![]() He began lifting weights eight years ago and spends an hour to 90 minutes three times weekly at All Cape Fitness in Eastham. ![]() "I had a desk job but I always managed to get to the gym," Meade said. Meade, competing in the Great Grand Masters division, was already scheduled to go on to the annual national competition next month in Pittsburgh because he placed well in a previous championship. Gormley kept asking competitors lined across the stage to switch places, to negate a natural advantage held by those front and center.Ĭompetitors ended their routines with whatever pose they considered their best.įrom the audience, relatives and friends called praise and encouragement - "that's it, Sam" - "hold it, Deon" - "nice, nice" - and clapped once each division was done.Īt 76, Brewster resident Al Meade, a retired mechanical engineer, was the oldest entrant. "It just seems to have snowballed from there." "That was very uncharacteristic of natural bodybuilding," Routhier said. ![]() With 22 of the athletes women, or just under 40 percent, the days of female bodybuilders being considered a novelty are a fading memory.įitness trainer Pugga Routhier, who co-promoted the event with his brother, Daryl, said 20 women signed up for the first competition on the Cape in 1995, far more than expected. The pose made infamous by comedians Dana Carve Kevin Nealon on "Saturday Night Live," with their Hans and Franz routine - "we will (clap), pump you up" - that's called "crab." A quarter turn to the right, face front." (another pause).įor the archetypal Charles Atlas pose with the arms lifted triumphantly above the head, Gormley asked the athletes to show "front double bicep." (pause) "A quarter turn to the right (pause again). "A quarter turn to the right," Gormley asked. Woonsocket, R.I., resident Bob Gormley, chairman of the American Natural Bodybuilding Conference, led entrants through their paces. On stage in the college's Tilden Auditorium, the barely clad, deeply tanned and well-oiled competitors flexed and grimaced before a table of six judges. Pittsfield resident Kimberly Guilds."It warms your muscles and makes your veins come to the surface," Carron said.īodybuilders use tanning lotion, he said, because "the darker you are, the more defined you are." One of the more arcane products was Hot Stuff, an "instant vasodilation optimizer." Outside in the lobby of the Tilden Auditorium, a powerfully built James Carron was selling sports drinks, protein bars, tanning lotion, apparel and other items of interest to bodybuilders from his store in Hyannis, Cape Cod Nutrition Center. The event included an afternoon prejudging competition that drew 150 spectators, an "evening performance" with contestants posing to music of their choice, and a 10 p.m. The athletes competed in 15 different divisions for men and women, depending on age, height and experience. Those who flunk are banned from American Natural Bodybuilding Conference events for life. The word natural refers to the bodybuilders' refusal to take steroids or other substances that build muscles but wreak havoc on health.Ĭompetitors agree to take a lie-detector test before a competition, as they did Friday night and yesterday morning, to vouch for their steroid-free condition. The 58 bodybuilders at Cape Cod Community College were posing for real yesterday in the eighth annual Cape Cod Natural Bodybuilding Championships. JACK COLEMANSTAFF WRITERWEST BARNSTABLE - Admit it - you've lost count of the times you've flexed your muscles in front of a mirror.
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