Me and Arnold. I’m 6’1″, check out his height.
The Arnold Sports Festival is hitting Columbus this weekend, so let’s insert your typical Arnold line, “I’ll be back!” and here he is.
I’ve written about this event so many times because it is right in my hometown. I can’t remember the numbers, but there is something like 250,000 people that descend to our state capital for the weekend. It brings in some ridiculous number of money to the city of Columbus as well. It’s kind of a big deal.
I first attended this event back in the mid-90’s when it was still primarily a bodybuilding show. They had an expo with vendors and it was at a much smaller venue. Even at that time though, it was the biggest thing each year in the bodybuilding industry. I went to the Mr. Olympia (bodybuilding’s Super Bowl) one year in Chicago and the expo and buzz was just a heck of a lot smaller than what I experience in Columbus each year.
I have readers all over this planet and so what I’d like to do is give you an idea of what happens this weekend. This event is now so much more than just bodybuilding and I feel it is easily the biggest, most exciting thing that happens in fitness each year. If you are in the fitness industry in whatever capacity, you need to come and check this thing out.
The bodybuilding and figure competitions are still big, but are only a small piece of what’s happening. I can’t even begin to count the number of sports and events that they have participating, but the number of athletes is something like 15,000 over the weekend.
Here are just a few of the events they got going on:
- MMA
- Martial Arts
- Archery
- Powerlifting
- Gymnastics
- Arm Wrestling
- A Pump and Run
- Cheerleading
- Fencing
- Art (can you believe that, I even have a client participating in this)
- Bench Press
- Judo
- Plus they have seminars going on in fitness and strength and speed training
- The list goes on
One of the big highlights though is the Arnold Expo. This is a huge venue with tons of vendors and a big stage where there are constant performances going on. Different feats of strength and physical ability if you will. You will see all the muscle bound “freaks”, all the bikini clad women, and possibly human beings that you can’t decipher what they are.
There are also celebrities besides the Terminator himself. Here are some of the names that are scheduled to be the Arnold Sports Festival this year:
- Columbus’s very own Buster Douglas (former heavyweight champ and the guy that knocked out Mike Tyson)
- Carmen Electra (yeah boy. Originally from Cincinnati)
- Randy Couture (MMA Superstar)
- Larry Fitzgerald (All-Pro wide receiver)
- Roy Jones, Jr. (former boxing great)
Me and a fitness lady at the Arnold Expo in the late 90’s
Plus, I have to give a special shout out to my boys (and ladies) at the Columbus Weightlifting Club. They have fought hard to bring weightlifting to the Arnold and each year it has grown and grown. This year they will be having the U.S. Olympic Team Trials and National Championships here. Mark Canella is the director and the guy that helped me fine-tune my Olympic lifts. Great job Mark!
If you go to the Expo, I warn you it will be jam packed, especially Saturday. I’m talking wall-to-wall people. Be patient and take your time. Friday is a good day if you want to get through the vendors with less crowds there. Sunday is also better, plus you might be able to take home free products because the vendors don’t want to haul it back to where they came from.
There are some good parties in the evening, but be prepared to have a little more testosterone around than usual. I mean there could be a lot more guys at places than females, which can be good or bad depending on who you are. Tight shirts and big muscles could be the theme. Just try and have fun.
I don’t go down that much anymore to the event, unless someone calls me up and requests me to come with. I think it is something you need to witness just once irregardless of your views on health. Arnold Schwarzenegger really does try to promote fitness in all capacities and I think he has done a great job with this event. It will be interesting to see what he will try to do in the future. It is hard to believe he could top this.
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