Jason Adams Industry Blog

Hello everyone. Before I get going I want to thank C-Ray for this wonderful
opportunity to write for him. For those who do not know me, my name is Jason Adams. I am the man behind the Promoting Women blog, that hopefully you have all heard of. I myself am on a mission. I am trying to defy the odds and go from 292lbs to actually competing in bodybuilding. As of this writing I am at 231.4lbs. I focus on promoting women because quite honestly most of my help has been from women, from my main trainer and my HERO Danny J Johnson, to my other trainer Sara Schumann, to the great support I have from people Like Belinda Hope, Sarah Kinney, Ann Titone, Shirley Madera, Jill Crean, Jamie Eason, and many others. Don't want to make some huge list, but the others know who they are. In fact I have one male, JT Wood, who is one of my trainers, and besides that it is all women. My blog and interviews is to help pay them back, and get some support for women in the fitness and MMA industry, because really, women unfairly do not get the credit, coverage, respect, or attention that men get, and that is not right.

Now about my column. I will tell you flat out, and if you saw my interview with C-Ray, you already know this. I am opinionated. I speak my mind, and may offend some people. That's just me being me. I don't look to offend anyone, but if it happens it happens. But one thing you will never hear or read, is me say anything I do not totally believe in. I tend to ramble on and on, so I hope I can keep this interesting. I struggled on what to write about first. Or should I say, who should I make my first victims? Judges or magazine editors? Well hell, why not both of them. Some have said I should be careful with how I speak of judges because when I do compete, who knows, it may come back to haunt me. Who cares? I don't want to compete to win a trophy. I want to compete to prove I can do it. To prove that if I can overcome my degenerative hip, and the amount of weight I have to and am losing, then anyone can do it. I win when I get off stage and Danny J says she is proud.

Let's start with judges. Let me begin by saying not all judges are bad. There are some who are very good and I respect. But there are some real problems with the judging in this sport. Not necessarily who wins, but even in placings. It seems to often be about anything but your package on stage. Now every woman who gets on stage is a winner and deserves credit and respect. However I do not like when a woman busts her ass to do good, and politics prevents her from achieving what she deserves. It seems to at times appear that the winner is the one with the most sponsors or most well known trainers. In my interview with Fitgems I addressed this and I said in my opinion in a perfect world, this is how judging would be done. Get five judges, and three alternates. After the competition, but before the announcements are made, have each judge take a lie detector test. Prove they stand behind the scores and decisions they made. If you fail, your score card is gone and an alternate steps in. Let's make this wonderful sport what it should be about, working the hardest to look the best, and reward who deserves it most.

Magazine editors, my biggest problem. All do respect to Jay Cutler, but why is every
bodybuilding magazine loaded with articles and things about him? Where are the women? Do women not work as hard? Yes they do!!!! Do women not draw as many fans and readers? Yesthey do!!!!! So why do these editors not realize that? Look at the Olympia last year. Basically every magazine said "Jay Cutler wins Olympia...... oh and by the way so did Iris Kyle", not to mention he fact Fitness, Figure, and Bikini received even less than that. That is crap!!!! Yes Jay on the cover will sell your magazine. But so will Zoa Linsey on your cover. There is a negative stigma many have about muscular women, and the magazines should help clear that negative stigma up. And they can do that by featuring these women. Show them in a positive light. Show how hard the work, show how amazing each one of them is. Put these women on some covers or some featured articles, let women buy these magazines and see they have people to look up to and admire and strive to look like. Think men won't buy them if they have more women? You are wrong. Women have very big fan bases. In fact go on Facebook. Look at fan pages. Women have more members than men in most cases. Put a centerfold of Allison Moyer, Stacy Wright, Betsy and Shelly Albetta or Colette Nelson in your magazine. Do a long article on one of them or interview them. You will get more readers because men will still buy and now you have women who will want to learn from these women. Did what Iris accomplished pale in comparison to what Jay did? No it did not. What Iris did was just as impressive, yet you
didn't see Iris on one single cover. Iris is a bodybuilder, you have a bodybuilding
magazine, put her on a cover or do an article on her. More and more women are laving
Fitness for Figure. Why? Well partially because you never see any opportunities or
coverage of Fitness competitors. Where are the opportunities? Some women may want to
train and compete but do not want to get as muscular as a bodybuilder. Show and cover Fitness competitors. Show women they have an alternative. Show Fitness competitors work just as hard as bodybuilders, and that can be an alternative for them. They can train just as hard and maybe that is the look they want. Every month you have articles on different men and there training routines. Great, if you want to follow those then good for you. But where is the Kristy Hawkins routine for a bodybuilder, where is Ann Titone's training routine for a Figure competitor, where is the Victoria Larvie or LeslieRae Newton Fitness training routine? A woman may be intimidated and say "I don't want to do the Jay Cutler or Dexter Jackson routine" but if she sees a woman's routine, she may not be so intimidated.

In short, bodybuilding, and fitness in general, is not a man's sport. It is a sport,
plain and simple, so why do these magazines seem to treat it as a man's sport, that some women decide to do? Don't treat them better, don't treat them worse, treat them as what they are......EQUAL.!!!!!!!!!