The only thing I heard was the shutter of the photographer’s camera.
I looked out into the massive auditorium, I was in awe.
6,864 seats.
Empty.
Just 48 hours before more than 250,000 people were expected to attend the Arnold.
And today there were none.
In total there were 700 amateur competitors hitting the stage.
Some who had trained for years for this moment.
Friends and family waited at hotels nearby or across the street at bars, watching the event on Youtube.
It was surreal.
I remember when I found out they were shutting the expo down to spectators.
I looked at my phone and thought …
This has to be a joke.
I checked my email immediately.
No emails. No missed calls.
Nothing but an Instagram post that said
“The Arnold is canceled”
After discussions between the Ohio governor, Columbus Mayor, and Arnold himself, they chose not to risk bringing such a large gathering together during the Corona virus outbreak.
Thousands of spectators canceled their travel plans.
“I lost $1,000 overnight,” Helen a bodybuilding spectator from Canada posted on the gram.
“This is normally a huge party week for us,” a patron at Marcella’s, an Italian restaurant in Short North near the convention center, told me the night after I competed.
“I can’t believe I can get a table tonight. Normally I’d never drive down here during the Arnold, but it’s a ghost town.”
Because it was dead, check-in was a breeze.
Despite more than 150 bikini competitors competing, we were the only ones at the judges’ desk Wednesday when we checked in.
We had to take our pants off!
During check-in the judges asked us to remove our pants, bend over and show them our bikini bottoms.
This was a new one for me.
We hadn’t even brought our suits.
We ran back to our Airbnb and grabbed them.
We put the suits on at the convention center, ran up to the judges’ table and then bent over so they could see if our suits covered enough of our butts.
I assume because we have close-ups live streamed on youtube, they wanted to keep things appropriate for TV.
Amature Prejudging
Ana and I want to get our pro cards this year.
So we decided we’d compete at the first show of the year you could go pro at:
The Arnold.
This was for four reasons:
- It would give us a kick in the pants to start dieting for the rest of the season.
- It was a chance for me to meet and talk with Paul Revelia of Pro Physique about coaching me.
- The Expo! We wanted to watch weightlifting, Olympic lifting, and hit all the supplement and training booths, and
- Finally, we’d get a realistic idea of how we compared to the pro competitors. Competing is all just practice and improvement at the end of the day!
The Preparation
“Anything that can go wrong will.”
Murphy’s famous law struck hard.
I started prepping in December.
I immediately started dropping weight.
But over New Year’s I lost motivation.
I just wasn’t feeling it in the gym or with my diet.
I wasn’t putting in the work.
Instead, I did just enough to maintain my current weight.
I hired Olympian Casey Samsel for three sessions to fine-tune my posing routine. (I’m still working with her to keep improving based on how I did at the Arnold).
Then I went to Guatemala and damaged ligaments in my right-hand making training harder.
Even so, with two weeks to go, I finally started to get it together.
By the time The Arnold came around, I was still 10 lbs above a winning stage weight.
Did I quit? Did I chicken out?
Heck no!
I made a promise to myself to get onstage and that’s what I did.
I also didn’t do anything crazy right before to try and make up lost time.
This is a long game for me and I had a lot of things to practice on stage that day besides just being lean enough.
I had a new posing routine. And this was the first time Ana and I were doing our own hair, makeup, and tan.
I felt relaxed and at ease the day I competed
Hair and makeup packages at the Arnold cost $500. Tanning usually costs $150 plus. But you can easily do it yourself.
We ordered a ProTan kit and checked it in our luggage for our tan. I would not recommend doing this alone. Definitely have a friend or significant other help you. While it’s fast with two people, it’s completely frustrating on your own. Especially if you lack the shoulder mobility to rub tan around your back.
For the makeup, you just need Matte foundations in your normal color and then the darkest color you can get to blend into your normal foundation.
That way you can match your body tan to your face.
You also need big, full lashes. But besides that, the makeup is pretty simple. Some liquid glitter eyeshadow and dark brown colors. Some rose-colored lipstick, concealer, and eyebrow pencil. Viola, that’s the basics.
For hair, the judges definitely preferred a soft curl for the bikini division. We straightened ours but for the next show will be curling it.
After our makeup and hair, we put on the topcoat for our tan and headed to the competitor’s meeting.
Everyone was just chilling out on the floor taking it easy.
After the meeting, we went backstage and waited… and waited… and waited.
We made some new friends and goofed around a little bit.
Even with three dressing rooms and a full pump up area, there were way more competitors than space for everyone.
We started pre-judging at noon and finished at about 5:30 pm.
Everyone seemed to have nerves.
Several first-timers were anxiously calling their coaches asking what to do.
I can’t tell you how many times women asked me “Do I look okay?”
Despite their nerves, everyone handled their posing really well. All the competitors looked gorgeous and performed well on stage.
I felt proud to see so many women going out of their comfort zone to be there that day.
Hay’s in the barn
Really, on show day, you are either ready or you aren’t.
Either your posing is practiced and you’re lean enough and prepared or you aren’t.
That should give you the confidence to just go out there and perform.
When you are called for your class (Class E in my case based on my height) you line up near the dressing rooms and then an expeditor takes you to the stage where they tell you when to go on and in what order to perform your routine.
The coolest part of The Arnold is being live streamed all across the country.
I got to watch Ana on the big screen while the expeditors called out the next group of competitors.
She looked beautiful!
She’d lost 22lbs since the Fourth of July 2019.
Getting to show off your hard work on one of the best stages in the world is a gret reason to compete at The Arnold. The stage and setup is the best of the best. You will also get photos taken in great lighting and by some of the top photographers out there.
Finally, the results are out
Both Ana and I placed in the middle of the pack.
We didn’t have the conditioning (Read: We weren’t lean enough) to make top 10, but we did enough right with our posing and makeup to not be at the bottom).
Once we got the go-ahead to leave the show, we started thinking about food.
Because I hadn’t been dieting hard, I wasn’t depleted enough to have massive cravings.
So much goes on at a show, I barely even thought to eat.
By the time the day was done, my tummy was rumbling.
Marcella’s Short North
First, we grabbed caffeine.
Ana missed her coffee.
She got a flat white with coconut milk and I got a flat white with Almond milk. Starbucks continued it’s strong “name misspelling” game.
Then we headed to Marcella’s. A lively Italian Restaurant in Short North bursting with Gluten-Free options for celiacs like me.
Ana and I split the Melted Pecorini Cheese with honey and apples for an appetizer.
Then we moved onto the Mushroom and Truffle Oil Pizza and the famous Fettuccini and Softball Sized Veal Meat Ball.
All foods were prepared gluten-free.
I could not be more impressed the pizza crust was fluffy yet firm and the Veal Meatball was the highlight.
Bake Me Happy – An Incredible Gluten-Free Find in German Village
Friday morning we hoofed it to a highly recommended Gluten Free Bakery.
Unfortunately, it was cold and windy, snowing on us a couple of times during our 40 plus minute walk.
But when you’re committed to a morning of gluttony like us, you have to also be committed to lots of movement.
Walking just feels good, so we do as much of it as we can when we are out on an eating adventure.
At the bakery, we tried some of everything.
The beer cheese scones and mac and cheese pop tarts were soft and flaky with a delicious buttery flavor.
I’ve never tasted anything like it before.
The muffin donut was also amaze balls.
By the time Saturday rolled around we’d walked about seven miles a day and sampled so many new foods my tummy wanted to burst.
Ana and I met my friend Bret for the IFBB bodybuilding prejudging.
His girlfriend Jen Ronzitti was competing and ended up taking 6th place. What a huge accomplishment!
Walking into events seeing no spectators was more than weird.
We were able to get around using our competitor badge…except for powerlifting at the cage. Despite being athletes, the three women on Security duty Saturday refused to let us in to cheer on the other athletes.
Besides those kinds of miscommunications and the stress the organizers were under, the competitions still ran smoothly.
We also had breakfast at Tasi Cafe and Northstar Cafe in Short North. Both simple but good menus. Northstar was a newer more modern dining place and Tasi was a cute cafe with picnic benches inside and a simple breakfast menu including juices and french omelets.
Bare Burger was our other favorite food spot. Great make-your-own burger combos, sweet potato fries, and a cool vibe for eating.
We spent a half-day checking out Ohio State and even ate some Buckeye candy which is a peanut butter treat dipped in chocolate. Yum!
We checked out L.A. Fitness and a few more places in Columbus, but I put most of the good stuff here.
That’s a wrap for the Arnold 2020.
We will probably never experience competing under quieter more chill circumstances.
Looking forward to seeing the full craziness next year.
Oh yeah, and we did get to touch Arnold’s butt 😉 (not pictured).
If you’re interested in what it really takes to transform your body, check out my new book: Three Weeks To Thin: The Emergency Fat Loss Diet