick. Great lifting as usual from these guys and gal. Simply amazing. Then Evan made his appearance at the Cage. I was lucky enough to be handing him the posters that everyone wanted signed lol. We got to talk a lil bit. Really happy for Evan. First place in the Flex Pro, 4th at the Arnold, and the man is starting a new family. That’s great, and I wish him nothing but the best. Next up was my SportPharma brother T.Kemble vs Big Al standing military 135 for reps. Both men very impressive with Tek getting 31 and Al 35. Those are big numbers. Shortly after that I met a girl that was looking for G Diesel and Evan. I was able to find Evan and have him sign a poster for her. She managed to find G herself and get her picture. She was very appreciative and a nice girl. After that it was time to say goodbye. I needed to get on the road. I said my farewells and road off into the sunset back to Virginia. Until next year, or the Olympia!
Scals