Tag: pnba
2022 INBA PNBA Pro/Am Iron Man Magazine Championships Inside Look | Posing Routines & Awards
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An inside look at the 2022 Pro/Am Iron Man Magazine Championships.
This summer held the 2022 INBA PNBA Pro/Am International Iron Man Magazine Championships. The event took place at Hermosa Beach, CA on July 30, 2022. It brought together some of the most talented natural bodybuilding stars – all battling for qualification to the Natural Olympia later this year. Generation Iron was on location for the event and captured a behind-the-scenes look recap.
The Iron Man Magazine Championships is one of the biggest INBA/PNBA competitions of the year. As such, it is also a Natural Olympia qualifier – part of the league’s Road To The Natural Olympia series of competitions. Being a pro/am competition, it also was a major opportunity for amateur natural bodybuilders to earn their pro cards.
Winners of the Iron Man Magazine Championships received up to $15,000 in cash and prizes, and first-place winners earned the opportunity to be featured on the cover of Iron Man Magazine – one of the longest running bodybuilding magazines that still operate to this day.
Of course, all show participants are drug tested with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) labs. However, WADA only uses state-of-the-art drug testing procedures. And any competitor who fails a drug test will be stripped of any title and prizes he/she may receive. Plus, they’ll be placed in the Hall of Shame.
Road To The Natural Olympia
As mentioned previously, the Iron Man Magazine Championships is part of the Road To Natural Olympia series. This means that top winners in the pro league at this competition earn qualification into the Natural Olympia this year – set to be held in Las Vegas on November 10th – 13th.
Denny Kakos founded the PNBA in 1990 because he wanted to create an organization for professional natural bodybuilders that gave out quality awards. Later, he expanded the PNBA to the INBA in 1994 to unite countries and expand natural bodybuilding globally.
Natural Olympia is the Super Bowl of natural bodybuilding competitions. And in the natural bodybuilding world, it’s equivalent to Mr. Olympia of the International Federation of Bodybuilding ad Fitness (IFBB) Pro league.
The 2022 Men’s Bodybuilding Natural Olympia winner will earn a spot on the list of Natural Olympia winners. The earliest winner dated back to John Hansen in 1998.
Watch The 2022 Pro/Am Iron Man Magazine Championships Recap
The competitors in both the amateur and pro league of the INBA PNBA who competed at the Iron Man Magazine Championships brought full passion onto the stage. Like any bodybuilding show, preparation takes months leading up to the competition – and requires a a full lifestyle of bodybuilding to truly become an elite competitor.
This is why Generation Iron continues to cover recaps of the biggest events in the INBA PNBA natural bodybuilding league. The passion, hard work, and dedication are on full display for all competitors on stage. You can check out our full recap showcasing some of the best moments from the 2022 Iron Man Magazine Championships – including behind the scenes and awards – above.
INBA/PNBA World Championships 2022 Inside Look | Posing Routines & Awards
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A visual recap of the INBA/PNBA World Championships competition – part of the Road To Natural Olympia.
This summer held one of the biggest natural bodybuilding events of the year – the INBA/PNBA World Championships in Florence, Italy on June 25, 2022. The competition is a truly vital one for the league – part of the Road To Natural Olympia series – competitors have a chance to qualify for the Natural Olympia competition later this year. It’s also a major opportunity for amateur athletes to earn their pro cards.
The World Championships is also notable for bringing together a truly diverse and powerful line up of competitors from across the globe. Each athlete representing their nation to further place it on the map in the sport of bodybuilding.
Denny Kakos, INBA PNBA’s founder, has high hopes for natural bodybuilding. Bringing bodybuilding to the Olympics is his ultimate goal. The Olympics also abides by WADA regulations and prohibit drugs.
Generation Iron was behind the scenes at the event capturing the full house event in and the epic battles that ensued on stage. You can watch our full recap sizzle reel from the INBA/PNBA World Championships 2022 above.
2022 World Championships Athlete Highlights
Generation Iron (GI) interviewed a few key contenders participating in the weekend show. Below are the competitors we talked to, and they gave us some insight into what they look to achieve.
Kayla Rowling
3x Bikini Divas Natural Olympia champ and multi-media athlete Kayla Rowling is one of the most prominent INBA PNBA competitors competing at the 2022 INBA PNBA World Championships. Rowling’s excited about this competition exceptionally because it will be her first international bikini competition of the year. To prepare for the show, Rowling shared her pre-contest breakfast nutrition plan. Rowling has been eating five egg whites, asparagus, and mushrooms for breakfast to prep for the event.
Veronica Malloy
2x Natural Olympia champ and Hall of Fame Inductee Veronica Malloy placed well at 2021 Natural Olympia, receiving third place in Bikini Angels and a top-five placement in the Figure class. GI recently spoke with Malloy about strategies to find WADA-compliant supplements. According to Malloy, WADA doesn’t have a compliant supplement list, so INBA PNBA athletes must do their due diligence to learn what supplements will pass screenings. Malloy agrees that although Florence, Italy, is beautiful, she’s there for work–she does admit to probably indulging in pizza and other Italian cuisines after the show, though.
Tommi Thompson
Tommi Thompson’s been competing with the INBA PNBA since 2017 in the Men’s Bodybuilding Open category. He’s also been serving in the military for over 20 years. Thompson gave GI a dive into his contest prep for the show in Florence, Italy, and ways Thompon’s conditioning his body to burn fat without losing muscle. Plus, he’s being trained by Natural Olympia champ Philip Ricardo Jr. Thompon’s been keeping his weights heavy during the cutting process to show up on stage in Florence at his best conditioning.
PNBA Bodybuilder Tommi Thompson: The All-Natural Way To Burn Fat Without Losing Muscle
PNBA bodybuilder Tommi Thompson is prepping for the World Championships In Florence, Italy… and shares some of his contest prep tips before the big night.
This weekend holds the INBA/PNBA Pro/Am World Championships in Florence, Italy. It’s one of the biggest bodybuilding competitions of the year for the league – and a huge opportunity for athletes to qualify for the Natural Olympia. It’s also a great moment for bodybuilders to represent their country during a varied international event. In our latest GI Exclusive, we sat down with Tommi Thompson to discuss his bodybuilding journey, contest prep breakdown, and how he burns fat without losing muscle the all-natural way.
Tommi Thompson is a Men’s Open bodybuilder in the INBA/PNBA natural bodybuilding league. He’s been a rising star in the sport – with the benefit of being trained by former Natural Olympia champion Philip Ricardo Jr. Thompson is looking to make waves this year – and the upcoming World Championships this weekend is his first big opportunity to take it to the next level.
During our interview we go into detail about Tommi Thompson’s bodybuilding origins, how Philip Ricardo Jr. became his coach, and why he chose to go all-natural and compete in the INBA/PNBA league. You can watch his comments on this and more in the video above. But for now – we wanted to focus on his tips and strategies for cutting fat and keeping muscle while remaining an all-natural athlete.
How to naturally burn fat and maintain muscle
Tommi Thompson will be the first person to tell you that the journey of being a pro bodybuilder is to be an eternal student. Every year and every new competitive season, Thompson is adjusting and reformulating how to improve his physique even further. The same is true for his tactics during contest prep and cutting weight. The goal is to lose weight and get shredded without burning away that hard earned muscle.
With the INBA/PNBA being a tested league, there are less supplemental options to help during the cutting phase of bodybuilding. So what is Thompson’s current strategy for burning fat without losing muscle? He currently focuses on consistently maintaining heavy reps.
Typically, trainers would suggest that reps increase and weight decreases during the cutting phase of contest prep. But Tommi Thompson wants to try and keep his weight heavy so that his muscle maintains the massive size he’s built earlier in the season. He does combine this with cardio in order to get that extra edge on hardening up his physique.
What might be most shocking is that Thompson reveals he does 90 minutes of cardio each day. That’s a lot of cardio compared to the standard in bodybuilding. There are even some pros who avoid cardio completely. Thompson is aware of this – and knows that too much cardio can start cannibalizing muscle. That’s why every week he steps back and reevaluates his body and adjusts accordingly.
Sometimes he may pull back on cardio for the week. Or perhaps another week he will lighten the weight and increase reps. Like a sculpter making a statue – he continues to adjust and mold his approach until he puts together the perfect package.
Wrap Up
Tommi Thompson is a promising young bodybuilder with a lot of momentum behind him. He’ll put his latest training and diet tactics to the test this weekend when he competes at the World Championships in Florence, Italy. Only time will tell what kind of impact he will have on the league and the sport.
Until then, you can watch Tommi Thompson go into detail about his contest prep tactics, as well as many other topics, in our latest GI Exclusive interview above.
Veronica Malloy: How To Ensure Bodybuilding Supplements Pass Drug Tests
PNBA Natural Figure Competitor Veronica Malloy goes into detail about supplements and passing WADA compliant drug tests.
The Professional Natural Bodybuilding Association prides itself on being rigorous on keeping the league completely natural. They apply WADA compliant testing to all athletes who compete – to ensure that the competitions are fair and all-natural. But this dedication goes beyond the “big bad” drugs such as steroids and insulin. WADA has a long list of substances that are considered banned – even if they are legal in the United States and in other countries. So how does an athlete, who wants to be natural, avoid failing a drug test while using legal supplements? In our latest GI Exclusive interview, we talk in-depth with pro natural Figure competitor Veronica Malloy on the best way to find WADA compliant supplements.
Veronica Malloy is not only a PNBA natural competitor – she’s also a team captain who helps work with the league to ensure that it stays fair and drug free. This means that she can work with the league and request testing on athletes that she finds “suspicious” of using banned substances.
So it’s safe to say that Veronica Malloy has a deep knowledge about natural bodybuilding, the INBA/PNBA, and WADA compliant substances for bodybuilding. She’s currently preparing for the INBA/PNBA Pro/Am World Championships in Florence, Italy. It’s one of the largest competitions in the natural bodybuilding season – and one that provides many pros an opportunity to qualify for the Natural Olympia.
That’s why we connected with Veronica just under two weeks before she competes. We wanted to check in on her contest prep, highlight her bodybuilding origins, and discuss the trending topics in natural bodybuilding today.
Banned substances and compliant bodybuilding supplements
One such topic is bodybuilding supplements and passing drug tests. While the INBA/PNBA league focuses on drug tests to prevent substances such as steroids into the sport – it also has a long list of other banned (but legal) substances decided upon by WADA. Drug tests compliant with WADA follow the same strict rigorous rules used by the Olympics. It’s the best of the best when focusing on keeping the sport fair and safe.
The supplement industry is bigger than ever in fitness. But not all bodybuilding supplements use the same ingredients. In fact, there are many supplements that have ingredients that would fail a WADA compliant drug test. This puts more responsibility on the athletes to ensure they stay fully clean when purchasing supplements.
We asked Veronica Malloy how a bodybuilder, who wants to be natural, can ensure the supplements they take are truly all-natural as per WADA’s ruleset. Veronica admits that this responsibility is a part of the work an INBA/PNBA athlete needs to put into their career. It’s the same kind of effort that needs to be focused on as training and overall nutrition.
Unfortunately, WADA does not have a list of compliant supplement brands. So the bodybuilder needs to do research, use the WADA website, and learn what supplements will pass drug tests. When performing at the top level of athletic ability – being natural becomes a key responsibility of the athlete. Veronica mentions past examples of athletes who failed drug tests – not because they wanted to cheat with steroids – but because they were unaware the supplements they took included banned substances in the ingredients
Despite intentions, the INBA/PNBA will not allow an athlete to compete, or retain their title, if they fail a drug test. They also end up on the wall of shame. This is why Veronica Malloy suggests that the best tactic for natural bodybuilders is to do the research, find a supplement they trust, and stick with it. With that experience over time – it becomes easier to know which supplement brands not only pass the drug test but also work best for their physique needs.
Wrap Up
Veronica Malloy talked about many other topics during our nearly half hour interview. She discusses how steroids uniquely affect women competitors in untested leagues and why she decided to stay all-natural. She also discusses the upcoming Pro/Am World Championships in Florence, Italy.
You can watch Veronica Malloy’s full comments in our GI Exclusive interview above. And make sure to stick around this weekend for our coverage of the World Championships event!
PNBA Natural Bodybuilder Kayla Rowling: How To Decide Between Flexible Dieting & A Strict Meal Plan
PNBA Pro Bikini Diva competitor Kayla Rowling on why she chooses natural bodybuilding and how she handles diet plan.
On June 25, 2022 – the INBA/PNBA World Championships is being held in Florence, Italy. It’s one of the larger competitions in the natural bodybuilding league giving amateurs a chance to go pro and also pro athletes a chance to qualify for the Natural Olympia later this year. Pro Bikini Diva competitor Kayla Rowling is one such athlete looking to earn qualification. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Kayla Rowling explains her strict diet plan as she preps for the World Championships.
In just under two weeks, Kayla Rowling will be competing against some of the best in the world for qualification to the Natural Olympia. That’s why we connected via video call to check in on Rowling’s contest prep and look back at her bodybuilding origins and why she chose to go all-natural.
Kayla Rowling started competing in 2018 – but her fitness journey came much sooner. With an initial interest in cheerleading – she would work with a trainer to help improve her routines. She clearly had talent and so her trainer suggested she consider competitive bodybuilding in the Bikini division. Rowling was initially unsure – but she decided to check out a show. Her first thought – she could do this and she could do it better than many she was seeing on stage.
This started Kayla Rowling’s journey into bodybuilding. She went through many trainers to find the perfect one – and eventually landed in the INBA/PNBA natural bodybuilding league. She now looks towards the World Championships in Florence, Italy to push towards qualifying and hopefully winning the Natural Olympia.
Why Kayla Rowling Chose Natural Bodybuilding
But how did Kayla Rowling end up choosing the all-natural tested league path? There are many untested leagues, such as the IFBB, that bring in immense popularity. For Rowling, it was about the longevity of her career and her health.
“I really value longevity. And i could just see myself becoming obsessed but not in a good way if I were to take any enhancements. Because I know that’s not sustainable long term. And I personally don’t want to look like that all of the time.”
Beyond longevity – Kayla brings up an interesting point. As an athlete, she has a competition in her to succeed. She understands enough about her own competitive nature to realize that an untested league would lead her to pushing PEDs too far in order to be on top.
This, of course, matches current discourse in the larger bodybuilding conversation regarding recent untimely deaths in the sport. Many on the inside of the sport are claiming that the doses and power of PEDs are becoming stronger – and that young athletes are taking more PEDs than ever before. Kayla Rowling avoided this issue all together by focusing on a tested league to keep her own ambitions in check.
Strict Dieting vs Flexible Dieting
Kayla Rowling also goes into detail about her diet plan mentality and how she works with her coach to improve year after year. For Rowling, she focuses on an extremely strict daily diet that only changes to accommodate for optimizations to her physique. Essentially, Rowling relies 100% on her coach to give her a meal plan and she sticks to it without deviation. Her meals are rather repetitive. But much like Jay Cutler, she prefers to focus on the results rather than the joy of eating food.
This is in stark contrast to another approach that Rowling calls flexible dieting. In this method, a bodybuilder would focus on always ensuring they hit their macros – but mixing up their meal within those limits. This helps make eating less repetitive. For some, taking the variety out of food makes it harder to stick to a diet. So flexible dieting helps stay on point.
Kayla Rowling, on the other hand, can’t allow herself to be flexible. She prefers regimented meals like military drills. This is what works for her – and she thinks the biggest struggle for new Bikini Diva athletes is figuring out which style of dieting works best for success on a personal basis.
Wrap Up
Kayla Rowling goes into much more detail about he bodybuilding origins, her training and diet routines, and her life as a natural competitor. You can watch her full interview in our GI Exclusive above. You can also make sure to catch our coverage of the INBA/PNBA World Championships on June 25th, 2022. Stay tuned!
Philip Ricardo Jr: How To Become A Successful Pro Natural Bodybuilder
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Philip Ricardo Jr. discusses the INBA/PNBA and how bodybuilding lovers who do not want to use drugs can become successful as a pro natural bodybuilder.
Philip Ricardo Jr. has his own promoted INBA/PNBA natural bodybuilding competition coming up this month. The Pro/Am Philip Ricardo Legends International is set for April 30, 2022 and will be the first major event in the INBA/PNBA 2022 season. That’s why we decided to reconnect with Ricardo Jr. and discuss his upcoming show and other trending topic sin both natural and untested bodybuilding. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Philip Ricardo Jr. goes into detail on how become a successful pro natural bodybuilder.
For many fans in the bodybuilding world, it’s seen that an actual bodybuilding career or success can only happen in the IFBB Pro league. That in order to become a successful bodybuilder, one will have to use PEDs such as steroids to become a bodybuilding superstar. But Philip Ricardo Jr. wants bodybuilding lovers to know that this isn’t true. The leading league in natural bodybuilding, INBA/PNBA, is taking strides to make pro natural bodybuilders super stars in their own right.
That’s why we reconnected with Philip Ricardo Jr. – to discuss the tactics and paths that aspiring natural bodybuilders can take to find success and a career in bodybuilding without having to resort to PEDs. With Ricardo’s very own Pro/Am show around the corner kicking off the INBA/PNBA season – there was no better time to inform those on the fence how they can go from aspiring bodybuilder to natural bodybuilding champion.
The INBA/PNBA Pro/Am Philip Ricardo Legends International is set to be the first major show of the INBA/PNBA season. Not only is this the first pro/am show of 2022 for the league, Philip Ricardo Jr. has personally worked to ensure that some of the biggest names in the INBA/PNBA will be competing. Former Mr. America and Natural Olympia champions will be in attendance to make for a superstar weekend (that Generation Iron will cover and provide a full recap later this month).
But how does one become an INBA/PNBA superstar? Is it possible to make a full time career out of being a pro natural bodybuilder? Philip Ricardo Jr. took some time with us to detail how the INBA/PNBA qualification system works and how the major pro shows handle prize money and promotion.
The INBA/PNBA is not unlike the IFBB/NPC. The INBA league (International Natural Bodybuilding Association) is the amateur division of the league. The PNBA (Professional Natural Bodybuilding Association) is the pro division of the league. Amateurs compete in INBA shows to eventually earn their pro card.
But unlike the IFBB Pro league, once a natural bodybuilder receives a pro card – they can continue to compete in the INBA amateur league as long as they want. This allows for flexibility in the bodybuilder’s career – they can continue to compete until they feel their physique is prepared for the pro level. Yet, while they prepare they can still gain experience (and cash prizes) by competing in the amateur league as they transition into pro.
The Pro/Am Philip Ricardo Legends International is the first pro/am of the season and a perfect showcase for what kind of success a pro natural bodybuilder can really achieve. In addition to this – you can witness the INBA amateur league strive for the next round of pro card qualifications.
Check out Philip Ricardo Jr.’s full tips and info on how to become a successful pro natural bodybuilder by watching our GI Exclusive interview segment above! And for more information on the Pro/Am Philip Ricardo Legends International – visit the official INBA/PNBA website right here.