This is a complicated, convoluted, story of teenage love, drama, tattoos, and marriage. The two teenagers who got married were RxMuscle Bros Vs Pros Women's 1-Rep Max Deadlifting Champion Melody Melo and NPC Teenage National Bodybuilding Champion Nick Medici. Melody has been a regular on the Rx Muscle message board since its inception, she's been heard on the RxMuscle radio shows, and she's even been seen on The Heavy Muscle TV Show. Nick is known for his win over Cody Lewis at last year's Teen Nationals, he's trained by Mr. 202 Olympia Kevin English, and he can be seen in Gaspari Nutrition ads all over the place.
As everyone knows, this past weekend was the Arnold Fitness Festival and, more specifically for bodybuilding fans, The Arnold Classic Pro Bodybuilding Championships. When I set out for Columbus this year, I had many goals, but my main one was to get to the bottom of what's going on with Kai Greene. He's been one of my favorite bodybuilders for several years now, and when I recently heard he was no longer working with long-time friend and mentor Oscar Ardon, and has instead decided to work with prep coach George Farah, I became concerned. It wasn't because Farah is a bad prep coach/guru, it was because I felt that Oscar and Kai worked well together, and maybe more than that. In the least, their story is compelling. Oscar met Kai in the gym when he was just a kid, still living in a group home. They would drive together as teenagers in Oscar's car listening to the Conan movie sound track and. And years later, their friendship helped Kai achieve the pinnacle of the sport they both loved so much. It certainly is a compelling story! I hated to see it end; so did many others. Being the nosey yenta that I am, I called Oscar to find out what happened.
I think there is no question that the Men 202 Division has been huge success as far as interest, competition, and popularity goes. There have been many shows that I attended last year where the 202 portion of the show was the premier event. When asked, I'm sure most of the athletes consider the division to be a success, as well. That is, with the exception of one small item. When it comes to prize money and potential sponsorship dollars, there's still a huge disparity from the Open division to the 202. Unfortunately for the 202 Division, these last two reasons may cause some top 202 bodybuilders to move into the Open division in 2011.
This morning I received a distressing text message from my good friend Oscar Arden. Oscar is a Guru who's best known for training Kai Greene to 2 consecutive Arnold Classic championships. He's also currently working with Victor Martinez for his return to action at the 2011 Arnold Classic. Here's a portion of the text, in his own words, describing what happened:
"I fell Wednesday night on the ice after coming home from training Victor. I fell in front of my house and tore my right quad off the bone."
Chulsey Graham Rest In Peace
Saturday night, January 29, Chulsey Graham, top NPC National Bodybuilder, was with his wife Tonia and his three daughters in his McKinney, Texas home. He was recovering from back surgery he had the day before. Just to let everyone know, Chulsey's back problems had been very well documented as you can see for yourself in the video below.Subscribe to RxMuscle on Youtube