Bodybuilding

Photo © 2009 by Lynn McStatts
Personal Paparazzi

One of the highlights of my life was winning a silver medal at the Gay Games in Chicago in 2006 in my class.

I’m taking time off from competing right now. I hope to compete in the Gay Games again when it returns to Chicago in 2014.

I have competed since 2005 in NPC sanctioned contests and have always brought home hardware thanks to my trainer, Dean, of Dean Said Workout Gym. He made me the bodybuilder I am today. Dean is the former manager of Lee Haney’s World Class Fitness.

Being a bodybuilder was a lifelong dream of mine, starting when I was 19 years old. I competed in my first contest at age 45, winning second place at the NPC Atlanta Bodybuilding Contest in 2005.


 


At the Gay Games in Chicago 2006. Photo ©Mr Flikker

My first trainer was Powerlifting and Olympic lifting coach John Coffee. I competed in Powerlifting events starting around 1980. Coffee’s gym is where I discovered my love of weightlifting. John taught me how to properly lift weights, gym etiquette, and how to hold my own in what was then an almost completely male environment. John coached some of the very first female Olympic lifters in the U.S. Being at the legendary Marietta gym and having a coach training us for the love of it remains one of the deepest gratitudes I have in my life.

I also would like to acknowledge Doc of Doc’s Sports for his tireless support via his local and statewide contests and for keeping us informed of all the Georgia contests via his website, georgia-bodybuilding.com.

Thanks John, Dean, and all the folks who have supported me and others like me along the way. We all do it for the love of it.. I pass the knowledge they passed on to me whenever I can.

As for now, I’m enjoying eating a less rigid diet, working out less intensely, and concentrating on playing music and teaching guitar.