READing Your Style: "The Big O Campaign"

VSU professor, Dr. Rodney Gaines

Reading the Richmond Free Press last week, in the “Sports” section I came across an article highlighting a local “Bodybuilding Champion” . Me having always been perpetually skinny all my life, I’ve always admired people who were able to be worthy of participating in competitions such as that.

The “Bodybuilding Champion” in the spotlight happens to be a strength-conditioning coach and associate professor at Virginia State University’s Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Dance and Sports Management. His name is Dr. Rodney Gaines, and he is the nephew of the late Othaniel Gaines who had owned a restaurant-nightclub in Tappahannock, Virginia called “The Big O”, where right behind it was a baseball diamond he named the “The Big O” as well. It was here where Mr. Rodney Gaines practiced baseball, which eventually earned him a spot on the baseball team of his alma mater, Virginia Tech. 

With a handsome 47-inch chest, and 27-inch waist, despite having been diagnosed with diabetes in 2007, he has gained awards in this year’s Masters and Open divisions at the Glass Scepter Bodybuilding Championships in Ohio; he won the Masters (40-over) title in the Arizona State National (drug-free) Championships in Arizona; and furthermore, he is the 1995 Mr. Virginia Contest winner. At the end of 2011, he was elected President of the Virginia Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (VAHPERD) [source].

Gaines (far left) participarting in the
Natural Physique Association Championships

What intrigued me most about this article are his efforts on the front of obesity. Considering I graduated from an HBCU myself, (Norfolk State University), I was very proud to find out that Mr. Gaines has initiated “The Big O Campaign”, a campaign he is involving HBCU’s across the country to fight the growing obesity epidemic. This venture will also try to encourage more minorities to participate in the field of exercise science and strength training. I think this is a marvelous effort for Mr. Gaines to pursue for I feel the more that health is stressed to the public, the more people will want to conform to the consensus of attaining good health and wellness. I feel in our modern era of eating for convenience, we tend to overlook the long term affects of our poor eating decisions and over-indulge in gluttonous behavior, sans a challenging workout regimen to make up for our appetites. Maybe it’s not so much that we eat too much, or we eat the wrong things, but I feel that actually committing ourselves to a workout is the hardest part.  Mr. Gaines is reported to not only lift weights, but he commits to a 12-mile run on top of lifting and he is said to feel depressed and stressed when he doesn’t workout [source]. I often feel that way as well when I go a morning without at least going through some sort of intense routine on a daily basis. In light of Mr. Gaines and his commitment to fitness, I have included a few tips from Weight Loss Specialist, Micheal Glatter on some good reasons to remember to exercise everyday to beat the battle of the bulge. 

Here are the top 3 ways that your body will feel better with exercise:

This past weekend he was to have participated in the National Physique Association event in Norfolk; then he is slated to be heading abroad June 23 for the World Natural Bodybuilding Federation in Barbados, and to the Czech Republic June 30 for the International Natural Bodybuilding Association finals. I will be keeping up with Mr. Gaines’ program more on IMF.blog to see how it develops. In the spirit of looking good to feel good, I say this: DON’T BE LAZY!  

Weekly IMF.blog Health Tips

Photo Credits: [source] [source] [source] [source]

If you haven't already noticed at the bottom of the IMF.blog side panel, there has been a new feature that has been added. It is the "Weekly IMF.blog Health Tip" feature. As I said in my post from, Vogue Makes a Cameo at the Superbowl, we want to prepare our bodies for looking good in our old age. The only way to do that is to be conscience of our health, right? Now with all the health advice out there, it is really hard to figure out what to do when it comes to taking care of ourselves. I simply want to throw out some short, easy to remember, interesting, and beneficial quips on health for you to take, remember, don't remember, tweet, tell someone about, look more into, whatever. Continue to check back with this post throughout the year to see what facts I have added to this post at the beginning of each week.

Vogue Makes a Cameo at the Superbowl

Looking just like old times, but wearing a Givenchy couture dress,

Bulgari jewels and a custom Phillip Treacy headpiece [Photo: Rickey.org]

Okay, so lets be honest. As big of a deal as it was for the New England Patriots and New York Giants to be duking it out at the Superbowl this past Sunday for the second time in two years, it was the fashionably awesome comeback of the Queen of Pop, Madonna, that most everyone was waiting for. A reported 50 million viewers were to have stopped watching the Superbowl after she performed. For more than twelve minutes, Madonna transformed the testosterone laden arena into one of the largest fashion displays. The look was black, gold, and red, leather pleated skirts, marching band uniforms, spikes, studs, and glitter, boots, boots, and more boots. The motif, Gladiator. She performed on a well lit stadium floor of animated Vogue magazines, and she had multiple appearances by other stylish artists, such as the always electrifying, Nicki Minaj, an off-the-wall M.I.A, the routy, LMFAO boys, and the mystifying, Cee-Lo Green.

Keeping the show interesting with appearances from LMFAO, Nicki Minaj,
and M.I.A showed she can keep up with us 20-somethings, am I right? 

Twitter was alive throughout the night, but the most popular tweets I observed about Madonna was how well she looked for her age. Because of previous mishaps during the Superbowl halftime in the past (i.e. Janet Jackson, ), Madonna's performance was definitely a lot less raunchy and risque, but the energy she put into the spectacle was, of course, above par! Now, me being a huge advocate of good health and fitness, I wake up every morning to workout, alternating between yoga, and aerobic strength workouts. Now, can you imagine how much working out you would have to do to have the stamina she had in order to put on that flawless spectacle? She covered the entire stage, she sang, she was up and down steps, did a few flips, sang, made slight costume changes, and at one point she was on top of LMFAO as seen above. Oh yes, and did I mention she was singing the entire time. There are people twenty years old now who I bet couldn't even perform the first few eight counts, and sing at the same time! Read on to find out why...