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.