Archive for the ‘English’ Category

Robin Strand: canadian 17 years old wonder

If the protagonist of this story describe himself as “weighting 120 lbs soaking wet ” well, this means the boy was really and truly a very skinny one. But Robin Strand’s poor physical state was going to suddenly change. His body changement started………..in a restaurant! Robin badly wanted to be bigger and more muscular, but he didn’t know how to start, until…he got a part time job at a restaurant where the boss was a bodybuilder. It all started only one year ago. One day the boss asked Robin if he wanted to borrow his Arnold Schwarzenegger Encyclopedia of bodybuilding. Robin read every single page and then bought a barbell set and started lifting weights at home. All this happened during the summer after grade 11.

Soon Robin started seeing results and decided to join a gym. After a year of lifting, eating and researching about all topics about bodybuilding, he decided that there was nothing else in the world he wanted more than to become a bodybuilder. The first thing he had to do was compete  in a bodybuilding show. And in only one year Robin attended three shows and won all three shows, including the Ontario Championships. Quite and outstanding achievement for a so young beginner!

Now back to basic statistics. Robin Strand, born in 1993 and lives in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. He  is 5’11 tall and his contest bodyweight is 170 lbs. About his bodybuilding Robin says: “I love every aspect about bodybuilding. I love to train, pushing myself to the limit each time I’m in the gym. To me, the gym is a way to tune out from the rest of the world for an hour and just do my thing! I also love cooking, eating and experimenting with food and nutrition. I always strive to improve myself, physically and mentally. There is nothing better than setting goals, reaching them and then setting higher and higher goals. I couldn’t see myself living other lifestyle than a bodybuilder’s lifestyle. I’m in the game for life, and I’m ready to take on the world”.

Thank you Jasper!

Since the very first day of its publication on this site, the article about the dutch junior wonder Jasper Sebastiaan Blok has stimulated an enormous interest in the young readers of Junior’s Corner, so much so that it has by now skyrocketed to first place – with over 1,500 visits – among all articles published in JC. I wouldn’t be surprised – since the uninterrupted increase of visits – to have Jasper’s profile at over 2,000 visits in a very short time!

It is a privilege for JC and for myself to be able to promote this young Champion bodybuilder among all my readers all over the world. If during the next months this article will continue to capture the attentions of my readers, I sincerely hope to have Jasper in Rome on next december 5th as the foreign winner of the 2nd edition of the “Junior’s Corner Trophy”. Thank you so much Jasper!

Cody Lewis: the ordinary story of an extraordinary athlete

At first glance, the story you are going to read, seems the usual tale of the skinny boy who quickly changes into a huge, successfull bodybuilder, realizing his ambitions and taking his revenge over those people who at the beginning laughed behind his face. Actually, the same happened to the protagonist of these lines. Cody Lewis in fact, started to train with weights at the early age of 13, being a really skinny boy of merely 125 pounds. Nothing new. We all have read this happy ending tales even too much times. So, why my young readers could be interested in knowing about Cody Lewis’ story?

There are at least two reasons for reading with deep attention about Cody Lewis and for learning his lesson. The first reason: there is no shortcuts to greatness. Successfull junior bodybuilders  (each of them) are alike, like twin brothers. They all reached their goal because of hard work, total devotion, enthusiasm and self-discipline. In other words, the narrow company of junior heroes can be recognized because of their focused and strong personality, still before owing to their genetic endowement. These 13-14 years old boys seem alike to all other youngsters, but in reality they have no equal. There’s no other youngsters like them.

How could this 13 years old skinny boy believe to be a potential genetic muscle freak if, while looking at his thin muscles in the mirror, he absolutely could see mirrored no signals of any genetic disposition to build muscles? Here the second reason to write about Cody Lewis: he quickly learned to stay half way between the imaginary and the real world. He realized the paramount importance for a beginner junior bodybuilder to dream and to believe. To long for and to work hard. And he learned that the more lively he could dream about him as a great bodybuilder, the more  strongly emotions would drive him to become a real great bodybuilder.

When in the off-season Cody “the Beast”  usually trains six times a week (sometimes two bodyparts a day) since he feels that, because of the extra-feeding he can train his body the hell out. During the bulking period Cody eats around 10-12 meals a day, very high calories (around 7500!) with about 550 grams of proteins, 450 carbohydrates and 120 grams of fats. While approaching a show he still trains six days per week, but the duration of each workout shortens and the intensity level goes  – using his own words – “Up through the roof!” . He always loves to train heavy, unless about two weeks out either for avoiding injuries or because of the lower levels of energy. Close to the contest Cody eats around 6 meals a day for a total number of kalories of about 2500.

Cody Lewis was born on November 1st, 1990. He stands 5’11 and lives in Modesto, California. Cody entered his first show (Contra Costa Championships) in 2008 at 17, winning overall teen title and a few weeks later he is on the stage at the California State Championships again winning  the overall teen title. Then it’s time for Cody to focused on building as much muscles he can. Cody always had a very lean physique with a fast metabolism. For him it always has been harder to add mass…until last year when he reached an outstanding bodyweight at 285 lbs!

At present Cody is really close to his next show: the teen Nationals that will be held on next July 24th. He is ready and wants to win it! Bringing there his best condition ever he will be a major contender for that prestigious title. All the best Cody!

First “Junior’s Huddle” in Rome with Nasser Al Ahmed

On next sunday May 16th in Rome at the Crunch Fitness Gym (via G. De Calvi 27) the first edition of the “Junior’s Huddle” will be held with bulgarian top junior champion Nasser Al Ahmed as our welcomed guest. Twenty years old Nasser won the Continental IFBB Junior title in 2008, was Vice-European Junior Champion in 2009 and winner of the 2009 Balkan Games.

We invite all italian juniors to participate to this event especially suited for you. Nasser will answer to all questions, will demonstrate how to properly train and pose, will advise juniors who want to, about your physical strong and weak points and two of you will train with him! Me and Nasser will wait for you! It will be a positive, aggregational moment for our juniors, organized with juniors in mind: for juniors, between juniors and about juniors.

Send your pics to Junior’s Corner!

On last december 13th, in Rome  the 2009 edition of the Junior’s Corner Trophy has been presented to Filippo Rispoli. The article about him has been the most visualized in the columns of this website. My intention for the 2010 edition of this Trophy is to change something. It will not change the venue site of the Trophy: Rome on 5 or 12 december 2010, but other things are changing.

This year the Junior’s Corner Trophy will be doubled: one for the promising italian bodybuilders and another one especially devoted to our FOREIGN young readers. The Trophy is reserved to all young bodybuilders born in: 1989-1990-1991-1992-1993-1994.

Click HERE or on the home page of this site on “Contatti” to send me your photos. You should send at least 2 pictures of you (from head to foot) wearing posing trunks of short pants, no creams or oil on your skin, in the frontal and back “relaxed” pose. You are invited to add more pictures doing the usual compulsory poses (front double biceps, front lat spread, side chest, back double biceps, back lat spread, side triceps, abdominal & thighs). Please also add a few info about you. I will publish in Junior’s Corner your pictures and a related article. Then, the article that attains the highest number of visualizations will be proclamed the winner of the 2010 edition of the Junior’s Corner Trophy. The winner of the 2010 Junior’s Corner Trophy will received the prize at home or will be invited in Rome to draw the Trophy.

It is not necessary to be huge or shredded, the overall POTENTIAL of your physique will be evaluated to the most (wide shoulders, narrow waist, evident muscular quality, balanced muscular development). So don’t be scary or don’t underevaluate yourself, but be proud of your genetic endowement and of your efforts in the gym and please send me your pictures….from now!

2009 edition of the Junior's Corner Trophy. From L to R: Roman Fritz. Jimmy Pedemonte and the winner of the Trophy Filippo Rispoli

The most promising 17 years old bodybuilder in Italy

After the articles “Nasser Al Ahmed: the biggest 19 y.o. bodybuilder in Europe” and “Who is the best 18 years old bodybuilder today?” that you can find in this website, it is the turn, at last, to talk of a very young and promising bodybuilder from Italy. His name is Marco Romano. He was born on March 18, 1993 so has just turned 17. Marco is 178 cm tall and his bodyweight is now 90 kg. He lives in Martano, Lecce, in the southern part of the country.

Marco practised swimming for eight straight years and then started his weight training at 15, during October 2008, being a skinny boy of 60 kg. Since his body started growing immediatedly and at a very fast rate, Marco became more and more devoted to his bodybuilding. To gain 30 kilos in about one and an half year already is an outstanding achievement, but here in Italy everybody still foresees further, greater improvements for Marco. Because of his fantastic genetic endowement, it appears affordable for him to reach a bodyweight of about 100 kilos within one more year, so that Italy could have his first 18 years old bodybuilder weighting as much as a superheavy athlete.

At present Marco trains four times a week, at the “Pump” Gym located in Maglie, Lecce. Still being a student at the Technical Commercial Institute, his workouts are in the afternoon. Until now Marco considers arms and back his best bodyparts. His parents agree with his interest in bodybuilding and his mother helps by cooking his main meals. His icon is Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler. Marco has seen all his videos many many times..

Marco Romano short term goal within one year (when he will tirn 18) is to approach the same muscular body developed by Charles Montreuil, the famous canadian junior bodybuilder, when he was 19 old. His ultimate dream is to reach the highest possible level of muscular development that his genetic endowement and total dedication will allow him to reach.

Marco has the potential to become in the near future one of the best junior bodybuilders in Europe. Since he is eligible in the junior class until 2014…he has enough time to become a great junior champion!

Roman Fritz updated

As it obviously happens, right after his spectacular and deserved victory of both his weight class and of the overall title  at the 2009 IFBB World Junior Championships in Poland, Roman Fritz’s name has been launched into bodybuilding stardom. Because of his prestigious achievements Roman has received an enormous, worldwide media coverage and, at present, everybody recognizes his face and his outstanding muscular physique. Straight after the Worlds, Roman Fritz already planned his future contest: 2010 National German Championships in the senior superheavy class.

So, we know exactly what Roman achieved and what are his future plans. But what is doing nowadays? Is he improving his already titanic body? What he’s doing besides training?

At present Roman weights 116 kg with a bodyfat of 6%. However something has changed in his training and dieting routines. He is now experimenting with the so called “DoggCrapp DC-training” and he likes it. Since this training method forces you to train really heavily all the time, he switches to a very high reps & high volume approach (e.g. 20 sets per bodypart with 15-20 reps each) every other week. Roman still trains each bodypart twice per week, regardless which of the two techniques he is using.

But also his nutrition has changed a little bit in this period. Roman is still eating every 2 hours, eight meals a day.  Each meal contains 80-100 grams of carbohydrates and 50-60 grams of proteins, but in order to force his body to gain weight he must now include some cheat meals a week, 3-4 times a week. For instance, he can have one kg of ice-cream, burger, pizza… Roman has never done something like this; his nutrition has always been 100% clean. He feels how funny it is to do something that is considered bad, to reach something positive…!

Besides his hard daily training routine, Roman Fritz is also a serious student of Health Care Management. Now that the semester is over, he had a certain number of test to take, and he did it with brilliant grades!

Nasser Al Ahmed and Kay Greene in Italy

The fall of comunism in 1989 has meant the collapse of bulgarian economy of about 40%, an analogous wave of emigration and   a significant demographic lowering that experts believe will last for many years to come. All that happened because the symbiotic link between Bulgaria and the former Soviet Union suddenly stopped. But in spite of the economical crisis, bodybuilding in Bulgaria still remains very active and successfull. The victory of the Ifbb world title in Doha, Qatar 2009 by Hristomir Hristov and by Dimitar Dimitrov represents an encouraging confirmation of this statement. Certainly,  all other bulgarian bodybuilders have really to struggle day after day, in order to keep on their training and dieting. It is quite obvious that young bodybuilders in Bulgaria really must overcome greater difficulties if they want to succeed, and this is the case of 19 years old Nasser Al Ahmed.

It seems that the greater the difficulties the more hungry young bulgarian bodybuilders become. I still remember Nasser’s words when he told me that at the beginning of his training career his diet was based not on sophisticated nutritional knowledge, but simply on how much money he had in his pocket. At that time he could afford 300 gr. rice and 1 kg read meat daily, every day. Nevertheless his drive and motivation has allowed him to reach a great achievement: winning the Ifbb European Junior Championships at the age of 18.

Bulgaria has been visited by american pro guests, like Flex Wheleer (that Nasser met personally), Chris Cormier (who own an house in Bulgaria) or Markus Ruhl who guest posed in 2009 in Sofia, where Nasser lives. But Kay Greene means something special to Nasser, he represents the ideal model of what bodybuilding would be and of what a bodybuilder should be in Nasser’s eyes. So you can imagine how Nasser was excited when I told him that Kay Greene and Shawn Ray will be present during Nasser’s stay in Italy! It has been a unique experience for this young champion bodybuilder since he could meet his idol and because Kay has been so kind to him, spending a lot of time with Nasser during their two days staying in Italy. Nasser has learnt a lot from Kay and this has not price!  I believe that Kay, besides being a great bodybuilding pro champion is a very sensitive man. Surely he must have felt the positive energy in Nasser’s soul and helped him to accomplish his dreams. My best wishes to Nasser and thank you so much Kay!

Lukas Topinka in Italy

After bulgarian top junior bodybuilder Nasser Al Ahmed who guest posed in Como on last october and the current Overall World Champion Roman Fritz from Germany who guest posed in Rome on last december, it is now time for another “big name” of junior bodybuilders to come to Italy. This time our guest will be Lukas Topinka from Czech Republic. Lukas during his four years  on stage has been successfull as nobody else before him: from his second place at the 2006 World Championships in Agrigento, Italy (still being 18 of age), to his European Title in 2007 in Tyumen, Russia. Then his first World Title in Plzen, Czech Republic until his second World Title in Bialystok, Poland.

- Program of Lukas Topinka’s Seminar in Italy on sunday February 14th 2010 at “Pump” Gym – via D’Annunzio 10/12N Genova

- 10.00 to 12.30 a.m. : exercises for each body part and my preferred training techniques

- 15.00 to 15.45: nutrition guidelines during the bulking phase

- 16.00 to 16.45: nutrition guidelines during the pre-contest phase

- 17.00 to 18.00: the use of supplements during the preparation for the 2009 Junior World Championships

Junior’s Corner: balance and projects

At the beginning of a new year, to draw up the balance of what has been done and to present the projects of what will be done, it is absolutely customary. Actually Junior’s Corner was born on August 12th 2009 and therefore has only 5 months of presence in the web. At present, as far as I know, Junior’s Corner is the only website completely devoted to junior Ifbb bodybuilders. Let me at first tell you about what has been done until now. The first significant fact is that JC has moved from inside the Italian Ifbb Federation website to have now its own indipendent state. Maybe you can imagine how hard it has been to transfer the material from the previous to the new web site. Over 50 articles has been published either in italian or in english (on an average of 1 article every 3 days!). Junior’s Corner has readers from 50 different countries of the five continents. Half of our readers are obviously from Italy, a 10% comes from the United States of America, a similar percentage comes from Germany and then with smaller and smaller percentages from many other countries like Poland, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Canada, China, India, Venezuela, Iran, and so on. Until now, readers of the “new” Junior’s Corner has been more than 2,000 who read almost 6,000 pages. To be remebered in this occasion, the article appeared on the International Ifbb Newsletter speaking of Junior’s Corner, and another one published in the italian magazine “Cultura Fisica”. To be remembered with pride the letter forwarded by Gen. Wolfgang Schroder, President of Ifbb Austrian Federation.

JC activity for the promotion of junior bodybuilding in Italy is not restricted to the pages of the website. The invitation of bulgarian top junior bodybuilder Nasser Al Ahmed who guest posed in Como on last october and of the Overall World Junior Champion Roman Fritz from Germany who guest posed in Rome on last december has the same identical aim: to promote junior bodybuilding by inspiring young bodybuilders. During the very first months of 2010 it is my intention to promote a seminar held by another top junior bodybuilder who will come to Italy to pass his outstanding experience to our promising young athletes. Then we hope to be able to make a real “scoop” during our National Championships to be held in Sanremo on June 13th 2010. At the moment this project is still “top secret”! In my mind there are other two ideas regarding the “activation” of junior bodybuilding in Italy: the first is what I call “Junior’s Huddles”. Every month, say on saturdays, all juniors who wish to train together, to share their ideas, projects, doubts, can do it together with me. The second is the idea of promoting a “summer training camp”: say 4-5 days in a seaside resort where a selected group of junior bodybuilders can train together….and have fun…together with a great junior Champion. Who knows if I will be able to make all these projects a reality and above all if someone will help me in getting these ideas done.

In the end let me thank you all my young friends for your support and interest. If you can  help me to make Junior’s Corner a more and more well known website, please do it. This is Your website, it is completely devoted to you, young bodybuilders.  To you: the future of our beloved sport!

Jimmy

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