This morning I left the house at around 7:30 to meet my friend Rob so we could get on our way to the Arnold Sports Festival at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio.
The Arnold Sports Festival (formerly the Arnold Classic) is an annual bodybuilding competition that is held in Columbus named of course after Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to Wikipedia, it is known as the most lucrative bodybuilding competition with the grand prize being a 130,000 dollar check, a Hummer vehicle, and a Rolex watch. Over the years the competition has transformed into a full blown sports convention including gymnastics, cheerleading, dance, fencing, table tennis, yoga, martial arts, strongman, archery, wrestling, powerlifting, boxing, figure skating, and more.
As soon as we got near the convention center, we knew we were in the right place, because men were nearly exploding out of their shirts on every street corner. We had to climb the most insane steep driveway just to get into the convention center, and if you aren’t already physically fit you probably can barely make it up that hill. The convention cost was a very economic $10. Once inside, the first thing I spotted (beside some of the most muscular men and women I have ever seen in my life) was this car decked out with Arnold airbrush work.
After that, we walked through the doors of the actual convention and I was completely blown away. The floor was mapped out wall to wall with booths, and the people were shoulder to shoulder throughout the entire place. I have never witnessed a convention of this caliber, and was not expecting it to be so incredibly packed. I heard that today was just child’s play compared to what tomorrow is going to be like (due to more featured guests, and the fact that most people don’t work Saturdays). Here is a rather blurry picture of the crowd, but it was the only one I took and I want for you to understand exactly how packed it was.
Our main goal of the convention was to get as much free stuff as possible. To be honest with you, this was basically like trick or treating, going from booth to booth was one of the most fun and rewarding things I have done in a while. With the simple 10 dollars to get in, I feel that I made out like a bandit. Check out all my stuff!
Your eyes are not deceiving you, you can clearly see 2 t-shirts, magazines, a portable mixer, energy drinks, protein powders, energy bars, protein bars, a football, a dvd and more.
Along with free samples at almost every booth, were visual treats, aka beautiful women. I would like to know where they located all of these women, because the place was packed to the brim with them. I was told in advance that the convention was nothing but men wearing fanny packs and ugly women, but I have to disagree. I didn’t see a single fanny pack (I wasn’t really looking) but there were amazing women everywhere.
Also, there were a lot of celebrities of fitness in the house. Unfortunately I am not the biggest follower of UFC or mixed martial arts, but there were a lot of fighters there. I recognized some faces, but don’t know the names. I snapped a picture of Forrest Griffin though.
There were also a lot of famous bodybuilders, and I honestly don’t know any of them either. I am brand new to this bodybuilding thing, but hey, I do know this guy!
Lou Ferrigno was in the house, signing autographs and posing for pictures.
I sat in on an EAS demonstration that featured Mark Weir, pro mountain biker. He did a little Q and A and then people got a chance to shoot some hoops for up to 500 dollars worth of products from EAS. The beautiful EAS ladies were also throwing stuff to the crowd where I received my EAS football.
I also stood and watched the women’s posing competition for a little while. It is nuts to watch these women do their poses. Every single one of them could probably crumple me up like a tin can and leave me bloodied and unconscious in a ditch. The spray on tans were even darker in real life than they look on tv.
They had a lot of other activities going on, we barely even scratched the surface of what was happening there. I really think you would need to be there all weekend in order to see just half of everything. If you like to people watch, get free stuff, and just geek out on a new experience, I would recommend this convention. It is still going on until Sunday so grab a crisp 10 dollar bill and get out there.
Say goodbye to the Met-RX guy!
Last edited: Jul 01, 2009 @ 11:04 PM, 260 days ago
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