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There is Always Iron
April 29th, 2010 | 
Author: 
Cinzia Massaro Clapp training biceps curls
As a physique competitor, or even as a trainer, we can often get disracted from the fundamental reason we began this pusuit of physical excellence. Supplements, cardio, tanning, contest prep, posing suits, routines, photo shoots can all serve as distractions from the point of it all.
Many of us started down this road in the same place — the gym. For me it began some time around 1983, when I traded an old rifle to my uncle for a worn out set of concrete filled weights. Once I felt the rush of blood to young muscles, I was hooked. Soon after, I began acquiring issues of Muscle and Fitness and it’s new sister publication Flex Magazine where I admired photos of Arnold, Frank, and Tom. Being a teenage boy, of course, I more than admired Rachel and Cory. I devoured the information about nutrition (eat carbs like nobody’s business was the word back then), and I read with keen interest the ads for Weider’s High Protein supplements, free form amino acids, and even liver powder (yuk)! I even saved up one whole summer to purchase the Weider “Victory” supplement kit that included everything I needed to grow to epic proportions!
As soon as I turned 16 I joined the local Nautilus club, where I spent many a happy day skipping school in order to move around heavy stuff. Few women were doing so back then — every once in a while a leotard and ankle warmer sporting babe would wander into the small free weight area and distract us “serious lifters” with her perfume.
My how the times have changed! Our sisters have joined us in discovering the joy of losing ourselves in the world of iron, and we are all the better for it. Sadly, though, they have also joined us in straying away from where we all began. It gives me a tinge of regret each time I hear a fitness competitor procalim that she “doesn’t really train with weights anymore” but instead focuses on cardio, routine practice, and posing. What a sad place to be — a world without iron. Only those of us who have revelled in the sweet sound of plates rattling on a bar can understand what it means to miss it. Being caught up in the complexity that is contest prep, it can be so easy to forget.
If you find your motivation waning. If you’re wondering why you are doing what you do. Get into the gym, the basement, the garage, or wherever you will find your old friends the iron plates. Load them up on a bar and lose yourself in the timelessness of moving heavy stuff. And remember next time everything seems out of whack, and you wonder where you are in life and how you got there — there is always iron!
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Fifteen Minutes of Fame
- Cinzia Massaro Clapp 2009 Jr. USA by Jeff Binns
In every physique competition I have been to, there comes a moment when either the emcee or the promoter gives a small speech about how every competitor is a winner simply by the fact that they made it there. These speeches are all similar in content – generally mentioning the hard work and commitment required to train and prepare for a contest. I often wonder if the audience, the emcee, the promoter or even some judges for that matter, understand the profound truth behind these comments. I believe if you haven’t seriously trained for and competed in a bodybuilding, fitness or figure competition, you will have a hard time understanding how it’s not about the fifteen minutes you spend on stage but the extraordinary amount of will it takes to get there.
The key word in the previous statement is “will.” It’s not even about the work involved – many people work hard. Being a hard worker does not distinguish a person, nor does it necessarily lead to success. My father and my grandfather both toiled deep below the earth in a hard rock mine for over 30 years. Up to five miles underground, in low light and low oxygen they performed the kind of hard labor that left them both ill and broken at an early age. They did it every day, all day, starting before they even finished high school. No one can deny this was hard work yet no one would look at their lives and say they distinguished themselves or achieved any great success. Although they were working hard, they were comfortable. I know my father well enough to know that leaving his comfort zone scared him. What he needed was the knowledge that tomorrow would be just like today. He lacked the will to leave his comfort zone and venture out into the unknown, to push himself beyond his current limits and grow. While he was not successful in terms of achievements, he worked hard and he was comfortable. There is a certain nobility in that, and it is what keeps our world turning.
An athlete such as a fitness competitor, however, must not only work hard, but also possess the will to commit to leaving her comfort zone. She must push herself beyond her current limits in order to grow, and she must take those dearest to her along for the ride. When she stands on stage she not only represents months, or even years of dieting, weight training, cardio, routine practice, posing practice, and tanning but also an extraordinary amount of will. She has persevered through long periods of living outside of her comfort zone. She has missed soccer games, school events, her career has suffered and her spouse has lacked attention. Her relatives think she’s insane or even vain and friends are angry because she won’t go out with them. All so she can stand on a stage for a few minutes and be judged – often by those who have not gone through what she has.
Without fail, some time during the months of preparation leading up to a competition, a crisis will occur. Life happens, spouses get deployed, children break legs or get ill, parents pass away, anniversaries occur, holidays come and go, career opportunities slip by, and the fitness athlete must stick to the path she has chosen. She must possess the will to drive on towards those fifteen minutes on stage. The fact that she is there, standing on stage means that she has overcome all of the obstacles life put in the way, and found the will to drive on. Her family has suffered, been tolerant of her mood swings and been patient during her daily absence while she trained. Who in their right mind would put themselves, and those they love through such trauma in the hope of winning a plaster statue? The truth is no one. It’s not just a cliché when we say, “It’s not about the trophy.” Sure, winning is rewarding, but making it to the finish is the true reward. She has worked hard and possessed the will to persevere. She is stronger for the effort and she is standing there on stage, nearly nude, for all to see just to prove it! She is the epitome of a physically and mentally strong, beautiful woman – not because she was born that way but because she worked for it. Other women admire her, are jealous of her, want to be like her, and they should!
She is a fitness athlete.