Sports

Muscles and inspiration

Bodybuilding: Quality makes up for lack of quantity

By Cindy Yurth
Tséyi' Bureau

CHINLE, Sept. 5, 2011

Only three contestants signed up for the first-ever Native American Bodybuilding Competition last Wednesday.

But what contestants! The 42-year-old mother of six sporting a spiderweb of stretch marks over her taut abs. The former couch potato who once was 42 percent body fat. The twenty-something who grew to appreciate his strong young body after a life-threatening illness almost took it away.

Even the guest poser had a story: After recently learning he was one-quarter Cherokee, he was thrilled to be among Native Americans.

They may have come to see muscles, but the crowd at the Chinle Community Center Aug. 24 went away feeling like they had been treated to an evening of inspirational speeches.

Even with the low turnout, Denny S. Kakos, president and founder of the International Natural Body-Building Association, pronounced the event "fantastic."

"You have to start somewhere," he shrugged. "Now that this has been introduced, it's going to grow."

Chinle High School wrestling coach Ken Sanford, who had spearheaded the event, admitted to being disappointed only three people had showed.

"If we go to the trouble to do this again, it will have to be bigger," he said.

But, considering even the contestants admitted they didn't know what they were doing, it went splendidly. And there were three brave, inspiring people up there willing to strut out in front of a crowd in skimpy outfits and flex their muscles.

The crowd didn't know what to expect either. For most, it was their first bodybuilding contest too. If you haven't been to one, there's a lot more to it than you might think.

In addition to having to isolate their muscles and hold poses in front of the judges (Diné College Athletic Director George LaFrance and triathlete Michelle Gamble), there was a certain amount of performance art as they flexed to music in a self-choreographed routine.

Fun to watch

The amateurs looked a bit uncertain up there, but guest poser Kiyoshi Moody showed them how it was done, donning a Samurai persona (complete with sword) for his fun-to-watch routine.

Moody, who had always thought he was half Black and half Japanese, learned he was one-quarter Native American recently when he traveled to Georgia for his grandfather's funeral.

Nice service, he told a relative, but why were all those Indians paying their respects?

"Those are your cousins," came the reply. "Didn't you know Papa Jack was a full-blooded Cherokee?"

So Moody didn't think twice when Kakos asked him to drive with him from Los Angeles to pose for the event.

"I realize Navajos and Cherokees are two different tribes," Moody said, "but now that I know it's my heritage, I'm really excited to be on a reservation and see what life is like here."

Moody worked with kids in the Chinle Unified School District all day and found them not too different from the inner-city minority youth he volunteers with in L.A.

"Some of them were looking at me like, 'Whatever. Just be quiet and go away,'" he said. "But some, you could see that glow in their eyes like, 'Hey, I can do this!' If it's just one person's thing, and they find out about it through this, then it's time well spent."

While sculpting one's body into superhero proportions may seem, well, kind of vain, for all the contestants it represented the triumph of sticking to a rigid, almost spiritual discipline.

Triumph of discipline

Giving birth six times had taken a toll on Valerie Long's small frame, but after she started hitting the gym, she was surprised at the results.

When she heard about the contest, the dental hygienist from Rock Springs, N.M., hired both a personal trainer and a nutritionist and threw herself into the competition.

"It's something I always wanted to do," she confided, adding that it took some guts to wiggle into the shiny, turquoise-colored bikini she bought for the competition.

"In my tribe, we don't do two-piece," she told Moody.

Bobby Martin, also a middle-aged parent, started hitting the gym when a body fat analysis revealed he was 42 percent grease.

Martin, who was 35 at the time, became alarmed at the thought he may not live to see his four children grow up.

"That just wasn't acceptable to me," said Martin, now 41, who is the Navajo Times production manager.

Martin had gotten excellent results with a combination of working out and eating better, and when he heard about the contest, decided to redouble his efforts and try out. He walked away with the most points, although all three contestants received trophies.

"I'm so proud of him," gushed his wife, Sonlatsa Jim-Martin. "My husband: one of the first Native body-builders!"

His efforts have the whole family exercising more and eating better, Jim-Martin said.

"At first we were each fixing our own dinner," she said, "but that got cumbersome, so now the girls and I eat what he eats. I've lost weight, and we all feel a lot better."

Martin's oldest daughter, who plays on her school's volleyball team, sometimes accompanies her dad to the gym, and the Tohatchi volleyball coach recently invited Martin to talk to the team about cardio workouts, weight training and diet.

Life saving change

But perhaps the most inspiring story came from the youngest contestant, 23-year-old Bryan Johnson of Rock Point, Ariz. Johnson was a normal, active young Diné when he came down with a strep infection that got into his bloodstream and shut down his kidneys.

He was hospitalized for six weeks and, staring up at the frightened faces of family members, he knew his prognosis wasn't good. He made a conscious decision to fight the infection with every scrap of will.

Once he got out of the hospital, but still on semi-weekly dialysis, he braved debilitating fatigue to start working out.

"My doctors said, 'You'll never be able to keep it up,'" he recalled, "but I was determined."

When he had to travel to different communities to see a specialist, he always looked for a gym.

"I've trained in Rock Point, Chinle, Window Rock, all over the rez," he said. "I'm not out of the woods yet, but thanks to the Lord, I'm still here."

Not only still here, but walking off the stage with a trophy for best-developed chest.

"I'm going to keep this up," he declared.

All three contestants hope the event will be held again next year, now that they know what a bodybuilding contest entails.

Martin said he can almost guarantee Sanford a lot more competitors next year.

"Since the contest, about 12 people have asked me to help them work out," he said.

Dennis "Wowie" Rosales of Wowie's Gym in Gallup, who coached Martin and Long, said there are a lot of potential competitors who were just a little afraid to be among the first Native body-builders, but now that the ice has been broken, he thinks Natives could be a force in the world of beautiful biceps and quality quads.

"I first got into weight-training years ago in the military, and I never stopped," he said. "Once you start and see how good it makes you look and feel, it just makes you feel confident in all aspects of your life. The contest was great, because it gave people something to work toward.

"I hope they do it again and that all these people keep competing," he added. "They looked great up there. I'm proud of all of them."

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