It’s Alive!!!!

Wow!  It’s been a couple months since I’ve posted a blog!  Sorry, but this man has been freakin’ busy!!!  And, my daughter has pretty much taken over the laptop computer that I got for Christmas, so my only computer time is in my office.

So, what have I been up to???  Well, the NPC Texas Shredder Classic is just around the corner….a week from tomorrow!  Every year it sucks my life in like a black hole!!!  If I’m not training clients, working out, eating or sleeping, I’m working on stuff for the Shredder Classic.  I’m ready to get my life back!  But the ’09 Shredder is looking great!!!  Right now I’ve got over 130 entries  and some awesome competitors returning from last years show.  Last year Novice midwt champ Craig Ritchie and Novice hvywt champ Kene Chinweze brought the house down in one of the best posedowns I’ve seen!  Craig ended up with the title, but Kene is back for another shot, and man…that guy is huge!!!!  ’08 women’s overall champ Mary Moran-Parker is returning to defend her title and will get some stiff competition from Jorah Messbarger.  Both are in fantastic shape!  With over 40 women entered in Figure and another dozen in the new Bikini division we are sure to see some seriously hot bodies on stage!

You see how the Shredder Classic is sucking me in????

On to my life and times.  Well, the econ0my doesn’t seem to be affecting my personal training business at all.  I’m busier than ever!  Plus, beginning the first weekend of February I started holding weekly posing classes for Bodybuilding and Figure competitors every Saturday at Hyde Park Gym.  I’ve even worked quite a number of Sundays to fit in everybody that wants to work with me.  On March 7th my girlfriend, Diana, threw me a great 50th birthday party at The Broken Spoke.  My friend, Dale Watson was playing and he got me up onstage to do Folsom Prison Blues with him.  It was great!  So many of my good friends and family came out….it was an awesome party!

Then on March 21st I traveled to Eagle River, Alaska (near Anchorage) to conduct a posing clinic at CMC Personal Training.  Shawn and Cinzia Clapp are such wonderful people and so passionate about natural bodybuilding, figure and fitness that the weekend was an absolute blast!!!  The only drawback was that I had to cram all of my clients into 4 days that week, so I was working 7am to 10pm pretty much every day.  The travel to and from Alaska took me all day Friday and all day Monday.  I trained clients from early in the morning until late at night Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then left again on Friday morning for my guest posing gig at the NPC West Texas Classic in Lubbock.  My friends Andrew and Kathleen Zamora did a masterful job on the show!  And, my daughter was competing in her first figure competition!  She looked fantastic placed 4th in a very tough class, which included my former training partner Abby Marie (winner), and my friend/client JoAnn Richey who placed second in her very first show!

I threw in a photo of my daughter Blythe from when she was about 14 months old…..already showing an interest in the weights!!!

So, it was a great time in Lubbock, but then it was back to work with lots to do and lots to catch up on!

But, my training is going great in spite of the lower back and tricep tendon issues that I’ve been battling.  I’m going to defend my Hyde Park Gym Push/Pull title on May 2nd (the week after the Shredder Classic).  Last year I benched 290 and deadlifted 450 in the meet.  This week I bench 280 and deadlifted 460…with 2 more weeks to prepare.  Right now I’m weighing about 177  and I pinched at 4.1% bodyfat today.  I’m pretty excited about how things are going!