Students took sacrificing blood, sweat and tears to the maximum while competing at the University’s first Virginia Collegiate Classic Bodybuilding Show in the Newcomb Ballroom Saturday. Hosted by the U.Va. Barbell Club and University Programs Council, the competition aimed to increase awareness of bodybuilding and showcase the capabilities of the human body.
The competition began with each competitor completing their own routine to music and performing mandatory poses as instructed by the judges. The panel of judges was composed of two non-competing U.Va. Barbell Club members and Will Paget-Brown, owner of the local Iron Will Gym and a competitor and coach of bodybuilding. The show ended with awards, with the top three competitors receiving medals and the top four competitors receiving cash prizes.
Among the seven competitors who displayed their hard-earned physiques on stage, Davis Elengical, U.Va. Barbell Club president and third-year Education student, clinched the top spot to win $600 in prize money. Third-year College student John King placed second to win $300, second-year College student Bryan Balle placed third to win $200 and second-year College student Kareem Fenaish placed fourth to win $100.
For Elengical, the victory was the culmination of a long-lasting passion for bodybuilding that took root when he started lifting in eighth grade. He said that at the time, seeing fellow gym-goers achieve progress in the weightroom inspired him to set physical goals for himself.
“I was seeing all these people build themselves up, and [I was seeing] what the human body can do and actually achieve,” Elengical said. “It made me fall in love with the sport.”
Recognizing a growing interest in bodybuilding in the student body, Elengical said U.Va. Barbell Club creates a space for students to increase their involvement in the sport. Saturday’s show was a pivotal step towards this goal, bringing awareness of bodybuilding to Grounds.
“Our goal is to make bodybuilding more mainstream instead of more of a niche sport,” Elengical said. “If you talk to anyone here, I’d say 99 percent of people have not seen a bodybuilding show.”
Elengical spent 10 months working with the rest of U.Va. Barbell Club’s Executive Board to organize the event. He juggled physical training with planning efforts, organizing the competitors’ tanning, the stage lighting and the panel of judges. He said one of U.Va. Barbell Club’s primary goals was to make the event as comparable as possible to professional bodybuilding events.
“We had to make sure everything is the way it is in real bodybuilding competitions,” Elengical said. “No one's ever done it before [at the University], and I was like, ‘Okay, let's take our vision and make it reality.’”
With financial support from UPC, U.Va. Barbell Club brought their vision to the stage. The show marked one of UPC’s latest efforts to fill more niches in the student body. According to Bhavyasri Suggula, vice chair of outreach for UPC and third-year College student, UPC aims to branch out to cater to students’ wide-ranging interests. She said the student-led board is planning to host more sporting events, such as a field day, and hopes that after the bodybuilding show, other student organizations come to UPC with new ideas for student events.
“We realized [the bodybuilding show] would be a good starting point to kind of break the traditional outlook of UPC, which is that we only partner with cultural organizations or first-year Class Council,” Suggula said. “We thought this would be a good step to not only help a fellow organization on Grounds but also kind of change our brand.”
With a successful show to its name, U.Va. Barbell Club may soon serve as an inspiration for other student organizations to host more niche events on Grounds. The Contracted Independent Organization currently offers various opportunities for students, such as curl and push-up competitions, the chance to meet professional bodybuilders and social events. Whether members are weightlifters focusing on increasing their strength or bodybuilders who prioritize muscle definition and bodily aesthetics, students across Grounds have found a fitness haven in the CIO.
Members of U.Va. Barbell Club also receive discounted memberships to Paget-Brown’s Iron Will Gym. With specialized equipment, the facility provides students with training opportunities they may not find on Grounds. Paget-Brown said the sacrifices of bodybuilding — from rigorous training to nutrition regimes — are uniquely difficult and thus require exceptional demands.
“It's really unlike any other sport,” Paget-Brown said. “Until you've done it, it's very, very hard to fully understand … It's truly 24 hours a day … Every waking hour and every sleeping hour should be accounted for … You have to sacrifice pretty much everything, and the unfortunate thing is, you also have to ask people around you — family, friends — to sacrifice as well.”
Many of these family members and friends were in attendance Saturday to support the competitors. Second-year College student Ashlei Cleaves, who arrived to support her boyfriend Balle, said the event was her first bodybuilding show. As she took in the scene, she acknowledged the physical and mental preparation each competitor had to go through.
“It's a big deal,” Cleaves said. “Their hard work is paying off [in] this one moment.”
For runner-up King, the sacrifices for this show began 14 weeks ago when he started a strict diet, losing 26 pounds within that time. He acknowledged that while high-level bodybuilding may get scrutinized for its strict demands and the controversy surrounding some professionals’ use of performance-enhancing drugs, the sport can still encourage a healthy lifestyle for those who wish to better their well-being.
“I feel like these entry-level amateur bodybuilding shows are a great way to promote health and fitness and just strive to be better, work harder and work towards a goal,” King said.
As Saturday’s competitors soak up their achievements, Paget-Brown hopes that the bodybuilding competition will become an annual event at the University. He offered a positive outlook on the event, noting its ability to bring together the University community for an exciting, lesser known sport.
“Presenting [bodybuilding] here to the U.Va. community hopefully exposes more people to the sport and shows that it really can be a positive and team-building thing,” Paget-Brown said.
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