Iron Mavericks

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines maverick as “a person who refuses to follow the customs or rules of a group.” Similarly, Google defines the word as “an unorthodox or independent-minded person.” From that, you get the gist of what the word means – if you didn’t know already, that is. I took an interest in this word lately because Physique Canada’s president, Brian Robitaille, started using it regularly to describe many of the organization’s top competitors.

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Québec Success!

Starting a physique organization today is more difficult than it’s ever been. Off the top of my head, I can count a half-dozen organizations operating in Canada – and there could be more that I don’t even know about. As a result, when Physique Canada began three years ago, it was a huge risk, given the competition that was already around, and there was certainly no guarantee it would work.

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Vince Gironda Stars in the Greatest Training Video Ever Made

In the early ‘80s, I read an article in MuscleMag about Vince Gironda that forever changed my view of trainers and their training methods. The article painted Gironda, who was in his 60s at that time and in the midst of training top IFBB star Mohamed Makkawy, as this wildly eccentric gym owner whose methods were not only radically different from anyone else’s, but also far more effective. It presented his gym, which was aptly named Vince’s Gym, as more or less sacred ground where many of the bodybuilding champs of the past had trained, as well as many Hollywood actors and actresses (it was located in North Hollywood, close to Universal Studios). During the ‘60s and into the ‘70s, anyone who was anybody spent time at Vince’s – actors and bodybuilders.

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The 2014 Physique Canada National Classic Champions

Saturday, June 14, 2014, was a big day for physique sports in Canada and it all took place at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec. First, there was the SAF Summer Spectacular which ran from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, then the Physique Canada National Classic began at 5:30 pm.

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Nadia Moussa Is Returning to the Stage!

I started photographing and writing about physique events in 1999. By the year 2000, I was traveling across Canada covering every major event, and, in turn, getting to know the country’s top competitors.

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