IFBB Fitness NXT?!

On Siouxcountry's Let's Save Fitness board, I brought up a suggestion on the board that I would like to share with all of you.

For those that don't know, I'm a HUGE fan of wrestling, and I'm hooked on their new show WWE NXT, where 8 "pros" are teaching 8 "rookies" the ways of the trade in WWE. It's actually not a bad show.

While I was watching it, I was wondering...what if some of the ladies did something similar to that, but, of course, tailor it to the fitness world. Take a NPC competitor or any female that wants to be a fitness competitor or even THINKS she wants to be a fitness competitor one day, and have them being taken under their wing by a IFBB Fitness Pro. Yeah, I'm aware of teams and support groups out there right now, such as Jacked Up Divas, Team Brownie, Performance Ready, etc. But here me out on this one.

For example, let's take about 10 IFBB Fitness Competitors (Pros) and 8 NPC competitors or women who would like to be fitness competitors that are NOT in any federation (Rookies). Show them what the fitness division is about, have them live together, train together, for about 16-18 weeks or so (estimated time). In between those times, they meet with other "Pros" and "Rookies" and be evaluated from time to time. After the 16-18 week training period, all the "Rookies" will compete amongst each other in a fitness competition. The winner would either a) qualify for NPC Nationals to get a pro card or b) go on to get a pro card and get an invite to the Arnold on the following year. Personally, I don't know which of the two options would be better would be better.

This is nothing more than a mere though I had, so feel free to chime in on your thoughts? Could this be something that can help boost the division and bring forth new blood to IFBB and NPC fitness? Sound off in the comments below.

To ALL Fitness Competitors...Let Your Voice Be Heard

As mentioned earlier, Save Fitness Now was created to help reignite the flame of the NPC/IFBB fitness division. Now, I'm calling for any and ALL fitness competitors to speak up. Let your voices be heard by becoming a writer for Save Fitness Now. You can submit writings as little or as much as you want to. This is YOUR platform to help spread the word about women's fitness and get it back to where it was once before. Fans and industry members, if you would like to write in your thoughts about fitness, you can submit them to me as well.

Please send all of your writings to save_fitness@yahoo.com, and put SFN Submission on the Subject line. You can write your submissions on the email or via Microsoft Word and send them to me as an attachment.

Hope to hear from many of you soon. Let's keep fitness alive! :)

Siouxcountry's Let's Save NPC & IFBB Fitness Board

For those that are part of Siouxcountry (the premeir board for fitness and ALL female physique divisions), Sioux has created a board thread on the site entitled Let's Save NPC & IFBB Fitness. If you've a member of the site, go to the thread and post your ideas on how fitness can be saved. If you haven't joined, I highly recommend you join the board, as not only will you get a better understanding of what women's fitness is, but what each divison is. A haven for all female competitors.

The link to the Lets's Save NPC & IFBB Fitness board:
http://www.siouxcountry.com/forumdisplay.php?f=198

The main site:
http://www.siouxcountry.com

It's Time to Save The Fitness Division!!!

A quick introduction of who I am. My name is C-Ray. You are probably familiar with me through names such as cray17 on Siouxcountry, Muscular Development, and NUMEROUS female physique message boards. I also run FitGems Nation, among other things. The reason I started FitGems Nation was because the respect of the athletes I have in this industry. The reason I became a fan in the first place was because of a cool thing called the fitness division, more specifically the Fitness America Pageant on ESPN2 and its competitors such as Julie Shipley-Childs, Tanya Merryman, Kelly Gignilliant, Nicole Rollolazo, Allison Either, Valerie Brown-Stephens, and more. From there, I've come to discover the NPC and IFBB fitness divisions and was blown away by the talent there: Adela Garcia, Jenny Hendershott, Tanji Johnson, Tracey Greenwood, Julie Palmer, Julie Lohre, Stacy Simons, Heidi Sullivan (Fletcher), Shannon Meteraud, Trish Warren...there's quite a bit of talent.

However, fitness has been on the decline ever since figure and bikini have come to play. Absolutely NO disrespect to any of the other female physique divisions, but fitness is arguably the most entertaining division of all the female divisions out there. Creativity, high-energy, personality, dedication...all of that is in the fitness divison. For fans, they are in awe of what they can do. For photographers and those that take video, capturing their routines on film is like watching poetry in motion. In the NPC and IFBB, there's just nothing like women's fitness. So I'm stratching my head into seeing why fitness is at an all-time low.

Is it the work that is needed? The time that's needed? Now enough contests? Not enough competitors stepping up? Too many not going into the pros after their winning their pro card? I wish I knew the answer, but I don't. What I DO know is this: something needs to be done, or fitness will be nothing but a distant memory.

Hence why this blog was born. I created this blog to reignite the fire and passion that the fitness division had during its birth. Call it an attempt as rebirth, if you will. This is not a one-person thing, or a few people that will be able to make the changes and advancements. This is going to require EVERYONE's help. Current and past fitness competitors, industry experts, fans, the whole nine yards! It's time that everyone (myself included) stepped up and see that fitness stays alive!

IT'S TIME TO SAVE FITNESS NOW!!!!