His law student son, Bryan, in an effort to get to know the man he’s barely seen in 27 years, follows his dad around through a humour-filled round of pre-competition rituals—shopping for food (brown rice cakes), selecting the right soundtrack for his routine (the Superman theme), tanning sessions and hilarious rehearsals in his custom-made Superman suit. Yet, behind the humour, is a touching story about a father and son searching for some common ground before it’s too late.

Bill explains how it goes to the young fella

“It’s enough of a gesture to start taking the wall down between us, “ says Bryan.

Is he a convert to the Life of Iron?
“It doesn’t make sense to me, but there’s something about bodybuilding – if you spend enough time with these men, you’ll see the effort and the time it takes. My father’s found a way of expressing his individuality which works for him. I think that’s great.”

LINKS:

http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=11675

http://hotdocs.bside.com/?_view=_filmdetails&filmId=15410835

“The muscle guys, they have this thing: ‘I don’t want to be seen in the little, feminine car’.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Arnie spoke to Newsweek magazine recently about muscling in on the environmental bandwagon. He was on shaky ground with the environmentalists before his Hummers went green. Now he runs his muscle cars on biofuel and is on shaky ground with right-wing American shock-jock, Rush Limbaugh. Asta la vista, Rush. Post-partisan politics is a whole new ballgame. Arnie’s commited to guilt-free conservationism and says it’s easy being green.

“We don’t have to take away the cars from the people. The SUVs, the Hummers and the muscle cars. No, that formula is a formula for failure,” he said to the Council on Foreign Relations Thursday. “Instead, what we have to do is make those muscle cars and those SUVs and those Hummers environmentally muscular.”

According to a CNN report, the California League of Conservation Voters is pleased Schwarzenegger is putting his money where his mouth is. He’s still driving Hummers, but has converted them to hydrogen fuel

“The environmental movement across the country… [and] in the state of California is grateful that he’s taking this issue on and being so visible about it,” a league spokesman said.

The former bodybuilding champ and Hollywood icon knows something about being visible. Perhaps the Austrian-born governor’s knowledge that he will never take Capitol Hill has motivated Arnie to take the role of Al Gore’s, ahem, right hand man, and perhaps he sees a key role for himself in Washington on an environmental platform. Either way, Arnie’s set to become the next environmental heavyweight.
In an effort to demonstrate environmentally sound options for even the most muscle-bound American cars, he recently collaborated with rapper Xzibit on MTV’s reality show, Pimp My Ride, to convert a gas-guzzling Chevy Impala into a mean green muscle machine that runs on biodiesel with a 800 HP engine, the same one in Arnie’s magic hummers (premiers April 22). That there are environmentally sound options for even the most muscle-bound American cars is a message guaranteed to cross the partisan divide.

“You have to make it sexy. You have to make it attractive so that everyone wants to participate,” Schwarzenegger said in an address at Georgetown University.

The Austrian Oak said tree-huggers should take a lesson from bodybuilders.

“Like bodybuilders, environmentalists were also kind of thought of as weird, strange and fanatic and kind of serious tree-huggers, as you know. Environmentalists were no fun.”

In addition to travelling green himself, the Governator has muscled in on the conservation issue by signing two first-in-the-nation laws in California, one to radically curb emissions and the other to cut carbon content in transportation fuel. He warns other politicians to get on the environmental bandwagon, or else.

“Your political base will melt away as surely as the polar ice caps — I can guarantee you of that,” Schwarzenegger said. “You will become a political penguin on a smaller and smaller ice floe, drifting out to sea. Goodbye, my little friend.”

Good to hear Ah-nold’s still got the gift of the gab.

Redline is a high-octane car-racing thriller, involving crunched metal, burnt rubber and curvaceous women.

Levrone plays a classy hit man.

Redline – The Movie

Not so classy was co-star Eddie Griffin’s crash of the Enzo Ferrari, one of only 400 ever produced, worth USD 1.2 million, and part of producer Daniel Sadek’s original collection, which is used in the $26 million pic.

Levrone’s bid for Hollywood fame was apparently inspired by being Arnie’s guest on the set of End of Days, and the bug bit hard. With Levrone’s amazing physical presence, and a few friends in high places, it only took 6 months to land a starring role in Backlash (2006). Redline is the second feature for the bodybuilding champ. Who knows: maybe the next Vin Diesel or The Rock, or even…. The Terminator?

Big Kev – The Bodybuilder

Levrone is one versatile guy, frontlining a band inbetween preparing another bid for this year’s Mr O, a title many think he deserves.

The Star

Last year, in a bid to dispel the myth of the muscle bound bodybuilder, Levrone announced that he was world’s fastest man, based on a hand-timed 40 m at 4.1 seconds.

The Sprinter

He issued a challenge to race Olympian Maurice Greene, which was never met, but former British sprinter and official 2nd fastest man on earth, Dwain Chambers stepped up in a historic and fun Costa Mesa race that probably did more for public relations than it did for Levrone’s ego. Hey, anyone that big doesn’t need an ego.

After narrating Bra Boys, the acclaimed documentary about the infamous Maroubra gang founded by Abberton Brothers—Sunny, Koby and Jai—Crowe decided to make a follow-on drama much as Lords of Dogtown followed on from the 2001 documentary, Dogtown and Z-boys.

The Bra Boys began as an underground surf movement only to wipe out on the waves of scandal with bloody street brawls and murder charges for two of the brothers, all amidst a search for Australia’s biggest wave. Koby is a world champion surfer.

Barely escaping a horrendous childhood, the Abbertons founded the Bra Boys to clean heroin off the streets of Maroubra, which they have been more or less successful in doing. They’ve gone on to channel thousands of surfing prize dollars to charities like Streets to the Beach which helps streets kids get into something more constructive like surfing.

“Maroubra Beach is a mum and dad to thousands of kids,” says Koby in a must-read exclusive at Surfer Magazine online.

Having Crowe narrating the original documentary which was written and directed by Sunny Abberton was a major score, and in the aftermath of Koby’s recent acquittal for hindering police investigations, the star clocked in some serious drinking time with the boys.

According to Koby:

“Mate, he’s just like one of the boys. He’s risking big money and his reputation hanging out with us. He’s one of those people who can walk into any conversation and be comfortable with it. He can just deal with it. He comes down to the pub with me on a Friday and there’s 50 of the boys in there going mad and he just sat there sucking schooners with us, being one of the boys.”

Penned by Collateral writer Stuart Beattie, with Brian Grazer producing, the new drama from Universal will be a fictional adaptation of both the documentary and an upcoming book about the Brahs. Stars are yet to be announced.

http://www.surfermag.com/features/onlineexclusives/kobyabbertonprofile/

A strong and angry Angela Bassett (Malcom X) plays a limo-driver called Mace, who’ll do anything for the man she loves (Ralph Feinnes), including kick the shite out of a roomful of dread-locked bodyguards, break out of an armour-plated limo submerged in the LA river using only her bare hands and a shot-gun, and fend off a brace of cracker cops with the Y2K fireworks blasting overhead.

Juliette Lewis: bad never looked so good

With the help of celebrity trainers David Sinnot, and Bigelow stalwart Denise Snyder, Basset built up a formidable physique to take centre-stage in 90% of the jaw-dropping violence in this futuristic actioner.

The title is taken from a song by The Doors, and the soundtrack is a burner, featuring performances by real-life rocker Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers), who steals every one of her scenes, and not just because she is near-naked in most of them.

Sal Marinello is an accredited NJ Personal Trainer and High School Football Coach. Just don’t talk to him about bodybuilders.

“Bodybuilders are not athletes,” Sal writes. “They know nothing about athletics or athletes, and should be kept as far away as possible from legitimate athletes.

Bodybuilding has nothing to do with health, fitness, performance or any other of the legitimate concerns of true sport and competition. Bodybuilding is an activity that is based on looking a certain way and has nothing to do with performance in any meaningful athletic sense.

Bodybuilders are the cockroaches of the athletic world. Just like the Periplaneta Americana, bodybuilders operate under the cover of darkness and usually go scurrying when light is shined upon them. Where the American Cockroach gains entry by accessing cracks in a building’s foundation, the drug-using American Bodybuilder – Gymrattius Americana – insinuate themselves into the athletic world by preying on the ignorance and insecurities of the unsuspecting, or by exploiting those who will do anything to succeed.

Every major steroid/performance enhancing drug scandal involves bodybuilders.”

Any comments?

Marinello vindicates his opinions using the March 13 bust of one Anthony Cuppari on 15 counts of conspiracy to possess, manufacture or distribute steroids, GHB, and other controlled substances in the affluent suburb of East Hanover NJ. Cuppari, 25, is the volunteer football coach at Hanover Park High School, of which he is an alumni. Cuppari is also a personal trainer at the local Planet Gym. The investigation uncovered a suburban drug ring that made, labeled and distributed the stuff to gyms as well as the high school from both Cuppari’s parent’s home and the home of at least one other teenage boy, a sophomore at HPHS. There are more than a dozen other likely lads involved, many of whom are teenage students under Coach Cuppari’s care.

Cuppari’s Den of Iniquity

Anthony Cuppari’s drug ring allegedly included the bodybuilder Jason Arntz, who finished 8th in the 2002 Ironman Pro invitational. Prior to infiltrating themselves into the local high school, the drug ring’s clients included bodybuilders at local gyms.

Ipso facto, Marinello writes, ” Remember folks, body builders have no business hanging around with real athletes, and anytime body builders are hanging around real athletes, trouble is sure to follow.”

Muscle.com.au’s answer to Coach Marinello is this:

What’s your beef with bodybuilders?

Most recent steroid scandals have not involved bodybuilders. Pro-ballers, especially baseballers, of every stripe are on the sauce. Every sport—except tennis?— is tainted with users and cheaters and gangsters.

Mr Marinello’s real beef seems not to be the abuse of drugs in itself, but his opinion that bodybuilders, like cockroaches, don’t have any place in human, or at least sporting, society.

We concede that at a the performance level, bodybuilding hasn’t come such a long way since Mr Ziegfield yoinked strong-man Eugen Sandow from the Prussian circus tent into the global arena. Yes, it still has its carnivalesque moments, and no, it does often segue into a sad or silly form of performance art.

Bodybuilding’s early proponents used to add “muscle display performances” —strongman stunts and weightlifting—to their routine. Sadly, many of today’s flexathons do not actually involve feats of strength. If they did, or if they displayed some skills—aside from tanning, dieting and sequin-stitching— that the greater public could respond to, the sport might gain some much needed respect.

Yet, we remind Mr Marinello, who is a coach and personal trainer himself, that without these early showmen, he wouldn’t have a job. Eugen Sandow, the father of modern bodybuilding, founded the first Physical Culture Studio—a health club by any other name, and the exercise business became a lucrative one to be in. in fact Sandow, Treloar and others began to spread the word of health through bodybuilding, and Treloar, like many others, was an accomplished sportsman—rowing, football— coach, and trainer as well as a formidable strongman.

So the early traditions of bodybuilding are more in sync with Mr Marinallo’s own stated goals of common-sense fitness though strength-training, diet and lifestyle, than he is willing to acknowledge. Weight training as a culture, continues to uphold these as its goals, and the degree to which it has deviated from them through the widespread use of steroids is a matter of public knowledge.

Eugen Sandow shows us how it’s done

Still, bodybuilding cannot claim to be the source of the anabolic Nile. Modern doping goes back at the 19th century, when swimmers enhanced their performance through drugs, and in this century, as Marinello may well know, covert steroid use came to the US from the 1954 Olympics, when the American weight-lifting coach wanted whatever the Russian champions were using. Back home, Ciba Pharmaceuticals was happy to oblige, and Dianabol was born. Bodybuilders were slow on the uptake, not imbibing on a widespread basis until the 1970s, mainly because bodybuilding, unlike the Olympics at that time, was not where the money was. So the steroid gurus took their message to the weight-lifters, discuss-throwers and shot-putters—all real sports—where it was gratefully received.

The biggest dopers these days, at least outside the US, are not your average bodybuilders, most of whom are lucky if they can get their hands on some creatine or glutamine, but the professionals—ball-players, bodybuilders, weight-lifters, wrestlers… Coach Cuppari is none of these. In fact, the most you could say about him was that he was a personal trainer and high school football coach… just like you, Sal!

Muscle.com.au couldn’t agree more with Marinello that bodalicious bods do not qualify anyone to operate as a personal trainer, and we’ve all had our fair share of laughs at those smirking cell-phone jockeys working the gym floor like they own it. And au contraire, Mr Marinello: many of these DO carry the same mouthful of official credentials that you honour, if you want to talk about scandalous.

Bodybuilding: Lost the plot?

Mr Marinello coaches the Chatham HS Football team, Hanover Park’s rivals, and is a personal trainer in the New Jersey area—Coach Cuppari’s turf. Perhaps he should take a step back and lay the abuse of steroids firmly where it belongs: at the feet of a spectacle-hungry media, unscrupulous High School pencil-pushers, a corrupt sports officialdom, and multinational drug corporations. Lets leave the straining caps of your average weekend warrior to shoulder other burdens, such as supporting a family or dealing with their bosses, or impressing the opposite sex.

Nothing wrong with that, is there?

It is important to remember what separates Mr Cuppari from your enthusiastic Ironman or woman. Mr Cuppari was an alumni of Hanover Park HS, where he was allegedly already involved in drugs—cocaine and steroids. So, Mr Cuppari was an alleged criminal before he was a bodybuilder or personal trainer and before he volunteered to coach the football team, where his drug ring was already under investigation. The point is that from selling steroids to kids, to earning popularity points from his under-age charges by offering them date-rape drugs (GHB also works to help the post ‘roid crash), and who knows what else, Cuppari is despicable first, a drug dealer second, a High School football coach third, living at home at 25 forth, operating a lab out of his parent’s house fifth, and a bodybuilder/personal trainer somewhere way down the line after scumbag, according to his fans.

Why he was given the position of volunteer coach of the ailing football team is anyone’s guess, but one can imagine it had something to do with the management’s desperation to turn it around. How? The only man who seems to know or care is Chatham Coach Sal Marinello, who admits that he suspected his rival team were geared:
“A year ago we started to hear the rumors that the Hanover Park squad was on the sauce. Chatham kids [the school Marinello coaches] are friends with HP kids and see them both in and out of school. We heard some rumblings from other coaches, and the local newspaper’s high school football preview emphasized that the 2006 HP Hornets had changed their offense to a run-oriented, power football style of play that was designed to take advantage of the fact that HP thought they were bigger and stronger than everyone else.

The article was titled, Vodka, Pickle Juice, Kettlebell Lifting, and Other Russian Pastimes.

Since then, the catchy titles, relentless self-promotion and kettle-bells lobbed at traditional bodybuilding just keep coming. There’s been a brace of books–From Russia with Tough love (2002) and The Naked Warrier (2003) – plus articles for Ironman and Milo and lots of cool stuff on sites he runs with with partner John Ducane.

Love him? Hate him? Take a number. On the love side is Ironman magazine; Pavel’s myriad fans and students and Rolling Stone magazine, who voted Pavel Hot trainer of 2001, and Pavel himself.

The boys at T-Nation are more, shall we say, ambivalent. The relationship soured after Pavel declined an invitation to write for the mag, calling the team a bunch of “panty-sniffers.”

TC hit back by calling Pavel a “big pussy.”

Zing!!

Just don’t call her Kettle Kitten

In this much-discussed Atomic Dog article of ‘05, Luoma goes on to
suggest that if the prudish Pavel would only unclench his wiry gluteals, “who knows what might clunk to the ground… maybe the 20 pound kettlebell you misplaced during a seminar in Hoboken… “

Ah well, boys will be boys. And it seems the Ironman way with panties may be more to Pavel’s liking, because he doesn’t seem to have a problem writing for them.

It was always gonna end in tears. Way back in ‘01, when Pavel advised Chris Shugart that the unapologetically adolescent T-team should “save the testosterone for the gym,” Shugart noted in a sidebar that “my people — the Finns — had 44 wars with Russia. Now I know why.”

Zing and double-Zing!

Locker-room spats not withstanding, few in the biz dispute the merits of Pavel’s low-tech/high concept approach. Many may already be familiar with Janda sit-ups and other ways to Pavelize your abs.

But back to kettlebells. Girevik is a zine devoted to Kettlebell training:
What’s not to like in a workout that takes less than twenty minutes? If it doesn’t kill you in ten.

Girevik’s Workout of the Month

This month’s workout is an intense fat burning workout designed push your anaerobic capabilities to their limits. It is similar to density training and similar to Tabata training, but of course there is a twist.

It’s not pretty, but it works.

To perform this workout, you will need one kettlebell and a pullup bar. If one of these is not available, substitute in your exercise of choice. To start, place your Kettlebell 20-50 yards away from the pullup bar. Now, start off with 5-10 snatches each arm. Then, sprint to the pullup bar and perform as many pullups as you would do if you were doing a density training workout. Or perform a quarter to one third of your max number of pullups. Then sprint back to your kettlebell without stopping. When you arrive back at your kettlebell, perform 5 deck squats or 5 front squats with your KB. A military or side press is another option here. The bent press takes too much coordination for it to be safe here. Now take 30 seconds to rest, or however long it takes for your breathing rate to normalize.

When do you quit? It’s up to you. A good guideline is when it starts taking you longer than 30 seconds to return to normal breathing. Like a Tabata cycle, 6-10 circuits is probably enough. This is high intensity work, so keep the total time under 20 minutes. 15 minutes or less should be perfectly fine. Another option is to pick a time interval and then do as many circuits as you can. Over time, strive to perform more circuits in this interval. Or you can perform the same number of circuits and keep track of how long it takes you.

You can warm up for this workout by performing a few grinds, such as military presses, windmill or bent presses. To cool down, feel free to walk, do some light jogging, or do an Amosov complex of joint movements. Joint mobility drills are good for warming up or cooling down for almost any activity.

Since then, the divine Miss E has been a regular on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, in which she played Atalanta; and on Charmed as Hulk Paige. She has made numerous guest appearance in series such as Tarzan, Lois and Clarke and Home Improvement, as well as her own fitness series in the 1980s called BodyShaping.

Her films roles include Natural Born killers (1994) (playing TV Mallory), Double impact (1991) with Jean Claude Van Damme and Ballistic (1995) with Richard Rountree.

Cory in Ballistic

At 47, Cory is still one of the most photogenic, hardworking and knowledgeable bodybuilders around. She was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 1999.

She divorced bodybuilding husband Jeff in 1996, and is busy with several new projects, including her new TV fitness show, Gotta Sweat, her information-packed website, and raising her two kids with dentist hubby Steve Donia.

John Carpenter’s Christine is no exception.

Adapted from the Stephen King novel about a haunted car who possesses a teenager, Christine is the monster, and what a monster she is.

A 1958 Plymouth Fury—the fastest Plymouth every made—Christine is built, from her sharply flared tail fins to her bulging body-work to the 350 V8 under her hood.

 

 

Is she male or female? Either way, you don’t wanna get on her bad side.

Demonically possessed, she seduces a 17 year old nerd, and from then on, will endure anything to make him hers, from getting gang-raped by a trio of muscle-shirted toughs to being sodomised by a bull-dozer. Can she take it?

Oh yeah.

Does she get her own back?

Hell, yeah.

The New York Times called it the most foul-mouthed film ever made. No less than thirteen vintage Plymouth Furies and Belvederes were smashed in its production, each labeled Muscle 1, Muscle 2 and so on. Four survived and are now in private hands. Co-star Alexandra Paul was as hot then as she was during her long tenure at Baywatch. Machine sex is rife.

George Thorogood’s theme song, Bad to the Bone, says it all.

DVD features include a relaxed commentary by Carpenter and star Keith Gordon, and three fascinating featurettes including interviews with the crew and major players. John Carpenter had a knack for picking faces and talent and many a star – such as Kirk Russell (The Thing, Escape from LA) have him to thank for launching their career. Lead Keith Gordon (Dressed to Kill) who plays nerd Arnie looks fab and is now a director in his own right (The Chocolate Wars). Co-star John Stockwell (Top Gun), is a keen windsurfer and has helmed several critically acclaimed films such as Blue Crush and Into the Blue. As for Alexandra Paul, she’s still a babe, as you’d expect from a competitive triathlete and wife of Iron Man coach Ian Murray.

No remote controls were used on Christine. Stunt drivers hid behind her darkened windscreen for every chase, explosion and machine murder. A commentary highlight is legendary stuntsman Terry J Leonard telling what it was like to be behind the wheel when Christine self-combusts and goes after the tough who crosses her.

Hell hath no fury, baby…