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Interview with Promoter and Phenom Labs co-owner Justin Napolitano
Author: Ken Arsenault
Ken Arsenault: Justin, how long have you been involved in the sport of bodybuilding?
Justin Napolitano: I have been training for about 15 years with a recent 2 year layoff due to restrictions because of my congenital heart defect. I have what is called sub-aortic stenosis, and had open heart surgery at the age of 7. I was restricted in playing certain sports, but I had always been active in sports. I played baseball and basketball, but I was a soccer player year round, and co-captain of the Varsity team. Around my junior year in high school I started training at a local gym, and the love for hitting the iron grew.
Ken Arsenault: What does your training routine look like?
Justin Napolitano: Well this is kind of tricky because of my heart defect. The docs don't want me lifting heavy (which plain sucks), but I go light weight high reps. Due to the 2 year layoff I recently started training again and my routine looks like this:
Monday
Chest and Triceps
Flat DB Bench Presses - 4 sets of 12 reps Incline DB Presses - 4 sets of 12 reps Standing Cable Flyes - 4 sets of 12 reps Triceps Rope Press downs - 3 sets of 12 reps Overhead Single Dumbbell Extension - 3 sets of 12 reps Dumbbell Kickbacks - 3 sets of 12 reps Abs - pick two movements and perform - 2 sets each for 8-10 reps
Tuesday
Cardio 20 Minutes
Wednesday
Back and Biceps
Chin-ups - 4 sets of 12 reps or failure whichever comes first Dual Dumbbell Rows - 4 sets of 12 reps Single Arm Cable Rows - 4 sets of 12 reps Cable Curls - 3 sets of 12 reps EZ Bar Curls - 3 sets of 12 reps Dumbbell Concentration Curls - 3 sets of 12 reps Abs - pick two movements and perform - 2 sets each for 8-10 reps
Thursday
Cardio 20 Minutes
Friday
Legs
Wide Stance Squats - 4 sets of 12 reps Narrow Stance Front Squats - 4 sets of 12 reps Dumbbell Lunges - 4 sets of 12 reps per leg Dumbbell Romanian Dead lifts - 4 sets of 12 reps Single Leg Stiff Legged Dead lifts - 4 sets of 12 reps Bodyweight Calf Raises - 2 sets 60 seconds per set Abs - pick two movements and perform - 2 sets each for 8-10 reps
Saturday
Shoulders and Traps
Dumbbell Rear Lateral Raises - 3 sets of 12 reps Dumbbell Side Raises - 3 sets of 12 reps Dumbbell Presses - 3 sets of 12 reps Cable Upright Rows- 3 sets of 12 reps Dumbbell Shrugs - 3 sets of 12 reps Abs - pick two movements and perform - 2 sets each for 8-10 reps
Sunday
Cardio 20 Minutes
Ken Arsenault: You've been a promoter for several years now. What got you involved with that part of the sport?
Justin Napolitano: The Men's Bodybuilding Open Overall is battling for the overall trophy, a beautiful 43" sword, the crowd cheering, and at near capacity... the open pose down music blasting; the OCB Natural Yankee Classic Men's Open Overall was awarded to...
Above is the highlight of our show that we promote every year with the OCB! It all started for us 5 years ago. In 2005, we received a call form Matt Shepley, the OCB President and the 1st annual OCB Yankee Classic (use to be the ANBC Yankee Classic) promoter who was looking for a few vendors for the Yankee Classic and he said we came highly recommended so we said we would set up a booth. My brother Joel and I own Maximum Nutrition Centers, Inc., which at the time was a small sports nutrition store located in Amesbury MA and now operates Phenom Labs, our own sports supplement line. The only knowledge we had about competitive bodybuilding was a good friend of ours who competed and some of our customers. As the show ended we were asked by Matt Shepley if we would like to promote the Yankee in 2006. This was a tough decision because my wife would be due in a few short weeks with our first child (Evan) and I wasn't sure what the process was to run a bodybuilding competition. I talked it over with my wife Amy, Joel, and Matt Shepley, and we agreed that we would co-promote it with Matt in 2006. That is how we got started running the OCB Natural Yankee Classic in Newburyport MA!
The thought of running a show was very intriguing to say the least. I never thought for a second how much detail and planning actually went into promoting a show. When we were getting ready to co-promote the 2nd annual OCB Yankee Classic with Matt our main goal was to improve the amount of competitors from the year before. You see in 2005 the Yankee only had 11 competitors total! Not good for a show that Matt had flown to Massachusetts from Maryland in order to promote! So after the 2005 Yankee Joel, Amy and I set out to get the word out about the Yankee Classic being back in town. The hard work paid off when we had increased the amount of total competitors to 36. All through out the show I was trying to shadow Matt and see what it was like to actually run the show because even though he gave us credit for running the show he actually did most of the setup and planning. We were in charge of getting the venue and marketing around the area but that was about it. The show came and went with success. In 2007 we co-promoted the Yankee with Joe DeMarco and increased our competitor numbers to 41, and in 2008 we started to promote the Yankee ourselves without co-promoters and our numbers rose to our amazement to 54 competitors.
In 2009 the OCB Natural Yankee Classic ran as an IFPA Pro and Masters Pro Qualifier. What an exciting year this was! There were 61 amazingly talented competitors ready to battle it out on stage and that they did! With a packed and extremely loud audience, figure and bodybuilding talent was at its peak and judged to the smallest of details in what may have been one of the hardest judged contests to date. The Yankee Classic is back to legendary status!
We are looking forward to the 2010 OCB Natural Yankee Classic on July 24, 2010 because it will be an epic battle of top notch warriors. We are hearing names that are coming out of the wood work that I know are all deserving of the open overall sword and IFPA Pro Card!
Ken Arsenault: What is your main goal when promoting a show?
Justin
Napolitano:
Our main goal is to make every competitor happy! If they are happy and
taken care of
Ken Arsenault: What's the toughest part of promoting?
Justin Napolitano: I honestly have to say the toughest part about promoting is the planning and marketing which is all out of pocket expenses. Promoting a show is like preparing for a wedding, you plan all year long for one spectacular day that is over before you know it! It first starts with finding a date and venue. The venue needs to be big enough to fit at least 250-500+ people and also needs enough room for the competitors backstage. Get your sanctioning agreements in and insurance forms. Then you have to find trophies, sponsors, judges, expeditors, and other miscellaneous help for the day of the show for setup and tickets etc. and make sure the team you have put together will do what they are supposed to do. We have been pretty fortunate to use mostly the same crew over the past 4 years that we have been promoting the Yankee! Then you need to block rooms at a host hotel for traveling competitors, get goody bags for competitors and so on. You have to get the word out to local gyms, nutrition stores, friends, past competitors with email or flyers. Get some local newspapers to cover the event or write an article for your show. The whole day is over in about 10-12 hours and after getting all that done you still have to get the overalls urine tested and also finish paperwork. We try to do the best we can for our competitors because once the show starts we do not get to talk to them much as we are running around making sure things are going according to plan. We actually feel bad but at the same time we need to do our job as promoters so that they have an enjoyable competition! That is what is most important to us! We always hold some place downtown for them to eat and that's when we really relax and hang with them.
We could not do this without help would like to thank all our competitors, fans, judges, and support crew for making the OCB Natural Yankee Classic IFPA Pro and Masters Pro Qualifier a success every year!
Ken Arsenault: You're the co-owner of your own supplement company. Can you tell me what got you started, and why?
Justin Napolitano: Back in 2004 my brother Joel and I had the chance to purchase an existing nutrition store called Maximum Nutrition Centers. We wanted to continue to promote good health habits and training within our area. After running the retail side of things for a while, and seeing prices on the rise, we thought about our own product line, and how we could keep prices as low as possible. What can we say we love our supplements! Coming out with the Phenom Labs line was the brain child of seeing what customers wanted from us through retail, and the ability to not only keep costs down for everyone, but also provide a safe natural product we can proudly put our name behind and believe in!
We offer five products right now with Phenom Labs. Our protein, Wicked Whey is available in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavors and it comes in a 2lb and 5lb tub. Herculean Xtreme is our pre-workout product for an incredible surge of energy, explosive strength, and amazing muscular pumps. Chains is our blend of 5000mg branched chain amino acids and glutamine for lean muscle and recovery. Phenylean Xtreme is our advanced thermogenic fat-burning blend of ten active ingredients that supports fat loss and appetite suppression and Brawn is our natural anabolic enhancer which contains the highest quality, most potent, safe, anabolic compounds available.
New products coming soon are The Phenom Formula and Herculean Xtreme v2.0!
Ken Arsenault: What are your future plans?
Justin Napolitano: We have a couple plans that we still want to make happen. We plan to bring some new products into the Phenom Labs line and grow that business to hopefully rival some of the big names out there.
We would like to re-open and franchise our store Maximum Nutrition Centers at some point. We also want to continue to grow the Yankee Classic and hope it becomes one of the great shows in the OCB like the OCB Spirit of America and the OCB Cape Cod Natural!
About Me:
After undergoing open heart surgery as a child, health and fitness became crucial to my day to day survival. I have co-owned Maximum Nutrition Centers with my brother Joel since 2004. After we took over the OCB Natural Yankee Classic we wanted to ensure this show continued as a Yankee Homecoming tradition in Newburyport, MA each summer and looks forward to promoting many more in the coming years. I am married to my lovely wife Amy Napolitano and have two sons, Evan who is 4 years old and Aiden who is 2 years old.
2009 OCB Natural Yankee Classic
Author Information
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Chuck Martin Natural Bodybuilder
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In
my first interview... Justin Napolitano will answer questions about
promoting, and being involved in the supplement business.
In
2010 my brother Joel really wanted to promote a second show in Vermont,
the
they
talk about our show to their friends and fellow competitors. We try to
make the show and the whole process go as smooth as possible for them
because they should not have to worry about things other than themselves
that weekend. One other thing we do is schedule the show on the first
weekend of Newburyport Yankee Homecoming, which is a week-long event
with food shopping and music all around Newburyport MA. This way if they
are staying for the weekend they have something to do, and if they don't
like that then they can always head to the beach!
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