MOUNTAIN TOP, Pa. — Coach Vince Cardamone encouraged Ashlee Martinelli at the squat rack when Newswatch 16 was there on leg day.
Ashlee's teammates can be found at Danko's All American Fitness in Mountain Top, working on their favorite muscle groups. While their favorite exercises might be different, they have one thing in common: They are all bodybuilders.
"There's just a lot more people participating in this than we even realize, even within our own gym and within our own team. We all get together, and we're like, 'Wow, there's a lot of us,'" Martinelli said.
"People might get the impression of only seeing professional bodybuilding at that elite level, which is where money prizes and the bodybuilders are huge and all, but the local shows, it's just a community," Jason Kish said.
The team is known as NEPA Natural Bodybuilding, meaning they compete without the use of performance enhancers or steroids.
"You're waking up going right to the gym, you're doing your cardio fasted every morning, and then as the weeks go on, you know you diet for 12 to 14 weeks to get into a condition that people don't see themselves at every day," David Cruz said.
Aside from nutrition, most of the work to get into competition shape happens here at the gym, but luckily, Coach Vince does a lot of the heavy lifting.
"Each day is a little bit different, what I'm targeting. My coach tells me what we're going to be working on throughout the week, each specific day. So, I come in here and I know what I'm going to do. I don't have to think about it. That was a huge win for me to not have to research my program and figure that out," Martinelli said.
While the nutrition, weight lifting, running, dedication, and discipline to do all that consistently are difficult, this crew says the posing in competition is the hardest.
"Posing is definitely the hardest part," Cruz said. "If you don't have the right posing, guys up on stage will be like this, and they're not symmetrical. You've got to be symmetrical. You've got to have everything popping. You've got to have everything shown properly."
For men and women, posing is a little different but has the same purpose.
After posing in a group, there's also a chance for competitors to show some personality with a posing routine to music.
While each competitor has different motivations for competing, they all agree it's a fun and encouraging community.
"Camaraderie of the bodybuilding culture is very supportive in the gym," Kish added.
More information on the NEPA Natural Bodybuilding competition is posted HERE.
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