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Bodybuilding champ teaches posing at Y
Sunday, June 02, 2002
BY JENNIFER GOLSON
Star-Ledger Staff
As the students stand side by side in front of a mirrored wall, their instructor fires off commands.
"Relax," but "stay tight!" said Robert Allen. "Put the shoulder down."
The four men and women look anything but relaxed, as they clinch their arms downward at both sides, like a long muscular arch. They thrust their chests forward.
And they smile. The idea is to make it look easy.
This is not a dance class at the YWCA of Plainfield/North Plainfield, and the bald instructor is no aerobics teacher. As his muscles indicate, Allen, 53, is an amateur bodybuilder, and this is a "body posing session."
The nonprofit facility is offering the workshop to teach aspiring bodybuilders the right way to flex for competition.
Allen approaches the students and bends them into shape, like plastic action figures.
"Now I want to see some leg," says the health and fitness instructor.
He doesn't want them to make the same mistakes he made when he first started competing in the sport about 16 years ago.
"When I did my first show, I was totally lost," Allen said, noting he realized he was imitating what he saw other competitors doing.
People who do that, he said, look like they don't belong. Still, he finished fourth out of 13 competitors. To improve, he garnered tips from fellow bodybuilders to learn the various techniques. He has since amassed more than 300 trophies, said Allen, a Plainfield resident.
There is a slight injury risk, he said. "You can cramp up if you're too tight," he said, and those who are posing must remember to breathe or risk blacking out.
Body building is a lifestyle, from the training in the gym, to the vitamin supplements and diet, according to Steve Downs, editorial director for Natural Body building and Fitness magazine, New York City-based trade publication.
But for the few moments the athlete spends on stage, posing becomes an art form, Downs said.
"Your body is your sculpture," he said. "You've taken the time to sculpt it through your training and your eating regimen. You have to know how to show it in order to win."
Officials at the fitness center said they just wanted to help members take the sport to the next level, said Musheer Harrison, assistant director of the YWCA's health and fitness center.
"It gives people an additional goal," he said. "Due to the fact that they are in shape now, they get a chance to show it off."
The class is a workout itself, as the members learn how to hold a pose for about 90 seconds. It's a skill 18-year-old Diana Dzissah said she wants to acquire. Although an engineering student, she said her true ambition was to become a bodybuilder or boxer.
Her uncles were into the sport in her native Ghana. As a child, she watched them lift cinder blocks and weights.
When she started taking the class, Allen "told me in five weeks, I'd be surprised to see what my body would look like," said the Plainfield resident. The class is no cake walk, she said.
"I thought it was going to be a breeze," she said.
Plainfield residents Darren Avent, 32, and Bo Jordan trained with Allen before they went to a competition on March 18 in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. Jordan, a waitress in Scotch Plains, took first place overall and she ranked first in posing and overall in the women's division. Avent won first place in posing as a novice middleweight in the men's division.
"I want to go pro," said Avent, a history teacher at West Side High School in Newark.
Laffayatte Scott, a tractor-trailer driver, said he is just getting started in the sport. Everything about the sport was hard for him, said 37-year-old Scott, who already has arms like tree trunks.
Posing was harder than it looked, he laughed, "holding the muscle, trembling. It's a workout."
Sunday, June 02, 2002
BY JENNIFER GOLSON
Star-Ledger Staff
As the students stand side by side in front of a mirrored wall, their instructor fires off commands.
"Relax," but "stay tight!" said Robert Allen. "Put the shoulder down."
The four men and women look anything but relaxed, as they clinch their arms downward at both sides, like a long muscular arch. They thrust their chests forward.
And they smile. The idea is to make it look easy.
This is not a dance class at the YWCA of Plainfield/North Plainfield, and the bald instructor is no aerobics teacher. As his muscles indicate, Allen, 53, is an amateur bodybuilder, and this is a "body posing session."
The nonprofit facility is offering the workshop to teach aspiring bodybuilders the right way to flex for competition.
Allen approaches the students and bends them into shape, like plastic action figures.
"Now I want to see some leg," says the health and fitness instructor.
He doesn't want them to make the same mistakes he made when he first started competing in the sport about 16 years ago.
"When I did my first show, I was totally lost," Allen said, noting he realized he was imitating what he saw other competitors doing.
People who do that, he said, look like they don't belong. Still, he finished fourth out of 13 competitors. To improve, he garnered tips from fellow bodybuilders to learn the various techniques. He has since amassed more than 300 trophies, said Allen, a Plainfield resident.
There is a slight injury risk, he said. "You can cramp up if you're too tight," he said, and those who are posing must remember to breathe or risk blacking out.
Body building is a lifestyle, from the training in the gym, to the vitamin supplements and diet, according to Steve Downs, editorial director for Natural Body building and Fitness magazine, New York City-based trade publication.
But for the few moments the athlete spends on stage, posing becomes an art form, Downs said.
"Your body is your sculpture," he said. "You've taken the time to sculpt it through your training and your eating regimen. You have to know how to show it in order to win."
Officials at the fitness center said they just wanted to help members take the sport to the next level, said Musheer Harrison, assistant director of the YWCA's health and fitness center.
"It gives people an additional goal," he said. "Due to the fact that they are in shape now, they get a chance to show it off."
The class is a workout itself, as the members learn how to hold a pose for about 90 seconds. It's a skill 18-year-old Diana Dzissah said she wants to acquire. Although an engineering student, she said her true ambition was to become a bodybuilder or boxer.
Her uncles were into the sport in her native Ghana. As a child, she watched them lift cinder blocks and weights.
When she started taking the class, Allen "told me in five weeks, I'd be surprised to see what my body would look like," said the Plainfield resident. The class is no cake walk, she said.
"I thought it was going to be a breeze," she said.
Plainfield residents Darren Avent, 32, and Bo Jordan trained with Allen before they went to a competition on March 18 in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. Jordan, a waitress in Scotch Plains, took first place overall and she ranked first in posing and overall in the women's division. Avent won first place in posing as a novice middleweight in the men's division.
"I want to go pro," said Avent, a history teacher at West Side High School in Newark.
Laffayatte Scott, a tractor-trailer driver, said he is just getting started in the sport. Everything about the sport was hard for him, said 37-year-old Scott, who already has arms like tree trunks.
Posing was harder than it looked, he laughed, "holding the muscle, trembling. It's a workout."
