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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 1990)
The Battalion LIFESTYLES Thursday, January 25,1990 Lifestyles Editor Mary-Lynne Rice 845- Bodybuilding: ‘A psych game’ More students join quest for sculpted, powerful muscles By CHIP SOWDEN Of The Battalion Staff Texas A&M bodybuild ers are pumped up for a better showing at competi tions this spring since more and more people are get ting into the sport. “Bodybuilding is really building up here,” A&rM Weightlifting Club Presi dent Mike Jenkins says. “The competition is really hard.” Jenkins says at least half of bodybuilding competition is mental. “You’ve got to think you’re the best one up there and you’ve got to show everybody you are to win,” he says. Among Jenkins’ nearly 400 fellow hardbodies in the club ’ are at least five men and one woman who are training for upcoming contests. They compete in Na tional Physique Committee “If you get up there and you’re not confident, you won’t present yourself well.” Charles Gonzales, body builder and co-owner of Gold’s Gym in College Sta tion, agrees. “It’s a psych game,” Gon zales says. “A lot of time you’re try ing to instill some sort of fear into your opponents.” a You’ve got to think you’re the best one up there and you’ve got to show everybody you are to win.” — Mike Jenkins, A&M Weightlifting Club president (NPC) amateur events such as the South Texas Classic and the Heart O’ Texas competitions. Jenkins says that women are getting into bodybuild ing much more than they used to. About 50 women are members of A&M’s weightlifting club, which is geared toward serious weightlifters. Jenkins, a senior physical education major, hopes to compete this year, pending rehabilitation of his wrist, which was operated on last year. He has competed in two other bodybuilding compe titions. In 1988, he won sixth place at the Heart O’ Texas contest in the third level of NPC competition. Gonzales, Class of ’85, competes at level one, the highest level of NPC com petition. He will compete March 10 at the Southwest Classic at the University of Houston campus. Last year, Gonzales qual ified for national NPC competition. “My goal from the start was to be competing at the national level,” says Gon zales, who has bench- pressed more than 450 pounds. “Just getting there was achieving my goal,” says Jenkins, who lost 33 pounds for the contest. Despite his physical achievements, However, But he says everybody wins just by being on the stage. That is when the re wards for all the hours of training and practice are realized, he says. In addition to the hours Jenkins spends each day training, he devotes at least one hour to going through his routine and poses. By the time he competes at a particular event, he has practiced his routine a cou ple of hundred times. Brett Brodnax, a powerlifter and graduate industrial engineering major, does dumbbell curls in front of a mirror to watch his lifting form, a method common among bodybuilders. “(But) it’s not a vain ob session at all,” Gonzales says. He describes the time bodybuilders spend in front of the mirror as a chance to identify their faults and the things they need to work on. Jenkins says, “You have to know what your best body parts are and choose your poses according to that.” The benefits of body building are received in several ways, not the least of which is personal fulfil lment, bodybuilders say. “When you turn a few heads, it’s an ego trip,” Jen kins says. “Really feeling confident about yourself is the main thing I like about bodybuil ding.” But building confidence is only a part of the body building lifestyle. Both Jenkins and Gon zales endorse a total ap proach to bodybuilding, emphasizing nutrition. training and adequate rest. “You’re working with the body being stressed on a daily level,” Gonzales says. “If recuperation and rest aren’t there, there’s danger of injury in the weight room. “You really have to know yourself.” Photos by Mike C. Mulvey Jeff Gillihan, a third-year vet student, prepares to do a squat lift.
