Sharing a TenSpot with...Amanda Hatfield

This year saw the return of one of the best built and conditioned fitness competitors the NPC has ever had, Amanda Hatfield. Wait...you never heard of her? If you were a fan back around 2004-2005, you might have heard of the name Amanda Swallow. Same person, but a bit older and wiser, and clearly from her return, better than ever. Still possessing her trademark arms, she's back and looks to be heading towards a pro card, either in fitness...or quite possibly, women's physique.

Photo credit: Krivs Studio

FitGems Nation: Let’s kick this off by telling us a bit about yourself.
Amanda Hatfield: I am the General Manager of PowerHouse Gym in Berea, Ohio. I recently started a fitness team, which has really taken off and keeping me super busy. In fact some days I put in about 16 hours! I love what I do and I have come across a great group of young women!

FitGems: When did you first start competing?
Amanda: My very first competition was when I was 10 years old. I had made our local gymnastics team after only 2 years of training. My first fitness competition was in Phoenix, Arizona in April of 2004.

FitGems: What is your strategy when you head to the gym? Is it mostly weight-training, mostly cardio, a balanced mixture of the two, or something else?
Amanda: It really depends on what on want to accomplish. In the past couple of years my focus was trying to improve on my shape. I love to train heavy and push myself to lift more weight. But being in fitness cardio is such a big part of training, so you have to keep a balance. This off season I am concentrating on improving my routine. I have been going back to my roots of gymnastics training.

FitGems: At first glance, has anyone mistaken you for being in something OTHER than physique competitions (MMA fighter, boxer, pro wrestler, track and field runner, softball player, etc?)
Amanda: People usually have me pegged as a gymnast. I always get asked the same two questions, “Do you work out?” Or “What do you do for your arms?” I usually reply, “Its Hydroxy Cut.”…LOL! Then I confess and tell the truth, followed by business card.

FitGems: With women’s physique and bikini now part of the NPC and IFBB, do you feel that there’s now a division for every female who wants to compete?
Amanda: Absolutely!

FitGems: You recently returned to competition this year, ALMOST winning your pro card in fitness. What made you decide to return to competition?
Amanda: I wish I had never left. My career took a different turn. I was a platform artist for Aquage Hair Products. I did a lot of traveling and long hours, which made it impossible to compete. Recently my boyfriend, Joe Mazzone and I purchased the PowerHouse Gym in Berea, Ohio.

FitGems: To many people, your biceps are among the best in fitness. (Okay, that wasn't a question, but a statement. LOL.)
Amanda: That’s funny, because I think I am the only one who doesn’t like them. In fact I don’t even train arms anymore. I would trade them in on a good pair of shoulders any day! (Interesting....)

FitGems: If you weren’t a part of the female physique world whatsoever, what would you be doing right now as your profession?
Amanda: I would probably still be slaving behind a stylist chair!

FitGems: What (if anything) would you change about any of the IFBB female divisions?
Amanda: I would prefer fitness be judged more on conditioning. I love Oksana Grishina. I think she should be taking first. The comments are always that she is too lean. I believe most women prefer her physique. I also feel to be physically capable to perform the routine that she brings to the competition you have to be in that awesome condition.

FitGems: What advice do you have for anyone who wants to compete?
Amanda: My advice is always to compete for the right reasons. Through my years of coaching gymnastics and now training fitness, figure and bikini competitors, I have learned you have to do it because you love it. I mean love all of it, even leg day! I make sure I enjoy every training session! I am trying to pass this on to my girls.

For more on Amanda, you can find her on Facebook under the name Amanda Hatfield. 

3rd Annual FitGems Awards-NOMINATE YOUR FAVORITES!

The 3rd annual FitGems Awards are right around the corner, and we hope to make it in the words of WWE' 12,"Bigger. Badder. Better" than ever before! The categories have changed a bit with new categories entering the fray:

Nominate UP TO FIVE people for the following categories, with the top 6 names for each category to be put on the ballot: 

COMPETITOR CATEGORIES

Pro Female Bodybuilder of the Year
Pro Figure Competitor of the Year
Pro Fitness Competitor of the Year

Pro Bikini Competitor of the Year
Amateur Female Bodybuilder of the Year

Amateur Figure Competitor of the Year
Amateur Fitness Competitor of the Year
Amateur Bikini Competitor of the Year
Amateur Physique Competitor of the Year NEW
International Female Bodybuilder of the Year (Pro or Amateur)
International Fitness Competitor of the Year (Pro or Amateur)
International Figure Competitor of the Year (Pro or Amateur)
International Bikini Competitor of the Year (Pro or Amateur)
Breakout Pro Female Bodybuilder of the Year
Breakout Pro Figure Competitor of the Year
Breakout Pro Fitness Competitor of the Year
Breakout Pro Bikini Competitor of the Year
Breakout Amateur Female Bodybuilder of the Year
Breakout Amateur Figure Competitor of the Year
Breakout Amateur Fitness Competitor of the Year
Breakout Amateur Bikini Competitor of the Year

Breakout Amateur Physique Competitor of the Year NEW
Rookie Competitor of the Year (any division; must have competed starting THIS YEAR) NEW

Inspirational Competitor of the Year NEW

Comeback of the Year NEW
Competitor Who You Would Love to See Return To the Stage in 2012
Fitness Personality of the Year (Model/Trainer/Spokesperson) (formerly named Fitness Entrepreneur of the Year)
Moment of the Year (when certain people win a competition, return to the stage, retire, etc. This is for any federation and can be about any of the divisions)

MISC. Categories

NPC Show of the Year
IFBB Show of the Year
WBFF Show of the Year NEW

Promoter of the Year NEW
Organization of the Year NEW
Female Physique Site of the Year (non-competitor) (NOTE: FitGems is NOT eligible due the fact that FitGems is running the contest)
Female Competitor Blog of the Year
Facebook Fan Page of the Year (Competitor/Fitness Personality) NEW
Photographer of the Year
Blogger of the Year
Industry Blog of the Year (by a fan, industry member, company, etc.)
Industry Facebook Fan Page of the Year NEW
Female Celebrity Muscle of the Year NEW
Physique Paysite of the Year
Male Supporter of the Year (through shows, message boards, donations to competitors, etc.)
Female Competitor Site of the Year
Supplement Company of the Year
Team of the Year NEW

Trainer of the Year NEW

Voting for the Ones to Watch will be a bit different from previous years. You can nominate up to three people from now until the end of the year, and during the FitGems Awards Ceremony, we'll announced the top five names of those to watch in the coming year in each category below:

Pro Figure Competitors
Pro Fitness Competitors
Pro Bikini Competitors
Pro Women's Physique Competitors
Amateur Female Bodybuilders
Amateur Figure Competitors
Amateur Fitness Competitors
Amateur Bikini Competitors
Amateur Women's Physique Competitors
Fitness Personality (Model/Trainer/Spokesperson) (formerly Fitness Entrepreneur)


You can send your nominations through Twitter (http://twitter.com/fitgemsnation) using hashtag #FitGemsAwards2011, email your nominations (admin@fitgemsnation.net), or leave a comment on this post on our Facebook fan page (http://www.facebook.com/fitgemsnation). I'll also take your nominations through private messages (PMs) through the following message boards:

Siouxcountry (under cray17)
RxMuscle (under FitGems)
FTVideo (under cray2005)
Unreal Muscle (under FitGems)
Muscular Development (under cray17)

You can nominate between now and Wednesday, November 30th. On December 2nd, check back on the blog for the official list of nominees. After that, voting will begin that same day and will last through the rest of December, with the winners announced sometime in mid-January (Exact date and format of the announcement of nominees to be determined on a later date).

Good luck to everyone! :)

Mindi O'Brien Retires from Fitness

Fitness lost one of its top competitors today, as Mindi O'Brien announced via Youtube today that she is retiring from fitness competition. It sucks to leave a sport or anything you love for so long due to an injury. She's had a great career spanning 14 years, with great routines and what some people call one of the best physiques in fitness history, capped off by her trademark arms that would give any female bodybuilder a run for their money. Some of her highlights include competing in 6 straight Fitness Olympias (although she was qualified for 7, but skipped out of this year's show due to injury) and 5 straight Arnold Classics. She would finish her career at the first-ever Arnold Classic Europe, placing 6th.

Photo credit: RxMuscle.com

Here's a video of Mindi during her trip to Spain (including her fitness routine and posing round) and announcing her retirement from fitness:

What does the future hold for her? We're unsure, but we think she will stick around in the fitness industry in some form or capacity. We at FitGems Nation congratulate Mindi on an incredible journey, and we wish her the best of luck in the next chapter of her life!

Tanji Johnson Wins Arnold Classic Europe Fitness

Photo credit: Rx Muscle

History was made this weekend at the first-ever Arnold Classic Europe took place. Tanji Johnson, one of the top competitors in fitness and according to many a future Fitness Olympia and/or Fitness International champion, will forever be in the history books as the first-ever Arnold Classic Europe Fitness champion. Bethany Cisternino took 2nd, Regiane DeSilva took 3rd place. Here are the full results as well as scorecard for this historic event:

1. Tanji Johnson
2. Bethany Cisternino
3. Regiane DeSilva
4. Myriam Capes
5. Tina Durkin
6. Mindi O'Brien
7. Diana Monteiro
8. Kayde Puckett

Photo cradit: IFBBPro.com

Congrats to Tanji on the win, and to everyone that competed at the Arnold Classic Europe! You all made history this weekend!

IFBB Advisory Rule about Competition Contracts and No-Show at Finals

This was released last week, from the IFBB:

Credit: IFBBPro.com

Let's start with the athlete competition contract ruling. There are those that take their time and want to see who else is competing and maybe they will wait until the very last minute to send in a contract. With this new ruling, that will be reduced dramatically as competitors MUST submit their contracts no later than a month (30 days) before the competition they plan to enter. And if they DO wait, they gotta pay up to the tune of 200 dollars. So make up your mind early, folks, and go ahead and submit those contracts.

As far as the no-show at finals are concerned, good ruling on that as well. If you make it, don't bail out unless you have a legitimate excuse. If you're literally feeling like you're gonna pass out, then you clearly excused from the finals. Your health is more important than a trophy and a spot at the Olympia. But if you're skipping to be skipping, you better hope it's a VERY GOOD excuse, because it's gonna cost ya $1,000. And until it's paid off, you will be kept from competing elsewhere.

While I personally love these rulings, some of you might not. What are YOUR thoughts on the new IFBB rulings? Post them below.

New Olympia Qualifications for 2012 and Beyond

For those unaware, the 2012 Olympia is aiming to be more elite with some new changes. Here's the official IFBB Advisory Notice on Olympia qualifications, beginning next year:

Photo credit: IFBB Pro

When you stop to think about it, it's a great way to make the Olympia more special then it already is. Yes, this does mean there will be LESS competitors on the Olympia stage from this point forward, but the Olympia is supposed to represent the absolute BEST of this industry, right? I have no problem with it. Besides, For those divisions that might lack a few competitors, invites could be issued. So placing in the top 3 in ANY competition is still important, as it can do a long way in possibly seeing yourself on the Olympia stage beginning next year and the years to come. Also, there's men's and women's physique that's going to be part of the Olympia soon. The rest of this year's shows are NOT affected by this rule. This will take place at the start of the 2012 season.

What are YOUR thoughts on the new Olympia qualifications? Post your responses below or send us a tweet to our Twitter at FitGemsNation.

2011 Olympia Webcast Details

The good folks at Bodybuilding.com will once again be providing a free webcast of the Olympia, taking place this weekend. Here's the direct link to the Olympia webcast:

http://streaming.bodybuilding.com/2011-olympia-webcast/

Mr Olympia prejudging, Ms Olympia Finals, Fitness Olympia Finals & Bikini Olympia Finals will take place on Friday evening. with the finals of Mr Olympia & Figure Olympia taking place on Saturday evening.Women's prejudging will not be live via Webcast, however the prejudging is usually taped by Bodybuilding.com, so they will probably post the video a few days after the Olympia has concluded.

Current WWE Diva To Return to Her Roots

For weeks and weeks, Gaspari Nutrition  has been promoting their first-ever live broadcast from the 2011 Olympia, and with good reason. It's a big event in itself because Gaspari Nurtition is among the biggest supplement companies on the planet (and a former FitGems award winner, FYI). But it's also a major big deal because of who's hosting the event...Current WWE Diva Kaitlyn!

Photo credit: WWE.com

Kaitlyn, a former NPC Figure competitor, will be returning to her fitness roots as she will be interviewing some of the biggest names in the fitness industry, including Felicia Romero, Ava Cowan, Krissy Chin, Jaime Baird, Justine Munro, Marzia Prince, Laura Prestin, and others. We at FitGems Nation are stoked to see Kaitlyn tearing it up and joking it out (and being part of the coolest Diva tag team EVER, the Chickbusters, with AJ) on Friday Night Smackdown, so we are excited to see her give back to the industry that made her a star in the first place.

The interviews can be viewed from anywhere in the world that has Internet connection. The live feed will take place from 10AM to 5PM Pacific Time on both Friday and Saturday on the company's Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/GaspariNutrition. No doubt the Gaspari booth will be among the most popular attractions of the Olympia weekend, especially with one of the top rising stars in WWE as part of their team.

Sharing a TenSpot with...Diane Whetstone

Diane was among the many competitors who competed at the Masters Nationals in figure a few weeks back, and she was among the oldest in the competition (at age 60!!). That didn't matter though, as she placed very well in her class. This interview took place after the Masters Nationals competition.

This photo was provided by Diane herself from a gym shoot, taken by photographer Mark Mason. You can view more of his work at http://www.markmasonmedia.com.

FitGems Nation: Let’s kick this off by telling us a bit about yourself.
Diane Whetstone: I am a Washington State girl born in the tiny town of Sunnyside. It was a farm town 1 mile square and only 3000 people with quite a few being my family members. I lived there until age 14 my family moved to Kennewick where I graduated high school. I moved to Los Angeles for 8 years but moved back home to Kennewick. I now live near Olympia and work for the State of Washington as a Data Warehouse Administrator and supervisor. I have three passions, fitness, computer technology and my husband. I feel lucky to be able to be involved with the things I love.

FitGems: When did you first start competing?
Diane: I have been competing in muscle sports since 1994 with bodybuilding competitions. In 1999 I switched to power lifting. I was able to achieve a few state and world records. When NPC created a new division called Figure I knew this was something I would want to try. In 2004 I placed 3rd at age 54 at the Washington State Championships in the Over 35 division. In 2005 I had knee surgery so I had to take some time off from training. After a few years and a lot of hard work I’m now back competing. This has been my passion for a long time and I hope to be able to do this for many more years.

FitGems: What is your strategy when you head to the gym? Is it mostly weight-training, mostly cardio, a balanced mixture of the two, or something else?
Diane: I would probably call it a balanced mixture but I really prefer weight-training. My strategy is to do whatever my trainer and husband instructs me to do. At the gym is probably the only place I will let him tell me what to do so I think he takes advantage of it. But seriously, he is a good trainer and he knows his stuff. That is how we met because I hired him as my personal trainer in 1993 to help me loose 40 lbs. He is the one of the best trainers around and the one who introduced me to bodybuilding and competing.

FitGems: At first glance, has anyone mistaken you for being in something OTHER than physique competitions (MMA fighter, boxer, pro wrestler, track and field runner, etc?)
Diane: Not really. I just get mistaken for someone younger than I am. I love it!!!

FitGems: With women’s physique and bikini now part of the NPC and IFBB, do you feel that there’s now a division for every female who wants to compete?
Diane: I love the fact that they added physique. With the extremes that female bodybuilding has taken, it is nice to have a venue for those who don’t wish to take it to that level. Please don’t get me wrong. I love the bodybuilding/strong woman look but it is not for everyone and not everyone can achieve it.
At the other end of the spectrum is bikini. It is great of the young women who don’t want to get that hard lean look. But I have some personal issues with it. They now have a Masters Over 35 division. Please don’t have an Over 50 division! You won’t see me in it. Come on, do you really want to see your grandmother doing those poses?

FitGems: You recently competed in the Masters Nationals and placed 6th in the Over 55 class. How did it feel to be the oldest competitor on the show and do so well in it?
Diane: At the contest I thought I might be the oldest but after some checking around I found that Kay Friend, my fellow Washington State competitor was actually older than myself. She placed 5th ahead of me.
In April of this year I competed in the 2011 Emerald Cup and also placed 6th out of 13 Over 50 competitors. There were 3 of us who were over 60.
Still, being one of the few competitors over 60 I feel is an achievement in itself. Next my goal is to break the 6th place barrier! Top 5 here I come!!!

FitGems: If you weren’t a part of the female physique world whatsoever, what would you be doing right now as your profession?
Diane: As I answered to a previous question I love working with computers. I’ve been in the IT field since 1970. I’ve been a keypunch operator, computer operator, computer programmer, web designer, security analyst, database administrator and now a data warehouse administrator. I love learning new languages, software and hardware. When I’m not working at my job or getting ready for a contest, I’m maintaining the websites for our health club company. My husband is a co-owner of the FitStop24 in Olympia and Yelm, Washington. I also maintain the website for the NPC Northwest Championships the FitStop24 promotes each November.

FitGems: What (if anything) would you change about any of the IFBB female divisions?
Diane: Of course I would like to see more Masters divisions. According to the 2010 census the largest population group was female between the ages of 45 and 65. This comprised 26% of the USA population. Soon this baby-boomer generation will be 55 to 75. I think both the IFBB and the NPC need to recognize this and understand there is whole generation they are ignoring.

FitGems: Which competitor (past or present) you look up to the most for your inspiration?
Diane: There are many. My first idol was Diana Dennis because of her beautiful posing routines. Now my idols are Ernestine Shepard, world’s oldest bodybuilder and Dee Lazard who competed in the Masters Nationals placing 1st place in the Over 60 bodybuilding division. They are both actively working as personal trainers. They look amazing. I just hope I can do for Masters Figure competition what they have done for Masters Female Bodybuilding.

FitGems: What advice do you have for anyone who wants to compete?
Diane: • First, go watch a show and learn about the sport. It’s not as easy as it looks.
• Start by entering a small local show. It will save you money on hotel and travel costs and you might even bring home a trophy!
• Find someone to coach you. You can easily get lost in the details of contest prep.
I formed a team for our gym’s competitors. We are here for each other. The experienced competitors are teaching the newbies. We have posing classes and after contest parties! We have tons of fun.




For more on Diane, visit her Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/dianewhetstone, her Bodybuilding.com site (where you can view her contest prep pictures at) at http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/damedi, and you can email her via Facebook at damediane@facebook.com. 


Once again, thank you Diane for conducting this interview with us!

2011 Europa Supershow to be Webcasted!

One of the biggest shows of the year NOT named the Olympia or Arnold is taking place tomorrow as the Europa SuperShow will take place in Dallas. Tomorrow and Saturday, the event will be broadcasted via web on Muscular Development's site. It's great to see more shows being webcasted for those unable to attend. The webcast feed will run at 3PM Central.

To view the webcast, go to http://www.musculardevelopment.com/live/2011-europa-super-show.html. Go ahead and bookmark this link.

Good luck to everyone competing!