Everyone’s Doing It

Yes, it’s true.  Everyone’s doing it — coming to The Forest Gym that is — for help and advice on training, nutrition and contest preparations.  Our own members are setting their sights on competition success and being guided by Big H at every stage of their preparations.  But, in addition, we get visitors from across England coming for help along the road to success.  In my day, we took years to make progress because so much of what we did was trial and error — and, it has to be said, more error than trial.     Now there is  so much knowledge available in the sport every bodybuilder needs some guidance to avoid being overloaded with information.  A competing bodybuilder needs to concentrate entirely on training, resting and eating with someone else worrying about the technology. A guru can focus efforts in the right direction right from the start and save so much time.   Look at Troy Brown’s gains in the last 2 years — an extra 57 lbs of muscle on someone who had already  been competing for 4 years. Standards are now so much higher than 20 or 30 years ago that anyone seriously interested in competing cannot afford to waste time with unproven methods.   Life is too short for that.  Since this year’s UKBFF Finals in Nottingham and the widely reported fact that the Overall Winners of both the Men’s and Women’s Classes were coached by Harold “Big H” Marillier, the numbers visiting us has increased significantly.

Above, we see Mark Yates as he was when he won the South Coast Show in April.   He is now in goodish condition at 19st [266 lbs/120 Kgs] at a height of 6ft.  For the next few months he will be concentrating on adding yet more mass with plans to qualify for the UKBFF Finals in 2007.    In 2006 he was devasted by a virulent stomach bug on the day of the finals — a terrible result for any bodybuilder who has spent months in preparation.

Darius Tehrani is training hard to get extra mass so that he can jump to the LHW Class.   Already looking bigger than ever.

Kris Piotrowski from Southampton [he was born in Poland] won the NABBA South Qualifier and placed 4th in his Class at the NABBA Novice Britain.   At present he is 15st 3lb [213 lbs/97 Kgs] at 5ft 7in and is preparing for the UKBFF South Coast 2007.

Tom Dyke is a young BB from Portsmouth who is 14st 13lb [209 lbs/95 Kgs] also at 5ft 7in and intent on doing well in the LHW Class at the South Coast.   Harold thinks that he has lots of potential.

Gary Jones, also from Portsmouth is a dedicated and committed bodybuilder who is aiming to compete soon. He is 15st [210 lbs/95.5 Kgs] at 5ft 9in.  His training partner is Claire Taubman who placed 3rd in the Body Fitness Class at the UKBFF Finals.    Gary was in the gym recently and had a serious workout with Big H trashing back.  Harold was impressed with Gary’s capacity for hard work — an essential for any successful bodybuilder.

Joe Essadi from Eastbourne has survived a few hard leg and back workouts at The Forest Gym and shows every sign of coming back for more.  He is a big man weighing 16st 8lbs [232 lbs/105 Kgs] at 5ft 8in and he really is training hard to be at his best for either the Gravesend or Leamington Shows in 2007.   He wants to be at the finals in October.

Sarah Lewis won the HW Class at the South Coast Show in 2006 and will be returning to defend her title in 2007.   She is putting everything into her training and recently demonstrated her commitment by surviving a Big H calf workout — not for the faint-hearted.

Forest Gym Members

I don’t want to miss out on our full time permanent members who are putting everything into their preparations for 2007 as well.

British Champ Michelle Jones is really giving it everything and is displaying good off-season condition with increased size.  Already she is weighing 12st [168 lbs/76 Kgs] — a whole 14 lbs heavier than at the same time last year.

Big Man Danny Poole is growing like the proverbial weed and is now 21st [294 lbs/133 Kgs] at 5ft 9in.  The massively boned Man Mountain is Big H’s full-time training partner and is loving every minute of the gruelling workouts — at least, I think that’s what he said as he staggered out of the door.    He is determined to be at his absolute best for Leicester or Leamington in 2007 and Harold thinks that Danny’s determination exceeds even his.  Danny’s legs are really starting to take-off and match his massive upper body.  Watch out for him!

Finally, our latest winner, Terry Watson is giving it everything for 2007.  He is already qualified for the Finals via his win in the U70 Kg Class at the Stars of Tomorrow. Terry is only 5ft 2in tall but he carries a lot of muscle and he is looking to pack on a few more pounds to create a real impact at the UKBFF Finals.

With our Power Lifters working hard and making a lot of noise, things are buzzing at The Forest Gym.   So if you want to make progress fast and get sorted for competition gives us a ring and come to see us.

Tomas Bures Overall Amateur Mr. Universe 2006

Whey Protein is Good for You

We all think that we know that whey protein is good for us.  Now scientists in USA and Australia have done independent tests on bodybuilders and power lifters and show conclusively that supplementing the diet with whey protein helps gain solid muscle mass and gain strength.   Casein was much less effective in boosting the performance of these athletes.    It is used in many whey based supplements becasue it regulates the rate at which the amino acids are absorbed.    Neither supplement increased glutamine levels.   Glutamine is severely depleted during intense exercise.  This is a non-essential amino acid — that means that the body can make it from other amino acids.   However it is important as a constituent of muscle tissue and in fortifying the body’s immune system.   Therefore it is well worthwhile for anyone in intense training to supplement their deit with this amino acid.

The Stars of Tomorrow show has been running now for more than 20 years and I have been to almost all of them — even as it moved around the various venues on the outskirts of London.   The Beck Theatre at Hayes is a very good venue in some respects — it has a good atmosphere and the stage is easy to see from every seat.  This is OK providing the audience is not too big.  The last two shows I have been to at this venue were struggling for an audience and the theatre was well off full.   That was not the case  today.  The place was packed; in fact it was more than packed.  The actual audience was about 30% more than the maximum capacity of the place.   Seats were shared.   Nobody sits through a whole bodybuilding show so here as one went out another came in on the same ticket; later they would change again.   This was not enough to stop lots who turned up giving up and going home.  Why was this?  Simple — the huge number of competitors.   There were more than 100.   The norm for a show like this in these days is about 30 to 40 — 50 if you are lucky.   With so many competitors we can expect lots of friends and relations coming to watch.   It is impossible to plan for this.  If the UKBFF selected a larger venue for 2007 it is quite possible that the number of competitors would drop and the venue would be half empty.   Nevertheless it is cruel that many who came could not get in.   I know that it can be argued that they should have booked ahead but if they had done so there would have been no ticket sharing and even fewer would have seen anything of the show.

Did I have any other complaints?   Yes!   The show started late, the interval was too long and the whole show was too long.   I suppose it was difficult to do much about the last with so many competitors but it was made worse by the number of classes — including one for “Classic Bodybuilding”.   What was this all about?   What purpose does it serve?  Is it yet another attempt to get us interested in Men’s Body Fitness?   If so, it will fail.

The show was a straight through affair but it went on for so long that, I think, by the end the judges had lost the will to live.  They just wanted to go home.   

There will be a full report by Alex Mac in The Beef so  I will confine my report to just the class of most interest to The Forest Gym. 

It was already 8.30 pm when we reached the U70 Kg Class and our competitor Terry Watson, at his first contest, had been waiting to go on stage for about 4 hours. Although there were only two competitors in this class they were of a high standard and Terry did not have an easy ride against Kitti Sakagong [apologies if I have got that name wrong] from Bodyworks in Peterborough.  Terry has good overall muscle density and this showed up more and more as he posed.  His delts and traps are his best parts but he has no serious weaknesses.  Kitti had a lighter structure, a classic shape and a very professional posing routine.   It was not an easy selection for the judges but Terry was placed 1st. Quite rightly, both were invited to the Finals for 2007.    By then Terry may be in the U80 Kg Class and at that weight he should look pretty freaky.

Troy Brown was the star of the show and he had held his UKBFF Finals condition quite well. He was obviously heavier than when he earned his pro card but looked very solid and had kept the excellent muscle separations in his legs.    All his back poses were awesome and at every outing now he is displaying an increasing on stage confidence.

As a final point for this show, why is it impossible to find the results anywhere on the internet?    Cannot UKBFF find a teenage computer wizard or even a geriatric computer wizard — just someone to publish the results [with pictures] on the official web site.   Bodybuilding needs all the publicity it can get so why hide information.    Even the Flex site advertises the results but actually publishes those for 2005.   Aaaaargh !

All contest pictures were supplied to us by Eric Guy.     Thanks yet again Eric.

The Body Fitness top three at the South Coast Show in 2006.   Winner Clare Taubman is in the centre.

Money, Money & The Olympics

So the costs of the Olympics head towards infinity.  As I have commented in the past, there never was any possibility that the Olympics in 2012 would be put on for £2,500,000,000.    My prediction was £10,000,000,000 but even that is now starting to look ridiculously low.  The government has accepted that costs have risen to £3.5b and may go to £5b.   Gordon Brown does not believe this and has asked for a £3b contingency.   So that gets us to a likely cost of £8b — and even now that does not include for security [about £1b or more], preparing British athletes [£600,000,000], or “infra-structure, or....... etc. etc.    The project already has shambles written all over it and I would not trust Blair’s government to organise a Christmas raffle.     I revise my estimate for the games upwards to £15b ++++. I await the next announcement from the loony bin telling us of the latest cost escalation.  I would not mind the incompetence of government if they, not us, paid for their mistakes and not so many people got killed or injured by the results of their fantasies and incompetence.