Can it really be less than two weeks till the Los Angeles Fitness Expo featuring the newly revived NPC IRON MAN Magazine Naturally Bodybuilding, Figure and Bikini Championships, which will hit the Los Angeles Convention Center on January 29 and 30? I believe it at last because of the way the weather here in L.A. has changed, big time, from the rainstorms and (relative) cold we’ve enjoyed throughout the winter. Since I’m not involved in the planning and execution of the big expo weekend (someone’s got to put out the magazine), it has long been on my radar as something that’s happening  “in the future.” This past weekend, however, as I watched football games taking place in the bitter cold and blinding snow in my hometown, Pittsburgh, and my second hometown, Chicago, from the comfort of 79 degrees and sunshine, I was struck by two thoughts: The first had to do with how much I love living in Southern California. The second: It was time to wake up from a long winter’s nap and start thinking about bodybuilding (plus fitness, figure, bikini and physique).

Of course, anyone who’s competing in the IRON MAN Magazine Naturally—or the IRON MAN Magazine Presents the 2011 BodySpace Model Search—has been thinking about it for some time, not to mention dieting. Another guy who’s been thinking about it is IM’s Lonnie Teper, who has worked his butt off (at least figuratively) to bring a talented amateur lineup from across the country to compete at the IM Mag Naturally. I’ve been sworn to secrecy on some of the names, or I would spill. If I know L.T., there will be a good mix of beginners as well as experienced athletes onstage, which to me is—as much fun as all the pro shows and pro qualifiers are—the real heart of physique competition. I’m truly looking forward to the IM Naturally, which is polygraph-tested and an NPC Team Universe qualifier. It takes place on the expo stage on Saturday, January 29, from 3 to 6 p,m. Entry is free with your Los Angeles Fitness Expo ticket.

Speaking of which, one of the cool things about not being involved in the production of the expo et al. is that I get to experience it more as a member of the public, albeit with a camera and/or microphone in my hand. Each year I am always surprised and pleased to see how the event has grown. I would not begin to list the entire slate of fitness- and training-related exhibits or the many sponsors, but it’s worth noting how many competitions of interest to lovers of strength training and bodybuilding will be taking place. In addition to the IM Mag Naturally and the BodySpace Model Search, there are a few new events, like the UAL Arm wrestling Qualifier II,  the L.A. Champions Martial Arts Competition and the Vise Grip Viking Challenge, as well as returning favorites, including the Gracie U.S. Nationals & Kids World Championships, the All-American Strongman Challenge, the Scot Mendelson Bench Pro Classic, the Warriors Wrestling Competition, the USPA American Cup Powerlifting Championships, and the L.A. Fitness Expo Benchpress and Deadlift Championships—15 competitions in all.

As for the 2011 BodySpace Model Search, an interesting note about the five finalists produced by preliminary rounds of online voting: The group includes a couple of hot IFBB pros, Felicia Romero and Kathleen Tesori. Last year Felicia’s fellow figure pro Erin Stern was the runner-up (to Jacquelyn Roberts) at the model search and then a month or so later duplicated that finish at the Figure International. Coincidence? Undoubtedly. Still, I’ll be watching Felicia’s performance at the expo for a predictor of how she’ll do in Columbus, Ohio, on March 4, at the ’11 Figure I (where she’ll face Nicole Wilkins-Lee, who won it last year and Stern, who won the ’10 Olympia).

Before that, though, Erin and Kathleen will face Lindsay Kaye, Laura Bailey and Jennifer Rankin in the BodySpace Model Search finals. Good luck to all.

For info on all things to do with the Los Angeles Fitness Expo, the IRON MAN Magazine Naturally Championships or IRON MAN Presents the 2011 BodySpace Model Search, go to www.thefitnexpo.com.

I make no promises, but I think the weather’s going to be beautiful. I will see you there!

Photos (from top):

Erin Stern and Danny Johnson were finalists at the model search in 2010.

Will Felicia hit the BodySpace jackpot in L.A.?

This holiday season I was ”gifted” with a box of my mail from the IRON MAN offices in Oxnard, California. I don’t get much snail mail there, and what I do get is from people who don’t know that I’m seldom (if ever) seen there anymore, technology making it possible for people in multiple locations to publish a magazine together without ever actually seeing each other. As usual, the bulk of it was P.R. releases and packets for products, people and places that would be more appropriate if I were the senior editor of Self rather than a hardcore bodybuilding and training mag. I also got a few letters—there’s always at least one enterprising young man who wants contact numbers for a list of fitness and bodybuilding stars (not a chance), one who wants to know how to meet sexy muscular women (try a gym), one from our incarcerated population of readers and a couple that are really, truly for me, like the puppy-covered thank-you note in the accompanying photo.

I look at everything, eventually (you never know where an idea will come from); however, when I went to put the most recent box on the to-do pile, I found the previous box, which had arrived during a deadline and was by then partially hidden by a stack of magazines and full of very old mail.

Guilt and a desire to see the tabletop led finally to exploration and a resulting treasure trove.  In addition to free issues of Consumer Reports and Copyediting (an excellent newsletter for language wonks like myself), there were quite a few books—you remember books?—so  I thought I’d share a few of the highlights, Some of them are available on multiple platforms. If anything strikes your fancy, just go to amazon.com and type the title in the search line.

The Body Shop: Parties, Pills, and Pumping Iron—or My Life in the Age of Muscle, by Paul Solotaroff. This looks like a good read—and a role for whoever’s going to be the next Johnny Depp. The author, a contributing editor to Men’s Journal and Rolling Stone, chronicles his experiences getting big and buff in New York the mid-1970s and all that went with it. Says publisher Little, Brown and Company: it’s “the funny and poignant story of this young man’s transformation from beanpole to bodybuilder in the days of disco and decadence.… a thoroughly rowdy memoir that is as sharp as it is wickedly funny.” It’s definitely on the to-read pile.

The Road Warriors: Danger, Death, and the Rush of Wrestling, by Joe “Animal” Laurinaitis with Andrew William Wright. This one is due out in March, and it’s also a memoir—of how Laurinaitis, half of the famed tag-team the Road Warriors (with Mike “Hawk” Hegstrand) “rose to the pinnacle of the wrestling world.” It’s “an action-packed, adrenaline ride through the roller-coaster career of the legendary tag-teamers,” says publisher Medallion Press. This one is definitely going on my to-read pile as well, if only so the next time my old neighbor Katie asks me smugly, “How are the wrestlers?” (her idea of a joke about my job), I’ll have something to tell her.

Mr. America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr McFadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet, by Mark Adams. The production editors who work with me at IRON MAN, not being bodybuilders themselves, always love our features about the history of the iron game, which goes hand in hand with the history of the muscle-magazine game. This biography, published by HarperCollins, of the early 20th-century character who created Physical Culture magazine and a $30 million media empire and left his mark on American society would be right up their alley.

The No Om Zone: A No-Chanting, No-Granola, No-Sanskrit Guide to the Healing Practice of Yoga by Kimberly Fowler and published by Rodale. I love to stretch and do a lot of it, especially at the ends of long deadline days spent in a desk chair gripping a mouse, but I’ve never been drawn to the idea of “yoga class.” The author has a DVD out, but the book looks like a good resource for do-it-yourselfing. In other words, she had me at “no chanting.”

Of course my favorite thing that came in the mail over the holidays was the February ’11 IRON MAN, starring Ava Cowan on the cover and featuring our first swimsuit spectacular in years. I’ve been kvelling since I first saw the layout a month ago—Mike Neveux was beyond inspired when he took Ava, Alicia Marie, Tiffany Toth, Nadine Dumas, Natasha Yi, Chady Dunmore and some hunky guys to the beach. Very different and exciting stuff.

Of course, the rest of the issue is terrific as well. It’s no secret that I think IRON MAN is the best training magazine around—and not just because I’m proud to help produce it. To find out about the February ’11 issue and get your copy, click here.

Speaking of beyond inspired, the new IRON MAN app, available for iPhone and many other mobile platforms, is now available—and it’s free. To get yours, click here, or text Ironmanmag to 46275.

The IFBB pro-ladies post-season/preseason miniseries shifts into full gear tomorrow at the Border States Pro Figure. Twenty hot-bodied practitioners of the quarter turn will be hot footing it to the Scottish Rite Center in San Diego to take on Felicia Romero, who owned this show last year and who is coming off a fifth-place finish at the Olympia. Top of the list of ladies who could make it not so easy for the Arizona ace this time is a highly motivated Teresa Anthony. Though she was two places behind Felicia at the O, Teresa looked even better last week at the Houston Pro, where she missed out on her first pro win by a single point. If Felicia looks the way she did at the O, where the accompanying photo was taken, she’ll be tough to beat. If she doesn’t, Teresa should be ready, willing and able to ascend to the winner’s circle.

Also highly motivated is Ava Cowan, whose much anticipated debut at the Jacksonville Pro in early August resulted in a fourth-place finish and was followed by a drop to eighth at the Europa Super Show. The ’09 NPC Nationals class winner has become a star in the industry but still has something to prove on the contest stage. Tomorrow will tell if she’s found the physique package that will get her to the O in ’11.

Other talented players who could be in the mix include Krissy Chin, Carin Hawkins and Kristin Nunn. In addition, the Border States lineup features a number of noteworthy debuts, including  Julia Aragon, Michelle Bates, Melanie Burger, Mandy Henderson, Kiana Phi, Shala Singer and Deena Walsh. My money for on Deena, who competed in and won her first figure contest exactly a year ago–at the ’09 NPC Border States—to make the biggest impression on the judges.

This should be one exciting physique show.  I covered it live last year and had a blast. This week, unfortunately, our  deadline for the January IRON MAN is keeping me from jumping into the Ruthlessmobile and heading for San Diego, but I’ll be following from the IM editorial desk; so check back for the results.

Speaking of my day job, the December ’10 IRON MAN hits newsstands on Monday (most subscribers already have theirs), featuring the return of Mandy Blank in our Hardbody section. Mike Neveux‘s new photos of her are absolutely fabulous, but the accompanying interview left me with a question for the late-’90s fitness star the next time we meet:  What exactly did Mandy mean when she said, “I want a Muppet man with a plan”?

Photos: Felicia Romero and Mandy Blank.

The June ’09 IRON MAN arrived in today’s mail, and I got a huge oh-wow when I opened on Steve Wennerstrom’s piece on the Ms. International competition—”A Prestigious Display of Muscle Since 1986.” I’d forgotten what a fabulous physique Cathey Palyo had (Those lats! Those thighs!). Steve’s black-and-whites of Palyo and the Erika Geisen, the first Ms. I, were mighty striking.

Of course, I’d already seen the article, when I proofread it—and the layout—in my day job as IM’s senior editor, but there’s something about holding the actual magazine in your hands that makes it so impressive and completely new.

The Ms. International piece is the first installment of Femme Physique, Steve’s new series on the history of women’s physique sports. It’s a great addition to IRON MAN‘s contests-personalities-and-bodybuilding-lifestyle part of the book, as I like to call it, and there’s no better person to write it than the guy who goes by the moniker “IFBB Women’s Historian.”

Which brings me to the accompanying photo of Steve’s old press pass from the World Games. I almost didn’t recognize him without the baseball cap. Tee hee hee.

I hope you’ll check out Steve’s series—next month the World Games; how many people even know about that competition? And while you’re at it, you can check out the rest of IRON MAN. Not just for the fun stuff mentioned above but because it’s a really good publication for people who train with weights. Thanks to my day job, I happen to know that. Plus, our over-40 issues, which we put out every few months, are must-reading for any female flexer or figure competitor who’s been doing masters for multiple seasons—and you know who you are.

The June ’09 IRON MAN is on newsstands now, or you can or get a copy at Home-Gym Warehouse (www.Home-Gym.com or 1-800-447-0008).

Photo: Wennerstrom’s antique press badge from the World Games. Welcome aboard, Steve. Your new series is a winner.