NPC Fitness Spotlight for January 2011: Paula Williams-Gulman

The first NPC Fitness Spotlight of 2011 goes to Paula Williams-Gulman!

Photo credit: Bodybuilding.com

Paula is among one of the must muscular fitness competitors in the NPC right now. Her muscle maturity is nearly second-to-none in the sport, which has helped her out in her fitness routines. Showing off her biceps has become somewhat of a trademark in her routines as of late. Her muscle maturity should come as no surprise as she's been competing and being a fitness instructor and personal trainer for 15 years. She was part of the Ms. Fitness USA federation for 10 years, and then moved to the NPC and has competed for 5 years. This year will be her sixth year in the NPC, as she aims to earn her pro card and join the IFBB elite.

In addition to being a NPC Fitness Competitor (as well as a Judge), she's a wife and mother of two girls, a PTA member, a soccer mom, a small business owner (She runs Paula's Personal Training) and a dog lover.

In 2010, she came ever so close to getting her pro card, placing in the top 3 at the Jr. Nationals and North Americans, and winning a couple of shows in the process. 2011 might be the year for the self-proclaimed "Firecracker" of the NPC Fitness Division.

For more on Paula, visit her website at http://www.paulaspersonaltraining.com/.

Photo credit: Muscular Development

COMPETITION HISTORY:
2010 IFBB North Americas-3rd
2010 NPC Junior Nationals-6th
2009 NPC Junior Nationals-9th
2009 NPC Jr. USAs-3rd
2008 NPC Team Universe Fitness-5th
2008 NPC Northern Classic-1st Figure Masters, 2nd Fitness
2008 NPC Junior Nationals-3rd
2008 NPC Bill Pearl High Desert Classic-1st
2008 NPC Empire Classic-1st
2008 NPC Emerald Cup-1st, 5'3 and Under Fitness, 4th Masters Over 35 Figure
2008 NPC Vancouver USA Natural Classic-5th Figure Short, 2nd Fitness
2007 NPC Emerald Cup-5th Figure

IFBB Fitness Spotlight for January 2011: Camala Rodriguez

The first IFBB Fitness Spotlight of the year 2011 belongs to rising star Camala Rodriquez!

Photo credit: Bodybuilding.com

Camala is one of the IFBB's top rising superstars in any division these days. Camala won her class in both fitness and figure at the NPC Rocky Mountain and NPC Northern Colorado in 2008. In 2009, she just needed one contest to become an IFBB Pro, and that contest was the 2009 Jr. Nationals. She would not only win her class (Class C), but she would also end up winning the overall fitness title as well. Her exotic looks, crowd-pleasing routine, and balanced physique at the show was ready to take on the pros the following year, and, well...let's just say her rookie year is one that could set the tone for her for years to come in the pro rankings.

2010 was one of those years that a pro competitor can only dream about, but takes forever to attain what Camala did. Camala competed in the 2010 Phoenix Pro, and in her pro debut, she placed third, which guaranteed her a spot at the 2010 Fitness Olympia, which went on to become argualy the most star-studded one to date. She would get an invite to the 2010 Fitness International, and placed 6th place, which is awesome for a rookie competitor. Her next contest would be the Europa Show of Champions in Orlando, where she would end up winning her first pro show. Her last contest of the year would be the 2010 Fitness Olympia, where she placed a respectable 10th place, making her one of the 10 best fitness athletes in the world today.2011 will see Camala compete in the 2011 Fitness International and hopefully another Fitness Olympia. If her 2010 year is any indication, expect Camala to take the IFBB fitness division to new heights in 2011 and beyond.

Photo credit: Muscular Development

COMPETITION HISTORY:

2010 IFBB Olympia-10th
2010 IFBB Europa Show of Champions-1st
2010 IFBB Fitness International-6th
2010 IFBB Phoenix Pro-3rd
2009 NPC Junior Nationals-1st Class C and Overall Fitness Champion
2008 NPC Rocky Mountain-1st Class D Figure, 1st Class B Fitness, Overall Fitness Champion
2008 NPC Rocky Mountain-1st Class D Figure, 1st Fitness Tall, Overall Fitness Champion

FitGems to Interview Jenny Worth in 2011!!!

FitGems Nation is honored to announce that in January 2011, we will be conducting an interview with one of the biggest fitness legends of all time, 2001 Fitness International Champion and top Fitness Olympia finalist Jenny Worth!!!

Jenny from 2001 Fitness Olympia
Photo credit: Jenny's Facebook

This has been in the making for months via Facebook. It was going to be a cool email interview like I've done with all my interview thus far (except for Diana Stanback begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting), but things took an interesting turn. Jenny decided that she would like to do it via audio. So I have the honor and privilege to interview this amazing legend. But I don't want this to be just any interview; I want it to be special, which is why I want YOU, the FitGems Nation, to be part of this special event.

In addition to the questions I've already made for Jenny, I will select five questions from all of you out there. How you do submit your questions? Simple...leave your question(s) below as a comment or email them to me at admin@fitgemsnation.net (Please put Jenny Worth Interview in the subject line).There's no limit to how many questions you can submit, but keep in mine that I'm only going to choose FIVE, and please...no pointless questions, please. We're all adults here. BTW, you have until January 8th. I will choose the best questions and send them to Jenny on the 9th.

For those that have followed and supported FitGems since 2008, I can honestly say that this is arguably the biggest things that has ever happened for the site, to interview one of the true queens of not only fitness, but of this entire industry as well. To say that FitGems is looking forward to interviewing Jenny would be an understatement. Looking forward to seeing all your questions for Jenny!!! :)

Jason Adams to Dedicate Blog/Fan Page to Fitness Division in January

For one week in January, Jason Adams, founder of the Promoting Real Women blog (http://promotingwomen.blogspot.com) and fan page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Promoting-Women-In-Bodybuilding-Fitness-and-MMA/112681648755406), will dedicate his blog and fan page solely to the NPC/IFBB Fitness division.

As part of this special occasion, he will be doing a section on his blog called You Asked It, with IFBB Fitness competitor Victoria Larvie. You Asked It is a section in Jason's blog where you get to ask competitors questions and they will respond back with their answers to them.

So for all fitness competitors, If you have some ideas for Fitness Week on Promoting Real Women or want to be involved in some way, shape, form, or fashion, please let Jason know by adding him to Facebook under Jason Adams or emailing him at elway78@netzero.com.

I'll be letting you know more details about Fitness Week on Promoting Real Women in the coming days.

2011 Fitness International Invite List

Congrats to those that got invited to the 2011 Fitness International at the 2011 Arnold Sports Festival! The 2011 will take place on March 3-6, 2011.

Myriam Capes

Regiane Da Silva

Nicole Duncan

Tina Durkin

Allison Ethier

Adela Garcia

Oksana Grishina

Tanji Johnson

Daniela O’Mara

Erin Riley

Camala Rodriguez

Sylvia Tremblay

Bethany Wagner

Trish Warren

NPC Fitness Spotlight for December 2010: Lena Squarciafico-Mishin

This month's NPC Fitness Spotlight belongs to one of the top fitness stars in the country right now, Lena Squarciafico-Mishin!

Photo credit: Muscular Development

Lena's an amateur competitor from New York (Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY now living in Long Island). She's been in competitive gymnastics since the age of 11. Like a good deal of fitness competitors, she was into competing in many sports and staying fit. After retiring from competition, she decided to coached part time and played around in the gym with her students.

In November 2002, she was convinced by a friend at work into joining a gym in order to break up the work day and relieve some stress. Lena headed straight to the weight room. As she started to lift,  her body responded very quickly and developed fast. Her muscle began to explode like crazy, and then she made that decision to compete.

Up to this point, Lena has done it all in the female muscle industry. She's competed in bodybuilding, fitness, and figure competitions. She loves to show off her physique and routines, whether it's on stage, webcam, or paysite, Lena has developed quite a fanbase. With her incredible muscularity, figure didn't seem like the ideal competition for her, as she would place low in the figure events. She's also gave a try at bodybuilding as well. However, it seems like fitness could be her calling. In 2010, she had one heck of a breakout year, as she won her class a couple of times and only a point or two shy of becoming a pro this year. With 2011 just around the corner, you can rest assure that Lena will be aiming to get that pro card that she rightfully deserves. And with her success in fitness these days, it seems to be that NPC fitness will be her ticket to IFBB stardom.

Photo credit: Muscular Development

COMPETITION HISTORY:


2004 - (March) NY Metropolitans - 1st Place Fitness and Figure (Tall class)
2004 - (June) Atlantic States - 2nd Place Fitness 3rd Place Figure (Tall class)
2004 - (July) Body Rock - 2nd Place Fitness (Tall class)
2004 - (July) Kim Klein Empire States - 1st Place Figure, Fitness (tall class) and 1st Place Heavy weight Bodybuilding
2004 (August) Team Universe (Figure Nationals) 11th Place (class E)
2004 (September) North American Championships (National Show) - 3rd
Place Figure Masters - 10th Place Figure open.
2004 (November) Eastern USA - 1st Place Fitness and Figure (Tall class)
2007 NPC Junior Nationals Bodybuilding, Fitness And Figure Contest-3rd
2007 NPC Team Universe Bodybuilding, Fitness And Figure Championships-8th
2008 NPC Junior National Bodybuilding, Fitness & Figure Championships-6th
2009 NPC Team Universe-3rd
2010 Team Universe,Fitness Tall-5th
2010 NPC Junior USA Bodybuilding Championships, Fitness Tall Class-1st
2010 IFBB North American Championships, Fitness B-1st

IFBB Fitness Spotlight for December 2010: Tina Durkin

This month's IFBB Fitness Spotlight belongs to someone who has been making major strides in the IFBB fitness division in a short amount of time: Tina Durkin!

Photo credit: Muscular Development

Tina is an IFBB Fitness Competitor from Sandusky, Ohio who's been an IFBB pro since she turned pro at the 2007 NPC Nationals. Her life was pretty much about sports during her high school and college career, competing in softball, basketball, ran track, cheerleading, intramural volleyball at WSU. In 1996, she joined the US Air Force Reserves. It was at this point where her life changed forever, as she began to go to the gym on a regular basis and met her husband at a step aerobics class. In 2000, Tina graduated WSU with a BS in Business Management and later that year, the couple got married and moved to California. Three year later, she got pregnant and had a baby girl, which she describe on her official website, it was "the most wonderful and worst thing happened to me (her)". Sick the entire time she was pregnant (which for those that don't know, it's nine months) she had an emergency C-Section. Going though that made her decided to go though the neccesary diet and training to compete, which was something she wanted to do ever since she was a teenager.

In 2005, after doing some research she found WTF (Women's Tri-Fitness). She ended up competing that year in Vegas that year and placed 15th out of 200 women, which was awesome for a first-time competitor. The following year, she entered a local Ms. Fitness competition and qualified for Ms. Fitness in Vegas which was a long time dream. She then discovered the phenomenon know as Mike Davies, and boy did things turn out awesome for her after that!

Throughout her entire NPC career from 2006 to 2007, she was in the top 5 in every show she entered. After she turned pro in 2007 at the NPC Nationals, she received an invite to the 2008 Fitness International, where she placed 11th. After the Arnold that year, she would have back surgery that would keep her out all year. When you have back surgery and you're a fitness competitor, things don't usually look so well for you. But it didn't stop Tina from making her presence felt. She would be invited back to the Arnold the next year, and would qualify for the 2009 Arnold with a 5th place finish. Tina's reaction after she received her 5th place check was priceless, as you would have thought she's won the competition. That's how big of a deal it was for her to be back after being out a year and to place that high in such a huge competition.

From that point forward, it's been nothing but awesome stuff from Tina, with back to back Arnold and Olympia appearances. Her routines are very energetic, and she might possibly have the best complete physique package of all the fitness competitors today. At this point in her career, the only way Tina can go is up. Don't be surprised to see her get a 4th straight Arnold invite and her first fitness win sometime in 2011.

Photo credit: Muscular Development

COMPETITION HISTORY:
2010 Ft. Lauderdale Pro Cup Fitness, 3rd
2010 Fitness Olympia, 7th
2010 New York Pro Fitness, 4th
2010 Arnold Ms. Fitness International, 7th
2010 New York Pro Fitness, 4th
2010 Ms. Fitness Olympia, 7th
2009 Fitness Olympia, 5th
2009 Europa Show of Champions, 5th
2009 New York Fitness Pro, 3rd
2009 Arnold Ms. Fitness International, 5th
2008 Arnold International, 11th
2007 NPC Fitness Nationals, 1st*
2007 NPC Team Universe 3rd
2007 NPC Jr. Nationals 1st **
2006 NPC Fitness Nationals, 4th
2006 NPC Ohio Championship, 1st
2006 NPC Jr. Nationals, 3rd
2006 NPC Indianapolis Championship, 1st ***
2006 NPC Julie Palmer Showdown, 1st

* Overall Winner (Earned IFBB Pro Card)
** Overall Winner
*** National Qualifier

For more on Tina, check out her website at http://www.tinadurkinfitness.com.