The obvious fan favorite was Connecticut’s P.J. Braun, who brings a mixture of confidence and insanity to the stage. He definitely had his guns loaded and won the heavyweight class. Lithuanian Audrius Jegelevicius, who won the NPC Metropolitan overall in this very same building in April, was named the super heavyweight winner.

A good showing was also made by Paul Sousa, who won the Masters 35+ Heavyweight and Masters Overall. He finished as the runner-up to Braun in the open heavyweight category.

Perhaps the most impressive of all the competitors was Nick Medici, who was named the champion in the Teen B, Teen Overall, Novice Light Heavyweight and Novice Overall divisions. This young man definitely has a future and it would not be a surprise to see him gracing the pages of the muscle magazines very shortly. Definitely the earner of a future pro card.

In women’s bodybuilding, Andrea Giacomi won the overall over Myra Adams and Maria Rita Penteado.Ava Cowan won the overall figure while Sue Dent took the fitness and Monica Eiler the bikini.

Kai Greene, the 2009 Arnold Classic winner, really blew things up with an excellent guest posing appearance. The Brooklyn native possessed an incredible set of wheels and a lat spread that could gather frequent flier miles.

A Look at the Life and Times of Professional Bodybuilder Dena Westerfield - 

For IFBB professional bodybuilder Dena Westerfield the seeds of a career in health and fitness were planted when, at the tender age of 4 years old, she became involved in gymnastics. By the time she was 8 she traded gymnastics for distance running and then, during her senior year at high school, Dena took a weight training class…and her life as a bodybuilder began.

On leaving high school, Dena continued her education at the University of Florida and, while working on a Bachelor of Science degree, used what spare time she had working as a personal trainer in addition to conducting spinning, kickboxing and strength/conditioning classes.

With her eyes firmly focused on a career in health and fitness she then became a neuromuscular therapist at the Humanities Center in Pinellas Park Florida.

Her contest history began in 2000 when she placed third in the Women’s Tri-Fitness show. She followed this up with a heavyweight and overall title at the NPC USA Coastal championships in 2001. By the time 2002 rolled around, Dena moved to St. Louis to attend Logan Chiropractic College where she graduated in April 2004 and went on to open her own practice – Westerfield Health Center. In between this she managed to secure the overall title in the Junior Nationals as a middleweight and then, moving up to the USA Championships she gained a 7^th place in the middleweight section.

As if opening her own health practice wasn’t time consuming enough, Dena managed to fit the 2004 Nationals into her calendar, placing fourth in the light heavy weight section. However, it was on November 21, 2005 that her bodybuilding career really turned a corner, when she won the light-heavyweight class at the Nationals and won her IFBB Pro card. Her pro debut quickly followed, with a second place in a hotly contested open class in the Europa Super Show, which in turn qualified her for the Ms Olympia.

More contests and more successful placings followed, taking us right up to the present day where Dena is now in her final weeks of preparation for the 2009 Arnold Classic (March 6-8).

Sponsored by SPECIES NUTRITION (the brainchild of Dave Palumbo and Colette Nelson), Dena makes full use of their range of state-of-the-art supplements in her contest diet and is currently using ‘Isolyze’, ‘Omegalyze’, ‘Fibrolyze’, ‘Lipolyze’ and ‘Somalyze’ from their range.

Talking to me recently about her pre-contest training and diet Dena seemed pretty happy with the way things are going and is setting her sights on entering the show at 140lbs of lean, compact muscle.

Given her past history and achievements I have no doubt that she will achieve this goal and, in so doing, will pose a serious threat to her competition. In the meantime, Dena will be making a guest appearance on Musclesportmag.com radio. Stay tuned for more details!

N.B. You can find out more about Dena by visiting www.denawesterfield.com and to learn more about the supplements mentioned in this article go to www.speciesnutrition.com

Leigh Penman, in addition to be a staff writer at MuscleSport Mag, has been writing for bodybuilding magazines, websites and nutritional supplement companies since 1985. Whilst residing in the UK, she earned the reputation of being one of the top female writers in bodybuilding-related media. Her credits included being a contributing editor on all the magazines in production as well as filling the shoes of Ladies Editor and Showbiz Editor on two publications (the later being on Arnold’s sanctioned magazine, ‘Bodypower’). During this time she also competed successfully on four occasions (placing in the top four in all contests).

Relocating to New York in the late 1990s she focused her writing attention to crystal healing techniques and metaphysics – however, she still maintained a five day workout schedule during this time and gained her personal training certificate.

Having also studied pharmacology in relation to sports performance, her writing began taking her in that direction until the present day which sees her embarking on a return to the magazine world, as well as extending her web-related work in the bodybuilding and fitness field.

Leigh has been working out for close to thirty years so she is clearly a writer who ‘walks her talk.’
She can be contacted personally at zeal2heal@yahoo.com.