By Leigh Penman

And so it came to pass last week that Marion Jones decided to place herself in front of the talk show high priestess, Oprah Winfrey, and tell “all” about her brush with the law and imprisonment for anabolic steroid use during the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

But did she really tell the truth this time around or was it simply a case of trying to crawl her way back into the publics’ hearts?

Well, during the interview Marion looked down a lot when formulating her answers to Oprah’s questions. Now, any student of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) would tell you that this was a sign of searching her feelings and emotions for the appropriate response. However, it could also just be a sign that she was avoiding too much eye contact with Winfrey as she considered her answers (and we don’t need to be students of body science to figure out why). Continue Reading »

Manny Kirby Uses Car Accident as Inspiration for Bodybuilding

This is part of a continuing series provided exclusively by MuscleSport Mag entitled, “This is Your Magazine,” where we profile the every-day athlete. If you would like to see yourself profiled here, please send us your story and photo to superbas@optonline.net.

Many kids dream about being as big as the Incredible Hulk, but few actually live it. A young Manny Kirby used to confide to his father about that, and he ended up morphing into Bruce Banner’s alter ego following an incident that was more catastrophic than gamma rays.

12 years ago, the 41 year-old Kirby was involved in a serious automobile accident that left him with a cracked sternum and four cracked ribs (two each in the front and back). Doctors told him that he wouldn’t be able to do anything such involving constant movement such as dancing due to his heart being bruised by his injured ribs.

While some people would have wallowed in their misery, Kirby found a new way while convalescing for over two months. He started reading the writings of Bruce Lee and Mike Mentzer. “Lee’s mental focus on the body astounded me,” recalled Kirby, “and spoke about the mind and spirit.

“Mentzer had the same mental focus, but was more about the mind and pushing beyond your limits,” continued Kirby. “I combined the two and, lo and behold, stepped forth into a gym.” Continue Reading »

Personal Trainers will Incorporate Many Different Styles into Programs; It’s Your Job to Find the Right One

By Matthew Sgro

This is part of a continuing series provided exclusively by MuscleSport Mag entitled, “This is Your Magazine,” where we profile the every-day athlete. If you would like to see yourself profiled here, please send us your story and photo to superbas@optonline.net.

There are many ways to improve one’s physique and fitness level. One example of this is kettle bell training. Under the guidance of a properly trained professional this can be a highly effective and safe manner of training. As many physical therapists and professional personal trainers will tell you, training of this type with an unqualified trainer can be dangerous. They can say this because they’ve probably seen people after they’ve recieved this training.

There are very few exercises that are “wrong.” With the right form and instruction, you can get in phenomenal shape with many different types of training. Someone who specializes in a type of training such as kettle bells is exactly what you need when training with such type of training. Continue Reading »

ESPN (No) Personality Can’t Stay Away from Being A Rabble Rouser, Even After Being Sacked from Most Jobs

When you’re a one-trick pony, there should be no surprise that a lesson is never learned. Take Stephen A. Smith, for example. At one point in his career, he was writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and had his own radio and television show. All three have blown up in his face, and no matter what spin he may want to put on it, his controversial ways sealed his fate.

Smith has an uncanny ability to rub people the wrong way with his pro-African American views on everything in the sports world. Someone can be proud of their race and heritage, but when you’re supposedly doing your job - which calls for objectiveness - leave those ideas home. No one reading about a sports organization wants to hear which player is best black athlete. The old saying, “You root for laundry,” means just that - fans don’t care if the player is white, black, hispanic or other. We’re into the team because we grew up with them and cheer for the players wearing that jersey.

Because Smith turns off the majority of the audience - if you need me to spell it out, the white part of the audience - his ratings were not up to par and thus the reason for “Quite Frankly” bouncing around the schedule before being dropped a year and a half later. While the man knows his business, he loses a lot of his credibility by harping on social issues that have no correlation. A prime example is his latest “Up Front” column in the August 25 issue of ‘ESPN The Magazine.’ Calling himself an “angry black man” who has “no desire to be PC,” Smith sounds as if he were standing on a small platform in Times Square instead of sitting in front of a computer. Continue Reading »

Olympian Asafa Powell Volunteers for Anti-Doping Testing Program; Complains About It Later

The only line you really need to read in this entire fiasco was that Asafa Powell of Jamaica made this stunning accusation during a news conference promoting his shoe sponsor.

Now that we have established the motive, the star runner stood on his soapbox and claimed that although he was one of 10 track and field athletes to volunteer for an anti-doping testing program, Powell feels that the International Association of Athletics Federation have overstepped their boundaries. Since arriving in Beijing on August 1, Powell has been tested four times and now is claiming, “They are taking so much blood, I am going to be very weak before the final of the 100 meters,” he said in the AP report. Continue Reading »

A Personal Trainer’s Agenda SHould Be An Entire Personal Program

By Matthew Sgro

This is part of a continuing series provided exclusively by MuscleSport Mag entitled, “This is Your Magazine,” where we profile the every-day athlete. If you would like to see yourself profiled here, please send us your story and photo to superbas@optonline.net.

Recognizing the connection between body, mind and spirit is important in the quest for optimum health. All must be in harmony and balance to be at one’s best. As a personal trainer I do my best to help my clients in every way. Creating a healthy existence starts with an effective workout program, continues with solid nutrition and carries on thru with a good understanding of one’s self and what makes you happy.

I do my best to set a good example to the people around me by living a healthy lifestyle and trying to do what’s right whenever I can. We’re all far from perfect. I think acceptance and tolerance of people’s weaknesses and shortcoming and helping them work thru and overcome them is what you should be doing in all parts of your life, not just personal training. Judging and putting people down isn’t the job of a personal trainer, or even a good person for that matter. Continue Reading »

What it Means and Why Uniqueness is a Quality Trait

By Matthew Sgro

This is part of a continuing series provided exclusively by MuscleSport Mag entitled, “This is Your Magazine,” where we profile the every-day athlete. If you would like to see yourself profiled here, please send us your story and photo to superbas@optonline.net.

The new buzz word and fitness trend is functional training. But what exactly is this? It can be different things to different people. What is the function you want to perform? If you’re a basketball player and want to jump higher, that’s the function you’re training for. Jump squats and other forms of explosive exercises are what would help you. If you’re an 85 year-old woman with a hip replacement, the function you want is to walk without pain and correct your imbalances, which would of course call for something different than jump squats.

Everyone is looking for something different in their functional training. This is why my philosophy on training someone is that everyone is different and everyone requires a different fitness program to get where they want to be. Continue Reading »

Share Some of That Knowledge in the Gym

By Matthew Sgro

This is part of a continuing series provided exclusively by MuscleSport Mag entitled, “This is Your Magazine,” where we profile the every-day athlete. If you would like to see yourself profiled here, please send us your story and photo to superbas@optonline.net.

As with anything in life, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. It should go without saying the more quality training time you put in and the tighter you keep your nutrition, the better results you’ll get. But what happens when you get to the level of fitness you want or are happy with? You don’t need to train as much or as hard to maintain as you do to get there. So what do you do with that extra time and energy?

It’s been my experience that it’s very rewarding to help someone else get there. There’s plenty of kids running around the gyms doing all the wrong things we, as seasoned weight lifters, did when we were young. How about giving them some guidance? If your workouts used to last 2 hours of gut-busting, crazy all-out effort, and now you’re down to an hour, why not take some time while you’re in the gym to help out a beginner? Continue Reading »

Elite Personal Training Does More Than Show You the Way

By Matthew Sgro

This is part of a continuing series provided exclusively by MuscleSport Mag entitled, “This is Your Magazine,” where we profile the every-day athlete. If you would like to see yourself profiled here, please send us your story and photo to superbas@optonline.net.

The job, I believe, of a Professional Personal Trainer is to educate, motivate and inspire their clients to improve their lives by helping them reach a higher level of fitness. This is accomplished in many ways, one of them being resistance training. Whether it be with free weights, bands or machines, strengthening the muscles makes them leaner and stronger. Holding more muscle pushes the body to burn more fat. While you’re training, especially in a circuit training style, you WILL burn calories. This article is about training, so I won’t delve into nutrition, but it does play a major factor and any quality personal trainer should address it. Continue Reading »

Barbie Garrido, Female Bodybuilder, Wears Many Hats to Success

This is part of a continuing series provided exclusively by MuscleSport Mag entitled, “This is Your Magazine,” where we profile the every-day athlete. If you would like to see yourself profiled here, please send us your story and photo to superbas@optonline.net.

And you think that you have had a tough time meeting your goals. Down in Miami, Florida, Barbie Garrido had to take care of her four children while going to college to become a Registered Nurse. That would have been a lot of anyone’s plate, but Barbie is not just anyone.

After deciding to do personal training “on the side,” as she put it, she met her current husband, who gave her the support she needed to take it to the next level – competitive bodybuilding, something Garrido, 39, has had a passion for since her early days at Brodie’s Gym. “It was a hardcore gym full of sweaty men,” she remembered. “I saw no women so I questioned that for a while until I came across a picture of Juliette Berman and Rachel McLish and I wanted to be like them.” Continue Reading »