AROUND THE WORLD IN 25 DAYS  

 

I may not have had the opportunity to visit every country in the world, but my latest trip took me from Australia across three continents and three US cities before landing me back home in Melbourne.  

LONDON

First stop on my whirlwind tour was London (I can’t count the two hour layover in Singapore as a stop).  Arriving at Heathrow at 5am after about 24 of flying, not even the gray drizzly London climate could dampen my enthusiasm.   It had been three years since I was last in London, but this was the first time I was here for any posing work.  Being my first time, I was kept extremely busy.

Not a lot seemed to have changed since my last visit so it was nice to return to the ‘familiar’ surroundings of Hyde Park and Kensington.  

I love visiting different Countries.  The people in each place have a distinct style, which I love to compare and contrast with ones I have encountered previously.  I found the English so polite, a little shy at first with a conservative front, but I got the impression that given the chance they are ready to break out and shock us all! 

Thanks to all the people I met in London, you gave me a memorable and enjoyable time and I look forward to seeing you in the future.

 

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL

From London I made the trek back ‘down-under’ to Brazil.  This trip was only 8 years overdue!  I was a Rotary Exchange Student in Sao Paulo in 1989 and I had promised my host families I would return in 3 years…………well, here it was 11 years later, so I was only 8 years late, but better late than never, and for me, it was well worth the wait.  

Stepping out into the air in Sao Paulo felt like going home.  Whenever I travel I always find it takes me a while to adjust to the new environment, but here it was as if my body remembered where it was.  I couldn’t wait to start exploring the places I used to hang out in more than a decade ago………would they still be there, would it be the same?

One of my first priorities in Brazil was to catch up with a special old friend.  We had kept in touch for about the first 3 years after I was in Brazil, lost contact for the next 5 and then got back in contact again a few years ago and stayed in touch via the internet.  Luckily for my friend I had sent him to my website so he knew what I looked like!  He’s not that old, but the shock may have severely harmed him; I had only just started training when I was in Brazil and in 11 years my bodyweight has increased by about 20kg (44lb).

Before I left for Brazil a few people were concerned about how the public would react to me.  When I lived there in ’89 you couldn’t tell I did the weights, and a lot of people warned me that muscular women are not accepted well in Brazil.  I found the opposite to be true.  The Brazilians seemed quite undisturbed by what they saw.  Most would look me up and down then look me in the eye and give me a smile.  No negative comments, no offensive looks.

With my connection to Brazil and my ability to speak Portuguese I had been in contact with quite a few Brazilian fans and had received a lot of requests to visit, so I decided to make myself available for posing for a limited time in Sao Paulo.    Thanks to the help of Rikko, the Webmaster from FemPower Brazil and Culturismo Feminino advertising my visit, the response I got was overwhelming. 

Unfortunately I didn’t have time to see everyone who requested to see me, but this gives me an excuse for a return trip in the future.  I found there is a huge amount of interest in female bodybuilding in Brazil, and the fans are some of the most dedicated around as it is not something they get to see everyday.

After a much too short stay in Sao Paulo I headed off to New York City.  There weren’t as many tears shed when I left Brazil this time compared to 11 years ago, but once again I left overcome with the overwhelming sense of friendship, generosity and warmth of the Brazilian people.

 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

New York just keeps getting better every time I visit.  This visit was my 5th in two years, and I just can’t get enough of the place.  I always try to stay in Midtown Manhattan, and the changes that have taken place in this area over the last two years are amazing.  The area has been    transformed from a slightly seeding looking area undergoing major construction work to a great looking strip full of gourmet food shops and plazas.  Even the Mid City Gym (the only hardcore gym remaining in Midtown) had undergone an internal revamp complete with some new equipment.

I was kept quite busy in New York but I made sure I kept some time for myself so Troy and I could do some ‘tourist’ stuff and catch up with some friends.  While in NYC we caught up with Laurie Fierstein to talk about the outcomes of  “Picturing the Modern Amazon”, look at some of the candid photos taken of us girls at the exhibition and the discuss the general politics of bodybuilding.   

We also managed to track down Tre from FemSport and BA from Diana the Valkyrie’s chat room and spend some time with these two cool guys, catching up on the gossip from Tre’s FemSport show.

I was really happy to see a lot of other familiar faces in NYC.  It is always nice to see people I’ve met on previous trips.  There is a certain comfort and sense of ease around those people I have met before or those who I have ‘chatted’ with on the internet.

 

CHICAGO

The week in New York passed all too quickly and before I knew it, we were touching down in Chicago.   The last time we were in Chicago I was unwell after the ’99 World Championships, but Troy and I still enjoyed the city so much we just had to visit again.

I know a lot of the people I saw in Chicago had traveled from neighboring states to see me and I appreciate this very much.  It means a lot to me that you make the effort to travel and I hope you enjoy my posing.  Given my limited time for traveling each year I don’t get the opportunity to visit many US cities, so I apologize to those people who don’t live in the major cities and hope that I am able to visit somewhere close to you soon. 

While in Chicago we trained at the Gorilla Sports gym.  This gym wasn’t open the last time we were in town, but wow, what a gym!  I had never seen so much Hammer Strength equipment and the Magnum equipment was excellent.  I have never walked into a gym and felt so comfortable from the first workout.  Usually it takes me a few weeks to settle down to new equipment, but this stuff felt great!

 

VIVA LAS VEGAS

The final leg of my tour took me to Las Vegas to watch the Mr & Ms Olympia.  I had been looking forward to this part of the trip from the beginning, and touching down in the amazing city of Las Vegas, looking out at all the bright neon lights rising up out of nowhere, I could hardly believe I had finally arrived. 

The Olympia weekend was being held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, but for our first night in Vegas we had to stay at the Luxor, next door to the Mandalay, as there were no vacancies at the Mandalay.  The Luxor Hotel consists of a huge Pyramid shaped building and another one shaped like the Sphinx.  The interior décor follows an Egyptian theme.  Walking into the hotel I thought the taxi driver had taken us to the wrong place.  It was like a mini-city and I had no idea where to check in to the hotel itself.  People were steaming everywhere, poker machines were chiming and ringing and the lighting was set as to give no clue as to the time of day.  Finally we found the check in desk, and after another trek across the casino and a wild 29 floor ride in the express ‘inclinator’ (elevator that travels at an angle?)  we found ourselves in a ‘Cleopatra style’ suite bigger than our entire apartment in Australia!  For some reason we received a room upgrade….. I ask no questions J.

Not being a gambler, for a brief moment I contemplated spending my entire time at the Luxor in this very room.  It had everything from a huge screen TV, stereo, DVD player and bar in the living room, TV in the bedroom, luxurious bed, magnificent views of Las Vegas, excellent ‘bodybuilder’ mirrors (make you look really defined!), a shower big enough for 4 massive bodybuilders, and the piece de resistance, the Jacuzzi, complete with all kinds of bubbly bath products and fluffy robes to dry off in.  For at least one day I pretended to be Cleopatra!

After the fabulous night at the Luxor it was off to the Mandalay Bay.  Already the hotel was starting to fill up with people arriving for the Olympia weekend.  You can spot bodybuilders a mile off by their characteristic body shapes, clothes and walks.  Checking in we caught up with Steve Wennerstrom and Pavla who had participated in Picturing the Modern Amazon.  Earlier in the morning we had caught up with Andrulla Blanchette who was looking in great shape and sporting a new blonde hairstyle.  She seemed confident and happy with her preparation.

I was busy most of Thursday so I missed the press conferences, and was quite late getting to ‘Meet the Olympians’ so most of them had left, leaving only Fitness competitors (who I know very little about).  

 

THE OLYMPIA EXPO

Friday the Expo opened so we headed down to check it out.  I knew Guy Grundy would be there on the Kaizen  booth with owner Lou Routbard.  I hadn’t seen Guy since June at the World Championships and wanted to catch up on all his news.  Guy was looking big, tanned and healthy and hasn’t lost his Aussie sense of humour.

I went in search of ‘famous’ faces to photograph for my website.  Click here to have  a look at who I spotted. 

I have to admit I haven’t been following the Pro ranks as closely as I used to so there were many top Pro guys there that I didn’t even recognize.  I always get shy walking up to people and asking who they are, particularly when by Australian standards they look as if they would be at least National champions, and they say, “me, I’m just some guy who trains, I don’t even compete!”

I spotted one particularly muscular, tall black guy walking around the Expo and plucked up the courage to ask for a photo.  He was only too happy to oblige, and thankfully, it was Eddie Abbew (and I had heard of him), the English Pro who placed 9th at the 2000 Night of Champions. 

I had no trouble recognizing Craig Titus who had guest posed at the Ms Olympia in ’99.  Craig was busy selling his training video.  From what I could see he looks awesome in the tape.  Contact Craig for more info on his tape.  Craig said he would love to visit Australia and we’d love to have him down under (it’s just a matter of convincing the promoters, but I’m working on it).

At the Prolab booth there were two guys who were about as wide as they were tall.  One of them was Jeff ‘Box’ Long, US Pro, first lightweight competitor to win his Pro Card by winning the overall at the US Nationals.  Jeff is only about my height, but he is literally as thick as he is wide (hence the name ‘box’).   Also at the Prolab stand I finally met Lee Priest (yes, I came all the way to Las Vegas to meet Australia’s most famous male bodybuilder).  Lee was there with his new wife Cathy (le François).  I know one good friend of mine who will be heartbroken at Cathy’s marriage!

I met new IFBB Pro Garrett Downing at the Premier Nutrition booth, Skip La Cour, Mandy Blank and Robbie Robinson (who still looks great at his age).  I caught up my friend Kelly (Guy’s ex-wife), who is now working for Biochem, the company who sponsor Kelly Ryan and Flex Wheeler.  Kelly looked great and has been keeping busy with Biochem as well as modeling for Crazee Wear clothing.

In my Expo photos you’ll see the ‘Synthol Freak’ .  I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this guy’s bicep.  Talk about fake and lumpy from all the synthetic ‘pump ‘n pose’ he’s been sticking in it!  As far as I’m concerned, you should have to work for the muscle you have.  You can’t shoot oil into your muscles and expect it to look and feel like the real thing.

I love going to Fitness Expos and competitions because they are great places to catch up friends you don’t get to see very often.  In Australia, at the National level shows I catch up with my friends from West Australia, New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and even fellow competitors and industry people from Melbourne and Victoria who I never see at other times.

This Olympia Expo gave me the opportunity to do the same with the International friends I have made over the last few years.  The people you meet at these events and the friendships you make are invaluable.  Although you may see them only once a year, when you catch up, it’s as if you’ve never been away.  I hadn’t seen Gene X since last years Ms Olympia so it was good to see him again, even if it was for the briefest time.  Charles from The Valkyrie ‘Vixen’ Farm where I made the Women’s Physique World video was there with Pauliina Talus.  I caught up with Tre (again) and Julia from DTV chat-room and met a few people I had been exchanging emails with over the last few months.  Thanks to the internet I will be able to keep in touch with a lot of the new people I have met and plan future trips to meet up again.  Whatever did we do before email!     

 

MS OLYMPIA

Finally the time for the Ms Olympia arrived.  The Events Center at the Mandalay Bay Hotel seats about 12000 people, and at a rough guess the auditorium was just under half full.  The show was a combination of the Ms Fitness Olympia and the Ms Olympia so the different rounds of the two contests were alternated to keep the show flowing.  This year the Ms O was split into two divisions, Lightweight and Heavyweight, with 5 and 7 girls respectively in the two divisions.

I won’t go into too much detail about the show (I am sure there are many who have done this already), but I do have the following opinions.

I was extremely impressed with Iris Kyle, when I saw her last year I thought she looked great and has a lot of potential, and this year she was much improved again.  Iris was shredded, but still with full muscles and a great shape.  In a true bodybuilding sense Iris has a complete package and deserves to be rewarded for how she looks.  I was disappointed to see her finish out of the top 3 (although not surprised given that I had heard the new ‘criteria’ calls for a less muscled physique).  I noticed that compared to last year’s Ms O, both Lesa Lewis and Yaxeni Oriquen    had trimmed off some of their mass.  Lesa had much better condition than last year, but looked a bit slender. 

Taking politics into account I knew Valentina Chepiga would place well, but I was surprised to see her win the Heavyweight Ms O.  Chepiga is complete and had great condition, but just didn’t have the mass of the other heavyweights.  Seems the less mass criteria was enforced in this class, but not in the lightweights.

Andrulla Blanchette was the clear winner in the lightweights (based on traditional bodybuilding criteria).  She was the most complete and massed of the 5 women and had better condition than I had seen on Andrulla for a few years.  However, if the less mass criteria was being enforced I would have expected Cathy Priest to be in the top 3.

I really enjoyed watching the Fitness routines of the top 5 or so women.  The things these women can do are quite amazing and highly entertaining.  When it comes to the body judging rounds I have to confess I have no idea what they are looking for so I found these rounds rather tedious.

A big Thank You to the guy (sorry I forgot your name) who we met at the Fitness Expo and who sat behind us at the Ms O and lent us his binoculars.  Without them I wouldn’t have been able to make out any of the detail on the competitors physiques.

 

MR OLYMPIA

More than for the Ms Olympia I was looking forward to seeing the Mr O.  I have been a fan of bodybuilding for as long as I have been training.  It is no secret that my attraction to male bodybuilding drew me into going to watch my first bodybuilding show back in 1988, and it was there that I saw the women bodybuilders and decided I wanted to look like them.   It has only taken me 12 years to get along and see my first male Pro show.  The last time a Pro show was held in Australia was 1989, and that was the year I was in Brazil.  We have never had a Pro show in Australia since.

Our seats were decent at the Pre-judging so I got to have a good look at the awesome physiques on the guys.  They really let the guys go to town during their solo compulsories, spending as much time as they like striking the pose.  Kevin Levrone really knows how to work the crowd; milking each pose for everything they would give him.

On his own, Shawn Ray looks as though he couldn’t pack another ounce of muscle onto his frame.  Lee Priest’s quads looked as wide across the front as they were thick.  The amount of muscle jutting out above his knee is incredible.  Ronnie Coleman is larger than life.  Photos do not truly portray the total 3-D thickness and sheer size he carries onto stage. 

There was so much muscle on stage I didn’t know where to put my focus attention.  I look at what some of these guys have done with their bodies; the completeness they possess in each muscle group, their rock hard condition and the beautiful bodylines they have maintained, and take inspiration from it.  I want the same three-dimensional muscle appearance on my physique, the same muscle quality with my own muscle shape.  I walked away from the show feeling a new enthusiasm for my training and for how I can make my physique look.

 

FANTASTIC AND FREAKY

The theme of the night final at the Mr O was all about freaks.  Look how freaky the guys have become, isn’t it amazing how they look now compared to even 10 years ago, and isn’t it fantastic!  It is, but I was disappointed that this same enthusiasm wasn’t directed onto the women.  If you want the women to look ‘feminine’, more emphasis needs to be put onto the importance of good shape when judging, rather than penalizing muscle size.  Shape is what gives the appearance of something being masculine or feminine.  A good shape in bodybuilding is an X; broad shoulders and flaring lats tapering down to a narrow waist which flares back out to a full thick set of legs (quads and hamstring, not just quads!).  Muscles are full and rounded, the shape symmetrical and balanced.  This same shape is appealing and aesthetic to the eye whether it is on a man or a woman, no matter the muscle size, because it is balanced.  I choose to call a good bodybuilding shape ‘feminine’. 

A ‘masculine’ shape is more like a T; it has little or no taper, with the waist as wide as the chest, lack of flare or sweep in the thighs, squarish muscles.  This shape on a woman or a man doesn’t look as pleasant as the X shape.  Letting the women develop more muscle will allow them to build the illusion of a better shape and will improve their appearance. 

Men with ‘masculine’ shapes (as per my above definition), like Markus Ruhl, were placed below those with aesthetic ‘feminine’ shapes (Flex Wheeler, Shawn Ray) despite their sheer size.  Credo of the Mr O appeared to be: Freaks are all the go as long as the shape is pleasant.  Why can’t the motto be the same in female bodybuilding?  

 

PUBLICITY

Sunday morning brought a chance in weather in Las Vegas.  In the whole time I had stayed inside the confines of the Mandalay Bay and Luxor Hotels the weather appeared to have been fine.  Of course, since I had agreed to do some posing outside at the wave pool for the “Behind the Scenes at the Olympia” tape for GMV Productions, the weather turned to blustery winter for the 7.30am shoot.

I was out on a ‘sand bar’ posing for the video when I was struck from behind by one of the waves created by the wave pool.  Man that thing had some force!  I nearly went A over T as it caught me by surprise!  How would that look for my image as a big, strong woman…….knocked over by an artificial wave!  

Later on Sunday I did a photo shoot with Ivana Ford for her Powerdivas website.  She has an artistic photographic style for capturing physiques so I am looking forward to seeing the results of those. 

 

LEAVING LAS VEGAS

All good things must come to an end, and Sunday night saw us leaving Las Vegas, bound for Melbourne.  The last 3 ½ weeks had passed so quickly, I had met so many new people, made new friends, caught up with old friends and ‘family’ and experienced many new things.  It is nice to live in the ‘fantasy’ world of travel where there is no room for monotony but training calls and life back in Australia.  Time to get serious and make improvements for the next competitive year.

WHAT LIES AHEAD

As of the start of November the editing of my training video is just about complete, thanks to the patience of Rob W (producer) and my wonderful and supportive husband Troy.  These two worked tirelessly on what, to me, looked like an incredibly tedious task.  They had to edit over seven hours of my training footage down to one freaky hour of training and posing. 

In the end we decided to call the video ‘Christine Envall: SUPERFREAK’.  I hope you agree it’s an appropriate name!

Go through to "A Piece of Me", my on-line store to order a copy of the video.

On November 10th I started dieting for next years competitions.  I am planning to travel to the US to attend the Arnold Weekend and have a competition back in Australia not long after that.