2008 Arnold Amateur Figure - Class F Preview
February 10, 2008
Official 2008 Arnold Amateur Figure Class F Preview
Just like the rest of this show, Figure Class F is stacked ... our research staff worked overtime to learn about everyone and there are a few athletes who we will need to catch up with at the show. But that's part of the excitement of the sport, there are always new top athletes with great physiques hitting the scene.

We're pleased to be able to feature Ontario athlete Valerie Richman as our spotlight competitor for the tall class. This class also includes a figure mega-stars in Francisca Dennis, and we think these two athletes will contend at the top.

Listed Class F Height Class: Over 5'6” (27 athletes)
Adjusted Class F Height Class: Over 5'7” (21 athletes)

The original competitor lists used the old height classes, but all athletes will be measured and placed in the new height classes on site. We have already moved several competitors from Class F to Class E and the list and preview that you see below has been adjusted to the best of our knowledge. If we have not been able to reach someone to make an adjustment we will make the correction in the contest reports!!



FigureRX Class F Spotlight Athlete - Valerie Richman

Valerie Richman from Ontario has a figure skating and swimming background and trains with IFBB Pro Nina Luchka. She and her husband are both elementary school teachers and they both had several impressive class and overall wins in their province last year. Valerie also placed 6th in a very tough figure tall class at the 2007 Canadian Nationals, where she had a superb overall shape with good muscle but avoided coming in ultra hard. It's her muscle size and her pleasing look at Nationals that makes us think that Valerie has an excellent shot at a top placing at the Arnold, because she has the type of physique and presentation that translates well across the border. We love to see figure in mainstream news coverage so check out this article on Mark and Valerie Richman in their regional newspaper (LINK).

You can read Valerie's full spotlight interview by going here.

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NPC Figure Arnold Valerie Richman Courtice Ontario Canada Fitness photos

The next competitor is pretty much the perfect embodiment of the superhero image that Team FigureRX supports. Francisca Dennis is the cover girl on the April 2008 issue of Oxygen, only a few months after her appearance on the cover of the same magazine, and once you look at her biography and resume you will understand why. Start out with a childhood that included gymnastics, track and field, swimming, tree climbing and tackle football and you know that she is a natural athlete. Casually throw in supermodel good looks and physique structure as well as an intellect that allows her to write multiple, well received fitness articles.

After the birth of Francisca's sixth child, she ran her first marathon and upped the ante in the gym. Today she is the epitome of time management, not only balancing being a wife and mother of her children but also jointly taking care of two dogs and two cats, writing books for both children and adults, and running two companies. Oh yeah, she's also somehow preparing for the Arnold where we have no doubt she will be turning a lot of heads on stage.

By the way, one of our new FigureRX features is a review of all the mainstream industry mags - what's best, what's worst, and how are they measuring up as far as the percentage of content devoted to females and the more muscular aspects of the sport. Of course Oxygen gets a pass as far as female content, but you can check out the review for Francisca's issue (LINK).

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NPC Figure Arnold Francisca Dennis Lynden Ontario Canada Fitness photos

The competitor who has surprised us the most in this height class is hometown girl Leyla Yurchick, probably because she has not competed often outside of Ohio. Hopefully that will change soon as she looks to improve on last year's 10th place finish in Figure D at the Arnold, because we think she is ready for the national stage. Leyla packs a lot of muscle on her tall frame and has an ideal overall shape, and the combination of the two means she could blow some people away if she shows up hard and ripped. One of her weaknesses in the past has been her standard NPC posing stances so we'll be looking to see improvements in that area.

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NPC Figure Arnold Leyla Yurchick Columbus Ohio Fitness photos

One of the reasons why the New York Giants won the super bowl is that they came out of a tough division that included the Cowboys and Redskins - in a nutshell, they were battle tested. Anyone who comes out of the Texas NPC competing in figure will have the same advantage, so don't be surprised if 5'10" Stephanie Camacho makes a run for the top five. She has the guns and the genetics, and her placing will probably depend on her conditioning.

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NPC Figure Arnold Stephanie Camacho Crosby Texas Fitness photos

The third Canadian athlete in this class, and equally as impressive, is Sandy Helmig from Alberta. Sandy brings tremendous conditioning as well as small joints, and these attributes led her to a masters figure win at the 2007 Southern Alberta Championship. She also took second in her class at the 2007 Alberta and 13th at Canadian Nationals.

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NPC Figure Arnold Sandy Helmig Hinton Alberta Canada Fitness photos
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-----Check out our new FigureRX feature, Media Watch! We let you know the best of the print
-----magazines every month, and track advertising pages and the percentage of female content.
-----How does your favorite magazine measure up in supporting the female side of the sport?
-----And among the female-focused magazines, which ones bring the most muscle? Click HERE.

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We've learned a lot about the impressive Utah figure scene in the past few weeks, and another competitor who we think was somewhat overlooked during her trip to Junior Nationals last year and at the 2006 USA's is Amanda Bollinger. Amanda has some really great lines with tiny joints and standout glutes, calves and delts. She is the 2006 NPC Utah Open Figure tall class and overall champion.

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NPC Figure Arnold Amanda Bollinger Riverton Utah Fitness photos

We're fans of Karen Costanza's full and shredded physique. The South Carolinian has pro level everything in our opinion but probably was marked down for muscularity while competing at Junior USA's and North Americans in 2007. Mindy Dower is a beautiful competitor with standout back development who placed 3rd in Figure C at the 2007 NPC New England.

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NPC Figure Arnold Karen Costanza Fort Mill South Carolina Mindy Dower Lowell Massachusetts Fitness photos

The statuesque Stephanie Gruner from Las Vegas will be looking to follow up on her 2nd place finishes in Class D at the 2007 NPC Pacific USA Naturals Figure Championships and at the Las Vegas Figure Classic in November. Stephanie is 5'10" and she comes from the pro beach volleyball circuit and that explains her upper body development, particularly her superb arms. Not only is she a star volleyball player, she is a pilates instructor, personal trainer, and single mother of two boys! We're very impressed with her superhero-like schedule and we plan to learn more about her in Columbus, and to follow her career closely as she hopefully competes more at the national level.

Sherri Stokes competed at the 2007 NPC San Diego in Class D, along with Olesya Novik, and placed 4th.

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NPC Figure Arnold Sherri Stokes Olympia Washington Stephanie Gruner Las Vegas Nevada Fitness photos

JoHanna DuBose won Figure Class C at the 2006 NPC Excalibur in California, and then competed at the 2007 Junior USA's. Heidi Mierendorf has a background as a runner and competed at the Junior Nationals and the USA's last year, while we don't have photos of Jennifer Peckham but know that she is working hard as a co-promoter to bring professional men's bodybuilding to her home state of Michigan. Georgia girl Erin Walterhoefer placed 4th in Figure D at the 2006 NPC Coastal USA's.

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NPC Figure Arnold JoHanna DuBose North Charleston South Carolina Liza Gallia East Hampton New York Heidi Mierendorf Flagstaff Arizona Fitness photos
FigureRX was on hand to see Michele Duckworth compete at the 2007 NPC KentuckyMuscle, and she also has received some coverage in the Louisville Business Journal (LINK). We only know Ohioan Sara Bedrossian as a fitness model so it will be interesting to see her look on stage. New Yorker Jennifer Hernandez is another athlete who we have not seen on stage but we've heard she looks ready to go in person and she will have an impact in this class. Finally, in the contest photo below one of the athletes not on the podium is Hege Bjerke Pedersen from Norway (she placed 5th). All of the competitors in the photo look great so you can expect Hege to impress.

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NPC Figure Arnold Hege Bjerke Pedersen Trondheim Norway Sara Bedrossian Seven Hills Ohio Michelle Duckworth Louisville Kentucky Jennifer Hernandez New York Erin Walterhoefer Buford Georgia Fitness photos
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-------The FigureRX Exclusive Back Stage area is now open. For more details please go HERE.
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Not Competing

Deanna Rabosky and Olesya Novik will not be competing, but we decided to include their write-ups here. We are looking forward to seeing them both on stage soon, as well as featuring Deanna as our spotlight competitor for the NPC Jay Cutler in Boston.

There are a few defining characteristics that an athlete must have to succeed at the national level in figure, and we believe that New Englander Deanna Rabosky has them all. There's the physique structure, of course, and Deanna has an ideal overall shape for the tall class along with the substantive muscle to put curves in all the right places. Her figure focal points are excellent, including her delts, abs, and just enough quad sweep and separation to accentuate her small joints and impress the judges in both the NPC and the IFBB. When she gets up on stage in her Maggie-designed suit in Columbus she will be, in our opinion, presenting a superb total package.

But just as important is attitude and knowledge of the sport at the highest level, as well as a support structure to provide input and motivation along the way. Deanna is surrounded by excellence and she actually started to compete after dieting with her boyfriend Jose Raymond during his contest preparations. She noticed major changes in her physique and decided to take it to the next level and to see what would happen. In her first show she took the overall figure title at the Massachusetts State!

After the Arnold we expect to see Deanna competing at USA's in Las Vegas and at Team Universe in New York, and we also plan to do an interview and feature with her in our April issue as she prepares for the NPC John Cutler Figure Championships in Boston on May 4th. With the experience she gained in 2007, especially with her tanning, posing and presentation, it's going to be quite impressive to see what she is able to accomplish in 2008.

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NPC Figure Arnold Deanna Rabosky Woburn Massachusetts Fitness photos
We have to say that we have been eagerly anticipating Olesya Novik's return to competition in 2008 and we're glad to see that it is coming nice and early in the year! Olesya's 2007 schedule was a little bit of a tease, stepping on stage to win Figure Class D at the NPC San Diego, and then leaving everyone wanting to see more. At FigureRX we feel that Olesya is pro card bound, it's just a matter of time, and she has an excellent chance to win the overall title at the Arnold. She has tremendous development for a tall athlete, and is an excellent poser who exhibits beautiful lines on stage.

Olesya was born in Uzbekistan in Central Asia, and when she arrived with her family in the United States at age 14 she couldn't speak English. In high school she picked up powerlifting and worked out with the football team, and you can see the evidence of that in her amazing back development today. A chance meeting of Adela Garcia (and a compliment) at a grocery store in Austin led to her decision to compete, and she's now a personal trainer in Southern California. In additon, Olesya is part of the amazing team of female athletes at T-Nation and Biotest, her sponsor .... and a decade after not knowing how to speak English she is one of the best figure writing specialists in the industry.

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NPC Figure Arnold Olesya Novik Irvine California Fitness photos

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www.FigureRX.com

FigureRX Class F Spotlight Interview - Valerie Richman
FigureRX Online Magazine Volume 3
February 23, 2008

To see the full Arnold Amateur Figure Class F event preview, please go here.

Valerie Richman from Ontario has a figure skating and swimming background and trains with IFBB Pro Nina Luchka. She and her husband are both elementary school teachers and they both had several impressive class and overall wins in their province last year. Valerie also placed 6th in a very tough figure tall class at the 2007 Canadian Nationals, where she had a superb overall shape with good muscle but avoided coming in ultra hard. It's her muscle size and her pleasing look at Nationals that makes us think that Valerie has an excellent shot at a top placing at the Arnold, because she has the type of physique and presentation that translates well across the border. We love to see figure in mainstream news coverage so check out this article on Mark and Valerie Richman in their regional newspaper (LINK).

Valerie's Fast Facts:
Name – Valerie Richman
Height – 5'8”
Weight – 130 lbs contest/ 150 lbs off season
Birthday – October 18, 1976
Home town – Courtice, Ontario, Canada
Hair / Eyes – dark brown with blond & red highlights, hazel eyes
Favorite music – dance
Favorite diet food – chicken breasts
Favorite cheat food – pizza and chocolate
Current occupation – elementary school teacher
Athletic background – figure skating and swimming
Latest news – sponsored by Nutrition Zone (Bio-X)
Web site – www.valerierichman.com

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Please tell us a little bit about your background, such as where you grew up, other athletics, when you began weight training, and how you became interested in competing.

I grew up in Oshawa Ontario with my mom (Sylvia), father (Dennis) and brother (Gregory). I was always fortunate to have parents who kept me active and involved in sports. I played many sports but I loved to spend hours at the skating rink as a figure skater and at the pool as a swimmer. When I was a teenager (age 16) I grew a fascination with muscles and bodybuilder physiques. I appreciated the hours of dedication it took one to attain that look. My father often encouraged me to workout on our weight set in our basement, when I realized I was good at it and I loved how strong and powerful I felt. It was shortly after that I joined my first gym. I would read every fitness, and muscle magazine/ book for advice on training and nutrition to enhance my progress. I often went to both amateur and professional shows always admiring the dedication and time the athletes spent preparing for each competition. I always knew I wanted to be a competitive bodybuilder; it was a dream of mine. It was when my thirtieth birthday was approaching that I realized I was not fulfilling my dream of competing. It was then that I started training for my first show.

What is your academic and professional background? We know that you and your husband have a lot in common, tell us about your current profession? Which grades and subject do you teach, and how have the student reacted or supported your endeavors?

I have a bachelor of physical education with honours from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, and a Canadian teaching certificate from D'Youville College in Buffalo. Fresh out of school I followed my passion and became a personal fitness trainer. I really enjoyed personal training but I knew that I wanted to spread my knowledge to the younger generation. I am sad to see how inactive and unhealthy the younger generation is. As a teacher I enjoy being a healthy role model for my students encouraging them to make better and healthier decisions in their lives. I often engage in physical activities such as nature walks at the lake with them, and stress the importance of healthy snacks and meals.

Currently I teach mostly grade 4 and 5 (science and social studies). I also teach art, DPA (daily physical activity) and health to primary and junior students. My students are my biggest fans. It is amazing to see how interested they are in my accomplishments. They ask a lot of questions about my nutrition, workouts, and competitions. Last week I was telling them about the Arnold and what an honour it is going to be to stand on that stage with all the amazing competitors. One student raised her hand and asked “will you bring in your trophy, when you come back”. It's touching to see how much they believe in and support me.

What is your training philosophy (heavy or light, cardio, lifting)? When did you make the switch to figure and how long do you feel that it took your body to make that transformation? Any particular body parts that you consider to be strengths, or weaknesses?

My training philosophy is balance. I am a firm believer that weight training, cardio and nutrition are all the key components to attain a good physique. In the off season I like to train heavy with weights to increase my muscle mass, and I decrease my cardio, and I usually follow an off season regime (with one cheat day per week). When getting ready for a show I increase my cardio, my diet is stricter and my weight training is intense and varied between light and heavy depending on the body part I am training. I decided to switch to figure in the summer of 2006, I really liked the physiques on the athletes. The change has been ongoing, each show I see good changes and feel I look more aesthetically pleasing. I feel my strongest body parts are my arms, and back. The one weakness I am constantly working on improving is the conditioning in my legs.

How did you decide to compete at the Arnold? And is there anything in particular that you are focused on for this show? What's next for you after Columbus?

The Arnold Classic has always been one of my favorite shows and when I found out they had an Arnold Amateur I knew I had to compete in it. I liked the fact that the Arnold is in Feb/March, winters in Canada are long and I knew it would keep me motivated and on track until the 2008 season starts up. This will be my first international competition so I am excited to have that experience, and to meet many new competitors. My focus for this show is to be better conditioned while continuing to maintain my size. After Columbus Iwill be getting ready for 2008 Ontario Provincials, Canadian Nationals, and the IFBB North Americans.

Where do you work out and who do you work out with? Where do you find the best training and diet advice? Is there anyone in particular who you would like to thank, such as a sponsor, significant other, etc?

I work out at two gyms, the one I work at called Body Boomers in Oshawa, and I also work out at Platinum in Whitby. I like to have the variety in gyms to switch things up so I don't get bored and my body is constantly challenged with different equipment. I will often go to the gym with my husband Mark, we will weight train at the same time and then do cardio.

One person I completely trust with my program design and nutrition is my trainer Nina Luchka. She is a wealth of knowledge, has a good eye and knows what is best for me. I can attribute the positive changes in my physique over the last year to Nina.

I am very fortunate to have a very supportive group of family, friends and co- workers. They have all encouraged me, supported me, and helped me through rough patches and kept me focused and positive. Of course I couldn't be where I am today without the solid support of my husband Mark, my trainer Nina and her husband Vince, the Luchka athletes and my sponsor Nutrition Zone (Bio X).

Thanks Valerie!!

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www.FigureRX.com