MUSCLE CHURCH: Our Father, the Iron

Most of us proud meatheads fall into two categories with bodybuilding, we love the freaks like Ronnie Coleman or Roelly Winklaar or we champion the classic physiques of Frank Zane or Dexter Jackson. In the history of the Olympia we’ve seen that the judges tend to prefer a mix of both from year to year, but when the points get added up-they often don’t reward competitors with physiques in the middle. Such is the case with Cedric McMillan, the man who wins EVERYWHERE except the Olympia and there really isn’t a good reason why.   Cedric McMillan, champion bodybuilder and proud member of the United States Army McMillan came on to the scene a little over a decade ago winning his pro card in 2009 and won his first show in 2011. Since then he has competed in thirty IFBB Pro League shows and won eight of them, including winning a little show called the Arnold Classic (Columbus) in 2017. In fact, other than two early outings at the New York Pro, McMillan hasn’t finished lower than sixth pla...

I won’t ever try to pass myself off as an expert in anything other than myself, but I want to share some of the wisdom I’ve learned along the way and hopefully from my lifetime of failing some of you can glean something useful. I don’t mind saying that I am a person who has failed in life repeatedly and will continue to do so, because so much more is learned from failure than from success. At all levels, in any industry, failure is the driving force behind evolution and refinement but in our society we still demonize failing and my belief is that the constant barrage of “perfect” people on social media further eats away at those who are just trying to do a little bit better. There is a cost for success, but not every failure is a true setback-I contend that most are not. Let us take a trip back in the time machine to me in the ninth grade. I was then a doughy 260-270 pounds without an ounce of knowledge about training or nutrition, but I was in weight lifting class because I...

Those in the wrestling and meme communities know about Scott Steiner's infamous promo a few years ago in which he started calculating his chances of winning and gave a completely incomprehensible rant. This meme popped up and I look at it a lot when I need a laugh and I think that there is a universe out there somewhere in which Big Poppa Pump said this with a straight face. In improv they say "always commit." I've found that whether I was doing stand-up in front of a tiny crowd or wrestling in sub-par circumstances, keeping a straight face and never giving up on the scene always wins the day. Fans, whether they pay for a ticket or are cheering you in your personal life, deserve to see you give your best and for you to achieve anything, you have to give it your best. That means that when you are out there doing the work, making it happen, you keep a straight face, stand up big and strong and give it your all. Even if you start giving a wrestling promo that makes...

--> Some thoughts on setting yourself up for success and avoiding some major markers for failure. There are much more complex and complicated things at play these days compared to the dingy weight room of my rural high school in 1997. Social media is awesome, but so many people, myself included, don’t seem to figure out the negative effects of it until it’s too late. Aside from the constant desire to remain connected and the endless battles with trolls, we get exposed to so many messages and that alone can skew our perception of what we want and who we are. Instagram is the de facto social network for fitness and training, but it’s easy to forget that most of the major players in that realm do that for work, because their job is to be models and spokespersons for products. I’m sure that many of them would love for you to achieve your goals, but at the end of the day they need followers and engagement in order to make a buck. These perfect bodies performing incred...

--> “Now that’s what I call posing!” Most people have heard Arnold Schwarzenegger’s classic line from the 1977 film Pumping Iron when a thick and mustachioed Ed Corney is posing while the Oak looks on, whispering to the camera. Corney’s pro bodybuilding career wouldn’t reach the heights of either Schwarzenegger or Lou Ferigno, the film’s primaries, but his role in the film would put his classic image in the public consciousness and his physique and posing would place him in the upper echelon of bodybuilding elite. Corney passed away on New Year’s Day 2019 and with him we lost one of the rarest of all relics in the annals of competitive bodybuilding, a man whose career spanned three decades. He first competed in 1968 in the Mr. California and last took the stage in 1998 at the Arnold Classic in the Master’s Division. Though not a frequent winner or even a perennial favorite, Corney was revered for being one of, if not the, best poser of all time, on any level. The...