Contest Update

[Sperwer]

As a few people know, I am entered in the Masters' Division Mr Seoul 2013 contest. Now one week out. My coach also has put me into the Mr. Korea 2013 contest, as it is only eleven days later. In the meantime, the KBBF announced that I could "participate" but, because I'm a big-nosed, round-eye, I could not "compete", i.e., I'd be ineligible to win, place or show.

Since then, my Korean posse of gym buddies have been busy. Unbeknownst to me, they lobbied hard and got the KBBF to reverse its position. Now, however, KBBF has been over-ruled by its governing authority, 대한민국 제욕 협회, the Korean Athletic Association, which is an instrumentality of the Ministry of Tourism, Sports, etc. I was going to let the KBBF slide, but my "Don't Tread on Me" instincts went into high gear given the new circumstances of official government discrimination. So after briefly consulting with a staff member, who seemed to think I had a good case, I filed a complaint at 국가 인권위원회, the National Human Rights Commission.

Haven't heard back, and have no idea whether they will act quickly enough to make a difference. I may just have to win by acclamation. :cool:

[burlyman30]

Is the current ruling affecting participation in both contests?

[Sperwer]

Both, as KAA is the ultimate governing authority for both.

In Sept is the Korean iteration of Muscle Mania, though, and that is subject to a non-Korean federation, so i may enter that too and try to be the first non-Korean to win there. "Rangers lead the way"! A foreigner was in it last year, but came 2 in light heavyweight.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[burlyman30]

Both, as KAA is the ultimate governing authority for both.

In Sept is the Korean iteration of Muscle Mania, though, and that is subject to a non-Korean federation, so i may enter that too and try to be the first non-Korean to win there. "Rangers lead the way"! A foreigner was in it last year, but came 2 in light heavyweight.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm wondering if the IFBB has any clout there and would be willing to make a call on your behalf.

[Sorrow]

"Rangers lead the way"!



Thats what I'm talking about! Go show em what your made of! Good luck man.

[USN HM 350Z]

Good luck, hope they allow you to compete after all.

[xxiv]

your condtioning and prep should be the only voice you need. what a shame. stay focued and confident.

[longBallLima]

Unfortunately the story is not different here. I am currently qualified for national events, but can't do it cuz I'm not an American citizen. Was gonna compete in June, but no more. November I compete just for shits and giggles since i can't pro through the npc on the count of being a non American

[Sperwer]

I'm wondering if the IFBB has any clout there and would be willing to make a call on your behalf.


Thanks mate, but I'm inclined to give them an oppty to do the right thing on their own, given that it's their own constitution and legislation that's in issue. If they on't though,....

[Sperwer]

Unfortunately the story is not different here. I am currently qualified for national events, but can't do it cuz I'm not an American citizen. Was gonna compete in June, but no more. November I compete just for shits and giggles since i can't pro through the npc on the count of being a non American

That's interesting; I wouldn't have thought that would be the case. In any event, like you I'm going for it whether it's "official" or not; at the end of the day I'm really doing this for myself anyway and the most important thing I expect to get out of it is the journey itself and the physique and health that result.

[longBallLima]

That's interesting; I wouldn't have thought that would be the case. In any event, like you I'm going for it whether it's "official" or not; at the end of the day I'm really doing this for myself anyway and the most important thing I expect to get out of it is the journey itself and the physique and health that result.

and it's a blast. i must say, competing is/was fun as hell. competition day itself is a weird day, because you're feeling like shit from not eating, drinking and such, but still just felling... good? dont know, always competed in something, so i loved it.

now, had some delusional aspirations of going pro, but not sure how its gonna work with not being able to do nationals for a bit.

was thinking of WBFF...

[burlyman30]

and it's a blast. i must say, competing is/was fun as hell. competition day itself is a weird day, because you're feeling like shit from not eating, drinking and such, but still just felling... good? dont know, always competed in something, so i loved it.

now, had some delusional aspirations of going pro, but not sure how its gonna work with not being able to do nationals for a bit.

was thinking of WBFF...

Ok... how did I miss this before... that you were a BBing competitor ???

[longBallLima]

Ok... how did I miss this before... that you were a BBing competitor ???

men's physique for this first show :D next one (november, since i cant do nationals, though i'm qualified) i'm doing MP and BB

[Sperwer]

4 days out. Pushing 5% BF. 65f, but unless I'm moving around (in which case i'm sweating like a derby horse), i've got to wear wool hunting pants and coat.

I've got the bug bad now and have entered the local meet of Muscle Mania in September, where there are no restrictions on foreign entrants. Another plus is that they have some combined events, and this is my partner (from my gym) for the costume portion. Just hope she doesn't think she's going to be policing up my junk with that baton. 682


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sperwer]

Also
683

Yep going over to the dark side for an 8 week run Parabolan starting June


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sperwer]

And another shot of she who (thinks she) must be obeyed
684


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[O_RYAN_007]

Great pic to wake me up this morning, lol!

[USN HM 350Z]

damn, she looks good. Good luck on the run, I am sure you will be hooked after that lol

[Sorrow]

Damn man I completely forgot what I was going to say when I saw the picture of her from behind..

Oh yeah good pick for a partner... yeah we shall go with that..

[Sperwer]

And the winner* is:

686

My best Dr Manhattan pose while bowing to the audience.

*To paraphrase Proximo, I didn't win because I was the best - (I was the best conditioned of the Senior Masters group, but my posing, which it turns out I didn't practice enough, was lacking) - but because I won the crowd. That, plus my conditioning, I was told afterwards by the judges, moved them to make a solomon-like move in defiance of their own parent organization, and treat me as the sole entrant in a Senior Masters Division, Foreign section, that they created on the spot, and award me the Ist place medal they said they otherwise would have given me in the regular senior masters division. They strongly encouraged me to come back next year when they hoped they would be able to have had the rule changed, which they said they were motivated to make efforts to do because of my performance.

I probably won;t have any decent pics of the actual contest for a few days, but in the meantime, I'll post a few pre-contest pics, so you guys can get an sense of my conditioning as I went in.

[Sperwer]

Just after the paint job

689

[Sperwer]

With my best cheerleader

690

[Sperwer]

Getting painted

691

[Sperwer]

With my coach, whom I presented the Super coach award:

692

[Sperwer]

With one of the judges, a former 2 time Mr. Korea, while sporting my Captain America kit:

693

[Sperwer]

Now I've just got work on packing some muscle onto the chassis. :rolleyes:

[xxiv]

And the winner* is:

686


That is awesome. great job.

[Fat Bill Dwyer]

Congrats, guess it's true about you guys leading the way.

[burlyman30]

You look great, bud! Congrats on an impressive showing, great conditioning, and the mental toughness to get through the training, diet, and the hurdles you were given just a couple weeks ago with the BBing organization. On a side note... winning the crowd is one of the best feelings in the world, isn't it? Still one of the highlights of my life, actually. Pretty great to get acknowledged in that way for all your hard work.

[Sperwer]

You look great, bud! Congrats on an impressive showing, great conditioning, and the mental toughness to get through the training, diet, and the hurdles you were given just a couple weeks ago with the BBing organization. On a side note... winning the crowd is one of the best feelings in the world, isn't it? Still one of the highlights of my life, actually. Pretty great to get acknowledged in that way for all your hard work.

Thanks, mate. Yep. When I first came out, a big part of the crowd response was of the "what the" variety, since no non-Korean has ever been in the contest before, and many ordinary Koreans get very excited and appreciative of foreigner interest in "their" stuff, and they also were plainly astounded at just how much bigger I was than the competition (see pic). Interest grew when my age was announced, and then started blowing up when I did an ab display as part of my introduction. At the end, when I was given my award, I was also asked to do another pose and did a most muscular, which got oohs and aahs and gasps from the audience - at least as much again because of my age as conditioning - and when the MC tired to shut it down so they could move on he got shushed by all the photographers who wanted more shots. The real satisfaction for me was getting through it and making the progress I made (still a lot of room to grow and improve!), but it sure didn't hurt to get that validation.

695

[JM1000]

Woww! Congrats man! Very impressive condition;)

[longBallLima]

CONGRATS!!! Looking awesome, man!

[weekend]

Lookin great man. How long have you been training? What's the fattest you've ever been if you've been fat?

[markam]

Inspirational.

[Coolazice]

Congratulations!!! I would definitely call your contest prep a success!!!

[DJM]

amazing shape, for any age really, congrats sir...........in the photos it shows you enjoyed the process it seems, or is more so 'fk its finally done' type of relief lol

[Sperwer]

Lookin great man. How long have you been training? What's the fattest you've ever been if you've been fat?

I started lifting about 6 years ago after herniating a few times and finally rupturing my L4 and L5 discs, and discovering I had incipient type 2 diabetes, persuaded me I needed to do something about my health. For some reason I got the idea in my head that the best long term fix for my back would be deadlifting :confused: At the time I weighed about 250 w/ ~ 30% BF. I had never in my life really lifted before, let alone trained with weights, although my early military and later martial arts training involved a lot of body weight work. During the first year of working with the bar, I got down to 220-225 and ~ 20% BF, where I managed to stagnate for several years while making believe I knew what i was doing in the gym and around the kitchen. About 2.5 years ago I discovered I needed TRT. I finally got humble enough to hire a trainer - a former Mr. Korea - about a year ago. By fixing my form and showing me what it meant to program a lifting regimen and to REALLY do it, he got me on track. Unfortunately, he moved away after only a couple of months. But in the meantime, I had gotten the attention of some of the other serious players at the gym who invited me to work with them. One thing led to another and when they (rather jokingly) suggested the idea of doing a contest I said (much to their surprise I think) let's do it. 4 months ago I hired one as a coach and here we are. During the 12 weeks of contest prep, I went from 230/18% BF to 209/6.5%; no AAS or PHs were used, although I did deploy alphamine and vanillean (along with intermittent fasting and VERY radical carb restriction with 4 carb re-feed days) in the anti-fat campaign.

[Sperwer]

amazing shape, for any age really, congrats sir...........in the photos it shows you enjoyed the process it seems, or is more so 'fk its finally done' type of relief lol


Thanks man. I mostly enjoyed the training, but there were more than a few days that I had to dig pretty deep to find what I needed to get to the gym and maintain diet discipline. I thoroughly enjoyed the last couple of days, the final prep and the contest. And while I also welcomed the break from the bar the last two days and the post-contest chow-down (4 medium rare NY sirloins, 2 salmon steaks, a bowl of parmesan mashed potatoes and a bottle of Hedges Mountain Red), it's now Tuesday morning here and I'm headed back to the gym. There's another local contest end of June, and I want to see how much more I can refine the chassis and how much more horsepower I can add in the next 7 weeks - both, but the latter especially, to be assisted by a 6 week run of Parabolan, my first ever trip to the darkside. The gear is supposed to arrive this week. :cool:

[burlyman30]

Watching you through this process was inspiring enough to make me consider another run at it... if I didn't think my wife would leave me or at least heavily resent me over that decision. I'm not exactly the nicest person to be around when I am starving myself to leanness.

[weekend]

Watching you through this process was inspiring enough to make me consider another run at it... if I didn't think my wife would leave me or at least heavily resent me over that decision. I'm not exactly the nicest person to be around when I am starving myself to leanness.

do it, and be nice anyway :) i'd be so in for that ride

[burlyman30]

do it, and be nice anyway :) i'd be so in for that ride

Lol... I'm not saying never again... just not in the near future. Quite a few stars would have to align first. :)

[Sperwer]

Watching you through this process was inspiring enough to make me consider another run at it... if I didn't think my wife would leave me or at least heavily resent me over that decision. I'm not exactly the nicest person to be around when I am starving myself to leanness.

Thanks for that Burly; giving some motivation away is the best reward i can imagine.

Because she saw all the positive changes - mentally and physically - that accompanied my getting into the game - my wife has been very understanding, encouraging and actively supportive, despite putting in upwards of 80 hours a week on her job. The road would have been infinitely harder without her.

That said, she knows me well enough to be a little concerned now that the genie is out of the bottle; she's asked a few times that i not go all Arnold on her (as if 😏) - although she probably wouldn't object to a Frank Zane clone 😀 (also as if).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sorrow]

Amazing, amazing job! Excellent work. You sir deserved every single applause, every second that light shined down on you! Very happy for you.

[O_RYAN_007]

YOu look great Sperwer! It's really awesome that you killed it out there. Proud to have you apart of this family showing us your path to success. It feels much like I was there when I read your posts.

[burlyman30]

Thanks for that Burly; giving some motivation away is the best reward i can imagine.

Because she saw all the positive changes - mentally and physically - that accompanied my getting into the game - my wife has been very understanding, encouraging and actively supportive, despite putting in upwards of 80 hours a week on her job. The road would have been infinitely harder without her.

That said, she knows me well enough to be a little concerned now that the genie is out of the bottle; she's asked a few times that i not go all Arnold on her (as if 😏) - although she probably wouldn't object to a Frank Zane clone 😀 (also as if).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My wife met me at the end of my BBing "career". She loves well muscled guys, always has, which is probably part of the reason we ended up together. But she wasn't too keen on me wearing the posing briefs again. I told her long ago that I get very short tempered when on a diet... and she thinks I'm short tempered as it is. Lol.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to watching you on this new and exciting journey you are on!